--Week Seven--

Class Meeting

Houses Workshop on Secondary Readings for Kindred 
For the reading assigned to your House: You will have 15 minutes to discuss the questions assigned HERE. Then you will present your findings to the class as we put together a bigger picture of the ways these readings speak to each other. Have a copy of the readings handy. Left that packet at home? That's okay. Here it is.

If you want, for Essay 2 you can use the podcast featuring Brittney Cooper:   https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=707189797

or any of the readings/podcasts/images in The New York Times 1619 Project:   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

For Next Class

1. Write Journal 8 ("The Storm," "The Rope.")
2. Complete Quiz: Kindred: "The Storm," "The Rope" and Quiz: Literary Terms II
3. Bring in a brief proposal of your topic and angle for Essay 2 to pitch in class. Your proposal must include THREE pieces of evidence from the novel.  Prompt for Essay 2

Ongoing:
Turn in work for Essay 1:

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Six--

Class Meeting

Today we begin exploring the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. This novel is partly set in Maryland before the American Civil War. To really understand the kind of world Dana, our protagonist, is time-traveling to, we need to do a bit of research on slavery in the United States.

“Caution!! Colored People of Boston” Anti-Slavery Poster (1851)
from The Boston Public Library

The modern epoch was founded on European imperialism and African slavery. Both these systems were organized racially. The theft of labor and life, of land and resources, from millions of Africans and Native Americans, and from Asians and Pacific Islanders as well,  financed the rise of Europe and made possible both its subsequent mercantilism and its later industrialism. Conquest, imperial rule, and the chattelization of labor (principally but not entirely African labor) divided humanity into Europeans and "others." Ferocious and unending cultural and psychic energies were expended to sustain this schism, which was also constantly challenged and undermined in innumerable ways.

   --Howard Winant. New Politics of Race : Globalism, Difference, Justice: 205.

A. Backgrounds for Kindred I: Slavery in the United States

Part I:
  1. On the list below, find the topic that matches your assigned number

1. Punishment 
2. Slave Breeding
3. House Slaves 
4. Field Slaves 
5. Education  
6. Family Life  
7. Whipping

2. Visit the Spartacus Educational site Slavery in the United States at http://spartacus-educational.com/USAslavery.htm Scroll down until you see the topic “Slave Life.” Click on your topic.

3. Read the entire page for your topic. On a piece of paper, summarize what you have read. Include any striking details.

Part II:

I will put you in a group so all seven aspects of slavery are represented. Take about 2 minutes to tell the others what you have learned, using the summary to help you remember key ideas. The point is to acquire as much general information about slavery as possible in a short period of time. As you listen, write down the ideas that made the strongest impression on you.

B. Backgrounds for Kindred II: Introductory Lecture on Kindred

As you think of what you would like to do for Essay 2, consider

• For Butler's background as part of her motivation to write the novel:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(novel)#Background
• Other themes in the novel:   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1miKPKCF67w1sPflCfFTJaFwfgr2fV5wGYobAfSkeWBk/edit?usp=sharing

From Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper (2000): 38.
Image from Rad Geek People's Daily

For Next Week

1. Quiz: "The Fight" on Blackboard
2.  *Journal 7 (Kindred--"The Fight" II-sections 11-16)

Ongoing:

1. Quiz: Literary Terms II
2. Next week is the deadline for turning in Essay 1. To do so, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Five--

...to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.--James Baldwin, from his argument at the Cambridge University debate “Is the American Dream at the Expense of the American Negro?” 

Haven't seen a mill lately? Maybe this will help you understand the metaphor:

Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill [...] shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had ancient faces and grave voices. --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. 

Class Meeting

Essay 1 Workshop. Essay 1 instructions.

Not sure where to get a biography of your author? Go to LaGuardia Library > Databases to find a good biography of your author. Click on "Citation Tools" to grab the MLA style version of the reference for your Works Cited page.

Before you leave, you may want to ask a classmate to be one of your readers. Just a thought.

For Next Class

1. Read: Extracts from Between the World and Me (2015) by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Read: Kindred--"The Fight": 1-10
3. *Write: Journal 5 (Coates)
4. Write: Journal 6 (Kindred--"The Fight": 1-10)

When you have completed the writing process for Essay 1, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Four--

Class Meeting

1. Third Houses Workshop. List of House Members HERE.

You will have 15 minutes to prepare your House's presentation of the poem assigned to you last week. As we did last week, I will read the poem out loud, after which both Houses will have 15 minutes to present the poem and answer questions from the class.

Browning /Butler "Because I could not stop for Death"	Morrison/Shakespeare  “Daddy”	Dickinson/Plath “Bitch”
Responses to Poetry Form	Responses to Poetry Form	Responses to Poetry Form

2.  Pitching your Essay Idea to Others

3. How to turn in Essay #1: When you have completed the writing process, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

For Next Class

1. Read Kindred: "The Fall" and complete the Quiz: Kindred: "The Fall" on Blackboard
2. Write: Journal 3 (Kindred--“The Fall”)
3. Read “The American Dream and the American Negro” (1965; a debate starring James Baldwin). Here is a link to a taping of the debate: https://youtu.be/oFeoS41xe7w
4. Write: Journal 4 (Baldwin) 

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