Tuesday, January 24, 2012
If anyone still reads this
For the next 20 or so weeks, I'll be participating in the Detroit Future Media Training. I'll be focusing on graphic design and video production, so check back here for occasional posts about my progress and a possible glimpse at some of the products. I'm particularly interested in figuring out the intersections of popular images and social change, and how I can relate that to my immediate community. Holler if you hear me.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Saturday Media Madness
Light glistens through furniture factory windows
Warmth of other suns surrounds me soundly
My timeline started not far in a Boulevard hospital
Where it goes from here is Detroit Future.
Warmth of other suns surrounds me soundly
My timeline started not far in a Boulevard hospital
Where it goes from here is Detroit Future.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Why I live here. Rather, why I live.
It's often difficult to put into words the exact meaning of community. It has in fact been a journey and a struggle for me since I left Detroit at the ripe age of 10 and bounced from Redford to Monroe to Ann Arbor, and abroad. Since then I have had many notions of what community is, some rooted in theory and some in practice. The work of my friends across the world and in Detroit have certainly led me to believe there are those as interested in the righteous goals of social change as the emotional and human connections it takes to make that possible.
I once sat at a meeting in Detroit with about 10 of these people and said I felt more at home now than in a while. Yet what is that word? Is home the place we find security? Or is it the place that secures our ideals? Does it start in a house with four walls and a roof? Or does it start beyond the mental and physical walls that strangle our self image and that of the world? Is it where I find a value that allows me to continue my life's work? Or is it a place that values the work I am able to do with the resources I have?
I cannot begin to answer these questions for anyone else, but I am happy to still be in a process by which I am answering them for myself. I have lived a life that has allowed me the space to confront life's beauty and its complicated irony, often together. One method I use for expressing this process is writing letters to people I have no intention of sending. I'm still not able to fold one up and drop it in the mail, but recently came across the first one I ever wrote in May of 2005. It was during a deeply contemplative time as I graduated college. It was to myself.
"Dear Evan,
Be honest and true, because the way of the unjust is blanketed in lies and misrepresentations. Know always that your way will never be the absolute one, as there will always be infinite amounts to learn and share in every movement and interaction in your future. Be conscious of your environment and all things that depend on the harmony of their surroundings. Recognize not only the beauty but the immense power of the natural to help guide and direct our human shortages, and do not fall victim to the destructive results that the hoarding of resources breeds around us.
Keep those people close to you that have proven to be as much a part of your identity as any defining moment, feeling, or relationship. Also, mind the fact that you will not be able to honestly and completely offer yourself until you have reached inside, found your inner silence, listened to it, and returned a more committed man. Know that the path to your silence will be teeming with challenges and temptations- the essence of what makes human life exciting, painful, and rewarding. Let your choices be a symbol for others to heed while they are bombarded with the weapons of the deceitful and driven into disparaging circumstances.
Take with you the message that has been played over and over again throughout all generations of human existence- that in a world full of fertile fields and fruit trees, millions remain hungry. That in a world rich with innovation and education, stratification closes these doors on the masses. That in a world with such potentially productive institutions as democracy and religion, they remain intent to produce tears in the human fabric, only to be mended with blood soaked thread.
Be righteous enough to step back when necessary, and visionary enough to not accept what lies in front of you. Do not be afraid to give true love, as this is foundation of any revolutionary spirit. And be wise enough to know when it is being returned. Remain in struggle with the oppressed, neglected, and cast aside, as this is the where the seeds of humanity grow to produce the most beautiful blossoms and sweetest sustenance ever sampled. Do these things and your reward will be greater than bounty or bullion. It will be the connectedness of your soul to another, and then another, and another- until there are more than can be counted with sight or device, and a grander vision will appear before you..."
...to be continued.
I once sat at a meeting in Detroit with about 10 of these people and said I felt more at home now than in a while. Yet what is that word? Is home the place we find security? Or is it the place that secures our ideals? Does it start in a house with four walls and a roof? Or does it start beyond the mental and physical walls that strangle our self image and that of the world? Is it where I find a value that allows me to continue my life's work? Or is it a place that values the work I am able to do with the resources I have?
I cannot begin to answer these questions for anyone else, but I am happy to still be in a process by which I am answering them for myself. I have lived a life that has allowed me the space to confront life's beauty and its complicated irony, often together. One method I use for expressing this process is writing letters to people I have no intention of sending. I'm still not able to fold one up and drop it in the mail, but recently came across the first one I ever wrote in May of 2005. It was during a deeply contemplative time as I graduated college. It was to myself.
"Dear Evan,
Be honest and true, because the way of the unjust is blanketed in lies and misrepresentations. Know always that your way will never be the absolute one, as there will always be infinite amounts to learn and share in every movement and interaction in your future. Be conscious of your environment and all things that depend on the harmony of their surroundings. Recognize not only the beauty but the immense power of the natural to help guide and direct our human shortages, and do not fall victim to the destructive results that the hoarding of resources breeds around us.
Keep those people close to you that have proven to be as much a part of your identity as any defining moment, feeling, or relationship. Also, mind the fact that you will not be able to honestly and completely offer yourself until you have reached inside, found your inner silence, listened to it, and returned a more committed man. Know that the path to your silence will be teeming with challenges and temptations- the essence of what makes human life exciting, painful, and rewarding. Let your choices be a symbol for others to heed while they are bombarded with the weapons of the deceitful and driven into disparaging circumstances.
Take with you the message that has been played over and over again throughout all generations of human existence- that in a world full of fertile fields and fruit trees, millions remain hungry. That in a world rich with innovation and education, stratification closes these doors on the masses. That in a world with such potentially productive institutions as democracy and religion, they remain intent to produce tears in the human fabric, only to be mended with blood soaked thread.
Be righteous enough to step back when necessary, and visionary enough to not accept what lies in front of you. Do not be afraid to give true love, as this is foundation of any revolutionary spirit. And be wise enough to know when it is being returned. Remain in struggle with the oppressed, neglected, and cast aside, as this is the where the seeds of humanity grow to produce the most beautiful blossoms and sweetest sustenance ever sampled. Do these things and your reward will be greater than bounty or bullion. It will be the connectedness of your soul to another, and then another, and another- until there are more than can be counted with sight or device, and a grander vision will appear before you..."
...to be continued.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
About those singing Atlanta school children...
I thought this was relevant since I posted their video the other day...
by Dana Goldstein
I was so impressed with the policy chops of the seventh grade singers and dancers TAPPED posted about earlier today that I did some reading on the school they attend, the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. As I suspected, it is no ordinary middle school, but an incredibly media-savvy private institution. (Check out the professional head shots of the teachers. They look like the cast of a network television drama.) The school was founded by 36-year old Ron Clark, the 2001 Disney Teacher of the Year, Oprah darling, and author of best-seller The Essential 55. Perhaps Clark's Southern upbringing was at play in creating his teaching philosophy and the book that explains it, a compendium of basic social rules he believes children need to be taught. Examples: "If you are asked a question in conversation, you should ask a question in return." "Do not save seats." "When you win, do not brag; when you lose, do not show anger." I totally support these rules and can be quite a stickler for etiquette. But as one online reviewer quipped, "Clark reminds me of those parents who think that everybody should have perfectly disciplined children because she does. I don't like them much, either."
In any case, Ron Clark isn't a public charter school. It is a year-old private academy with corporate sponsors including Dell Computers, Delta (which sent the students on field trips to six continents), and Promethean (manufacturer of interactive whiteboards). The school is housed in a converted warehouse and features an amusement park-like atmosphere complete with a giant slide. And while it's clear the teachers there are working themselves to the bone and doing amazing work, this is no ordinary group of disadvantaged, inner city kids. Tuition is $14,000 annually, though there is a sliding scale depending on family income, and Clark does extensive fundraising for scholarships. Fifty out of 350 applicants were accepted for the first academic year, only after an extensive interview process. Parents must commit to 10 hours of volunteer service each quarter. That's 40 hours per academic year -- an entire week of work.
In other words, this school is practicing exactly the kind of "skimming" that critics point to as a major shortcoming of the school choice movement. The Ron Clark Academy is the kind of project John McCain and his chief education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, would hail, with their record of support for school privitization experiments and vouchers. Undoubtedly, this school and its students are, in every way, extraordinary. But if this campaign had focused at all on education, the candidates would have debated the implications of using schools like Ron Clark as the model for national reform. Alas, that never happened.
by Dana Goldstein
I was so impressed with the policy chops of the seventh grade singers and dancers TAPPED posted about earlier today that I did some reading on the school they attend, the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. As I suspected, it is no ordinary middle school, but an incredibly media-savvy private institution. (Check out the professional head shots of the teachers. They look like the cast of a network television drama.) The school was founded by 36-year old Ron Clark, the 2001 Disney Teacher of the Year, Oprah darling, and author of best-seller The Essential 55. Perhaps Clark's Southern upbringing was at play in creating his teaching philosophy and the book that explains it, a compendium of basic social rules he believes children need to be taught. Examples: "If you are asked a question in conversation, you should ask a question in return." "Do not save seats." "When you win, do not brag; when you lose, do not show anger." I totally support these rules and can be quite a stickler for etiquette. But as one online reviewer quipped, "Clark reminds me of those parents who think that everybody should have perfectly disciplined children because she does. I don't like them much, either."
In any case, Ron Clark isn't a public charter school. It is a year-old private academy with corporate sponsors including Dell Computers, Delta (which sent the students on field trips to six continents), and Promethean (manufacturer of interactive whiteboards). The school is housed in a converted warehouse and features an amusement park-like atmosphere complete with a giant slide. And while it's clear the teachers there are working themselves to the bone and doing amazing work, this is no ordinary group of disadvantaged, inner city kids. Tuition is $14,000 annually, though there is a sliding scale depending on family income, and Clark does extensive fundraising for scholarships. Fifty out of 350 applicants were accepted for the first academic year, only after an extensive interview process. Parents must commit to 10 hours of volunteer service each quarter. That's 40 hours per academic year -- an entire week of work.
In other words, this school is practicing exactly the kind of "skimming" that critics point to as a major shortcoming of the school choice movement. The Ron Clark Academy is the kind of project John McCain and his chief education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, would hail, with their record of support for school privitization experiments and vouchers. Undoubtedly, this school and its students are, in every way, extraordinary. But if this campaign had focused at all on education, the candidates would have debated the implications of using schools like Ron Clark as the model for national reform. Alas, that never happened.
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