Week Ahead Nov 30-Dec 4

Monday, November 30

DUE:  Written response to Brigitte's visits, "Life in Prison" / Take a Stand Argument Paper

Tuesday, December 1

Meet in Room B49 for writing workshop

Type written response to Brigitte's visit

Type the "Life in Prison" essay

Wednesday, December 2

Peer editing workshop

Thursday, December 3

Meet in Room B49 for writing workshop

Make corrections / do additional writing on articles from peer editing

Friday, December 4

Final exam on James Baldwin's novel Another Country

Reminder:  Check dogstarnyc.com daily for cheap and free things to do in the city!

Judge in Inter-Racial Marriage Case Resigns

BATON ROUGE, La. - A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.


More here... 

Class Update & Week Ahead Oct 26-Oct 30

Monday, October 26
Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" on theme of inter-racial relationships and marriage (miscegenation).  When the film came out - 1967 - 14 or so states in the nation still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books making it illegal for mixed-race couples to get married.


While we are spending class time watching the film and Book Two is due on November 4, take advantage of the time and read the novel!  Putting it off will only make you fall behind!  College-bound seniors take their responsibilities seriously.

HOMEWORK DUE WEDNESDAY:  Use the link below and other resources to create notes in your LJ about miscegenation laws and the 1950s/1960s. 

In your notes, identify and explain the following:

• Origins of the word "miscegenation"
• Describe a super brief history of anti-miscegenation laws in the United States
• Explain the connection between miscegenation / anti-miscegenation and racism / discrimination

Here for Wikipedia link

Link to a read-able site for historians on miscegnation in the United States

HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY:  Write a draft of Personal Statement 2 on the topic "Who are you meant to be?"  Scroll down to an earlier post to see more details.  You must either have a hand-written draft or a typed draft that you will email to yourself and be abel to access it in room B49.

Tuesday, October 27
Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"

Wednesday, October 28
If more time is needed - Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Reflection in LJ on the film, discussion, make connections to the novel

Thursday, October 29
Meet in Room B49 for writing workshop - You will get back papers for revision
Goals:
Create new document for draft of Personal Statement 2
Make additional changes to Personal Statement 1
Make additional changes to Another Country Paper 1

Friday, October 30
Period 5 does not meet today - we will not have class.  Special scheduel for Parent-Teacher conferences:  Only periods 2, 6, 7, 8, 9

Reminder:  No school next Tuesday, November 3 for Election Day.

Important update for reading the novel Another Country:  Have all of Book One and Book Two read by Wednesday, November 4.


2nd Marking Period:  Three drafts of Personal Statements 1 and 2, Test on Book One/Chapter 1, Written Exam on Book One/Chapters 2 and 3, Paper on Book Two, Reader's Choice Assignment (coming later this week).

Completing ALL of these assignments is required to pass the second marking period.

Anything that's missing will have to be made up to pass the third marking period.

How different from today was 42nd Street back in the 1950s? Like another planet!

As we read the novel, we want to try to imagine how New York City looked to Rufus and Vivaldo and Ida in the 1950s.


The first chapter - when Rufus walks 42nd Street in desperation - describes all kinds of elements of "forty-deuce" that no longer exist today:  bars, arcades, movie theaters showing Italian films, pornography shops (although these are sprinkled along 8th Avenue), prostitutes (male and female), heroin addicts and drug dealers.


The novel is set in the years just after World War II and a 42nd street changed to have all these kinds of things with a rough and dangerous atmosphere.  Before WW II, 42nd Street and the whole Times Square area was mostly theaters with plays, musicals and bands performing nightly.  These kinds of places never left the area but the block of 42nd Street between 7th & 8th Avenue (now it has the McDonalds, the two 25-screen movie theaters and "Mary Poppins") became run-down and taken over by the newer businesses.


Why?  Well, American soldiers returning from Europe and Asia returned to the states and were exposed to pornography, different sexual habits and heroin (derived from battlefield morphine).  Another reason is that outside this area in the city, there was no other place to buy drugs, meet a prostitute or meet other gay people.  It is well known that the Mafia also controlled pornography and prostitution businesses with the help of crooked police officers.


So, during the 1930s, after the regular theaters shut their doors Mayor LaGuardia (he was a mayor before he was an airport) worked hard to keep the area safe with police patrols and vice squads.  A vice enforcement unit or vice squad is a department in many police forces that investigates public order crimes. This generally includes narcotics, alcohol (including sales to minors), prostitution, pornography and gambling.  During LaGuardia's time, especially, police conducted raids on places suspected of being involved in any of these things.  Sometimes crooked cops would threaten real businesses with a raid on their place - which would scare off customers - unless they paid them off with a bribe.


Here is a story from the NY Post about how Vice Squads operate today with the internet 


LaGuardia was followed by two more mayors who pretty much kept on doing the same thing.  However by the mid-1950s, Mayor Wagner was too scared and just not aggressive enough to tighten it up and take control of the area.  His hands-off attitude meant that all the bad business was "contained" (in theory anyway) to this one area to keep it from spreading to the rest of the city.


Here for a list of New York City mayors 


By 1960, Times Square had become the prime area for all the things described in the novel.  What we see in Times Square today is from the efforts of Mayor Giuliani to transform the area almost back to what it was before WW II:  family entertainment.


A bit of New York City trivia for you:  Times Square used to be called Longacre Square until The New York Times moved into 43rd Street (now they are on 8th Avenue & 41st Street) and convinced city leaders to re-name the area in the early 1900s.

Mixed-Race Couple Murdered Last Year by Racist Marines

A Brooklyn Marine named Jan Pietrzk and his wife Quiana were murdered last year in California.  A mixed-race couple murdered in 1948!  No, wait, that was 2008!

More here...

Mixed-Race Couples Against the Law in Many States!

In the novel we are reading, Rufus and Leona receive hateful stares on the streets of New York City.  The time is the 1950s and in many states in America it is illegal for mixed-race couples to get married.  The taboo against miscegenation (mixing) extends to public attitudes to unmarried couples as well.

Last year, Mildred Loving died and she is remembered as one who stood up for what she believed in:  racist laws should not dictate who adults may marry.

Read more about Mildred's story here...


In Louisiana, a judge has refused to grant a marriage license to an inter-racial couple.  Last week!


More here... 

Class Update & Plan for Wednesday

Tuesday, October 13
DUE:  Draft of Personal Statement in your LJ or typed and printed.  Craft Exercise:  Find three places in the draft where you could add dialogue.  Write ten lines of dialogue for each of these places.  Determine which best strengthens the essay with imagery, expresses understanding or insight and generally lifts the tone of the writing.  One-on-one college admission consultations.

Wednesday, October 14
Special School Schedule
10th & 11th grade:  Arrive by 8:10 for PSAT until 11:15
9th & 12th grade:  Arrive by 9:30 and report to deisgnated locations
11:15 - school day begins with these 30-minute periods ONLY:

Period 2  11:19-11:49
Period 4  11:53-12:23
Period 5  12:27-12:57
Period 6  1:01-1:31
Period 8  1:35-2:05
Period 9  2:09-2:39

MR. GAGNON WILL BE ABSENT ON WEDNESDAY

In class on Wednesday go ahead and read the novel.

Another Country chapters and Written Exam will be on Thursday

Thursday, October 15
Written Exam on Another Country (Book 1, Chapter 1)

Friday, October 16
Personal Statement drafting continues
Another Country Discussion continues