2/20- Love Letters, Tulips, and a Hair Hare.

Love Letters, Tulips, and a Hair Hare.

On Wednesday, the class met at Fleet Street to:

I.  Participate in a Love-Letter-Writing Workship

II.  make tulips

III.  Fawn over a very dapper rabbit.

Part I

After some socializing, snacks, and perhaps a bit too much chocolate on my part, the class and guests settled down and formed a circle to participate in Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s workshop entitled “Bigger than They Appear, A Close Look at the Very Short Poem.”

            A. Katarina first discussed the merit, and import, of scope when dealing with such          a short poem, with a focus on answering the questions:

i.  What are the characteristics of a short poem?

ii.Why do we want to write them?

                                 

iii.  When are they appropriate?

iv.  How to start writing a very short poem?

                       

v.  How long is a very short poem?

B.  After we mulled over these questions, Katerina  shared with us “several tools of the short poem.” These included:

i.  Title

                        ii. Word Choice

                                   

iii.  Use of well-understood principles and concepts

                       

iv.  Creative use of clichés

            C. Katerina asked that we go around the room, reading the various examples of each of these tools. We were then asked to go around in a circle, reading poems from another handout

i.  My personal favorite was by Chocolate Waters:

                                               

                                                I Used To

                                                make love.

                                                Now I

                                                make coffee.

            D. We were then encouraged to take a moment to reflect and create our own        short poems, and to share them with the class (if we felt so-inclined.)

                        i. I had no idea I was being closed in on by so many great poets

ii. I loved it.

Part II.

The class concluded with the mass production of origami tulips

A.  I’m not very good at making origami tulips

           

B.  I am, however, very good and sneaking off to stash more chocolate for later     while others are making origami tulips.

Part III.

While stealing (read: creatively taking) chocolate, I made great friends with a rabbit. His eyes looked into my soul, and he may have let me touch his ear.

A.  I’ve never touched a bunny before.

B.  Bunny ears are magic.

            C. I loved it.

class notes from 2/7- Love Letters for Mintons

Potluck, Poetry, and (Unrequited) Platonic Love

On Wednesday, the class met at Minton’s to:

I.  Gorge ourselves

II.  Take part in a love-letter writing workshop

III.  Bask in Bianca’s presence

Part I-I

A few notes on the art of mashed potato making:

I.  When you go to Kroger, your brain is going to be like “Kremena said there could be upwards of 30 people there... you should probably buy a second bag of potatoes.”

A.  If your brain is like mine, don’t listen to it.

                                    i. It’s a liar.

                                    ii.  It’s kind of dumb.

B.  You’re also working on the assumption that all 30 of these potential attendees will be so enamored with your shitty mashed potatoes that they will be forced to cast off the rest of the potluck bounty and consume every last bit of what you make.

i.  That is an incorrect assumption. (See I-I.I.A.ii)

II.  Method:

            A. Quarter and Boil apprx. 90 lbs of redskin potatoes until tender.

i.  This will require every pot and burner you have, and some that you don’t.

            B. Drain

i.  I would be greatly impressed if you managed to mess this up

ii.  I messed this part up.

            C.Throw in a pallet of butter, a drum of cream, a desk of romano cheese, a                hammock of garlic, and oregano/salt/pepper to taste.

            D.Mash the cuss out of it.

i.  Really just get in there.

Part I-II

A Veritable Smorgasbord

I.  Once twelve people helped me drag all of my mashed potatoes into Minton’s, we all set about a very lovely meal which consisted of:

A.  Potato Salad

B.  Mashed Potatoes

C.  Chicken casserole

D.  Two leafy salads

E.  Some oranges

F.  This amazing cold apple/sweet-potato/craisin stuff

G.  Hummus and Gaucomole

H.  Black Bean Salsa

I.    Carrot/Cayenne Juice (a la The Juicery)

J.   Various Breads

K.  Some really delicious looking wine (that I was 11 months removed from) courtesy of Archie

L.   Several Desserts

M. A wonderful tomato soup made my Ashely Minton Herself.

Part II.

With our stomachs full, and our spirits high, we were all called to attention by Kurt (via Marty) in order to begin our love-letter writing workshop.

I.  Bianca. Spriggs. Was. Sitting. Right. There.

A.  I had a couple of heart attacks

B.  Several “stomach-dwelling-insects” were in flight.

II. After recovering from that miniature freak out over my woman crush, I realized that she was in the process of giving us tips on love-letter writing.

A.  Bianca’s 10 Tips for Writing a Contemporary Love Poem:

i.  Don’t actually mention the word love

ii.Every poem, but especially love poems, are really disguised obsessions.

iii.            Cliches are no good

iv.           Consider extended metaphors

v.Write about love in binaries (negatives and positives)

vi.           Make the impersonal Personal

vii.           Read “the greats”

viii.        Name love by naming what it is not

ix.           be willing to make sacrifice for, and mention the risk in, loving your love

x.Memorize and forget i-ix.

III.  We were then given a worksheet entitled “Mirror Poem Exercise”

A.  Bianca was inches away from me when she handed our table those     worksheets.

i.  She even smells amazing. Why don’t I smell that good?

ii.  I’m beginning to think she some fierce mythical creature and/or figment of my imagination

            B. In this exercise, we read “Love Is” by Nikki Giovanni and were asked to             recreate it.

i.  Putting my inferior words into someone else’s form made me feel dirty.

                        ii. She complimented on my hair color while volunteering me to read my                linguistic frankenstein

                                    1. I’m never changing my hair color for the rest of my life.

IV.  She then introduced us to some poetry to highlight the beauty of the unconventional in modern love poems. We listened to:

A.  “The Last Love Letter From An Entomologist” by Jared Singer

B.  “Maybe I Need You” by Andrea Gibson

V.  Our final activity was a mad-lib-esque love portrait

A.  We were asked to think of objects from 22 different categories that describe     our “love-object” and use them to fill in the blanks of another poem form.

i.  Again, I felt like a sham.

Our class concluded with a playing of “Set me Free” (By an artist un-recalled-- but I am determined to find out.) It was a lovely evening.

Good bites, food insecurity, love letters, and a misplaced reception of birthday cake, 1/30

Good bites, food insecurity, love letters, and a misplaced reception of birthday cake.

On Wednesday, the class met at The Plantory to:

I.   listen to two presentations concerning

A.  the availability of healthy and nutritious food to children.

B.  the challenges faced by older Americans in securing enough food for themselves

II. Begin crafting our love letters to Lexington.

Part I.

A.  Our first presenter was the founder of the Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition. The work she chose to share was with the organizations:

            i. Snack Strong: Better Bites

                        An organization dedicated to providing affordable, healthy, and nutritious                         snack options at public concession stands.

            ii. Good Neighbor Stores

                        Focused on making neighborhood “quickie-mart”s frequented by the  

                        low-income and transportationally-challenged safe, clean, and                    communally-involved while also offering healthy food at fair prices/ accepting EBT & WIC.

B.  The second presenter discussed the challenges faced by older Americans in                             securing enough food for themselves. Over the course of this talk, the presenter discussed:

i.  SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program)

ii.  The risk factors of food-insecurity in older americans:

a.  lack of socialization

b.  growing up food-insecure

iii.  He also discussed how familes who were considered to be “poor” (grossing less than $26,000 in a family of four) were less likely to be food insecure than those who are not. This led to the discussion of the average American’s ability to compute wants vs. needs.

Part II.

The second half of class focused on the formative phase of our personal love-letters to the city of Lexington and/or the people who might see them on Lexington buildings. 

A.  Kremena and Kurt circulated images that inspired the project, and gave us time to begin work on our own 15-words-or-less love letters. Along with some scrap paper to begin sketching on.

i.  Postcards featuring our love letters should be completed and available to share by Wednesday, February  6.

B. The class ended with the consumption of a cake made to commemorate Archie’s birthday. Archie was not present. It felt so wrong, but it was so delicious.

 

 

 

 

1/22/13- Gingerbread Tutorial, The Thirteen

Sarah Q.

CETA Notes

January 22nd, 2013

Gingerbread tutorial, The Thirteen, Girl Crushes.

On Tuesday our class period was split into two parts:

Part I: Gingerbread tutorial

Part II: experiencing The Thirteen

Part I.

A few Notes on the art of Gingerbread making:

I.  I don’t care for a tight cloistering of people, and my hobbit-like stature kept me from seeing most of the action.

A.  That, however, was completely ok with me because I am not a visual learner  

B.  Furthermore, I didn’t want to get flour on my mostly black getup (been down that road-- it’s a bad place.)

II. We did learn that this gingerbread is not particularly pleasant to consume

III.  I personally learned about one of Archie’s highschool friends who majored in my current course of study.

A.  He has been unemployed ever since

B.  That conversation ended much more bleakly than initially anticipated.

IV. If you are like me:

A.  I am so sorry.

B.   Kremena has been lovely enough to email us the written instructions.

V.  We must each have 10 tiles completed by Wednesday, January 30th.

A.  Baking junk is in the kitchen of Shearer

B.  Tiles are on the drying rack for size reference

C.  Consider using two meter sticks on either side of the dough when rolling it out for uniform thickness.

Part II

Considering Bianca Sprigg’s “The Thirteen”

I.  Bianca Spriggs has the most commanding, eloquent, and beautiful speaking voice I have ever heard

A.  I’m already excitedly nervous to meet her

B.  I think I may be in love with Bianca Spriggs.

II. “The Thirteen” strove to honor the lives of 13 African-American women who were lynched, or otherwise murdered, at the hands of racial intolerance in KY after the civil war.

A.  The presentation incorporated instrumentals, lyrics, spoken word, and visual aids that made for what seemed to be very intimate brush with, and partial understanding of, the lives lost.

B.  I cried a little bit. Several times. All the while begging any deity that would listen to keep a friend sitting next to me from seeing how damn sensitive I am.

III. The event concluded with a reading of the names of the 13 women lost, along with the region of Kentucky from which they hailed.

IV. Ultimately, “The Thirteen” seemed  a lamentation of hate, intolerance, and injustice, but also a celebration of life, love, and womanhood. The depth and darkness of mortality is the only lens through which the light of all being can be seen. I loved “The Thirteen,” and it makes me cry to think of it now. I’m a weenie. 

Race, History, and Urban Landscape- Danny Mayer, 1/16/2013

Race, History, and Urban Landscape- Danny Mayer

Three strands of presentation:

1)      Frontier History from Paddling the Kentucky River

2)      Lexington Racial History- Rich Shine (sp?)

3)      Marxist Geographer- Neal Smith

Frontier History:

                Kentucky- Open, common ground à “Terra Nova”-Settlers   “Great Meadow”-Native Americans

                Private Coorperations formed to trade goods to N.A. in exchange for the Land—Early Gentrification.  (i.e. Ohio Co, Transylvania Co., etc.)

                Settlers- All you need to do is put up a corn patch to claim the land.

                KY River early highway system- Cheap Iron, Salt, Coal, etc.

                To get W of Appalachian Mtns , either hike in or Float in along the KY River, either way à Lex!!

                Lexington an early hub for Finance, business, etc.—Athens of the West

Lexington Split up very early on.

Racial Lexington-Rich Shine (sp?):

                In 1860, slave population roughly 25% of total Lex pop. à African Americans only 10%  total pop now.

                Lexington a huge hub for slave labor—primarily for hemp production

                Pre-Civil War—White Landowners, legally, a higher tier than their African American counterparts, so the ethnic diversity in Lex. relatively fluid.

                Post-Civil War—Mass migration of African Americans to Lexington, and white landowners needed a way of placing themselves “above” the AAs à “Enclaves” or “bottoms” established.

                In the East End, some major enclaves merged and formed one, African American, commercial district.

                At first, these enclaves were on the outer edge of the city, but as the city continued to grow, commercial development skipped over them and continued to expandà The reason most of these enclave-remnants are “inner city”

        Racial Tension still seen in:

1)      The way we retell civil war stories.  (i.e. Hunt Morgan, a confederate raider, still memorialized. Cheapside still prevalent as a bar even though it was the place to sell African American women and young girls into slavery—hence the name “cheapside”, etc.)

2)      The way our town is set up. (i.e. Transylvania University and The Sayre School both face away from historically “black neighborhoods.” Thoroughbred park masks the East End, and it memorializes no African Americans, etc.)

Lexington Adjusted Median Wealth after 2009 Recession:

                                Black                                      Hispanic                               White

                                $5,677                                   $6,325                                   $113,149

                                53% Decline                        66% Decline                        16% Decline

Marxist Geographer-Neal Smith

                Gentrification-People of higher social standing (The Gentry) moving back into cities and displacing the poor.

                Gentrification language usually very offensive.  (i.e. “revival,” “reformation,” etc. ~ Totally ignores/puts down the people being displaced.)

                “Fair and Balanced” news outlets often spin these renovations in a positive light.

                Our “Inner City” is trying to complete globally, so downtown is becoming a “Wallstreet” of sorts

                The current downtown trend—Arts, entertainment for wealthy Lexingtonians

                Wealthy worry about “my property value going down!”  yet they forget the racist, classist notion that their property value is based on the number of socially underprivileged people living in their neighborhood.

Poverty in Appalachia

Community Engagement

Class Notes

02-08-2012

Jim Ziliak: Labor Economist/ Professor at UK/ Quantitative studies to help reform policy for programs targeting poverty areas in the U.S.

He got the idea for his book because little work had been done by economist on the economic situation in Appalachia. He wanted to see if things had improved since the 1960s.

Poverty measurements: Same since the 1960s, adopted from a 1955 survey on American spending habits.

- How much did the typical family spend on food? (was 1/3 of income at that time, now about 15% of income)

- The $$ amount spend on food x 3 = poverty line

- There is no adjustment for the poverty line depending on where you live

In 1960 about 22% of Americans were poor – In Appalachia it was 50% of Americans were poor.

10 years later national poverty average went to 11-12% and its pretty much stayed there.

Central Appalachia: Eastern KY, Mississippi Delta, Rio Grand, Black Belt Region, and a few Native American reservations. All persistently poor, which means that more than 20% of people there are persistently below the poverty line.

Very different ethnically across different regions, but still persistently poor.

In order to keep young, educated people in central Appalachia, should the government invest in people or places?

-If we invest in a place who is going to benefit? If we invest in Harlem County, it might drive people into the region but make life there more difficult for the locals.

-When you invest in people, people become more mobile.

Provide affordable higher education there? : Convert University of Pikeville from private to public? Research shows that higher education institutions help local economies. Might not do much in the short run, but it may help in the long run.

KENTUCKIANS NEED TO TAKE CONTROL OF APPALACHIA KENTUCKY.

Leadership matters in “growing your own” projects.

Eastern KY is lacking initiative and leadership by the state of Kentucky. It needs support from the individuals at the top and push from the bottom.

Is marriage the solution to poverty? Strictly economically speaking…

-45% of births in the US are out of wedlock

-1 in 2 babies are born on the WICK program. A lot of poor babies

-Single headed families are likely to be poor.

Families structures explain a lot about poverty structures in a area overall

Education can combat economic inequality in Kentucky.

Short run in combating poverty: economic stimulus and government spending money.

Long run in combating poverty: Equipping people and community with the capacity to address and attack poverty. Education must start young – preschool is critical

WE MUST OVERCOME SENSE OF HOPLESSNESS FOR EASTERN KENTUCKY – IT’S A HUGE MISTAKE. THEY ARE AMERICANS. THEY ARE KENTUCKIANS.

Class Minutes 1-25

Community Engagement

Class Notes 1/25/2012

Sarah: folklorist

Folklore: The way we communicate as a community and pass things on; ythe study of what communities value.

Community: common place, theme, and interest

Door-to-Door Folklore Project:

Ways to meet people: Food is a big part of folklore research! Churches, community centers, community service project, nail salons, barber shops

Purpose: speak to people whose voices are not usually heard. Where are gaps in previous class research?

Looking at immigrant groups: What traditions did they bring with them here?

Steve: Urban anthologist/artist/activist

Art in community development plays a powerful role in helping us humanize people.

Obama has deported more immigrants than any other president.

Who is a DREAMER? Eligible for the Dream Act

Dream Act: Path toward legalization for any immigrant who came to the U.S. under the age of 16 and has served at least two years in the armed forces or attended college for two years. –eligible to apply at this point. After applying, the process would take at least 8 years to finalize.

There is danger in “drive-by activism”. What are you going to give back to the community?

When you go into research and development acknowledge power dynamics in place and build trust.

Be yourself and be honest. They will respect you for that.