Week 5 prompts: more poetry!

Option 1: Self-representation in Photography

Portraits of Native subjects by non-Native artists have often been posed to confirm or enact stereotypes. Take a moment to look at some of the images in RedWorks’ Studio’s series “Concrete Indians” by Anishinaabe photographer Nadya Kwandibens.

Red Works Studio: Concrete Indians 

The artist explains that the portraits are “an exploration of Indigenous collective identity.” As a result of the series, she writes, “Native people from across Turtle Island have been submitting their ideas regarding what it means to be urbanized and how living in urban centers strengthens or weakens or (or both) one’s own cultural identity.” With the photographer, the subjects chose how they wanted to be dressed and where they wanted to be photographed. Browse these photos. Find one that you think is particularly striking or interesting. How does the image strike you? What questions does it raise? What does the image express about the subject? How does the portrait confront or defy stereotypes?

Option 2: Reflecting on Images in Writing and Beyond

When has an image—a work of art, a photo, a scene in a film, or an image that you saw in real life–made you stop what you were doing or taken you to another place? In a paragraph or two, describe your experience of viewing that image as clearly as possible, paying careful attention to the words you use and the images you create. Try to carry your readers along with you; try to make readers see what you saw. Then, reflect on whether you found it difficult to capture experience in words. Links to images are useful, but not necessary.

OR

Post or link to an image that you think tells a story or evokes an emotion. Write a paragraph or two explaining what that image says to you. Is it possible to represent abstract concepts visually? When do images communicate more effectively than words?

OR

Post an image or link to an image that you think represents or complements one of the poems that we have read as a class. Explain why you chose that image and how you think it relates to the poem. 

Option 3: As always, feel free to write your own response.

Week 4 Prompts: Poetry!

Prompt #1: Paraphrasing Poetry 

 Choose a short poem rich in figurative language. Attempt to capture the meaning of the poem by paraphrasing it. Rewrite each line in your own words. Eliminate every figure of speech. Ignore rhythm and rhyme from the original. Simply attempt to explain the poem as a whole in your own words. Then, in a paragraph, comment on your result. How difficult did you find the process? How well do you think you succeeded in capturing the meaning of the poem?  In conclusion, summarize what your revision tells you about the nature of the poem or of poetry in general. 

Prompt #2: Poetry in Performance 

There's a fine line between poetry and music. Often, there's no line at all. Some of the best poetry is meant to be performed, to be read for an audience. Check out this video of Joy Harjo performing "I Give You Back" Link to Video on HBO's poetry program "Def Poetry Jam." Comment on the video. How does her performance of the poem change your interpretation of the poem? How does it change your experience of the poem? 

Prompt #3: DIY  

As always, feel free to write your own response to poetry in general or to any of the texts that we're reading for this week. If there's any poem that you have found particularly striking, explore it and comment on it in your post.

Week 3 Blog Prompts

Students may choose any of these prompts for the week 3 blog. Write your responses as new blog posts on your group blog (link is to the right).

1) In most of our readings from the first two weeks, we are attempting to use literature to understand the lives and perspectives of people from the past. In the case of the Popol Vuh, we are attempting to understand the very distant past. To what extent do you think these texts can give us an understanding of what was most important to these people? To what extent do you think we can understand them, particularly in the case of the ancient Mayan people?

2) At the beginning of the film “Cracking the Maya Code,” the narrator poses a question: "Imagine explorers arriving to find our cities deserted. All of our books have perished in some unknown catastrophe. All that is left to speak for us are the written words we have carved in stone. The travelers could not make sense of our script. But if they could would the comprehend who we were?"

Consider this scenario with respect to the carved stones that appear in our society today—the Vietnam Memorial, Mt. Rushmore, the Lincoln memorial, artwork on campus, etc. Imagine that only a small handful of important books had survived, hidden away alongside these carved stones. How would our monuments and books speak for us? If they could understand our writing system, would future explorers be able to understand who we were? 

3) Write your own response to any of the text we have read so far this quarter. 

Ancient Maya Calendar

In case you'd like to find out a bit more about the complex Mayan calendar, check out the video below. The Mayan calendar was a complex, elegant system for keeping track of time. Arguably, time and the marking of dates comprised some of the most important aspects of ancient Mayan culture.

By the way, the Mayan calendar does not imply that the world will come to an end in 2012. One cycle will end, but, as is the nature of cycles, another one begins. Since it is a cyclical rather than a linear calendar, it does not have an endpoint.

Welcome to the Class Blog

Hi NAS 5 students,
Welcome to the class blog. I hope that this space will provide some informal enrichment to our class discussions and will give you a venue to explore writing, share ideas, and post interesting things that you glean from the great wide internet. On the page to your right, you'll find links to all 5 of the group blogs. I will post prompts on the main blog (here), and you will write your posts on your group blog (over there -->). Feel free to email me if you have any questions.