Writing II KMWF

Blog 11

I am planning on making a prezi presentation for my remix project. I want to make a remix based on my research paper of the Women’s movement. I would want my project to focus more on the piece of art I chose which was the Netflix series “Cable Girls”. With this I would want to show or explain parts where the show best represents the fight for women rights and freedom. In my research paper I feel like I focused more on giving the general history and information about the women’s movement and even though I did mention that the show represents this theme I don’t believe I explained clips of the show that also represented it.

I plan on adding photography maybe video, fonts and text and my voice while presenting. making this multimedia piece will change my project from academic writing to more creative and engaging while still representing the argument  of how the women’s movement is these days. What is lost will be the full design of informational research for example the history behind my theme. What is gained can be a more personal voice and more visual view.

As of now my biggest challenge is trying to see if I can or how can I add other points such as new resources other than the show. The resources I would want to use are more recent ones such as protest or events regarding my theme. What I like best about this project is that I am allowed to make my presentation look creative and use my own voice. My personal motivations for tackling this specific project is to use my voice to explain or show how this Netflix series represents the women’s movement and how it still affects us today. I also chose to use this piece since as a young women I would want others to see why it is an important issue.

Blog #9

I choose strategy #3, which addresses my readers’ concerns. My readers’ comments helped me understand what an outsider, who knows nothing about the topic, would think reading my paper. Reading my writing doesn’t always help because I don’t think from a reader’s perspective. When I usually write, I may not notice a common mistake compared to someone else writing. Another set of eyes reading over my essay helps me improve my grammar and sentence structures. Overall, Addressing my reader’s concerns has helped me reinforce my thesis and argument.

 

Blog #9

Within my research paper, I chose to use the first strategy when it came to revising my paper. I had to write a paragraph after I chose one of the sentences that I felt could have been developed upon. The exercise revealed to me about my writing that there is a good amount of background information when it came to the artwork that I chose. I was able to write a different paragraph based off of one sentence and it allowed me to expand the ideas that I originally had within the paragraph that had the sentence originally. It improved the paper by making it more in depth as I took the original sentence and created another paragraph based off of it. I chose the strategy that I did because I felt that the paragraph that had the sentence could have been expanded upon and become a more descriptive part of my paper and I felt that it would make it more interesting than it originally was which benefitted my paper. The main thing that I am struggling with within my paper is the organization. This is because I wanted to create an introduction with multiple paragraphs which would have their own ideas for the paper separately and make it lead up to the thesis part of my paper and then the body paragraphs but I had to organize the ideas properly so that it could be clear and precise. The strategy that I used helped with creating a better and clearer paper.

Blog 7

After reading “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation” by Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor, “limits of representation” it was very insightful on how race and gender symbolize change in the American system. Joe Biden has exploited racial resentment for political gain and it is ironic that he chose Kamala Harris as his Vice President. Throughout history, black Americans have been oppressed and marginalized and more than half are living on or under the poverty line. When Barack Obama was president, he was talked about as the president for black Americans, giving them hope for change. Throughout his presidency 52 percent of African Americans said that Obama’s policies did not go far enough to improve their situation. Obama is living his life as the president of the United States. His social class is different from the working class and the poor. This ties into Kamala Harris’s vice presidency. Kamala is a millionaire and grew up that way. She is not educated on the struggles a poor black woman faces, so how could Kamala possibly create policies with Biden to help poor black women. The limits of representation start when a gender or race is celebrated for being picked into office. Class plays an important part. Just because Kamala is black, it does not mean she understands what it means to live a black woman’s life in America, because of her social class. Representation is more than a skin color or a gender.

Blog 5

The art piece that stood out to me the most was “untitled” (one day this kid) by David Wojnarowicz.

  1. How does this piece’s rhetorical properties contribute to its meaning? (think blending of image/ text, tone, audience, color, design, etc) We can see that Wojnarowicz uses repetition to show his purpose and persuade the audience of the negative things that this little boy can face in the future if he chooses to be with another boy. We can also infer that this art piece was created years ago because of the black and white style. This is an important point because it explains what were the strong expectations of the people back then where we can definitely say are very different now even though there are many people till this day that don’t approve. In addition,  the author chooses wording that makes people feared for what this boy can one day experience.
  2. How does the text resonate with social or political concerns of the present?in our recent years many have been fighting for their rights to be able to express themselves for who they really are regardless of sexuality and decisions. We live in a society now where people still carry expectations but even more people have stood up for who they are.
  3. What conclusions can you draw from this text to build an argument for what impact art might make on political or social concerns? Just because a boy discovers that he has “desires to place his naked body on the naked body of another boy”does not mean that he is any less of a human. Times have changed which means that peoples mindsets should also change and get used to this new world we live in because no matter our race, sexuality, or opinions anyone should be able to make a choice without being judged.

Blog #3

In the articles, “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, there was a sense of discussion when it came to race playing a big factor when it comes to environments. Both articles established the idea that the environments that people live in are influenced heavily by their race and it can serve as a detriment.

In the article, “Racial Capitalocene,” by Francoise Vergès, it states, “It showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies…The report demonstrated that “three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.” Many minority people are surrounded by toxic waste sites that are not controlled and it goes to show the lack of the amount of care that corporations and the government have for the people. The fact that many minorities live in areas with toxic waste sites establishes the idea that there is not much concern being put for their lives and well-being and it displays how race influences the environments that people live in.

The article, “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove,  states, “In the Rockaways, in Queens, and Brooklyn’s Canarsie, the median asking rent is $1,837 and $2,000, respectively, compared with an overall median of $2,199 in Queens and $2,500 in Brooklyn…In 2017, in Canarsie and neighboring Flatlands, 62 percent of the population identified as black and the homeownership rate was 57 percent, the highest of any neighborhood in Brooklyn.” The areas within New York that are more available to people of the middle class are the same areas that do not have good public transportation and they have to deal with climate change. Many minorities are within those areas and they have to put up with the circumstances that they have within their environments. Kasakove states, “Many who applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still waiting today. And flood insurance rates have increased in some neighborhoods by as much as 18 percent per year…” The people within the areas that suffered from climate change have to deal with agencies not giving the money to recover from the climate change and they also have to pay higher flood insurance rates within those areas. Many minorities are from those areas and they cannot afford living in other areas in the city due to the high prices and they have to deal with the climate change in their environments. Race is an influence for the environments that people live in.

Blog 1

For the first blog of the Spring semester, pick a piece of art that represents you (painting, poem, music, film, object, game, symbol… the list goes on). Include a photo of the piece, or of something that represents it in your post. Under the photo, introduce yourself with your name and anything else you want to mention up front. Then, explain how the piece of art represents you, introducing us to you in the process. Say more than “I like it,” describe what qualities you share with the piece, what it reveals about you, or why it resonates. Write 250 words by class time on Wednesday, 2/2.

*Note: if we consider art in the interpretive sense, then you can make a case for art being just about anything. Once I had a student upload a picture of a Sprite bottle, with a convincing testimony to its artistic merit.