Diaspora Dialogs [.com]

It's been quite a summer, after completing my distance course at the end of June I moved straight to teaching a Caribbean Dialogs course on Cornell's campus to Telluride TASP students. The difference was that this class was live with conversations taking place in real time between myself sixteen students and another teacher sometimes based in Jamaica. Now I'm conflicted, the conversations in our TASP course were so intense, wide ranging and productive that I'm in love with the 'classroom' again attracted to its energy and those aha moments when a conversation hurtles towards previously unthought of possibilities.

I have just completed my first week of teaching for my Caribbean Dialogs course and I am excited. After numerous month of preparation and a trip to Trindad (see http://www.sce.cornell.edu/ss/courses/dl/arth4526.php) we seem to off to a good start. I have seven seniors who are working from various points in the USA. So far, they are coping with the new technology and getting the hang of working on the Caribbean Dialogs wiki. During the next six weeks we’ll be looking at the region’s history and art related to slavery, tourism, nationalism, crime and protest, as well as the African Diaspora and festival celebrations.

Last week, a fellow teacher here in Jamaica questioned me about whether a course of this type is likely to succeed, especially with Caribbean students. She suggested that in the Caribbean, physical contact and classroom/studio exchange is essential to the process of learning. I argued that what’s needed is intellectual engagement rather than physical contact but are we all in danger of becoming just talking heads?

NMC Campus in Second Life

I’ve been concerned about virtual worlds, ever since I saw my first presentation about Second Life where blacks were represented as ‘cool’ but also bank robbers. Apparently, the stereotypes prevalent in this world seem to have been carried over to a virtual one. I am anxious to see how these kinds of distortions might be corrected as well as being curious about the potential for deracination that alternative realities present. Now, faced with the opportunity of hosting my distance class in this virtual world, I am faced with existentialist type issues and questions such as what would choosing a white avatar mean and say about me? Franz Fanon tells us that black people are forever marked and marred by their blackness, a process cultural theorist Stuart Hall calls ‘epidermalization’. Second Life has the potential for removing this stigma, not by erasure of societal prejudices but through an individual’s avoidance of them. With this in mind, it seems I may have to don the armor of my black skin yet again to challenge the injustices in Second Life. What do you think?

Art and Emancipation: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds returned to Jamaica after a successful showing at the Yale Center for British Art in the USA. An abridged, retitled and amended version of the show opened at the National Gallery of Jamaica this week. I had the privilege of seeing both shows and reviewing the massive companion book/catalogue, (look for this soon in the Jamaica Journal).

We’ve just returned from carnival in Trinidad. It was intense. The first days away were spent visiting pan yards and restaurants before the Port of Spain gave itself over completely to street food and carnival competitions. In the end, time ran out and Monday morning’s masquerade called jouvert found us bleary eyed but enthralled by its night devils, and the muddy throng who came out to play.

Earth

Diaspora Dialogs welcomes Laura Facey as an artist member to this site. Laura is a Jamaican based artist renowned for her exquisite installations and powerful sculptures. Her most famous commission is the controversial Redemption Song that has sparked a furious public debate about how the black Diaspora remembers and commemorates past pains and triumphs. Although, I am one of Redemption Song’s critics, I admire Laura’s work [sample slide show below - click "read more" to view] and her feistiness. Laura’s most recent series, ‘The Everything Doors’ demonstrates that she is a resilient artist willing to face and challenge her critics. In this sense, she is a great addition to our conversations and we look forward to her participation and support. Click here for more biographical information on Laura Facey.

It’s a year since we started Diaspora Dialogs. Initially it was started in a hurry, added on to my other two websites http://www.petrinearcher.com and http://www.negrophilia.com.jm. This year it has become the most dynamic of my sites mainly because I have used it for teaching. Its blog has become an integral part of my courses and students have responded enthusiastically having thoughtful and provocative weekly conversations. Thank you, everyone!

We are coming to the end of the semester and it's a time of evaluation, grading and more importantly reflection. Teaching this class has been intense, working with the web and using a wiki has kept me 'on call' way beyond any teaching experience I've had in the past. We've written reams and I've edited and commented far more than I would have ever done in a conventional course. My teaching has had to adapt to this new digital environment, it's had to become transparent.

The course has also demanded that you think and respond differently. Yes, you have learned the principles of good writing but also, you have had to learn other things such as working collaboratively, respecting other's creativity through copyright, developing your own voice on line, or examining an issue in multiple ways.

I've been in the Caribbean for most of the summer. It's been great thinking about the Diaspora and preparing for my classes there. Sometimes it feels like 'home' and I don't have the same 'rootless feeling' that I get when I am in the States or the UK. Being there makes me consider how one's geographical location affects spatial thinking. For instance, I found it was easier discussing ideas about the Diaspora and my course with people accustomed to the notion of dispersal (as we all are in the Caribbean). This is unlike what happens when I am in North America where despite its vastness, people's minds do not seem as open to what's happening beyond there own territorial borders.

Travel really gives you a different perspective on life. I always find that when I am in transit, maybe sitting in an airport, or mid-flight that I have the most acute revelations about my own own life and my relationship to others. There's something about being in that space that provides you with a certain objectivity – perhaps a way of just stepping away from yourself and your circumstances and seeing yourself more clearly – at least this is what I have always thought. Recently, though, I've been re-evaluating the travel experience. I have been trying to determine how travel affects one's values and what are its advantage and disadvantages.