Collective Storytelling

Memory Stories Object and Location 3/7/2012

This is an exhibit I created and the accompanying sound piece here: Birthday Journal

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Reaction To Tenement Museum 2/28/2012

The Tenement Museum was the first Museum I have been to in NYC. I don’t go to museums often, so i was really interested to see what an exhibit would be like in the actual space that the exhibit was about. In other words, would it just be an empty apartment, where the history of itself could be told through its wear and tear, or would there be props, and curation.

I liked at first when she told us about the banister being original. it seemed so sturdy, as if it wasn’t that old at all. When she told us to imagine all the families that held the banister up and down the stairs, I did imagine it. It felt interesting, like all of a sudden I had a connection.

I wondered how much of the place though was ‘staged’ were certain parts of the walls torn on purpose, was the floor originally unleveled, or was it orchestrated? I wasn’t sure if these answers were clear, so i really didn’t want to ask. What I enjoyed most about the experience was how she made it interactive. She asked us our opinion a lot but she also asked us to imagine how we feel about things. It made me feel like I was investigating objects and discovering the stories behind them, like  I was going through the process of a historian or archeologist or investigator.

All in all it was an interesting experience to actually be in the space where the history took place. At some points the curator sounded unsure  of herself but I do like how she wanted to involve us so it was a two way conversation and experience.

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Assignment 3 2/ 15/2012

“A Girl Name Gorgeous”

I followed a group of people including myself for three days to capture conversation surrounding a big event. I do not want to go into too much detail because I am really curious to see if any type of story comes out of this. I basically recorded everything without asking any questions or telling anybody what to do. I wanted to see if  story could be could be achieved; kind of like filming a reality tv show with no script. What if you really try not to shape a story and see if a story can naturally come out?  This process involved a very transparent recording process where the listener I aware when the speakers are aware of the recording device. I didn’t plan to include these moments but I think they helped tell the reality of the situation. Additionally, I restricted myself to not produce the work with any outside sound. Everything in the piece had to have been recorded within the three days (so no background music etc…) .  Many times the participants did not even realize the recorder was on, sometimes I didn’t realize that I was recording either. I think this kind of helped tell the story as well. Ultimately I think the piece seems kind of boring but I am not sure what it sounds like to other people. It was very difficult to fit three days worth of material into about 15 minutes and I probably should have cut way more out but for some reason I guess I wanted to get initial reactions before making major cuts that may not tell any type of cohesive story. I grappled with whose story to tell.  How would the audience know who is speaking? How would the audience know who was the main character? How would the audience know what character were involved in what process simply by sound? So I’m hoping that the droplets of conversations I wove together can reveal some of those mysteries into a somewhat cohesive chain of events that tell a story.

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Assignment 2         2/8/2012

::The Hourly Dance::

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Assignment 1

Dear Diary,
We kissed. April Fools!

Process: Thought of a story I’d written before to see if it could be captured in 6 words. I wondered about the punctuation and how important it was. I also wondered about the words. I wanted to add in something like “We finally” but would that enhance or make the story more clear? it is difficult to tell because this is an actually story I’ve already written so I already understand it.

I didnt’ really know what to change. So I left it there and started to work on the 400 word autobiography.

400 WORD AUTOBIOGRAPHY. TELL THE WHOLE STORY OF YOUR WORKING LIFE IN 400 WORDS:

At 16 I was teaching middle school Math and Reading. Thirteen year old student Ashley called me Dirty Mama because I called them dirty children and put them on my “dirty list”.

In college I operated a shuttle service called Escort Service. We’d escort drunk students back and forth within a five mile radius of the campus. Experience of frat boy Jim who was dating my Black friend Ramata I heard about in the back of my car like a taxicab confession. Jim was squeezed in the back of the rusty white ford asking me things like “I like her but I just feel so weird when it’s just me around all her Black friends.” This, I wanted to explain to him, was the story of my life, everyday, and even in that moment with just me in the car with his four white friends.

I held four different jobs simultaneously in Undergrad: Escort Service, Blackhouse Assistant, MindRap Instructor, and Young People’s Project Instructor.

I moved up quickly with Mindrap, a non-profit organization where we use elements of Hip-Hop to teach math and science to high school students. I invited graduate Daniel who got me the position to come perform spoken word to the students. Feeling disrespected by one of the high school students before his performance he said, “Maybe your father never taught you any manners…” The student stood up and said, “Fuck you. You don’t know anything about my father.”
“No, fuck you,” responded Daniel. This he said in a classroom of me, his fiancee,  the founder of the organization and 15 high school students. Him and his fiancee are no longer together.

At 23 I was running an after school program in Miami. I was tormented by 35 kindergarten students five days a week. I was kicked and scratched by neglected Caroll City kids. One parent was so distraught she wanted to give her five year old up. He was the worse of them all and every time he punched or screamed or threw a chair we hugged and hugged him. Angry kids and we loved and loved them.

I’m still wanting to educate, but in a different way with different skills.

I now check out equipment to over 200 students and staff at NYU’s ITP program. Studying their names, giving them my smiles and attention, aiming to give them hope and inspiration every moment we speak.

Process for 400 word story:
I liked the topic. I was going to write about my life but I thought a good approach would be to write about something I’ve never written before. In my ten years of work experience there were tons of undocumented stories I’ve experienced with staff and students. Could it be possible to fit it in 400 words? And which stories were most interesting? My process involved me just starting to write without really thinking and just outline stories that came to mind as I wrote about the jobs I had. After only writing down two experiences from two stories I saw that I was way over the limit at over 600 words. I would need to figure out how to just say what happened briefly while telling the whole autobiography of my work life. So my process involved me telling those stories in maybe 3 or 4 sentences. I only really told the point or the ‘punch line’ of the stories as well. Toward the end I saw that I still had 20 words left so I elaborated about but the goal was to make sure I included practically every job I’ve held even if I didn’t describe or talk about it at length.