Saturday, March 1, 2008
Thank you for a great experience!
I just want to say thank you to Dr. Cowgill, Dr. Hessler, John, Jeff, Pam B., Ashley, Carmen and Pam for providing an opportunity to look at life in a new way. Now, whenever I leave the house, I try to take a different route to my destination in order to see something that I may not have noticed before. There are so many things that you see everyday that begin to fade into the background because we are in a hurry and do not have time to notice. Thank you for bringing me back to the present and helping me to see things that were beginning to fade. Debbie Boles
Pam B's reflective essay
The Oklahoman newspaper came into existence in 1889 and the Oklahoma Publishing Company bought it in 1903. From 1910 - 1920's later articles, research from Dr. Xiao-Bing Li, professor of history and geography from the University of Oklahoma, former mayor George Shirks papers and pictures, interviews from people living in the downtown area during that time, web based articles and blogs, and information found at the History Center in OKC have painted a small picture of what was known as the "Chinese underground" found underneath buildings in downtown Oklahoma City. One hundred to 150 Chinese men lived underground, was noted in one of the articles, and from research I have learned it was basically void of women. Former mayor George Shirk discovered the Chinese underground in 1969 when Oklahoma City was undergoing urban renewal. (Many of the older buildings were being torn down so "new and improved" buildings could be built.) This may have caused a new found revelation with the Oklahoma City residents that the Chinese lived underground but if it is taken into context that many of the office buildings in downtown Oklahoma City had basements that they rented out cheap to the Chinese people for their living quarters, it makes it sound more humane. (If it happened today these rooms may have been described as a basement penthouse near Bricktown.) When I read the articles on the Chinese underground, all I envision is 150 men underground in these rooms, gambling, smoking opium, and growing mushrooms for the above ground Chinese restaurants because the conditions were dark and dank for mushroom cultivation.
In reality, 150 Chinese people probably did not live there together at one time. They would move in and out about every six months, according to Dr. Li. They would come and go from California, looking for employment opportunities. They were not locked up in these rooms as they were in a jail cell but were probably able to come and go as they wanted to. If there had been a newsworthy story about the Chinese underground, I would surmise that a scoop reporter from The Oklahoman during that time would have written a lead story on the first page of the newspaper.
This part of Oklahoma City's history is lost like so much of the jazz history that was a part of the Deep Deuce. We will have to rely on classes like this, articles, research, and interviews to keep it alive. (I still want to see Shirk's collection of papers and pictures in the OCU library.)
The Cox Convention Center now stands as a cemetery monument for the excavation area that Shirk found. (I just thought, I wonder if there is signage about the Chinese underground by the Cox Center. I will have to check that out.)
What I find interesting is the transition from the Chinese living in the downtown area to its new Asian District boundaries, NW 23, OCU, NW 30th and Paseo. For some reason I thought that Catholic Charities may have played an instrumental part in the Asian population living in this area. Catholic Charities is located on NW 15th and Classen and according to The Sooner Catholic have helped many immigrants find their home in Oklahoma City. According to research and interviews this area was conducive to the Asian population because of Asian markets, shops, doctors, churches, and even OCU. Dr. Ju-Chuan Arrow brought up the correlation of OCU graduating many Asian students who stay in Oklahoma City, become professionals and purchase homes in the area by OCU for rental property. Dr. Li said military brides were brought over and many refugees from the Viet Nam war attributed to the Asian District population.
When we attended the Chinese New Year celebration at the Super Cao I knew I was an outsider looking in. The colors of the dragons that swirled before me were colorful and entertaining in my eyes, but for the Chinese who attended, some in traditional celebration clothing, it meant their homeland, their families, their culture, their oneness with each other. The Chinese men and women who shop at the Super Cao were purchasing foods that were foreign to me. The Super Cao is like an open forum market were many elder Chinese greeted each other in their language and spoke for many minutes. It is a gathering place for them to stay connected to each other, their homeland, their culture.
The New Year Celebration is a celebration of good luck and good fortune for them. It is a celebration of one, of family ties, of their history. This is a drastic change of the first Chinese who lived underground in downtown Oklahoma City and who provided cheap labor for those Chinese or Chinese-Americans who owned Chinese restaurants and laundry stores.
I appreciate the history of the people who were here in the beginning of statehood but it is those who are here now that make Oklahoma City what it is today.
In reality, 150 Chinese people probably did not live there together at one time. They would move in and out about every six months, according to Dr. Li. They would come and go from California, looking for employment opportunities. They were not locked up in these rooms as they were in a jail cell but were probably able to come and go as they wanted to. If there had been a newsworthy story about the Chinese underground, I would surmise that a scoop reporter from The Oklahoman during that time would have written a lead story on the first page of the newspaper.
This part of Oklahoma City's history is lost like so much of the jazz history that was a part of the Deep Deuce. We will have to rely on classes like this, articles, research, and interviews to keep it alive. (I still want to see Shirk's collection of papers and pictures in the OCU library.)
The Cox Convention Center now stands as a cemetery monument for the excavation area that Shirk found. (I just thought, I wonder if there is signage about the Chinese underground by the Cox Center. I will have to check that out.)
What I find interesting is the transition from the Chinese living in the downtown area to its new Asian District boundaries, NW 23, OCU, NW 30th and Paseo. For some reason I thought that Catholic Charities may have played an instrumental part in the Asian population living in this area. Catholic Charities is located on NW 15th and Classen and according to The Sooner Catholic have helped many immigrants find their home in Oklahoma City. According to research and interviews this area was conducive to the Asian population because of Asian markets, shops, doctors, churches, and even OCU. Dr. Ju-Chuan Arrow brought up the correlation of OCU graduating many Asian students who stay in Oklahoma City, become professionals and purchase homes in the area by OCU for rental property. Dr. Li said military brides were brought over and many refugees from the Viet Nam war attributed to the Asian District population.
When we attended the Chinese New Year celebration at the Super Cao I knew I was an outsider looking in. The colors of the dragons that swirled before me were colorful and entertaining in my eyes, but for the Chinese who attended, some in traditional celebration clothing, it meant their homeland, their families, their culture, their oneness with each other. The Chinese men and women who shop at the Super Cao were purchasing foods that were foreign to me. The Super Cao is like an open forum market were many elder Chinese greeted each other in their language and spoke for many minutes. It is a gathering place for them to stay connected to each other, their homeland, their culture.
The New Year Celebration is a celebration of good luck and good fortune for them. It is a celebration of one, of family ties, of their history. This is a drastic change of the first Chinese who lived underground in downtown Oklahoma City and who provided cheap labor for those Chinese or Chinese-Americans who owned Chinese restaurants and laundry stores.
I appreciate the history of the people who were here in the beginning of statehood but it is those who are here now that make Oklahoma City what it is today.
Brooke's Reflective Essay
Hi All,
Your presentations were grand. Today Julie and I will begin reading your reflective essays. I wrote mine on my other blog yesterday but I'm copying it here for any who might be interested. I didn't include a works cited list on the blog but I'm compiling a master bibliography for the whole course and will also post a copy of that here once it's done.
For now, here's my reflection:
* * *
As we began studying Oklahoma City's legendary "Underground Chinatown" what struck me hardest was OKC's apparent preference to acknowledge this immigrant culture and community as the stuff of legends instead of engaging it directly as a real group of people who lived and worked here. When you examine archived issues of the state newspaper, The Daily Oklahoman, you find references to this "hidden" population every few decades or so from the very early 1900s through just last year. And yet most every time it is mentioned it is referred to mostly as a rumor or mystery, as if our public memory about the downtown Chinese immigrants dissolved shortly after every verifiable report of its existence.
Even after Mayor George Shirk, a preservationist and past president of the Oklahoma Historical Society, brought public attention to an underground residence, most people seemed to "forget" about it until last year when Dr. Blackburn contributed a feature story to the newspaper and assisted with an exhibit at the state History Center.
Equally strange and disturbing is the fact that Mayor Shirk co-authorized the urban renewal process that literally buried underground Chinatown, making it utterly inaccessible as an archeological and cultural resource. I keep trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, to appreciate the momentum of the "Pei Plan," and to believe that somehow among Shirk's posesssions and papers are clues and perhaps even more preservation (artifacts even?) than is currently known. That's now become a research project on my short list.
All this was brewing in my heart and mind as I pursued this research and as I began conceiving a found-objects assemblage that would help me piece together what I'm learning and why it matters. Ultimately, what I wanted to achieve through my research and artwork was some sort of statement about what mainstream OKC society has chosen to overlook. To put it another way, my artwork is about selective memory.
To express this, I created an artificial Victorian-style sugar egg--the kind with a peephole and a diorama inside.
The peephole symbolizes the accessibility and inaccessibility of the Underground Chinatown history and the stories of its inhabitants. But the peephole is also intended to imply viewer-responsibility. Looking inside is a choice. And once you look, you bear a responsibility to do something about what you see. I don't mean to argue that every Oklahoman who read the newspaper or strolled by the underground entrances had a moral obligation to meet and greet and assist the people living there. But some positive action, some interpersonal and civic engagement was appropriate, and in the case of Shirk, who most famously led the newspapers into the abandoned habitats, publicity was a positive contribution but not enough given his influence as a leading citizen. So the existence of the peephole in my artwork implicates all of us who learn about the underground today, as well as all of those who glimpsed the place during our city's history. The word "peephole" itself I use advisedly here because I like its unsavory associations, its allusion to voyeurism. So many of us (and yes I'd include myself here) who have become curious about the underground story are surely attracted to its exoticism, its fringe undertones. The most persistent public memories were those about underground opium dens, gambling, and murderous thugs.
This lurid dimension of OKC's public memory is reflected in the color tones and textures of the artwork's interior. I lined the egg with red firecracker paper from the Lunar New Year celebrations in our contemporary (aboveground, thriving, and visible ) Asian District. (I'll briefly discuss the significance of the New Year symbolism in a moment.) In the center of the egg is a red lacquer trunk containing the Mandarin Chinese character for "remember." Within the trunk is a photograph c. 1918 of a Chinese woman who is probably the wife of Faug Kwai, an immigrant who worked in downtown OKC during the early years of the "underground" and may have been a resident and/or merchant there. His mailing address is a Chinese restaurant on Broadway. The other items in the trunk are photocopies of artifacts from Kwai's personal papers in the archives of the Oklahoma History Center. Kwai's box was the only one listed in the History Center's special collection holdings, and it is still labeled as "unprocessed." Its research finding-aid category is "Diversity." I cannot overstate the significance that his is the only Chinese-immigrant collection in the History Center's impressive database. It contains two personal letters, a framed photograph, and two legal deeds regarding a small parcel of property in Waco, Texas.
The exterior of the egg is gray, the color of urban concrete. The "icing" ornamentation is gray-tinted spackling paste, something we use to repair, refinish, and conceal things. I've "sugared" the egg with clear glitter to indicate how this history has been "sugar-coated" through its treatment as an urban myth.
The egg itself, a symbol of renewal, is a significant one from my experience during the class because, as Dr. Arrow taught us, the new year is a time when the Chinese congratulate one another for "waking up alive" when, as tradition holds, the Jade Emperor may have instead opted to eliminate us for our missteps and our misuse of the world. I wanted to incorporate Chinese New Year symbolism because it speaks of survival, both deserved and undeserved. Within my egg is an incomplete memory of people who were known and unknown and whose identity is now stored and exhibited in a place that simultaneously celebrates and ignores it.
To me, the artwork is about the enduring value of a culture and community that many chose to overlook as well as what lessons we might take from this history about, for example, other kinds of communities we choose not to engage fully.
(Thank you, Debbie, for this terrific image of the egg!)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunni Merci's comments from Saturday
These were the comments Sunni made Saturday that I said I would put on the blog.
OBJECT ART ASSEMBLEGE - Ethnic Graphic dimension
1. Intimate Mode - You own it - it draws you into it.
2. Personnel - Human scale - it says "share my space with you!"
3. Monumental - says I am going to take your space - It owns you.
Cultural experience - bring into a size and shape that we own.
Color is important - Not right but we associate color with good and bad.
Also I wrote Doug Loudenback - he wrote me back. He suggested for further research on the Paseo District to stop by this artist - http://www.jrbartgallery.com/. He said to stop by a gallery JRB at the Elms, owner Joy Reed Belt and her husband (an attorney) own most of the property in Paseo. He said they are great to talk to.
OBJECT ART ASSEMBLEGE - Ethnic Graphic dimension
1. Intimate Mode - You own it - it draws you into it.
2. Personnel - Human scale - it says "share my space with you!"
3. Monumental - says I am going to take your space - It owns you.
Cultural experience - bring into a size and shape that we own.
Color is important - Not right but we associate color with good and bad.
Also I wrote Doug Loudenback - he wrote me back. He suggested for further research on the Paseo District to stop by this artist - http://www.jrbartgallery.com/. He said to stop by a gallery JRB at the Elms, owner Joy Reed Belt and her husband (an attorney) own most of the property in Paseo. He said they are great to talk to.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Visit to Deep Duece again
Carmen and I went back to Deep Duece on Monday, February 18, 2008, our day off, after visiting the Oklahoma History Musuem. We went to the resturant and meet the bartender Phil who gave us some information and asked would you like to meet the owner, he is here. He owns most of the buildings and is the developer for Deep Duece. (He also said he is a little ecentric) Phil asked Mr. Craig Brown to talk to us for a few minutes and he agreed. We meet inside the resturant and briefly talked. We asked questions and he gave information. He had another commitment and could not stay long but we gathered some tidbits from him. The interesting thing is the bartender, Phil told us he had worked there for awhile and was there when some of the urbanization was going on. He said he heard "tell" that when the drugstore building was tore down there was two walls with a space in between. He said and Mr. Brown said that in the 60's and 70's it was a very bad place to be and much prostitution and drugs were in this area. He said one of his customers said there was a hole in the wall of the two buildings and you would stick your arm in and someone would shoot the drugs in your arm on the other side of the wall. The policy was "No names No face". The men who tore the building down said the area between the two walls was full of syringes and needles. Just a piece of tidbit.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Deep Deuce Photos
The pictures have been updated to include photos of Deep Deuce. Enjoy! Debbie Boles
Click here for the photos!
Finally . . . here's mine
Hi all,
I'm the last one to post this info! (Good thing Julie set a good example by going first, to balance things out among the profs!)
Here's the email I sent to Sunni:
--------------------------------------------------
Dear Sunni:
Oh this is so *interestingly* tough!
I'm finally going to commit to one project but there is now at least one other that I plan to do later, when research time allows.
I realize I'm sending this rather late in the game, so if you don't have time to respond I understand. (Especially since we're now looking at 8 projects instead of the 4 or 5 we originally expected to arise from the class!)
Anyhoo, here's mine:
My site is underground Chinatown and I've been thinking about various ways to represent its invisibility and to raise the question of what we miss when we choose not to see a community or when we choose not to inquire into one (as seems to have been the case with the Chinese immigrants of that era: the legends persisted for years but clues were ignored or vanished from public memory).
I hate to be too literal or too obvious, but I'm leaning toward using an egg as my vessel and modeling the project roughly after those sugared Victorian-era diorama eggs. To follow this path I'd make a rather large egg--probably balloon size--from papier mache. There'd be a peephole with a door that opens and closes. (Some newspaper accounts of the Chinese underground mention a door (blue or green) marking one entrance to it.) The exterior of the egg would have the appearance of concrete--making it invisible all but for the discrete door.
The interior walls of the egg would be red tissue paper--glued shreds of firecracker paper (remnants of the recent lunar new year celebrations here).
My diorama would be bits of Chinese immigrant culture: photocopied artifacts from the one (ONLY ONE!) box archived at the History Center belonging to a Chinese merchant of that era. I can't confirm whether this man actually occupied one of the storefronts or residences connected to the underground, but then again that's part of what makes this project so revealing to me as I work on it. The artifacts I photocopied were: a photo (probably of his wife), a couple of personal letters, an envelope, and a deed to some land in Texas.
I'm sort of tempted to also include a miniature statue of a Chinese longevity god because it relates to one of the other nearly invisible Chinese immigrant communities reported in the Daily Oklahoman in Luther, OK (the statue was found buried there).
The symbolism of the egg--again, too obvious?--relates to its fragility and stability, also of course its fertility-symbolism (less interesting to me but arguably interesting given the fertile contributions made by Chinese immigrants to Oklahoma. Honestly, what I like best about the egg is a personal connection: as a very little girl I had three or so of those Victorian eggs in my nursery and they were a source of wonder. They seemed like gateways to another world, which is what that doorway to underground Chinatown could have been to more people, and was to some. (For my future project I'd like to research Mayor Shirk's journals to glimpse his inner struggle with the decision to neglect preservation of that area. So, admittedly, one of the people implied by the egg's peephole is Shirk himself.)
As for assembly: I figured a balloon and mod podge would enable me to make the egg. Then I'd need to slice it open discreetly with an exacto-knife to give me access to the interior. Perhaps I'd make a second layer of mod podge after completing the interior in order to re-seal the outside. I could use something like drywall spackle to give the exterior a concrete texture or maybe just spray it with a can of that fleckstone paint in a grayish hue. Not sure how to affix a door. I'd like it to be hinged, though, so when the piece is displayed it can be partially open, giving the viewer the option of ignoring it or looking inside.
Of all of the above I'm perhaps least sure of the diorama. My desire is not to make the interior as literal as it is currently described. I'm still pondering the kinds of images or objects to include there.
Thanks again for sharing so much time and talent with our class. This is an extraordinary experience.
Brooke
--------------------------------------------------
--> I sent Sunni a follow-up/revision regarding my project:
I'm thinking that inside the egg the 'diorama' shouldn't be lots of things but instead maybe just one thing: a simple wooden box, perhaps with an open lid. I might write the Mandarin character for "remember" or "memory" on the front of the box. (I'm a novice student of oriental brush-block painting so the character wouldn't be perfectly shaped but at least I have the tools and the basic knowledge to make it.)
Inside the box I could still place a few of the photocopied objects from the lone archival box belonging to the Chinese merchant. But the viewer could neither see nor access these objects because the peephole would be too small and distant.
This would be a more accurate representation of my perspective, and it would still (to me, anyway) imply both Shirk and the OKC public as viewers of that distant and somewhat inaccessible history.
Image source for the Victorian sugar egg w/diorama: ebay
Pam and Carmen's Art Project
We are using a Bible in a Frame as the vessell. we will be cutting out the inside of the bible and seperating it in two sides old area and new area. We will be putting pictures and other items in there to make the appearance of a 3D affect. we would like to put a boarder around the frame with a stencil. We have some material that we may used to be attached in the frame. We will need hot glue, and we need to find out how to cut the middle of the bible out of the center of our project. We will be attaching peices of brick and metal, I am not sure what we will need to use to attache these items inside of the bible. I think this is everything. Please let me know if you need more.
Are we able to email Sunny directly and she let us know how much needs to be completed before we get there?
Thanks
Carmen Davis & Pam
Are we able to email Sunny directly and she let us know how much needs to be completed before we get there?
Thanks
Carmen Davis & Pam
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
More Complete Info on Ashley's Project
Hi! I will first list my items then describe how they will be assembled:
Items:
--Wooden Crate--vessel (unstained but will paint brick red before this weekend)
--Thin Craft Plywood--to be extended up at an angle from the back like part of a roof to a building but
leaving
an opening in front to see inside the box. (unstained but will paint before
this weekend)
***I need to cut a window shape in this so that one can see inside the crate from the back
--Wooden Dowels--to hold up the thin plywood roof (unstained but will be painted)
***I will need to cut these at an angle to hold up the plywood
***I will need to glue them to the crate and to the plywood
--Pictures/Magazine Cutouts/Fliers/Stickers to cover front of crate to represent Deep Deuce today as it is
marketed
--Pictures/Magazine Cutouts/Fliers/Stickers to cover Right side of crate to represent Bricktown on its
side
--Spray Paint/Prints of Construction Signs/Graffiti/Pictures to cover Left side of crate to represent the
construction and the other side of 2nd street (Across I 235) with its run-down old theater buildings,
etc that were not reclaimed and redeemed
--Pictures/Stickers/Fliers/Scrapbook Puffy Stickers to cover inside of front wall of crate with a collage to
represent of Deep Deuce, or Deep Second, in the old days
--Large-ish Rectangle Mirror to place against back wall of crate to reflect the collage of old Deep Second
--Tiny Rectangular and Circular Mirror Craft Pieces to place on large mirror and back wall of crate to
obscure/diffuse accurate reflection
--Pieces of paper/pictures/stickers/scratches in mirror (to be attached to face of mirror in stragegic
places) to further obscure accurate reflection of certain aspects of Deep Second collage
--Pieces of Glass/Mud/Pieces of bricks in bottom of crate to bridge the distance between the "true" past
and a somewhat distorted reflection
My piece will be a map in the sense that, if one is looking South toward the Information Center (where much of the "marketing" is done) in Deep Deuce today, Bricktown is directly to the Right; construction, I-235, and a very run-down East Second Street lie to its Left to the East. Looking in from the front, one sees a celebrated reflection of the past, however selective or distorted. From the back (similar to the back door entrance for blacks during segregation), through the window in the roof, one can step above and beyond the projected image to see the original image that had been distorted by the marketed reflection. View of this original image is limited, however, to what we can see through the window of what has been recorded and preserved. It takes effort. This also represents the way that the new buildings seem to be authentic images of Deep Deuce from the front, but from the back they do not hide the truth--that they are just modern-day apartments.
I hope that this is thorough enough! It's very complicated and difficult to describe until I see it come together. These are my materials and my vision to prepare for Saturday.
Ashley
Items:
--Wooden Crate--vessel (unstained but will paint brick red before this weekend)
--Thin Craft Plywood--to be extended up at an angle from the back like part of a roof to a building but
leaving
an opening in front to see inside the box. (unstained but will paint before
this weekend)
***I need to cut a window shape in this so that one can see inside the crate from the back
--Wooden Dowels--to hold up the thin plywood roof (unstained but will be painted)
***I will need to cut these at an angle to hold up the plywood
***I will need to glue them to the crate and to the plywood
--Pictures/Magazine Cutouts/Fliers/Stickers to cover front of crate to represent Deep Deuce today as it is
marketed
--Pictures/Magazine Cutouts/Fliers/Stickers to cover Right side of crate to represent Bricktown on its
side
--Spray Paint/Prints of Construction Signs/Graffiti/Pictures to cover Left side of crate to represent the
construction and the other side of 2nd street (Across I 235) with its run-down old theater buildings,
etc that were not reclaimed and redeemed
--Pictures/Stickers/Fliers/Scrapbook Puffy Stickers to cover inside of front wall of crate with a collage to
represent of Deep Deuce, or Deep Second, in the old days
--Large-ish Rectangle Mirror to place against back wall of crate to reflect the collage of old Deep Second
--Tiny Rectangular and Circular Mirror Craft Pieces to place on large mirror and back wall of crate to
obscure/diffuse accurate reflection
--Pieces of paper/pictures/stickers/scratches in mirror (to be attached to face of mirror in stragegic
places) to further obscure accurate reflection of certain aspects of Deep Second collage
--Pieces of Glass/Mud/Pieces of bricks in bottom of crate to bridge the distance between the "true" past
and a somewhat distorted reflection
My piece will be a map in the sense that, if one is looking South toward the Information Center (where much of the "marketing" is done) in Deep Deuce today, Bricktown is directly to the Right; construction, I-235, and a very run-down East Second Street lie to its Left to the East. Looking in from the front, one sees a celebrated reflection of the past, however selective or distorted. From the back (similar to the back door entrance for blacks during segregation), through the window in the roof, one can step above and beyond the projected image to see the original image that had been distorted by the marketed reflection. View of this original image is limited, however, to what we can see through the window of what has been recorded and preserved. It takes effort. This also represents the way that the new buildings seem to be authentic images of Deep Deuce from the front, but from the back they do not hide the truth--that they are just modern-day apartments.
I hope that this is thorough enough! It's very complicated and difficult to describe until I see it come together. These are my materials and my vision to prepare for Saturday.
Ashley
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A Summary of the Project Description Drafts (as of Feb 18)
As you review your descriptions, remember to look for ways that you can:
* Identify additional specific materials you plan to include in this artwork
* Explain the specific purpose or symbolism of every component of the artwork (including the vessel, the found objects, and the other materials/colors/textures used to create it)
* Explain how the artwork is situated in our discussions of cultures, subcultures, urban renewal, mythologized places, etc. You will need to be able to present (as well as defend) this context when you do your presentations on Feb 29th.
PAM
Since I work at OCU and we have so many Asian international students, my project will center around what we have learned, explored and discovered in class in regard to the Chinese underground and fast forwarded to the Chinese New Year we experienced last weekend. I know fresh fruit is usually the traditional dessert served after a traditional Chinese meal so my project begins with a fruit box I found at the Chinese supermarket that I would like to halfway cover with pictures of the Chinese underground and with information from the articles we have read. I would then like to post some type of sign or poster coming out of the vessel which will represent the Asian district by OCU. I want to incorporate the Chinese people climbing from the vessel up to the sign which will signify their relocation to what we know of know as the Asian district by OCU. I also want to incorporate my found objects on the sign and some of the pictures I have taken to depict the Asian district area as it is now.
JEFF
I was thinking about using a large book, cutting out the inside but leaving the edges of the pages. Creating a view of OKC on the cover of the book and creating something small inside the area i have cut out. Which will show okc's "hidden areas" when the book is opened.I was thinking about using legos to erect the city on the cover and still unsure about the inside as to what materials i'll be using but they will be very small. The inside will be focused on deep deuce.
PAM & CARMEN
Carmen and myself are working together on our project. It is important to Carmen because the African American culture is part of her son's culture. So for me that makes it fun and interesting. Of course there is so many things that are interesting to me! We are focusing on Deep Duece for our project and we will be incorporating the past with the present. It will be dimensional with artifacts we found on our mapping of the area and also we will make it artistic in form. Carmen had the wonderful idea and I totally agree with it. I am having a great time exploring and helping her preserve a part of "heritage" for her own family. It will be colorful, historical, it will tell a story and I believe beautiful to look at.
. . . Here is a little more detail of our project. Our vessel is an old book, we will be placing items inside of the book and around the book. We will be using bricks, glass, metal, wood, material, and pictures. The whole thing will end up in a frame. We need to figure out how to make all of these items stick to our vessel. This gives all of the items that we will be using please let me know if you need more details.
JOHN
I was pretty sure that I was going to focus on the Chinese, but after I walked around Deep Deuce on Thursday I changed my mind. I know that it's going to be much more difficult, but I think it will be more fulfilling.
My ideas are pretty vague. I only decided what area I would focus on on Thursday. This is what I have so far.
I was pretty intrigued by the zoning restrictions for blacks in Oklahoma City. What caught my eye was the irony. They were forced to live in a certain small area, but that area was one of the most happening places in the city.
For my project I was thinking of a cage for my vessel. Inside the cage would be bright, colorful, sorta bluessy things. Culture would be a better word. The outside of the cage would be adorned with plain, boring, maybe newspapers or something else monotonous.
I'll probably change a bunch before it's finished, but that is what I have so far.
DEBBIE
For my artwork project, I am going to create a puzzle of sorts that combines maps with Deep Deuce history, heritage and culture, learning from the past to create the future, and defining why urban renewal can remove our physical past but not the archives or memories that we hold so dear to us. A puzzle represents many things to me. When parts are missing, the picture is not clear and may vary by interpretation. On the other hand, the areas that are unknown can be enhanced by our imagination and ability to create a picture that goes beyond anything that we may have thought to be included. For example: when you read a book, the imagery helps to create a time and place with a series of events dictated by the author. As we read the document, we continue to build a picture in our mind of what the outcome will be. When a book is turned into a movie, the images that are presented are from the interpretations of the producer and the director. The basic elements may be the same but the details will vary greatly. This is the same with our memories. No two people are alike so no two memories are remembered in the exact same way. Our perspectives, beliefs, experiences and intellect help to shape our interpretation of the past and of the future.
With this in mind, I am trying to create a puzzle map that will bring the past, present and future together in such a way that it creates a tapestry of life in Deep Deuce.
More specifically, I would like to establish how urban renewal has created new life in old surroundings. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how to accomplish this task. Will I need to narrow it down more specifically or will this evolve as I continue to conduct my research?
ASHLEY
Wow, it seems like we are almost all using Deep Deuce as our sites for our projects! I am also using Deep Deuce, and I have decided to go with the idea of the shadow box-ish thing with a mirror. This might be a little complicated to describe, but the main question that I want to ask is, "Does the current image of Deep Deuce reflect an accurate idea of its rich culture, history, and importance?"
I began my morning today with the History Center at 10 (just in case anybody else showed up since we ended up not getting the predicted ice), which led me back to Deep Deuce for an adventure of my own with random people ranging from those who didn't know and didn't care about Deep Deuce's history to people who told rumors about Deep Deuce in the 1980's--apparently, there were holes in the walls of some buildings where you could stick your arm in with cash, and you would get injected with some sort of drug in return for your money. Anyways, I ended up with great artifacts and stories--it was amazing! But that is why my posts are after 5pm--I promise I was working intensely for the class all day and have not stopped even for lunch (I ate at Deep Deuce Grill, and the waiter could not stop talking about Deep Deuce's history--he even gave me a print-out of a write-up of Deep Deuce's history that they are preparing to include on their menu.).
Okay, so my project: It is going to be a box of sorts, but with a lid that extends upward at an angle with a mirror attached to it somehow (I'm not sure how to do the angle yet for an accurate reflection.) We will see the mirror through a sort-of window-looking covering that I will use to extend the front of the box upward. The front of the box will be the commercialized "Deep Deuce at Bricktown" with photos, pamphlets, etc. that can be easily attached. The mirror will reflect the past of Deep Deuce, which will be portrayed on the inside of the box that cannot be seen from the front. There will be some paper or something on the mirror which blocks certain parts from being reflected accurately from the past that is portrayed inside the box--a cleaned-up past. On the sides of the box, I will include pictures and artifacts of I-235 and the segment of run-down 2nd street that was not "reclaimed and redeemed." The back of the box will include another window where one can look through and see the original of the image that was reflected from the front of the box--inluding the elements of the past that were obscured by the bits of paper or something on the mirror. Seeing run-down 2nd street as well as the original image that had been reflected from the front will kind-of symbolize the way that the new buildings look authentic from the front, but their truth as modern-day apartment complexes is not hidden from the back. It will also show that sometimes you have to look from a new angle than the one easily presented or seen to see the truth of a culture's history.
I would love any feedback or ideas. I really am not sure how to put together my box right now, but that will come. I'd love ideas:)
JULIE
“A light shade had been pulled down between the Black community and all things white”
The above quote is from Maya Angelou’s beautiful novel I know Why the Caged Bird Sings and it will provide a frame for my project on Deep Deuce. For my project, I aim to explore the dichotomy between Deep Deuce and the broader (read: white) Oklahoma City community during the early decades of the 20th century. However, I also want to address the dichotomy within “Deep Second” (I use the term “Deep Second” because that was the name residents used. In contrast, Deep Deuce, appears to be a term that emerged due to development and marketing strategies in the 1990s) .
While various social forces (e.g., discriminatory laws, racism, fear) worked to produce the geographic mapping of the black community, it is appears that other factors contributed to the bifurcation within Deep Second. My thoughts currently is that time was a primary factor: By day, it was a thriving business community and by night, a roaring jazz and entertainment district. I still need to explore further though the complexities of this (in many ways it resembles the day/night dichotomy of urban environments). The more conceptual mapping of time fascinates me. (Note: Let’s talk about the social forces and the creation/decline/revitalization of DS/DD this weekend. The processes are quite interesting from a social science perspective). It also strikes me that while we can expose the power relations between whites/blacks and the creation of DS, that it may be more difficult to figure out whether it is a strict dichotomy between the business and jazz subcultures or if something else is going on.
My project thus allows me to explore the inside/outside issue on multiple levels: 1) the “banishing” of Blacks to Deep Deuce thus constructing them as outsiders, 2) the way that boundaries (even those that are forced and socially constructed) are fluid (e.g., young white women visiting jazz clubs in Deep Second while Blacks were unwelcomed at night (or day) in OKC and 3) the way that time shapes what is inside/outside.
Here’s how I envision my project looking:
1) My vessel is a box. On the outside of the box are pictures of Oklahoma City between 1900 and the 1960s. On the inside of the box, half of the box will be photos of Deep Deuce by day (businesses: physicians, restaurants, theaters, etc.) and the other half will be Deep Deuce by night (jazz/entertainment). On the rim of the box, I’ll use Angelou’s quote (unless I find something by Ralph Ellison that I like better). Inside the box, my object will be something that signifies either 1) the “caging” of deep deuce, or 2) the business/jazz dichotomy (e..g, guitar/piano and cash register.
* Identify additional specific materials you plan to include in this artwork
* Explain the specific purpose or symbolism of every component of the artwork (including the vessel, the found objects, and the other materials/colors/textures used to create it)
* Explain how the artwork is situated in our discussions of cultures, subcultures, urban renewal, mythologized places, etc. You will need to be able to present (as well as defend) this context when you do your presentations on Feb 29th.
PAM
Since I work at OCU and we have so many Asian international students, my project will center around what we have learned, explored and discovered in class in regard to the Chinese underground and fast forwarded to the Chinese New Year we experienced last weekend. I know fresh fruit is usually the traditional dessert served after a traditional Chinese meal so my project begins with a fruit box I found at the Chinese supermarket that I would like to halfway cover with pictures of the Chinese underground and with information from the articles we have read. I would then like to post some type of sign or poster coming out of the vessel which will represent the Asian district by OCU. I want to incorporate the Chinese people climbing from the vessel up to the sign which will signify their relocation to what we know of know as the Asian district by OCU. I also want to incorporate my found objects on the sign and some of the pictures I have taken to depict the Asian district area as it is now.
JEFF
I was thinking about using a large book, cutting out the inside but leaving the edges of the pages. Creating a view of OKC on the cover of the book and creating something small inside the area i have cut out. Which will show okc's "hidden areas" when the book is opened.I was thinking about using legos to erect the city on the cover and still unsure about the inside as to what materials i'll be using but they will be very small. The inside will be focused on deep deuce.
PAM & CARMEN
Carmen and myself are working together on our project. It is important to Carmen because the African American culture is part of her son's culture. So for me that makes it fun and interesting. Of course there is so many things that are interesting to me! We are focusing on Deep Duece for our project and we will be incorporating the past with the present. It will be dimensional with artifacts we found on our mapping of the area and also we will make it artistic in form. Carmen had the wonderful idea and I totally agree with it. I am having a great time exploring and helping her preserve a part of "heritage" for her own family. It will be colorful, historical, it will tell a story and I believe beautiful to look at.
. . . Here is a little more detail of our project. Our vessel is an old book, we will be placing items inside of the book and around the book. We will be using bricks, glass, metal, wood, material, and pictures. The whole thing will end up in a frame. We need to figure out how to make all of these items stick to our vessel. This gives all of the items that we will be using please let me know if you need more details.
JOHN
I was pretty sure that I was going to focus on the Chinese, but after I walked around Deep Deuce on Thursday I changed my mind. I know that it's going to be much more difficult, but I think it will be more fulfilling.
My ideas are pretty vague. I only decided what area I would focus on on Thursday. This is what I have so far.
I was pretty intrigued by the zoning restrictions for blacks in Oklahoma City. What caught my eye was the irony. They were forced to live in a certain small area, but that area was one of the most happening places in the city.
For my project I was thinking of a cage for my vessel. Inside the cage would be bright, colorful, sorta bluessy things. Culture would be a better word. The outside of the cage would be adorned with plain, boring, maybe newspapers or something else monotonous.
I'll probably change a bunch before it's finished, but that is what I have so far.
DEBBIE
For my artwork project, I am going to create a puzzle of sorts that combines maps with Deep Deuce history, heritage and culture, learning from the past to create the future, and defining why urban renewal can remove our physical past but not the archives or memories that we hold so dear to us. A puzzle represents many things to me. When parts are missing, the picture is not clear and may vary by interpretation. On the other hand, the areas that are unknown can be enhanced by our imagination and ability to create a picture that goes beyond anything that we may have thought to be included. For example: when you read a book, the imagery helps to create a time and place with a series of events dictated by the author. As we read the document, we continue to build a picture in our mind of what the outcome will be. When a book is turned into a movie, the images that are presented are from the interpretations of the producer and the director. The basic elements may be the same but the details will vary greatly. This is the same with our memories. No two people are alike so no two memories are remembered in the exact same way. Our perspectives, beliefs, experiences and intellect help to shape our interpretation of the past and of the future.
With this in mind, I am trying to create a puzzle map that will bring the past, present and future together in such a way that it creates a tapestry of life in Deep Deuce.
More specifically, I would like to establish how urban renewal has created new life in old surroundings. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how to accomplish this task. Will I need to narrow it down more specifically or will this evolve as I continue to conduct my research?
ASHLEY
Wow, it seems like we are almost all using Deep Deuce as our sites for our projects! I am also using Deep Deuce, and I have decided to go with the idea of the shadow box-ish thing with a mirror. This might be a little complicated to describe, but the main question that I want to ask is, "Does the current image of Deep Deuce reflect an accurate idea of its rich culture, history, and importance?"
I began my morning today with the History Center at 10 (just in case anybody else showed up since we ended up not getting the predicted ice), which led me back to Deep Deuce for an adventure of my own with random people ranging from those who didn't know and didn't care about Deep Deuce's history to people who told rumors about Deep Deuce in the 1980's--apparently, there were holes in the walls of some buildings where you could stick your arm in with cash, and you would get injected with some sort of drug in return for your money. Anyways, I ended up with great artifacts and stories--it was amazing! But that is why my posts are after 5pm--I promise I was working intensely for the class all day and have not stopped even for lunch (I ate at Deep Deuce Grill, and the waiter could not stop talking about Deep Deuce's history--he even gave me a print-out of a write-up of Deep Deuce's history that they are preparing to include on their menu.).
Okay, so my project: It is going to be a box of sorts, but with a lid that extends upward at an angle with a mirror attached to it somehow (I'm not sure how to do the angle yet for an accurate reflection.) We will see the mirror through a sort-of window-looking covering that I will use to extend the front of the box upward. The front of the box will be the commercialized "Deep Deuce at Bricktown" with photos, pamphlets, etc. that can be easily attached. The mirror will reflect the past of Deep Deuce, which will be portrayed on the inside of the box that cannot be seen from the front. There will be some paper or something on the mirror which blocks certain parts from being reflected accurately from the past that is portrayed inside the box--a cleaned-up past. On the sides of the box, I will include pictures and artifacts of I-235 and the segment of run-down 2nd street that was not "reclaimed and redeemed." The back of the box will include another window where one can look through and see the original of the image that was reflected from the front of the box--inluding the elements of the past that were obscured by the bits of paper or something on the mirror. Seeing run-down 2nd street as well as the original image that had been reflected from the front will kind-of symbolize the way that the new buildings look authentic from the front, but their truth as modern-day apartment complexes is not hidden from the back. It will also show that sometimes you have to look from a new angle than the one easily presented or seen to see the truth of a culture's history.
I would love any feedback or ideas. I really am not sure how to put together my box right now, but that will come. I'd love ideas:)
JULIE
“A light shade had been pulled down between the Black community and all things white”
The above quote is from Maya Angelou’s beautiful novel I know Why the Caged Bird Sings and it will provide a frame for my project on Deep Deuce. For my project, I aim to explore the dichotomy between Deep Deuce and the broader (read: white) Oklahoma City community during the early decades of the 20th century. However, I also want to address the dichotomy within “Deep Second” (I use the term “Deep Second” because that was the name residents used. In contrast, Deep Deuce, appears to be a term that emerged due to development and marketing strategies in the 1990s) .
While various social forces (e.g., discriminatory laws, racism, fear) worked to produce the geographic mapping of the black community, it is appears that other factors contributed to the bifurcation within Deep Second. My thoughts currently is that time was a primary factor: By day, it was a thriving business community and by night, a roaring jazz and entertainment district. I still need to explore further though the complexities of this (in many ways it resembles the day/night dichotomy of urban environments). The more conceptual mapping of time fascinates me. (Note: Let’s talk about the social forces and the creation/decline/revitalization of DS/DD this weekend. The processes are quite interesting from a social science perspective). It also strikes me that while we can expose the power relations between whites/blacks and the creation of DS, that it may be more difficult to figure out whether it is a strict dichotomy between the business and jazz subcultures or if something else is going on.
My project thus allows me to explore the inside/outside issue on multiple levels: 1) the “banishing” of Blacks to Deep Deuce thus constructing them as outsiders, 2) the way that boundaries (even those that are forced and socially constructed) are fluid (e.g., young white women visiting jazz clubs in Deep Second while Blacks were unwelcomed at night (or day) in OKC and 3) the way that time shapes what is inside/outside.
Here’s how I envision my project looking:
1) My vessel is a box. On the outside of the box are pictures of Oklahoma City between 1900 and the 1960s. On the inside of the box, half of the box will be photos of Deep Deuce by day (businesses: physicians, restaurants, theaters, etc.) and the other half will be Deep Deuce by night (jazz/entertainment). On the rim of the box, I’ll use Angelou’s quote (unless I find something by Ralph Ellison that I like better). Inside the box, my object will be something that signifies either 1) the “caging” of deep deuce, or 2) the business/jazz dichotomy (e..g, guitar/piano and cash register.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
A Question From Ashley :)
I was just wondering...on our email, it said that we should leave 3 comments:
"Submit a response (by clicking the “comments” link at the bottom of each message) to the following messages:
a. Julie’s message regarding food culture
b. Julie’s message regarding urban development and Deep Deuce
c. Brooke’s message regarding mythologized communities"
Is there a blog yet about urban development and Deep Deuce? Blogging new to me, and I am struggling to keep all of this discussion organized in my mind with this format. I might be missing something, so just let me know!
Thanks!!
Ashley
"Submit a response (by clicking the “comments” link at the bottom of each message) to the following messages:
a. Julie’s message regarding food culture
b. Julie’s message regarding urban development and Deep Deuce
c. Brooke’s message regarding mythologized communities"
Is there a blog yet about urban development and Deep Deuce? Blogging new to me, and I am struggling to keep all of this discussion organized in my mind with this format. I might be missing something, so just let me know!
Thanks!!
Ashley
Ashley's Deep Deuce Project
Wow, it seems like we are almost all using Deep Deuce as our sites for our projects! I am also using Deep Deuce, and I have decided to go with the idea of the shadow box-ish thing with a mirror. This might be a little complicated to describe, but the main question that I want to ask is, "Does the current image of Deep Deuce reflect an accurate idea of its rich culture, history, and importance?"
I began my morning today with the History Center at 10 (just in case anybody else showed up since we ended up not getting the predicted ice), which led me back to Deep Deuce for an adventure of my own with random people ranging from those who didn't know and didn't care about Deep Deuce's history to people who told rumors about Deep Deuce in the 1980's--apparently, there were holes in the walls of some buildings where you could stick your arm in with cash, and you would get injected with some sort of drug in return for your money. Anyways, I ended up with great artifacts and stories--it was amazing! But that is why my posts are after 5pm--I promise I was working intensely for the class all day and have not stopped even for lunch (I ate at Deep Deuce Grill, and the waiter could not stop talking about Deep Deuce's history--he even gave me a print-out of a write-up of Deep Deuce's history that they are preparing to include on their menu.).
Okay, so my project: It is going to be a box of sorts, but with a lid that extends upward at an angle with a mirror attached to it somehow (I'm not sure how to do the angle yet for an accurate reflection.) We will see the mirror through a sort-of window-looking covering that I will use to extend the front of the box upward. The front of the box will be the commercialized "Deep Deuce at Bricktown" with photos, pamphlets, etc. that can be easily attached. The mirror will reflect the past of Deep Deuce, which will be portrayed on the inside of the box that cannot be seen from the front. There will be some paper or something on the mirror which blocks certain parts from being reflected accurately from the past that is portrayed inside the box--a cleaned-up past. On the sides of the box, I will include pictures and artifacts of I-235 and the segment of run-down 2nd street that was not "reclaimed and redeemed." The back of the box will include another window where one can look through and see the original of the image that was reflected from the front of the box--inluding the elements of the past that were obscured by the bits of paper or something on the mirror. Seeing run-down 2nd street as well as the original image that had been reflected from the front will kind-of symbolize the way that the new buildings look authentic from the front, but their truth as modern-day apartment complexes is not hidden from the back. It will also show that sometimes you have to look from a new angle than the one easily presented or seen to see the truth of a culture's history.
I would love any feedback or ideas. I really am not sure how to put together my box right now, but that will come. I'd love ideas:)
I began my morning today with the History Center at 10 (just in case anybody else showed up since we ended up not getting the predicted ice), which led me back to Deep Deuce for an adventure of my own with random people ranging from those who didn't know and didn't care about Deep Deuce's history to people who told rumors about Deep Deuce in the 1980's--apparently, there were holes in the walls of some buildings where you could stick your arm in with cash, and you would get injected with some sort of drug in return for your money. Anyways, I ended up with great artifacts and stories--it was amazing! But that is why my posts are after 5pm--I promise I was working intensely for the class all day and have not stopped even for lunch (I ate at Deep Deuce Grill, and the waiter could not stop talking about Deep Deuce's history--he even gave me a print-out of a write-up of Deep Deuce's history that they are preparing to include on their menu.).
Okay, so my project: It is going to be a box of sorts, but with a lid that extends upward at an angle with a mirror attached to it somehow (I'm not sure how to do the angle yet for an accurate reflection.) We will see the mirror through a sort-of window-looking covering that I will use to extend the front of the box upward. The front of the box will be the commercialized "Deep Deuce at Bricktown" with photos, pamphlets, etc. that can be easily attached. The mirror will reflect the past of Deep Deuce, which will be portrayed on the inside of the box that cannot be seen from the front. There will be some paper or something on the mirror which blocks certain parts from being reflected accurately from the past that is portrayed inside the box--a cleaned-up past. On the sides of the box, I will include pictures and artifacts of I-235 and the segment of run-down 2nd street that was not "reclaimed and redeemed." The back of the box will include another window where one can look through and see the original of the image that was reflected from the front of the box--inluding the elements of the past that were obscured by the bits of paper or something on the mirror. Seeing run-down 2nd street as well as the original image that had been reflected from the front will kind-of symbolize the way that the new buildings look authentic from the front, but their truth as modern-day apartment complexes is not hidden from the back. It will also show that sometimes you have to look from a new angle than the one easily presented or seen to see the truth of a culture's history.
I would love any feedback or ideas. I really am not sure how to put together my box right now, but that will come. I'd love ideas:)
Another bonus question
I am interested in your response to the following:
Do the historical references in Deep Deuce serve to honor or exploit the past? Or, is it a little of both?
Do the historical references in Deep Deuce serve to honor or exploit the past? Or, is it a little of both?
mything sub cultures
Well, when I think of myths I think of the class I am currently taking on World Mythology. It has been a full plate. One thing I am learning is there is a difference between myths, fairytells, legends etc. Myths were mostly verbal or stories documented in the form of symbols and drawings found on walls, caves or forgotten scrolls. Mostly they were handed down orally. The interesting thing is most myths were stories written to set a foundation for a cultures and their value system, political system, fertility system (which is primarily their ability to produce food). They set down the laws and guidelines for cultures. Amazingly many are still the same ideas and values we use today. They focus alot on death and rebirth, seasons, darkness and light etc. When I think of myths in the subcultures we are studing I relate that their journey to today is what has made them who they are. Their myths, belief systems are who they are and what they do. Always backtracking to their roots. We get to unravel that mystery of truth and look into another culture and their (sub) cultures. What an exciting adventure.
Artwork: Deep Deuce Project
For my artwork project, I am going to create a puzzle of sorts that combines maps with Deep Deuce history, heritage and culture, learning from the past to create the future, and defining why urban renewal can remove our physical past but not the archives or memories that we hold so dear to us. A puzzle represents many things to me. When parts are missing, the picture is not clear and may vary by interpretation. On the other hand, the areas that are unknown can be enhanced by our imagination and ability to create a picture that goes beyond anything that we may have thought to be included. For example: when you read a book, the imagery helps to create a time and place with a series of events dictated by the author. As we read the document, we continue to build a picture in our mind of what the outcome will be. When a book is turned into a movie, the images that are presented are from the interpretations of the producer and the director. The basic elements may be the same but the details will vary greatly. This is the same with our memories. No two people are alike so no two memories are remembered in the exact same way. Our perspectives, beliefs, experiences and intellect help to shape our interpretation of the past and of the future.
With this in mind, I am trying to create a puzzle map that will bring the past, present and future together in such a way that it creates a tapestry of life in Deep Deuce.
More specifically, I would like to establish how urban renewal has created new life in old surroundings. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how to accomplish this task. Will I need to narrow it down more specifically or will this evolve as I continue to conduct my research? Debbie Boles
With this in mind, I am trying to create a puzzle map that will bring the past, present and future together in such a way that it creates a tapestry of life in Deep Deuce.
More specifically, I would like to establish how urban renewal has created new life in old surroundings. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how to accomplish this task. Will I need to narrow it down more specifically or will this evolve as I continue to conduct my research? Debbie Boles
Feedback on Projects
It sounds like we have some good ideas emerging so far. However, we need you to continue brainstorming and define your projects and objects you are planning on using. We know you'll still be exploring during the week, but in the meantime, you need to be as specific as possible in your responses about your projects. Remember that Brooke and I need to convey the information to Sunni Mercer so she can help us next week.
Also, make sure that your work is situated in our discussions of cultures, subcultures, urban renewal, mythologized places, etc. You will need to be able to present (as well as defend) this context when you do your presentations in two weeks. We can talk more about this next week in class.
Also, make sure that your work is situated in our discussions of cultures, subcultures, urban renewal, mythologized places, etc. You will need to be able to present (as well as defend) this context when you do your presentations in two weeks. We can talk more about this next week in class.
Trip to History Center on Sunday
Sunday afternoon I went to the History Center to see the exhibit on Deep Deuce. Upon viewing the exhibit, I was listening to the video on Deep Deuce when two women from St. John's Baptist church came by and starting talking abou the jazz bands. I asked them if they grew up in
Deep Deuce and one lived there when she was a child. She said it was quite a bustling area. I asked her what she thought of most of the buildings being razed and apartments going up in their place. She said that is a part of progress. I couldn't engage them in any other conversation but I did wonder if they were saddened by the demise of Deep Deuce or if they thought it was time for it to be revitalized by new construction or if they moved further north, east in Oklahoma City. Just some thoughts on my part.
Pam
Deep Deuce and one lived there when she was a child. She said it was quite a bustling area. I asked her what she thought of most of the buildings being razed and apartments going up in their place. She said that is a part of progress. I couldn't engage them in any other conversation but I did wonder if they were saddened by the demise of Deep Deuce or if they thought it was time for it to be revitalized by new construction or if they moved further north, east in Oklahoma City. Just some thoughts on my part.
Pam
The Sunday Oklahoman - Tipping the Scales
In today's Sunday Oklahoman there is an article in the local and state section of the paper that states "Local black churches take weight-loss challenge."
Zora Brown, Integris health's director of cultural affairs, said "she created the challenge to encourage predominantly black churches to combat health disparities in the black community by tackling obesity. She said it is a risk factor for a host of diseases and illnesses that disproportionately plaque blacks."
Health facts:
-Blacks have almost twice the risk of first-ever strokes compared with whites.
-Compared to the general population, blacks are disporportionately affected by diabetes, with one in four black women 55 or older having diabetes.
-Blacks have twice the risk of diabetes as whites. People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke.
-The prevalence of high blood pressure in blacks in the U.S. is the highest in the world.
-Among blacks 20 and older, 62.9 percent of women are overweight or obese.
This is from the American Stroke Association and the American Diabetes Association
How appropriate is the article to run in the paper after reading Marvalene H. Hughes story on Soul, Black Women, and Food. As the article states, ..."her success symbol is plumpness. A big body to the Black woman represents health and prosperity."
Pam
Zora Brown, Integris health's director of cultural affairs, said "she created the challenge to encourage predominantly black churches to combat health disparities in the black community by tackling obesity. She said it is a risk factor for a host of diseases and illnesses that disproportionately plaque blacks."
Health facts:
-Blacks have almost twice the risk of first-ever strokes compared with whites.
-Compared to the general population, blacks are disporportionately affected by diabetes, with one in four black women 55 or older having diabetes.
-Blacks have twice the risk of diabetes as whites. People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke.
-The prevalence of high blood pressure in blacks in the U.S. is the highest in the world.
-Among blacks 20 and older, 62.9 percent of women are overweight or obese.
This is from the American Stroke Association and the American Diabetes Association
How appropriate is the article to run in the paper after reading Marvalene H. Hughes story on Soul, Black Women, and Food. As the article states, ..."her success symbol is plumpness. A big body to the Black woman represents health and prosperity."
Pam
Thought Provoking Afternoon
This has been a wonderful, stimulating, thought provoking afternoon.
Thank you!
Pam
Thank you!
Pam
Deep Second
"Plunging arrongantly twenty years through ordered space,
And when to my older eyese the town appeared reduced and dowdy as a worn out doll"
Ralph Ellison died in 1994. What would he think now of Deep Deuce? Deep Second? In one of the articles we received it states that Deep Second was renamed Deep Deuce as a marketing plan. Was is because Deep Deuce rolls off the tongue easier that Deep Second? It does have a more lyrical sound about it.
The above line in Ellison's poem would find that worn out doll without arms and legs. It is as if 2nd street has been amputated. One by one limbs have been removed. Of course in its place there are new apartments that have been built. Do they exude the essence of Deep Second? There are still a few buildings left. Some have been abandoned. They are now vessels that hold empty mouthwash bottles, cigarette butts, and memories.
"And learn that streets loom larger in the mind than ever"
It seems when you are a small child everything is bigger, brighter, shinier.... When you go back to a place where you grew up, years have passed and maybe structures haved become tarnished.
"And all the past was shaken up, and all the old speech singing
In the wind, and their once clear skins and once bright eyes
Looking through to see me in my passions venture."
Where are these bright eyes now? Where have they moved to?
"Time past and present into a dream
and how they live in me
And I in them"
Deep Second has changed. What would Ellison say now? He wouldn't recognize it.
Just some thoughts from me from when I read his poem.
Side note from me:
On NE 4th by Lottie, there was another area of shops for Blacks. This area of homes is making a come back where prominent Blacks are building $175,000 homes and up. What is interesting is many of these beautiful homes have bars on their windows.
We have Deep Deuce, when did NE 23rd and Martin Luther King (and east) come into being? I will have to check that out.
And when to my older eyese the town appeared reduced and dowdy as a worn out doll"
Ralph Ellison died in 1994. What would he think now of Deep Deuce? Deep Second? In one of the articles we received it states that Deep Second was renamed Deep Deuce as a marketing plan. Was is because Deep Deuce rolls off the tongue easier that Deep Second? It does have a more lyrical sound about it.
The above line in Ellison's poem would find that worn out doll without arms and legs. It is as if 2nd street has been amputated. One by one limbs have been removed. Of course in its place there are new apartments that have been built. Do they exude the essence of Deep Second? There are still a few buildings left. Some have been abandoned. They are now vessels that hold empty mouthwash bottles, cigarette butts, and memories.
"And learn that streets loom larger in the mind than ever"
It seems when you are a small child everything is bigger, brighter, shinier.... When you go back to a place where you grew up, years have passed and maybe structures haved become tarnished.
"And all the past was shaken up, and all the old speech singing
In the wind, and their once clear skins and once bright eyes
Looking through to see me in my passions venture."
Where are these bright eyes now? Where have they moved to?
"Time past and present into a dream
and how they live in me
And I in them"
Deep Second has changed. What would Ellison say now? He wouldn't recognize it.
Just some thoughts from me from when I read his poem.
Side note from me:
On NE 4th by Lottie, there was another area of shops for Blacks. This area of homes is making a come back where prominent Blacks are building $175,000 homes and up. What is interesting is many of these beautiful homes have bars on their windows.
We have Deep Deuce, when did NE 23rd and Martin Luther King (and east) come into being? I will have to check that out.
Regard to Pei
Dallas was a booming town and they were building new super sleek buildings left and right. Oklahoma City, just 3 hours from Dallas, wanted to become super sleek too according to the politicians. When Pei's vision was brought forth to OKC, who made the decision to go with his ideas? The Myriad Gardens was to become a focal point to the city to attract people and it has done that. We now have the Arts Festival located in and round the Myriad Gardens. We also needed convention space. And when it came to the buildings, they were old and the "People" said it was cost to much to renovate them. I remember when the buildings came down and my parents would reminesce as to which building housed what offices, shops, restaurants, etc. It is sad not to the history of those buildings still in downtown OKC but now look at Deep Deuce. People say progress is being made but it is still sad to lose the history behind what made OKC what it is today.
Pam
Pam
Thoth
It is hard for me to figure out Thoth although in reading what Festad is it almost sounds like he has taken work from the Bible and used different names to talk about the 7 day creation of the world, the crystal broke could symbolize the apple, etc. I will try to grasp what he is about since I do not read or watch movies that he has found fulfilling in regard to his life.
Since he enjoys playing his music in the tunnels we could superimpose his image inside of a Chinese underground tunnel in Oklahoma City. Although his music does not have the Chinese sound that I think of he does have a calmness about him and a spirituality that may come from that culture.
I decided to close my eyes and listen to his music and what he played sounded much like what my yoga teacher plays on her CD during yoga. Much of it is a soothing sound that can become rather repetitive. This is supposedly to give you a calming effect. His music reminds me when we reach for the heavens with are arms up and hands together in prayer giving thanks for what we have.
His dress reminded me of a cross between Indian, with the bells on his ankles, and was that a feather on his head? And a little Aztec? I am not sure. In one of the pictures he has three women sitting by him and the way he sits he reminds me of a yoga master. I wonder if he was in a spirtual prayer mode. I do believe that he does or did have a hard time trying to identify himself because of his ethnic heritage of his parents and this is the way he has found himself. I wish that a heritage could be based on talent because since both of his parents are musicians he definitely has their genes and his ethinicity would be musician/creator.
You can tell he has passion for what he does but I do not think that you can define him as one culture but as of a mixture of cultures which have made him Thoth.
Since he enjoys playing his music in the tunnels we could superimpose his image inside of a Chinese underground tunnel in Oklahoma City. Although his music does not have the Chinese sound that I think of he does have a calmness about him and a spirituality that may come from that culture.
I decided to close my eyes and listen to his music and what he played sounded much like what my yoga teacher plays on her CD during yoga. Much of it is a soothing sound that can become rather repetitive. This is supposedly to give you a calming effect. His music reminds me when we reach for the heavens with are arms up and hands together in prayer giving thanks for what we have.
His dress reminded me of a cross between Indian, with the bells on his ankles, and was that a feather on his head? And a little Aztec? I am not sure. In one of the pictures he has three women sitting by him and the way he sits he reminds me of a yoga master. I wonder if he was in a spirtual prayer mode. I do believe that he does or did have a hard time trying to identify himself because of his ethnic heritage of his parents and this is the way he has found himself. I wish that a heritage could be based on talent because since both of his parents are musicians he definitely has their genes and his ethinicity would be musician/creator.
You can tell he has passion for what he does but I do not think that you can define him as one culture but as of a mixture of cultures which have made him Thoth.
Bonus Question (for those itching to blog more ;-)
Why do you think I keep putting the square brackets around the sub in subcultures?
John's Vague Project Ideas
I was pretty sure that I was going to focus on the Chinese, but after I walked around Deep Deuce on Thursday I changed my mind. I know that it's going to be much more difficult, but I think it will be more fulfilling.
My ideas are pretty vague. I only decided what area I would focus on on Thursday. This is what I have so far.
I was pretty intrigued by the zoning restrictions for blacks in Oklahoma City. What caught my eye was the irony. They were forced to live in a certain small area, but that area was one of the most happening places in the city.
For my project I was thinking of a cage for my vessel. Inside the cage would be bright, colorful, sorta bluessy things. Culture would be a better word. The outside of the cage would be adorned with plain, boring, maybe newspapers or something else monotonous.
I'll probably change a bunch before it's finished, but that is what I have so far.
My ideas are pretty vague. I only decided what area I would focus on on Thursday. This is what I have so far.
I was pretty intrigued by the zoning restrictions for blacks in Oklahoma City. What caught my eye was the irony. They were forced to live in a certain small area, but that area was one of the most happening places in the city.
For my project I was thinking of a cage for my vessel. Inside the cage would be bright, colorful, sorta bluessy things. Culture would be a better word. The outside of the cage would be adorned with plain, boring, maybe newspapers or something else monotonous.
I'll probably change a bunch before it's finished, but that is what I have so far.
Food
I liked the article but the author seemed to forget that we all have some food culture. every thanksgiving and Christmas my mom makes all the food for the events from memory (because she's not ready to share the recipes) and makes special dishes that we only see on these holidays. One paragraph stuck out to me specifically. The paragraph where she talks about how black women cook without using measuring devices and such. That measuring devices are a european device in cooking. She is completely wrong and did not do her research properly. Yes she is correct that measuring devices are a european concept but where she goes wrong is to imply that all use measuring devices make meals. I studied to be a chef for three years under 2 seperate chefs; 1 japanese (he barely spoke english) and the second a caucasian. Both of them would throw things at me if they ever caught me using any measuring device. They both explained, in nearly the same wording, that measuring takes away from the taste of the meal. Meaning that, if i used a measuring device then i would never be able to imagine what it will taste like as i make the dish. With every pinch or dash that i would add i needed to be able to recreate the taste mentally and using measuring devices would never allow me to be able to do that.
I know she is concentrating on her roots alone but her article truly applies to every culture across every line. The way Black women cook is really no different than the way a chinese man cooks. Smell is the strongest sense in helping to recall memories. I can still remember my granny cooking in her kitchen and when my mom remakes one of her dishes it takes me right back to grannies kitchen and i can imahinge her standing over the stove with her ever present cigarette hanging out of her mouth. This articel could have been written by any person to reflect on their own culture. But she makes it seem that the Black culture is the only one who can relate to this. For example, she says about being able to buy certain produce goods, chinese cannot go to a regular grocery store and find certain ingredients that apply to their culture. Whereas most white people can go to a grocery store and find what we need because those food items are our culture.
I know she is concentrating on her roots alone but her article truly applies to every culture across every line. The way Black women cook is really no different than the way a chinese man cooks. Smell is the strongest sense in helping to recall memories. I can still remember my granny cooking in her kitchen and when my mom remakes one of her dishes it takes me right back to grannies kitchen and i can imahinge her standing over the stove with her ever present cigarette hanging out of her mouth. This articel could have been written by any person to reflect on their own culture. But she makes it seem that the Black culture is the only one who can relate to this. For example, she says about being able to buy certain produce goods, chinese cannot go to a regular grocery store and find certain ingredients that apply to their culture. Whereas most white people can go to a grocery store and find what we need because those food items are our culture.
Mythologizing [Sub]Cultures
This is a portrait of Thoth, who is my favorite performance artist of all time. He travels around the world but mostly you can catch his performances in the Angel tunnel near the Bethesda fountain in Central Park, NYC.
A few years ago a film about him won the Oscar for Best Documentary. It's something you should see. Meanwhile, the reason I'm bringing Thoth into today's class is because he's a fascinating example of the complex challenge of "locating" yourself in American culture.
I'm not sure why this artist chose the name Thoth, but I can tell you that Thoth is the name of the Egyptian god of scribes.
The performance artist Thoth is an American from Brooklyn, NY. His mother is African American; his father is also American, but he is Caucasian, Jewish, and Eastern European. Both of Thoth's parents were professional musicians who performed in philharmonic orchestras around the country. In his interviews, Thoth explains that he never really seemed to fit into mainstream culture, and his mixed racial background was definitely a part of that.
So he invented a world of his own, called the Festad, a mythical place with its own geography, languages, life forms, music, and stories. His performances (which he called "Prayerformances") are Thoth's way of attempting to heal the world's divisions through his art. All of these performances are done in the languages of the Festad, telling its stories (this is the music you hear when you go to his website). You can watch an excerpt of his prayerformances here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jDFnWIMWv1c.
So what does all this have to do with our class?
Hopefully, you already have some thoughts on that! And I'll ask you to discuss that in a few minutes.
For now, I'd like you to consider this idea of creating a mythical place: Thoth did it partly because it gave him a way to create a community where he truly belongs, the Festad is wholly Thoth. Think of other mythical places, such as J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or C.S. Lewis's Narnia. Tolkein and Lewis were also, like Thoth, spiritual men and artists who created places that dramatized Good and Evil at work in the world, perhaps to help their audiences pay closer attention to the injustices and heroism in "real" life.
Thoth, Tolkein, Lewis all created mythical worlds.
But in class we've been using the term "mythologized" to describe Deep Deuce and Underground Chinatown. Because a mythical world is a place that never really existed, physically anyway, as far as anyone can tell. But a "mythologized" place is one that did exist (or does exist) but its reality has been altered to exaggerate some of its features. Stories are woven around these places and the end-result is a place that seems much more magical or horrible than a humdrum, everyday world. And this often happens because the average person doesn't know the real details about the place but instead bases his knowledge on rumors or tall-tales or movies or advertising campaigns.
So, for example, Underground Chinatown: it existed as a fairly straightforward place. Chinese immigrants worked in shops downtown, living in basements beneath their employers. But what we mostly saw in the newspapers were little snippets of detail: teenage boys venturing downtown on a dare to confront knife-wielding villains in opium dens; vague clues about a place that may or may not exist and that, evidently, people preferred to wonder about rather than research.
Or Deep Deuce: today it's the brand-name of a part of town known mainly for its glorious musical heritage. Segregation isn't mentioned, nor is the demolition of a thriving business community.
When we mythologize a place we make it much more and much less than it really was or is. We encounter a place that is fascinating in ways that are somehow based in truth. But the truth is more complicated than the myth.
So here are a couple of questions for you. Please write one or two paragraphs in response to at least one of these questions:
(1) After viewing the Thoth video and exploring his website, which real cultures and places seem to be the basis for his mythical Festad? What might Thoth be teaching us about American culture through his performances about the Festad?
(2) In what ways is the Paseo Arts District a mythologized community?
Would you like to access your comments and those of your classmates???
One thing that I found helpful as I learn about blogging: If you would like to see the comments in a user friendly format, rather than clicking on the little comment button at the end of the posting, just click on the title of the posting after you have saved and posted your comments. This makes it easier to access and to read the individual comments. Otherwise, you may click on comment at the bottom of each posting to access the posted comments. Debbie Boles
Photos from first weekend
Here is a link to the pictures from our first weekend in Mapping Subcultures. It is posted in a seperate album in Webshots. Debbie Boles
Click here for the photos!
Food for Thought (pun intended!)
Food tends to be one thing that we consume daily that is taken for granted. In many cultures, the production and consumption of food is a social event involving family, friends, and at times, the community. In our culture however, we often turn food into a solitary event. We drive through a fast food window and eat in our cars and families often eat in shifts while they respond to the demands of our increasingly busy lives. The television and the development of convenience meals (tv dinners, packaged dinners such as Hamburger Helper), for example, have been identified as factors that contributed to the decline of the family meals. Such technological developments (remember our discussion from last week about the repercussions associated with “advances”) altered the way that the production and consumption of food was organized (we could of course, if given the time, identify dozens of technological innovations and changes in society that also affected the social organization of food). Even as daily food rituals were altered and individualized, celebrations (weddings, birthdays) and holidays (e.g., 4th of July barbecues, Christmas dinner) continued to provide the opportunities for the collective production and consumption of food.
Still, even in the midst of broader social trends, food often serves as a catalyst in building and sustaining community. Think about the OCU campus community. When I arrived at OCU I was amazed at the various events that included food. From pizzas in the classroom to a celebratory holiday dinner sponsored by the university, the goal is to promote a sense of belonging and collegiality. In the Report Writing class I taught last fall, food was important in the building of a learning community. Each week, students (including Pam who brought lasagna from her family’s recipe and Carmen who (in class) made salsa), would bring food and we, as a class, would talk about writing while consuming delicious “eats” that reflected our interests and social locations. Students in courses that meet at lunchtime or late afternoons consistently note how food would help sustain them.
Food, as an aspect of material culture, has also played an important role in our course. Think about the foods we have consumed over the last two weeks. Each class session has featured some kind of food, from our two Pam’s providing snacks last Friday to our meals at Red Cup, Grand House and Tom’s Barbeque to the valentine candy that Pam brought last night. Food has served as an icebreaker, a community builder, and as a learning strategy to understand the Chinese and African American cultures. And of course to provide sustenance during our long class sessions.
In regards to food in general, several questions emerge:
1. What meanings and feelings do particular foods produce in ourselves or others?
2. What are the cultural and social meanings that are attached to food?
3. Why is the relationship between the between the production and consumption of food important to understand?
4. And, what are the connections between food, identity and social relations?
The article by Marvalene H. Hughes offers keen insight into each of these questions. I would like each of you to write a couple of paragraphs that center on at least two of the above questions and the importance of food in African American culture (in particular to African American women). Also, please consider (or draw connections) to the food experiences we have shared at the Grand House and Tom’s Barbeque and how they might shed light on our understandings regarding the social aspects of food.
Still, even in the midst of broader social trends, food often serves as a catalyst in building and sustaining community. Think about the OCU campus community. When I arrived at OCU I was amazed at the various events that included food. From pizzas in the classroom to a celebratory holiday dinner sponsored by the university, the goal is to promote a sense of belonging and collegiality. In the Report Writing class I taught last fall, food was important in the building of a learning community. Each week, students (including Pam who brought lasagna from her family’s recipe and Carmen who (in class) made salsa), would bring food and we, as a class, would talk about writing while consuming delicious “eats” that reflected our interests and social locations. Students in courses that meet at lunchtime or late afternoons consistently note how food would help sustain them.
Food, as an aspect of material culture, has also played an important role in our course. Think about the foods we have consumed over the last two weeks. Each class session has featured some kind of food, from our two Pam’s providing snacks last Friday to our meals at Red Cup, Grand House and Tom’s Barbeque to the valentine candy that Pam brought last night. Food has served as an icebreaker, a community builder, and as a learning strategy to understand the Chinese and African American cultures. And of course to provide sustenance during our long class sessions.
In regards to food in general, several questions emerge:
1. What meanings and feelings do particular foods produce in ourselves or others?
2. What are the cultural and social meanings that are attached to food?
3. Why is the relationship between the between the production and consumption of food important to understand?
4. And, what are the connections between food, identity and social relations?
The article by Marvalene H. Hughes offers keen insight into each of these questions. I would like each of you to write a couple of paragraphs that center on at least two of the above questions and the importance of food in African American culture (in particular to African American women). Also, please consider (or draw connections) to the food experiences we have shared at the Grand House and Tom’s Barbeque and how they might shed light on our understandings regarding the social aspects of food.
Friday, February 15, 2008
A Suggestion Regarding Your Project Description
Last week we mentioned something important Sunni Mercer said:
Good art asks a question.
In other words, you want your artwork to raise a question in the minds of your viewers. As you formulate an overall concept for your project, try to keep this goal in mind.
This is especially important for the work we're doing because, for us, the purpose of the art project isn't just the end-product but the whole process of using art to help us think about subcultures in a different way. Your journal should contain many pages of pondering and brainstorming related not only to the artwork but to the places we're exploring--what they look and feel like, and why; what you know about them, what you'd still like to learn, what you many never know . . . and why; how a place gets "redeemed" or neglected or forgotten, . . . . all this writing and thinking should raise questions in your mind about the places we're studying. And at least one of those questions should somehow get embedded in your artwork so that you are giving your viewers something to think about as well as something to look at.
As you read through Julie's Project description a couple of posts down, notice the kinds of questions or thoughts her artwork might raise in the minds of her viewers. On one level it's a representation of Deep Deuce, but on another level it's a visual composition that gives us lots of food for thought.
Image source: loneblackrider
Project
I have no idea right now as to what my project will be. I do know that it will focus o
on either deep deuce or the chinese underground and the race seperation of white and chinese/black communities within okc and that there is a physical separation; being either a street or railroad tracks.
on either deep deuce or the chinese underground and the race seperation of white and chinese/black communities within okc and that there is a physical separation; being either a street or railroad tracks.
Idea: Video is creating dimension
On our first night, we viewed a video that was representing various aspects of art interpretation. This is an interesting way to get to know others when you are working together to create art. Our differences and similarities help to create a dimension that is not naturally apparent. With the use of video, the concept is to take a one dimensional object and create depth and perception. The hope is to turn a one dimensional object into a three dimensional perspective.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Julie's Project
Hi Everyone,
Here is my brainstorming on my project as it currently exists:
Description of Project:
“A light shade had been pulled down between the Black community and all things white”
The above quote is from Maya Angelou’s beautiful novel I know Why the Caged Bird Sings and it will provide a frame for my project on Deep Deuce. For my project, I aim to explore the dichotomy between Deep Deuce and the broader (read: white) Oklahoma City community during the early decades of the 20th century. However, I also want to address the dichotomy within “Deep Second” (I use the term “Deep Second” because that was the name residents used. In contrast, Deep Deuce, appears to be a term that emerged due to development and marketing strategies in the 1990s) .
While various social forces (e.g., discriminatory laws, racism, fear) worked to produce the geographic mapping of the black community, it is appears that other factors contributed to the bifurcation within Deep Second. My thoughts currently is that time was a primary factor: By day, it was a thriving business community and by night, a roaring jazz and entertainment district. I still need to explore further though the complexities of this (in many ways it resembles the day/night dichotomy of urban environments). The more conceptual mapping of time fascinates me. (Note: Let’s talk about the social forces and the creation/decline/revitalization of DS/DD this weekend. The processes are quite interesting from a social science perspective). It also strikes me that while we can expose the power relations between whites/blacks and the creation of DS, that it may be more difficult to figure out whether it is a strict dichotomy between the business and jazz subcultures or if something else is going on.
My project thus allows me to explore the inside/outside issue on multiple levels: 1) the “banishing” of Blacks to Deep Deuce thus constructing them as outsiders, 2) the way that boundaries (even those that are forced and socially constructed) are fluid (e.g., young white women visiting jazz clubs in Deep Second while Blacks were unwelcomed at night (or day) in OKC and 3) the way that time shapes what is inside/outside.
Here’s how I envision my project looking:
1) My vessel is a box. On the outside of the box are pictures of Oklahoma City between 1900 and the 1960s. On the inside of the box, half of the box will be photos of Deep Deuce by day (businesses: physicians, restaurants, theaters, etc.) and the other half will be Deep Deuce by night (jazz/entertainment). On the rim of the box, I’ll use Angelou’s quote (unless I find something by Ralph Ellison that I like better). Inside the box, my object will be something that signifies either 1) the “caging” of deep deuce, or 2) the business/jazz dichotomy (e..g, guitar/piano and cash register.
I am very interested in your comments and to hear more about your projects as they emerge.
Image Source: Nate (http://flickr.com/people/okaycity/)
Monday, February 11, 2008
What Would Pei Say?
Sunni Mercer advises us that "good art asks a question" so perhaps WWPS? (above) will be one of mine.
Despite my musings about a potential Deep Deuce project on my other blog, I feel more drawn to the "underground Chinatown" story.
That said, I have no clear vision of what I will make of it. I want this project to give me some insight into that community, but what it's really doing is making me feel irritated at the OKC community for allowing such a rich and fascinating part of our history to become, literally, buried. Invisible.
I'm angry that we can't locate an archeologically preserved underground residence of any kind. It strikes me as incredibly foolish and negligent of our civic leaders to have made (as far as I can discover) no real effort to preserve any part of that place even after Mayor Shirk revealed it in a cover story of our state's leading newspaper. How is such a thing possible?
As a researcher (and as a citizen), I want to know.
But as an artist, my role is also to raise questions. And so I ask, what would I.M. Pei say about all this?. The famous architect was hired by OKC to compose an urban development plan for the downtown business district, and he did, and although the "Pei Plan" was never completed it did include the Myriad Gardens area along with the rest of the area above the former underground residences of Chinese immigrants.
I wonder if he heard about any of that. His business district plans for OKC were submitted before Shirk's 1969 newspaper report. But still . . . if he had known, what might he have proposed to help preserve and acknowledge it?
Surely the man who gave us the Louvre's pyramid could have designed some sort of window to our own subterranean heritage. If only he had.
Image source: Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, Architects, LLP
Sunday, January 27, 2008
How the OED Defines "subculture"
The Oxford English Dictionary is the mothership of the English language. As I like to describe it, it's the only English-language dictionary with all the words in it.
(BTW, you can access the OED from the "Search Online Resources" area of the Dulaney-Browne Library website.)
Here's its entry for the noun subculture:
1. 1. Biol. and Med. [SUB- 9.] A culture (of bacteria or the like) started from another culture; the process of starting a culture in this way.
1886 E. KLEIN Micro-Organisms & Dis. (ed. 3) v. 43 From the individual and separate colonies, it is then easy by re-inoculation of gelatine tubes..to start pure subcultures of the different species. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 550 Growth..in subcultures may be recognisable within four hours. 1911 Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XV. 94 In sub~culture it grew on plain agar. 1962 Lancet 5 May 933/1 Amongst the 240 staphylococcal strains tested..64 showed discrete colonies of this kind and they were tested by subculture on to the same concentration of drug. 1971 Nature 16 July 174/1 Subcultures of the bacterial cultures were carried out at 7 day intervals to maintain vigorous stocks.
2. [SUB- 7.] A group or class of lesser importance or size sharing specific beliefs, interests, or values which may be at variance with those of the general culture of which it forms part.
1936 R. LINTON Study of Man xvi. 275 While ethnologists have been accustomed to speak of tribes and nationalities as though they were the primary culture~bearing units, the total culture of a society of this type is really an aggregate of sub-cultures. 1937 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 358 We may regard the adjusted group..as a small culture pocket or subculture within the larger culture. 1948 T. S. ELIOT Notes towards Definition of Culture iv. 75 We may find ourselves led to the conclusion, that every sub-culture is dependent upon that from which it is an offshoot. 1955 T. H. PEAR Eng. Soc. Differences iii. 111 The extravert's and the introvert's idea of good manners and goodwill, even in the same sub-culture-pattern, are very different. 1963 T. PYNCHON V. xii. 361 Anyone who continues to live in a subculture so demonstrably sick has no right to call himself well. 1970 G. JACKSON Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 214 We are a subsidiary subculture, a depressed area. 1976 DEAKIN & WILLIS Johnny go Home v. 82 The [social] workers dress like their clients... Only their accents betray them as not being part of the sub-culture they are ministering to.
(BTW, you can access the OED from the "Search Online Resources" area of the Dulaney-Browne Library website.)
Here's its entry for the noun subculture:
1. 1. Biol. and Med. [SUB- 9.] A culture (of bacteria or the like) started from another culture; the process of starting a culture in this way.
1886 E. KLEIN Micro-Organisms & Dis. (ed. 3) v. 43 From the individual and separate colonies, it is then easy by re-inoculation of gelatine tubes..to start pure subcultures of the different species. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 550 Growth..in subcultures may be recognisable within four hours. 1911 Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XV. 94 In sub~culture it grew on plain agar. 1962 Lancet 5 May 933/1 Amongst the 240 staphylococcal strains tested..64 showed discrete colonies of this kind and they were tested by subculture on to the same concentration of drug. 1971 Nature 16 July 174/1 Subcultures of the bacterial cultures were carried out at 7 day intervals to maintain vigorous stocks.
2. [SUB- 7.] A group or class of lesser importance or size sharing specific beliefs, interests, or values which may be at variance with those of the general culture of which it forms part.
1936 R. LINTON Study of Man xvi. 275 While ethnologists have been accustomed to speak of tribes and nationalities as though they were the primary culture~bearing units, the total culture of a society of this type is really an aggregate of sub-cultures. 1937 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 358 We may regard the adjusted group..as a small culture pocket or subculture within the larger culture. 1948 T. S. ELIOT Notes towards Definition of Culture iv. 75 We may find ourselves led to the conclusion, that every sub-culture is dependent upon that from which it is an offshoot. 1955 T. H. PEAR Eng. Soc. Differences iii. 111 The extravert's and the introvert's idea of good manners and goodwill, even in the same sub-culture-pattern, are very different. 1963 T. PYNCHON V. xii. 361 Anyone who continues to live in a subculture so demonstrably sick has no right to call himself well. 1970 G. JACKSON Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 214 We are a subsidiary subculture, a depressed area. 1976 DEAKIN & WILLIS Johnny go Home v. 82 The [social] workers dress like their clients... Only their accents betray them as not being part of the sub-culture they are ministering to.
Monday, January 7, 2008
[Some of] What We Are Reading to Prepare to Teach this Course
For the past year or so Dr. Cowgill and I have been picking one another's brains to ensure that the class truly benefits from our differing backgrounds as researchers: She is a sociologist trained mainly in social scientific methods; I am a rhetorician trained mainly in humanistic methods.
Huh?
For the purpose of our course, what this basically means is that we both study people and their stories, but we go about it differently. We'll likely discuss this during classtime.
Meanwhile, we'll use this posting to compose an informal annotated bibliography of the more interesting and important texts we've been examining. Because we're co-teaching this course, we assigned one another some readings to help us get a better understanding of how we each approach research--these readings included items we wrote ourselves as well as some articles or books that have influenced our own work. We also found a variety of books, articles, and websites that seemed like promising sources of information about urban sociology, cultural mapping, OKC history, and so forth--some of which we'll be assigning to the researchers in our course.
Our Ever-Evolving Annotated Bibliography for this Course . . .
Blair, Carole. "Contemporary U.S. Memorial Sites as Exemplars of Rhetoric's Materiality." Rhetorical Bodies Eds, Jack Selzer and Sharon Crowley. [oops, I need to insert the publication city] U of Wisconsin, 1999. 16-57.
BH: This is the article I assigned to Julie as an excellent explanation and illustration of how rhetoricians use three-dimensional objects to analyze a community. If we end up analyzing Deep Deuce through its artifacts--perhaps inventing a methodology of our own called, e.g., "material ethnography"--then this article by Blair plus the book by Thomas might very well be our foundation.
O'Meally, Robert G. "Checking Our Balances: Louis Armstrong, Ralph Ellison, and Betty Boop." Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies Eds., Robert G. O'Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards, Farah Jasmine Griffin. New York: Columbia UP, 2004. 278-96.
BH: Although Ellison's "Deep Deuce" days are not the focal point of this article, we can learn a good deal about Ellison's perspective on race relations (in Deep Deuce and elsewhere) through his commentaries on Louis Armstrong's complex and ironical persona as an entertainer who seemed to reinforce racial stereotypes in, for example, this Betty Boop cartoon: I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal while also evolving into an outspoken civil rights activist. An OKC dance hall is where Ellison first watched Armstrong perform, and one of his indelible memories about that event concerned OKC segregation: how white women streamed into the dance hall, breaking the law to be a part of the music.
Thomas, Jim. Doing Critical Ethnography. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE, 1993.
BH: Julie assigned me this article as an introduction to ethnographic research done by people in her field. In a nutshell, ethnography is a research method that involves immersing yourself in a community in order to study it firsthand. When we first envisioned this course we were going to spend 16 weeks as ethnographers. Now that the course is happening in a weekend format, we're trying to design a research methodology that will enable us to still make critical observations despite our limited time frame--in Deep Deuce we'll basically be passersby more than community-members, though we'll still be thinking about "subcultures" to which we might each belong in everyday life. (I need to return to this article to write more about how it intersects with the material rhetoric article. I'll write more then.)
Huh?
For the purpose of our course, what this basically means is that we both study people and their stories, but we go about it differently. We'll likely discuss this during classtime.
Meanwhile, we'll use this posting to compose an informal annotated bibliography of the more interesting and important texts we've been examining. Because we're co-teaching this course, we assigned one another some readings to help us get a better understanding of how we each approach research--these readings included items we wrote ourselves as well as some articles or books that have influenced our own work. We also found a variety of books, articles, and websites that seemed like promising sources of information about urban sociology, cultural mapping, OKC history, and so forth--some of which we'll be assigning to the researchers in our course.
Our Ever-Evolving Annotated Bibliography for this Course . . .
Blair, Carole. "Contemporary U.S. Memorial Sites as Exemplars of Rhetoric's Materiality." Rhetorical Bodies Eds, Jack Selzer and Sharon Crowley. [oops, I need to insert the publication city] U of Wisconsin, 1999. 16-57.
BH: This is the article I assigned to Julie as an excellent explanation and illustration of how rhetoricians use three-dimensional objects to analyze a community. If we end up analyzing Deep Deuce through its artifacts--perhaps inventing a methodology of our own called, e.g., "material ethnography"--then this article by Blair plus the book by Thomas might very well be our foundation.
O'Meally, Robert G. "Checking Our Balances: Louis Armstrong, Ralph Ellison, and Betty Boop." Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies Eds., Robert G. O'Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards, Farah Jasmine Griffin. New York: Columbia UP, 2004. 278-96.
BH: Although Ellison's "Deep Deuce" days are not the focal point of this article, we can learn a good deal about Ellison's perspective on race relations (in Deep Deuce and elsewhere) through his commentaries on Louis Armstrong's complex and ironical persona as an entertainer who seemed to reinforce racial stereotypes in, for example, this Betty Boop cartoon: I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal while also evolving into an outspoken civil rights activist. An OKC dance hall is where Ellison first watched Armstrong perform, and one of his indelible memories about that event concerned OKC segregation: how white women streamed into the dance hall, breaking the law to be a part of the music.
Thomas, Jim. Doing Critical Ethnography. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE, 1993.
BH: Julie assigned me this article as an introduction to ethnographic research done by people in her field. In a nutshell, ethnography is a research method that involves immersing yourself in a community in order to study it firsthand. When we first envisioned this course we were going to spend 16 weeks as ethnographers. Now that the course is happening in a weekend format, we're trying to design a research methodology that will enable us to still make critical observations despite our limited time frame--in Deep Deuce we'll basically be passersby more than community-members, though we'll still be thinking about "subcultures" to which we might each belong in everyday life. (I need to return to this article to write more about how it intersects with the material rhetoric article. I'll write more then.)
This is Where Our Journey Begins
Greetings!
Dr. Cowgill and I are starting this blog in January--about a month before our "Mapping [Sub]Cultures" course with you commences--as a way to offer you a glimpse of our creative process as co-teachers and researchers, and also as a way to share with you the nagging questions that inspired us to invent this course in the first place!
The image above is as good a place as any to begin explaining what this course is all about--and why we believe it is important.
The mosaic is on a wall in Bricktown, and it represents the glory days of "Deep Deuce."
As a transplant to Oklahoma City, I was delighted to learn about this part of the city's heritage and I love the idea of educating the public--locals as well as tourists--about this community. But as a rhetorician--someone who studies symbolic communication--I'm intrigued by, among other things, the tidiness of it all, the way this complex community and its history is being packaged and re-presented for our consumption. Most of the area was cleared for a highway project; a few spots are being rebuilt or preserved. When Dr. Cowgill and I wandered the hub of Deep Deuce together we had the same thought: Disneyland --specifically, its "Main Street USA."
We believe that you can learn a lot about a community (such as our own Oklahoma City) by examining how it portrays and locates its subcultures. In this case, we're calling Deep Deuce a "subculture" because it is an historically African-American community that developed during our city's segregationist era, when whites lived in the regions "above" 2nd Street.
Our hope is that you will join us as fellow researchers identifying what "subcultures" look like in Oklahoma City today (is every community its own sort of subculture? or does the "sub" in subculture mean something else?) and that together we can generate some interesting insights into culture, society, and ourselves.
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