Category Archives: Check in

American Born Chinese, Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Group C

Final Check In #2, Group C: Luis, Mindy, and Yahkiney

WHAT:

For our “We Monsters” project, we will focus on the stories of transgendered people, three minimum.  Their stories will be shared in the form of a digital picture book with members of the Baruch community through one, if not more, of the schools many social media outlets.  The book will feature persons throughout various stages of their transition and some of their thoughts through their road of self-discovery.

WHY:

We feel that the story of a transgender person and the main characters in the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, parallel each other.  They are both discriminated and ostracized based on physical appearance.  The transformation theme is also evident in both stories and was a theme of the book which we all found to be interesting and important (as seen by our history presentations).  The amount of ignorance towards Jin and transgender people is also a topic we which to address.  Being that the project is entitled “We Monsters”, we will address the monstrous topic by including tales of heinous crimes committed against transgender people.

Our intention is to illustrate the struggles that the transgendered persons encounters within their family and in their public life . We realize that celebrities have embraced their true-self and have documented their experience.  While we applaud their bravery, we intend to focus on the “average” person and document the stories we read in online forums, peer review articles*, and the book “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out”. We also realize that celebrities are scrutinized and become the punchlines of late night television jokes but we feel that they have the financial means to isolate themselves or escape from media attention.  The average person may not have the financial means and are heavily discriminated against, bullied and targets of hate crimes.  We plan on including reports of crimes committed against people that identify as transgender and how certain states are introducing legislation in an attempt to infringe on their right of self-identification.  For example, one of the battlegrounds is known as “bathroom laws”.  That is, a percentage of the population that believes that the bathroom one uses should be based on the sex they were born with and not their identification.   We will not fully explore the details of the legislation but we feel it is worth noting because the bathrooms at Baruch are gender identity specific.  In other words, if you identify as a female but are born with male sex organs, you are free to use the women’s restroom.   We hope that after the display of our picture book, the people we showcase will serve as an inspiration.  We consider people that have courageously taken the journey towards self-sexual identity as strong, heroic people and we hope that our picture book will reflect our shared sentiments.

Please Note

“Transgender” is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

*http://web.a.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b7f1a021-be6c-49df-9a43-0bc640dbf890%40sessionmgr4006&vid=1&hid=4101

announcements, Check in, Final Project Check-Ins

Project Check-in #3 Due Monday

For this next check-in, I need to see visual evidence (i.e. an uploaded photo) of some part of your project that is more or less completed; an outline describing all the additional content you will  later add; and a detailed “to-do” list explaining each of the logistical tasks you still need to accomplish in order to complete the project.  Please include expected date/time for completion of these remaining tasks.

For  example:

If you’re making a book, maybe you show me the book cover with one page completed in it.  Or at least with a mock up page.   You would then describe in detail how you will go about laying out the rest of the contents of the book and how you might present the book.  If you have logistical details to take care of (ie. reserving a space, making and disseminating flyers, etc.) then you should describe the task(s) you still need to complete.  You should include a time/date when you plan to complete the task.

If you’re putting up a guerrilla education  workshop then you could show me a mock up of one of your supplementary materials.  You should also include an outline of the agenda (lesson plan) for that pop-up workshop.  You should describe all the logistical tasks that have been completed and all that still need to completed.

THE PURPOSE of this check in is to make sure that your project is feasible, and that you can realistically complete the project by the end of the course.  I ask you to submit at least one small part of the project that is done because, even the greatest outline and well thought-out logistical to-do list can’t foresee  everything. Often there’s no better way to find out something’s not working than to try it and see it doesn’t work.

Please keep this above described purpose in mind  and do your best with this check in.  Every group’s check in will be at least slightly different.  HOWEVER every group, should be posting a picture of some completed part of the project + an outline and detailed “to do” (+dates) list.  

ALBD, announcements, Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Group D

Group D Final Check In

Our focus for our group project is to closely pinpoint teaching (hence the title) and the importance of community.  Not only is Jefferson being taught how to become a man but Grant is being taught how to be real with himself.  As African American men both characters were limited to learning and being educated.  Luckily Grant was educated but he was still a black man.

“It takes a village to raise a child” meaning the participation from everyone in a community would help and nurture a person.  Our project would be to create a scrapbook.  The scrapbook will consists of the characters in the book but who we imagine them to be.  For example, each character in the scrapbook would be a celebrity, actor, or actress that we feel best symbolizes the character based off of how they operate in the book.  In addition, the scrapbook will consists of different recipes that were mentioned in the book and also happened to be meaningful to Jefferson.

 

We are trying to find a classroom or area for this but we will host an event “The Last Supper of the Spring Semester”.  At this event we will be serving all of the food that is mentioned in our scrapbook.  We will not only be feeding the community the food but feeding them the lessons we take away from the book, the idea of “becoming a man”, the idea of captivity/imprisonment, and we also wish to gain feedback and speak about the book and modern day struggles as an African American man.  Have times changed? What are the differences and similarities now? Some of the questions we hope can strike a conversation.

Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Group B, The Bluest Eye

FInal Project Check-In 2- Group B: Rachel and Erica

The fliers our group will create would incorporate the book, The bluest eye. In it, we would illustrate how black girls are misrepresented by society and how that creates mental health issues through misrepresentation. Such detrimental self image ( with lack of accurate representation) could cause trauma which leads to anxiety, suicides, or mental illnesses that might seem to develop from nowhere with no cause. The fliers would be an informative piece that shows that racial disparities still exist even though it is 2017. In the fliers, there would be statistics along with with object images from the novel and from contemporary times that prove it is still a factor that effects women.

The setting in the book is in the 40s. From then til now, not much has changed in how society still portray black women. The difference is in its subtlety in how the world presents black women disparagingly through the media and what not. This applies to all black females as like in the book where we see the females and their questions and views on appearance and beauty are raised and talked about.  Because it is an informative flier, it would be available and or passed out publicly. They would be pinned in public libraries where children would have access to them with their parents. Other than that, Baruch would be one of the sites where the fliers would be posted and passed out. This would cover grounds on all levels where girls of all age range, young or old, single or married, would be reached. Of course, there would be sites and hotlines printed on the flier so individuals would be able to seek help or look more into mental issues, anxiety, or any stress release.

There are many fliers out there that also serve the purpose of promoting awareness about mental health, anxiety, and suicide. The difference in our flier is that we would present stats with images that show some of the major causes of these issues. What we are doing is placing some of the society’s “deemed” standards and paralleling them to some of the images from the nove in their timel and connecting them to the causation of these mental issues that  are still perpetuated now.

 

Check in, Group C

Group C- Yahkiney, Mindy, Luis

What: Our group decided to create a digital autobiography of Baruch students memories. The format of the autobiography will be done as a graphic novel. Each member of the team will ask students to talk about a moment in their life where they either felt most embarrassed, happy, sad, etc. The graphic novel will act as a flashback cloud that plays out the story of the individual. An image or short clip of the person will be shown before the comic version of their story.

The project will be in video form but will show pictures narrated by students. Music will be played in the background to support and amplify epic moments of the story. Panels of the story will be drawn, photographed and made into a slideshow video. We hope to do at least two to three stories each having a different plot and emotional feel.

Why: Choosing to turn real life stories into a graphic novel is something that peaked my interest from reading Marjane Satrapi’s “The Complete Persepolis.” There’s a thin line between reality and non-reality when someone does this and gives an outside perspective on his or her own life.

 

 

 

Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Group B, The Bluest Eye

Group B 2nd check in – Rachel and Erica

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What: We decided that we will be creating flyers to inform college students about mental illness. The flyer will include information on mental illness such as Depression, Anxiety, thoughts of suicide or even if there is a stressful event in their lives. There will be symptoms and signs that students should look out for to help them identify if they feel any of these symptoms and whether they should seek the help that they would need. The fliers will also provide access to a suicide hotline number as well as the Baruch psychologist center. We will be handing these flyers out to students around campus as well as putting them up around where students will see them.

Why: The main character from our book, The Bluest Eye, eventually projected that she had developed a mental illness at the end of the book. Pecola has obviously been through very traumatic events throughout her young life. During this time, she had no help in coping with these issues. We want to help those who feel like they have no one to turn to. We want to provide access to those that need to express their feelings. College students like ourselves struggle with school work and are sometimes juggling work and school. This can really take a toll on them which causes extreme stress and can lead to depression. We want to help our peers overcome these problems by enabling them to seek the help that they need. We want to be a part of helping those who are suicidal and, we hope that this effort of ours will help someone in this condition. We urge those who feel stressed to speak their mind and let off some steam. Unfortunately, Pecola did not have anyone to guide her and give her support but we do and we want to make sure that this opportunity is presented.

Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Group E, Monster, Monster by Walter Dean Myers

project check-in, group e

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Group E, Monster: Harris, Dylan, Tiffany

WHAT: The current intention is to first collect a number of court room transcripts from hearings where black and/or latino kids (may not limit to juveniles) are being charged, then collect transcripts of hearings where white kids are being charged with similar crimes. The aim is to evaluate the language that is used by the prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges; and to make note of any similarities and potential differences in the language used to address and describe the white kids on trial and the black/latino kids on trial. We would theoretically post each compared transcript, side by side, on a website with minimal design (possibly just a solid colored background). We may caption each pair of cases with a comparison of the language used, but have not determined if that would dissipate the intended effect.

WHY: In Monster, our protagonist is a black male that is, with the other men he is arrested with, labeled a “monster” by the prosecution. We, as readers, however, have insight into the life of our young protagonist, and are moved to sympathize with him. Although his lawyer successfully defends him, she is suspicious of her client and refuses to celebrate his win with him.

A black male who goes into trial does not enter the court room as himself, the individual–he enters with all the biases, stereotypes, and judgements that precede him. Prosecutors need only use a handful of words, insinuations, and allusions to win their case. Fear, ignorance, and conditioning of the American people do the rest of the job. Language, which is taught and learned, is the foundation of our understanding of the world, and while we as a group (Group E) have not yet sought out any of the transcripts we would potentially use, we are confident we will find stark contrasts in the lingual treatment of minorities and white defendant. Access is a most important factor of education, and we feel that compiling these transcripts so that they are easily accessible can only serve as a positive addition to any viewer’s self-education.

ALBD, American Born Chinese, announcements, Check in, CR Post #1, CR Post #3, CR Post# 2, Final Project Check-Ins, Frankenstein, Graphic Narrative Assignments, Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E, Monster, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, Monster Readings 1, Monster Readings 2, The Bluest Eye, The Outsiders, Turner Readings, Uncategorized

Group D: Final Project , Shatavia, Jeleah, Kye, Angel

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What:  For our group project we are going to create a scrapbook.  A scrapbook is a book of blank pages for sticking clippings, drawings, or pictures in.  The scrapbook is going to be designed exactly how we think Jefferson, Grant, or a character from the book would create it.  We will be filling up the scrapbook with Jefferson’s important memories, moments, recipes, and his time in jail.  In order to do this, we will be looking for symbols in magazines, things from the internet, clippings in newspapers and physical objects.  Being in jail and confined to one place causes a person to use their imagination.  Similar to Jefferson and Grant they are both trapped in situations that cause them to do a lot of imagining and thinking.  Something our group will be doing in order to create the perfect scrapbook that represents “A Lesson Before Dying”.

 

Why: In the book “A Lesson before Dying” a lot of the book has to do with symbols and teaching.  Jefferson is being taught a lesson by being sentenced to death.  Grants job as a teacher is to teach and he is also asked to teach Jefferson how to become a man.  Since teaching plays a huge role in this book, the scrap book will be created to teach others about our insights, thoughts, and main ideas about the book.  We all thought it would be a good gesture to create a visual.  This way our imagination and how we views things from the book can be brought to life.

announcements, Check in, Final Project Check-Ins, Frankenstein

3 Final Project Ideas: Project Check-in # 1 (Sample)

What I want for this first project check in are three possible ideas for your final project.

For Example: If my book was Frankenstein and I’m most interested in how it’s the space of education that allows Victor to go to monstrous extremes and create and abandon a creature that has no place in the world.  I’m interested in the ways in which Frankenstein speaks to western society’s ongoing investment  in the individual and the ways in which education and institution of education regulate the energies of the adolescent into narrow pursuits for individual accomplishment, progress and innovation at the cost of communal relation and accommodating difference.

So perhaps my group proposes the following three ideas for a final project:

1-create a short film which juxtaposes scenes of Victor’s monstrous education with images of grad students work in stem-cell labs and  images of  Aurora, CO and Will James Holmes, the grad student responsible for opening fire during the 2012 Batman premiere.

2-craft a workshop or a lesson plan that uses a combination of contemporary statistics about the consequence of loneliness and isolation on college campuses, scenes from Frankenstein, a mini-overview of various enlightenment ideas about the individual, independent rationale man (the relative newness of which animates Frankenstein and the legacy of which grounds our contemporary ideas of development, freedom, and success) to lead students in a discussion in which they reflect about the emphasis on individual success that we so often take for granted and asks them to think about alternatives ways of acting education.

3-design poster campaign based on Frankenstein that we put up all over Baruch and some other education institutions that in their visual recalling of Victor Frankenstein in various contemporary settings ask people to think about the connections between the ways we currently view being a student and educational advancement and the flaws apparent in Victor’s academic pursuits.