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Art & Identity Playlist

$uicideboys$

$uicideboy$ is hip hop/ horrorcore  duo group created by Aristos “Ruby da Cherry” Petrou and Scott “Slick Sloth” Arcenaux Jr. The group was created in 2014 and both members were born and raised New Orleans. Members $lick $loth and Ruby da Cherry are actually cousins and grew up  close with each other. Before the duo created the group Ruby had decided to stop trying to make a career from joining punk bands and $lick was stopped selling drugs.The name of the group, $uicideboy$, came to be because both Ruby and $lick  made a truce to agree that if their music didn’t blow up by the time they were 30 they would end their lives. For years the group uploaded their music to a streaming site called Soundcloud.  When Suicideboys signed a contract with G59 Records and they released a 21 part series, ‘Kill Yourself’. They later released several EPs from 2014 to 2017. Since then they have been one of the biggest names in underground hip hop.

Final Project

For my final project I wanted to make both a playlist and a vision board (even though I mainly focused on the playlist here) for scenes I thought were important to the development of the story and Edna’s awakening. I chose to do this because music is personally really important to me and I think it is a universal tool to express yourself and to communicate things that can’t necessarily be said.

This is my project on The Awakening.

Final Project: Essays

[posted on behalf of a student]

For my final project, I ended up with two essays. The first one, which is linked here, is comprised of the three essays I submitted in workshop. I took those three essays and turned them into a braided essay. I literally cut up the three essays and pieced them together, and I am surprised at how well they fit together. I have some of my mountain pictures as the divider between the sections.

My second essay is my tree essay, which is linked here. I decided to leave out the page of the tree identification book but left the “Did you know?” questions as my section dividers. I ended up only getting six trees done instead of the ten I had wanted to complete, but getting all of those written did not happen with the time I had.

The Moviegoer

The Moviegoer, in my opinion, is a softly tragic story that demonstrates the unfulfillment of society’s focus on the arbitrary and the lack of intrinsic value that comes with the constraints of falsity. John “Binx” Bolling is a character who rejects these notions and has seen beyond the illusions of living for the mundane. He prefers the idea of cultivating true authenticity without the constraints of social norms and holds a desire to search for the true meaning of life. Aunt Emily represents the pressures to live to benefit society and how that pressure can recycle through generations of children being taught broken values that will leave one feeling empty inside. Kate, like Binx, feels it necessary to reject the life that she feels has been assigned to her, and because of the constraints of belonging, falls prey to a life of disillusionment and represents how the pressure to fit into a certain category will ruin a person’s desire to live for themselves. The central themes stated above to reach a culmination at the end of the story when Kate and Binx, stampeded by pressure, finally fall into the very lives they least desire to live.

Poetry Sequence

I’ve finished the poetry sequence for my final project, you can view it here.

Hello everyone!

I decided to take the advice that was given to me and utilize a story map to display my pictures alongside journal entries for my final project.   The writings are split into seven different short entries which talk about my thoughts as I use to wander through the desert.  My first entry is a short reflection on my life in Temecula, California, and the second entry introduces my struggle with anxiety.  The rest of the entries talk about how changing my perspective on life helped me start taking control of my anxiety.  At the end, there is a slideshow of photos that didn’t make it into the stories but I thought were still important to share as they depict the landscape I grew up in.  I hope you all enjoy looking through it!

Final Project

Bellocq’s Ophelia

Natasha Trethewey uses the figure of Ophelia to create a story that reflects on the dynamics of power and agency for prostitutes in the early 1900s. The opening poem in the sequence begins with the viewer reading a description of both versions of Ophelia; in a way, this transcribes the voyeuristic behavior of the artist onto the reader. However, the end of the poem breaks the spell simply of viewing and allows for conversation between the book and the reader, as Ophelia ‘s “lips poised to open, to speak” (pg 3). This a perfect transition into the rest of the sequence, as it builds the expectation of the reader that Ophelia will be transformed from a dead muse and into a living women with her own thoughts and, ultimately, her own story. Her journey to realizing her own autonomy begins slowly, as the first section of poems deals with how she was raised and the nature of Ophelia trying to find her way through a sexist and racist world. As the book continues, the reader gets to watch Ophelia grow into her own agency and begin to speak in a world that has so often cut her out of it.

My Final Project

Leah Chase

Leah Chase, New Orlean’s Queen of Cuisine.  A beloved figure throughout the community for all her contributions.  She played a major, but almost secret, role in the Civil Rights movement when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his Freedom Riders came to New Orleans to meet with the Baton Rouge civil rights members to learn more about their bus boycotts and their successes.  While she didn’t run the meetings herself, she hosted them and fed every individual there, playing an important supporting role in the bigger picture.  

Chef Leah Chase stands outside her famous Creole restaurant, Dookie Chase's, which was flooded out during Hurricane Katrina, on March 9, 2007, in New Orleans.

Chef Leah Chase stands outside her famous Creole restaurant, Dookie Chase’s, which was flooded out during Hurricane Katrina, on March 9, 2007, in New Orleans.

I like to think that she would be a fire, if she was to be described as an element or as an aspect of nature.  

She is like a fire, because she cooks.  This one, I feel, is self explanatory, but I feel that it’s an important factor to her character.  Food has been a huge part of her life ever since she was a child and her love for making it continued with her for the entirety of her life.  You need fire and heat to cook, that heat also taking the form of passion for a craft.  

She is like a fire, because she is warm and welcoming.  She is one with the hearth that she maintains for her family and guests.  I can imagine her stepping out from the kitchen, during the restaurant’s busy hours, to meet with friends and guests.  I can see her filtering through the mass of tables, filled to the brim with people, stopping by each one, even if it was only for a moment.  I see her smiling and laughing with each individual, despite how tired she might be that night.  

She is like a fire, because she is not afraid to raise hell for the people she loves and cares about.  Law enforcement, despite knowing that the Freedom Riders were meeting at her restaurant, could not touch them without burning themselves in the process.  If they had, the entire community of New Orleans would gather in an uproar and would protect their beloved restaurant and its owner.  

   Continue Reading »

 

 

Summary of Final Project:

In these sets of fictional letters, I have sought to tell Adrien De Pauger’s story through his own lens. This is not possible to do so completely or accurately, but I have strived to try to show what his life was like and what his thoughts might have been like though communication with people he would have spoken with daily.

In these letters, I write to Governor Bienville, he was the Governor of Louisana at that time and De Pauger would have worked with him closely. I also write to De La Tour, he was De Paugers boss, De Pauger was his assistant. There are also civilians, like civilian Monsieur Bonnaud.

At this time, most of the homes in New Orleans were haphazard and were not lined up with streets, they were just wherever there wasn’t water. De Pauger wanted to form a grid system and most of these houses did not align with his plan. His solution was to arrest anyone who did not agree and throw them in jail, even beating some into submisson. Anyone who disagreed with him and his plans had their home demolished anyway and themselves and their families thrown into the stocks or jail. Many of the City’s inhabitents had a strained relationship with De Pauger. There were countless fights between himself and civilians. The City council had to get involved and at least twice had tried to get him sent back to France because of his ruthlessness. This did not work and De Pauger was there to stay at least until his death in 1726.

In 1722, there was a hurricane that saw massive destruction in New Orleans. Most of the buildings in the town were destroyed and many of its citizen were left homeless. This solved De Paugers problem with both the citizens and the homes. I also write some about what happened after he designed the city. There are two letters about what his life was like after. One was based on a true story and the other is truly fictitious. After he had completed his design, he had asked for a large lot next to Bienvilles house. He was granted this by none other than Bienville. However, just a couple years after Bienville had given him this he took it away. He wanted it for his own and basically told De Pauger to get off his property. De Pauger was left without a home and wrote to his brother for passage back to France. Before he could go back though, he died of a long fever. It is unclear what this illness is, but it could have been yellow fever, sepsis, really anything, it took him in the Summer of 1726. This is a very simplified history of the very complicated last few years of De Pauger’s life, but these events and people are what my letters are about. I start off with him at the beginning of his journey to New Orleans with Governor Bienville.

Continue Reading »

Final Draft: Poems

So I decided to scratch the Sweet Briar poem, I haven’t been here long enough and I couldn’t make it depressing. With the other three, I (attempted to) added more place or tried to make them more visual on the place at least.

My poems 🙂

The National Leprosarium started in 1894 at the Indian Camp Plantation. The Plantation house had been left in disrepair after the end of the civil war, and the bank had repossessed the title in 1874. When the bank gave it to the state of Louisiana to be used as a Leprosarium, seven lepers within New Orleans were forced from their beds in the middle of the night and sailed down the river to be exiled to the plantation house.

The reason for their abrupt exile was due to the discovery of Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium that causes leprosy. The disease had always been stigmatized throughout history, but the discovery that it was caused by a bacteria meant that the disease was communicable, making it’s victims even more dangerous in society’s eyes. What they didn’t know at the time was that almost 95% of people on earth are actually immune to the effects of the bacteria. Catching the disease also requires months or even years of repeated exposure to the bacteria. Not much is actually known about the transmission, but the bacteria is believed to be spread through droplets in the air when someone infected with the bacteria sneezes or coughs. The bacteria also thrives in warm, tropical climates, and will be more common in areas closer to the equator.

Thus, Louisiana was the perfect ground for the disease to make a home. When the patients first arrived at the plantation, they stayed in the 15 slave cabins that were still on the site. However, in 1896, four nuns from the Daughters of Charity went to the plantation to care for the patients. In doing so, they willingly exiled themselves from the rest of society. They helped the patients for 9 years until the state of Louisiana bought the plantation from the bank and assumed care of the patients. It replaced the cabins with twelve cottages and a dining hall, and in 1917 the Senate passed an act to create a National Leprosarium. The Leprosarium at Carville would be selected for this after several years of research, and this allowed them to garner more funding. Between WWI and WWII, the Leprosarium would even build it’s own laboratory.

This would pay off in 1941, when Doctor Guy Faget began experimenting with the drug Promin. It was a sulfone drug that could stop and even reverse the effects of leprosy for most patients. During this period of advancing treatments, most doctors began to realize how rare it was for the disease to spread to others. When an over-the-counter treatment was approved, doctors agreed that patients should be allowed to leave exile. However, many patients still wanted to stay at the Leprosarium. They had grown up there, and while leprosy could be treated, it was still heavily stigmatized. Many of the patients at the Leprosarium had created their own lives there and were happy; they didn’t want to leave, and the state didn’t force them to.

My Powerpoint on the Leprosarium

One of the many unique cultural staples of New Orleans lies within the fundamentals of their funerals. A jazz funeral is a tradition originally reserved for the important people of a community but has since then become more inclusive. These funerals, unlike traditional American funerals, are full of colors and music. A band (traditionally brass) and a parade carry the casket of the departed through the streets, never traveling in a straight line. The only person who knows the route the parade will take to the cemetery is the leader of the parade. These services focus less on the mourning factors of a funeral and instead celebrate the life of the departed. A celebration is held in memory of the kind of person they were to the community, the impact that they left on the people who knew them, and the overall liveliness and spirit.

The funerals would center around vibrant colors and boisterous music through the percussions of a brass band. As people would gather and collect for these ceremonies, they would form a parade and march to the final resting place of their dearly departed. Through one individual, families, friends, and peers are led in both music and direction, only stopping when told and moving when told. The parade leader is tasked with most of the work, knowing to never move in a straight line as though to throw off sinister and malevolent spirits who might interfere with their cause. It is only through this way that the dead may find peace once delivered to their designated resting place.

What was once found native only to New Orleans, these kinds of funerals have since then broadened and extended to other areas. It was originally intended for prominent members of the community, and it still remains a heavily New Orleans-based event. And it is through these unique and monumental pillars of New Orleans culture alongside the deep history and intricate culture of the city that makes it what it is today. Celebrations of life are becoming more and more familiar today as communities start to recognize the comfort stemming from the idea of rejoicing in a life well spent instead of fearing the inevitable that is death. 

Voodoo-catholicism is another unique part of New Orleans culture.

Voodoo is a religion that finds its origins in West Africa and was part of the culture of black slaves that ended up in New Orleans. This religion was originally practiced in secret that served as a way for these people to cling to their culture, heritage, and in some ways their freedom. Throughout history, religion provides strength and unity to oppressed people. Voodoo, or more traditionally, Vodun is still practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria. Once in New Orleans, it developed into what is commonly known as voodoo.

Voodoo eventually merged with the other promote religion in the area, catholicism. While these two would appear to be in direct conflict and several traditionalists believed so, they blend quite nicely into a spirituality based on nature, God, and the honoring of ancestors. This enabled public figures such as Marie Laveau to rise to positions of influence and advocate for those in need while normalizing what was a sort of fringe religion. This form of spirituality is still practiced and one official temple across the street from Congo square. This remains a private practice and people within it are not largely vocal on the topic of their religion. 

While still a quiet and small religion, the existence of voodoo-catholicism is a good example of the unique and rich culture New Orleans has and has had since its establishment.

Final Project

For the final draft of this project, I decided on the villanelle poem based on its form and style. After fiddling around with multiple types of poems and their forms, I found that the villanelle style worked best for me. The rhyme scheme adds a level of difficulty that makes the end process more rewarding. The limitations set by this form force me to control the flow of the poem in a way that I think reads the nicest and generates the greatest success. Through these poems, I reflect on my initial thoughts and feelings about the main characters and showcase the level of understanding that I have for their inner workings. Based on the text, I chose to further develop the main characters and wrote them as to how I perceived the narrative to be, focusing on themes I found important to the stories and characters. I found that the books gave a limited view of the characters, so I chose to expand on their inner dialogue and feelings to give a different perspective of said characters.

Link to document.

Bellocq’s Ophelia

After the publication of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the name Ophelia has coincided with the idea of both tragedy and despair throughout, arguably, all media platforms. The acknowledged significance and premise behind the name compels any reader to assume that the protagonist will, like their predecessor, have a life filled with obstacles, turmoil, and strife. Bellocaq’s Ophelia presents a unique and relatable story of a girl in rather unrelatable circumstances and demonstrates ideas of identity and a lack thereof. The consistent themes of objectification, race, and gender are key points that prevail throughout the entity of the narrative.

Starting with the title itself, Ophelia is not her own, she’s Bellocq’s Ophelia. We learn in the early poems that even her name isn’t always hers. It isn’t until she becomes a photographer that she finds herself, but even then continues to struggle with her identity. The Madame of the brothel she works at gives her a new name, furthering her from her true self and identity. Throughout the story, she is confronted with and struggles with her identity and the fact that she’s a mixed-race woman. Through no fault of her own, she feels as though she does not fit into a specific category or group. She feels displaced and is forced to take on the role of things she’s not. She often has to hide her parts of herself to find work. Her true identity always feels just out of reach for her. She can almost never be her true self if she wants to succeed and meet the expectations presented by her peers.

The novella also has heavy themes of stillness. Her father only approves of her when she stands very still, her Madame tells her to be “like a statue” and finally, the closest she comes to being her true self is in front of a camera. I personally find this relatable due to the fact that so often we are told to be still — but stillness is hard to achieve. We are expected to keep moving, and to keep going, and to keep working all the time. Yet, at the same time, we should be still, so as to not disturb others. With these themes, my main takeaway is that if you must survive by being still, then do it. But if you can, move. Embrace your identity even if it doesn’t fit, and be loud if at all possible.

Tarot Cards (Final Project)

Here is my finished Final Project. This Project is basically fitting characters from the stories we read over the semester into archetypes. I’m rather proud of all the cards, especially the ones where I had to take creative license with the designs of some of the characters.

What we have in the final project is:

Binx: Death
Blanche: The Tower
Edna: The Hermit
Adele: The Empress
Stanley: The Emperor
Kate: The Sun
Mademoiselle Reisz: Queen of Sword

Kate’s is hands down my favorite of all of them.

Tarot One

Tarot Two

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This project is about place and religion. But it also about belonging. And community. And spirituality. About how I experience place in the context of the sacraments. About the physical places and sensory experiences of Catholicism. It’s about feeling like you’re the only one trying and like you’re failing at the same time. It comes from distancing myself from my faith in order to exist in a hostile space. It’s about finding my place. It is called Hallowed Ground.

I was inspired to add an epigraph after learning about their importance this year. I carefully selected three quotations to frame the collection. I also added a few footnotes to explain some references that I think add to the poems.

Have a happy winter break!

Here is the link to the story. If there are any problems, let me know.

Final Project

For my final draft, I spent a long time going over and thinking about the poems that I wrote. I played around with line breaks, stanza breaks, and added and replaced words here and there. I kept thinking back to the workshop where I remember being told that some of the poems felt as though I were still thinking while writing them rather than knowing what I wanted to say/convey there and then. I tried to tackle that issue in my final draft, and I think I did an OK job. I went ahead and added a poem about my high school and it jumped around with different topics like homophobia, assault, and fear of school shootings (my school got a lot of threats when I attended and there was one instance where we thought we were in a genuine lockdown because of a PA system malfunction). Anyway, here is the project.

Art and Identity final project

Kate and Binx Inked

Tarot

Kate as ‘The Sun’ and Binx as ‘Death’ are the first two I have inked. I took some creative license in both of their designs but Kate is coming along to be one of my favorite cards tied with Edna.

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