In Formation: African American Literature Survey Class Site
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
One of my objectives for this course is for students to realize how black literature emerges out of necessity 
as promiscuously social in its forms and as in explicit and implicit conversation with multiple audiences. The relation between form and content is always important in art, but in black literature where the literary art and its contents are always a reflection of even when they are not specifically about black personhood-proof of black people’s ability to be or not be people. Even when black writers chafed under this burden of “negro art,” they always understood the art as doing something. It’s doing something on a number of levels: it’s doing something for the writer, for the readers, but also in its conversation with other texts in the world. A piece of writing can change the way we read something else or the way we interact with a particular candidate’s campaign rhetoric.
The goal of the final project is for us to join that tradition even if only on the periphery …. for it is a tradition of undeveloped peripheries. We will together ask ourselves how the way black artistic and intellectual tradition not only bears witness to and helps us think about black history and legacy but how it continues to help us think through the matter of black life which is to say life today.
We will come up with the form of this final project together. It will be a form that allows us to either work together as one whole class OR in three groups (of no more than 4 people). I will suggest some potential ideas but ultimately everyone will write a 2 page (double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font with 1 inch margins) proposal. The proposal will describe the proposed project (what it is and some idea of how it will logistically be carried out) and how it meets the (listed below) requirements for the projects.
Our Final Project Will:
*situate itself thoughtfully within and in response to the ongoing black (artistic and intellectual) tradition.
*explore the theme of formation and deformation (of forming and deforming).
*utilize forms and mediums that reflect and enhance the project’s central aim(s).
*address in a relevant and meaningful way some contemporary political and/or cultural issue.
*engage a public broader than our class (on social media, in performance, public lectures, publications, etc.).
*enable everyone in the class to include at least one revised piece of academic work (one of the papers or the posts) and at least some thoughtful and thorough creative work.
*incorporate at least three of the texts on the syllabus (either explicitly or in allusion, reference, signifying puns, etc.).
Assessment:
There will be only one grade for the project, but people may receive different grades based on their individual contribution to the project. Individual grades will be calculated as follows:
*40% Group Project Grade (will be the same for everyone in the group). The project grade will be determined by:
*50% completeness (satisfies above requirements)
*30% mechanics (clear and accurately cited, thoroughly reviewed for language/grammar).
*20% overall quality (works on its own and not just as a project in this class).
*30% Individual Project Evaluation Grade. This individual evaluation grade will be determined by:
*50% self evaluation
*50% group evaluation form
*30% Individual Project Participation. This participation grade will be determined by:
*25% timely and thorough completion of all pre-project assignments and check-ins
*25% active, reliable, and relevant contribution to all in-class discussion
*25% reasonable and respectful out-of-class communication with group
*25% thoughtful and substantive revision of any individually authored piece of academic or creative work you contribute to the project
TIMELINE:
This project was the most involved, largely because, as you can see from the above, there was no actual form for the project before the start of the class. Please know that this project worked because I had a class of 9 people. For a larger class, you might need to either decide to do one of the three forms that my students came up with, or provide some other mode of narrowing down the form ahead of time. This project is time intensive, but amazing. It required the making of a production calendar and weekly updates on where we were with the project. It is however an amazing project that could be adapted in various ways to suit pretty much any course and/or independent group studies.
To get a sense of the timeline for this project, I’m providing the following documents:
A link to the class schedule:
The theme I chose for this WordPress Site did not allow for a legible three column chart, which was unfortunate because I had to loop all the assignments in one column, which makes it hard to track the unfolding of the project. However I’m also providing an earlier Draft Master Production Calendar and List of chapbook group responsibilities.
AND a pdf that includes a Sample of Organizing and Agenda Emails. In the document, there’s a sample of the weekly check-ins I sent to keep everyone on the same page; of the agenda for a project work day, and the agenda for the day they chose who would be in which group. I was not actually there for that day. I had jury duty, so I drafted a fairly detailed lesson plan for Amina to cover for me.
EXAMPLES:
INITIAL PROPOSALS
As part of the project, each student early on in the semester had to propose a project form that would satisfy all the list of criteria in the assignment description. I also provided a form for these proposals. Each proposal needed to describe what the project would be, how it satisfied the assignment descriptions, what kind of supplies would be needed, a general sense of a timeline, and how it would incorporate everyone in the class. They posted their proposals to the site. Everyone read them, and then we discussed, voted, and made amendments until we decided to do an interesting combination of two or three of the proposals. Here’s a link to two of the students’ initial proposals:
INDIVIDUAL GROUP MOCK-UPS
After the class decided to do a three formed presentation of a group-authored chapbook (so much form/genre/convention bending going on here), each group had to come up with mock-ups/proposals for how the chapbook would shape up in the medium they were responsible for. The three groups/three mediums were print book, digital book, and live performance. Here’s a link to the digital mock ups that the digital group did in proposing ideas for the digital book.
FINAL PRODUCT(ION)S:
In the end there were three versions of the chapbook:
THE PRINT VERSION:
The contents of the print version are the same. The poems were all workshopped twice. Once by everyone, and once by me. Every student submitted two poems. In the book some students decided to only present one of their poems. The layout was done by the print group in collaboration with myself and with communications about big decisions to the larger group. Each student designed their own cover. For continuity though, they developed a logo patch, which had to be put on the front of the cover. Here are some photos:
The last image is of covers before the logo has been added. Hard copies of the chapbook are available in the English Dept; see Lisa Blankenship for details.
THE PERFORMANCE
The performance took place in the black box theater in 17-Lex during reading period. Finding space is the biggest issue for the performance group, largely because it took a while for the students to appreciate the importance of acting ahead of time. In the end though we were able to use this space because one of the students had taken a theater course with the man who manages the blackbox. We used a simple lights up and lights down. Any music was played via the speakers on an iphone, but there’s potential for doing more.
The performance was blocked. While most students read their own work, some poems involved a chorus, and one student opted to not be in the performance. Her poem was read by another student. This student worked in the booth. All staging, costume, and arrangement was decided on by the performance group and myself. While due respect was given to the content and integrity of the individual author’s piece, the only real say people outside the performance group had was whether or not they wanted to be on stage and whether or not they were comfortable with the bodily presentation of their work.
There was a script, which I worked out with a representative of the performance group. It underwent two substantial revisions. There was not a lot of time for rehearsal. Performance group members worked with individuals during portions of the project day for the print and digital group. And everyone had a call time an hour before the performance so that we could run the piece in the actual space a few times. I served as the stage manager back stage.
The performance ran just under 20 minutes. We did one run, had a small break in which people ate pizza and viewed the hard copy of the chapbooks, and then we did a second run for folks who came a little later.
Here are some pictures of the performance ensemble:
THE DIGITAL VERSION:
For whatever reason, I can’t locate the link, right now, so TBD.