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I decided to analyze the poetic elements in the section titled Men telling a Women's story. In the first reading titled "Brenda's Got a Baby" there are many elements of a poem in it. The type of poem it would be is a ballad, it is a fairly short song and the lyrics of the song tell a story about Brenda and how she is having a baby while she is still a very young kid. The song rhymes and has a rhythm much like other poems do. The lyrics are also lined up as stanzas so you can understand how to read the lyrics better and the rhythm of the poem. This song brings a lot of attention to the problems hat minorities face during teen pregnancy. 2Pac mentions how she had no parents that cared causing her to not be raised correctly. I like that he was bringing attention to how its the community fault. 2 Pac stated "just because you're in the ghetto you can't grow" then said "that's my own revelation". It shows that he understands how the struggles of living in the ghetto can affect people
Another song in this section that i liked was Runaway Love by Ludacris. This song talks about girls in the ghetto and the different struggles each of these girls have. The song has a rhyme and a rhythm to it. It repeats whenever Ludacris talks about a new little girl. In this reading Ludacris talks about how different young girls struggle in their home calling it hell. The first girl's mother is a drug addict and doesn't believe her when she says that her moms boyfriend touched her. Another girl is abused by her father and the third girl got pregnant by her boyfriend and he left her. In the song Ludacris repeats how the girls see the world as cold and how they all plan on running away.
All these songs consist of poetic element. They have good messages and they all have an audience they are trying to get their message to. A lot of the songs in this section talked about the struggle of being raised in the ghetto.

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I can relate Kendrick Lamar's m.A.A.d City to the Hero's Journey. I relate that song from the album to this story because when he is talking about how he was talking about where he staged the robbery and how his first blunt had him foaming at the mouth. I believe that the statement of his first blunt making his mouth foam and him tweaking was a sign of immaturity. He said that he smokes now showing how he has grown in his ability to smoke weed. Another way it reminds me of the Hero's Journey is in the first verse when he was rapping about his gang "It was me, L Boog, and Yan Yan, YG Lucky ride down Rosecrans" (Lamar). This part reminded me of a gathering of companions which was mentioned as a part of the Hero's Journey in the lecture. In this song Kendrick Lamar raps about plenty of conflict which is a part of the Hero's Journey. Some examples of conflict he raps about are "A wall of bullets comin' from AK's, AR's, "Ayy, y'all - duck!" " (Lamar).
Another is when he said  "That was back when I was nine, Joey packed the nine

Pakistan on every porch is fine, we adapt to crime" (Lamar). These quotes from the song by Kendrick Lamar are all talking about conflicts that Lamar faced when he was growing up in Compton. Another thing that reminds me of The Hero's Journey from this song is the realization of differences when he states "You killed my cousin back in '94, fuck yo' truce!" (Lamar). This reminded me of the realization of differences part of the Hero's Journey because it shows separation between gangs in Compton.

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In The Last Poets by Christine Otten is a book with a nonlinear plot because the times and characters keep changing throughout the book. I would say that the theme is anyone can change their future despite their past decisions because most of the characters fit in this theme. I think that everyone in the story had a rough home life growing up and such as Jerome's father being abusive towards his mother and Jerome not having support from his grandmother. HIs grandmother kicked his mother and him out of their house and they went to Ohio. When Jerome was in Ohio he had many issues with being exposed to sex at a young age. He had many sexual encounters in Ohio that wasn't right for his age at the time. He also thought about killing his father for abusing his mother. Jerome also had to go and make money to help support his family when he as young as well. Even though Jerome grew up with all these issues he still was able to make a future for himself. Many people who went through what Jerome did at a young age would probably end up in jail or dead because of the trauma that he might have from his challenging childhood.

With Felipe he grew up constantly moving and never having a steady home that he loved. When he moved to California he loved it there and didn't want to go back to Harlem. When Felipe did go back to Harlem due to not being able to afford living in California he joined a gang and was involved in gang activity. Felipe then had to move back to California even though he didn't want to this time. After to moving to California he had to move back another time to Harlem. I think him growing up and moving around so much was hard for him. He was constantly meeting new people and friends then having to leave them because of his mother moving. After he got back to New York he was still in his gang. Then he was arrested for being involved with a stabbing. He then went to Elmira correctional facility where he met diablo who influenced his experience in jail. Felipe had to grow up inside of a jail because of the mistakes he made. After he was in Elmira correctional facility He went to Coxsackie correctional facility. Despite his troubled past being involved in gang activity, constantly moving, and growing up in jail he was still able to change and become a better person and grow from his past. I think that there are many people in the world who grow up with a hard childhood and make mistakes but are able to learn from their mistakes and change their lives for the better. No matter where you're from or how you grow up you can decide your future.

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For the setting & conflict blog i decided to write about Felipe. He is a great character to write about for setting because of how he has been in many different settings. He's been in two different jails being Coxsackie and Elmira Correctional facility. He used to live in California as well. Felipe mostly grew up in New York. These different settings that he grew up in made him the most interesting to me for this blog post subject.  Felipe was born in New York in 1947 and eventually went to a correctional facility.
When Felipe was about eight he moved to California with his family. They lived in a two bedroom house which is not the biggest but he said it felt like a resort. The fact that this was a resort to him showed the readers how small their apartment in the Johnson projects were. They shared the apartment between 8 people. This was also Felipe's first time living in a real house instead of an apartment and he really liked it in California. I think that Felipe being able to experience California and living in a house made him not like being in apartments in Harlem when the house was too expensive to keep. In the real world people have to give up living in nicer areas due to costs all the time. This part of Felipe's life probably relates to many readers who have experienced their own settings change for worse because of money.
The first Correctional facility he went to was Elmira Correctional facility. This setting that he was in helped him grow and adapt to the jail environment. In Elmira Correctional facility Felipe was scared at first. He said in the book that he cried a lot in the correctional facility. When he cried you can really tell that he missed his family and was scared in the jail. That moment when he was crying he met Diablo. When Diablo called out and asked how long everyone had this really changed my perspective on the setting. The fact that so many people yelled out sentences that were way longer than Felipe's made his 5 years seem short, which it's not. Him being in a jail full of people with super long sentences compared to his probably made him feel better about the sentence length that he was given. Realistically 5 years is a pretty long sentence to be in jail especially because he was young. I think anyone who was sentenced to 5 years as young as Felipe was would've reacted and cried the same way that Felipe did. He was forced to grow up in the correctional facility.
After being in the Elmira facility he was able to be more comfortable in the Coxsackie facility because he had ties and relations with Diablo and others from the previous jail he was in. In Coxsackie his settings were mostly around people of his race because of the racism that was instilled in the inmates inside the jail. When he saw his friend that he used to know, He told Felipe to stay away and be with his own kind, as in Puerto Ricans. Because if this encounter Felipe stayed in the cell in the center of the prison called the patio. The cell he stayed in protected him because it secluded him from most of the other people in the jail. He wasn't able to be influenced to join gangs which really shows how much the setting shaped his character. If he was in another cell he may have been influenced by the people he met. This part of Felipe secluding himself made me think of how a lot of people who grow up in neighborhoods with gangs and higher crime rates tend to be influenced by their surroundings and participate in these activities and Felipe being able to isolate himself from gangs and other inmates helped him stay the same and not change in the jail.

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I chose to write about Jerome because there is so much about him in the story, which made him the most interesting to me. I would say that Jerome is the protagonist of the story because of how complex he is written. When we read about his past throughout the book we see all the important events in his life that shape him. Jerome learns to speak even though he was not able to speak when he was younger. He was treated as dumb and not as good as his older brother by his grandmother because of his inability to speak. When he attempts to speak the author describes his frustration and pain of not being able to say anything.  Jerome leaving his grandmas house with his mother and father is another change that makes Jerome's character more dynamic because it shows how his father played a role in his life when he was young. He also meets new people like Dora and Reggie, which help his character become more dynamic because we get to see Jerome with people his own age and his new relationships with people. We were able to see how he acts around his peers and not only his family or people who are older than him. Jerome also shows how he is very dedicated and helpful when he would leave and go shine shoes at the bar to make more money to help his family. In the mud bottom chapter he was able to learn how to swim all by himself. This is another demonstration of why he is a round character. His actions in this chapter tell me that he is a dynamic character because he was able to learn something new with no help from anyone but himself. We have seen Jerome develop a lot throughout the little we've read in the story. I like the 3rd person point of view when talking about Jerome's life and back story. It helps give better understanding into his thoughts and feelings because many people might not experience the same struggles and experiences that Jerome had to grow up with. It allows them to see into Jerome's mind and read what caused him to do or say something. Some of the chapters are first person point of view when it is about someone else in Jerome's life like his mother or Bill Laswell the producer. I really enjoyed reading about Jerome and the way that this book is written.

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Hello my name is Christian Diaz. It's my second year here at Stan. I'm majoring in history and plan on becoming a history teacher for either high school or community college. I enjoy walking my three dogs and I usually workout everyday. When I'm not being active I like to watch shows or play games with my friends and family.

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Hello my name is Christian Diaz. It's my second year here at Stan. I'm majoring in history and plan on becoming a history teacher for either high school or community college. I enjoy walking my three dogs and I usually workout everyday. When I'm not being active I like to watch shows or play games with my friends and family.