January 25

In class: Opening Journal: What aspects of Patricia Smith's writing resonated with your own experiences of the environment and of place? Smith's writing is loaded with sensory details that fleshes out New Orleans as a place--making the disaster that occurred there all the more tragic. Think about key experiences you've had of tragedy and environment. Write a snapshot of that experience.

Alternative: Write a snapshot of an environmental experiences, using the level of sensory detail Smith employs as a model.

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Thinking about visual rhetoric:

(Overarching Question: What are the implications of how we represent a place?)

-Detroit--"Ruin Porn"

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/09/25/06

-With a partner: Chose one image from one of the following galleries:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089_1850980,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129400381&sc=fb&cc=fp

Respond to the following questions:

-What is being framed?

-What is the photographer's thesis?
(Consider: Do you see the Hurricane Katrina photographs as similar to the Time Magazine Detroit photos? Different? Would it make a difference that the photographers come from New Orleans? What does that mean for Patricia Smith as an outsider? What gives someone license to write or photograph a place?)

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Blood Dazzler Discussion:

-Break into small groups, pick and discuss a favorite poem from the readings so far to share with the class.
-Discuss: What is a poem? What can a poem do? What formal qualities define a poem? How would you replicate what Smith does?

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Homework:

-Imitate one of Patricia Smith's poems integrating your own experience of place, disaster, home, or loss

-Blood Dazzler, by Patricia Smith, second half. (Journal)