This was my first visit to the MoMA and I was very impressed by the museum as well as the ease that me and my friend where able to get in with our CUNY id’s.  This piece that cough my attention was created by Maria Freire and was located in the “Woman Artist and Postwar Abstract” exhibit.  The exhibit consisted of female abstract artists between World War 2 and the Feminist movement that took place around 1968.  I can not pick out specifically why I like this painting but for one it is balanced.  The black shape is placed evenly throughout the painting.  The large red triangle is slightly to the right of the piece but is off set by the small yellow rectangle to the left.  Although it is an abstract painting Freire gave the painting depth but having some of the shapes overlap and intersect each other.  The left side of the triangle is underneath the black shape but on the right side of the triangle it is over the shape.  I also like how the black shape is one continuous form.  It reminds me of a bent up spring or something.  The part that is closed to the viewer appears larger and the futurist away piece which looks as if it fads away.  The grey background and black shape are the dull colored parts of the panting but the red triangle and 2 rectangles one yellow and one blue make the painting feel complete.  If one of those colored shapes where missing the piece would feel incomplete or off balance.

Before reading the Black Panther Party Platform I expected to see a lot of extreme and radical ideas.  After reading I was shocked to see how relevant the issues that were discussed are today. Almost all the points are reasonable yet still not met today, which is crazy considering this was written in the 1960’s.  Number 6 “We Want All Black Men To Be Exempt From Military Service” seems to be the most extreme, but once you read the explanation you can understand it.  If black man do not feel protected by the government why should they be forced to go defend it? Especially with the Vietnam War going on.  Number 8 and 9 go together, again at a quick glance you think this is crazy but considering that most, or all, of these men did not have a fair trial it is reasonable.  Likely these black men had an all-white jury who pinned them as guilty even before they heard the case.  A black man might have a very good explanation or an alibi but the white jury has their mind made up already.  Number 7 “We Want An Immediate End To Police Brutality And Murder Of Black People”  is still such a big problem today and is very sad.

I believe that what Whitman refers to as “untranslatable self” basically means is that because he is living he has ultimate freedom.  He is connected to all of nature including plants and animals because everything comes from the same higher power (whatever that is).  I think that the “untranslatable self” also refers to the fact that we can not fully explain anything.  At one point in the poem he mentions that I little kid asks him what grass is, his answer is roughly “you know just as much about it as I do”.  The end of part 2 is a prime example of this ending with “You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.”  At the end of the poem it sounds as thought he is saying that even after he dies he will still be free and a part of nature.  Walt says that when he dies he will nurture the dirt and things will grow from it.  It is like he is just being recycled into a different living thing.  No like reincarnation because he will not be fully there.  Only his spirit, his “untranslatable self”

-Robert Zink

I could see this poem by Emily Dickinson related to a number of parts in Jane Eyre but the one that stuck out the most to me was at the beginning of chapter 31.  At this part of the book Jane is reflecting on her two options and is fantasizing about the latter one.  In the poem’s first stanza Dickinson talks of a nicer house with more windows and doors.  And there is no doubt that if Jane had gone with Mr.Rochester then their house somewhere in France would be a great deal nicer than the cottage she is describing at beginning of chapter 31.  The third stanza in the poem talks of the finest guests visiting.  The guests Jane and Mr.Rochester would be entertaining in Jane’s fantasy would definitely be fairer than the school kids she is interacting with daily.  Jane has to remind herself that “these peasants are of the same flesh and blood” as her.

-Robert Zink

When Audre Lorde wrote The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action* she was very ill and had accepted death as much as one can.  Jane Eyre through the treatment of her adopted family had often pondered and occasionally even wished for death.  Lorde in her article explains that most peoples silence stems from fear of death, and once you no longer fear death it is a lot easier to stand up for what is right or what you believe in.  There are many examples of Jane acting out in the book but one of the first and most necessary comes when she stands up to her caretaker Mrs.Reed for the years of abuse and miss treatment.  Jane right before he stands up for her self thinks “Speak I must” and this is exactly how Lorde feels (Bronte 38).  “…if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty.” (Bronte 39)  Lorde states in her article that death is the ultimate silence, so by speaking out one may experience the purest form of living.

After learning more about the sublime it was easy to make the connection to my favorite activity, skateboarding. When skateboarding it seems as if nothing else matters.  While doing tricks or maneuver everything turns slow motion and your entire focus is on your skateboarding and the obstacle.  You look at a giant ramp at a park or large obstacle in the streets and think its unconquerable.  There is terror in having to overcome an object and in the act of doing so it is always in the back of your mind but not dwelled upon.  As discussed in the reading there has to be a little terror involved for a situation to be truly sublime.  When finished with the activity you feel refreshed and this puts a new perspective on life.  Having been that close to hurting yourself and by accomplishing a goal this makes daily mundane tasks more bearably and challenging tasks seem accomplished.

The Enlightenment period changed the lives of those living in Europe and the Americans drastically, and the effect can still be felt today.  For the first time ever people started looking inward for the answers to life’s most difficult problems as opposed to religious figures.  People of the time being ruled by kings and queens rejected the idea of “divine right”, refusing the idea that these people in charge where put there by god and are a detect connection to him.

The Enlightenment period also helped fuel the American Revolution.  In the American Constitution there is the phrase “separation of church and state”, meaning religion has no place in government.  This was a fresh idea at the time and would have not been included if it was not for the Enlightenment period.  We are continuing to see this trend in present day it seems we are slowing seeing less and less of religion in our everyday lives.

Perhaps the most important revolution started by the enlightenment period was the women revolution.  Unfortunately women today do not have the same right’s as men, but conditions in the 1600’s were far worse.  Women then did not even have a right to knowledge or thought.  Female leaders of the revolution started acting, speaking, and writing out about their unfair treatment for the first time in history.  It is hard not to make the connection to the recent Women’s March at Washington that brought out record numbers to our nation’s capital demanding equal right.  The women during the enlightenment period would be proud to know that women all over the world today have not given up on the same fight for the same rights as men, just as they had done hundred of years ago.