On Monday, in class I performed my poem “The New Collusus.” I was very nervous to go up because I thought that I would mess up the words once I got there. For all of my life, I’ve never been afraid of performing in front of people. However, my performances have been musical, and not dramatic like this performance. I took Dr. Kahan’s advice, and just pretended that I was somebody else. After performing, I found that the hardest part is actually getting up there. While performing, my main focus was performing the poem well. I wanted to make sure that the listeners would feel the same emotions that Emma Lazurus would have been feeling when she wrote the poem. I changed the volume of my voice at different parts and fluctuated it. I emphasized different words to draw attention to it. My reason for not following the rhyme scheme is to make the poem very epic and bold in nature. I was trying to make America sound like the glorious and welcoming country that it is. This poem was perfect for me because it applies directly to my life. I wouldn’t be where I am if the perception of America was different from how it’s described in this poem. I’m really glad that I got the chance to perform it.
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Monday November 19th 2012 James Baldassano
November 19th 2012, James Baldassano
In today’s seminar, we finished up our recitations of our poems for most of the class. The poems I listened to today were such a wide variety, varying from depressing morbid poems with a sing song feel, to upbeat poems about couples enjoying the night life of New York City. These two poems were coupled up and recited by Swathi, and performed very nicely. They were almost like a juxtaposition to one another, for they were different parts (3 & 4) to the same poem, yet were polar opposites in nature.
After our performances had concluded, we talked a little bit about the selection for who got which poem and why. Some were a shot in the dark, in order to find out more about the person, while others were casted. I found out my poem was casted, and I feel there is a reason to why. My poem, when first read, is giving a sarcastic tone, while using jibberish such as Ing Grish, Ing Gwish, etc. But there is a much deeper meaning to it. This poem accurately depicts a representation of me. For the most part, I am not a serious guy on the surface, I’m more laid back and sarcastic (very sarcastic), but deep down, I possess a more serious instinct of realism, rather than my comedic, sarcastic view of things. Other people received their poems for different reasons, but similar reasoning.
I was actually pleased with the poem recitations, because it allowed me to view a different side to my classmates. Whether they changed with the eyes of a teacher scrutinizing them, or whether they acted the same as they do when we are in a regular conversation was an interesting quality I took notice of.
11/14
I’m not going to lie, this past Wednesday’s seminar class was one of the scariest classes for me so far. I never had a problem with public speaking in high school, but when I finally stood up to perform my poem on Wednesday, I was literally shaking. With Professor Kahan’s help, I hope that I was able to present the poem with the tone and emotion the poet intended, showing her annoyance at modernization in the city that took away the respite that one would usually get at night.
I also really enjoyed Brendon’s poem, Checkmate. I thought the poem was clever in that it was written by someone who died in the twin towers. It reminded me of the book The Book Thief, which is written in the Death’s point of view. I don’t know how to play chess myself, but I was still able to appreciate the metaphor that the game represented.
Rob’s poem was also really great. The musical accompaniment, along with the mellow way he read the poem, allowed me to feel the emotion behind the poem and made me feel like “I had the blues”. Overall, the poems were all great once again, and I am excited to hear the rest of the poems on Monday!
Stephanie Solanki, 11/14/12
Today in Seminar class, we resumed performing our poems. I was blown away once again by the amount of thought and love each person has put into their poems. I have yet to present, and it is because I feel that my poem is one that would be a great last act. It’s a very patriotic poem, and would leave a good impression on the class. I think that I am very prepared to present on Monday after watching the constructive criticism that Dr. Kahan gave to each presenter. I think that it will make my poem that much better.
I loved Rob’s poem. He performed it very well; it was the perfect poem for him. I loved when Dr. Kahan played the blues on the piano while Rob performed his poem. I felt like I should have started snapping! It was very powerful. The music added flow and rhythm to the poem. It was easy to “get in the groove” when Dr. Kahan played music. I could feel the poem come to life. It was really moving.
I really liked the way James performed his poem. It inspires me to let go of all my inhibitions and perform the poem to do justice to the poem. I really cannot wait to perform. I have been waiting for a long time, and I want to make my poem stand out. Hopefully, I can.
November 14, 2012
On Wednesday in Seminar, we continued with the reading of our poems. Brendon was first, discussing his poems Check Mate by Lucio Mariani and Birthplace by Michael Cirelli. The first poem is written from the point of view of a victim of 9-11. It tells the story of how he played chess with his father every night, and his father told him “to always watch out for those treacherous towers.” This sentence, like most of the poem, has a double meaning. In chess terms, “towers” would be the rooks, while in NYC, the “towers” would refer to the World Trade Center towers. The poem also speaks of how “it was special to grow up behind a hedge,” meaning that he had some grass or plant life at his house, instead of just concrete sidewalks of the city. Throughout the poem, however, it seems like he is still celebrating the times that he has spent with his father, even though he is deceased.
Next, James presented his poem Ing Grish, by John Yau. While this poem was by far the most comical, it carried one of the strongest messages. The poem begins with pairs of random and unrelated words such as dung and dungaree, and humdrum and humdinger. While the word pairs are unrelated to an English speaking person, a person who does not speak English would think that these words were related based on their prefixes. Dung refers to animal droppings, while dungarees are pants. They are two totally unrelated items that share the same prefix. The same goes for humdrum, which means dull and monotone and humdinger, which is a remarkable person or thing. They are complete and utter opposites, but still manage to share that same common prefix. In addition to poking fun at the construction of English words, Yau is making fun of English phonetics. For example, “Chinee, Chanel, and Cheyenne” all start with a ch- prefix, but have two different pronunciations. Chinee is pronounced with a hard Ch, while Chanel and Cheyenne are pronounced with a soft c- sounding like “shh.” As with everything else, in order to make fun of something at this level, you must understand it extremely well. Yau never learned Chinese, despite the hard pressure from his parents.
Finally, Penina read New York at Night by Amy Knoll. The poem was written in 1912 when the modern city was still developing. Before this time, major cities shut down at night and there wasn’t always a hustle and bustle. Now, we are starting to see that movement in the city never stops and that people are always moving. The structure of the poem can be compared to the city. The rhythm is uneven, dropping mid sentence and creating chaos. The poet also believes that the city itself is ugly. In addition to the structure being almost non-existent, the words she chooses to use are very violent and sharp sounding, due to the heavy use of consonants. At the end of the poem, questions are asked of why the people in the city never stop and rest. It all goes back to the fact that New Yorkers can do it all and it’s what New Yorkers are known for.
Professor Powers’ Lecture
In Monday’s Seminar class, we listened to a lecture from Professor Powers about architecture. I never knew that something such as a building that I perceived to be so simple could have so much meaning behind it. He prefaced his discussion by explaining that Architecture represents the Ethnos, which is the whole culture of society. In the Neoclassical period, buildings usually represented order and reason. The Parthenon towered over every other building around it, representing reason rising up above all, just as the Monticello stood on a mountain above all other buildings. The Massachusetts State House gave the idea that the founding fathers were imposing order and reason to all around them. The Federal Hall was the Greek side of the Neoclassical period, and it was rational and powerful.
Romance and emotion were represented by the buildings that emerged during the Gothic Revival Period in the 1850’s. The famous Gothic Arch symbolized religious and romantic ideas, as the towering arch reached to the heavens. In Central Park, almost everything is man-made, symbolizing creativity and romanticism. The famous Woolworth building was made to look like an extremely tall Gothic Church. Rockefeller Center was made with no frills to put priority on maximizing profit. There is a lot more that goes into making a building than I ever realized.
11/14/12-Swathi Satty
Yesterday, was part 3 of the poem recitations. The first person to go up was Brendon and I learned the significance of pronouncing words properly because “used to” and “i’d used to” are two separate things, which was a mistake he made in his first poem “Checkmate”.In his poem, there was a lot of alliteration and imagery. The chess game was symbolic because the rooks could have been seen as being the twin towers. Once again, the way the poems are read makes all the difference. The second poem “Birthplace” had to be read with a little bit more rhythm and when it was, I clearly saw all the alliteration in it. The second one was much more energized and I had a better understanding of the words when the poem was read with rhythm.
Rob’s poem was interesting and once again this poem had to be read with rhythm because it was written about the blues in that manner. After Professor Kahan played the piano in the background, Rob got a better feel of the poem and I was able to understand the poem better. The most memorable poem for me was Penina’s because of the meaning of the poem. We can all relate to the fact that New York is the city that never sleeps and Penina read in an aggressive manner and showed that the narrator was clearly tired of the artificiality of New York. I suppose I could relate more to this poem than any other because I have also wondered about how life would be different if I lived in a place where the surroundings were predominantly natural. I also found it fascinating that while the narrator and I had the same outlook, we look at it in different ways; she feels aggressive over it which I just feel curious.
I noticed that while reading the poems, the students had to take a lot of criticism from Professor Kahan and then properly translate it when having to re-read the poems. If I fail to properly deliver the poem this Monday, I hope I can also properly consider her criticism and enhance the meaning of the poem. This is significant since the other students don’t have the poem in front of them.
11/12/12 – Swathi Satty
Today we received a presentation from Professor Richard Powers who did a talk on architectural history. He started off by saying that some scholars called architecture “ethnos” which is a frame for the time of society. Parthenon (447-438 BC) shows how western civilzation was during that time. It symbolizes the intellectual standing of those who built Partheton; it towers over everybody. A replica of Parthenon exists in Nashville. Another iconic building is called Monticello (little mountain) which is Roman as shown by the dome shape of the building. This allows the intellect over order over the world. The federal style Massachusetts State House, 1798 shows the power of the founding fathers. The St. Paul’s Chapel, in 1776 is in Downtown. The trim around the windows is made of limestone and the use of brick shows its Georgian style architecture. The US capitol is roman and federal style which shows a rational approach to the world and the power in its function. Another federal style, neoclassical is Gracie Mansion.
Federal Hall, at the end of Wall Street, represents where President George Washington was inaugurated but the original was actually torn down. It’s also greek revival because the success of Greece is shown through their use of Slaves which is what US did as well. The customs House is now a museum of American Indian; the building shows western civilization which is ironic to what it is now. Beaux-Arts architecture shows the dominance of Western Civilization over the world. In 1840’s is the transition from neoclassical to Gothic architecture which is shown by the pointed arches which shows religious. This ties America into Christianity. This transitions America from rational to sentimental and religious.
The Brooklyn Bridge is all steel and suspension. While it is sturdy and built for travel, it’s also highly religious because of its Gothic arches. The Engineers had to be careful because they didnt want to be seen as wanting to break away from their faith but they also have to make sure that the building is fully functional.Central Park also has also a Gothic feel but is mostly romantic. Its not symmetrical and it shows that even in a big city, you can live in a green neighborhood even if its not natural. Woolworth Building, 1913 is of Gothic Style and resides on city hall park. George Washington Bridge is an honest architecture because everything on the bridge serves an engineering purpose. This shows its rationality which is a roman way of thinking. The first skyscrapers were mostly of Beaux-Arts architecture or Gothic. The Chrysler Building, made in 1930, represents the role of modern life; the speed of life. The observations aid in the design of the building (streamlines, etc.). This is a gentle swift from historical revival because the role of engineers is more dominant. While the building is high, it was engineered to look high. The trim is of black marble and stainless steel which creates a shiny effect. The empire state building is made in a similar way in 1931. Buildings of this style promote and glamorize Capitalism.
The Rockefeller Center promotes capitalism as well since it asks to magnify everything. The big change is right after world war I which produced a generation of engineers who are very far to the left, some of them being communists.This kind of style is very present in our society now because we are a very capitalist based country.
Overall, I learned a lot about the role of buildings and how it represents what mattered most to the citizens of Western Civilization. As the focus of the westerners changed throughout the years, the building styles also changed to reflect the fascinations or interests of society. I really enjoyed Professor Powers’s presentation because it really aided in our study of the Arts of New York.
Poetry Readings, Part 2
In today’s seminar, we continued our poetry readings. Once again, everyone did an excellent job of putting their all heart and emotion into their recitations. Everyone’s poems were different; however, everyone spoke in a very convincing and heartfelt tone that conveyed the message of each poem perfectly.
Christian’s poem was about what was behind a cab driver’s smile, and what his life was like beyond his seemingly emotionless job as a cab driver. This made me think, because we really never stop to think about what people’s lives are like beyond what we see. If we really could see into everyone we meet’s personal lives, we really would be astonished that they weren’t these robotic people that only existed at the place and time we saw them. Andrew’s original poem gave me the chills, as it was about something i could relate to easily. He used perfect diction as he chose the words of his poem, and they flowed like a song. He read it with such conviction behind every word that it took me back to places that the poem reminded me of.
November 7th, 2012 James Baldassano
November 7th, 2012 James Baldassano
In our seminar session on November 7th, we continued our recitations of poetry, while the snow pounded down in a white flurry just outside the window. The weather seemed a fitting scene for a class of poetry, for I feel as if snow is a form of natural beauty, corresponding to poetry which is a human made form of beauty.
Of all the performances today, the one I enjoyed most was Christian’s poem (The Cab Driver’s Smile). His poem made me reflect on a large amount of people that I encounter regularly, but have no more than a generic, stereotypical feeling towards. It was about a cab driver who usually isolates himself from his passengers, with little interaction other than business. He was questioned by his passenger on several aspects, and the emotional barrier slowly came down, and revealed that he was a normal human like everyone else. This made me think, for I usually think of bus driver’s as merely bus drivers, waiters as merely waiters, or any other service-type job as nothing more. After hearing this poem, however, I think of them on a deeper scale, as a fellow human being with a lifetime of thoughts to share.
I enjoy these presentations, for it allows me to see how other people perform in front of an audience. Usually, I am very outgoing and talkative, so public speaking is not as traumatic to me as it is to others. But I enjoy seeing how other people who I would not expect to be good public speakers come up and do a fine job.
