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Thursday, June 16, 2022
Kehinde Wiley's Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II
Kehinde Wiley's Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew
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Kehinde Wiley's Judith and Holofernes
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Kehinde Wiley's Juliette Récamier
This is the painting Juliette Récamier by Kehinde Wiley. It is of a woman sitting in a formal dress on a couch surrounded by flowers and leaves. Notably about the painting though the woman is on a couch, she does not seem to be resting because she is sitting in a formal dress and her posture is very stiff. Something that I noticed after studying the painting for a while was that the woman’s eye makeup seems to resemble that of an Egyptian queen’s, giving an aura of power. I noticed that the painting stood out to me compared to the other works because it resembled a Manet painting it was based on that had a white figure but also had a black figure originally in a subservient position in the painting as well. -Elizabeth Gowans
Related:
Kehinde Wiley’s Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence)
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Kehinde Wiley's Support the Rural Population and Serve 500 Million Peasants
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D.A.Y. Tyme at AALCI
So it's D. A. Y. Tyme. It's they time.
They sang a few different wonderful songs. Took as to church, as the folks say.
The fellows really enjoyed the experience.
"Today's performance was great," said Yaqkeha Witherspoon. "And it just expanded my view on the many ways there are to cultivate beauty."
And Terrie Briggs offered more:
“Being able to witness D.A.Y. Tyme’s performance was truly inspirational and informative. It was beneficial to me as a fellow writer to listen to the members discuss their writing process and overall journey towards their current point in their individual and collective careers. It was helpful to hear the ways our processes of creation were similar as well as different because they both provided me with a sense of how I might want to adapt my process in the future.”
D. A. Y. Tyme sang an original song by Jacobe entitled "The Recovery Room." Hey, it's really powerful. One of my first orders of business after the show was signing on to Tidal to listen to the song again. (It's available on Spotify, Apple Music, etc).
"Today's performance resonated with me in telling myself to be encouraged and get through recovery," said Elizabeth Gowans. "I often find myself overwhelmed and in a depressed state. It takes quite a lot to be in recovery and I felt it was a right on-time word brought specifically for me."
Chaunece Reed noted that the group was "very welcoming, calming, and inspiring in ways they do not know." She said that she "had never experienced spoken word in collaboration with lyrical music before, and I thought that combination was fascinating and moving."
D. A. Y. Tyme's "voices were beautiful," said Nicole Dixon, "but even more beautiful was being able to witness their passionate and strong connection with one another."
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| D. A. Y. Tyme with AALCI (source: Vocab's Instagram page) |
Vocab at AALCI
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| Andrea Vocab Sanderson |
Vocab talked poetry, curating events, singing, collaborating with various folks, organizing social media and activism campaigns, and more.
"Meeting San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea 'Vocab' Sanderson in such an intimate setting felt like such a privilege," said Nicole Dixon. "Being able to ask questions about becoming a poet laureate, her poetry, and her work balance was beyond helpful. Hearing and seeing her story allowed me to envision myself pursuing my dreams in a more clear way now."
Yaqkeha Witherspoon said that the "experience to be very informative, inspiring, and moving."
"One thing I particularly enjoyed," said Chaunece Reed, "was the comfortability that the speaker" had with the group.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
The AALCI Crew hard at work
Here's a look at our 2022 AALCI crew hard at work, taking a look at our summer reading materials. Related:
Reading materials for AALCI 2022
• Recitatif by Toni Morrison
• Read Until You by Farah Jasmine Griffin
• Flyboy 2 by Greg Tate
• Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
• Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic
We also have a course packet of various readings I pulled together.
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Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Daily, enriching conversations
This year, we nearly all of our sessions in the library. We met in a large room, but only used one table.
We had many, extended enriching conversations. And those discussions were just the tip of the iceberg.
I could see all the highlighted, markups that the students had on their books and in the course packet. It was clear that we could've kept going and going.
Related:Saturday, June 11, 2022
Tara Schmidt's working with the fellows
I took a few snaps of Tara Schmidt working with the fellows on the puzzle activity. They were really involved -- looking at the materials and posing questions.
Working with the different fragments gave the feel that we were literally putting the pieces together. It was an educational and enjoyable process.
Friday, June 10, 2022
Tara Schmidt's puzzle activity
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She distributed handouts from a single resource on a single figure. The handouts were from an NAACP collection and focused on Claude McKay. Schmidt gave one handout to each student. One document included poems, one included an FBI file on McKay, one included two book reviews, one included correspondence, and another included additional information on McKay.
[Related: Tara Schmidt's working with the fellows]
Each of the documents had a date on them,
The students had to converse with each other to determine the order, and once they did they discussed out loud what they had. The result was that they pieced together aspects of McKay's life and experienced based on these disparate fragments.
The activity resembled the practice of a researcher finding various pieces or fragments on a subject and then tying them together to form a narrative.
Beyond that exercise, Schmidt talked to the group about approaches to doing searches online. Her excitement about her field was infectious and had the Fellows and me interrupting to ask questions about how one becomes a librarian.
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AALCI 2022
Our activities for the 12th cohort of the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute began on Sunday, June 5, with an opening dinner. The following entries chart our progress, activities, and thinking.
• Kehinde Wiley’s Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence) -- Terrie Briggs
• Kehinde Wiley's Support the Rural Population and Serve 500 Million Peasants -- Chaunece Reed
• Kehinde Wiley's Juliette Récamier -- Elizabeth Gowans
• Kehinde Wiley's Judith and Holofernes - Nicole Dixon
• Kehinde Wiley's Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew - Yaqkeha Witherspoon
• Kehinde Wiley's Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II - Tyrone Jones
Related:
Friday, April 15, 2022
AALCI at a Glance
Since June 2010, we've coordinated the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute (AALCI) at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The program was created by Joycelyn Moody. I cover the curriculum and teaching.
During the summer, we discuss a variety of Black studies readings, academic writing, African American visual art, and challenges and opportunities associated with scholarly research.The participating summer fellows receive:
• abundant intellectual nourishment
• extensive feedback on writing
• a selection of free books
• guidance on creation or development of research projects
• assistance on graduate application materials.
• a small stipend ($2,000.00)
• loding at UTSA during the program
Here's a glance at the fellows, 2016 - 2018:
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| poster session 2016 |
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| Poster session 2017 |
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
The benefits and challenges of double majors
This summer, I noticed that half of our 10 fellows have double majors. That's more than we've ever had, though it's not uncommon for folks in the program to have two majors. I was curious about those who have more than one major, so I asked a few of them questions.
Victoria Lefler, from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is a dance and history major. "I have always loved to dance," said Victoria, "and cannot see my life without dance being apart of it, but I also loved learning about history in grade school." That's why she chose to do both.
She has noticed links with classes in her two majors. "There has been some overlap between my classes in both departments," she explained. "Seeing these connections has helped me understand certain topics better because I had prior knowledge from a different perspective."
Ryan Collins, from Pomona College, also majors in two fields. " I decided to pursue a double-major in Africana Studies and Political Science," he said, "because I found that my work in either field was intimately informed by the other which led me to embrace my passion for both fields of study."
According to Ryan, "the benefit of having two majors is definitely being able to get to know the faculty within two different departments. I’ve been able to take classes with amazing professors in both departments, and I’ve enjoyed being able to enjoy the department student programming events for both of my majors as well."
Sokeyra Francisco has a double major at Swarthmore College. "When it came time to declare my major," she said, "I looked back at the courses I had taken and saw that I was most interested in the ones in both the fields of History and Peace and Conflict Studies." For her, a benefit of pursuing the two majors is that the learning is "both unrelated and interconnected."
She explained that "All of your classes can be about different things but there are core connections that can be made."
Sokeyra, Ryan, and Victoria also noted some challenges to pursuing double majors. Sokeyra noted that because of the required courses with both fields, "you aren't able to take as many classes outside of your majors." Ryan said that completing two different senior assignments is challenging. "Finding the time to study sufficiently for each course can be a challenge at times as well," said Victoria.
Receiving guidance on tech/DH projects
One of the new activities this summer involved the production of data visualizations using the software program Tableau Public. Students designed projects based on a few different datasets, and throughout the process they had one-on-one meetings with Professor Margaret Smith, the assistant research professor at the IRIS Center at SIUE.
I had previously worked with Smith on a few projects for my own research, which is what gave me the idea to ask her to work with our AALCI fellows. The students informed me that they benefited by drawing on her knowledge and getting her feedback on their projects.
One student said these meetings were important because Professor Smith "asked me questions and gave me possible other routes that I could take the time to explore that helped to bolster my final product."
A few different students mentioned a common word when it came to the assistance that they received from Smith: "trouble shooting." As one of our fellows noted, "Without her support and quick tips to fix the problems I encountered, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the overall project."
"Those meetings with Smith were especially helpful," said another student, "since I could ask her for guidance in certain situations which were beyond my expertise." Yet another student pointed out that, "I could tell Professor Smith was really dedicated to making sure that I knew how to use the software" and added that "If it wasn’t for her I would’ve been frustrated with the software."
It's rare for students to get the one-on-one attention that they received from Prof. Smith this summer. Recognizing how much the students benefited, however, I'm going to start thinking through ways to expand this kind of educational opportunity.
Related:Wednesday, June 23, 2021
On Nafissa Thompson-Spires's "Heads of the Colored People"
"Heads of the Colored People" Nafissa Thompson-Spires is a whirlwind of a short story and ends in a place unimaginable from where it began. I thought, before the mysterious appearance of the police, when the incident was just Riley and Brother Man scuffling, that it seemed probable the misunderstanding could have been resolved through de-escalation and conversation. However, in our discussion, most of us came to the conclusion that we would avoid getting involved in or trying to break up altercations we happen upon. Evidently, people at the convention felt the same, but what would have happened if even one person at the convention, the presumably highly populated convention, stepped up to help?
Perhaps the people who passed by Brother Man but ignored the outstretched hand presenting his comic series? Perhaps the four people who had actually bought his comic series? What could we and the characters in the story have learned directly from Riley and Brother Man about the altercation had it been handled with more care and understanding instead of having their narratives be cut short? The narrator is generous in indulging us Riley and Brother Man's thoughts in the moments leading up to the fight, but consider what would have been possible had they been able to tell their own stories, in the first person 'I,' rather than through an omniscient narrator.
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On Nafissa Thompson-Spires's "Fatima, the Biloquist"
In "Fatima, the Biloquist," Nafissa Thompson-Spires touches base on what Blackness means by approaching its polysemic nature. What does it mean to be Black if you grew up around all white people or if your features resemble whiteness? Thompson-Spires lets us know with this story that there’s no primary way to be Black and it is slightly impossible to try to place it under one roof.
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