Guggenheim (SSR)

After school on Tuesday, I took a little trip to the Guggenheim. It really was a short, but fascinating trip. While I was there, I saw an art installation by James Turrell. He literally turned the entire museum into an art piece.

http://www.archdaily.com/377267/frank-lloyd-wright-s-guggenheim-rotunda-to-be-temporarily-transformed-into-a-turrell-skyspace/

James Turrell is an artist who concentrates on the study of light. While you and I might not think much about  how light and color affects space, that is the focus of Turrell's artistic life. He turned the Guggenheim's already beautiful rotunda into this magical place where colors change and space disappears. There is no ceiling in his art, just spheres that merge into light. This image doesn't quite do justice to how awe-inspiring the experience was. There were other aspects to the light show that I did not have the opportunity to experience. The line for his installation was almost an hour long and I arrived at the museum an hour before it closed (after the school day ended of course!). Living in New York City supplies so many interesting opportunities to people who are interested in reaching out for them.

This trip to the museum reminded me of how much of the world I do not understand. It is easy to think about all of the things we know: about our neighborhoods, what we read in the news, what we learn in school, and all of the experiences we have in our lives. Still, there is so much to know in this world, and we won't ever know all of it. The idea that I will continue to trip upon new, unexpected, and beautiful aspects of life inspires me to keep looking for more. 

A Slave Grateful for Slavery? (CRR)

Phillis Wheatley is such an interesting and controversial character in American literature and history. Her life was most certainly tragic, but her poetry reveals something else entirely. In class, we are reading "On Being Brought from Africa to America." This poem makes me think about so may different controversial topics: religion, slavery, race, self-expression, and authenticity. As a person, Wheatley went through so much: being taken from her family, the boat ride from Africa to America, learning the English language, learning to read and write in three(!) languages, traveling to England, being freed from slavery, and eventually dying in poverty. Her biography makes her life seem terribly difficult and heartbreaking. I want to cry for her and the difficulties of her life. 

And yet, the poetry she produces does not complain about her place in the world at all. In fact, she seems comfortable with her position in life as you read her poetry. This sparks so many questions in my mind: Did she really think that slavery was a 'mercy?' When she wrote that, did she mean it was a mercy for her in particular? Maybe she wasn't trying to say that slavery was a 'mercy,' but only that it turned out well for her? How would her poetry have been different if she were a slave on a plantation? Could she even have become a poet if she were a slave on a plantation? Was she writing her poetry to sell it? Maybe her poetry was not authentic at all, but was written to find white readers to purchase her books? How did her legacy affect the African American poetry that came after her?

I don't know the answer to any of these questions. I'm hoping that some new ideas and perspectives will come out in class over the next few days and weeks. Phillis Wheatley is definitely an enigma, one that I find compelling and thought provoking. Hopefully, our class discussions, debates, and essays will prove just how interesting and controversial Phillis Wheatley is.

Internship Opportunity

If you are interesting in giving back (as I know from reading your ten-year plans, quite a few of you are), this is an opportunity to intern with a fairly well-known nonprofit, Donors Choose. It is an unpaid internship, but it would look amazing on those college applications. If you want to learn more, click on the links in this blog! It is a fantastic opportunity. Let me know if you need me to print the application out for you.

Knitting! (PB)

I started knitting one weekend, right after college, when I was bored at my aunt's house in Vermont and I haven't stopped knitting since. I love knitting for many reasons, let me show you some ways: (Shakespeare used a phrase like this!)

1. I find it really relaxing. It can be repetitive, you keep making loop after loop after loop, but that repetition creates space for my brain to drift off and think about everything and anything outside my knitting. If I'm tense while I knit, my shoulders will hurt and my hands will cramp, so it also literally forces me to relax my body. All-in-all, an hour of knitting will make me feel better about life!

2. I'm really proud of what I knit. Generally speaking (there are some rare exceptions), I make pretty things! I think they are pretty when I start and I think they're pretty when I finish. Case in point:

My current WIP - knitting speak for work in progress

This is a cardigan I've been knitting the last few weeks. It is obviously not done yet! But hopefully, you will see me wearing this to school before the weather becomes too chilly. Even though its not done, I still think it is pretty to look at. It makes me proud that I can make such pretty things with my own two hands. (It helps a lot that I start with pretty yarn!)

3. Hand knit items make for really great gifts. Not only does the recipient appreciate them, but the gifts give back to me too! I love seeing presents I've given to friends and family being worn. I get a special thrill out of seeing my father wear the scarf I knit him or my brother and sister-in-law wear the hats I knit them. In a way, this goes back to number two. The gifts make me proud. 

My friend's baby in a hat I knit

4. I love the portability (ability to move) of knitting. As long as I'm not knitting a sweater, I can take my knitting on the subway and to the airport. While everyone else is angrily looking at their clocks because the train is delayed in station, I'm happily knitting a few extra rows of my newest project. 

5. Knitting creates community. I have knitting friends and we do knitting things. It may sound dorky, but these are people I wouldn't have met without knitting. They run blogs (I guess I do now too, but they blog for their actual job), have PhDs and MDs (I know one person who has both), own stores, work with A/V and technology, and more. Without exception, I wouldn't be friends with these people if we had not met through knitting. These friendships makes me really grateful that I started this hobby!

I'm thinking about starting a learn-to-knit/knitting club at TMA. What do you think? Would anyone be interested? I can't wait to read all about your passions!

Ms. Hegeman

TMA 12th Grade Blogs!

I am so excited to get the 12th grade TMA blogroll going! Click on this link to see the assignment and directions for you to get started with your own blog. When all seniors have their blogs up and running, you should be able to see them on the right side of my blog!