“no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here” – Warsan Shire

I chose this poem because not only does it relate to displacement but my research topic paper as well. In this poem the poet basically discusses how he feels displaced in his own home; country. He doesn’t feel safe there, along with everyone else living there. They are all running away from home in search of a safer place where opportunities are surrounded by. This poem struck me the most because this is reality. This is what people are going through right now. This is why we have so many immigrants and refugees in the United States because those that are living in Central America feel displaced in their own home. They rather anything but there and it is unfortunate that our president isn’t so welcoming when it comes to them. We need to do something as a whole to help these people get out of danger, and seek better life opportunities. We need to figure out why are they experiencing this and what can we do to make it better.

The teenagers shown in the video live underground due to poverty. They are isolated from the rest of Ukrainian society and are trying to survive by staying together. These underground homes are full of diseases and food is scarce to them. Some of these teenagers are runaways, where others were abandoned/disowned by their families. They are forced to go through various methods to get food and water. These teenagers are heavily displaced from society due to their physical conditions and their homeless statuses; instead of going to school or work, they have to find food to feed themselves and stay alive.

Last Thursday, I wanted to do something different during club hours and when I read about the extra credit I decided to go and explore some of the different kinds of art offered in the Weissman school of art here at Baruch. I thought that this opportunity would help me learn more about arts in Baruch because I want to minor in arts but still can’t decide what kind of art.

The art session that I went to was called “virtual Sculpture gallery: Explore the environment design sculptures created by students in art” with professor Joshua Whitehead. I went expecting to walk around a room and see some actual sculpture made by students but instead, these sculptures were made and programmed on the computer. At that moment it hit me that technology now is used in every field of study even in the field where you have to be creative like art. After going to that session, I figured out that people can be creative even with the use of technology. I found the whole session very interesting; I exercised a new form of art I have never came across before.  I learned more about the art classes in Baruch and all the interesting projects they do. Professor Whitehead showed us work from his class made by the student.

Some of the work that students worked on in class is shown in the pictures above. These are buildings the students drew and then turned them into a 3D model. The other thing they had in the session was a VR simulation where you put on a headset and you see and even stand on the building that the students designed because they were designed as 3D models. This session made me realize that there are a lot of things about art I still need to learn. What I liked most about this session is that it was a more hands-on experience. The controllers they gave us, we hold one in each hand made me feel like I’m playing video games and that I was physically in the game. This experience inspired me to explore even more of the art classes provided at Baruch and minor in what interests me the most

For the extra credit assignment I went to the Virtual Sculpture Gallery located 6-120. When I read the event name in the promoting flyer I actually thought there would be sculptures shown in some kind of technological way. To my surprise, it was models created by students that were later turned into virtual representations by a company specialized in virtual imaging.

My group of friends and I were the only ones that had been to that exhibit, so the students were excited to show us their work. Two students were there representing the class which created the models. The professor (Joshua Whitehead) was explaining to us what the class consisted of and all of the obstacles that came along the way. He said that it was a semester’s worth of work. It’s really amazing how we may see the finished product as small or maybe not worthy of such long dedication. It was interesting to see the talent and complexity of the work. The shapes of the models weren’t simply squares and circles. They were stacked on top one another and printed in 3D. 

Baruch is known as a business school and sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge the different classes and opportunities we have to push our creativity. The class that created these sculptures is Environmental design ART 3041. I loved that this all started from the classroom. Although it was a collaboration between the students and the VR company, the idea and work came from the classroom.

Around the laptops in two separate tables were the sculptures with a sign that said “don’t touch it took 10 hours to make”. I was honestly surprised by the amount of time it took to make because it looked very simple. But later on they explained that each piece was cut precisely to be identical as the other. Along this table they also had google glasses which we needed to download an app to see a virtual world.

What I found most fun and entertaining was the VR glasses connected to the glasses. For a moment I thought that the sculptures were to imitate Baruch’s shape. The glasses were hooked up to computers which had the virtual world programmed and everywhere you moved so would the sculpture. Aside from this we were also given two controllers to help us navigate. The student helped us understand the different things we could do with the controls. We were able to point at one place and then simply teleport there. Fine blue lines would show up if in real life you were close to a wall. So not only was this technology keeping up with the virtual world but also with the real world. Once I learned how to navigate with the controls I began to jump from sculpture to sculpture. Although my feet were set in the ground it felt like I was actually jumping. This shows how our minds can play tricks on us based on what we see. Truthfully, even though it was great to be the one using the VR it was even more amusing to watch my friend’s reactions. I had never used the VR glasses before and was exposed to a new experience. I am generally not a tech savvy person but seeing that this project was so cool and a team effort it’s exciting to think about all that I can learn. 

Today I attended an event in the Newman Vertical Campus. I went to the Virtual Sculpture Gallery (VR Lab) at Room 6-120. It took place in a computer lab so I had expected to use the computers for something, but instead they had Google Cardboard for virtual reality and sculptures that were made from 3D printing. There was one professor and two other people who I think were students. I used the VR headset that they had connected to the laptops and could jump from sculptures that they had made. Along one side of the room were two tables filled with sculptures. There were about twenty of them lined up next to each other. Right above them was a sign that said “Don’t Touch. It took 10 hours to make me.” I found that very interesting because I did not expect it to take long to make. The professor, Joshua Whitehead, explained that it was a half semester’s worth of work. I think it took a very long time to design and figure out how to make these sculptures layered.

In the VR simulation, I was able to teleport from the sculptures and jump from one to another. One of the students that I think programmed the VR simulation, Toby, explained the things we could do with the headsets on. I was given two controllers, one for each hand. One controller contained the menu and the options of actions. The controller I held on my right hand was used to teleport and make selections from the menu. One of the menu options was to change the month (along with the day), as well as to pick what time of day it was. While I stood on a green sculpture that reminded on me a straightened out strand of DNA. When I adjusted the time of day, the green sculpture would also change colors. I looked up into the “sky” and was blinded with how bright everything was and quickly turned the time to late at night. At that time, the sky is filled with stars and the green sculpture looked more blue than green.

After trying out the VR headset, I decided to get the Google cardboard a try. Unlike the VR headset, the cardboard was not as technical because it was very literally a cardboard folded into a box with two lens inside. In order to use that one, I had to download an app on my phone called Sketchfab. Sketchfab is an app that is used to view models in 3D, virtual reality, and augmented reality. After downloading the app, I have an option to look at any of the models within the app and then I put my phone into the Google cardboard.

I learned that the class that made those sculptures was an elective class. I believe it was called Environmental Modeling or Sculpting. I did not know Baruch offered electives like that. I now know that there are many more classes and electives that I need to look into because I really enjoyed that event and I wish more people attended so that they could have appreciated the long, hard work the students put in.

In mid-2018, under President Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy, thousands of children of migrants entering the country to seek asylum were separated from their parents. This measure was taken in the name of boarder security and prevent outside threat. However, after glancing at the issue objectively, it was clear that this inhuman step taken by Trump administration was for nothing but pursuing political gains.

When asylum seekers entered through the boarder security, their children were detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement—a division of Department of Homeland Security, to leverage the parents to show up for their immigration hearings. The facility that was used as detention center, was not adequate for children detainees. There were infants as young as 6 months old. The facility lost track of many the children and caused chaos when the parents came to claim their children back. These children didn’t only suffer physical displacement, but also suffered and are still suffering long term mental trauma. As shown in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s segment on Family Separation, a child that has been released after being detained goes through emotional and mental break-down and say to his mother, “you don’t love me”. Watching that child cry was uncomfortable in the sense that how low could we have gone to be able to cause such impact in lives on innocent children. Taring families apart had achieved exactly nothing but displacing those children. As a country that promotes liberty and pursuit of happiness, it is utterly contradictory to displace families in the name of sense of security and political gains.

Continue reading →

Cloth

By Kathleen Kroll

A simple piece of cloth
Square, rectangular, oblong
Soft blue, pink, green
Woven, nubby or smooth
It matters not
Cloth
Swaddling my infant babe

Cloth
In tatters
Bearing injuries honorably
Chewed, dragged, hugged
Kitty, bear or tiger
Cloth comes alive 
In my toddler’s arms

Cloth 
Stretched over table or chair
Tent, house or fire station
My busy lad
Creates an island of safety
So proud am I and is he

Cloth
At preschool 
Comforting
Cuddled briefly 
Stuffed quickly
Into a backpack
Forgotten in busy play

Cloth
Lying inert
Discarded
In an attic chest
Squatting 
On the ground
My teen barely notices
Its displacement
His mind alive 
New ideas
New destinations
New loves

Cloth over his marriage bed
Immaculately placed
Or rumpled, tossed, lost
Covering two
Sometimes three
Or more
Bills litter the surface by day
Crumbs hide within by night
A polka-dotted pattern
Tears of joy and sorrow

Aged now
Letting go
Of all
But this one piece of cloth
Grateful for its presence
Wrapping, wrapping
Boundaries fading
Cloth as a shroud
Returning his body
To its source




A blanket is never just a blanket....

(Link: https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/cloth_765726)


When I read this poem for the first time, I was immediately drawn to the metaphor that the cloth represents.
It represents an attachment to something/someone and eventually having to let them go. I can truly relate
to this because in 2017, I had lost my Grandpa and throughout my 17 years of life, he was my best friend; 
someone that I can talk to with no issues, someone who would sneak me cookies if I was in time out and 
all in all I really miss him. When I said my final "I love you" to him in the hospital, he smiled at me
and he knew that he had fulfilled his life out to the fullest, that he was content in his final moments.
In the last stanza, it talks about fulfillment and being happy with life, regardless of where it was placed
at and how it was manipulated into clothing. My grandpa struggled, and there was no doubt he was displaced 
when he emigrated from the Soviet Union right after World War II, but I know he was happy with how he ended
up here and how he made the dream family he always wanted, how he made us happy, and how he saw us succeed
and thrive in life.

As promised, I am posting information about a small extra-credit opportunity.  This Thursday, April 11th, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences will be sponsoring its annual Art-A-Thon, an all-day program of artistic experiences of all kinds, including creative workshops, performances, and opportunities for instruction.  In order to receive extra-credit, you need to attend one session and share a blog post about your experience.  Your post must be between 350 and 500 words and must include photographic evidence of your attendance at the session.  If you look at the schedule I’ve attached, you will see that there are amazing things happening at the Art-A-Thon. I really hope that you will find time to enjoy the day and can’t wait to hear about your experiences!

I moved to the United States three years ago, the clash of cultures was intense. I am glad I had my extended family’s support or it would have been a different story. Everything was new, from the littlest thing like Disney shows that some of my American friends have never seen, to customs like kissing people as a salutation, and the food. I remember occasions where it felt like I’ll never learn English. I didn’t have friends my first year becasue of the language barrier. In popular culture videos, the protagonist always has something special. I’ll say my special power was that I am smart which led to getting good grades and learning and speaking English in a year. Like these heroes, I had a guide, which was my family, and obstacles to overcome. This feels like I am tooting my own horn by describing myself like that, but I am genuinely proud of my self and my accomplishments.

I think my experience relates to displacement because it was a new country, culture, language totally new environment. It also follows the model of displacement in popular shows. The ending to my series would be that I finally found my place by adding my American experience to my other various identities to create a new fitting identity. Now, I don’t feel out of place anymore, because I accepted that an American, especially a New Yorker, it doesn’t ideally matter your background and I personalized my experiences. We come in all shapes, forms, genders, ethnicity, races.

https://youtu.be/OI1XzRmojQE

Here is a clip from my favorite movie, “León: The Professional.” Matilda, the little girl with the short hair, was in constant danger considering the fact that her father was a drug dealer. However, she was always fearless and wise. She was not like any regular girl her age. She grew up in a household where she was exposed to drugs, arguments, and violence. She smoked cigarettes, didn’t go to school, and  answered the phone when her school called because her step-mother didn’t care. The only love she had in her life was her 4 year old little brother.

In this scene, we see how Matilda reacts to her life turning a complete 180. She walked home from the deli to find that her whole family was killed by drug dealers, including her little brother. We see her hold in her tears because that is the only person she genuinely cared about. Having no idea who to expect, she proceeded to walk to the apartment where León, a stranger who she has never truly met, lives in. León opens the door and allows her in.

Not only was she displaced by being different compared to people her age, but she was displaced physically since she lost the only people she knew; her family. She now has to stay with a complete stranger who was kind enough to let her in. Although his actions were good, she took a risk because she doesn’t truly know his intentions.