Don’t forget to read Chapters 1-15 of WARRIORS DON’T CRY, which is a memoir by Melba Beals, by Tuesday morning May 7 at 9:00 am, okay? I’ll also be alerting you on this Saturday May 4 regarding your full syllabus including other assignments for the rest of the term. So, look for that notice from me and shoot me a line (or ask me on Tuesday the 7th) if you have any questions about our next three weeks after you read through it. And on Thursday May 9, we are going to the Brownsburg Museum in Brownsburg, VA. We’ll meet the shuttle buses in the Chapel Parking Lot at 8:20 am. We’ll be back to campus by noon. Lunch will be served while we’re gone starting at around 11 am so please come hungry-ish (italian food with some southern fried chicken (aka chicken parm) mixed in, pasta salad, green salads, drinks, no peanuts/tree nuts since one of you has an allergy, etc. — if you need something different food or drink-wise, let me know).
By next Monday or Tuesday, you also need to add to our blog on WordPress for the second time. Here are those assignments —
By 10:00 pm on Monday night May 6, Amara, Bridget, Landen, Gracie, Chris, Caroline, Juliette, and Jake — Please post something provocative about any of the broad topics (called “Points of Departure” re: WARRIORS DON’T CRY) listed way below. Don’t forget that you should only reference Chapters 1-15 in this post (in case your classmates have not gone any further than the 15th chapter yet). Feel free to provide links to music, art, an article, or anything else that you’d like to jazz up this post. Be creative.
By 8:00 am on Tuesday morning May 7, Allie, Julie, Jillian, Bailey, Imani, Brandon, J’Mari, and Aynna — Please comment on at least two of your classmates’s posts.
POINTS OF DEPARTURE (themes that you can blog about — but do so regarding Chapters 1-15 only!)
Melba Beals’ Warriors Don’t Cry
________________________________________________________________________
Explicitly related to religion —
a.)Melba as heir to social gospel of Grandma
b.)Theology of text – evident through battle metaphors, diary, hymns, Ephesians 6:11 (“put on the whole armor…”), and what else?
c.)Focus on faith (and afterlife) in conflict with black people’s need for social empowerment?
d.)Prayers as letters to God? ….weaving an alternative narrative (agent vs. victim?)
e.)Diary bridging gap between youth and political process?
Other things related to religious themes—
f.)Definition of PALIMPSEST ~ this text as example
g.)Grandma’s social class background, 9 students’ social class background (would they have been picked if they didn’t look a certain way or perform a certain way in school? what if they lived a more impoverished lifestyle?)
h.)Ironic tension between optimism and possibility (and other related oppositions, such as New South vs. Old South… what does New South vs Old South even mean?)
i.)Effects of genre choice (memoir including other documents): personal + historical (wounds often glossed over by national myths and truths, but not here…?)
j.)Recognition that memoir is always constructed (contains truths, contains half truths, highlights some details, and leaves other details out!)
k.)Why is school desegregation so important to some? Why is segregation so important to others?
l.)How do we read where they (the Little Rock Nine) are NOW?
m.)How do we read the toll taken on black manhood? Black women’s sexual vulnerability and exploitation?
n.)Ways of representing the black body? Reactions to the black body?