Culture the Space @ 30th Street Station

This is a project for my neighborhood Narratives Class. Please claa this toll free number and leave me a message (further directions found below): 1-800-749-
0632

channel number: 9592
channel password: 1500
meeting password: 2412
channel type: Free

Cultured Space Narrative

State Your First Name
Tell Where You're From
Tell Where You are/were Going
Tell a 7 second narrative from your 30th Street Station Experience

OPTIOINAL(Please Let me know, if you are going to come through, we may be late):
Meet My Class and Map Yourself in 30th Street Station on Thursday, Apr 26th @ 1:30pm.

Put Something Here
Table Bench Chair
Boys and Girls Club
Make Them Aware

I Dare You
Defy Capitalism
Its Operation
Marginalizes you
Builds Around you
Establishes itself on your backs

Rebel
against crack, coccaine, heroine, marijuana
and gangs
wars on each other
Unify yourselves
Put Something Here

Not only a mural
A garden
For the community to build
around
Enjoy the fruits if your labor
Indulge yourselves
Create your world
Put Something Here

Existentialize these rubbelled surroundings
Breathe hope into this
des/o/late place
Climb
the insurmountable mountain
Erase
the ideology that
Says
"You're Nothing"
Strips you
of your heritage
Commands you
to remain here

Put Something Here
LIFE
HOPE
PEACE
EDUCATION
RECREATION
FEEDOM
BEAUTY
Put FUTURE Here

Watch Your Back

While completing this assignment, I thought of a million ways that I watch my back. For instance, I stand with my back to walls or buildings, while I am waiting for Septa, so that no one can sneak up behind me. I watch my back as I cross the industrial avenue in my neighborhood, because cars, trucks, busses and trolleys like to speed and they are not alwways looking out for pedestrians. Therefore, I watch my back, when I cross the street. I also wattch my back academically. I make sure that I complete my assignments on time. I read my email alot, too, because sometimes people will say that they sent you something, but it was sent at an hour when you were asleep or something. I read my email to stay informed. I also watch my back in classes. If I don't understand, agree or simply need to express my opinion, I make sure that I do that, because hey, I'm paying for it with my hard earned USD.

I watch my back by watching who I associate with, who I tell my business to and who I let my guard down around. Although people will appear to be your friends, there would be no such thing as betrayal if everyone was honest about evil intentions.

Also, I watch my back by watching my front. Is there danger ahead? Who am I following? Is the person that I am following leading me into danger. If I follow my own path, I'll probably be better off. Finally, I can't see what's behind me, but my surveillance camera can.

Following

While walkig across Temple 's Main Campus on my way to get some lunch, I found myself drifiting. This drift led into involuntary/unplanned following. Before I realized it, two young women about the same age as me were steadily walking directly in front of me. I was attracted to their conversation, because it was sorta loud. Speaking in "outside" voices, the ladies were discussing the difficukty of balancing clases and other responsibilities. One of the ladies had a story similar to mine, where she is taking a full load of creits, she has a job with an unsteady schedule, and an internship. The challeneges she discussed were about how she would get a break from one job and the internship would become more demanding, or they'd both be very demanding at the same time and to top it al off, her teachers would pile the work on at the most inconvenient times. So, as I took all of this in and pondered the state of capitalisma nd work an dhow school is directly affected by this onster... I realized that althoug I had been folllowign these young women for at least two blocks, neither one of them ever noticed. Surveilance. It's a scary thing. You really don't know who is watching you, or stalking you, et cetera. The most peculiar thing about all of this though is that those women could have evr well been following me.

Drift and Thought

For this assignment, I drifted from 23rd and Washington Avenue to 23rd and Fitzwater Streets, which is in my neighborhood. Of course, I could not just drift the entire time, because there were things that required my attention such as the ice on the pavements and crossing the streets. During my intervals of drift, I looked at all of the abandoned houses and thought of why the houses were abandoned, who oncelived in those houses and the people who need a place to stay. Was there a fire? Did the tenants not have enough money to repair it? Did the house deteriorate over a period of time? As I drifted through my neighborhood, I thought about the Chinese Food stores that are on every corner, and I wonder how they expect people to buy from them, when they are so atrocious on the ouside. As I wandered past, I noticed the smell of old cooking grease. The kind that gets stuck in your clothes and hair and makes the people arond you ask if you ate chicken. Following the small path that had been made for pedestrians, I walked up one block, where I saw a man riddled with the disease of drug addiction. He was also wandering. With a depressed expression, the man asked me if I could spare any change. I looked at him to tell him that I could not, and that's when I noticd the crack pipe in his hand. I walked a little further, and I saw my family's church. I thought of the services, celebrations, weddings, funerals, community meetings and other fellowships that we partook of in that grand place. The sadness fro the encounter of the previous man was covered by the happiness that I felt at that moment. I decided to turn around and walk home. I saw the children trudging home with their bookbags stuffed witht extbooks. Uniform clad, thses children reminded me of my days in Cathoilic school. I walked past St Albans Place, the place where parts of the Sixth Sense were filmed. I remember wishing that I lived in one of those houses as a child. I still don't know who actually lives there. As I crossed another street on my way to my house, I was very careful not to slip on the icey slope to the street. I thought about how I could ave really hurt myself. Kimball Street was next. There, on the black top street were three bullet casings. My mind traveled back to two nights before when I was laying in bed and heard gunfire followed by police sirens. I wondered if this was the location of the gunfire. Back to Washington Avenue,where there were a group of people standing on the corners where the bus stops. I thought to myself. I know the feeling...waiting for a bus that never showed up.

WASSUP!

Hey Alphas!

I made it to the blog
Becky ROCKS!

Creating A New Situation

I decided to create a new situation in my life by wearing my hair in two differenet ways. First, I wore my curly for a couple of hours on Saturday, January 5th, before I went to the hairdrsser. I have worn my hair curly during the warmer months as well, because I like the way the summer breeze feels as it caresses my scalp through the curls. It is fun, it is extremely cute, and it is youthful. I would much rather wear my hair curly all year round, but I need to be able to wear a hat on my head, not have my curls tangled every morning, and I need to cut down on time in the morning. People respond to me differently, when my hair is curly. I guess I look more approachable, and I get lots of compliments. I also like the change of pace that this hairstyle gives me when I wear it, because I can put on a really bright funky-style outfit and look kinda punk rock or I can wear pastels and look really innocent and sweet. So, I enjoy the verstatility of this hairstyle.

After my trip to the hairdresser, I wore hair straight much in the same way that I am currently wearing my hair. Straightened hair is a more sophisticated and mature look for me. I know this because of the way that I am treated, when my hair is straightened. People tend to assume that I am older as opposed to when I have a super curly hair style. I notice that people in stores and at my jobs refer to me as "Miss" or "Lady", when my hair is straightened. When my hair is curly, I am often referred to as "girl". That speaks volumes about where other people's mindsets are. As for me, I don't really put much authority into what others think of me. However, I must note that the way that I respond to others, when my hair is curly or straight differs because the way that others perceive me in this different styles is different.

Sosena's Labyrinth

Sosena's labyrinth stoode out to me because of its use of bright color and whimsical aesthetic regarding the fanstay world. Fantasies are almost undefinable, because yo can make them real or you can choose to let them remain fantasies. Also, fantasies are birthed from within us as something that we desire. In essance, we define our fantasies and choose by our actions to make them reality or not. The lesson from Sosena's fantasy world is that fantasies do not define themselves.

My Pop Up Map

My labyrinth project consisted of two sides. One side displayed my neighborhood in black and white. The backs of the houses as well as the exterior of the pop up map were covered in clippings from a neighborhood newspaper. These clippings served as the timestamp, which gives historical reference to my labyrinth. Also, photos of urban landscape were included.

As a threshhold to the fantasy world, I used a golden portal. This portal is surrounded by bright color and photos that merge my neighborhood with my fantasy world.

On the other side of the threshhold, there is a sandy beach that melds into a vast blue abyss. This side is not constricted. It has no boundaries or borders, which speaks mountains about how I view my labyrinth.

My Pop Up Map

My labyrinth project consisted of two sides. One side displayed my neighborhood in black and white. The backs of the houses as well as the exterior of the pop up map were covered in clippings from a neighborhood newspaper. These clippings served as the timestamp, which gives historical reference to my labyrinth. Also, photos of urban landscape were included.

As a threshhold to the fantasy world, I used a golden portal. This portal is surrounded by bright color and photos that merge my neighborhood with my fantasy world.

On the other side of the threshhold, there is a sandy beach that melds into a vast blue abyss. This side is not constricted. It has no boundaries or borders, which speaks mountains about how I view my labyrinth.

My Labyrinth

My labyrinth popped out of a box. When opened and laid flat, my neighborhood was on the side that was dark and grey with guns and urban pictures. The entire labyrinth was wrapped in a neighborhood newspaper that acted as a historical time stamp. The backs of the cardboard houses were also covered in these stories.
The opposite side of my labyrinth my fantasy world could be accessed through a small golden portal, which was situated on bright green land and tagged with pictures of a bright green car that could possibly be a means of transportation to the other world.
When one finally reaches the other side, she immediately steps onto the sandy beach that leads into the blue abyss of ocean. This side of the labyrinth is not closed by the boxes edges, because it is represents opportunity and never-ending fantasy.
Again, on the outsideof the box, my neighborhood map is attached to give greater emphasis to my location and provide contrast between fantasy and reality.

Neighborhood Narratives

Mariko's Tshirt is one that was really innovative regarding the mergence of manual art with technical art. I thought that the color coordination that differentiated her bike-riding from walking was very thougghtful. The projection of a visible map on top of the lines tied everything together for the map reader. I gained a new perspective on the map from her display.

I Can Deconstruct The City Space

Deconstruct- take it apart, demyth it, come down from construction of all constructed things, make it your own words, work and idea, peel back the layers, crack the shell and view its beautiful frame

the - nothing, cannot contain anything, important only because it points to what is important

city- a gathering, a culmination of things: people, places, events; commomality, community, a mesh of neighborhoods, location

space - where time is suspeneded, to be filled and fulfilled, no location, where things/people are but are never contained

My T-Shirt Map

I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of telling the story of where I journeyed for an entire week on a t-shirt. Because I have a background of ambiguity in writing, I found it fitting to use this saqme technique in the creation of my t-shirt map. I used very simple, but strong characters to tell my story. My t-shirt consisted of a large, blackface symbol surrounded by tracklines that led to Temple University, Sally's Beauty Store, Victoria's Secret, The Queen Memorial Library, Rite Aid, my teaching job at the John Gloucester House and Commerce Bank.

The odd thing about my t-shirt is that it caught everyone off guard and made people think, "Why would she choose that symbol? What does it have to do with anything?" What no one understood is that the blackface on my shirt was simply a way for me to document a specific course that I am enrolled in at Temple University. This technique could be likened to that of GPS zoom.

The irony that lies in interpretation is that I laid the symbol out on my map one way and in one place; It went in so many different directions. I even felt the pain of that symbol, after seeing the outcome of my t-shirt and it became something that I decided to distance myself from. Although the symbol was the largest, and the most crudely constructed, it was not the most important aspect of the map. Everyone probably felt that way. The relation to all of the symbols and the track marks told the real story. The explanation that I gave was part of my story, because no one would have otherwise known why the blackface was there in the beginning.

Also, like world maps, my map contained history. For one to fulkly understand what the map referred to, he/she must know that I am taking two course which I decided to overlap. At this point in history, when I created my map, this is the influence that I had.

Hectic Life

Hi All!

I had to reset my blog, because I unfirtunately lost the information to my other one. I am really tired right now, because I have been running around like a mad woman for the past week. I am in my last semester at Temple, and there;s so much to do. I feel like I need a personal assistant. I have 5 classes, an internship for credit, and 3 jobs. Something has got to give. The little bit of alone time that I get my hands around will be so precious. I mean, I don't even have access to the computer outside of the Temple computer labs. Well, as the saying goes....too whom much is given, much is required.