Writing is "Thinking Made Visible"

Thursday in class we met in groups and worked on the short essays students were to post later on that same day. Students can also post their letters to the president there as well. Don't forget to respond to at least one letter and to mail your letter to President Obama at the White House. Let us know if you get a response.

Email is fine.

Homework was to read the first chapter along with preface and other precursors to the text for Tuesday. Bring in any questions. Except for essays, answers can be written in the book where apropos. Sometimes this works, for many of the questions for Chapter 1, this doesn't work.

The first section looks at the whole notion of Critical Thinking and defines it. There are many terms introduced. Annotate those areas of the text which interest you. At the end of each chapter there is a glossary.

Bring Yummy to class next week. We will start reading it, although I don't think the essay is due yet. We will write a definition essay and I think that is covered in Chapter 3 or 4. There will be a lot of collaborative work around exercises, just make sure you are prepared and again keep a list of questions you might develop as you read the text.

There are readings at the end of the book. You are encouraged, but not made to read them (smile). If I want you to read an essay, I will assign it in class. I think the articles illustrate the authors' point, and how can one become a great writer except by reading great writers?

Exercise 1B is an interesting take on intention, same information, different angle, different audience --different conclusion.

Writing As a Process (10-14) and A Quick Guide (210-214) are reviews. Writing Assignment 1 isn't due Monday. Let's make that due Thursday. Bring in the public issue that disturbs you to discuss with peers.

You have already completed Exercise 1C (17). If there is anything about yourself you'd like to add, send it on (smile). We will review Exercise 1D in class. I will lecture on Chapter 2 Thursday and the readings and some exercises will be due Tuesday.

I like Chapter 2, we discuss the difference between facts and judgements, ponder inferences using visual references like ads.

I love Chapter 3, The Structure of Argument. It is here the journey starts. Putting an argument into standard form is really fun (smile). Determining the difference between a premise and a conclusion is great work! Figuring out what an assumption is and how many assumptions fill many of our ethical operating manuals. The hidden assumptions are the hardest to shake.

The premise is the evidence, the conclusion is the argument. We don't do all th exercises, but since this is an election year, I might make Writing Assignment 5 extra credit (59).

In Chapter 4 we get down to the nitty gritty and learn about two kinds of thesis sentences: open and complete (81). We get more writing tips re: organization. I love the term "dialectic." It just means questioning both sides of an issue to come away with a sort of truth or synthesis, biases or slanted thinking disallow (85).

We will practice writing an essay in class where each group writes a different argument about the topic and then we pull all the angles together for a complete essay. Sounds strange, but it works (smile). This is where the authors introduce the Rogerian proof (87). Students are introduced to "joining words" (91-92).

Oh, Definition is in Chapter 5. Hum, we might have to wait longer than I thought to write this essay. Perhaps we should start with Mosley? Let's talk about this. I think the Mosely story lends itself well to the Rogerian argument.

Events next week

Poetry

The 22nd Annual African American Celebration through Poetry is Saturday, Feb. 4, 1-4 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline Street, (510) 238-7352. I started this event 22 years ago, and I host it. This year the theme is great black women. All are welcome to attend. There is an open mic at the end of the program.

Author Event

Tim Wise, a great writer, is speaking at Cal State East Bay Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, 7 PM. A former student called me to tell me about it this week. She is at CSEB now. It is a free event. Visit http://csueastbaytickets.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.asp?id=164&cid=26

I have taught Wise's books for many years. He has a new book out: Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority.

If you'd like to go let me know Tuesday so we can figure out how we will meet. You can also drop me a line here. He is a great speaker, really great. We went to see him last Spring in conversation with Angela Davis (it wasn't free, but we had an anonymous donor).

We read his: White Like Me.

This is a Free Event Since 1995, Tim Wise has lectured at over 600 college institutions. In the early 90s, Wise worked as an anti-racist activist and began his work as a youth coordinator and associate director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism. In New Orleans Tim Wise worked for various community-based organizations and political groups such as the Louisiana Coalition for Tax Justice, the Louisiana Injured Worker's Union and Agenda for Children.

Tim Wise has received several awards for his work and has written several books such as White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, Between Barack and a Hard Place, Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity.

In Utne Reader magazine, Wise was listed as one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" in 2010.

Location: MPR, New Union, Cal State East Bay
Contact information: ASI Diversity Center @ CSU East Bay, 510-885-3908

Film

At Stanford University, Tuesday, February 7, 7-9 PM in the Black Community Services Center there will be a screening of a We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân. The director will be there as well as linguists. The film is about an indigenous nation which revived a "sleeping" language. The Wampanoag nation are the people who welcomed the Pilgrims and helped them through that difficult first winter in the New World. Remember that first Thanksgiving?

Visit: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/we-still-live-here/film.html and http://www.makepeaceproductions.com/screenings/201201-stanford.jpg

I have seen the film. It is great! I had the director on my radio show this morning. She was my second interview. However, I studied linguistics when I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, so I might go. Again, let me know if you are interested.

Theatre

Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Word Becomes Flesh at Laney College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland, February 11, 2012$25 gen. $15 students & seniors - 8pm. It is a collaboration between La Peña Cultural Center, Black Choreographers Here & Now, and the Living Word Festival.

Formally a solo performance, this male soul journey, is now danced by multiple men. In the work the characters question their masculinity, approaching fatherhood, relationships with their baby's mama, not to mention their fathers and father's fathers. It is a fluid tapestry that traverses landscapes above and below plane surfaces.

Bamuthi is a lovely choreographer and writer, so the poetry is in his character's feet as much in the words one hears from their mouths. I don't remember is they speak--when it was a solo work, Bamuthi spoke. I have only seen the work as a company performance once and alas, that detail escapes me. When I met the choreographer perhaps 15 years ago, is was as a poet. He was in a film screening I attended called: Slamnation.

This work is not as abstract as his last, performed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Red, Black and Green, which was physical theatre as well as a visual art work, similar to site specific works used by Joanna Haigood, Zaccho Dance Company, and Alonozo King, LINES Contemporary Ballet.

Word Becomes Flesh is a fluid evening-length choreopoem written in the form of a narrative verse play. Presented as a series of performed letters to an unborn son, the piece uses poetry, dance and live music to document nine months of pregnancy from a young single father's perspective. These performed letters incorporate elements of ritual, archetypes, and symbolic sites within the constructs of hip hop culture. Directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and featuring Daveed Diggs, Dahlak Brathwaite, Dion Decibels, Ben Turner, Mic Turner and B.Yung.

Word Becomes Flesh was originally commissioned by La Peña Cultural Center and premiered in November 2003 at the Alice Arts Center (Oakland, CA) and subsequently toured through 2007 nationwide to venues including Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME), ODC Theater and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA), On the Boards (Seattle, WA), New World Theater (Amherst, MA), Dance Theater Workshop (New York, NY), Live Arts Festival (Philadelphia, PA), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL), University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI), Miami Dade College (Miami, FL), and Dance Place (Washington, DC).

Considered the seminal work of Marc Bamuthi Joseph and The Living Word Project, this piece was chosen by the National Performance Network for its 25th Anniversary Re-Creation Initiative supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Word Becomes Flesh is a National Performance Network (NPN) Re-Creation Fund Project sponsored by La Peña Cultural Center (Berkeley, CA) in partnership with Painted Bride (Philadelphia, PA), Dance Place (Washington, DC), Youth Speaks (San Francisco, CA) and NPN. This project has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

More Film

The Indie Film Festival starts in San Francisco next month. The African Film Festival continues at Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley. The San Francisco International Film Festival is in April.