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Cool thing I discovered about Chicago Week 8

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Cool thing I discovered about Chicago Week 8

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I think instead of a cool THING I discovered about Chicago, i want to talk about a cool LADY I discovered in Chicago. Her name is Natalie Moore and when I had to read the first two chapters of her book, I could already tell that she was a pretty cool person, but it wasn't until I got to meet her in person in our class that I realized how cool she truly is! I think that she and I share similar beliefs on the world and on racism. One thing she specifically said that resonated with me was how she was talking about how today isn't necessarily better than it was in the past for minorities, but there are better and more opportunities that, if we work on, can actually make today better. I may have gotten the exact words wrong, but I just remember she was saying it was about the opportunities we have and what we do with them that will make today better than it was in the past. There were many other things she talked about like how people would try to get minorities out of white neighborhoods and her views on the George Floyd situation that happened that i also agreed with. I truly think Natalie Moore is an amazing person and I am so happy that, by taking this Discover Chicago class, i got the opportunity to meet her in person and learn about her actual ideals.

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So for my final week, instead of a single quotation, I wanted to give a response on something crazy I noticed about the movie we watched this week and sort of relate it to the previous weeks. So in Raisin in the Sun (I watched the 2008 version but i assume both versions are pretty much the same story just different actors), we watched how a black family had to handle and go against racism in their life as they tried to move into a new apartment, one that was surrounded by many white inhabitants, and they had to deal with a lot of drama, both in regards to their own family like with the baby and the money that the main guy wanted but was invested towards his son, and in regards to the racism they had to deal with in their life like how the main guy had to deal with that one racist cop guy in his job and how the man who was played by John Stamos was trying to get them to leave. It was interesting but also really horrible that they had to deal with all of this while they were just trying to live their lives, and it makes me think of all the stuff we've learned since being in this class. The biggest thing i realized is that, most of the discriminatory stuff that's happened to people happened when minorities were just trying to mind their own business and live their own lives. For example, with Gentrification, we learned that usually, the minority neighborhoods where gentrification would happen would have people just trying to do their own thing until usually Caucasian People came and wanted to add their own thing to the neighborhood which is how gentrification always started. Or, for a specific example, we learned about Eugene Williams and Emmitt Till and both of these boys were just trying to mind their business and live their lives, and because they happened to do something that the white people at the time did not like (Williams with the rafting into the "white part of the beach" and Till with the whistling) is how they ended up getting killed and how racial outrage took over the country just because of that. It's crazy to learn how in history, both in the past and recently, most of the horrible stuff that's happened to minorities usually happened while the minority people were just trying to mind their own business. Hopefully, learning all of this will help my class and all DePaul students be able to work towards a change in the future!

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So I hope that Film counts as a form of art because my favorite art piece from this week would be the movie the Raisin in the Sun which was this really incredible movie! I would go into details but I would literally be just saying the same thing i said in the previous post.

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Cool thing I discovered about Chicago Week 7

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Cool thing I discovered about Chicago Week 7

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Okay so I was gonna say something I discovered from one of the videos for this week and then I was watching this video about the history of veggietales (don't ask why, I just really like veggietales) and I learned that the main guy who created veggietales and the animations and all that stuff, did it all in Chicago!! Like he worked at this one company in chicago at first and he realized how much he liked doing animation and stuff so he decided to work on it on his own with like only one other guy who was like his best friend. I just think that is super interesting to know.

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Cool thing I learned about Chicago Week 6

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Cool thing I learned about Chicago Week 6

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I actually learned about two cool things this week. First thing I learned, which is a lot shorter than the other thing, is that a lot of black artists back in 1900s were communists. Crazy, right? Obviously, when they were communists, it wasn't like the hard core Stalin-Communism, so back then it was less "looked down upon" than it would be nowadays. Secondly, I learned about the Wall of Respect which was something cool that was introduced to me in the Black Metropolis of Art video. The Wall of Respect was basically where this African American Artist group painted a mural-like piece on a wall in Chicago that showed many of the African American Heroes to show their respect/support. It was really cool to look at and I'll see if i can find a good picture that shows it well enough.

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Cool thing i discovered about Chicago Week 4

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Cool thing i discovered about Chicago Week 4

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Well, This week we had to do presentations on train lines and i must say the green line and the other lines we learned about were pretty cool!! I hope to go to Chicago so i can ride some of these stations.

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Good start on this. I appreciate in particular how you dug in with the Rosemary Bray quotation. And now try to stick with your thinking a little bit longer. You don't have to go to a personal place if you don't want to--but then that's the time to get scholarly and move from I to we. What happens, for instance, to a country where too many feel surrounded by fear and rage? What is the impact of political art that depicts literally what we know to be invisible?--Linger longer and allow yourself to stretch into new ideas. --Prof BJB

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Cool thing I learned about Chicago Week 5

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Cool thing I learned about Chicago Week 5

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One really cool thing i discovered about Chicago was about Bronzeville and how much of an impact it had on minorities in the past. It's very interesting to hear about how SO MANY african-americans came to Bronzeville having escaped the darkness of the south, being free from things like lynchings and jim crow, and even crazier to find out that most of them were able to work for the first time in Bronzeville. I like to know that Bronzeville was a good step in the right direction back in the 1900s.

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"Chicago is the city from which the most incisive and radical Negro thought has come... There is an open and raw beauty about that city that seems either to kill or endow one with the spirit of life."
-Richard Wright
I really like this quote because the more we've learned about Chicago and especially it's impact on African Americans, I feel as though this quote sort of emphasizes the way many black people felt about Chicago and about how it was one of the only places at the time where an african american person could think and act freely, to an extent, of course, without worrying about the horrible repercussions they would have had to face in the south, such as lynching. And because of this ability to act and think freely, it's one of the reasons why we've learned so much about the amazing art and creative expression in Chicago that was specifically made by African Americans. A large majority of blues artists came from Chicago; many African American artists, as well as other minority artists, have been able to create and show their creations in Chicago whereas, at the time, they wouldn't have been able to do in most places, especially the South.

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I don't know why this quote resonated with me, but it really did.
"Zoe's graduation from Teacher's College meant more to me than those of all of the rest of my children combined.... She had gone back to school, two or three classes at a time, and her succeeding was just that [much] more delicious..."
-Ronne Hartfield quoting her mother in Another Way Home (116)
After reading about Hartfield's mother, Day, and about how she grew up not having a mother and having only a father who was there like every once in a while since his mother didn't like him spending that much time with them, it makes so much sense why Day would make sure to go the extra mile to make sure she was there for her children, showing them respect and care. But this specific part showing Day's excitement of her first child graduating college melted my heart (i know that sounds weird or cheesy or both) because Day didn't really have that opportunity since as soon as she was old enough to be considered a "woman" she was sent to the two people in chicago to take care of their child (i don't remember the names unfortunately). Day, as soon as she was considered an "adult" had to go straight to the labor force and even when the nice lady, the mother of the baby Day was caring for, mentioned that she should take night classes on the weekends, Day still didn't end up doing it at that time, so to see her first child doing something that she felt she wasn't able to do when she was young was the main reason why this graduation meant so much to her and why it felt so meaningful to me when I was reading this scene.

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Cool thing i discovered about Chicago Week 3

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Cool thing i discovered about Chicago Week 3

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So i was looking up cool restaurants in Chicago, specifically around the DePaul area, and found out about this one place called WildBerry which was so cool and it has a lot of pancakes and i really like pancakes!

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130 E. Randolph Street, Chicago

Fax: 312-938-9779

Hours

Daily: 6:30 am-2:30 pm

Holiday Hours
Thanksgiving Day 7:00am-12:00pm
Christmas Eve 7:00am-12:00pm
Christmas Day CLOSED

No Reservations accepted.

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130 E. Randolph Street, Chicago Fax: 312-938-9779 Daily: 6:30 am-2:30 pm Holiday Hours Thanksgiving Day 7:00am-12:00pm Christmas Eve 7:00am-12:00pm Christmas Day CLOSED No Reservations accepted.

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"Certain things shape you, change you forever. Years later, long after you think you've escaped, some ordinary experience flings you backward into memory, transports you to a frozen moment, and you freeze. Being poor is like that. Living surrounded by fear and rage is like that."
-Rosemary L. Bray in Unafraid of the Dark

Yes, yes, I know. "Real original using the first paragraph of the reading you had to do." But, I genuinely resonated with this quote so much more than I thought I would. For many reasons.

First things first, I'd like to talk about the first half of this quote, regarding how certain things can change you even though they may be something so simple and ordinary. I, personally, can recall many things, small things, that have happened in my life that truly have affected me for years after it happened, even though it would be something small like one person in third grade calling me "an ugly freak" which would completely destroy my self-confidence for the rest of my life or something like hurting a friend by doing something I didn't realize they would be hurt by, which would help me learn to make sure i'm more considerate with my actions in the future.

Secondly, The second to last sentence of the quote "Being poor is like that" was something that made me think back to my past, because, for the majority of my earlier life, I was, in fact, poor. Obviously, I'm not anymore, because my parents worked hard to get out of the state we were in (not like georgia state but like the other meaning). And I was never as bad as many others who are forced to live on the streets, but the neighborhood we lived in, the house we were in, and all those aspects of my life were easy indicators of our unfortune. And what Bray says about how being poor can be one of those things that can affect your life for years to come is very very true, or at least it is pertaining to me: both my parents and I, ever since we've had to experience poverty ourselves (and both my parents had to experience it when they were children) we are very big savers in order to compensate for it, just so that we can make sure if something big happened to us, like the loss of a job, we would still be fine and able to pay the bills. As for me, all my life, through poverty and out, i've been taught the correct ways to handle money, how to save, how to create a bank account, and all sorts of things that i know for a fact will help me once i'm living out.

Third and lastly comes the very last sentence: "Living surrounded by fear and rage is like that." I'm going to be completely honest, I would rather not go into detail with this one because it's a topic that gets me heated. Very heated. But, being black definitely comes with that fearful and raging living.

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National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture  Week 3

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National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture  Week 3

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So I just have to say how much i love this art. I'm really looking forward to and hoping to visit this museum, which is apparently the ONLY Puerto Rican Museum outside of Puerto Rico which is so cool!

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So I don't know if music counts as art in this context, but after watching that video about Chicago's Black Metropolis, I learned about some cool blues singers like the Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters and i listened to their music and it was really good, but what was cool in my perspective was how i knew the context of some of the music i was hearing and i knew about what was going on at the time as they were performing said music and i think that just adds an extra special feel to the music.

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"It was the drowning of Eugene Williams... that caused the city to be thrown in a general uproar for several days."
-The Boy's Death Caused Race Riot
I really like this quotation, not specifically because of what it says but mainly because of how well it parallels with what had been happening recently regarding George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement and protests. Although George Floyd wasn't drowned, his death truly caused a general uproar around America, for, unfortunately, a lot longer than several days. In fact, it was closer to several months. Riots and protests were occurring all over the nation, and all races were playing a part in it. In some cases, it was good, like in the peaceful protests, but in other cases, it was very bad such as when the violent riots were occurring and people were getting hurt and property being damaged, just like back in the 1900s with Eugene Williams. Somebody once said, "If you fail to remember history, you're doomed to repeat it." Although, i can't remember who it was that said this, i can confidently say that this part of history has, indeed, been forgotten due to the obvious patterns between the two situations.

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Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man (Live)

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For this week's Art section, instead of talking about a specific art piece that resonated with me, I'd rather go into an entire movement, specifically the Chicago's Black Art Movement. We learned a lot about it this week, and one thing that was really interesting to me specifically was how they talked about how on sundays, there would be people out performing more than just music, as there were also black poets and performers which I think is really cool from a cultural sense. Another cool thing i found interesting, which, I'm not sure if it counts as art since it's a newspaper, but i think it counts, was how Hoyt Fuller was employing a lot of powerful and very good African American writers to write in his paper the Negro Digest which was good both for the newspaper itself and for the people who were writing in it who finally got a chance for their writing to get recognition that they hadn't gotten before.

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So this might sound a bit personal but i'll try to like make it apply to the nation as a whole.
"Little Emmett Till was lynched just as the word was fading from our memory. Lynched in the most fearsome manner, just like old-time Negroes used to tell stories about... What Emmet's mother said was that she had taught her son to whistle as a means of coping with his stammering problem... What none of us realized was that the rules in the South hadn't changed as much as anybody thought, and those rules still did not allow for audacity in a black boy."
-Ronne Hartfield
The story of Emmett Till is a story I've heard all my life. It was the story my parents would tell me when they wanted to tell me about how bad it was in my grandmother and great grandmother's time. It was the story they would tell me when they were trying to explain to me why I, a black boy living in the South, had to be as respectful as possible to white people just to make sure I didn't accidentally offend someone and get killed. I've heard about Emmett Till and what happened to him from my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and pretty much all the adults in my family. So when I was reading this portion of the book, it really resonated with me personally, because of how much the story of Emmett Till was a part of my life, and it was really interesting to hear about what had happened to him from the perspective of someone who knew both him and his family. It was especially interesting to hear about the effect that his death... or rather his murder... had on the people of the southside of Chicago who had known him and his family. The people were less angry about the injustice towards an African American young boy, but more angry about how that injustice had happened to a boy so familiar to them all. Hartfield said that "the murder of Emmett Till was not simply about civil rights... [it] was personal." She then talked more about how the entire southside was both shocked and enraged to hear about what had happened to Emmett Till and I think it's crazy to read about how different the reaction to Emmett Till's murder was to the reaction of Eugene Williams' death. This type of thing is actually something I've thought about and I've talked to friends and family about and it really makes me wonder, how much worse could the George Floyd situation have been if, instead of someone like George Floyd dying that day, it was someone from my neighborhood that many people from the neighborhood knew, or in the case of DePaul and Chicago, how different could it have been if it was someone from Chicago that many people knew and respected, like Barack Obama, who was in that situation instead of George Floyd. It's definitely an interesting thing to think about.

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You've really upped your game this week Fish. Great job.

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I've been seeing this art piece around a lot recently and it really is crazy to me how different the picture is compared to the situation, considering the "line" that separated the blacks and whites was an imaginary line that wasn't visible although in this piece, you can clearly see it.

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So, I've learned about a lot of art from the class, but the guest speaker taught us about a lot of cool art from cool black artists like Charles White and Edward Hopper. One art piece I learned about from her that i liked a lot and that resonated with me a lot was the Walter Ellison Painting "Train Station." We talked about it more in depth in class, but a brief summary of it would be that there were three rows, the left being wealthy white people, the middle being above-average black people, and the right being average black people. It was really cool and the right side had the black people going from the South to the North and the left side had the white people going from the North to the South. It was super cool and I don't remember the name of the museum that the lady worked at that had the painting but i know for a fact that it's yet ANOTHER one of the many places i want to visit when i go to Chicago.