And Kate Lyman: The Trial (pp. 140-143)
Wow--the Summer II is almost over. I am so very happy that I got to read these marginal histories of artists galvanizing for social and cultural changes. I will be looking at your sites this weekend. I'm at the gallery all day today again and tomorrow evening is First Friday. I will try to take some pics and post them on here--How's that?
Some reactions to your posts: Lynn asked about the Tejas Native Sculpture. I will reply below so everyone can have a say as well. Blair's comment about AIDS is interesting. New AIDS cases are rising the most in young gay men. Here in Lubbock, STIs are very high per capita. Andrea posted about how it seems all of Lyman's lessons go smoothly. What I would like to remind all of us is that her essays document all of the cautions and precautions she did as a teacher, and what incidents/reactions she choses to write about. What I get from her essays are that teaching about anything "real" is almost exhaustingly painstakingly difficult to create and manage. Often, she wonders if she is a good teacher. And is even doing the right things--when from my perspective she is courageous, visionary and how I should be as a teacher. Lyman always considers what to tell administration. She is never given support--she builds, develops and maintains it--so when she does run into trouble, she has created community allies--that makes administration back down at times. And Lynn, thanks for the Sherman Alexie quote--was that his grandmother? Great quote.
So what did you think of Lynn's post about whether or not the Native statue at the Texas State Fairgrounds is imperial? Check out the site and register your comment.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMy friend who is a Wyandotte is here today--I will ask her what see thinks.
DeleteShe says she thinks Native Americans need to be included--in the conversation--better yet--in the making. She likes Native Americans presented with hope and not as in
DeleteNational Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City
http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/education/lesson-plans/Fraser/Fraser.aspx
reminds me a little of the dying gaul--I wonder what gauls would think.
DeleteI don't think there is enough information on it. Who is it, purpose of the pose? I do like the statue in itself and how it looks like sculptures from past art history works, but recognizes Native American influence.
DeleteIs there a specific site? Or link? Not being able to find it
DeleteAndrea it is from yesterdays post, she posted it in a comment
DeleteSarah, I agree there is not enough information on the statue. Also, Lynn said she appreciated the boldness of the piece and liked that it was the work of a woman in the 1930s - I agree with this as well. Concerning imperial v respectful: I do not think it is aggressively imperial but an homage to the Tejas heritage. However, I do not think it is entirely respectful. Just as Lynn's friend said, a wholly respectful monument would have involved Native Americans in its conception.
DeleteWhen you say imperial, do you mean that does it represent honor or showing athouity? I think the stands of the figure is very strong. He is showing a pose of strenght which is antimating to an emeny. The color of the statue has an effect as well, shiney gold. Gold represents wealth. Therefore, I conclude that the from represents power and strength.
DeletePost marker.
DeleteRader pp. 200-210
ReplyDeleteEdgar Heap of Birds and the Semiotics of Resistance
When I look at Heap of Birds imagery, I have to stop and rethink quickly--yeah--he's creating different signage--reminding me of white people's racist pasts. And white people never what to be confronted with that. Your take on his images in the chapter?
I really enjoy Heap Of Bird's signs. In the images depicted in the book, the statue plays in well into the questions the Trail of Tears signs arise. You can visualize the tough road they had to face by leaving their home and forced to go to their new one. I would really like to see some of his signs and people watch the reactions.
DeleteBias: I love the study of semiotics --love Eco.
DeleteI think Heap of Birds hits on the tragedy of the Native American Experience with wry humor and a critical critic. Relating to the question of how far have we actually come-- Rader says
Heap of Birds poses similar questions in Ocmulgee Sign Project...
Heap of Birds plays with ... the darkly comic variance between parking a car on the street and walking the nine hundred miles from Georgia to Oklahoma..."
I thought it was interesting.. The statue shows what a heavy weight it was for them to walk and the sign is almost funny in a sense that there is no emotion in it at all same with the other signs. It may catch more peoples attention vs a historical marker of sorts that most people will just pass up and not take the time to actually read. This at least forces you to read it because it is so bold and straight forward.. Although there is not enough information.. I want to read more..
DeleteHeap of Bird's Ocmulgee Sign Project really spoke to me. I thought it was brilliant how he used such a site specific installation while maintaining (in my opinion) a subtly in form. At first glance they look like ordinary street signs, but once you read the text it hits you like a ton of bricks. As Rader notes, the bitingly dark comedy adds to the power of this piece. I think this my personal favorite work we've read about in this class so far. I'd really like to see them in person
DeleteRader Continued…
ReplyDeleteThe National Museum of the American Indian
"We wanted to write ourselves back in to history" (p. 207).
This is the intro to the chapter. Rader describes the museum as "enact[ing] a kind of engaged resistance through poems, artifacts, photographs, documents, stories, and paintings" (p. 207). Has anyone been to a Native museum or this one?
I went to this museum a couple of years ago. I thought it was very well done. They had levels and levels of history of artifacts and videos. I would go to it again, and wonder if my opinion would change of it now after this class. Would I think they were being treated respectfully or like objects?
DeleteOne of the best Native American museum was the Jamestown settlement. They recreated the settlement right where it was located a long the water. It was surreal and a beautiful setting. You could really sense and feel the presence from the past in an odd, eerie way, with how they replicated it.
I have never been to any Native American museum.. I did take a museum class in undergrad where we were able to go behind the scenes and see the archives, clean room, etc.. It was really interesting to see that part of the museums. I recall several pieces of Native American art in storage as remember tying it to another class I was taking at the time about Native American art. I wish I would have paid more attention.
DeleteI loved the connections Rader made between Alcatraz and The National Museum of the American Indian - ambitious sites of engaged resistance. Just like Alcatraz was the reclaiming of American Indian land, the NMAI is the reclaiming of American Indian history.
DeleteI have not visited the NMAI but would love to someday. I will say that the NMAI is a big deal in the museum world. It has a unique history, mode of operation, and architectural design.
Post marker.
DeleteChapter 25 Antinuclear Street Art
ReplyDeleteThis chapter outlines the actions of PAD/D. Love, love, love stencils. I grew up in the 60s and 70s where we used them. Take this to your neighborhoods and cities. Can you recall experiences related to nuclear issues? Local? State? NAtional? that you recall?
In the 70s, we took a field trip Point Beach Nuclear plant, just north of Two Rivers, WI. So, there were two nuclear plants just north of my hometown on Lake Michigan. The closed one down recently. Outside of jokes of "glowing" fish, we were just told via a field trip that nuclear power was good for us and our communities. And teachers must have bought into that because they took us. I remember we each got a pencil with a lightbulb top (no eraser). I also can think back to the 60s and Civil Defense drills--no longer used because they were just plain stupid. You can watch a John Goodman film and get a feel for what it was like for children growing up in the face of nuclear energies--(Matinee, 1993). He plays a movie promoter in the early 1960s with the CUban Missle Crisis scare and what we did to prepare for nuclear war. I remember, we would get under our desks and cover our heads--we were preparing for complete utter destruction--but they taught us as if we were protecting ourselves. In the film, there is a your female elementary student who refuses to get under her desk. She bluntly states that it is pointless. And she was right. It's a funny movie--over the top--all about hysteria and how to profit from it.
You reactions to this chapter or experiences with the topic.
I do not have any experiences in this matter. I do remember movies I've watched that deals with it.. And the practicing of getting under their desks.. I found the chapter a little hard to read not sure as to why but had a hard time focusing on it.
DeleteCh 25: Antinuclear Street ART
DeleteI can imagine hearing about the Nuclear weapons for the first time to be nerve racking. It does even make me nervous thinking about what is actually out there and how we could just disappear in a second. Another thing that makes me nervous is thinking about who has that power to have one of those weapons? Beside my own thoughts and the occassional conversation about North Korea, Nuclear weapons is not a major concern that people talk about daily. I have not had any experiences of antinuclear art or protesting.
I found this chapter to be one of the highlights of Lampert’s book so far. Ed Eisenberg and Groundwork focused in on a specific, local issue and created high quality activist art that produced results. Of course the Groundwork project was just one facet of the PAD/D’s and the general public’s resistance to the homeport, but I would think that constantly seeing these stencils would keep the issue at the front of New Yorkers’ minds. What I really like about this story is the practicality of the Groundwork’s art. Usually when I think of street art, even political street art, I think of it aesthetically motivated abstractions that can clearly be related to an issue but in an unspecific way. Keith Haring, for example: my understanding of his street art and the radiant baby is a (powerful) promotion of social harmony and positivity. The art in this chapter, on the other hand, is specifically about removing the Battleship IOWA form New York harbor, and that is abundantly clear looking at the prints. And it worked!
DeleteKate Lyman: The Trial: How one teacher explores issues of homelessness (pp. 140-143)
ReplyDeleteOur fourth installment of six Kate Lyman life teaching lessons. Notice how she grounds everything in the lives of her students. Note how the lived realities of her students forge together lessons and units. Your reactions to this lesson.
It's a tough subject --for many reasons--DISD has about 3000 homeless students according to a news report.http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/05/report-finds-that-thousands-of-dallas-isd-students-are-homeless.html/
DeleteBeing homeless is a huge fear among successful women.http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/10/08/a-womans-biggest-fear-is-that-shell-be-penniless-and-homeless
On the upside--Lyman is kind of an "all senses" teacher. She has the kids respond after reading "if I were President", she visits and shelter (see,smell, hear, touch) and then has a mock trial. Amazing
An aside--second biggest fear among professional women--after homelessness, is feeling like someone will figure out you are not good at what you do.
I didn't know a school could pay for a student to taxi to the location in the hopes they would soon find a permanent home. Its sad how much progress the student made and it had to be cut short with her moving to a new school. Working on base at a school for children of military parents, every parent has a job. Rarely do we have issues like this. However, there are still many things in their lives I could promote into a daily lesson like Lyman does. She is a very inspiring teacher!
DeleteI thought this was very interesting. It made me think of a student I had several years ago when I was a job coach that got removed from his parents home, moved around and was technically homeless to the district, lived with some friends before finally living with an aunt. The district was required to bus him from whichever home out of district to the school for the rest of the year. So sad to think about people being homeless. Currently being in between homes myself is not ideal. Living with my parents until I close on my house at the end of August has been trying. Although I am grateful to have a roof over my head and place to lay my head at night there is nothing like having my own home.
DeleteThe Trial. Kate Lyman
DeleteI think her connection to wild animals surving is a good way to see homeless people. Where do they go for food, water, shelter? Beside begging on the corner for money, what do they do during the day? In Dallas, there is a few places where you see homeless people either asking for money or occasionally sleeping. However, it is illegal in the city to stand at a stop sign to ask for money. They will be picked up and relocated by the police if caught doing so. I think teaching about homeless people is a good lesson for students to learn about. To teach was things they should be fortunate for, how to be a giving person, and understand why it happens. I hear my students call them "Hobos" while making fun of them without understanding why they are homeless. I think it would be interesting to learn what they actually know and what they would learn after a lesson like this. Considering I teach for a new richer developed, small school district, there is not many students who are of families with lower incomes. I find them to be not understanding of not being wasteful or concept of money. They are very wasteful when it comes to my art supplies and even their own belongings. For example, drawing one line in pencil on a piece of paper, then crambling it up and throwing it away and wanting to do this several times. Or slaming their backpacks around with Ipads in them and having cracked Iphones and electronics and saying, " I'll just get a new one". It is hard not to be so upset when I see or hear students being so uncarring about their environment or their own belongings. If only they knew what other people did not have. The school does have some involvement with the community and other organizations to help other places, like helping Africa or their churches. But the knowledge only stops there, they do not transfer their actions to school or in their daily lives.
The Alexie quote: Was the boy's grandmom in the book--An Absolutely True...
ReplyDeleteI think it's great too--I wanted to relook at the book as an enrichment to class and to Green Corn Moon.
Post marker.
ReplyDelete