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• No class on Monday, September 25th – College is closed.
• Literacy Narrative Drafts due in class on Wednesday, September 27th.
• Bring THREE copies of your draft with you to class on Wednesday.
• Remember that your draft should choose a specific aspect of your own identity or personal story to focus on and that it must include some detailed anecdotal narrative, rather than simply offering general observations about your relationship to learning/language/school/literacy.
• Feel free to reach out via email if you have any questions about this assigment.

Steven Attanasso, a 68-year-old man who made headlines around the Ebbets Field apartments in Brooklyn, is known as the “nightmare neighbor” who threatened his fellow Black neighbors with speech and weapons. However, it didn’t start here, back in April he was recorded saying inappropriate racial remarks about his Black neighbors, and three days later he became a suspect in an arson that ended a Black man’s life. He was not charged with anything because of the lack of evidence and no witnesses. The neighbors have reached out to authorities for over a year but nothing was ever done. Then on September 9, he was arrested with a felony hate crime charge and on September 11 his bail was set at $50,000 which the judge agreed on. 

It’s shocking to know how hate crimes aren’t being taken as seriously then they should. Hate crimes can have negative impacts on a person’s life and even family. Experiencing a hate crime so small can lead to something bigger so it’s important to have it brought to attention. Authorities should find ways to resolve the issue because they can’t prosecute someone if the law is not broken. So must hate crimes become violent in order to get their attention? 

Link: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/nightmare-neighbor-faces-new-charges-tied-to-carrying-knives-around-nyc-building/4675845/

On Friday September 15,2023 NYPD responded to a 911 call from a daycare that reported a 1-year-old, a 2-year-old, and an 8month-old unconscious. It results that the children had been exposed to the lethal Fentanyl. So far, the owner of the daycare, Grei Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, her tenant that had been renting a room have been arrested. Authorities have not yet revealed how the children got exposed to the Fentanyl 1-kilogram of Fentanyl found and two kilo presses found in a closet in the daycare. This story is devastating because it resulted in the death of a baby, and I cannot imagine the pain the family is going through.

My initial reaction to Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” is that she is very mindful towards the struggle of writing. writing the first draft is like exploring your thoughts on a piece of paper. it doesn’t have to be as perfect, but she uses that draft to find good details in her writing and use it for the next. I love how she even wrote as a food critic which is really different. she takes all the judgment from others to write better and trust the process; silencing voices in her head so she ends up having a better paper on her third draft, keeping everything stable and the mind healthy, which is something writers can relate to. In George’s essay “rethinking the shitty first draft”, he appears as arrogant. he doesn’t appear to agree with Anne and her style of writing because it will end up bad without immediate fixing. he says that her method takes too much time and feels like he is forcing himself to do the same thing over and over. he claims that revising your work is better so you can have only one perfect draft. In my opinion, I believe with Anne lamott and her essay. I take away that we all aren’t gonna be perfect, especially on the first try. at first you don’t succeed and everyone has seen it before but there is always room to know more from it and try again. I don’t write essays perfectly on one try. For me, writing is a skill that takes time and work. she authenticates the imperfectness in her essays, especially coming from critics that always points out flaws, no matter if you’re the best writer on earth. There will always be room to improve.

Scents are something we experience throughout the day, and we may not always pay attention to them. Whether you’re inhaling the smell of coffee from a shop, or trying on a new perfume, there’s a bit of magic that goes on behind the scenes which create that distinct smell. This video explains the process of discovering certain notes that tie together inside of your cologne or perfume bottle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieq8-2ukAOQ

Brands often associate their fragrance with a certain mood that a customer may want to represent for themselves. Different notes appeal to different personalities and figuring out one that matches your style is a unique and intimate experience. Some undertones are enhanced for this specific purpose of emphasizing a vibe that you’d want to give off. Are you looking for a light and refreshing piece? Citrus may be your go to. Do you want to carry a more intense, evening aroma? Look for something a little more woodsy. There are multiple options out there catered to who you specifically are.

Here is a general reference to categorize the tones you may look for in a fragrance.

Another great selling point for these brands are seasonal eras. You know, the pumpkin spice (soon!) that comes up for fall, or vanilla touches for the winter, the notes behind these common scents are what bring that seasonal experience to life.

This chart shows you an in depth look to the certain tones that match a specific season.

Although it’s not necessary to know each individual note, being aware of them can give you an easier buying experience, as you’ll get exactly what you’re looking for.

• Literacy Narrative – Pre-Write: This assignment is explained in a separate post. It needs to be completed and placed in our shared folder by Monday, September 18th.
• Gloria Anzaldua, ” How to Tame a Wild Tongue” This text is in Join the Conversation. You can find the assignment with instructions for your annotation on Perusall.com. Please note that, although the annotations aren’t due until Wednesday morning, September 20th, we will begin discussing this text on Monday, so make sure that you have either a printout of the text or the ability to access it electronically for Monday’s class.

Due: Monday, September 18th by 9:00 am

Once you have completed your Pre-Write, please give your file the name: Your Name – Literacy Pre-Write and place it in this Google Doc Folder.

Use this assignment as an opportunity to start gathering your thoughts and ideas for your upcoming Literacy Narrative.  This is not expected to be a tightly organized, focused piece of work.  Instead, it is a chance to write freely, without fixed expectations, in an effort to excavate (dig up) some of your own literacy-related memories, family language stories, and thoughts and feelings about language, school, reading, and writing.  Read this post through carefully, spend a few minutes thinking about the possibilities, open a document on your screen, and spend 30-60 minutes simply writing. (If this seems like a LOT, you could break it up into a few shorter blocks.)

Don’t think of this as a draft of your formal Literacy Narrative; instead think of it as a way to get in touch of your own ideas and associations around this broad topic. Here are some questions you might want to use as entry points into this writing.  I would suggest choosing one as your starting point and then seeing where it takes you.  Of course, if none of these ideas speaks to you, you are free to move in your own direction, provided you stick to our theme of literacy, which we understand broadly as our relationship to language and learning.

For this Pre-Writing stage, don’t worry about polishing your language or sounding “academic”; concentrate on the ideas, memories, and experiences you are trying to evoke and explore and let your writing proceed as naturally and freely as you can. Use the list below to spark your thinking:

–What is your family’s “language story”?  How might you tell it?

–Describe a pivotal school experience.  How did it shape your sense of yourself as a student, a learner, a reader, a writer, a wielder of language, etc.  This could be a positive experience or it could be a painful or difficult experience.

–How has language defined you in relation to power? Can you think of a time when you were either empowered by language or disempowered?

–Choose the reading that spoke to you most deeply.  Start crafting your own version of (or response to) that essay.  For example, maybe you were moved by Malcolm X’s story, so you would like to reflect on an experience you’ve had of self-directed learning or of learning that took place against a backdrop of constraint. Or maybe you were inspired by the parent-child relationship in “Mother Tongue” and want to think about your own mother tongue. Or perhaps, like Sherman Alexie, there is a “master text” that resonates for you as a model for your own literacy experience.

–What is a text (this could be written, or it could be something visual like a movie or television show) that is important to you and your personal history?  Describe its role in your development.

–How has your life required you to move between different languages? This could be literal bilingualism, or it could be simply shifting between various forms of English or between different non-verbal languages, as we move between family, friends, work, school, and our on-line communities.  What is at stake in these different linguistic spaces?  What does this shifting between languages mean to you?

–Who have the “gatekeepers” been in your literacy story?  Is there a person who looms large for you – either because he/she/they brought you closer to fulfilling your own identity as a wielder of language, or because he/she/they blocked your path and impeded your progress?

This video is a brief summary of the origin story of Baruch + some fun facts! https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8jep5rn/

As we are all adjusting to the new college life at Baruch College, I thought it would be very compelling to introduce how Baruch came to be and how the school got it’s name. According to Wikipedia, It dates back to 1919 when the school was established and originally named “City College’s School of Business and Civic Administration”. The school started as a part of The Free Academy, which was the first institution of free public higher education, which was founded in 1847. When Baruch was first settled, women were not allowed to admit into the school, that was until the 1930’s! Later on in 1953, the school was renamed to acknowledge Bernard M. Baruch, an American Financer. To sum it all up, Baruch College became an “independent senior college” in the CUNY system in 1968. As I read articles about the history of Baruch, it opened my eyes to a more deeper understanding of how mesmerizing the school and it’s history is.

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Baruch, here is the Wikipedia Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_College

One major issue that stands out to me is gentrification. Gentrification has been a big issue amongst lower income neighborhoods, especially in New York City. Wealthy people move into these poorer urban areas, improve housing and open new businesses. Property prices and rent go up and so do local services. This causes the displacement of current inhabitants and their small owned businesses. These lower income neighborhoods usually have demographics of minorities. Gentrification erases the cultural heritage of working class communities of color. Real estate investors benefit from the profits of gentrification. Now that residents of lower income have been displaced, it is difficult for them to find a new area to reside in, especially with the same opportunities as their previous community. To make matters worse, there is not enough affordable housing in NYC. There are also 90,000 vacant apartments throughout the five boroughs, according to New York Magazine, Curbed. Some neighborhoods that are experiencing gentrification include Harlem, Chinatown, and Williamsburg. The remaining local small businesses now have to compete with these new and trendy upscale shops whose target consumers are the new wealthy hip residents. I believe that gentrification can affect a community’s history and culture. Harlem, for example, is a historical neighborhood known for its deeply-rooted African American heritage, civil rights history, and thriving music scene. Another example is Chinatown. Although there are still many Asian owned businesses, many businesses are suffering from high living costs. Local residents are also being displaced from their own community. Gentrification is slowing taking over almost everywhere in NYC. My childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn now has transformed. The once locally owned businesses are now replaced with big brand name stores. The once affordable housing are now replaced with new luxury condos.