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.

It seems that for every controversial topic that there are two completely radical points of view that are argued.  It seems as if there is no agreement and no middle ground that can be reached.  This can be seen in politics between the democrats and the republicans. It seems as if these two groups are both just as radical as the other but on two completely different sides of the spectrum. This is a rash generalizaion but for example democrats think that partial birth abortion should be legal while reublicans think that condoms and birth control are forms of murder.  Another example of this extremist point of view can be seen through the case of the jena six.  One group said that the six should be prosecuted and the white kids should get off with a slap on the wrist.  While the other group argued that the jena six should be released immediatley as if they had done nothing wrong.  I say that neither side is totally corect in their arguments.  The question lies here.  Do these two seperate groups realize that they are being so radical and continue to act that way in order to get their point across?

Sitting in homeroom of my seventh grade class, an announcement came over the PA system, “Good morning, please be advised that all students should enter and exit through the 83rd Street doors in order to avoid the protest.” As a completely aloof seventh grader, I turned to my classmate and simply asked, “Protest…for what?” It turned out that my second-grade teacher, Sr. Seton called one of her current students “a monkey.” Apparently not understanding what the fuss was all about, my classmate further explained that the particular student was black and the comment was viewed as extremely racist. What was originally a silly comment on the child’s playfulness had turned into a full blown, two-day civil rights demonstration. Led by the social justice activist, Rev. Al Sharpton, it criticized the comments of one of the sweetest and most caring people I had ever known.