Black History For More Than a Month

Hello and welcome to my first Action Project for my humanities course, A Nations Argument. In this unit, we took a look at America's declaration of independence and the syllogisms within it. We also explored other countries' declarations. As for Field Experiences, we went to Alderman Walter Burnett Jr's office and talked with him about his life as an Alderman and his special connection with the community. In this Action Project, we are diving into declaring independence from our typical course structure and looking at independent studies. I hope you enjoy my argument on why we need more black history and literature in our curriculum.

Recently I have noticed that in my school career I have read only four pieces of literature by black or brown writers. Three of those pieces were with my first and (so far) only black teacher. I am declaring independence from only learning about black history in the form of enslavement and Dr. King (only on his birthday).  I declare independence from being the scapegoat in situations where my white teachers feel uncomfortable. I declare independence from only knowing one side of my history.

The purpose of school and learning is to forward students in life. I strongly believe that a school is a place that is meant to allow you to explore and learn. The purpose of learning black history is so that we as black people are able to know that we are more than just the descendants of slaves. That we are able to come together as a community and fight for equality. My unalienable rights are to feel acknowledged in my learning environment and to be able to learn my full history. This is an expression of my rights because this class will be all about black history before and passed slavery.


Syllogism
-P1 Black students are forced to attend institutions created by people who do not understand their experiences
-P2 We as black students have the right to be able to read literature by black folks that seek to educate and also entertain. 

-P3 The American education system has forgotten about people of color’s history aside from the part where white oppressors and saviors are the headlines
-P4 White students are allowed to learn about their history by default without having to seek extracurricular studies. 

Therefore, it is only fair that students of color are allowed the privilege of learning their history inside of their school's curriculum.

Keith Tyler "Power Fist" 2015

                                                     

Course Title: Diving Deeper into Black History, Literature, and Culture 

Guiding Question: What black history has been erased by the whitewashed education system?

Historical Evidence: In 1964, Black Americans founded freedom schools meant to organize and educate Black people to achieve equality. This was a temporary solution to a permanent problem that still looms over the Black community. I strongly believe that the ideals and teachings from the freedom schools should be blended into our education system today.

Resources:
  Books: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Kindred by Octavia Butler
 
Plays: Simply Heavenly by Langston Hughes
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf -Ntozake Shange

Partnerships: ETA Creative Arts Theater


Course Details

Unit 1: Before and After

• Digs deeper into where enslaved people come from and Africa before colonization
• Dives into life after emancipation and some attempts of liberation

Unit 2: Black Literature

• Students will read and critically discuss books by black writers 
• This unit has a main focus on fiction written by black writers

Unit 3: Black entertainment and Culture

• This unit has a main focus on pop culture, fashion trends, plays and television 
• Students will critique plays and television 

Desired outcomes  

• Students will gain a greater understanding of black history and culture 
• This class will allow students to be inspired by writers who are like them

All in all, I am very excited about this independent study. I hope that I will be able to actually study this, even if it ruffles some feathers. I decided to focus on black writers from the 20th and 21st centuries because I feel that this course will focus more on current black culture. I feel that writers from those centuries touch on the current culture more effectively than the 18th or 19th centuries. 

The Hair Issue

TN "The Front Cover" 2019

Hello and welcome to a very special action project for Rhetoric. For this action project, we were asked to create an art piece that will bring people together around a certain issue. This is based on the tribute to the Chicago Freedom Movement in Marquette Park. The piece notably featured many languages, something I thought was very important for creating my own work of art to bring people together. I am especially proud of this AP and I hope that this translates through the work that I put into it. There are 2 pieces to the artwork. First, is a commercial parody to bring light to lack of diversity in television and second, mock magazine editorial photographs to highlight the lack of diversity in fashion magazines.


                                                                           HAIR from T N on Vimeo.

TN "Nissrine" 2019
My Hair Is Fierce in French 

TN "Shanet" 2019
My Hair is Angelic in Spanish

TN "Georgette" 2019
My Hair is Good in Kirundi

Artist Statement

As a woman of color, I do not see myself reflected in the media.
Especially media that is meant to sell me something. I want to change this,
I want to change the narrative that the only time you can use a woman of color
on television or on print is when you are directly talking about problems surrounding us.
That is why I created this piece. This piece is meant to act as a mirror for women of color to be able to see themselves in spaces where they are usually ignored. When people look at this piece I want people to feel comfortable. I do not want this to feel foreign or different. This piece is meant to be art that challenges the status quo but is still allowed to be fun and beautiful. It should, however, start conversations in white spaces about why we don't see people like this in fashion magazines.
It's simply a fact that in the past 30 years only 30 women of color have been on the cover of Vogue Magazine. For scale, there have been 412 white women on the cover, and everything about that does not sit right with me. My piece is meant to show women of color as fashionable, without changing to make white Americans comfortable (hence the native languages represented). Not only are these publications racially-biased, but they are also colorist. In a recent study, 90% of WOC in magazines are either light or medium skin tones. Yes, you should feel embarrassed because the fact is that it is simply more profitable to market towards people of color, big corporations just don't want to.
I chose two media for this art piece because I wanted to show two different advertising methods. I thought photography would be best for a photo-shoot that showed these beautiful women of color editorially. The advertisement shows these women of color having fun which is a radical act in itself. It is very rare to see women of color having fun or not facing some type of adversity in mass media; this challenges that. I used Pathos throughout this art piece. The fun that is being had in the commercial appeals to pathos because it is so human. The beauty of the images also appeals to pathos. Ideally, I would want this piece to be a huge social media campaign that other women of color could add to. It would be really amazing to see all types of women from all around the world contributing to this art piece.

Citations 

Muller, Marissa G. “A New Study Shows Just How Bad Diversity in Hollywood Is.” W Magazine, 27 Feb. 2018

Neuendorf, Kimberly A. "The content analysis guidebook". Sage, 2016.


Owens, Tori. “As America Grows More Diverse, Fashion Magazine Covers Are Slow to Show Progress.” Peninsula Press, 25 Oct. 2017

Why You Shouldn't Correct AAVE

Hello and welcome to my second Action Project for my Junior humanities course, Rhetoric.

For this AP we looked at Op-Eds and their power. We had an FE with Troy LaRaviere, the president of the Chicago Principal's Union. This FE was very touching for me as my Grandmother is a retired CPS teacher from the south side, where Troy LaRaviere also taught. I was inspired by his speech to write about African American Vernacular English. This is a dialect that some people use as an excuse to ignore black people. I thought that it was very important to bring attention to this age of "digital blackface" and explain the beauty and uniqueness of dialects. 

                Why You Shouldn’t correct AAVE

                                

                                                            Via @ashoncrawley on twitter



Tik Tok culture has brought us modern-day minstrel shows- sans the blackface. The white folks of social media have taken trending black culture and turned it into the butt of a joke. From Instagram to Vine the most popular jokes have been “black people be like”. But, why? Why is the “easy” joke always racist? And it's not just Gen Z tik tokers who fall into this style of joke either. It's their parents too. C'mon, you can admit you've laughed at a white comedian imitating the black lady they saw in CVS or the black preacher they saw on tv. Maybe you complimented a black girl on how well-spoken she was just because she decided it was safer for her to use standard English in that situation.

So what's the problem with white folks using AAVE? There is always an assumption when you first meet someone. The unfortunate truth is that most people's assumption is based on learned racism. When those Instagram kids turn off their phones they can face the world without their stereotypes walking into a room before them. Still not convinced that it's a big deal? Let's dive deeper into it.


AAVE, or African American Vernacular English, is a dialect most commonly used in predominantly black spaces. It has been labeled by many as “incorrect”, however, learning how to dissect the dialect and “code-switch” is a vital skill. Code-switching is a necessary means of survival for all black Americans. Talking “white” is the only way we are even seen on a day to day basis. AAVE is not “uneducated,” AAVE is not “wrong,” and most importantly AAVE is not “ghetto.”

Arriel Vinson states that her classmates didn’t take her main character seriously because he spoke AAVE, though the character was extremely well educated and only used AAVE when speaking to friends or thinking to himself. AAVE is unfairly ridiculed by so many non-black poc, white folks, and even black Americans. In my own experience, in spaces like school and others, I work very hard to speak in a way that is comfortable for my listeners. I have felt the red-hot embarrassment of a slip-up, my use of “ain’t” or “finna” being taken as a joke or mocked and corrected, leaving me feeling that I have to reestablish myself as an “educated” person. There is nothing worse than walking into space, thinking that you made a good impression, and then hearing "oh, you speak so well". Yes, while this sounds like a compliment, I will ask you, when is the last time someone has to you this? My skin color walks into the room before I do, then my use of standard English. I often wonder if people who look like me ever see past my race or if I'm just the eloquent black girl.

Geoffrey K. Pullum affirms, “Those that speak AAVE don’t fail in speaking standard English they succeed in speaking African American English”.

Let's say you still are convinced that a person who speaks AAVE should be corrected. You may say "well, there is a time and place for everything."
To you I say, your privilege colors you vision, it tells you that everyone should be able to switch back and forth from standard English.
To you I say, if you work to understand AAVE you will hear that the person you looked over or ignored for being “ignorant” has a remarkable opinion covered in the deep-seated, rich, and beautiful culture of AAVE.





Addendum

In this Op-Ed, I used pathos as my rhetorical appeal. I used pathos because I felt that in order to get through to people about a culture that is different than their own it is best to use a common ground.

I used Anaphora “AAVE is not uneducated, AAVE is not wrong, and most importantly AAVE is not Ghetto.” Metaphor “I have felt the red-hot embarrassment of a slip up” and Allusion “C'mon, you can admit you've laughed at a white comedian imitating the black lady they saw in CVS or the black preacher they saw on tv.” I would like to submit this article to a prestigious newspaper like The New York Times. I know that the NYT has an audience that my Op-Ed imagines. My goal with this Op-Ed is to shake people into seeing people that they ignore, whether it be because of skin color, language, or vernacular. There are other dialects that get ignored as well like, Chicano English or Creole English. I want to express that these dialects are all so beautiful and they make our cultures so beautiful and untouchable.

Pete Buttigieg Loves Rhetoric!

DISCLAIMER- This Blog Post Does Not Reflect My Political Views


Hello and welcome to my first action project in my junior year for Rhetoric. In this class, we discussed rhetorical devices and situations. We also went over Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. All of these are appeals that people use to persuade and convince someone to, for example, buy their product. Or, in this case, vote for them in the election. In this AP, I studied Pete Buttigieg one of the people running for the nomination in the election. I went through most of his public speeches on gun control and learned what his plan and ideas are. With that information, I used Logos and Pathos to explain his opinion on Gun Control and hopefully persuade young people into being on his side.







Here is the script. I have highlighted and explained which rhetorical devices I used.

Speech Script TN 2019

Citations

Britton, Bianca. “What Other Countries Do to Stop Mass Shootings.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Aug. 2019, intl/index.html.

Follman, Mark, et al. “US Mass Shootings, 1982-2019: Data from Mother Jones' Investigation.” Mother Jones, 31 Aug. 2019,

Beneatha's Moment In The Sun

Hello and welcome to the last AP for my Humanities course, Drama. This is the last Action Project of my sophomore year. I am very excited to close this chapter of my academic career and move on to new things next year. In this year I explored many themes that all were centered around storytelling in some way. From the most literal way of creating my own creation story to writing our own short play. I was very challenged to make my writing better this year. That was very exciting to me because I  love to write. In this AP we were called to become a chorus for the play A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. In Greek theater, a chorus is a group of actors who comment on something that is happening in the main action of the play. They do this by singing, dancing, or reciting a chant. In our version of the chorus we are calling out good, bad and educational parts of the characters actions in the scene of our choosing. Please Enjoy.





Script


 



Music Credit: BenSound Romantic Jazz

Excerpts taken from A Raisin In The Sun

The Impossible Question

Have you ever found yourself in a debate about feminism? Have you ever felt that there was no solution to the questions you both were asking? Well in our skit my partners GR , BA and I asked a question that we didn't find a "fair" answer to. Our guiding question was "should women use their femininity to gain success or power?" This question was based off of our two female characters Nora (played by GR) who at one point in her story came close to seducing money out of her close friend and Josephine Baker (played by me, TN) who is a historical dancer from the 1920's flapper era. We thought this question would be great with the contrast of the shy and timid Nora against the bold and confident Josephine Baker. This action project was really enjoyable for me since I seek a future career in theater/writing. We had the privilege of going to the Goodman Theater where we got feedback and notes for our work. It was really fun for me to write for Josephine Baker however, one of my proudest moments in the script is the ending monologue that I wrote for Nora. I feel that it really sums up the point we were trying to get across with this video.





Our Script

Taming of a Jerk

Hello and welcome to my first Action Project for my humanities class, Drama. In this unit, we read Shakespeare's  Taming of The Shrew and discussed the play from a feminists lense. The play was written in a time where women were seen as objects and it reflects that. For this AP, we were called to reply to one of the characters in sonnet form. I decided to take a stance against Petruchio the man who married Katharina.

Petruchio, you tamed a feral shrew.
some may congratulate and praise your name,
But, Petruchio know I chide at you.
Are you proud of your dreadful claim to fame?

Petruchio, you are an evil knave.
Thinking of you, nothing good comes to mind
Walk in the shoes of the girl you’ve enslaved
Maybe then you will grow your missing spine.

You say “she is my goods and my chattels”
Women are just as powerful as men
Is your masculinity so fragile?
Equality is the best way to win!

Sir, the way you “tame” is no comedy
You’ve made Katharina a tragedy

HBCU Should Go To College

Hello and welcome to my first Action Project for my humanities course, Forbidden Books. In Forbidden Books, we talked about the censorship of books, the reason books get banned. We also discussed current censorship topics such as the Gucci blackface scandal and the Nike Arabic scandal. We read the book Fahrenheit 451 and we just ended our first unit called Politics. Socrates was a very prolific philosopher who never wrote any of his teachings down. We read The Apology which is the manifesto that Socrates wrote to his accusers. In this manifesto, Socrates held a hypothetical Socratic dialogue with one of his accusers. Socratic dialogue is when one person's questions another with a questionable opinion until they change their statement. Socrative dialogues can be dangerous because it challenges the government and can expose secrets.
My partner GR and I did a Socratic dialogue about Historically Black Colleges and Universities vs Primarily White Institutions. We discussed why a person wouldn’t want to go to an HBCU and the assumptions of why some people may think PWIs are “better”. We chose this topic because it's something we talk about very often. Howard is my dream college and GR wants to go to Brown.
 
HBCU Need To Go To College from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

Stand by My Review | A Culturalist Film Review of Stand by Me

Hello and welcome to my final Action Project for the class Ollywood. In this AP I reviewed the film Stand by Me with a culturalist lense. A culturalist looks at the importance of culture in a film and how that affects its viewers. In this final unit, we have been discussing post-production elements like editing, musical score, and foley artist work. You will hear more about those elements and how I rated them in stand by me. There is some language in the sound clips that could be considered offensive. Listener discretion is advised.



Transcript
 Be advised. This film review contains sound clips from the film with vulgar language. You've been warned.

 The movie stand by me is a film based off the book The Body by Stephen King and directed by Rob Reiner. This is a culturalist film review done by Tymony.
Stand by me is a cult classic and many who watch it say they related and found themselves within the movie.I, however, did not. But let's talk about the film's’ impact before we get into my cultural gripes and misgivings. The film contains a ragtag gang of white kids from a small town all of which have some type of domestic issues at home which gives them the perfect excuse to be able to disappear for two days with no worry.

We open the film with an older Gordie portrayed by Wil Wheaton reading a newspaper with a rather disturbing headline. He begins narrating and we see the group smoking cigarettes and being extremely foul-mouthed. We are now introduced to Christopher portrayed by River Phoenix, Vern portrayed by Jerry O'Connell and Teddy portrayed by Corey Feldman. Vern tells the gang that he overheard his older brother and friend talking about a dead kid that they had found in the woods. This is where our adventure begins.

 A piece of the film that I think really had an impact on the boys watching this film when it came out in 1987 was the fact that each of the boys were brought to tears at one part. They were shown crying but were never made fun of for it, instead, they were comforted by their friends which were really refreshing to see in a late 80’s boys film I use quotations. The acting in this movie is so incredibly well done especially by the children actors. You can forget the teens and adults in the movie, none of their characters stuck out and they blended all together. But the work done by these 12-year-olds was really nothing to shake a stick at The scene where Christopher tells Gordie that he deserves smarter and better friends than him. I found the maturity in Christopher's character sort of off-putting at first but when you tie it into his character's background, it makes sense and gives him depth.

 The film uses no CGI which makes sense for the type of film and also the time it was made. However, one endearing yet disgusting scene makes me chuckle and this is the scene where Gordie tells the story of an overweight boy and how he gets revenge on the town. There is vomit… a lot of it. But it is quite obviously coming from a hidden hose and not the actors. This scene also is very intentional in not having any filters over it so you know that it is a story, not a dream. While also having a brighter look highlighting it from the other real-life scenes. music.

The score was made up of songs that you would hear on the radio in 1959 from rockin' robbin to Yakkety Yak this film really puts you in the 50s groove. Ending it all with the films namesake stand by me. The film used effective sound effects to the point that you wouldn’t even realize they are there. Thank the foley artist Rick Ash for that! Now, would this film hold up if it came out in 2019? No. There is no cultural diversity in this film and in today's world that is the first thing people look for in a film. Also the constant use of the r-word, this would not make it very far.

 Truly I think we do need something like this in today's world but to be able to make a move like it did in the 80’s we’d have to see more diversity. By saying that I am not saying the legitimacy of the film is lesser what I am saying is that this movie played to the narrative as whiteness being the default. In a 2019 remake, we would have to see something that a-lines with what Americans see not necessarily what they are comfortable seeing. A remake would also take a revolutionary stance if it included people of color. Since you don’t see many boys of color insensitive, harmless and playful roles. So is Stand by me a good film? Yes! A film I would keep in my repertoire? no. but don’t let my opinion keep you from watching this great film. It's one to watch actively though constantly giving you a reason to feel weird about getting older and experiencing grief.

All sound clips from the film Stand By Me Rob Reiner 1986
Bazelon, Emily. "White People Are Noticing Something New: Their Own Whiteness" nytimes.com
The New York Times Company, 13 June 2018. Web
15 Jan 2019

The Ebert To My Siskel | Film Review

Hello and welcome to my second action project for Ollywood! In this unit, Production, we went over effective acting for a movie and how a director and actors jobs could go hand in hand to create a great film. For this units test, we created 30-second nanofilms which were unedited short films that we presented to our class. In this action project, My partner GR and I reviewed the film Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg in the style of Siskel and Ebert two iconic film critics from the '80s. I hope you enjoy!

 

All images were captured from the film Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg.

A Tale As Old As Time- A Critical Analyzation of Beauty And The Beast

Hello and welcome to my first AP in my Elective Humanities course, Ollywood.
Ollywood is a film class that teaches us to critically analyze movies as well as looking at the pre-production, production, and post-production elements of a film. In this unit, we looked at the screenplay of Jaws and acted as storyboarders creating a storyboard before even seeing the film. After this, we went real-world location scouting going to Wacker drive and getting pictures to storyboard an Indy teen film. In this action project, you will be reading my critique of Disney's Beauty and the Beast 2017.

Captured from the Film "favorite scene" 2017

Beauty and the Beast is a Disney favorite where we follow a fable with a moral when stripped down to its bones. The movie is set in France around 1740 and the majority of the movie takes place in the Beast's fantastic castle. This movie teaches to look at a person from the inside out as we see the main character, Belle, do many times. The movie is sweet and when looking at it from a perspective you can even see some political or societal messages, such as the townspeople blindly following Gaston. The movie is extremely immersive with its use of 16th-century clothing and architecture. Overall the movie has some serious moments but has a feminist message and sweet, lovely overtones.

Belle (portrayed by Emma Watson) finds her way into the Beast's world when her father's horse leads her to the castle where she takes her father’s place in the dungeon. The other occupants of the house are other people who were turned into pieces of furniture and other household accessories when the witch hexed the beast.
They are very kind and take a liking to Belle because she could have the power to lift the curse and turn them all human again. So, they let her out of the dungeon and give her a suite as well as invite her to a dinner. Even though the household items treat her so well, Belle is too frightened by the beast and tries to run away.

When the Beast runs after her he sees her being attacked by wolves, which he fights off for her. Of course, he is injured but Belle tends to his wounds and they end up bonding over their mutual love for books and Shakespeare. The two slowly fall in love. Meanwhile, her father has tried to get the townspeople to help him find Belle but they laugh and turn him away due to his old age and poverty they called him “ Crazy old Maurice.”
But a man named Gaston (Portrayed by Luke Evans) decides to go with him because he thought that if he saved her she would fall for him even though she has said multiple times that she is disgusted by him and his narcissism. They tie Maurice up to a tree when they think that he has led them on a wild goose chase and tell the townspeople that he is insane and a liar.

This movie is inspired by a French-fairytale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in the 1700s. Which brings me to the believability of the set dressings and the costumes. The beginning of the movie is set in Belle’s small town. It is full of well, townhouses that appear very old and natural for the time. There are horses being used as transportation for the people of wealth who are highlighted by gold buttons and embellishments on their coats. Most notably Gaston who has a high bumped ponytail as well as a clean-cut classic looking red coat with those embellishments. The poor people of the town had dirty clothes that hung from their bodies and messy uncared for hair. In my opinion, both the stage dressing and costumes were incredibly believable and allowed me to be immersed in the film even more.

Our protagonist is Belle, is a very loving and kind-hearted character, as well as one of the only literate people in her village. Because of this, she has become a very strong woman who isn’t easily persuaded by anyone. Belle will do the best for herself and her loved ones. A quote from the film that perfectly describes Belle is “There must be more to this provincial life” I chose this quote because, this shows that Belle wanted more, and she always fought and looked for more in her life.

Our antagonist is Gaston, is a narcissistic and one track minded character. After feeling tired of the ladies that threw themselves at him he became attracted to Belle. Gaston is looked highly upon by most of the villagers because of his looks and “heroism.” He is extremely manipulative of the townspeople. A quote from the movie that perfectly depicts Gaston is “You are the most beautiful thing alive, nobody deserves you” He was speaking to himself. Gaston is favored in this town and held so highly because he is the closest thing that the town has to a prince. The townspeople feel a need for some powerful figure to look to since the majority of the town is so poor. The women of the town want to be able to marry rich so that they can (temporarily) escape their problems.

To conclude, one of my favorite scenes and that is the ending scene where everything is resolved. In this scene the dialogue is simplistic and almost a monologue since Belle is just talking to an unconscious Beast. Belle cries and pleads that the beast doesn’t leave her and that she loves him. Once she says those words the screen is overcome with bright yellow streaks of light while we see the transformation of the beast into a handsome man. Emma Watson does a fantastic job of keeping love in her eyes the whole time showing that no matter what he looked like, Belle would always love the beast.

Hero's Journey

Hello and welcome to my last Humanities action project. In this project, I will be going through 8 stages of the hero's journey. The hero's journey is basically a shared trope between most stories with a hero 'discovered' by Joseph Cambell. In this Unit, we discussed what makes a hero other than their journey and we listed out our favorite hero stories.
This class was very special to me since I really enjoy writing and being creative. I enjoyed being able to create my own stories and even draw pictures of the characters. I look foward to using the character and story development tools I learned in this class in the near future.

I chose two heroes to compare; one real-life hero and one fictional. The real-life hero is my mother and she told the story of her moving my family out of our old neighborhood. The fictional character Ethan Morgan from My Babysitter's a Vampire. I chose this movie because it was a nostalgic Disney movie from my childhood. I chose to do my mother because she has many heroic stories from her life. Below Ethan's journey along with screenshots from the film.





Next up is my mom; her hero's journey is how she moved us away from our old neighborhood to a safer one.
Call to adventure
My mom's call to adventure was when she heard that our pastor who lived next door was held at gunpoint and robbed.
Refusal of call
At first, my mother did not want to leave and felt guilty because it was her childhood home that she was leaving.
Road of trials
For a while my mom was jobless before finding our new home, we had to move in with my grandmother.
Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon was getting her new job at Family Rescue as a court advocate as well as getting our new home where we still live to this day.

Transcript
Can you tell me about your hero's journey?

Well, my journey, I don't know how heroic you can call it but, when I moved in with my mom into our family home in Roseland because I was pretty much houseless and without a job. So I would say that was they ground zero

What was your call to move from Roseland

I really felt bad about leaving the community because it was my childhood home, but I realized that it was very important for me to figure out a way to leave after our next door neighbor who happened to be a pastor within the community was held up at gunpoint and robbed. That was kind of a wake up call for me because our little family was my mother and my newborn daughter.

Asante Sana- Creation story

Hello, and welcome to my first action project for the humanities class, Stories!
 In this class, we read many different creation myths and talked about why different cultures may have similar or totally different myths. For this action project, we created our own stories about the creation of anything. I chose to create a mythical land called Asante Sana that is ruled by 3 gods. I hope you enjoy!

The Monoculture Problem

Hello welcome to unit 2 of Food for thought, Death. In this AP I will be addressing the UN with what I think to be the number one thing endangering our global food system, monocultures.


Script
The global food system is the heart, soul and stomach of our society. Since it is the backbone of our world I think that it is very important that people are educated about it. According to Cornell “A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items.” Simply put, the global food system is the way that the world gets its food and in my opinion there is one major thing that is compromising it, monocultures. A monoculture is when a single crop is cultivated in one area leaving that crop more susceptible to diseases and can be easily destroyed by animals.

One historically devastating result of a monoculture is the irish potato famine. While the direct cause of the famine was a disease called late blight, the huge impact could have been lessened if the crops were diversified. Not enough people speak about monocultures simply because people aren't informed enough about the issue. According to greentumble.com reason that farmers might have a monoculture is that it is easier and more efficient. This simply doesn’t compare to the downfalls of monocultures. With a problem, there always comes a solution in this situation, I have three. The first and most obvious solution is biodiversity, biodiversity is when there is more than one crop being cultivated in a space.
The easiest way to make sure that plants thrive while in a diverse situation is with plant companions, plant companions help eachother grow and don’t compete for sunlight and water. Another solution is the rotation of crops, according to Home, Yard and Garden Pest this prevents some of the risks that come with monoculture. The SDGs are 17 Goals that the UN put in place to better our world. The obvious SDG that relates to monoculture solutions would be number 2 zero hunger. However, I think that another relevant goal would be sustainable cities and communities since community gardens and farm to table restaurants are becoming more and more popular as well as necessary. In conclusion, although education on monocultures seems tedious, it is very necessary to realise the very real consequences that could come from cultivating monocultures.

 Citations “Avoiding Monocultures.” What Is a Fruiting Body?, hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200718c.html. Nations, U. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP.

Can we map our neighborhoods' present and future

In our Thin Red Lines class we discussed maps on a deeper level, we discussed maps' intentions. Which is something that I wanted to keep in mind for this Action Project. In my AP I kept in mind what my community is now, what the people want it to be, and what it could be in the future. I made 1 base map and three layers, the three layers were a current map, a dream map, and a future map.
I go more in depth about each layer in the video.

                                                           TN Current 2018

This layer I call the "current layer". It shows restaurants, churches, and stores in different neighborhoods. It reads, "87% of people in Mt. Greenwood identify as white" "62% of people in Morgan Park identify as black" and "57% of people in Beverly identify as white." in each corresponding neighborhood.

                                                             TN Dream 2018

This is the layer I call "dream" because it takes ideas from people in each community and puts what they would want into the map. Heres what people said, by neighboorhood. Morgan Park; Art Studio, Vetranarian, A theater, a Chain restaurant, and A dentists office. Mt. Greenwood; Dollar store, Pet store, Computer repair, Clothing store. Beverly; another Bank, bookstore, grocery store, computer repair, hair salon, and an art supply store.

                                                          TN Future 2018

This is the layer I call "future" because it shows what our community could be.
It adds more blue (black population) to areas like mt. Greenwood and adds a new color, red, to the map which represents the Latinx, Asian, and mixed race population.