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The Story of May by Mordicai Gerstein was always a favorite of mine as a kid. This short and sweet picture book tells the story of a little girl, the month of May, and her journey through the year to meet her father December. She leaves her mother April’s side and meets all of her relatives in an “exuberant story of familial love set in the richness of the passing seasons” (HarperCollins Publishers, inside cover). I choose this book because of the wonderment of earth, nature, and the seasons it helped instill in me as a young girl. I so easily connected with May, and I believe her journey of play and independence helped me ‘access’ a new version of the world, one in which nature and the environment are paramount, and everything flows together calmly with time. The stunning watercolor illustrations came to life in my head; when I see them now, I’m surprised that the pictures end where the page does, and don’t all carry on endlessly.

            The Giver, a children’s novel by Lois Lowry, was first published in 1993.  It tells the story of Jonas, who lives in a society that has converted to Sameness—everything is strictly controlled, there are no animals or colors, there is no war or fear or pain or choices.  When Jonas turns twelve, he is selected to the next Receiver of Memory, the one person in the community whose job it is to store all of the memories from before Sameness—memories of both joy and pain— and occasionally provide the Elders with advice based on those memories.  As the Giver, as the old Receiver of Memory tells Jonas to call him, transfers the memories to Jonas, Jonas comes to question whether Sameness is really as good as he’s been brought up to believe.  Eventually, when Jonas learns that Gabe, a baby his family has been caring for, is going to be released—which he discovers during his training is a euphemism for lethal injection—he runs away with Gabe, and the memories that he received from the Giver are released back into the community.  The book ends when Jonas and Gabe, near death from cold and starvation, find a sled and ride it down a snowy hill, toward a house filled with colors and love and music.  “Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too.  But perhaps it was only an echo.”

The Hunger Games is a 2008 science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. Set in the future, this story is narrated by 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen. Katniss, her mother, and her sister, Primrose reside in the poor twelfth district of the nation Panem.  Panem consists of twelve districts and the Capitol, which exercises political control over all the districts. In order to maintain its political legitimacy and to punish the twelve districts for a past rebellion, the Capitol hosts the “Hunger Games” each year. At “the Reaping” one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by lottery to participate in this event. In the Hunger Games, the contestants or “tributes” must fight to the death until one remains in an outdoor arena controlled by “Gamemakers” at the Capitol. This event is highly televised so people from all the districts and the Capitol are able to watch everything that goes on in the arena.

 In the 74th annual Hunger Games, Primrose Everdeen is selected to be tribute in the Hunger Games, but Katniss immediately steps up to take the place of her sister. The male tribute from District 12 is Peeta Mallark, a former classmate of Katniss. A past Hunger Games victor from District 12, Haymitch Abernathy, mentors Peeta and Katniss as they prepare for the event. Throughout the Hunger Games, Katniss utilizes her hunting and survival skills and forms an alliance with Rue, a 12 year old from District 11, as well as with Peeta, her fellow District 12 tribute. 

    Mr. And Mrs. Mallard live near the Boston area of Massachusetts. Mrs. Mallard is due to have children, a group of several young ducklings, quite soon, so she and Mr. Mallard undertake the task of finding the ideal spot to make a home and raise their young flock. While scouring the landscape for the perfect place, the Mallards–Mrs. Mallard in particular–take into account two key qualities they believe denote an acceptable place to raise children. First, they need to find an environment with all the factors a duck needs to survive: water for swimming, food to eat, and land on which to nest. Second, the duck’s home must be safe, protected from all threats the Mallards believe to be particularly dangerous and impossible to abide. In doing so, the Mallards undertake the sacred task of the (most often human) parent, that is, to protect children from all possible avoidable harm as a matter of parental duty and necessity and as the only way to ensure the survival and wellbeing of offspring and safeguard said offspring from the danger of uncontrolled forces. In the short term, this course of action does accomplish the goal of keeping young ones safe and avoiding unnecessary injury or loss of life, but in the long run can prove detrimental to child development and hinder a child’s, or duckling’s, ability to properly asses risk and analyze sources of danger. Therefore, one cannot help but question whether the Mallards of Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, in carefully selecting a site to nest, truly do what is “best” for their ducklings.

Hi everyone, 

I wasn't able to talk about my art project & artistic response to the Shonibare exhibit in class yesterday, so I'm posting my thoughts here. Like Sarah, I had a harder time thinking of an artistic response to the Shonibare exhibit. I really enjoyed it but was stuck on thinking of an isolated artistic response to it, so I decided to use my reflections & thoughts to build on the project I began thinking of after the trip to Tinicum. I walked away from the class after Tinicum not only as an Eco-Warrior but feeling very good about my project as well as the feedback and suggestions I received. Just a reminder, last week I talked about making a mosaic/collage using the photos I had taken at the wildlife refuge. 

Something that I was really struck by at the Magic Ladders exhibit was the way books were incorporated. I kept thinking about how books informed colonizing leaders, how books and what Shonibare read may have informed the way he designed this exhibit, and how what I've read throughout the different 360 classes is informing how I perceive and experience the different places we've visited. So, that gets me to my next point of continuing to work on my mosaic, adding photographs from the different places I go, but also quotes from different texts that have particularly resonated with me and have shaped my experiences in Camden, at the Wildlife Refuge, and at the Barnes Magic Ladders exhibit. 

So, here are some of the quotes I plan on weaving into my final mosaic project: 

on friday, sara and i shared an over-the-top experience in our current 360, which led us--curiously, curiously--
back to the fund-raising this group did in November. for the backstory, see Dutch wax fabrics, conceived ecologically....

I have to admit it, I was seriously dragging my feet on Friday. There were TOO MANY OBSTACLES. I knew that the universe was telling us to GIVE UP. By 10 am, I was certainly ready to--and I kept telling Ava and David, for the next two hours, that they were trying too hard to make something happen...

and then I was so glad that they did! (I'm also glad, aphorisnt, that you did NOT swerve--who knows what might have happened then....?!?)

I was so surprised and delighted by the Shonibare exhibit, when we finally arrived @ the Barnes Foundation: I was grabbed first by the whimsy, by the color, and also as immediately by the complex representation of colonializing educational practices. Like others, I was particularly struck by history of the Dutch wax textiles, so I did a little more reading on The Curious History of "Tribal" Prints: How the Dutch peddle Indonesian-inspired designs to West Africa. What strikes me most in this account is how "ecological" it is--that is, how demonstrative that "everything is connected," not just biologically, but culturally and commercially (really? I think there's an Econ project lurking close to the surface here: see the web site for VLISCO,  which offers free delivery to Africa....).

A few lines from the Slate article, which highlight these interconnections:

Shonibare's Magic Ladders exhibit at the Barnes Foundation was incredible, interesting, and thought provoking. I was particularly struck by the way books from Albert Barnes' own collection were incorporated in the exhibit--especially how they were used as rungs on the ladder. I was thinking about colonialism and education, and how perhaps the books on the ladder represented the fact that it takes a certain kind (Western/colonial style) of education and specific books for someone to be deemed educated & enlighened. It was also interesting how the books were also on the desks where headless mannequins were sitting. What does this say about the adults who receive the Westernized/colonial education? 

My favorite part of the Shonibare exibit was the piece Scramble for Africa, the one with the big wooden table with men seated all around it. I felt so strongly the emotions felt by all the headless men in the room, the desparation of delegates from different European countries (and America). I could almost empathize with their feelings of need for control of the colonies of Africa. I was reminded of how I felt as a child, dividing up toys between me and my friend, and so strongly wanting my fair share, wanting justice. Except of course that in this situation, justice is impossible, and this debate which feels so real to those men, and to viewers of the piece, fails to make real the millions of people it concerns. So many lives swung in the balance of this argument, and yet those men in power felt none of them, only their own needs. It would be easy to call them greedy, to call all powerful white men greedy, and perhaps many are. But Shonibare's piece gave an interesting perspective, one that in my anger over privilege and oppression it is easy for me to overlook. This doesn't mean that these men (and the countries/societies they represent) can be forgiven for claiming control of lands and people that they had absolutely no right to, but it is helpful for me in thinking about motivations behind oppression.

Although I didn't get the opportunity of going to the Barnes Foundation to experience Shonibare's exibit, watching just the video made me really interested in his work. His collections aren't just about self expressions, they're about melting both, having the priviledges of a white man as well as having the freedom of and right to critique them. As the video played, and I explored a few more images of his work and the more I saw the more I built on the idea of building on our connections. Shonibare, himself identifies as both European and African and freely uses both identities to create what his mind unravels. Like him, I believe that I shouldn't have to choose one identity to identify who I am. I am Mexican- American, which means I am not only moving forward and adapting to the "american life" but keeping the threads that keep me tied to my physical attributes. I can be a part of this modern society and enjoy it but at the same time I can have the freedom of enjoying not having my phone and listening to Have you ever seen the rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival on blast as I lay away in the backcountry. I can be both and enjoy both quite equally, I shouldn't have to feel forced to choose which defines me more. 

Shonibare's work is all about being among the abyss and not feeling stressed or chained to a perspective you must believe and stick to forever. It's about fighting among all the disadvantages and yet managing to stick your head above the current and enjoying the sun's rays as they glisten on your face.