- Read: NYT article: Kyle Spencer, “The Memory-Keeper of SoHo” (2015) Class Google Doc Annotation
- Watch: Documentary (14 min): Or Szyflingier and Jonathan Baez, “The SoHo Memory Project” (2020)
- Comment:
- 1. Below, write a 1-paragraph response to the article and the film. You may focus on anything that interests you– ideas from either work that you found interesting, connections you can make to your own neighborhood or experience of New York or another place, something you noticed about the writing or filmmaking, images from the film that you found important, how different genres (newspaper profile of Yuki Ohta vs. documentary) affect our understanding of a story, or any other topic.
- 2. After considering genre with this new material, think about your Unit 3 project. Re-read the assignment (under MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS). What is your topic, and what genre have you chosen? Has your thinking changed about what genre you’d like to work in for your project, after our discussion of genre with the SoHo Memory Project? How will your choice of genre help tell your story and get the word out?
- 3. EXTRA CREDIT OFFERED for writing a 1-paragraph response to the event, below. If you were unable to attend you can watch the event here
1. The article and the video is about a woman who tells her stories about her memories during the 1960s of the neighborhood called SoHo in New York City. Her main objective in this film and article is to bring recognition of the past SoHo and learn about the history throughout the decades of change it went through. I find this really interesting to read and watch because there are people who are willing to do a lot of effort to bring back memories of a neighborhood and want people to know about it. You don’t see this type of thing people do this for their own neighborhood often because people just accept the fact that neighborhoods go through changes. It is interesting for me to know about the past of New York City neighborhoods and to learn about the history and how it changed throughout time.
2. For the Unit 3 project, my topic for this assignment will be about the plastic pollution in the ocean and the genre I chose to do is a story. This choice will help get the word out because it will talk about the issues and how it is affecting us to get people’s attention.
Hi Anthony,
I hope you’ll add in #3 as I believe you were at the event!
Re: Unit 3, this is a terrific start. I like your idea of writing a story about it and making it narrative based. Who is your audience? Where would you like this story to appear/ be published?
Cynthia Balan
1101 CO
FALL 2021
November 21st, 2021
1. this short film called “The Memory-Keeper of SoHo” was shot and published in 2015. This film is about a woman who tells her story about living in SOHO, New York. She expressed her feelings about the changes during the years. Yukie Ohta, a 46-year-old activist, picked up many items that would give her a nostalgic smell of the past, especially from 1969-1980. She lived with her mother, sister, and father in an apartment building in SoHo. After residing in Soho for many years, they bought a building in 1991. It’s 2021, and now Soho is a place of “shopping.” When you get in the neighborhood of Soho, it’s nothing but stores such as Bloomingdale’s trump hotel Tiffany and co and many more stories that you may think of. As someone who doesn’t like change, I know how Yukie Ohta felt when she saw a neighborhood she lived in for so long change. But change may not be a bad thing. The writing and filmmaking of this film were interesting in many ways. You would have thought you needed expensive equipment to make a great movie, but Jonathan and Or Szyflingier took what they had and made someone’s story inspiring for the upcoming community. I never dealt with change in my community/neighborhood, but change can be overwhelming when you aren’t looking for that change. Yukie Ohta’s story is fantastic and needs to be told more often.
2. for the unit 3 project, I am still thinking about my topic. I know I want it to be exciting but the genre will be a video essay, but I would like to find the right topic for the video essay Too. Professor, I would like your help or feedback whenever we meet for class again or email you if that is okay.
3. EXTRA CREDIT
When I joined the zoom call for this film, I knew it would be fun and exciting. You got to hear the behind-the-scenes from the film maker and producers. Making a film about someone may not be accessible due to the fact that some people want their story to be told in an exact way. Or Szyfingier expressed that Yukie Ohta let them take the creative role in the film and said that I knew Yukie Ohta was such a free soul. She didn’t seem rude; she seemed humble even though we didn’t get to speak to her in this zoom call, you knew her energy was incredible just by the way they spoke about her. like I said before that if I wasn’t studying radiology I definitely would take up the film. Expressing your creative side in a video seemed so cool and I knew they had a lot of fun while doing it. One thing I enjoyed was how humble they were. They didn’t seem uptight; they were just so humble and happy about their experiences. They spoke about the bad and the good but they told us that it was all worth it. I am now doing a video essay due to this film because a video can express many thoughts and have many people thinking such as the memory keeper of the Soho project.
Hi Cynthia,
Excellent work here in your response to the special event.
Re: Unit 3, it builds on what you have done for Unit 2., so you have the gist of your topic already and you have prepared with research. Is there a particular aspect of your Unit 2 research that you think you could focus on in Unit 3? From there, think about your anticipated audience. Who do you think most needs to read/see/hear about your work? That will help determine the best genre in which to work.
1.The article and video talks about Yuki Ohta and the Soho her neighborhood where she grew up in, and how much thongs have changed overtime. So she gathered little pieces that resembled to her home on how it was in the past. I always believe that between a documentary and a story or article, the documentary gives it a different feeling. Where you obviously could visualize the story behind it. In my neighborhood for the past 20 years I still haven’t seen any changes what so ever but who knows what the future has in store and of course it would feel a little weird because not everything deserves a change.
2. My topic is gonna be based on sexual assault and my genre is gonna be like a NY Times article. So this choice is gonna be for the older audiences.
Hi Brandon,
Good work here!
Keep in mind Unit 3 is based on unit 2– we can talk more in class tomorrow, no worries.
1 This article the memory keeper of Soho and video is about a women who name is Yukie Ohta grew up in neighborhood New York city called (Soho ) in the late 70s , In the video she explained the Childhood experiences she had in Soho .Also she expressed her feeling about the changed of her neighborhood overtime. Ms Ohta decide to make a video and article about The past of Soho due to the love she have for Soho. This is very interesting article i have similarly experiences that i grew up in the city of Guinea my neighborhood is called Kaporo rail i spend my teenagers life there in That neighborhood I remember one day they sent everyone an letter saying Kaporo is a Government property they want it They gave everyone due date to moved out, my father was so disappointed and sad .lucky my fathers had four house in the city different location but the place he loved most the government took it from him , still today when I am on the phone with him hes speak about that house .
The love of neighborhood where you spend your whole life is real and very interesting even though you moved out you cannot forget it.
2 unit 3 im still thinking about it i have so many but i do not know which one to choose yet
1.The article and documentary is based on a 46 year old woman, Yukie Ohta, who shares her memories of living in her neighborhood of Soho, NYC during the 1960s. She lived in Soho with her family for many years, which included her parents and sister. The documentary is more emotional, compared to the article, but they bring a similar message. This message was how the woman witnessed change. She spoke about how her neighborhood used to be, and how it has now changed to a shopping district. I see similarities in my own life, as I have changed neighborhoods from a small town in Ukraine to living in New York City. Although in her situation she witnessed the same neighborhood change, for me I was placed in a new and much different environment and needed to change.
2.For the project I will focus on LGBTQ rights and how people are currently suffering in many countries in the world. I will right this as an informative article with facts, so people can see how serious the situation is.
One thing that interest me while reading and listening to Yokie Ohta is when she said she keeps a jar filled with the smell of SOHO from the items she has kept from back then. She did this to remember how Soho was before it fully became what it is today. This caught my attention because things and places over time evolves. Yokie Ohta does this to keep in touch of her past. For instance when you move from one place to another you take old pictures with you to keep the memory of that person or moment in your mind. The film shows more of the persons emotions, you can hear the tone of their voice compared to the article.
2.My topic is on police brutality overall. I chose to do a presentation slides and will include pictures and videos to help tell my story. My audience will be younger kids in elementary school from 3rd grade and going since I feel like the older ones are aware of what’s going on because they’re on their phone 24/7.