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The Black Aesthetic

Blackness is an aesthetic that is mainly attached to black people, and presents itself in fashion, language, and music to embrace and appreciate culture and identity. It has called to reflect on our past as a mark of legacy and inspired achievements with pride.

Black culture has a profound impact on music and it has given birth to genres like Jazz, Rap, R&B, and Afro beats. One of the main forms of music was rap in the 7o’s in African American communities In NYC, where block parties and DJs started isolating and extended the instrumental breaks in funk and soul music. through this many underground/mainstream artists like grandmaster flash, run dmc, and nwa had been very popular and mainly was a voice to societal problems, racism, love, self worth and many more. It became foundational for a breakthrough and revolutionary form of music and inspired many. Lots of other artists in different genres, such as Lil Baby, Beyonce, Burna Boy, and Eryka Badu paved a way for music and is heard by millions of people worldwide and leaves a legacy for black artists in the music industry.

Black people have many unique forms of expression in language and dialect spoken over the years and has emerged as a distinct and linguistic style. African American Vernacular English is a dialect popularized within the black community in the southern United States. It has originated from languages such as Creole and Gullah. Having its own features of grammar and vocabulary, AAVE was initiated by Black Americans; it opens up a diversity in slang where it doesn’t normalize a “white” or “American” english.

The Black community has a consistent and outstanding influence on fashion industries, with trends attributed by Black designers. The Harlem renaissance was a start and a cultural revival for black people and popular fashion wear like flappers and zoot suits were notable. There is more recognition in the 1960s where artists like Zelda Wynn Valdez created the playboy bunny and the black panther party wore all leather outfits and dashikis and afros. Ebony magazines played a role in normalizing black luxury. These gave a solid foundation of expression and confidence to embrace in their natural self and having freedom. It also paved a way for popular designers in the 21st century, like Virgil Abloh, Kanye West, Dapper Dan and Rihanna to create clothes and brands that are being worn all over the world and falls into streetwear, vintage, minimalism, and classy style.

The UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship has become one of the biggest sports in the world over the last few years. It started in November of 1993 and has grown to host some of the biggest pay-per-view in combat sports history. With fightors such as Conor Mcgregor and Khabib Nrmagomedov which created the third highest pay-per-view buy in all of combat sports (2,400,000 buys at $64.99). The promotion has brought MMA into light of a lot of people. As the sport grew in popularity, it faced intense scrutiny and criticism. In response, the UFC adopted a more comprehensive set of rules, weight classes, and safety measures. The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts were established to govern the sport. This regulation and safety-oriented approach helped the UFC gain mainstream acceptance. The UFC expanded internationally, hosting events in various countries and creating a global fan base. It acquired numerous other MMA organizations, including PRIDE Fighting Championships and Strikeforce, and absorbed many of their top fighters. The UFC has produced several superstars like Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor, and Jon Jones, who helped increase the sport’s popularity and draw massive pay-per-view audiences. The UFC continued to grow, holding events all over the world. It has also integrated technology and social media to engage with fans. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFC adapted by holding events without audiences and creating a “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi to ensure the safety of fighters and staff.

Tupac Amaru Shakar was one of the greatest rappers of the 90s. He expressed himself through his music in a way that inspired so many people. Unfortunately, on September 7, 1996, he was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was rushed to the hospital and put in a medically induced coma, but sadly passed away a couple days later, on September 13, 1996. 

A couple months before this tragedy, Tupac got into a fight with a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang for attempting to rob a guy named Trevon Lane, a member of the M.O.B. Pirus gang. Tupac was not a part of the Pirus gang but was heavily affiliated with them. 

There were many assumptions as to why Tupac was murdered. One of the main reasons authorities thought he was killed was because he attacked a member of the Crips gang, but they were never really sure. They didn’t make an arrest until September 29, 2023, almost thirty years later. A man by the name of Duane Keith Davis, a former member of the Crips gang, was found to have a connection to Tupac’s murder after many years of him saying that he was at the scene of the murder. He was charged with first-degree murder and will most likely be in prison for more than 20 years.

Just as we did with the Literacy Narrative, we will start the process of completing the Literary Analysis Essay with a free-writing process. The goal of this pre-writing is to start developing the ideas that will form the core of your textual analysis.

When you have completed the Pre-Write, using the instructions below, please give the file the name “Your Name – Literary Analysis Pre-Write” and place it in our shared folder, which I’ve linked to HERE. Please make sure that your work is in this folder no later than 9 am on Monday.

Pre-Writing Instructions

1. Start by identifying the text you’ve decided to write about.
2. Next, decide which of the prompts listed on the assignment sheet makes the most sense for you to pursue. (Remember, that you also have the option of proposing your own prompt, if none of these works for you.)
3. Combining your chosen prompt with your text, identify the question that you want to try to answer in your essay. Keep in mind that the purpose of these essays it to try to figure out something that you don’t fully understand about your text – not to just describe something about the text that is already obvious to you.
4. Reread your text.
5. Once you have figured out your question and reacquainted yourself with the text, the next step is to start generating ideas through free-writing. For this pre-write, rather than trying to write in paragraphs or to create a narrative, I suggest that you brainstorm using a list format. See how many different ideas you can generate that respond to the question you have asked. You may want to experiment with setting a timer and writing for a specific amount of time (perhaps 20 minutes?) or with setting a goal of how many ideas you want to come up with (8-10?).

***Place your pre-write in the designated folder. We will be using this material in class on Monday, so make sure that you will have a way to access this work either electronically or by printing it out.

***If you get through all of this and want to continue working, the next step is to start collecting quotations that relate to your question. As you find quotes that might prove helpful in your essay, copy them into your Pre-Write document, making sure to include the page number, where appropriate.

For today’s blog, I wanted to discuss my henna business and the world of side hustles. I launched my henna business, Allure N Galoure, in 2021. If you’re not familiar, henna is a form of art commonly used in Islamic cultures. It involves creating temporary tattoos that typically last on the skin for about 1-3 weeks. In African cultures, henna is often used for various occasions like weddings, baby showers, and the Eid holiday.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to reach my desired clientele. Given the high demand for henna artists during Eid, many were already fully booked, making them open to newcomers like me. This opportunity allowed me to refine my craft, and I ended up serving a total of 100 clients over three days, earning $2,000 in the process.

My journey into the world of side hustles began in middle school when I started selling candy to my classmates. Eventually, I ventured into selling slime. It might not seem like big money, but that’s often how it all begins – starting small and gradually discovering more effective strategies. I can’t pinpoint exactly what motivated me to start making money, but you could say I was rather “money hungry.”

Growing up with limited resources, you learn how to make money from a young age, whether it’s through legitimate means or not. Side hustling holds significant importance, and, truth be told, I’ve never really envisioned myself working a traditional 9-5 job. The moment I earned my first $1,000, I realized that you have to take control of your finances if you want to meet your goals. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with a 9-5 job, but it’s often not enough.

If you’re genuinely interested in boosting your income, it’s crucial to have something on the side. This could involve selling products like beauty items, clothing, or e-books, or providing services such as hairstyling, nail care, or eyelash extensions. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to expanding my henna business, and I hope it will eventually lead me to where I want to be. Surprisingly, I’ve built connections and achieved milestones more rapidly than I initially expected.

You can find me on all social media platforms: @allurengaloure

Airbnb’s are short/long term homestays that allow any person to book. However, Joseph Foresta’s Airbnb home, became a terribly long experience. Foresta had rented his home on Airbnb to Lawrence Jackson for a one-night stay. But that took a quick turn when the night was over and found out that Jackson had changed the locks and later began to rent it to other people. After so many complaints and a house that became fully trashed, Foresta was finally able to get a court order. Foresta had even contacted Airbnb for help to remove these unwanted guests but Airbnb had completely ignored him. He was left with thousands of dollars in repairs.

I chose this issue to discuss because the idea of letting a complete stranger into your own home seems a bit odd to me. It could be beneficial in trying to earn some money but you never really know who you are letting into your home. Some people might have good experiences renting out their homes but I would feel very uneasy all the time waiting for something bad to happen. Also as the person who is booking a stay you never know what the owner has planted around their home.

Link: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2023/04/14/airbnb-philadelphia-south-philly-squatters/

In today’s world a person’s whole life could be openly accessible simply by looking through their social media accounts. You can see their travels, family dinners, birthdays and even hardships they face through their life that they choose to share. In a way social media has brought many people, who may have not met in any other circumstance, together. But the question I wanted to raise with this blog post is how much do we overshare online? What is considered too much with sharing information? And is this healthy or even safe for our lives? Social media apps do encourage users to share their world with the rest of the world, with specific platforms such as “TikTok” using the slogan of “be your authentic self” or “Instagram’s “capture and share the world’s moments.” These can prompt users to use their social media accounts as their own personal journeys that capture the good, the bad and all the in between in their lives. And while it may be a nice release, this “diary” mindset can lead to dangerously over sharing personal information that could leave a person at risk of harm, especially due to the wide public accessibility of social media. Many users online have begun sharing very intimate details about themselves, that can include marital or family issues, personal addresses and even illegal activities that could leave them liable to facing criminal penalties. What could have simply started as a diary entry for themselves can be seen by millions upon millions of other users. This can include content from vlogging channels, most notoriously “family” channels that seem to share many personal moments their children experience with millions of people to see. Infamously Ruby Franke who created the channel 8 Passengers is a large example for this, recently who was arrested on six counts of felony child abuse, and her content was largely centered around her children’s upbringings while also including information that should not have been shared with the general public, such as first periods, shaving, etc. And the information they share about personal lives such as their jobs, locations of their place of work or even house addresses can leave their lives accessible to anyone who comes across their page, and unfortunately not everyone online is looking to be your friend. The reason I bring up this topic is because of a recent TikTok influencer making some headlines due to her “oversharing” on an account that has over 4 million followers. Michelle, aside from her massively successful tiktok page, is just a normal everyday person. She isn’t rich, and she works as a bartender. At first her content was merely sharing alcoholic beverage recipes and things of that sort. Till she decided to post more “story time” content. She felt that her audience were her friends, so she became comfortable with sharing many private details of her life, including more worryingly the address of her job and her specific working hours. She also shared many of her marital issues, and discussions that you would think would be shared only between husband and wife. She even shared many instances of her or her husband putting her own two year old son in harm’s way, such as bringing him to the bar she worked and filmed at while she was serving drinks and even shared a chilling story time on how her husband, who she openly admits is an alcoholic, let in a potential robber into their home at 3 am while her son was sleeping and he was black out drunk. And then the next video showcased her installing security cameras in her home, but this defeated the purpose as she showed all her followers where each individual camera was installed and even showed the front of her house. But when she received criticism for oversharing, with many followers citing she was putting her young son in danger, she retaliated and stated she had no problem with simply being real with her TikTok audience. But does she need to be so real that she puts her family in danger? I feel that many influencers and even celebrities have exposed too much of their personal lives onto the internet, and honestly it creates a dangerous situation that they might not even see coming. I feel that we could all learn that many things in life should remain private from the internet’s eye. 

1. On Wednesday, we will be discussing “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. This short story was published as part of a larger collection of loosely linked short stories called The Things They Carried. In preparation for Wednesday’s class, please read “On the Rainy River” (which you can find under the “Texts” tab above) and share three questions about the story in a comment on this post no later than 12pm on Wed. Your questions may be about things that confused you in the story, moral or ethical questions raised by the text, issues in the text that require further discussion, or anything else that occurs to you as you read and think about this story. Please have the story with you in class, either as a printout or on a screen.
2. Please read the instructions for your next formal essay, the Literary Analysis. You can find this under the “Essays” tab above. We will be discussing this assignment on Wed, so please come to class ready with any questions you might have about it.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex issue that has yet to be resolved. It is important to give an overview of the situation and show the ongoing difficulties and complexities. This conflict has seen occasional outbreaks of violence, resulting in casualties and destruction for both Israelis and Palestinians. These cases often involve issues such as control of Jerusalem in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, and the right of return for refugees. Jerusalem is important to many religions and remains a center of tension. The US decision in 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and then move its embassy was controversial. The Palestinians consider East Jerusalem the capital of their state, so they see these actions as harmful to the peace process. Recently Armed Hamas militants, many on motorcycles, storm blockaded areas of the Gaza Strip, shooting at Jewish settlers and slaughtering people at kibbutzim and small towns. This led to many Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, and the joint bombing of Gaza by Egypt and Israel. The international community considers attacks that do not distinguish between civilian and military targets, but are directed against civilians and civilian structures, to be against international law. The Israeli army, which is bombarding Palestinian territory with airstrikes, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,500; bodies of Hamas activists have been found in Israel and the Gaza Strip. 900 people were killed in Israel and more than 700 in the Gaza Strip. In addition, 2,000 people were displaced in Israel and 15,000 in the Gaza Strip. This is occuring in Jerusalem, where both Israelis and Palestinians live together.

In spring of 2021 a male by the name of Trevor Bauer was accused of sexual assault by a woman named Lindsey Hill. Trevor Bauer is a professional baseball pitcher whose life was ripped away from him. At the time many people couldn’t believe it and some ate him alive on social media for the horrible things he was accused of. Lindsey Hill claimed that she had bruises all over her body and was handled with roughness at the time they were seeing each other. Because of this, this led to the downfall of his career. At the time he was a pitcher for the LA Dodgers and the year before that he was the 2020 Cy Young award winner. The Dodgers decided to suspend him for 324 games which was then reduced to 194 and eventually the Dodgers decided to just cut him from the team and no team picked him up after that. Trevor Bauer would post vlogs on his YouTube channel but then decided to take a break from social media because of all that hate and negativity he was receiving. Two years have passed and no team has decided to pick him up and the allegations of him are still in the air. Then in March 2023 he decided to sign with the Yokohama Baystars in the professional Japanese baseball league. Slowly but surely he was starting to get back to his career and things were starting to ease up a bit for him. He started posting more on his channel and just ignoring all the negativity and allegations put against him. The case of the allegations was still open at this time up until October 2 2023. He posted a video titled “Lindsey Hill’s Concealed Texts Finally Exposed”. In the video he explains the truth behind everything and his innocence. He shows messages of multiple conversations held between Lindsey Hill and a friend of hers. The messages showed that Lindsey Hill’s intention of meeting the MLB star Trevor Bauer was to set him up and take his money. She thought that accusing him would grant her that money she hoped for. She lied about the allegations and no harm was done to her as shown in a short clip of Lindsey taking a unconsent video of Trevor sleeping and then showing that she was happy and fine the morning she accused him of sexual assault. In the end both legal parties from Trevor and Lindsey side agreed to dropping their respective lawsuits and no money was granted to either side. As a result Trevor has now gained the ability to speak about this publicly and gave his side to the world. All evidence that was proposed proves the innocence of Trevor and now in his own words “today im happy to be moving on with my life”.