Queensborough Community College is currently home to an singular object:
A jacket worn by a concentration camp victim during the Holocaust. I was fortunate this week to take my English Composition I students to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center for a lecture on the Holocaust as well as a tour of the exhibition, "The Jacket from Dachau." We learned the definitions of the terms genocide, antisemitism, and Holocaust. We followed the timeline of Hitler's rise to power and his fatal Final Solution. We also toured the museum's current exhibit of the jacket worn by Ben Peres during his internment at Dachau, viewing primary source documents such as letters and ship manifests, and footage of Peres family films and photographs. Finally, we saw the jacket itself, which is displayed in a case at the end of the exhibit space. Last week, my students and I blogged about the artifacts and museums and considered whether or not museums might create arguments with their exhibitions. Now that we've had a chance to experience a particular exhibit, let's discuss to what extent "The Jacket" makes an argument. Comment below to share your thoughts!
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Yo Soy Boricua Pa’ Que Tu Lo Sepas!, a film by actress and choreographer Rosie Perez, celebrates the island to which Perez first traveled when she was eight-years-old. Like many Puerto Ricans born on the "mainland," Perez struggled throughout her early life to make a connection to her Puerto Rican heritage. In her memoir, published in 2014 and the 2016-2017 Common Read book at Queensborough Community College, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair), Rosie Perez writes her way to understanding her personal history.
Perez writes about family, traditional foods, music, and the painful events of her life, while her film celebrates the history of Puerto Rico and its people. Her book and film got me thinking:
What is the connection between identity and personal heritage? Comment below to answer this question and describe your reaction to Perez's work. Share at least one quote from the book and one reference to the film that contributes to your overall point. New York City is home to over 200 museums. Some museums are devoted to art, others to natural history, and others to some aspect of culture. In the borough of Queens alone, one can visit the Moving Image Museum or take a tour of a Victorian garden and bird sanctuary right in the heart of Flushing at the Voelker Orth Museum. What these museums have in common is that they house artifacts. Artifacts are, in short, objects, but they are objects that are made and used and have some sort of significance. This video shows a conservationist preparing an artifact for exhibition. Notice how carefully he handles the object. The question is: Why museums?
Why not just look at pictures of artifacts in books or on our phones? What happens when we view them up close? What role do museums play in our society, our world, or our city? To what extent do--or don't--we need museums? Finally, do exhibitions in museums make an argument? How might that argument fit into the museum's mission? Comment below to share your thoughts! |
About this blogA blog is an online conversation. This one is for students of writing and is an extension of our face-to-face classroom. Here is where we can continue a discussion started in class, ask questions, and test new ideas. Archives
March 2020
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