little war on the prairie

I find it interesting the the history of the state is told in a light way, when the history is not light at all. The fact that Indians were there first comes as an after thought isn't so much a shock as it is painful to hear that people leave pieces of history out to sugar coat it almost. As a society the history of Native Americans is glossed over and untouched when they were and are such a huge part of this country. People don't even know the history of their own town because it is left untouched. The monuments and tributes to the Native Americans are hidden as though they are ashamed of the history of their state. Even this plaques and signs leave out the whole story leaving the Native Americans to look like the bad guy.

"Little War on the Prairie" Response

            I feel that what happened to the Native Americans at Mankato was very unfair and unjust. By staying almost completely silent about the history of the town, people only added insult to injury concerning this great injustice. After studying Pine Ridge, I know that the way in which white Americans, as well as the American government, have turned a blind eye to what happened is not a solitary occurrence. It seems to happen quite often that the true history of the Native Americans is simply ignored and falls away from mainstream history education. The events at Mankato and those that are taking place are Pine Ridge are just a couple of entries on the long list of injustices enacted upon the Native Americans by the US government.

            Some things that I enjoy about the manner in which the story is told about Mankato are the usage of background music at key points throughout the stories and also the way in which scene and summary are both used throughout the story. By using summary, the storyteller is able to convey a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time and by using various scenes, he is able to capture the emotions and various viewpoints and opinions surrounding the events at Mankato. Unfortunately, I found the primary storyteller’s voice to be somewhat dry and monotone. Because of this, the story becomes sort of dull and seems to drone on.

            I believe that when creating the “Living Newspaper” it would be wonderful to emulate the storyteller’s use of scene and summary. Cleverly placed background music could also be used in the “Living Newspaper” to emphasize certain points and add emotion. I also think it would be a good idea to speak with more emotion and excitement in the “Living Newspaper” so that people find it to be more evocative.

Living Newspaper Pitch

I think that an interesting idea for the Living Newspaper project would be Race and Citizenship such as racial segregation from the 1950’s until now. Not only could we explore the struggle it racial segregation had in the community back then but, we could prove the presence it still has in society, today.  Besides the obvious cultural events to take place in the 1950’s we could explore poetry and different writings from that era. We could relate these different writings with today’s society. One thing that we could explore to use in our project is the different types of music and documentaries today that talk about their hardships because of race and citizenship. Although poetry and lyrics are basically the same thing, I feel as if that music lyrics can speak to the audience much more than a poem can. . Luckily, there are plenty of songs that explain how prominent racial segregation is in today’s world.  We can incorporate these things into our Living Newspaper project to prove that racial segregation does still exist today. Since many people listen to this music, I think that our audience will find it relevant to their lives. I also think that this would interest our audience because it would get them thinking about this serious topic. Many people think that the issue of race and citizenship was only important in the 1950’s era however, it still happens today. Although many other things cover up racism today, emphasizing that it is not would be very beneficial to our audience. 

Living Newspaper

I believe the idea of doing the women's movement as our topic for the Living Newspaper project in class is something to think about. There is some major points that we could cover while also comparing and contrasting women from todays society and women from the past. We could further explore sexisim and economical issues that pertain to women. For example if a man and a woman are competing for the same job and have the same qualities and skills, and the man gets hired over the woman. Would that be considered favoritism or sexisim?

We can also incorporate music by strong, independent female artists into our Living Newspaper project, as long with media clips, pictures from the past and present, and feminist artwork that truly relates to the issue at hand. This was a strong issue in the past and is also a current issue as well so finding resources and information to go along with this topic should not be that challenging. This is definitely a topic that should be considered when choosing our final project topic.

Living Newspaper Pitch

I think an interesting topic for the Living Newspaper Project would be the contemporary women’s movement and the struggle against sexism and a male-dominated society. I think this topic is important because it is something that affects not only women, but also any man who has women in his life that are important to him. Sexism is far-reaching and has social, economic, and political effects. It can affect the way that women are treated in their everyday life, be a factor on whether or not they are hired for a particular position and how much they are paid, and influence legislative decisions such as those concerning reproductive rights. It is for these reasons that I believe that this is an important topic deserving of consideration.

For possible media we could use a vast variety of possible sources. These could include songs, poetry, and art that carry feminist messages. The Kate Nash song “Rap for Rejection” immediately comes to mind with the lyrics “You’re tryna tell me sexism doesn't exist?/ If it doesn't exist, then what the fuck is this?” There are countless other female musical artists whose songs include feminist messages that demonstrate the fervor of the contemporary women’s movement. The Brooklyn Museum website has an entire section dedicated to feminist art that we could utilize. Another media source we could utilize because this is a contemporary issue is social networking sites, as well as blogs. One possibility is the feminist blog Modern Feminist which displays writing and other media forms that illustrate the struggle against sexism in today’s society.

All in all, I think the modern women’s movement would make a fantastic topic for our Living Newspaper Project. It is something that affects a large amount of people, is current and relevant, and there are countless sources that we could utilize. I believe that these factors make this topic something that we should most definitely consider doing.

Living Newspaper Proposal

A Living Newspaper on climate change could be an interesting subject to research and also present. It's a relatively broad concept, but we could focus on specific issues that effect the people of the world which could make it more relevant to class... Climate change has many layers to it. Economical: as in what we believe (materially) is necessary... coal, oil, cars, factories, etc. How businesses mindlessly produce and consume... Environmental issues: the gradual heating up of the planet, the impact on living creatures, including the human race. But also, the perks of recognizing this potential catastrophe and attempting to remedy it through mindfulness and unity with self and world, people, and the people with the world, by consuming less and returning to more self-sufficient means of survival, ie. gardening, farming, sewing, etc. Fairly large project to pursue, but could be interesting and gratifying to know more about this subject.

LNP Pitch

I think it would be interesting to do a living news paper on the Native Americans. We haven't covered this topic yet in class but it's coming up and I think it could be something to look into. We could definitely use artwork and poems as our form of media. Poems, songs, and chants could be useful since we know from learning about Native Americans in middle school and high school that those were things they wrote a lot. Possible topics could be adversities that they faced, their way of living and working, and hardships that they faced. There is certainly a lot to chose from when it comes to media for this topic and I think it is something to be considered.