In light of our upcoming Literary Arts Festival, featuring Akwaeke Emezi (author of Freshwater), and the current controversy over Bud Light and Transgender, please read and reflect on the following pieces:
“My Friends and Family Know I’m Not a Woman”: Akwaeke Emezi on Figuring Out She Is Transgender
by Otosirieze Ob-Young
January 20, 2018
Akwaeke Emezi.
Akwaeke Emezi, most recently photographed for Vogue ahead of the release of her debut novel Freshwater, has come out as a non-binary transgender person—she is not a man in a woman’s body, she is just not a woman. She realized this five years ago and has since undergone surgeries to remove her uterus.
“It’s easier when I’m alone. My friends and family know I’m not a woman — I’ve told them — but some continue to think of me as one anyway,” she writes in a new, intimate essay for New York Magazine‘s The Cut. “I ignore it because sometimes it’s easier to not fight, to accept the isolation of being unseen as a safe place. I exist separate from the inaccurate concept of gender as a binary; without the stricture of those categories, I don’t even have to think about my gender. Alone, there’s just me, and I see myself clearly.”
But her case is a peculiar one, as she is also an ogbanje—a term she has used for herself for years now. An ogbanje, in Igbo cosmology, is a being born into the world but who constantly leaves to rejoin the spirit world.
Children, inhabited by Ogbanje, (like Ada in Freshwater) grow up sensuous and multi-dimensional, while also struggling with their sense of self, an often tumultuous journey that requires enormous stamina to stay strong.
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OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Please join us at the 2023 City Tech Literary Arts Festival on Thursday, April 27, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the Academic Complex Theater, 285 Jay Street..
This year’s event features acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, writer, and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree Akwaeke Emezi, author of Freshwater and the bestsellers You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty and The Death of Vivek Oji.
Please also encourage your students to attend! The first thirty City Tech students who register to attend will receive a free copy of Freshwater by LAF featured writer Akwaeke Emezi at the event!
There is also a limited virtual option to join by Zoom available to City Tech students, faculty & staff. Please choose the virtual option when registering for the event and the link will be sent two days before the event.
Over the last few weeks, you have read articles on new technological developments and the importance of critical media literacy. Nolan Higdon introduces this topic in “Teaching Media Literacy” Teaching Media Literacy” arguing for federal funding to teach students how to be more critical of the media they consume and in their own writing. He offers the Critical Media Project as a place students can turn to begin to really understand how their world is shaped by the media, including representations of men and women, different ethnicities, the LBGTQ community, the disabled and others. In The Shallows“The Shallows” Nicholas Carr argues that the ability to think deeply and maintain concentration is a lost battle. Our addiction to social media and the internet has altered our brains, so that reading long works doesn’t even seem possible (or desirable). In Banning Tik Tok, we discover that it really does matter who owns the apps we use, as we can be “watched” and easily manipulated, without even knowing it. More frightening still is the emergence of ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), in which AI now has the ability to write content for us by just by asking. The savviest thinker in the world, Noam Chomsky is deeply troubled by this technology alone. If we don’t learn to distinguish what the human brain is capable versus the mindlessness and amorality of computer generated thought, the results may be disastrous.
In a carefully argued essay, I ask you to consider some of the ideas raised in these writings and your own use of technology. What are your thoughts about the capabilities and liabilities of technology. What good can it do? What are its dangers as applied to how we think, act, and create? How does the media help humankind? How does it misrepresent and misguide us? Do you think it’s a problem at all? What, for you, are the best ways to protect ourselves from becoming passive consumers of technology.
In your essay, be sure to set up your argument in dialogue with these authors. Make your point clear, then focus on specific examples to support your assertions. Consider including counter-argument and ideas missed by the articles.
I recommend brain-storming your thoughts, then using an outline before you start writing.
In “Teaching Media Literacy” (2023) Nolan Higdon argues that the only way to combat fake news is to teach media literacy. Currently, the government has decided to set up a Disinformation Governance Board to combat disinformation on social media and other platforms. Higdon, however, thinks that this will only make the problem worse and lead to censorship. Instead, he thinks that schools need to take over this mission and teach students to be more careful about the media they consume. Schools he writes should train every student “to be a journalist, evaluate and analyze sources, separate fact from opinion, interrogate the production process, and investigate the politics of representation.” Our democracy demands well-informed citizens. Higdon calls out for public support and the necessary funding to acheive this. This is no easy task, as its clear the issue requires changing how we think, in more ways than one.
How to Write a Summary
* Begins with a sentence that includes author, title and publication year of text
* Begins with the most significant, central point of the material you are summarizing
* Moves on to convey additional important ideas in your own words
* Does NOT include your own opinions or thoughts
* Includes a quote, with appropriate signal phrase (As Higdon writes, “quote “, According to Higdon, “quote,” Higdon argues that “quote”
* Ends with a wrap-up sentence
* Total length: one paragraph
Complete Education Narrative Essay
KEY DEFINITIONS
INFORMATION: FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANYTHING
DISINFORMATION: FAKE NEWS; INFORMATION THAT IS MISLEADING
MISINFORMATION: GIVING FALSE INFORMATION UNINTENTIONALLY,
CRITICAL: TO BE ANALYTICAL, THOUGHTFUL, WELL-INFORMED
MEDIA: FORMS OF COMMUNICATION, i.e-INSTAGRAM/NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES,TV
