Liberation Movements - HONORS 394
Honors 394: Liberation Movements, taught by Professor Rachel Chapman and Orisha dance instructor Ife Iná, was an amazing course. When looking at the upcoming Honors courses, I knew by the title and course description that I wanted to take it. How could I deny a course exploring "theories of ethnographic practice, afro-futurism, freedom, social change, community histories of strength and continuity from a variety of perspectives within anthropology, performance studies, queer, crip, critical race and cultural studies, global literature and ethics"? I have some experience with embodied learning and practice from similar environments outside of the university - namely, at Lost Valley Educational Center in 2019. It was especially exciting to find something like this in the university, since the other places I've found experiences like this were less traditional.
This course consisted of readings from a variety of sources - two of the central texts we drew upon were Anna Halprin's Making Dances that Matter, an easy-to-read book on dances that connect people to broader social movements and have healing, ritual purposes and Diana Taylor's The Archive and the Repertoire, a dense work of cultural analysis focused on the conflict/dialect between embodied and written, recorded knowledge. These books complemented each other, as the first had more practical guides and 'scores' for dances while the latter was focused on cultural analysis. We read many other sources - books on racism from structural to interpersonal manifestations and even a fiction book, TaNehisi Coates' Water Dancer. This broad array of sources was threaded together well by our instructor.
Of course, this was only one piece of the class ("the archive" in Taylor's thinking, recorded knowledge). We discussed the ideas in our texts in class and presented them to our fellow students (easing the burden of reading when we were too busy to do the readings). We represented our feelings and ideas through drawing with colored pencils or pastels and grew together through collective dances. We switched between modes, and often drew while we discussed concepts in class.
Orisha dance instructor Ife Iná was a major piece of this class. He taught us about Orisha, defined by him as "the personification of spirits". Orisha comes from Yoruba religion (people Indigenous to today's Nigeria and surrounding areas) and today is present in cultures throughout the African diaspora. We performed these dances toward the beginning of every class to embody certain characteristics of specific Orisha and cultivate their powers and wisdom within ourselves. These dances refreshed us and prepared us for the class ahead and were paired with education.
Both Professor Chapman and Ife Iná provided their own insight on the commodification of Black culture and issues of navigating anti-Blackness in their own roles as educators in White-dominated systems with deep colonial histories, education that built off of what we learned from class readings. We discussed our experiences as students and teachers within colonial systems (a college built on stolen Coast Salish land and named after a venerated slave owner, in a building named after an early settler - Denny hall).
This course consisted of readings from a variety of sources - two of the central texts we drew upon were Anna Halprin's Making Dances that Matter, an easy-to-read book on dances that connect people to broader social movements and have healing, ritual purposes and Diana Taylor's The Archive and the Repertoire, a dense work of cultural analysis focused on the conflict/dialect between embodied and written, recorded knowledge. These books complemented each other, as the first had more practical guides and 'scores' for dances while the latter was focused on cultural analysis. We read many other sources - books on racism from structural to interpersonal manifestations and even a fiction book, TaNehisi Coates' Water Dancer. This broad array of sources was threaded together well by our instructor.
Of course, this was only one piece of the class ("the archive" in Taylor's thinking, recorded knowledge). We discussed the ideas in our texts in class and presented them to our fellow students (easing the burden of reading when we were too busy to do the readings). We represented our feelings and ideas through drawing with colored pencils or pastels and grew together through collective dances. We switched between modes, and often drew while we discussed concepts in class.
Orisha dance instructor Ife Iná was a major piece of this class. He taught us about Orisha, defined by him as "the personification of spirits". Orisha comes from Yoruba religion (people Indigenous to today's Nigeria and surrounding areas) and today is present in cultures throughout the African diaspora. We performed these dances toward the beginning of every class to embody certain characteristics of specific Orisha and cultivate their powers and wisdom within ourselves. These dances refreshed us and prepared us for the class ahead and were paired with education.
Both Professor Chapman and Ife Iná provided their own insight on the commodification of Black culture and issues of navigating anti-Blackness in their own roles as educators in White-dominated systems with deep colonial histories, education that built off of what we learned from class readings. We discussed our experiences as students and teachers within colonial systems (a college built on stolen Coast Salish land and named after a venerated slave owner, in a building named after an early settler - Denny hall).
Beyond the stimulating intellectual elements of the course, I gained tremendously from the community aspect of this course. This class provided emotional support and a place to be heard and seen during the challenges I faced in this quarter. I gained a lot from others' reflections to me and their own unrelated experiences and reflections. I saw my own struggles in others' and felt less alone. We lifted each other up and grew through our communal relationship. I will carry the experience of this course with me, and hope to seek out and build similar communities of support and authenticity.
Since this course was focused on embodiment, my Honors portfolio cannot portray the experience completely. However, I will leave a spoken piece I composed and read aloud for our final score and the Nia five stages movement piece that accompanied it (a practice we did often during class to warm up).
Since this course was focused on embodiment, my Honors portfolio cannot portray the experience completely. However, I will leave a spoken piece I composed and read aloud for our final score and the Nia five stages movement piece that accompanied it (a practice we did often during class to warm up).
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History of modern Landscape architecture - L arch 353
History of Modern Landscape Architecture, the follow-up (although the classes don't need to be taken in order) to L ARCH 352, provided interesting content and opportunities to engage. Notably, in contrast to the previous class in the series, we were assigned weekly field trips which brought our study of landscapes out of books and into the world outside where landscapes happen. This was an exciting change and gave me good opportunities to clear my head on public transport trips all over Seattle.
A great aspect of college classes is the often self-directed projects. Since I'm already very engaged in landscape design and know what I'm interested in, I can use self-directed projects as opportunities to dive into topics I've wanted to learn more about. In the case of the final assignment for L ARCH 353, which was a piece of media exploring a landscape of our choice, I chose to research Sacagawea State Park, a park on the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers in Eastern Washington.
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I had visited this park before but knew only the basics of its history - it used to be a critical Indigenous trading site for native peoples of the region - Yakama, Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Nez Perce, as well as tribes from further afield. Through research in the class, I learned of its time as a wild west town with saloons, brothels, and opium dens while railroad construction boomed in the region. Later, the site was abandoned and then brought into the control of the Daughters of the Pioneers, who planted trees and modified the site as a commemoration of Lewis and Clark's journey - their Corps of Discovery stopped at the site in 1805 for a couple of nights. You can read more about the rich history of the site in the graphic novel below. I wrote the text with my project partner, Dario Rojas, who also helped with the coloring of the graphic novel. I drew the lines in pencil for all of the frames. The project had a relatively short time frame, so I wasn't able to put as much effort into it as I'd like, but it was still fun and I learned a lot from the process!
Deepening my ecological knowledge
This section could be called 'brief winter encounters with ecology' instead of 'deepening my ecological knowledge', since the season and scheduling issues reduced my opportunities. However, of course, ecology still exists (as we're always a part of it) regardless of the season, and I still volunteered with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) at UW this quarter and learned about ecology through the class opportunities I had to that end.
Some of my favorite memories from this quarter involve volunteering with SER. We pulled out ivy and planted new native plants, and also removed some other invasive plants like holly. I worked at both Heron Haven, North of Anderson Hall on the UW campus, and Strawberry Site, a small patch west of Anderson Hall named after its strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo). I also enjoyed traveling to YES Farm, a project of Seattle's Black Farmers Collective, with two of my friends. We found an oyster mushroom on the site and I enjoyed cooking it up later (although, of course, it shrunk significantly in cooking).
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Although I wasn't as engaged with ecology in Winter quarter as I'd like to be, I'm excited for the Spring - I'll surely attend more SER work parties, and I'm also planning on helping a family friend with a tree planting and attending the Washington Native Plant Society's Study Weekend! I'm also taking a Landscape Architecture course, Ecological Design and Planning, which will have three field trips!