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Alexa, Aaliyah & Camryn Present This week!

I. Reminders​ & Announcements
Please Note
This project is due TODAY, so you can wait until after Easter to do it.  My apologies for not looking at the calendar more closely when I designed the syllabus.
II. The One-Pager Project: REMINDER
A one-pager is similar to a collage except that you must incorporate words.  All white-space must be used (an image or words should be everywhere). Here are the various components that must be featured on your page (must be at least 16in X 20in in handmade form on the canvas that was mailed to you):

A) Sample One-Pager Projects: Handmade

B) Sample One-Pager Projects: digital

III. Black, Gay & Pacifist: The Legacy of Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
  • Have you heard of Bayard Rustin? If so, what do you know about him?
0:00-1:23... 6:46-11:15 
Brief Overview (Full)
"Turning Conflict into Creative Conflict"
Click here to read this memo that Bayard Rustin wrote to Martin Luther King. As you read:
  • What do you think of what Rustin says about the Montgomery Bus Boycott (#A)?  Please click here for info on the Boycott if you need that.
  • What do you think of Rustin's leadership style in his points in #B-G? 
  • How do you see Rustin shaping MLK's ideas?
  • Even if you have not heard of Rustin before, do you feel like you have been exposed to his thinking?  Please explain. 
Complete form below or click here: https://forms.gle/iXu6psMT7G2nsMSa9
III. INTRODUCTION to the THEME HOMEWORK: 
​"PUNKS, BULLDAGGERS, AND WELFARE QUEENS THE RADICAL POTENTIAL OF QUEER POLITICS?" (1997) by Cathy Cohen
In your homework for Thursday, you will read this 1997 essay named above.  It is a historical game-changer.   It is 29 pages so take your time.  For today and the rest of this unit, ask yourself: what is queer rhetoric?  What does it re-imagine for the world?  Remember that you can answer this as snail mail to me or as part of a zine.
​          On the eve of finishing this essay my attention is focused not on how to rework the conclusion (as it should he) hut instead on news stories of alleged racism at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). It seems that three hlack hoard memhers of this largest and oldest AIDS organization in the world have resigned over their perceived suhservient position on the GMHC hoard. Billy E. Jones, former head of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and one of the hoard memhers to quit, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Much work needs to he done at GMHC to make it truly inclusive and welcoming of diversity.... It is also clear that such work will he a great struggle. I am resigning hecause I do not choose to engage in such struggle at GMHC, hut rather prefer to fight for the needs of those ravaged hy H.I.V." (Dunlap).
           This incident raises mixed emotions for me, for it points to the continuing practice of racism many of us experience on a daily hasis in leshian and gay communities. But just as disturhingly it also highlights the limits of a leshian and gay political agenda hased on a civil rights strategy, where assimilation into, and replication of, dominant institutions are the goals. Many of us continue to search for a new political direction and agenda, one that does not focus on integration into dominant structures hut instead seeks to transform the hasic fahric and hierarchies that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently….
~Cathy Cohen
Picture
Before you start this theme, you need to decide how you will do your final project #3 that connects to this unit.  How you do the final project will determine what kind of RRs you submit. You have two choices for the final project in this theme: 1) snailmail art OR 2) a digital zine.  If you choose snailmail art, then you will do each RR as a scrapbooker might—as a piece of art.  At the end of the theme, you will put all of your RRs in some kind of container and mail them on project day.  Please let Carmen know if you need envelopes and stamps for mailing.  Snailmail art rarely uses word processing and can be written on anything--- including newspapers and things with print already on them.  In fact, the more alternative the medium, the better.  Use what you have around you. Snailmail is also handwritten. For inspiration here, go to Instagram and search under the hashtag, #snailmail or #snailmailrevolution. You can also see Carmen's Pinterest Board (click here for ideas).
​
If you choose a digital zine, then you will do each RR like you normally would via word processing. For the theme project, you will take your RRs from this theme and create a zine that looks a lot like this syllabus.  You will need to play with multiple fonts on EACH page. Each page should have at least three images/graphs/charts with the words wrapped around each image (i.,. no free floating images) with image credits right below.  You will need to figure out the tech skills of all this on your own, because that’s not something that I can teach over email.
 
Make your choice now so that you can move seamlessly into the theme project.  What would you rather do?  Work on the computer?  Or work with more tactile materials and with your hands?  Only you can answer this. You might get sick of the computer screen really quickly if every class is online now, so maybe you want to craft a snailmail project.  Crafting is also a form of self-care so if that’s you, really let yourself go and get into this project.  On the other hand, you might be the type who likes to stay up all hours of the night, playing on the computer, and overdosing on Red Bull.  If that’s your thing, the digital zine is for you.  If you’re somewhere in the middle…. Well, there’s always flipping a coin.  In the ideal, this project won’t feel like a chore.  It will feel like putting together all of your ideas in a low-stress but creative way.  
Snail Mail Sent to My Home Last Spring
Popular Zine Right Now All Over the Internet