Introduction to My Ressiance Little Project

What is this video?
This was an end of the unit assignment on the Harlem Ressiance.
What do you want people to know before they watch it?
I want you to know that I made a poem that was inspired by Langston Hughes "I Too"
What do you want people to focus on as they watch it?
I want you to focus on the pictures and people are all the same.
What do you hope people will gain from your video?
I think that people will learn that you are really the person you want to be, not just stereotyping.

Reflection on Color of Water Chapters 9,10, 11

" Folks where pour and starving."(83) I can relate to that because you lose prospective when things are just good all the time. "It was her sense of education, more than any other that Mommy conveyed her Jewishness to us"(87). He feel that he is learning how his mom liked to grow and how his mom was treated because that is what she does to her kids. "By the age of twelve, i was traveling an hour and a half one way to junior high school by myself, taking two buses each direction every day"(89). I feel that his mom wanted the best for her children so she would do what ever it takes to get them there. "Yet I myself had no idea who I was"(91). I feel like it is very confusing when you don't have anybody that you can trust and are there for you all the time. "In the summer she was the Pied Piper, leading the whole pack of us to public swimming pools, stripping down to her one-piece bating suit and plunging into the water like a walrus, the rest of us following her like seals, splashing and gurgling in terror behind her as Mommy flailed along, seemingly barely able to sim herself."(95). She still wanted to giver all her kids life skills that they needed. "I grew secretive, cautious, passive, angry and fearful always"(100). I feel that he feels that she is not really his mom because of how much they don't look like each other and it is hard for him to understand. "Now as a grown black man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds"(103). I feel like that must be so hard and he trying to make sense of it as he goes because he doesn't have anybody to talk to.  "Then after a while my period was late. By a week. Then another two weeks. Then it never came" (112). I find that as way that she was telling the world that she didn't like how she was being treated anymore so she was doing something about it.

Reflection of Chapter 6,7,8

"I'm crying because I am happy" (50). I wonder if she did a lot things that her kids though was weird but also I think it is hard that she has lost two husbands as well and that got is one of the only things left. "God is the color of water."(51) I think that she is saying that he needs to figure out the color of water before he can figure out who God is. " When we got home, Mommy beat Billy's butt."(55) That is probably because she wants him to know how much god sacrificed for him. "That was the Klu Klux Klan riding though"(58) That is interesting to me because of how they acted about black people. "He trusted no one"(59). That is important because he didn't even trust his daughters. "Sam was his main target"(62). I get why she didn't like being a part of that family it doesn't seem fun at all."Not too long afterwards, the dean of Music and Art called our house and asked Ma why Helen was quitting school"(72). I feel that she was tired of the expectation for her. "She's not coming home Ma"(77). I think that they are all a little tired of trying to do anything with all 12 of them trying to run the house.

Renaissance Little Project

Reflection on Color of Water Chapter 2,3,4,5

"He was seventy-two when he died" (5) I think that he is sad because that is pretty young for him to die. He seem like he treats all the kids as his own.

"I always thought of him as Daddy"(6) He feels close to his step dad. His stepdad was the dad that he really knew because his mom got married when he was still less than a year old.

"I virtually dropped out of high school after he died, failing every class."(6)

It is tough when you lose a parent to keep going and feeling like you are still doing the right thing. I get it. 

"She war commander and chief of my house, because my stepfather did not live with us.(9)That seem like a very stressful life having 12 kids and no one to help you. You are also very private so that makes it seem even more distant

"Me and Mommy alone"(11)

I think that is one memory that he holds onto because that is one of the only times he gets to be alone with his mom.

"My little sister Kathy who trailed behind them"(14)

They were all older than he was so he was scared and they would make fun of him because of that.

“I held you and your brother in my arms as I ran”(16) Her mom was not exactly sure what was coming but she knew that it was scary and she was not exactly sure what was going to happen.

"I was a runner"(17) That is probably why she rides her bike everywhere instead of driving a car.

"You obeyed, period"(18) That is why she told James that he just needed to listen to her and do what she told him to do.

"Yet Mommy refused to acknowledge her whiteness."(23)I think that a big part of that for her is that she didn’t know how to answer that question. She married men with black skin so that is why her children don’t look like her.

"Our favorite as a gleaming black, souped-up GTO with the words “Black Power” written in smooth white script across the hood and top"(26)  That is interesting is that car just black or is the driver also black?

"Get your butt inside before dark" (28)

I think he was testing. He wanted to see if his mom would do  she said she would do. I think that he also was pretty mad when they didn’t follow her rules like her parent would be with her.

"He always made sure his kids never got into trouble, was concerned about money, and trusted the providence of the Holy Father to do the rest."(29)  
I think that he misses having a dad around because he wants some of that parenting that is not just telling him that he is doing everything wrong.

"She viewed the civil rights achievements of black Americans with pride, as if they were her own."(32)

I think that it is part of what she wanted and part of doing what is right not what you want. She did a lot of that leaving her family marrying a black man she did a lot and she wants to be proud of what she did.

"My parents didn’t have the warm relations that most parents had."(41)

That is part of why I think that she parents her kids like she does.

"My father did things to me that I can’t tell anyone about."(42)  

She was trying to make up what she didn’t have in her past but she was really stick to her kids.

 
   

 

Reflection On Chapter 1 of Color of Water

I'm dead. What does that mean for him. Does he miss his mom. They want no parts of me and I don't want no parts of them so that mean that she wants to live in peace sometime I feel the same way because when you look at me I don't want to talk most the time. Like go interview my father. She is very irritated and wants to do something else. I was born on April Fools Day 1921 in Poland. That is a weird day to be born and still not be alive my grandparents are the old and they are still living today. She had to die for the rest of me to live that is like cancer where they have to make it die or it will attack the whole body. When I married your father they didn't approve of it they thought that you could do better. Why when someone makes you so happy why do they then go and tell you can't do that. He was as hard as a rock so nothing got to him and he would stay strong for his family. She had polio so that must make it really hard on her because she feels like she is not strong.

I Too

I too am trying to find myself my dreams. What do you want to be in your life? I love so many things how do I choose one? When you find something that you love you should go after it. Money doesn't matter what matters is that you are happy. You will find someone who is happy that you are you. Their is someone out there for you. You need to find people along the way that you want to be like. You strive to be like them. When you don't have that look harder. Try to better yourself even if nobody can help you. You are the only person who is the only one that sands in the way. Don't laugh at people who are different and you think that is weird. Please don't judge people because they are not as smart as you do. Find that balance between your brain.