Photography unlike paintings has the ability to capture reality and look more authentic. This group of pictures depicted everything from the human figure to social problems to the glitz and glam of Hollywood and the Jazz culture. Most of the photos were in black and white, which moved the concentration to the content within the photographs, not how colorful they had in them. Some of the first photographs were of nude women, human torsos, and human body parts, such as The Hand in Doorway. Others included pictures of regular, everyday people, such as a tenant farmer’s wife, a piano player, people at Venice beach and other places, etc.

However, the pictures that stood out to me were the ones that showed an image in a unique way, tried to convey a unique message or depicted well-known people. The first was of photograph of a statue of a man holding a bow and arrow pointing directly at a man walking down a long hallway. The second was of a female mannequin looking outside the window at a woman passing by the window. Both photographs show a strange interaction between inanimate human figures and real humans. The photographs of famous people included Jean Cocteau, Joan Crawford, Edward Steichen (self-portrait), Pablo Picasso, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie and the cast of The Misfits (Marilyn Monroe). These photographs either showed these Hollywood and Jazz greats in normal everyday life or doing what they do best, acting and performing.

The last set of the photographs had a serious impact on me. They were photographs of African refugees and child soldiers. The first photograph was of Rwandan refugees. Standing around in a group in the photograph, they all looked lost, without a home. The second was a picture of the chest of a girl from Sierra Leone. She was a child soldier who had the initials R.U.F. branded on her chest. This picture saddened me because it was as if she was being treated like an animal or piece of meat that belonged to others. The gallery really conveyed the broad views and aspects of human life.

Ms. Bridgette Davis is a journalist, a screenwriter, a director, an author, a producer and my professor. Just to mention it, she originally wanted to be a psychiatrist, but biology and chemistry classes caused her to change her mind (thank God!). Davis started her career at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majored in English. Later, she moved to New York and got her masters degree in Journalism. Bridgett said she always wanted to live in New York. She first fell in love with the city from the movie, Barefoot in the Park, a comedy starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, which I remembered seeing also. From visiting New York when she was 18 and during her summers as a teenager, she decided to come here because it felt like home. The noise, the city that never sleeps atmosphere, the creative centers, and much more attracted her to the city and it was not like that in Georgia. Even being mugged in Brooklyn and spraining her ankle by falling down subway stairs has not deterred her from this place.

Besides falling in love with New York, while in New York, she fell in love with filmmaking. It started when Bridgett was writing a novel, which did not turned out the way she wanted, to put it nicely. Out of frustration, she decided to attended screenwriting classes at NYU with Janet Roach, who co-wrote Prizzi’s Honor, starring Jack Nicholson and Angelica Houston. She immediately fell in love with screenwriting because it mixed her other two loves, Journalism and Fiction-writing. Since then, Bridgett has become a director and a producer with such films as Naked Acts (which my class will see in December and I can’t wait) in 1998. The film has been shown in more than two-dozen festivals all over the world, such as in United States, Africa and Europe. She enjoyed traveling because she could be an ambassador to other countries and dialogues with people of different perspectives.

In addition to that, Bridgett was able to continue writing as an author and released novels like Shifting through Neutral and Lagos. She also has written essay for numerous newspapers, such as Washington Posts, Newsday, Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune in her hometown. However, out of all those career paths, the one she enjoys most now is teaching as a professor at Baruch. Teaching came natural to her and it gave her a way to blend all of her careers together. Now, Davis teaches Journalism and Creative writing and Screenwriting, but her favorite is Interdisciplinary Arts. She feels it provides her with an instant gratification because she can introduce her students to new and different things, listen to their reactions, and encourage and help them to express themselves. Bridgett loves how there are always new students each semester to influence and that makes it always seem fresh to her.

Interviewing Ms. Davis was definitely intriguing because she is such a creative person or as her friend said “artsy-fartsy” and she has had such an eclectic career. She has motivated to explore authors, such as Katherine Harrison (obsession novels), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude), Toni Morrison, Faulkner (As I Lay Dying), and Raymond Carver. Also, she sparked my interest in movies, like The Unbearable Likeness of Being, starring Juliet Binoche from Chocolat, which I have seen. Last, she gave great advice on some interested in journalism and creative writing and it helped me because I am interested in music journalism and songwriting. She said to have something to say, a point of view, and be passionate about something you believe in.

Ad Hoc Major Proposal – Words and Music: From Songwriting to Journalism

I came to Baruch because I was interested in majoring in Management of Musical Enterprises. This major matched my love for music and the business side of the music industry. However, as a Macaulay Honors’ student, I was able to take my first Interdisciplinary class, Arts in New York City, which changed my mind. Through this class, I rediscovered my love for writing; I wrote theatre reviews and also a song for my final project. From the age of twelve I wanted to be a writer, particularly a lyricist, and the class brought this desire out more. After the class, I realized that I wanted to incorporate more writing into my studies. So, at first I was going to minor in English, but I felt that it was wrong to make writing secondary to my major. Since there was no major that combined music, business and writing, I was trying to fit into a major that was not completely for me. Looking on the Internet, I found out that there are very few majors involving music journalism and songwriting. A student has to either major in music or English while taking a minor in the other or double major in both. I want to be able to change this by creating an Ad-hoc major integrating music, lyricism and journalism.

What I have noticed is that the age of the music journalist and the songwriter have ended. Serious music journalists and critics are almost non-existent. Much of it has become a media circus that is funded by the music industry. Journalism no longer critically looking at music, but used as an entertainment tool that involves asking artists what their favorite food or favorite color is and entertainment bloggers like Perez Hilton. Placing music within a social and historical context, and using the history of music and the music industry to explore the different genres of music are rare in journalism. I have so much that I want to say about the music industry but no channel in which to voice it. So, I created my own blog (http://reesesearcandy.blogspot.com) in which I write for entertainment purposes, but also discuss more thought-provoking subjects about music, such as over-commercialization and over-promotion of American Idol and Disney. In my opinion, the field of songwriting has diminished, too. The golden days of famous songwriters like Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and recently, Diane Warren and David Foster are gone. Even singer-songwriters, like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell and Carol King, are not as popular as before. The music industry is all about making money, not artistic creativity. I do not know if I will be the one to change that, but I want to make an effort to bring some of those times back.

Learning about music in general is important to any music career. For the journalism side, courses like Music History and Music and Society are essential. Some of the courses for music journalism can also apply to songwriting, such as American Pop Song and Harmony classes. In the Journalism/Creative Writing department, Journalistic Writing, Feature Article Writing, Copy Editing, and Journalistic Criticism and Reviewing will help me in the journalism side to cover both industry news and reviews. I also want to create a Creative Writing independent study course called Analysis and Creation of Song Lyrics because I believe song lyrics are just as important as the music.

I am glad that I chose Baruch as my college because it offers the opportunity to form a major that reflects one’s interests and not just to conform to what everyone else is trying to accomplish. By creating the major of combining music journalism and songwriting, I hope to create my own music magazine and write songs for other artists in the future. My ad-hoc major will not only make me a well-rounded person in music, journalism, and creative writing, but also will organize these areas into an authentic field of interest.

Prerequisites
Msc 1003 or 1005- Music in Civilization
Eng 2100/2150 – Writing I & II
FPA 2000- Fine and Performing Arts Administration
JRN 3050 – Journalistic Writing
Fine and Performing Arts – 15 credits
Msc 3026/3027 – Harmony I & II
Msc 3043/3044 – Music History I & II
Msc 4900 – Music and Society
Msc 3022 – American Popular Song (Currently Taking)
English Department – 18 credits
JRN 3100 – Copy Editing
JRN 4920 – Strategies of Journalistic Writing
JRN 3060 – Feature Article Writing
JRN 3400 – Journalistic Criticism/Reviewing
JRN 5000 – Independent Study: Analysis and Creation of Song Lyrics