Its presentation time! Time for me to whip out one of the two dresses I own and put my best foot forward. CAP CON 2016 is a conference in which students involved in the Coordinated Arts Program for first year students at UBC get to present their work. As my group settled into our spot and set up our power point on a local BC artist Jack Shadbolt, I noticed the two very hip girls that took their place next to our booth. They were in the media studies program and I was immediately intrigued. I noticed that they were speaking Spanish and a little bit of my home, Miami, came back to me-  a place where Spanish floats through the air where ever you are.

The two hip girls, Estephania Solis and Lara Blacklock, presented a project that  allowed their subjects to tell stories while filming the subjects drawing them out. It focused on culture and what happens when different cultures interact. It started with someone explaining their experience growing up all around the world and how they felt like because they were always moving they never felt rooted place or culture enough to claim it as their own. The second instalment is what really resonated with me. The second instalment was speaking about how people of different cultures find it difficult to assimilate into a culture of the place they have immigrated to. They gave the example of the cultural clash between Canadians and Japanese and Chinese immigrants in Vancouver. What I found particularly interesting, in the presentation and in the conversation I had with the girls afterwards, was the focus on the language barrier between cultures and the difficulty in learning the language if immigrants  happen to move to a country that has a different dominant language. The reason this instalment really stuck with me is because it reminded me so much of home.

Back in Miami most of the people I knew, restaurants I ate at, or music I listened came from Cuba. We also had very large South American and Mexican populations as well. The thing all these cultures have in common, is Spanish. A lot of the older generation immigrants did not learn Spanish, but their children did- the mix of the two cultures created a hybrid language mixing Spanish and English, affectionally called: ‘spanglish.’ Miami is the city it is today because these two cultures have had to figure out how to co-exsist together and  there was not full assimilation into the American culture. It was intriguing to see two students observations of a phenomena occurring around them can be relatable to a situation I am so familiar with, even though it is happening across the continent.

Aside from that presentation I really liked seeing projects from student that were in my CAP program or at least projects that had subjects touched on in my CAP program, and the different perspectives they offered. I particularly enjoyed Ameers presentation on the Black Lives Matter movement and his insight on the role ethnic nepotism has in the conflict. I think it is great that in such a large university there is a platform for students to share the work that they are proud of and engage in conversations with other students about their work. This was an event that I really saw the way CAP can connect together subjects to provide a well rounded education. The interdisciplinary aspect of CAP has shifted the way I take on most subjects I have learned in my time at school, which is I think the most valuable thing I have gained from CAP all year.

Awareness is the path toward justice. A common conversation linked to the missing and murdered women in Vancouver is the failing of the government and police forces to take action. Discrimination against aboriginal people is often cited as the reason behind the inaction of government forces. Just to give you context as to how severe the oversight is, a report written by the police themselves states that “a 2004 government survey of Aboriginal women and a 2011 Statistics Canada report both revealed rates of violence (including domestic violence and sexual assault) up to 3.5 times higher than for non-Aboriginal women” (Vancouver Police, 10). In this article the police admits to their oversight in the case of the missing and murdered aboriginal women and call for action.

This is where I think the work of Walking With Our Sisters plays an important role. This program asks volunteers to make moccasin tops that are “intentionally not sewn into moccasins to represent the unfinished lives of the women and girls” (“The Project”). I think what this project  allows people to grasp the gravity of the systemic racism and violence against aboriginal women in a tangible way. The foundation also was very clear in a video on their website that they stayed true to aboriginal traditions and ceremonies, as well as, making a point to follow the elders guidance (Muskrat,”Book Launch”). I thought it was also interesting in the video, they pointed out the importance of bringing the women lives and culture into the ceremony to and “not to Gawk” at them, but rather to commemorate them (Muskrat, “Book Launch”).

I think the idea that these women should be honoured in their natural heritage is what separates this project from other work that commemorates the women who lost their lives. I have noticed in my reading about the missing and murdered women that they always mention that the women are aboriginal, but they rarely go on to talk about them in any other context. Books like Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss and Forsaken, both texts that focus on the missing and murdered women, focus on the victims role as women not their race. This foundation marries the two. They make these moccasins to signify each women and honour their race through their traditions in ceremony.

This foundation raises important points to think about when remembering people. When we speak about groups in memoriam, especially those that have been victims, we must be careful to focus on their lives in a manner which they would appreciate. When speaking about groups that have been victims of a crime I find there to be a tendency for people to focus on giving that group agency to change a social problem instead of focusing on the individuals and thinking about how they want to be remembered. For example, in Forsaken, when there is no family backstory on a victim, a poem is written for them (Oppal, 39). How are we to know if that is how the women wanted to be remembered. Many people might say that any representation is better than none, but we also must ask ourselves if we are filling these silences in a manner that is representing a voiceless victim in a way they would have wanted.

Citation:

Magazine, Muskrat. “BOOK LAUNCH | Honouring Indigenous Women Vol. 2: Hearts of Nations | Faith Turner”. Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 March. 2016.

De Vries, Maggie. Missing Sarah: A memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin 2008. Print.

Oppal, Wally T. “Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry” Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication. 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

“The Project”. Walking With Our Sisters. N.P. N.D. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Vancouver Police, Sisterhood Watch. The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered(2011): 1-33. Vancouver Police Department, June 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

It is certainly interesting what you an stumble upon, four hours into a Facebook binge. The Facebook abyss was unfortunately my bleak reality as I tried to recover from sickness about twenty four hours after David Bowies death. Amongst all the tribute posts devoted to him there was a link to a news story about Bowie being involved in the world of “Baby Groupies” (Mattix). Baby Groupies is the term that refers to the gaggle of pre- teen to teenage girls that notoriously ran with the rockstars of the 70’s and often formed sexual relationships with them (Mattix).  What I want to examine in this blog post is the tendency for celebrity life narratives to skip over deviant parts of their respective lives, while life narratives written about “everyday people” such as Missing Sarah- A Memoir of Loss does not. In fact, the book Missing Sarah is devoted to “sex workers everywhere” which in a way highlights aspects of her life that the general public view as deviant (De Vries, preface). Even though the book itself does not shed Sarah in a negative light it certainly does not omit entirely that part of her life, as celebrity memoirs tend to do.

Lori Mattix interviewed Micheal Kaplan were she recounts an interaction with bowie in which she “was not even 15 and and he wanted to take me to his hotel room” (Mattix). Michael later goes on to claim that she lost her virginity that night in a threesome with David Bowie (Mattix). Michael continues to describe another relationship that she had with another rock star, Jimmy Page. Pages and Kaplans relationship was rather well documented. Many pictures of the two are featured in the interview. The relationships these men had with these groupies could very well be classified as rape, considering the girls in some situations were not at the age of consent. Neither Bowies or Pages obituary featured anything remotely to do with their deviant behaviour, in fact they almost entirely skipped over any part of their lives that were heavily involved with drugs or partying instead choosing to focus on their artistic accomplishments. Pages biography mentions his hard parting life style only when talking about a death of a fellow band mate at Pages house due to over drinking (Serpick).

For two “rock stars” who were notorious for their heavy partying life style there is almost no mention of it in their respective life narratives. Why is it that celebrities are afforded the luxury of their mistakes being omitted from their story, while normal people are not. Perhaps this can be attributed to a social phenomena I recently studied in a sociology class of mine, where dominant class, in this case would be the celebrities, are afforded social acceptance and a pass on things they do wrong while lower classes do not for the same offence (Ritzer &Neal, 245-246). The general public tend to idolize celebrities as gods  and don’t believe that they can do any wrong. Society omits parts of their lives that they don’t want to see and as a result the content disparity between celebrity life narratives and the general public’s is vast. Every person through their life time is bound to make mistakes but refusing to touch on them when remembering them only perpetuates the idea further that celebrities are not humans and should be treated better than the rest of the population. I have yet to hear any outrage over Bowies or  pages behaviour, and before you dismiss it by saying “it was the 70s”, think about if you knew a man who was Jimmy Pages age dating a fifteen year old girl. Celebrities should be judged just the same as the rest of us.

Citations:

Sweeting, Adam. “David Bowie Obituary.” The Guardian. 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Mattix, Lori. “I Lost My Virginity to David Bowie.” Thrillist. 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Serpick, Evan. “Jimmy Page Biography.” Rolling Stone. n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Ritzer, George & Neal Guppy. Introduction to Sociology: Canadian Version. Canada: SAGE Publications 2014.

De Vries, Maggie. Missing Sarah: A memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin 2008. Print.

Today I had the pleasure of seeing the presentations of projects completed by  groups in my english class. The projects presented today focused on presenting archival information in a way that can help further research and understanding of the personal documents of prominent people within British Columbia. I, however, saw potential for a couple of the formats used by the groups to showcase their work to be effective in presenting other information. One project in particular that I thought did a great job of presenting the information they had, and thus got me to think that this format could also be used to display other information, was a groups project that did a “Info Graph”.  The way they presented the information was clear and appealing to eye and provided easily understood chunks of information that (literally) mapped out the thinking process for the reader. The group was composed of Anna, Emily, Emma, and Mishal and they provided information on the racism against Chinese citizens in Canada.

During their presentation, I could not help but think of an article we had to read earlier in the class by Jiwani & Young called “ Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse.” The paper focused on the missing and murdered women on the downtown East Side of Vancouver.  The paper  mainly focused on the media representation of the women and how the discourse surrounding the news story tended to paint the woman as the problem and continually marginalized them (Jiwani and Young, pg 895).  Throughout the entire article they continued to point out various news stories and different accounts in which the woman who got attacked were poorly represented. I believe that this article would benefit from organizing the information into a info graph in order to give a time line to the readers for better understanding. Obviously, an article form is better for scholarly readers, however, in order to get awareness out to non scholarly audiences, it might be beneficial to breakdown the information and present it in a way that the reader can clearly see the tactics used by the media. One way the media tried to dehumanize the victims were by grouping them as “aboriginal” and “sex workers” (Jiwani and Young, pg 895).  It is important to not let that veiled discrimination slide, the more people that are looking for the ways in which the news skews its stories, the better.

The analysis done in the research paper could bring awareness to a larger audience and help to change the conversation surrounding woman’s portrayal in the media, particularly surrounding aboriginal woman . The potential for the amount of people that could have access to that information and actually become aware of this issue if an info graph was given to an audience, for example, like high school students, is amazing. It would be so useful to have a time line of the attacks juxtaposed with the news coverage of that attack. I think that information would provide a harrowing portrayal of the medias short fallings in covering these cases and allow people to realize the stigmas they might hold themselves.

Citation:

Jiwani, Yasmin and Young, Mary Lynn. “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31.4 (2006): 895-917. Web. 3. Feb. 2016

Gaining access to archival documents can prove to be challenging to someone who does not have extensive knowledge of where to look as well as resources available to them. This might cause people to be discouraged from seeking out information they wish to further explore. I know the conversation of my family’s history has come up often over christmas dinners and I think to some degree, everyone is a little curious when it comes to where they are from.  TLC’s show “Who Do You Think You Are” is a perfect example of this, it follows around celebrities as they essentially go around the globe tracking down their ancestors. Alas, not everyone has the money to take off on a plane to go visit their great grandmothers local city hall, or the time to search through extensive records to find who their second cousin married.

This got me curious as to what would be the easiest form of archival documents available to the general public. Thats when I stumbled on ancestry.com. Anyone with a computer and WIFI can sign up for a free trial period and if they like the service they can pay $9.99 a year for personalized archival information. Upon further research there are other cites like findmypast.com that boast themselves as a free service. I decided to put both of them to the test. A couple of email blasts later, I was signed up. I found the findmypast.com was not nearly as helpful as ansestry.com, which would explain the cost. For starters, findmypast.com was much harder to navigate and the documents that were available were not as good compared to the ones that ancestry.com offered.

I then went through the UBC library commons to see if any scholars had done work on this archival resource. To my surprise, there were quite a few articles. One article was highlighting the work ancestry.com was doing transcribing slave records which highlighted the fact that “The company has launched the World Archives Project to expand its current database of 7 billion historical records (Anonymous, 14).” That amount of information readily available to the public is mind boggling, even more so when you take into consideration that fact that the website personalizes all this information to a specific person and shows a person things that they would find relevant. A little more digging revealed that even things like Botanical History was being documented through Ancestry.com. The website appears to be particularly helpful in linking the history of how plants got their name, “Ancestry.com™ provides a virtual interface into centralized, archived records previously of limited availability (Branch, 245).” The article further goes on to talk about ancestry.com providing a rich background for students to study on famous botanist (Branch, 245).

Today my ASTU class got the privilege of being able to look at the rare archives of important figures to British Columbia and it was an amazing experience. There really isn’t a way to describe the feeling of looking through someones everyday effects- notes they scribbled to themselves, poems they decided to write one day or a picture they kept. You have an understanding of the person that you wouldn’t have if you just read a book. While I realize that online services cant offer that kind of detail and quality of archives, it is at least a start for anyone who wants to find out more about people in this world.

Citations:

Anonymous. “Ancestry.Com Transcribes Slave Records.” Information Management 43.4 (2009): 14. ProQuest. Web. 22 Jan. 2016 .

Branch, Anthony R. “Exploring Botanical History Using Ancestry.com™” Harvard Papers in Botany (2008) 13.2: 245-251. Bio one. Web. Jan 22. 2016

Facebook. Facebook has redefined how people interact socially, what we consider normal behaviour and created a whole culture which the majority of my generation is a part of. Many of the people I know turn to Facebook to see what people are saying and for any updates during large social movements or moments of crisis. Recently I was given the assignment to log my Facebook usage for the duration of a week. The week I chose to do this log happened to be one of my most active weeks on Facebook to date. I happened to be writing my journal during the week of the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015. Following the attacks Facebook exploded with posts expressing sympathy, people sharing news stories to update on the unfolding events, while others chose to voice there opinion on political policy. A lot of the people adding to the conversation also happened to change their Facebook profile pictures to have the French flag overlay it, an option that Facebook offered to every user. Facebook also offered a “check in” feature to people in France, to let their friends on Facebook know that they were safe and sound.

These features created a lot of controversy within Facebook itself. Many of my friends voiced outrage over the fact that Facebook only chose to have this level of response when a western, white city was attacked. The controversy over selective attention to certain crises connects back to a subject we have been discussing in my english class- who’s life narratives get to be heard and who’s don’t. In this situation, however,  it is who’s life narratives are important enough to share and morn vs. those that are not. Major news outlets took notice of the publics dialogue and began to publish opinion pieces on it. One great thing this controversy has done is opened up a dialogue about western media not covering the tragedies that happen all over the world, but rather choosing only to focus on western cities. Consequently, I have noticed much more people sharing stories and making an effort to focus on a broader range of news articles, from all over the world not just western cities. In addition to the conversation about which stories get news coverage, there has been a significant increase in stories that focus on the immense amount of Islamaphobia that western societies exhibit. In a way, two very important issues that society needs to reflect on have been brought to the forefront of peoples minds.

In my opinion, I thought that some of the postings on Facebook edged close to being rude and insensitive to the situation. It felt as though they were trying to make it a competition between which tragedy got the most attention. The first article linked in this blog touches on grief becoming a performance within this phenomena, which was definitely a sentiment I felt as I scrolled through my newsfeed in the days following the attack. I thought that the outpouring of love on Facebook following the event was beautiful and therapeutic for a lot of people. That being said, I can see how this dialogue, whether it was phrased in a way I thought was respectful or not, has opened up new topics of conversation that can help us move towards a more inclusive society and a media industry that covers events around the world, and about all societies. The more broad the media coverage, the more accepting people will be. I believe that the dialogue happening on Facebook right now is helping to take steps towards making all societies narratives important, not just the ones that the major news outlets choose to cover.

DISCLAIMER:  If you watch the videos I have linked in this post, there is explicit language in them.

“Hit like a man!” Georgia Me dares her invisible perpetrator as she delivers a moving spoken word poem to a spell bound audience on Def Poetry Jam. Def Poetry Jam, which is the brain child of Russell Simons, provides a platform for artist to share their own personal stories through the medium of spoken word poetry (a form of poetry that is preformed to an audience). My research into spoken word poetry as a life narrative has brought me to the conclusion that it is a powerful medium through which spoken word poetry can travel. The genre has the ability to invoke a very important aspect of audience participation called  “empathetic identification”- a concept that the scholars Schaffer and Smith speak about in their article: “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” Empathetic identification is when the audience becomes personally invested in a life narrative,sharing the experience with the person telling their story as if it is also their own(Schaffer and Smith, 12). When spoken word poems are performed on Def Poetry Jam, empathetic identification takes its form in the audiences vocal responses to the person sharing. I want to further explore the difference in responses the audience gives to varying subject matters of poems being performed on Def Poetry Jam. To begin examining this question I will be using two different performances on Def Poetry Jam, one is “Hit Like A Man” by Georgia Me, which is a defiant rant focused at her abusive partner and the second is “Wife, Woman and Friend” by Dana Gilmore, a lighthearted lament about a former relationship.

Georgia Me walks on the stage to thunderous applause but once she opens her mouth the audience begins to realize the gravity of her subject matter. Little to nothing is said by the audience- a stunned, reverent silence falls over the majority of the audience as her performance starts to build momentum with each word spoken. As Georgia begins to reach the climax of her piece she cries out and the only hoot from the audience can be heard in a brief pause before she barrels forward. Once the last word is spoken the audience immediately erupts in a thunderous applause clearly effected by the artist story.

Dana Gilmore’s performance takes place in a much different atmosphere. As soon as she begins chuckles can be heard from the audience as they find humour in her words about her past lover. Throughout the performance the audience whoops and moans with the ebb and flow of the piece, you can hear the accessional “yeah!” from an audience member as they identify with what she is saying. It almost feels like Gilmore is sharing a story with friends over drinks because the audience is so relaxed with her. It as though she is relating a struggle that everyone in the audience has felt at some point.

Looking at these two examples, there is a great difference in how the audience reacted to different content. I wonder if the audience felt as if it would be inappropriate to yell out when there was darker content discussed. Perhaps more people have gone through relationship struggles rather than abuse and therefore identify more with Gilmore’s performance.The audience was interested in both story lines but empathetic identification took its form differently with each performance.

Citation:

Schaffer, Kay and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” Biography 27.1 (2004): 1-24. Web of Science, MLA international Bibliography. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

SpokenPoetryTV. Georgia Me- Hit Like a Man on Def Jam Poetry. Online Video Clip. Youtube.YouTube, 28 May. 2013. Web, 8 Nov. 2015.

SpokenPoetryTV. Dana Gilmore- Wife, Woman, Friend on Def Jam Poetry. Online Video Clip.Youtube.YouTube, 19 May. 2013. Web, 8 Nov. 2015.

One of my favourite things to do is meeting new people and hearing their stories. I enjoy understanding their backgrounds or getting to know their sense of humour. This trait is probably the reason I enjoy the Humans of New York blog created by Brandon Stanton. For those of you who don’t know, HONY is a blog devoted to cataloging portraits of people and archiving their stories.

Stanton recently did an instalment of photographs taken of immigrants who are seeking refuge in Europe, many coming from the Middle East and Greece. The photographs that were taken are some of the most moving material I have seen on the internet. It is impossible not to feel profound sympathy for these people who have gone through shocking horrors. One post that stood out to me is a woman who lost her husband at sea when the escape boat they were on capsized -his body was never found. Unfortunately, due to the incredible amount of illegal activity associated with the migration of refugees, there are as many horror stories about the journey to flee as there are stories about the places they fled. Stanton also spent a lot of time in Iran, but those pictures capture a more mundane, quirky, every day aspect of Iranian peoples lives, which I think was his intention. I believe he is trying to show that the Iranian people are just normal people and the prejudice placed upon them by the west is unjustified.

Stanton’s blog works with the idea of identifying people, making broad perceptions on an issue into a personal story- something that is easier to understand. These little chunks can either be amusing (if its a funny joke) or help people understand the scope of a crisis, like the work he did with immigrants. In fact, one of the main things Stanton kept pushing for in the blog posts he did from Europe was the support of an organization called The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The UNHCR is an activist group that provides aid for people in need. While they have a focus on people in Syria at the moment, the UNHCR provides aid for a wide range of people. This is where the power of life narratives, specifically those that Stanton has chosen to broadcast, is seen. Stanton is coupling a personal story with a plea for aid. Essentially, because people feel emotionally connected with the person in the photo and their story, they are more likely to be compelled to donate and help that person. It is a brilliant and effective model.

I believe there is one hitch to the plan. When the instalment of pictures/ stories is current, this model is effective and powerful. However, once the instalment is over the cause it was fighting for is at risk of being quickly forgotten. This phenomena is only expedited by the medium that HONY uses: the internet, which is an ever evolving source of information. How can we turn a fleeting glance of a blogger into something that has a permanent impact?

While there is always room for improvement, HONY does an amazing job of getting large audiences to listen and acknowledge the life narratives of a diverse group of people. Stanton uses the power of life narratives to make a positive change, and that is something anyone can admire.

Everyday, life narratives, both short stories and long autobiography’s, get broadcasted throughout the world. Narratives can travel through news channels, articles, books, or even Facebook posts. The common theme throughout all of these genres is the immense power life narratives hold. Our world is colored by these little glimpses into peoples lives. To fully understand life narratives, it is imperative to do Whitlock’s’ challenge.

Whitlock challenges her reader to take an analytical look at their local bookstore and Amazon. The main objective is to observe trends like: who the autobiographies are about and how they are marketed. It is important to keep an eye out for which stories are successful as it can provide an insight to what society is interested in hearing.

One memoir that caught my eye is Hilary Clinton’s Hard Choices: A Memoir. Peering down on me from the top shelf is a firm, but kind looking Clinton in front of a soft grey background. Clinton is put together, but not too flashy; she looks mature. On the Cover is a quote from The Guardian that encompasses what the whole back cover of the book (littered with various quotes) tries to say: Clinton managed to tell a well written, intriguing story.

Things start to get interesting when I cross-referenced the hard cover with the online version. The bookstore version was a re-release from the original version published a year ago (the version I found online). The old cover is black and white, Clinton is smiling but somehow seems less at ease. Each version of the book was published under very different circumstances, but both are meant to gain public favor and ultimately increase votes. In 2014, Hilary Clinton was not yet a presidential candidate. She was a politician that needed to start improving her public image and get her name on the forefront of the mind of America. It is not a coincidence that Clinton announced her bid for presidency and republished her memoir in the same month, April of 2015. As a full fledged candidate for president, Clinton needs to promote a new image. In an article written by the New York Times, Clinton wants to “highlight that she is a grandmother and trumpet her chance to make history.” She wants to be perceived as a comfortable, confident woman. This idea is mirrored in the second cover, Clinton is looking steadfast into the future, in full color and not apologizing for it.

Prominent members of society use the release of a life narrative to increase the amount of publicity around them. In fact, politicians, celebrities, religious figures, anyone who is a “house-hold name” dominated most of the space in the non-fiction section of the bookstore. Rarely did I see a book from an immigrant or for that matter, someone who wasn’t white and from the West. I find it disheartening that in an age where there are so many stories to be told, all the publicity goes towards making sure a republished memoir is successful. There needs to be a collective effort to make the stories of the oppressed are heard. It is time to capitalize on the power of life narratives and increase the variety of subjects being heard.

Citation:

Chozick, Amy. “Hillary Clinton Announces 2016 Presidential Bid.” The New York Times. N.P. 12 April 2015. Web. 2 Oct 2015.

This upcoming academic year still harbors an assortment of questions for me. I am not sure what to expect, nor what is expected of me. I wonder about big questions like: “what will my major be?” and mundane questions like: “how many times can I have dinning hall waffles as a meal before it stops being socially acceptable?”- both are equally as stressful.

Now that I have divulged my deepest and darkest uncertainties, introductions are in order. My name is Seana Bruff and I am from Miami. I have been in conservatory training for acting the majority of my life. I have always been involved in the political world. It always intrigued me how the political process allows regular people to make a huge difference in the world. I like to surround myself with art, weird little poems and books. I firmly believe life is about approaching everything with a good sense of humor.

To properly portray a character, it’s necessary to identify the background, or narrative, of each person. I learned how to do this by studying acting.  What intrigues me most when reading about others’ life narratives is how their background, or upbringing, shaped them into the person they are today. It’s the small details that pique my curiosity most. Seemingly meaningless past experiences can have a huge influence on who we become as adults. I want to know what drives a person to take a certain action.

No one is more intriguing to me than Patti Smith when it comes to examining others’ motivations. Smith is the original rock and roll queen. My infatuation with Smith began when I was assigned a monologue from a play she co-wrote with Sam Shepard, Cowboy Mouth. The play was written in the course of two nights by passing a type writer between Smith and Shepard in a dingy room in the Chelsea Hotel in New York city around 1971. Cowboy Mouth was a product of a passionate affair between the two, an affair that ended with the first performance of the show. Shepard freaked out because the material was too close to his reality. Shepard deserted both Patti and the production. I happened upon a review of the performance that I found absolutely riveting. The review sheds light on the circumstances around the play and the reasons for the actions taken by both parties. The actor inside of me was hooked, I started looking into anything that could give me a clue as to why this scandal occurred. I found Patti Smith’s memoir “Just kids” and scavenged the pages for clues on her psyche, upbringing, personality and how she spoke about the affair in the book. Through all the information read, I only had one question in mind: how did Smith get to where she is?

-X