Your Reading Black Matter Annotation projects will be incorporated as one of the projects on the Minor Moves Project site. You can access that site via http://www.minormovesproject.org.
Final Project Group Assignments
Everyone who was in class on Thursday was put into a group that they listed as one of their top three. If you were absent, I assigned you a group. There’s not much room for fluctuation, but if you have concerns about your group assignment please let me know by the end of class on…
Final Group Project Texts: Please Consider
For the final project you will be divided into six groups. Each group will be responsible for an annotating some portion of one of the following texts. I want to encourage you to take this week perusing the below texts from the syllabus in order to get a sense of what texts and thus which…
Post Group Assignments
GROUP 1 Mollie Ethan Nicolas Dana Leah GROUP 2 Theresa Carolina James Madeline Sarah GROUP 3 Georgia Janasia Maria Emmanuel Alana GROUP 4 Creel William Emma Clara Yacine GROUP 5 Michael Langston Hunter Zachary Emily GROUP 6 Boone Marc Mihret Chloe
Welcome
Professor: Allison S. Curseen Room: Devlin Hall 117 Date/Time: TTh 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm Email: Curseen@bc.edu Office Hours: Th 2-4 pm or by appointment. Office: Stokes Hall South 441 Directions: If you enter the main entrance for the English Department, turn right at the front reception desk; go all the way down the hall;…
Ideas of Womanhood
In cultures across the world, girls become women once they have their first menstruation. Womanhood is considered a coming of age for girls, because they gain new responsibilities such as giving birth. For the youngest sister Indigo, she had trouble adjusting to her new “magic” because she had so much “South in her” (2). Indigo’s…
Post Challenge: Technology as Millennials’ Bindle
Considering Linda’s means of escape from slavery by hiding in the garret in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, think of a technology today that allows you to run away without going anywhere. Linda’s means of escape, hiding in the garret above her family home, allowed her avoid her slaver, while also…
“King Kunta” Kendrick Lamar Lyrics (Post Challenge 2)
The song “King Kunta” by Kendrick Lamar, is a song which uses a derogatory term repeatedly, but the song lyrics themselves do not degrade women. The first line in the chorus is “Bitch where were you when I was walking?” The term bitch is repeated throughout the song, used over eight times in total. The…
Running Away, Hiding (Contemporary Connection, Challenge Post)
” Considering Linda’s means of escape from slavery by hiding in the garret in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, think of a technology today that allows you to run away without going anywhere.” Today, almost all forms of technology allow the user to hide away from society without having to physically…
Where Girlhood Ends
In Jacobs’, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda’s “girlhood” seems to begin at the start of the novel, which is her early childhood. Even through the death of her mother, her mistress, and her father, this idea of girlhood remains intact. She has a sense of purity and innocence- and most…
Challenge 2: Black-No-More and Dove
Reading about the invention of Black-No-More in George Schuyler’s Black No More reminded me of a Dove advertisement that came out in 2017. The advertisement began with a black model wearing a brown shirt who, in the process of changing her shirt, changed into a white woman wearing a white shirt (CBS). Years earlier, Dove…
Watermelon Man
http://www.tcm.turner.com/mediaroom/video/335387/Crazed-Fruit-Movie-Clip-Frank-s-Messes.html- Peebles, Melvin Van. Watermelon Man. 1970. In the 1970 movie Watermelon Man, the main character is Jeff Gerber who is a white salesman who has the ideal American lifestlye having two kids, living in a nice neighborhood, and maintaining a stable job. Gerber did not care for black people and tended to make jokes about…
Sassafrass’ Love Language
Sassafrass’ partner Mitch speaks a striking line from her section of the novel that illustrates both the materiality of Sassafrass’ craft and a reason for the discord in her relationship with Mitch: “You can create whole worlds, girl” (70). In context, Mitch intends to pressure Sassafrass into channeling her self-expression in writing rather than “all…
F*ck tha Police: Profanity is Reality
N.W.A. has had a long lasting impression on rap and hip-hop music. The 90’s rap group is known for being very rebellious, selling millions of records, and making gangster rap accessible to the masses. They amassed a group of people who absolutely despised their music and the messages they were promoting, however they had a…
Rico Nasty’s Take on Haters (Post Challenge)
An example of a song where explicit language seems necessary to achieving the artistic and thematic purposes of the work is in Rico Nasty and Kenny Beats’ “Hatin.” In the song, Rico raps with a rebellious and powerful energy about her success, using explicit langauge layered onto metaphors and similes. Behind the initial understanding that…
Black Matter 