Tag: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 10)

For my last progress report, I want to focus on the feedback we’ve gotten from both COPLAC students and professors. I like to think about feedback as advice on how to strengthen our website instead of just as something that points out our flaws. The feedback we got from Cara and Karina was really helpful, both in person and on hypothesis. I definitely think adding the transcripts of the news articles is smart because they will help people read them and make them searchable. It’s good to have this feedback because I can read the articles so I wasn’t thinking other people wouldn’t be able to, but now I know how to make our site better. Similarly, we’ve been working on this site for so long and there are typos we need to fix because I’ve been reading it and rereading it for so long that I just read it how I wanted to read it, so I’m grateful for help in that area.

There are some things I’m not sure how to fix, such as the italics in the Timeline JS or the color of the hyperlinks, but Sean and I are going to tackle that this week. Another fix that is less straightforward to me is the permission from the D&C because I’m a bit confused. I had asked about that a few weeks ago and I thought that Leah said because I got the articles from newspapers.com permission from the newspaper wasn’t needed, so I’m not sure where to go from here. Also, I’m not sure what pictures to insert to break up the text. I don’t want to randomly insert images that aren’t related, so I’m hoping Sean has some ideas for that.

I’m excited to tackle all the feedback otherwise because it feels a bit like spring cleaning. Organizing and cleaning up the website is almost therapeutic. It didn’t occur to me until reading the feedback that some links and stuff would be faulty because they worked for me. Now I realize I will have to look at the website while logged out so that I can see what a third party observer sees and understand what they experience. I really appreciate the feedback we got because sometimes when you create something it’s hard to look at it and see its flaws. One of the things I really appreciate is that with the constructive criticism there were also compliments. It’s nice to know that some things work well and makes it easier to see how other aspects need to be enhanced. I really felt good about these comments from Cara and Karina and am happy we all got to engage in this peer feedback.

Another benefit of the feedback is that going over it demonstrates what might be our main parts of the website. This will help Sean and I figure out what pages we want to showcase when we do our presentation

I do apologize for the tardiness for the lateness of this post, for the last week and a half, I have been polishing my latest draft of my creative writing project, which I am proud to say it consists of forty pages. My project covered poetry written in a Native storyteller style, while the rest of it is prewriting of scenes for a dystopic fiction, with a Native protagonist, but enough of my creative writing project.  Over the course of last week, Max and I have been unable to work on the site since our draft has been submitted. However, we did do a few minor edits, we did edit the navigation to make it more intuitive, we are getting rid of the pages that occupied the menus line and are opting for just the drop-down menu. I am also going to try to edit the front page picture for it will be easier to read for  I uploaded the correct biography page for J.D. Salinger, I had previously uploaded my first rough draft of the page. Also, I completely forgot to get something uploaded to my biography section, so I will get that uploaded when I have free time this week or sometime next week. We have now received both feedback from our peers and professors; now Max and I will go through a list comprised from both and complete as much as possible in the next following week before we present at the end of the semester.

Just to clarify from my last post, we did not interview Dr. Anderson, due to the lack of time and we did not want to suddenly drop this on Professor Anderson. Also, the new aspect of the site was typing the content of the clipping of the newspaper and upload them along with pictures of the clipping onto the site.  We are going to try to edit the images and either increase them in size or create PDF versions.

Works Cited:

CENSORSHIP CARTOON, 1929. – Cartoon by Rollin Kirby for the New York ‘World,’ 1929. The Massachusetts book laws and the New England Watch and Ward Society had made ‘Banned in Boston’ a famous phrase throughout the world.. Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

I have had quite the exciting April this year. I got to meet two Native American authors who I greatly admire. I’ve also been busy with finishing up final papers and projects for my second to last semester before graduating!

But before I give details on those encounters, I’ll dive into my experience with peer reviewing SUNY Genesco’s website:

I think Liz and Sean did an excellent job with creating and putting together the website. I love the rainbow background. I was a little nervous that it might be a bit difficult for me to read, but the text was dark enough to where I could make everything out without any issues. I read as much of the actual content as I could. I thought it was super interesting. I had never heard of Rainbow Boys before I took this class, so it was a new learning experience for me.

My only concerns that I recall having is that I found some typos in one of the timelines. And it was a little difficult for me to see that some text was hyperlinked since the hyperlinks were so close to the color of the regular text.

My favorite part of the website was the video where Alex Sanchez talks about his experience as a homosexual man and writer. I thought it fit so well with the content of the interview transcription above the video. It was a perfect touch in my mind.

I think that one good addition to the site might be some excerpts from the book that Liz and Sean may think have been challenged. It also would have been nice to see more photos to compliment the interview transcriptions and some of the text. Though I wonder if they were minimalist with extra media because of the rainbow background.

On that note, one page that I saw on Sean and Liz’s website that I think would be a good addition to my and Rosanna’s website is a page that lists what we know about the parent who challenged the book. Even though we didn’t get to interview the parent, I think it would be useful to have one page dedicated to listing all that we unearthed about him so that viewers can have that context.

It was really cool to go through the website. It not only made me think about this particular case of censorship, but the evolution of LGBTQ literature throughout history. I think that we have come a long way. Though we still have more ways to go in that literary arena.

Now I’ll jump to my interactions with Annette Clapsaddle and Joy Harjo.

A little background on Annette:

She is an author and journalist who is both local and native to western North Carolina. Annette is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who grew up in Cherokee, North Carolina. She currently resides in Qualla, North Carolina with her husband and children. She earned her bachelor’s in American Studies and Secondary English from Yale University and her master’s degree in American Studies from the College of William and Mary. Her first novel, Going to Water, whose main character is loosely based on her grandfather, the late former Principal Chief Osley Saunooke, is the winner of the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium, a finalist for the PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and the 2017-2018 selection for Western Carolina University’s One Book program. When she was the assistant to the former Principal Chief Michell Hicks, Annette produced Cherokee Elders: Our Greatest Generation and a series of children’s books including: The Elder Tree, True Blue, and What Wonders. Her recent publications also include “Undertow” in Carolina Mountain Literary Festival Anthology: Ten Years of Festivals, Naked Came the Leaf Peeper, “It All Comes Out in the Wash” from Appalachian Heritage Quarterly, and “Camouflage” from Night is Gone, Day is Still Coming. After she served as the executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Annette returned to teaching English at Swain County High School. She has been National Board Certified since 2012. She is coeditor of the Journal of Cherokee Studies and has written bimonthly columns for Smoky Mountain Living magazine.

I got to introduce Annette at Western Carolina University’s annual spring Literary Festival this year. I didn’t get to speak with her much. I wanted to give her some space while she prepped for her talk and had to run out after her presentation was over to make my long trek back home, but I did get a lot out of her presentation and the little bit that I got to converse with her.

One thing that Annette stressed during her presentation was how being a Native American writer is inherently political. Native writers have the power to shape how the world perceives us. However, we also have the burden of dealing with an industry that tends to not understand our people and that sometimes requests that we portray our people in a stereotypical light. For example, Annette described how she has sometimes been asked to write fiction set during the Trail of Tears and how she doesn’t give in to that. While the Trail of Tears is a big historical event for our people, she does not think it should fully define who we are.

Again, it makes me think about the day that my class discussed the lack of Native voices in literature and some obstacles that Native writers might face. What we want to share may not always be what publishers are interested in. And I think that this really stems from stereotypes that certain individuals buy into. In my own experience, sometimes it feels like people don’t want anymore than what they’ve been told. And, in my mind, that kind of defeats the purpose of diversifying the literary canon with more Native voices. We don’t all share a single story. Our tribes and experiences are varied and rich.

After the festival, I was invited to attend a Q&A session with Joy Harjo. Here is some quick background information about her from the Poetry Foundation:

Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She earned her BA from the University of New Mexico and MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.Harjo draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions, and frequently incorporates indigenous myths, symbols, and values into her writing. Her poetry inhabits landscapes—the Southwest, Southeast, but also Alaska and Hawaii—and centers around the need for remembrance and transcendence. […]Her work is often autobiographical, informed by the natural world, and above all preoccupied with survival and the limitations of language. A critically-acclaimed poet, Harjo’s many honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She has received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. In 2017 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize in Poetry. In addition to writing poetry, Harjo is a noted teacher, saxophonist, and vocalist. She performed for many years with her band, Poetic Justice, and currently tours with Arrow Dynamics. She has released four albums of original music, including Red Dreams, A Trail Beyond Tears (2010), and won a Native American Music Award for Best Female Artist of the Year in 2009. She has been performing her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, since 2009 and is currently at work on a musical play, We Were There When Jazz Was Invented.

One major takeaway that I got from the session with Joy was her own self-censorship. At one point, she said, “I don’t want to write anything to cause harm. Words can really hurt somebody.” Towards the end of the session, I had a chance to ask her a question. “Do you think that there are some things that are too sacred to write about?” I didn’t get to write everything from her reply, but she essentially said that she thought so. What I gathered is that there are some things in our lives that are too intimate and sanctified to share with the world in our literature.

UNC Asheville’s Native American Student Association with Joy Harjo. (I’m the fifth person from the left side.)

That’s me with Annette Clapsaddle at Western Carolina University’s Spring 2018 Literary Festival.

The website is beginning to come together nicely. This week we are reviewing all of the websites completed by the class and giving feedback on what works and what could use some improvement. The course began very reading intensive on varying ideas on censorship, and as I reviewed a peer’s website i noticed a trend among general book censorship. In many of the cases, especially in the case of To Save A Mocking Bird, those who came out against the book did so for the use of the N-word and graphic scenes that would be too inappropriate for children. In Accomack County, this was the case. A parent made an initial complaint about the reading of To Kill A Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The parent, much like others who attempt to censor books, used the depictions of race and language by the characters as the reason for the ban. In this case it is tricky to declare that the book is not offensive to the reader, the complainant was the mother of a mixed African American child. She felt that the school reading materials should be reviewed and offer a more inclusive setting for the students, as her son hears it often enough outside of school, he should not hear it in the classroom. “She claimed that by letting students read these materials they were normalizing the use of the n-word in schools and her child shouldn’t have to hear it in their place of education, that her son already hears it enough on the street.”

After the initial complaint filed by his mother at the school board meeting, there was a petition started to bring the book from the county schools. Students at the high school wanted to bring the book back to the shelf. Then after the petition circulated, more and more parents, students, and residents to the county began to take notice. On December 2nd, 2016, there was a protest organized by Charles Knitter  in protest of the banning of To Kill A Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He advertised the event on Facebook while word spread throughout the community.  There were about 50 protesters there all to speak their mind and try to bring the book back to the shelves, all the while stating that the books are condemning racism and not actually condoning or encouraging racism. There efforts would prove to be successful. On December 6th, 2016, the Accomack County School Board voted to permanently reinstate both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn back to school library shelves.

As I explored their website further, I noticed that they put in a map of other places in the United States and Canada. This case of To Kill A Mockingbird seems to be one of many, all in which targeting the use of the N-word to denounce the book as racist. I found it interesting that it has been challenged so many times, all along the same reasoning, in several parts of the country. It can really make you think about book censorship and the rights to free speech.

This week, I had the opportunity to peer-edit Drexel and Price’s website on The Song of Solomon and then hear feedback from Cara and Karina on our own website. The task of looking at the St. Mary’s website was hopefully useful for its creators but it also definitely helped me to have the chance (incentive) to thoroughly look at another site and pick up some ideas for improving Behind the Rainbow. As a general trend, I noted some typos on the St. Mary’s site that I corrected on Hypothesis, and the favor was returned by those who looked at our site. Essentially, everyone in the class presumably understands the basic rules of grammar but with the flood of hastily added content on our sites, it may not appear that way. Additionally, with the St. Mary’s site, there were some pages of content that I felt lacked appropriate background information to piece the site together for a visitor who does not know how each participant’s story links together. Looking back at our site, the same can be said as pointed out by Cara and Karina; we would benefit from a little more general information on our home page to establish the basics of what happened outside of the timeline. Similarly, there was a question on the St. Mary’s site of which aspects of the “Opinions” drop down menu reveal content and which do not. On our own site, we overlooked that the “Home” tab and the “Timeline of Events” tab are literally the same page and that could be confusing to a viewer. Finally, on the St. Mary’s site, I felt there was a good balance of text and images and rarely a page where one seemed to be dominating the other. Reflecting on our site, we could benefit from some more images to break up long chunks of texts.

Looking at the extensive feedback from Cathy and Rebecca provided lots of improvements to make to the site but reaffirmed that overall we have strong information to carry the project. Something I had thought about but was not sure how to incorporate was my own perspective on the material. Our voice was recognizable at various points in the site, but I think we would benefit from a separate perspectives section like the St. Mary’s site had. That way, we can synthesize all of the reactions, connections, and conclusions that arose throughout the research process. Next, giving the text of the newspaper articles luckily will not be too difficult because they’ve already been typed on either Alex Sanchez’s website or newspapers.com. Though I think some organization of that material could be in order in terms of putting it in a separate and more visible tab. It’s nice to see the framework for “About Rainbow Boys” and “Historical Context” is on the right track, and we’ll just add some more examples and analysis for those pages to give a more complete perspective. Looking at the Trish Warren page, I’ve battled some criticism on it since it was first made, but I still feel putting the entire single-spaced 4-5 page transcript on the page would be too long and I think the summary is fair and encourages interested parties to read on via the attached transcript. Lastly, I appreciated Cara’s point that our hyperlinks should be better contrasted because we relay a lot of information through them and we certainly want visitors to notice they are there.

This week I took a break from editing our website. I plan today to look back at it today with fresh eyes so that I can fix and update it. Instead this week I reviewed and made comments on the St. Mary’s site using hypothesis. This was helpful for me because, not only did they use the same theme (Parabola) in WordPress, they also did a challenge about a book by Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon. I liked seeing the way they used Parabola to create their website and how they laid things out. It was helpful to see the way they set up their navigation because it lets me understand the way some people may approach a website, this will help me to make sure our website is approachable to as many people as possible.  I also like they information and especially the videos they included of Toni Morrison. I thought it was nice to hear her opinion on censorship, her process, etc.

Another thing I really enjoyed about their website was they way they incorporated all of their primary documents. Their website is a treasure trove of newspaper articles, and letters to and from the school board, as well as a large file containing the teachers collection of student writings on the book challenge. Because there were so many primary documents, they faced the challenge of incorporating all of the documents into the website while also providing context for the documents and connecting them to the case as a whole. I liked the way they provided the original documents, while also transcribing them into the pages to increase the ability to search for the text and the accessibility. I have to say I am very impressed with the amount of information on their site.

The main suggestion I had for them was to better connect their documents. After reading through all of their pages, I realized that I still didn’t really understand how everything fit together. I suggested that they add a few pages as jumping off points where they summarized what happened in their case, and give a master list of resources, linking out to pages where they go into more detail about different specifics on the case.

This week has been really quiet due to making comments on other groups websites while waiting on their suggestions. I decided to revisit the article “Why don’t archives digitize everything?” For me personally I think that everything should be digitized and saved because that’s just how I am. Every magazine, assignment, basically any piece of paper, I try to save. Even if it is never going to be looked at again I want to keep it. While I do end up recycling most of these things part of me wonders whether or not future generations would want to see a math test from third grade. Yes, I know it’s a tad crazy but I’m all about preservation of just about everything.

The first point that the article makes is that digitization is really expensive and time consuming. I found a website that sells these types of products and found that a thing called the ‘Preservation Pencil,’ which directs moisture, is $2000. This product doesn’t digitize, it is about preserving the paper and it is that expensive. To buy digitization products, you have to be a member of NARA (National Archives and Records Administration.) If money wasn’t a factor as to why more things aren’t digitized I would gladly spend all my time doing it because I love it. At UMW, we have a digital collection, but I have not spent time there. I know that one person works with the records so I assume that it is a small collection. There is also a digital archives class at UMW, which I regret not taking because I think that it would have been really interesting.

To manage a digital archive you have to be extremely tech savvy. You have to have a computer with a large hard drive and know all the ins and outs of the format changes that each piece of content brings. The article mentions that these formats are constantly changing, which is difficult to deal with when the process costs so much. Hopefully, the costs go down due to how digital our society has become. It makes sense to me that as tech takes over digitization of records would be a normal thing so the costs go down due to such high demand. At least that is what I’m crossing my fingers will happen.

I had a weird feeling come over me today when Sean and I were presenting our website. I didn’t realize until later that it was pride—in the website, all the work we did, and what we were able to present. It’s not that I wasn’t proud up until that point, but I’m usually not the best at public speaking, so I don’t usually experience that level of pride where I want to show everyone everything about my project if I don’t have to. But that’s what happened today. I wanted to brag about how awesome, at least to me, everything turned out. I was worried I was actually going to take up too much time. It was a great feeling, but I also know that it just means I’m going to take the critiques of my website that much harder. I understand the necessity and that it will only serve to make the website better, but I’ve always been a bit afraid of criticism even if it is constructive. I’m looking forward to improving my website based on the feedback, but I almost wish that part was over with already. Similarly, I find it hard to wait for criticism. I know, it makes no sense. Why would I say I hate criticism and then say I’m impatient for it? It’s because I know it’s coming; I want it as soon as possible, so I can address the issues as soon as possible.

I’m plan on keeping my fears in mind when using Hypothesis to evaluate UNC Ashville’s website. I can already tell they put a lot of work into it and that any suggestions I have are just things intended to strengthen the website rather than point out something they missed.

I’m been looking over the other websites for the past few weeks now, both inside and outside of class, but I’m looking forward to doing an in-depth study of Buncombe & The Bluest Eye. I have never read the book, but I have studied Toni Morrison, so I’m interested to learn more. Furthermore, their challenge was more recent, so I definitely think that will lend to a website structure and information portrayal that differs from ours. I’m planning on going over the website throughout the week to really get a feel for it, so that my feedback is useful and not just criticism, which I definitely understand is hard to take.

I don’t handle constructive criticism well at first, but after moving past the initial feeling of being uncomfortable, I take it for the often valuable advice it is. One thing I really like about the COPLAC class is that even though we are not attending in the same space, it’s such a small group that it makes for a more intimate setting. I’m more comfortable with these fellow students critiquing my website because I’ve known them—stared at them over a computer screen, really—for weeks. Sometimes, with a bigger in-person class that doesn’t happen. I’m glad I got to experience a class like this before I graduate.

Today is certainly a day of accomplishment with the draft of our website being completed! Liz and I had a Behind the Rainbow bash on Sunday night, eating various desserts and filling in what was left of our site. Though last week had some disappointments such as Reverend Morse and Carole Barnabas not responding to us, we still feel the site is complete and fair. Even without Carole, we had interviews with two supporters of Rainbow Boys who were actively involved in handling the challenge with Trish Warren and Carly Maldonado. As for Reverend Morse, a personal response would definitely have been useful, we found lots of useful context on the Reverend’s Facebook page and the church website where he used to work. Through these pieces of evidence and Trish’s recount of Morse’s positions in the District meeting, we are able to get a pretty clear, though not certain, grasp of our challenger’s concerns. Personally, I had to look back at my Trish Warren page and take out some of my excess commentary that sparked some debate last week. I thought the details of her spat with student Devin seemed less important upon reflection, and that is also where I what could be interpreted as criticism of Trish’s decision. Thus, I decided to take out the dramatic details of the Perks of Being a Wallflower case, and just include Trish’s flexible position on weighing book’s themes against gratuitous content.

Liz and I were unsure how to approach historical context, but we found there has been a pretty noteworthy shift in perception of LGBT issues, especially gay marriage, since the early 2000s. Not only has the general population risen from 35%-62% support of gay marriage but evangelical white Protestants, holding beliefs that closely align to Morse’s, have seen support of gay marriage rise from 12% to 35% since 2006. So today, not only would the town’s general response have been different, but it’s more likely that even religious figures would not take issue with stories that promote acceptance of LGBT life. Along a similar note, I’m thinking maybe we could still add the District policy on LGBT students. I’m not certain, but I’d imagine in 2006 there probably was no official stance on protecting and helping LGBT students whereas now there is one. It’s hard to imagine any high ranking District official in 2018 doing what Agostenelli did and swiftly agreeing to ban a book on the basis of same-sex relationships.  

Looking forward, we’re certainly open to all criticism, but especially suggestions on the organization of content and having the appropriate balance of words, images etc. on each page of our site. We’ll also need to consider some final reflections for what our research has meant to us, what we’ve learned, and how we’ll move forward with it as to prepare for our presentation and maybe a page on our site as well.

This past week has been really busy in terms of putting finishing touches onto the website. Drexel and I went to the third floor of the St. Mary’s library, the media center, and set up our little work space to edit the video and go over additional materials for the website. Our case of Song of Solomon is progressing well, I feel that everyday as we approach our deadline we discover more information about the book, author, and the controversy. The first thing I showed my partner was the photo of David Flood with Toni Morrison. He. Was. Shocked. In our research we discovered that Toni Morrison visited St. Mary’s College, but we were unsure of the specific time and needed to do more research. As it turns out, the controversy in St. Mary’s County affected everybody and the College decided to award Toni Morrison the Margaret Brent award.

With this new information under our belt, I took out the rest of the paperwork that David turned over to me after our interview. His bag was old, it was falling apart at the seams, and smelled of old newspapers. I took out all of the folders of old newspapers from the Enterprise, Washington Post, New York Times, and the school newspaper. Sprawled it all out over the table and started to show my partner how much David kept over these 25 years since the controversy. As I was sifting through the papers and explaining the papers, Drexel asked me about the white binder that was in the bag. He was onto my little surprise. I reached into the bag and pulled out David’s white binder, this binder contained a major piece to our puzzle. Earlier in the semester it was made clear by my Professors that we need to find the original complaint against the book. This task has proved more than difficult because St. Mary’s County Public Schools did not have the paperwork digitized, because it was over 25 years ago. Drexel and I went to the offices of St.Mary’s County Public Schools and sought to go through files and additional paperwork at their offices, we were denied entry because we did not have an appointment and the County Schools were off that week. Our attempts were blocked by forces out of our control, but we persisted and continued to reach out and seek for the letter and complaint against Song of Solomon.

I pulled the binder from David’s bag and set it on the table. Opening to the first few pages I handed it to Drexel and said its what we have been missing all along. The binder held a copy of the original letter that would start months of controversy and debate. This letter from one parent, started the entire debate. No formal complaint was filed.