“The Last Supper of the Spring Semester” will be an event where we fellowship, eat, discuss the book, and present our representation of A Lesson Before Dying in the form of the scrapbook we created. The event will take place on May 16th at 4:30 P.M in the English Department Lounge.
The scrapbook includes characters from the book that we have brought to life in our own way. We each chose a celebrity or a famous individual that we imagined each character to be in our own way. Each character page will contain a photo of the celebrity that we have chosen, a quote we feel represents them the best from the book, and different photos, objects, sayings from the internet magazines or a creative source. It’s all about what we feel defines our character.
For example, Grant is going to be Denzel Washington and Miss Emma is going to be Cecily Tyson and the list of characters will be revealed in our scrapbook.
As for the recipe pages, we will each be making two dishes each that come up in the book or symbolize a part of the book. The recipe page will include the recipe of course, why we chose to use this food, and a fun fact/history fact about the food in relation to Louisiana.
For example, one of us will be making gumbo and gumbo is one of the oldest dishes in Louisiana. In addition, the dish is a cultural symbol of Louisiana as jazz or the bayou.
Below is a picture of the scrapbook and some of the stuff we will be using to create it !
Your project is coming along nicely. Based on the decisions you’ve already made, here are some things I think you should consider for the actual event and/or the write-up:
-I said it before, but I will say it again, I think it’s worth billing your event as a Memorial Service for Jefferson. 1- it automatically gives cohesion and rationale to many of the components of the program (i.e. reflection, food, fellowship, etc.) 2-it alleviates the pressure of the discussion section. I don’t know what kind of discussion you’re hoping to have, but remember not everyone will be familiar with the book or the movie, and even those who might be, may not recall it perfectly depending on when they last read/watched it. With a Memorial service your event can accommodate a mix of folks who know the one being memorialized very well and those who don’t really know the person at all. Additionally with a memorial service, you have a set agenda (i.e. some spots where you guys have planned to say a few words), but you can also open up the floor to a few words from others. 3- Having a memorial allows some buffer for people who just want to come for food and leave. It’s not so hard to take food from a lecture or discussion, but it might feel at least to some folks a bit disrespectful to do that for a memorial. 4- Having a memorial makes the event something like an immersive performance, so in just creating the atmosphere like a memorial, you’re already instructing, engaging, and offering your audience a way to reflect and participate.
-An explanation of why you cast the characters with famous people, especially since there’s already a movie version of the novel and you are not using those characters. NOTE: This explanation is something you probably haven’t totally thought through. It’s fine if you have a practical, personal, or fun reason, but I need you also to push yourselves to think about the intellectual, academic, artistic and/or political effects of this choice. What does it mean that you’ve cast Denzel as Grant instead of Don Cheadle who originally played Grant? This question is especially important since you leave some of the casting in tact (i.e. Tyson as Emma). Look Cheadle up. He’s an incredible actor with an impressive list of really influential and often political films. Does your recasting make the story more Hollywood flashy in a way that makes a commentary on some part of the story or the way we like to imagine the story?
-In general I’m going to want you to think of two main objectives you have for your audience and two main objectives you have for your group that you want this event to accomplish. You want then for the event and especially in the write-up to ask yourself how every choice you make helps or doesn’t help accomplish those objectives.