Over the past four years my love the the Arts has grown tremendously. For my Capstone I wanted explore different ropes of art other than just writing poetry. First I studied what it takes to bring together different types of artist to create a show for the general public. My second exploration was how can I use art to teach a basic subject, such as freshman history. The final personal art challenge I had was creating a video for people to get a sneak peak of SLA through the eyes of SLA senior ’15 (Final Slide).

Figuring out the idea ... the purpose was the first step. What did I want the community to take home from my shows? “Lets Talk about Art” was a show that focused on “Words, images and sounds unit common humanity." I brought together poets, visual artist, dancers and DJ’s from ages 14-26 and together we molded a show that succeeded in my vision. I learned three lesson out of this experience. The complications of getting artist to meet regularly, how to book a show space and be the director, the one in charge of everything. Most importantly I figured out what makes a show successful. If it touches the people who attend its a success not just how many people show up.

Art and African American History. As a SAT for freshman History I created their 4th quarter Benchmark. They were exploring how the changes (13th, 14th & 15th amendments & Jim Crow Laws) of the early late 1800‘s-1900’s effected african american. This exploration was done through zoned in research on Harlem Renaissance artists. After the research and looking at the affects from an artistic perspective they were in charge of creating there own art piece (poem, song, dance etc) describing what they learned and how art still has an effect on society.

Benchmark Journals

Briana Bailey

Gold Stream

Journal 1: (Lines from quote in bold and italicized)

(aside) He takes her by the palm. Cassio is taking Desdemona by her hand while talking to her.

Ay, well said, whisper! They should keep on whispering. Although they don’t know (Desdemona and Cassio) it, but they are feed into my little evil plan! Because you guys are whispering things together, I can easily turned what your saying into something its not. In other words I will be able to make that action look innocent to Othello.

With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. He is talking directly about Cassio and I saying that he is trapping himself. In order to get you in on my plan (with you knowing) your kindness to Desdemona is exactly what a man like me with a plan to break peoples heart needs.

Ay, smile upon her, do, I will give thee in thine own courtship. Go ahead smile at her, make her fall in love with your gentleman like behaviors. That will make my job of framing you guys a lot easier. 

You say true, 'Tis so, indeed I’m sure you’re right, keep talking. Fill her and my ears up with charm.

Journal 2:

Act 3 Sc. 4. Bianca

"O Cassio, whence came this. This is some token from a newer friend. to the felt absence now I feel a cause isn’t come to this? well well."

"But that you don’t’ love me"

Bianca sees that her "lover," Cassio, has a handkerchief, which obviously belongs to someone else. She began to question if it came from some other woman he "loves/sleeps with." She wonders if he is giving her other lovers’ handkerchief, which would be insulting towards her.  

Cassio tells Bianca that he found the handkerchief himself in his chamber. Also she gets told that she must leave he is in Cyprus on duty as the Generals help. She gets told that Cassio loves her and will maybe see her soon. 

A way to understand this scene by looking at her key words "a newer friend." This indicates that she thought Cassio was seeing someone else. Also the handkerchief belonged to that someone else.

Journal 3:

Raised by her father, mother died during birth, Desdemona was a daddy's girl. She grew up taking care of her father the same way he took care of her, with love, patience and grief. As a child she learned to be a gentle female. She always did as told up until the point when Desdemona disobeyed her father for the love of her life. Desdemona understood why her father didn’t want her to marry a "Moor," but she didn’t want anyone to stop her from her heart being completed. This shows when she wants something she goes for it. She is determined. Although her husband is planning on murdering her because of lies he was told about her committing adultery she died loyal, and confused as to who she was as a wife to Othello. Even though Othello thinks she is cheating on him, she never did say to her “I might as well do it”. She stayed faithful. As the soft-spoken woman she is she tried to understand her husband without arguing. 

Journal 4:

The only prop I had for Desdemona was the handkerchief. What makes my group stand out is Haneef’s reenacting of Iago and Doneshas acting of Emilia. They had the connection of frustration and the painful love that they share. Also our scene is relatively short, and I think it’s the shortest scene, There wasn’t really much action we could put into our scene a lot of it was straight dialogue. 

Journal 5:

Desdemona: “How now, my dear Othello! Your dinner, and the generous islanders by you invited do attend your presence.” This line is highly important to the middle of the book. It’s the first time Desdemona is noticing that her husband is coming through something. Although she thinks he just is “not well” I sense that she knows its something else as well. I think this because I imagined her speaking to him in a worried soft voice. This line is also important because its addresses to Othello (main general) how important it is for him to be at the dinner that he set up with the people of Cyprus.

            My group’s performance sort of went the way I envisioned it. I definitely agree with the statement that was said in class “the scenes went by faster than I thought they would.” At the same time for my group (more specifically) there were only 4 characters and each character had about 3-4 lines. As a performance my group should have put a deeper thought into finding more actions to put with our words. 

Over the past three years of living in Philadelphia my language has changed dramatically compared to when I lived in Delaware. Not only did I move to a totally different state with a different way of living, talking, dressing, etc., but I got older as well. Living in Philly I definitely have picked up the slang that’s used on a daily basis. When I am with my friends we use different slang words then someone maybe from south Philly. My weekends are full of fun random sayings that we make up.

My friends that live in West Philly, together we call each other The Mob. In the Mob my closest friend is Shania. She Is the one closest to my age (17). “Shine bright like a diamond” a song by Rihanna (my sister Shania’s ringtone) begins to play as my day is interrupted by her daily text messages or phone calls. Most the time she is calling or messaging me to ask if im going to come down there that day to chill or go to a party. “Yo shawty. Whats up? Instead of just “Hey” or “Hi” those are usually the things she’ll say. My response mainly sounds something like “Hey love. How r u?” I use love as a way to show I care about you on some level. If I call you my love its basically like calling you my friend or my homie.  Majority of the Mob’s conversations involve finding out the swerve (the move; activity) of the day/night. They can also involve a lot of plotting and planning sessions.

Our conversations go on they begin to get sillier and sillier. Someone will say something that someone else should have already known the answer to. Or (usually) Shania will ask a dumb question like five times in four different ways. We are the youngest of our crew of about 20 people (we are 16). The oldest direct member of our family will be 21 this year. Shania and I being the young ones, they basically took us in as there lil sisters/ young bulls. For someone who doesn’t hang out with us on a daily basis they would think we are they WEIRDEST people alive. One thing that we do to basically laugh at each other is what is called Follow ups. “That’s one…follow ups”; this is usually stated when someone does something wrong or says something totally Stupid off. What happens is that you get hit on the shoulder back arm area by everyone around you. You can say “No Follow ups” Saying this is basically acknowledging that you screwed up in some way. It also yells “dont hit me!”

Another language that is used a lot in my life is the language of arts. Whether its rap poetry or singing its always happening (especially if im with my friends) We use it to not only express ourselves but to make things more fun. We could be walking down the street and someone will randomly start singing or rapping about what we are doing. Seven out of the 15 people in The Mob rap and go to the studio. When PurpVarsity (the rap group) with Cazz, Drew and two people not from The Mob throws parties they preform and give other people the opportunity to perform as well.  The arts have become of big part of how I communicate to strangers and very close people. Its not pressuring, its comfortable and fun.

Music is important to me for many reasons. It can explain how I feel at any moment in time. Also its just a way of life using music to put yourself Black Star is one of my favorite artists ever. I grow up with a mom who was really into old school hip-hop and a lot of R&B no matter what year it was. So growing up I listening to them, tribe called quest, Indi are, tweet, etc. the way I grew up would be totally different due to music.

In the song “children’s Story” by “Black Star” it’s basically the uncle Mos def telling his nephews a bedtime story. I grew up listening to a bedtime story from my mommy “goodnight moon” and that was like my favorite story of all times. I relate to the little kids at the beginning saying they want a story before they go to sleep. In the song it talks about real life issues and things that some people may go through. As a young teen and child it was important to me to hear stories about these things as long as it bettered me. I am apart of the bedtime specials culture. I read my little sisters, and cousin and sometimes myself.

Knowing the day of the week is a key element to your day. When you travel to Spanish speaking places its important to know how to ask what day it is. You may be in Guatemala for a business trip and need to know the schedule.

You need to know:

How to ask, “What is the day”

The correct spelling, and pronunciation

Alphabet in Spanish!

Knowing the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet is important because it helps you with sounding out words in Spanish and writing them.