Chipo Chipaziwa's Blog

Wow, what a crazy year. CAPCON 2016 wasn’t anything I thought it would be, I got to interact with students and professors from the other CAP streams and experience some unique, thought – provoking and heart-touching projects. From the conference, two projects and presentations stood out to me: “Vancouver Doodle Stories” by Lara Blacklock and Estephania Solis and “Avatar: The Bending of a Traditional Narrative” by Vanessa Chan, Caroline Cassinelli, Niki Konstantinovic and Melissa Tan. “Vancouver Doodle Stories” was a visual project. It was a recording of hands drawing on…read more

Continuing with my interest regarding celebrities, I recently read article focusing on musician Bob Dylan, the discover of his many personal journals and how these journals are in the process of being organized and published as an archival collection in Oklahoma. There’s much excitement surrounding the release of this collection. Princeton historian and author of “Bob Dylan in America”, Sean Wilentz, stated that “[the publication of these archives is] going to start anew the way people study Dylan” (NYTimes). As the article progresses, it is recognized that within the Bob…read more

Recently, the topic of drugs usage has been brought up in class. One of the homework assignments was to watch the documentary “Through a Blue Lens”, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (IMDb). The documentary was released in 2003 and it centers around the area of Downtown East Side, DES, in Vancouver (IMDb). The documentary focuses on the habitats of DES, most who happen to be drug addicts, and their relationship with the local police force (IMDb). The film itself is heavy to watch in its entirety in the…read more

For the second semester of ASTU, the course has switched its focus from life narratives to archives. Previously, when I thought of archives, what came to mind was the sort of artifacts one would find in a museum exhibition; e.g. sacred documents and or outdated tools. However, as of recently, my perception of what an archive is has changed. Social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can be categorized as archives. All three of these websites allow their users to document whatever aspects of their lives they wish…read more

I never really paid much attention to Facebook until of recently, Thursday the 12th of November to be exact. I remember seeing various Facebook statuses written along the lines of: “To the students of color at Mizzou, we, student allies at [the name of the university the user is attending], stand with you in solidarity. To those who would threaten their sense of safety, we are watching. ‪#‎ConcernedStudent1950‪#‎InSolidarityWithMizzou” Prior to seeing the Facebook posts, I had already read news articles explaining the events that occurred at the University of Missouri. Despite…read more

I have been thinking about my eye vision lately. When I was in fourth grade, I noticed that reading the white board became increasingly difficult as the school year went on. I knew that my father wore glasses, but that didn’t raise any red flags because the rest of my family didn’t wear any. That was until my one of my oldest sisters told my parents that she too was having difficultly seeing long distance. I took this as my chance to confess to my parents that my own eye…read more

For this week’s blog, I decided to focus on a story from the famous blog site Humans of New York (HONY). Created in 2010, HONY is a project of photographer Brandon Stanton. Stanton walks the streets of New York City and photographs and interviews individuals about personal anecdotes they are willing to share.  As I was strolling through his site, I stumbled upon one story that struck a chord with me. The photograph chosen for this story is one of a woman sitting by an open window and looking straight…read more

For the class’s second blog installment, my classmates and I were asked to do something unexpected: pay a visit to a bookstore. When I first read this, I was a bit puzzled because I wasn’t too sure if I could find time throughout the week to go to one. Luckily I remembered that the campus had one, meaning I didn’t have to venture off downtown on a Wednesday afternoon. While at the bookstore, I couldn’t find any books that caught my attention. Before I could admit defeat, I ran into…read more

Greetings Internet! My name is Chipo and I am currently a student at the University of British Columbia. If I had to pick one word to describe about myself, I would chose the word wanderer. I have an intense craving to consume as much knowledge as I possibly can, and then apply said knowledge to make a positive impact on the world. Since I was born, I have been moving across the globe nonstop: I am originally Zimbabwean but I was born in Malaysia where I spent the first six years of my…read more