Gaga Stigmata: GAGAGRAPHY: Gaga, "Judas," & Francis Bacon

Gaga Stigmata: GAGAGRAPHY: Gaga, "Judas," & Francis Bacon

Gaga Stigmata: GAGAGRAPHY: Gaga, "Judas," & Francis Bacon

Gaga Stigmata: GAGAGRAPHY: Gaga, "Judas," & Francis Bacon

Final post: Perception of Green

Due: Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m.

Here is a link to Klocek-Lim's poem "How to Perceive Red": http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/12/how-to-perceive.html

Take one stanza and imitate as exactly as possible in terms of its sentence and image structure but put in your own words and images; your assignment, however, is How to Perceive Green. Please tell me which stanza you are imitating. When you finish, briefly describe what you got out of doing this. Thank you.

There are Two Posts: This One & One with the Rubric for the Slam (Posted Earlier)

This Post (Due Wednesday evening by 7:00 p.m.)
Read the poem which appears below the questions carefully; answer ALL of the questions:

1. In your opinion, what is the subject matter of the poem? Why do you think so? Provide evidence from the poem itself and explain it.
2. What is the theme of the poem? What gives you that idea? Explain and provide proof from the poem itself. There is not one correct answer to this question. There are several possible answers to this question, so please do not write the same answer as others. I will not give credit to answers that are the same as previous ones.


After the Movie

by Marie Howe
My friend Michael and I are walking home arguing about the movie.
He says that he believes a person can love someone
and still be able to murder that person.
I say, No, that's not love. That's attachment.
Michael says, No, that's love. You can love someone, then come to a day
when you're forced to think "it's him or me"
think "me" and kill him.
I say, Then it's not love anymore.
Michael says, It was love up to then though.
I say, Maybe we mean different things by the same word.
Michael says, Humans are complicated: love can exist even in the
murderous heart.
I say that what he might mean by love is desire.
Love is not a feeling, I say. And Michael says, Then what is it?
We're walking along West 16th Street—a clear unclouded night—and I hear my voice
repeating what I used to say to my husband: Love is action, I used to say
to him.
Simone Weil says that when you really love you are able to look at
someone you want to eat and not eat them.
Janis Joplin says, take another little piece of my heart now baby.
Meister Eckhardt says that as long as we love images we are doomed to
live in purgatory.
Michael and I stand on the corner of 6th Avenue saying goodnight.
I can't drink enough of the tangerine spritzer I've just bought—
again and again I bring the cold can to my mouth and suck the stuff from
the hole the flip top made.
What are you doing tomorrow? Michael says.
But what I think he's saying is "You are too strict. You are
a nun."
Then I think, Do I love Michael enough to allow him to think these things
of me even if he's not thinking them?
Above Manhattan, the moon wanes, and the sky turns clearer and colder.
Although the days, after the solstice, have started to lengthen,
we both know the winter has only begun.

Suggestions & Rubric for Upcoming Slam!

Yes, it's that time of the semester everyone -- SLAM time, and you want to excel at slamming and not get slammed, so here are some suggestions about how to make that happen. Read very carefully please:

Clarification of what constitutes a slam poem:

1.Your poem can adopt a combination of forms -- free verse and rhymed verse, but it must have some sense of rhythm and flow.

2. A well-crafted slam is highly articulate, highly provocative (gets a reaction out of the audience), sophisticated in its detail and in its performance knowledge (how to get a rise out of the audience).

3. It must include personal experience and figurative language (sound devices, imagery, five senses, similes, metaphors, etc.)

4. It is either dramatic (creates a moment of intense feeling), narrative (tells a story for some larger thematic reason) or didactic (has a purpose to teach some kind of lesson or make a point about something that is very important to you; something in society or at school or in the culture that needs to be changed or needs to be noticed, for example).

5. Maximum time length: 2 minutes 37 seconds; (please do not be too far beneath the time limit either)

6. Music, props, and costumes are allowed.

7. You do not have to memorize it, but you may NOT read it

8. Expectation: that you write the poem by yourself and that you bring the piece to life in front of your classmates so that everyone feels spoken to and everyone can hear and understand what you are saying very clearly and feels moved in some way by your piece (it may be humorous or serious).

Suggestions for Rehearsing the Slam:

1.Make sure the slam poem is well-organized and has all the poetic elements required above;

2. Time it on a few different takes.

3. Think about your body language (Feel free to have others watch you and make suggestions)

4. What will your hands do?

5.What will your body position be?

6. Think about how you will modulate your voice to enhance your poem and not overdo it.

7. What else will you use to enhance your performance?

8.You can't practice too much.

Slam will be graded using the following Criteria:

1. The poem itself: following the instructions regarding rhythm and figures of speech and word choice, degree of creativity/originality of topic, illustrations/examples and execution of poem.

2.PERFORMANCE:Clarity of articulation, body language, eye contact with audience.

Can everyone hear your performance? Adherence to time limit. Penalty for severe under-time.

How did audience react to your work? Did you use voice well? Did you create an aura or a mood in the classroom and sustain it? Was it appropriate to the poem?

Don't forget to bring a typed copy of your slam poem with you.

Synaesthesia! Please read instructions below:

Compose a couple (2) of cool images about rainfall or anything connected to rain using synaesthesia. After each example, state the two senses you mixed, and show whereyou used them (briefly please). Thank you!

Post is due by 7:30 Monday evening.

Due Monday at 7:00 p.m.

Share some images that appeal to the five senses and at least one simile or metaphor that you wrote as a result of looking closely at one of the photographs from the Graduating Seniors' Photography Show in Higgins Annex. List your images first, then please tell us the title of the photograph and the name of the photographer these images come from.

Finally, please explain the ways in which one art form can inspire another art form?

What is the relationship between looking closely at things and being inventive (i.e.coming up with original and defamiliarizing ways of saying things)?

Explain the difference between what your assignment asked you to do and copying or stealing another person's images please?

I look forward to reading your posts. For full credit you must address all that I asked.

Hyperbole means gross exaggeration

When a person exaggerates a lot, we say a person is using hyperbole. For example, if I tell you that I ate a TON for lunch, that is a cliche form of hyperbole since you've heard it a million times and it's an exaggeration (though I did eat an individual gluten-free pizza and an organic ice cream bar and I am very over-full right now). It might feel like I ate a ton, but I certainly did not really do so! Hyperbole in this case does not do any damage to anyone; my using this sort of language is fine as long as I don't use it all the time; if I do, it will lose its effect and impact. However, some kinds of hyperbole or exaggeration can do damage to people. For example, when people associate certain physical or personality traits to a particular group of people, such as long noses to Jewish people or laziness to green people, prejudice can begin. Then, hyperbole can be a figure of speech that is dangerous and damaging. Please invent two examples of hyperbole. Make one be the beginning of a new form of prejudice that does not yet exist. Do not make the prejudice against a group of people but against something that you think is damaging such as excessive sugar or excess playing of games on the computer. Thanks.

De-familiarization & Hyperbole

Select a verbal image of your choice and follow these instructions:

Take an image that is cliche, that we've heard repeatedly or that is used commonly since our language is full of dead metaphors that we don't even notice anymore, and revise the image to make it new, full of wonder, brimming over with energy, and popping with zest! Here is a visual image of the Last Supper that does just what I am asking. It is by the artist Ron English:

You will be defamiliarizing something overused or common in language. Write down the common phrase, and then write your refreshed zinging version. Please be sure to use concrete language that appeals to the five senses. Thank you.

POST IS DUE NO LATER THAN 7:00 p.m. MONDAY.

A six minute video that captures someone's identity with language and images

Though this multimedia film is not a poem, it is a poetic way of capturing an artist's life calling. I want you to look at the images, paradoxes, metaphors selected to characterize an artist's personal and professional life in six minutes. When you create your multimedia projects, remember to find just the right picture in language and in visual form for each idea and feeling you wish to express; be sure to use your five senses and to appeal to your readers'/viewers' auditory, gustatory, visual, tactile, and olfactory senses. You do NOT want to tell your audience what to feel; instead the goal of your project is to bring up physical feelings in the viewer/reader by using your voice, your images, and your language to do so. Bring your reader to the place you want him/her to be; let him/her feel what it is like to be there by taking him/her there in language, voice, and pictures. Once you conjure these physical sensations in your viewer, the emotions are certain to follow.

The Life and Times of the Noisy Plume from Hemet Productions on Vimeo.

Invention/Defamiliarization Post due Wed. by 7:00 pm

Invention/Defamiliarization

Select one of the following prompts and do your very best to write your response outside of the box!

1. Defamiliarize the description of stars in Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, in which stars are described as "diamonds in the sky." How can you make me see stars in a totally new and shocking way, as if for the first time? Make me see stars like I have never seen them before. Make me interested in them and in awe of them by your describing them concretely in a defamiliarizing fashion.

2. Invent a new way to say "good night," "good morning," "thank you," or "you're welcome."
Out of all these conventional expressions, the last one, "you're welcome," was one I have never understood. After I say thank you to someone for a gift, and the person answers me with the words "you're welcome," I have no clue exactly what I am welcome to do. Do you know?????
I would really enjoy an alternative expression for that one if someone has one.

3. Invent a prompt of your own. Write it out and respond to it. You could defamiliarize anything from the phrase "I love you more than life itself," or "My love is higher than the highest mountain, deeper than the sea" (any cliche needs defamliarization), to any object we don't see anymore because we see it all the time, like the stone walkway between buildings at WCSU; just let me know what you are defamliarizing.

I really look forward to these posts!!!!

For Monday at 9:00 p.m.

Answer ONE of the following; please refresh your memory about how I grade these by reviewing the criteria on the syllabus. If one question has been completely answered, do NOT repeat others' answers. Go on to another question or raise a question of your own and/or write a response to something else Alexander wrote or said,letting us know what you are responding to.
1. Cite one example of a defamiliarizing image in an Alexander poem. Quote the image, with a parenthetical reference to the poem and line number, and explain exactly why the image is defamiliarizing. Now, write your own defamiliaring image for the same object/concept/thing that Alexander wrote hers for.

2.Cite one example of a surprising statement Alexander makes in one of the four interviews with Gates. Why is her statement surprising to you? What did you expect her to say and why?

3. Select a poem or a line of Alexander's and write a four line poetic response to it, using the five senses, defamliarization and metaphor. Write which poem and/or line you are responding to.

4. Take a phrase in the inauguration poem and respond to it.
Ask Elizabeth Alexander a question about the inaugural poem? Why are you raising this question? Explain.

Your Reading & Blogging Assignment for Tuesday, February 22nd

Reading Assignments

1. Please follow this link and read the information under the heading BIO and under the heading POEMS. You are responsible for all the vocabulary in whatever you are assigned to read. If you are not quizzed on the material, it may show up on your examination.
Here is the link: www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html

2. Read the poem Ms.Alexander wrote for President Obama's innauguration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html
or
http://contemporarylit.about.com/b/2009/01/20/elizabeth-alexanders-inaugural-poem.htm
Make sure you print out the poem and take notes about it, so you can discuss it in class. Look up any words you cannot translate and/or do not comprehend.

3. Finally, watch the following interview with Elizabeth Alexander:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/elizabeth-alexander/13/
Watch all four clips; they are about three minutes each.

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Your Blogging Assignment will be put up on this site by Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.

A Creative Post: Due Monday at 9:00 p.m.

The poems I have assinged you to read are filled with a lot of wonderful concrete detail, i.e. very specific word choice that relays images in language, word-pictures that can be touched, tasted, seen, smelled, and heard. I will quote a few examples from the poems you have read:

1. There are people who do not "run and crucify themselves/ in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha" (Hoagland "I Have News For You" 22-23)
2. "Is she a pink life-size piece of chewing gum" (Hoagland "Poor Britney Spears" 22).
3."a chunk of night, in which my white/teeth are lightning" (de Burgos 6-7)
4."...startling, ripped canvas of sky./ Holes punched in a desert of clouds./ Thrust into nothing./Echo-a white mute./ Quiet." (Szymborska 4-8)

For your assignment, re-read the poems and find all the concrete details. Then, find a specific object you would like to describe using a string of at least six excellent concrete details inspired by and along the lines of the ones you have read.
Write your own string or list of concrete details for your response. Make sure they are specific and unique, and do not forget to write what you are describing at the top of the post. Try to make the reader see what you are describing as if for the first time. Attempt to give the reader a sense of wonder.

For Monday Night at 9:30 p.m.:a short post

Select one of these questions please:

1. Look up the word "narrative" in the dictionary. Write down the meaning in your notebook; make sure you write down what tense a narrative occurs in or is written in please. Now, explain why "Journey of the Magi" or "Out, Out--" are narrative poems and "Big Grab" or "Romantic Moment" are not. Do not only dwell on the tenses of the poems, but talk about more than that please.

2. In "Journey of the Magi," what does the speaker mean when he says "There were times we regretted/ The summer palaces on slopes,the terraces,/ And the silken girls bringing sherbet./Then the camel men cursing and grumbling/ And running away, and wanting liquor and women" (ll.8-12). The lines I am referring to continue from line 13 up until line 15. How do these lines fit in with the poem?

3. What Death is the speaker referring to in the last stanza of the "Journey of the Magi"? How do you know? Please prove your point.

4. Does the speaker of "Out, Out --" have an opinion or a bias about the story s/he is telling? If so, show me in what lines you see it and what that opinion and bias is.

The poems "To begin with"

Look at the first group of five poems, read them out loud twice. Decide what these five different poems by five different writers have in common. Show me where you see that thread of similarity and discuss why it is important. Why should anyone care about it?