Daily Archives: September 17, 2014

Photograph from September 11th-Wislawa Szymborska

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This poem is describing the infamous photo of an unidentified man who jumped from the Twin Towers before they collapsed. What hits a chord is the third stanza that says:

“Each is still complete

with a particular face

and blood well-hidden.”

I just can’t imagine what a body looks like after falling that many stories. Szymborska is describing the body that is falling using what it looks like after it has hit the ground. She uses the negative to create an image of both the before and after-math of the jump. The 4th stanza elongates the time frame of the jump and really puts into perspective how long it took for the man to fall,

“There’s enough time

for hair to come loose,

for keys and coins

to fall from pockets.”

I can’t imagine what the man is thinking to himself, his death was definitely not a swift one, there must have been so many thoughts racing through his mind. The poet also exudes hopeless and wishes she could have done more. Szymborska wants to leave the ending unsaid for these jumpers, she only wants to describe this flight. Szymborska wants to keep them in flight, to keep their memories alive. Flight is usually used to describe a plane ready for take-off, but not in this case. The jumpers are in flight, however, it is a descending flight to their deaths, and the use is not describing a plane but rather a person. The plane in this scenario has ended its flight but the person is just in the midst of theirs.

 

Sophia Ebanks – Yet, Another Introduction

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I’m Sophia Ebanks.

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I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. I’m the youngest of 3 sisters. My family is from Jamaica but sadly, I have never been there myself. One day, hopefully.

City College is the first public school I have ever attended. Before this, I went an all-girls Catholic high school in the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx. Prior to that, a Lutheran school in Morris Park. While in high school, I became involved in step, an African-American form of dance. I also enjoyed singing as part of a Gospel Choir. I sort of miss people singing randoms bits of our songs or stopping me to show me part of a step they learned from watching our performances as I walked through the halls.

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After competing for first time in 10 years, our Step Team placed 3rd in the “Break the Stage” competition.

In my spare time, I usually try to read a few books. My favorite author ever is Toni Morrison. Recently, I have been trying to read more books about meditation and spirituality, and I feel that it is a very interesting world of its own. I also try to keep up with my blog posts. I write on a site I created called Wielded Power, a blog I made after the George Zimmerman case two summers ago. And another one called Relics of Truth where I like to post some of my poetry. If you want to take a look at them, here they are:

Wielded Power
Relics of Truth
(That’s the end of my shameless plug)

When I’m not doing that I’m either taking long naps, trying to make several different styles with my hair, or traveling around the city to find places to eat and attend events with friends.

After a long day walking through the Village and over the Brooklyn Bridge, I was so glad someone could capture this money shot

After a long day walking through the Village and over the Brooklyn Bridge, I was so glad someone could capture this money shot.

I’m majoring in Anthropology, and I hope to double minor in public policy and journalism. I hope to travel the world with my camera soon and honestly just write about what I see, mainly race, class, gender, culture, and politics. Anything that catches my attention really. But my dream is really to get involved with young women in urban areas, especially teenage girls, and set up recreational centers for them in their own neighborhoods; maybe even get involved in bettering the public education system of New York at the high school level.

Let the Great World Spin Reflection

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In class we talked about how this novel relates to death and how different people can deal with it very differently. The chapter that I feel best demonstrates how differently people can react to death is “A Fear of Love”.

The two main characters, Lara and Blaine, react drastically differently from each other, despite being very similar individuals. Lara struggles to forget about the events that led to them killing two people. Whereas, Blaine quickly rationalizes his part in the accident by explaining that it was Corrigan’s fault because he did not know how to drive.

It is not surprising to see contrasting reactions to death; however, I find it interesting because both Lara and Blaine are so similar. They are both artists and enjoyed the party lifestyle with many drugs and few concerns. Yet, their reactions to death were complete opposites, which show how influential death can be and how difficult it is to come to terms with. At the end of the chapter we can even see that it is driving the couple apart, as each cannot understand the other’s response.

“The Worst Day of My Life is Now New York’s Hottest Tourist Attraction”

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If anybody is interested in checking it out, this is the article to which I was referring during our last class. The idea of public vs. private grieving and remembrance really stuck with me. I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/stevekandell/the-worst-day-of-my-life-is-now-new-yorks-hottest-tourist-at#1o5futg