Hi Students,

I want to thank those of you who were able to attend the Literary Arts Festival either in person or on Zoom.  I will post a recording of the event soon for those of you who missed it.

First, a big shout out to your fellow student, Nim, who won a prize for his essay “I Care.”   Congratulations Nim!

At the festival, Akweke Emezi read from her young adult novel PET, a work of speculative fiction published in 2019. The main character is a 15-year-old Black trans girl, named Jam, who is beloved by her family and community.  The town where she lives, Lucille, is imagined as a place where there is no hatred and only support. The town’s creed (“We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond”) is a quote from African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

Like Emezi’s Freshwater, artwork, and journalism, PET is yet another work that calls on America (and the world) to do much better in respect to people from all different racial and ethnic backgrounds and to speak up against those who challenge the rights of the LGBTQI+ population.

Last week, I asked you to read an article on the attacks on Trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney after Budweiser sent her a can with her face on it. It was a proud moment for her (and her cause so she thought), which she shared on Instagram with her 8 million plus followers.  Here is an article on her comments in response to the insane, inhumane attacks on her that followed:

Dylan Mulvaney Speaks Out

For the remaining three weeks of class, I want to continue with the themes of equal human rights for all and acting responsibly in society.  I also want to focus on the theme of personal identity and representation in literature and the media.

All of these themes begin to be explored in the period of Literary Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, whose authors you have been studying and writing on.

I want to end the semester by reading the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (and watching a great film version of the book, available on AmazonPrime). Published in 1922 during the height of the modernist period, the book is now 100 years old and considered one of the greatest novels ever written.  The 2013 film directed by Baz Luhrmann updates this work in very interesting ways.

As you’ll discover, The Great Gatsby is about many, many things (including the illusion of the American dream).  Its focus on Gatsby, however, deals with the issue of identity, who we are, where we come from, how we create our own identity, how others “see” us in variant ways.  At its heart, modern literature (and post-modern literature as we see in Freshwater) concerns the “many selves” that make up “the self.”

Another important novel of the 1920s on the topic of identity is Passing (1929), by Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen, also recently remade into a fine film (available on Netflix). Larsen’s Passing tells the story of Irene Redfield and her relationship with Clare Kendry, two childhood friends who, while African American, are able to pass as white women because of their mixed heritage. I recommend watching this film if you’ve already watched The Great Gatsby (or watching both).

For this week, I ask that you begin reading chapters 1-2 (pages 1-42) of The Great Gatsby. 

The Great Gatsby

By Tues. May 9, post a paragraph response to a passage (or an aspect of the novel) you find particularly interesting. You could also focus on a particularly amazing line or section that shows how great a writer Fitzgerald is. As always, try not to repeat what another student has expressed, or better yet, continue his or her conversation with additional commentary.

Here is a brief, helpful video, to introduce you to the work and its celebrated author. 

In light of our upcoming Literary Arts Festival, featuring Akwaeke Emezi (author of Freshwater), and the current controversy over Bud Light and Transgender Rights, 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, 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.  

Also read: “Behind the Backlash Against  Bud Light’s Trans Gender Influencer”

Akaeke Emezi will read from her work at the Literary Arts Festival, this Thursday, April 27 (4-6) in the New Theater on Jay Street.

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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 register here now!  

All are welcome  

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.  

For more information see 

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/literaryartsfestival/

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Ahead of the event:

Register to attend in person or on zoom. I will also provide a recording of the event if the time and date are not convenient for you.

I will offer extra credit for any students who post their thoughts about the event and/or reading.

Watch: My introduction to  Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater: Video

Read: Chapters 1-3 of Freshwater: HERE

Content Warning: After chapter 3, the novel covers some difficult material relating to self-harm and sexual assault.  We will not be reading the full novel together but I encourage you to do so if you find the novel as captivating as I do. It is a brilliant, beautiful work but, again, covers difficult material.

I am also giving an extension for your modernism assignment. If you have not uploaded it, please do so by Wednesday, April 24th.

Here are the directions:

The Modernism Assignment asks that you review two sites on the Poetry Foundation website:

1) Literary Modernism and 2) “Harlem Renaissance”

STEP ONE: Read “Literary Modernism,” then scroll down. Choose one of the listed poets.  Read the poet’s biography, then choose one of his or her poems for discussion.

STEP TWO: Write a 3 paragraph response to the poet and poem

Paragraph #1: Summarize key points from the poet’s biography (be sure to use the biography from this site)

Paragraph #2: Connect a biographical detail to the main theme of the poem (or connect the poet or poem to a point addressed in the essay on modernism).

Paragraph#3: Discuss what you find “modern,” interesting, or unusual about the poem.  Include your favorite line(s) that demonstrate this.

STEP THREE: Do this again for a poet from the “Harlem Renaissance”

STEP FOUR: By Mon., April 27, upload this assignment to our googledrive link: HERE

To upload a file from your computer press “new” (on upper left corner) and then “upload file”

Due Date: Mon. April 27