What I'll Endured

Endurance is my last humanities course I will taking at GCE. So the following is my last first action project of the term. So far in Endurance, we've explored what endurance looks like mentally and physically. We also had assignments based on self awareness. For this AP, I wrote the first chapter of my autobiography. I wrote about how my adolescence shape me into my future self.

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My name is Moriah, I’m more inquisitive than not. Naturally, growing up I had a lot of different interests, ranging from fashion to mathematics; I always had time for a new hobby. There were a lot of art programs that I got into like classical music, band, printmaking, animation, and sewing. This helped me learn how to express myself in ways that made more sense to me. I do remember my favorite pastime though. This was taking photos. Going through them and putting them into photo albums. I loved it, sneaking around the house with my very own camera. I got my first camera when I was a kid as it was a gift from my parents. About a month before I received that gift, I was a patient in the hospital for the first time since my birth. I remember it clearly… I was doing my own thing whilst being watched by my older brothers at home. At the time, I was already embarking to be as independent as I could so I thought that I could make my own tea. No seven year old should really make their own tea without supervision. I did so and just as I was finished, piping hot water spills over my torso, melting my skin off. I had to be rushed to hospital via ambulance after that. Although it could’ve been worse, this is one of my first memories that I probably won't forget. 

Getting burnt wasn’t painful. I didn't feel anything due to the fact that my nerves were completely damaged. The following months after that were extremely brutal, having to recover from surgery and heal all my wounds. That experience taught me a lot about patience and endurance. Even now, I’m never sloppy while making tea. Although I had to take a break from school, once I was back, I hit the floor running. During school, I often got bored a lot. I didn’t have many friends growing up and never felt seen by the people around me. I spent most of my time around family members, especially my grandparents and cousins. I have a lot of family in the south so we were always traveling to either Mississippi or Florida. I always loved to see all the nature while spending time on my family's farms. The way the culture was different from in Chicago intrigued me. I already knew as a kid that I wanted to see what else the world had to offer (often returning home with a preoccupied mind); I wanted to explore other environments. I resorted to writing and reading and that’s how I spent the majority of my pre teen years. A passion for poetry grew which I would later be able to showcase during my late years of high school.

Community service and volunteering was a significant part of growing up. For the majority of my pre-teen years, I was in the Girl Scouts. This organization helped me build strong relationships while learning many valuable skills today. My mother dedicated most of her time helping families and partnering with organizations to give what she can. As a default, I spent my time in those spaces too, learning to look out for people. S made sure I knew that it could always be worse, to remain humble and devout. This did and still does inspire me. I developed rage seeing the injustices and lack of resources that our community faced. This work continued into my time as a high school student, volunteering mostly on the south and west side of Chicago. I even was able to work alongside my mother during the pandemic of 2020. I believe these experiences shaped me into who I am now.

I always had a compass during my teen years. The problem was I was never really content as to where it was pointing. One day during my sophomore year, I came across this film called Drylongso. This film was the first time I felt what it feels like to be represented- A young black woman who explores racial injustices using film photography although the older adults in her life didn't believe in what she did, which is something I too felt throughout my teen years. I related to the main character perfectly and she inspired me to do what I want. For the rest of my High School career, I went to a private school on the north side of Chicago. This environment allowed me to develop a completely different perspective on what my city really was, I was able to make art and explore a lot of creative paths. Towards the end of my time there I realized I was unsatisfied with what I was doing. Yes I did want to continue to grow in creative areas, but I really wanted to explore more STEM concepts and I didn’t really do that for my 11th and 12th grade years.

For college, I went to school in Michigan, not too far from Chicago where I grew up. This experience is something that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I started to be more passionate about my education again which made me happy. The anxiety of doing what I love and not what people expected me to do was a mental struggle for me that I endured all my life and I decided not to let this feeling dictate my undergraduate career. I realized that I didn’t have to be Maya Angelou to write or Albert Einstein to want to experiment. I studied here with a concentration of Community and Global Health. I was able to complete the goal of studying abroad and finally leave the US for the first time. My summers making up of journalism projects, photographing and volunteering. Every time I wanted to give up I just thought of my mom and how I needed to become successful for not only myself but her too.

Now I’m a successful professional while still doing what I love. I graduated as a first generation college student. I’m a healthcare worker while still a writer and photographer. I have a few books out there somewhere from my work throughout my undergraduate experience. My life isn’t what I expected it to be when I was younger. I spent a few years working with Médecins Sans Frontières, which was a goal of mine since I was younger. Life is way more calm now and I’m okay with that. Making my own schedule and dedicating a lot of that time to research. I use what I know and the connections that I've built to offer the help that white America hasn’t, never forgetting where and how I grew up.


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I'm taking this class online with the rest of my classmates due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It's interesting to see how my work plays out during this time. Doing this AP was difficult because although I like to write, I hate writing about myself and then having to display it. So this AP was something to endure within itself. I must say it was satisfying having a finished product.

The Meaning of Your Life

Photographs impact our lives greatly. In my journalism course, my classmates and I explored different influential photographs and how they tie into being a journalist. There’s a lot that goes into taking a photo. In class, we learned about the different components of capturing something, those being: aperture, shutter-speed, focus, composition and the rule of thirds. For an external investigation and to test our abilities, we went outside of the classroom and used our own cameras to take photos while being aware of these different properties. To apply what I've learned in this unit, I did a project on the meaning of life.

I’ve never heard a clear meaning of life that applies to everyone across the board. There are too many circumstances and too many perspectives to have a clear cut meaning. For this project, I interviewed the people I am surrounded with. I talked with them about their identity and what their world looks like, ultimately leading up to me asking each person “What is the meaning of life?”

The Meaning of Your Life, AP2

     

After interviewing my peers, I still don’t think that there is a clear meaning of life but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. Just like if you ask someone “what is love” there wouldn’t be a clear definition. Intentionally, each interview was as natural as I could make it. It was interesting to learn more about my friends and how they view the world.

Comic Studies: Sequential Art

Making comic books is a form of storytelling. For my last junior year, I submitted a proposal for comic making, something that I’ve wanted to learn more of. I chose this study because I always liked to write and create things. I got interested in political comics and I thought that it was really cool that you communicate a meaning behind them, as serious or not as you want it to be. My goal was to get to know more about the process of making comics, make my own comic and of course, read a lot of new comics.

At the beginning of this course, I started with broad research. I looked at different manga artist and anime artist because I know that anime and cartoons go hand and hand with what I was researching. I also did my first mini-comic of the term, this folds into a little book, throughout the term I did a couple of these: here’s my first one (follow the numbers):

MW, How to Leave a Coma, 2019 

I also did my first Comic-Jam of the term with my adviser, this is one of my favorite things that I did in this class. A comic Jam is when at least 2 people are involved and each person has a sheet of paper. You both start off with making one comic panel, it can be for as long or as short as you want it to be. After the time is up you pass it to the next person and you keep passing it along until the comic is done. Here’s my top 2 of the term.

MW, AM, Untitled Jam04, 2019

AM, MW, Untitled Jam05, 2019

I had 2 field experiences for this class. The first one was Free Comic Book Day, I went with my friend who also likes comic books and my goal was pretty easy to achieve, get new comic books. This trip really helped me because it gave me a lot of inspiration. It felt really awesome seeing so many different styles and I got to talk to an comic artist while I was at one of the stores. The second one was more of an internal experience. I had the opportunity to talk to a writer, Dave Scheidt. He's from Chicago, and has wrote for Cartoon Network, Huffington Post, Nickelodeon, and a good amount of others. This experience was impactful because I got an actual perspective of someone working in the field of comics.

My goal for this course was to Create a comic book. I ended up not being to have a finished project but I'm not mad at that. The process seemed so much simpler in the beginning. As we all know, not many things are as they seem. I had made a lot of different plots while trying to come up with the idea that I used in my comic. The script is down below, it was my first time completing a script/ story this long.

My main inspiration for this story was just the human mind and the span of emotions that we feel, I think with all if my stories, I exaggerate different emotions and how I process things that may be different for other people. I didn't want a story with a clear message. I want it to be up to interpretation. I'm proud of what I made, it might not be that understandable but I tried to make it make sense. I did realize that I have a lot of dialogue and maybe next time I could find different ways that characters can communicate without words.

 I was able to draw a few of the panels after I established character design and revised some parts of the script. Here's one part that I was able to draft.

MW, Room Draft, 2019

Overall, I wish that I was able to finish this comic by the end of this course but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to continue working on this project. I think that this process has allowed me to appreciate comic art more. I'm glad that I was able to do this independent study.

Now Lets Make ChicaGLOW

I'm ending my junior year, which means I'm ending Urban Planning with our last unit: "Flow". In this class, we discussed the designs of neighborhoods locally as well as globally. I saw some neighborhood designs from all over the spectrum, like cities from hundreds of years ago, in different countries and even locally. My favorite cities that we researched was Curitiba and the Pullman district, they’re both different designs and turned out different but I enjoyed learning about those different communities, it was inspiring and eye opening to learn how urban planning really affects citizens in different ways. While researching during our internal investigation, we viewed and listened to James Kunstler’s, Majora Carter’s, and Ellen Dunham-Jones' Ted Talks. They all presented 3 different subjects on communities and cities. These subjects talked about the architecture of cities and how it’s gotten lazy, the inequality of communities, and how we can fix these issues with concepts such as retrofitting. There were also other terms my classmates and I dissected like white flight, R.C.I. (Residential Commercial Industrial) communities, and N.I.M.B.Y. (Not In My Back Yard). For our External Investigation, we visited the pedway system downtown that connects all of the train lines, including the Metra.

MW, The Rede, 2019

I used all of this new information to redesign my very own neighborhood! I planned out a design at an intersection that has a lot of empty and unused spaces.

 I didn’t want to do my neighborhood because there’s nothing really here except houses and a few stores here and there. I then told myself how this was a good opportunity to apply my urban planning skills and make this intersection with nothing to do around it into the center pf this neighborhood. To find out what I wanted to do, I had to reflect on why do I have to leave my neighborhood to do things? After answering that, I thought about how there are kids my age in my neighborhood and there are even younger kids and how we should have more community centers so there can be more interaction throughout my block. For the new design, I used Minecraft to best represent what I wanted. This design relates to 2 different SDG's

SDG 11.7- by 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities. All of the spaces that I added were public and while designing them, I thought of how everyone could be involved no matter your age, race and capabilities. 

SDG 11.6- by 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality, municipal and other waste management. I added recycling and garbage on the streets. If you look at my design, the blue boxes represent public waste management because I know Chicago isn't the best at waste management.

MW, Bike Lanes, 2019

Peter Calthorpe has 7 different principles to build a better city. While designing this, I thought about those. One of them is to raise the bike rate, I believe that with bike lanes, people wouldn't be as hesitant to bike, Another one is walk, with these spaces so close to a residential area, it would be so easy to walk and go to the library or go to the park instead of having to drive. He also talks about spreading out the density of cities and bringing more community spaces to neighborhoods like mine is a step in the direction of spreading density around in a city instead of having everything downtown or having to travel. 

Overall, this was a challenging action project and it was completely worth it, I enjoyed doing everything. I'm glad that I got to use Minecraft as well because I personally enjoy playing Minecraft so it was cool to have a crossover with what I'm doing in school. This course, Urban Planning was a great class to take and I plan on sharing what I learned with my peers outside of school because it's all useful information. 

Sources:

“Chicago Cultural Center | Choose Chicago.” English, www.choosechicago.com/things-to-do/museums-and-arts/chicago-cultural-center/.

“Sustainable Development Goal 11.” Sustainable Development.org. United Nations. Web. 3, Jun 2019. 

TED. “7 principles for building better cities | Peter Calthorpe.” Youtube.com. Lesson by Peter Calthorpe. August 31, 2017. Web. 

The injustices of the Iraq War

Policy is a course that I'm taking in my last term as a junior. My classmates and I just ended the 2nd unit of this term, "Executive". The main focus was the executive branch of the US Government. We talked about actions that the executive branch can take and cabinet positions, I specifically looked into the Secretary of Housing and Urban development but I got a chance to look into my classmates positions. We went to the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in this unit and it's so far one of my favorite field experiences, we got to witness part of an actual murder trial. I learned about the wars that had US involvement and what it takes to declare a war. For this Action project, I wrote about how the Iraq war wasn't a just war. I came across this blog that has photographs from the Iraq war and that made me realize how much of an impact the war was.

Marco Di Lauro, 2003

This photo is from the blog of Marco Di Lauro, who at the time worked for  Getty Images News Service. I came across while looking for information on documenting the United states invasion of Iraq. Researching this was very enlightening to what's going on in government decisions and how it affects everyone involved, rather it's direct or indirect interactions.
Here's my paper:

Towards the end of writing this paper, my class visited the National Veterans Art Museum. This went along with my paper because I talked about how soldiers are now affected physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. I saw the photography there, it really connected with me as a viewer even though I have no idea what the soldiers went through while oversee's.

Yeon J. Yue, 2017, Grey American Landscape

 I asked our tour guide does she see a difference in art between the generations of veterans and she said that around the time of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, there was a lot of photography because that was around the time you were first allowed a camera. She also said that soldiers now in this generation turn towards performance art and comedy, I found that really interesting how the mediums changed through the decades. A lot of veterans have different experiences and that can seem really isolated after going to war and they're dropped into regular civilization expected to live it over again.

Yeon J. Yue, 2017, Grey American Landscape

This project was really enjoyable. I like to research and write so I had fun learning about the Iraq war. My favorite part of researching was looking through a theoretical analysis by Kenneth N. Waltz, called Man, the State and War. I'm glad that I chose this war because I feel like I gained so much information on the United states and the war itself. 

Chicago; The City That Works

The City That Works is a project that I did for my photojournalism course. For the winter term, I took an independent study in Photojournalism. In order for me to take this course, I had to do a proposal. I chose to focus on this subject because it's something that I've been passionate about and I wanted to dedicate more of my time to it and figure out what I truly enjoyed about it. One of my inspirations coming into this class was Vice's style of documentation and Adrienne Salinger's "In My Room" project. I started the course off with research. I learned about influential photographers in the community like Larry Clark and Erika Bowes. That was probably my favorite part of the course because I learned so much about the development of different styles and how important photography is to me. It was really fun to look at the process of some well known photographers. Here's some of my favorite works that I discovered:

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, DeBruce, 1999

Nan Goldin, Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, NYC, 1991

At first, I didn't know what I wanted to make as a project to show of what I learned. I knew I wanted to interview people because that's something that I enjoy because it allows you to know the subject beyond the photo. The process of finding out what to wasn't that hard but I had to be practical and consider who I had access to. A consistent thought was I wanted to document people doing what they love or something important to them. It then came apparent that I should do workers in Chicago and it was a good opportunity to have an insight of how this city is actually ran beyond the politicians and news casters.

Overall, I'm so glad that I proposed this independent study. This was a great opportunity for me and a great learning experience.

Lights, Camera's, Action Project!

This is my first action project for my winter term STEAM class, Light, Sound, and Time. During the first unit I learned about the fundamentals of light. I also did review trigonometry from my first term class, Design and Engineering. We also talked about science principles like if light is a wave or particle. A short answer would be light has the capabilities to be both but in the process of my action project, light acted as a wave because there was no metal involved and reflected light through the camera. Me and my classmates had the opportunity to go to a darkroom, this is where we tried out our cameras. This had to be my favorite Field Experience yet.

For this action project, my classmates and I made a pinhole camera. In order to make one, we had to take a container and make it into a light proof box. In order for it to be light proof, we had to paint the inside black so that no light can reflect through the box, if it was white it would be too bright on the inside. Then we had to tape off any corner that light can pass through to ensure it’s completely light proof. Then we use an aluminum can and cut it into a small square, that will act as a lens. We also had to make a lens cap to make sure no light goes through the pinhole when walking back and forth from the darkroom. When we put a piece of film paper inside of it and expose the pinhole to light, it will project the image onto the paper backwards. When I went to the darkroom, we were able to use the camera to put it to the test. First I had to set up my scene in front of a backdrop. This included what I wanted the picture to be. I chose a clock for the first one but for the second one I decided to choose some figurines. After the scene is set up, I had to open the “lens cap”. This is when I time the shutter speed. Shutter speed is just how long you want the light to hit the inside of your camera. To get a good image, we had to have a shutter speed of 3.5-5 minutes. I chose to do 5 minute because I wanted a really clear image. However, because my shutter speed was so long, I had to be sure not to have any movement in my image, it’ll not turn out right.

MW, First attempt, 2019

MW, 2nd jpg, 2019

In my first image, my lens cap flew down for a few seconds without me noticing. You can see that really affected the image by the way it’s flipped. In my second image, I liked the way that it turned out. What I did differently was taped the lens cap up so I can ensure it wouldn't flop down. I also set the subjects on books to be higher so I know that they'll be in frame. We also had a chance to do a photo-gram, the process of that was setting up a scene and capturing it with light. 

MW,Leg wars, 2019 

Here are my calculations:

MW, Calculations, 2019

MW, Light rays inside camera, 2019

In class, we also talked about refection and refraction. Refraction is when light enters through a different medium and changes direction. Reflection is when light bounces off of a surface. My camera doesn't demonstrate neither reflection or refraction because it does neither of those things.

Carrie: The iconic Horror movie of the 70's

For my first elective term here at GCE, I'm taking a class called Ollywood. We're finishing up our first unit of the class. During this unit we went on a field experience to Lower Wacker Drive to expirience what it would be like for a location scout.  We are currently learning about the pre-production aspects of film. Some things that we are discussing is set design, dialogue and inspiration. All three of those things have to do with the elements of film production that I got to learn about and John Yorke's spill on what makes a good screen play. For my first Ollywood Action Project I made a film critique for the 1976 adaptation of Carrie and I touch bases of everything that we discussed for the first unit.

Carrie: A Film Critique

Everyone’s familiar with the captivating stories of Stephen King that gives off an undertone of truth. The novel Carrie was the first of many published by King. According to King’s official website, it says that the inspiration of Carrie came from two girls that he knew from high school. The screenwriter, Lawrence D. Cohen made a draft for Carrie in about six weeks, which was very similar to the actual novel. That wasn't the only adaptation he wrote for Stephen King, he also wrote the script for IT. Brian De Palma in addition to being the director of Carrie, he was also the director of Scarface, Mission Impossible and many more. In an interview, Brian De Palma says that Psycho inspired Carrie in some factors.

The the 1976 film directed by Brian De Palma, Carrie is a riveting adaptation of Stephen King’s Novel. This film is chilling, twisting, and will leave you grateful for the mother that you already have. The plot of the story is like any other coming of age film, an outcast teenage girl reinvents herself and the jock boy realizes that she was beautiful all along, the girl becomes more comfortable in her skin and becomes prom queen. Except that in this film, what follows is not so ordinary. Carrie is a coming of age film gone wrong. The protagonist of the film is Carrie White, portrayed as Sissy Spacek is an isolated teenage girl who just wants someone to accept her and give her love. Her mother, the antagonist of the film, Margaret white portrayed as Piper Laurie who is abusive and very obsessive when it comes to her religion.

Carrie (1976) Prayer closet 

In my opinion, if you missed the beginning of the film, it’s useless to watch the rest. You can almost automatically see that Carrie is an outcast. The setting is outside while a girls P.E class is happening. The uniforms give away that the film was not taking place in the modern day. I’m sure if you look at any old highschool film, you’ll see a similar costume for P.E. The teens are playing volleyball and if you look at Carrie’s awkward stance and her facial expressions of dread, it gives away the fact that she doesn’t fit in. Next in the girls locker room, an important scene of the film. While she is showering, Carrie starts her period for the first time. At the time she wasn’t aware of what this was and thought that she was dying. She then hysterically begs for help from her classmates, they laugh at her while she feels as if she is facing her last moments. Another important scene takes place in the principal's office, here is when the audience fist see’s the use of her powers. Carrie is frustrated with the principal mis-saying her name and flips the ash tray onto the floor using her telekinesis. Miss Collins intervenes and just tells her to go home. Being dismissed from school, she goes home. There she faces her mother who punishes her for getting her period by making her repeat biblical references and locks her into a closet, convinced that Carrie getting her period was brought on by sin. Inside is decorated with props like Jesus crucified and a candle with pictures of Jesus to ensure the closet to be seen as a prayer closet.

The house was a perfect setting for the Whites. The outside is gothic, old and continues on to the inside. You can tell that the inhabitants don’t care much for materialistic items. It’s simple and modest. The costumes of the Whites reflect the same as the house. I think that it stands out from the rest of the characters. Some may argue that the costume design of Carrie is a reflection of adolescence sexuality, and again, coming of age. In the beginning of the film, while in P.E, you can see Carrie’s costume is fitted differently than other girls. Her shirt appears too big going past her hips and untucked. The regular clothes that Carrie wears is also baggie and looks like Margret still picks out her clothes. She wears long, modest skirts throughout the movie. Her hair is rough and she uses it a a shield, messing it up when she’s distressed. This makes Carrie look childish or pre-pubescent compared to the other girls at school. It’s deliberate to be received as a virgin Mary type modesty. A dramatic moment for character development appears when we see Carrie getting ready for prom. We see Carrie in her broken mirror while getting ready for Prom. Her mom walks out of the shadows “I might’ve known it would be red” she says, Carrie corrects her, its a soft pink. I think this shows that she was still that innocent girl.

Later on in the movie, Margaret finds out that Carrie is going to prom and of course, detests it by hurting herself and taunting Carrie by telling her that “he’s not coming” or “they’re all going to laugh at you”, this describes Margaret's character well by showing how manipulative she is towards Carrie. Even then, Carrie was still trying to find maternal comfort in her mother but it doesn’t work. Carrie then goes against her mother and uses her telekinesis by overpowering her mother. This scene was also very interesting because it shows the vulnerability of Margaret and we as an audience haven't really seen that until now.

My favorite scene was Prom when Carrie got called to the stage because everything is so pretty, if you walked into the theater knowing nothing about the movie, you really can’t tell what’s happening next. Everyone’s clapping and the music and visuals are dreamy. It’s deceiving, the calm before the storm kind of. Then after that all of a sudden, she's covered in blood. Everything is silent and you can feel the tragedy in your heart. At that moment I didn't want to breath and it was almost as if I myself was in the audience. You can see what I mean in the within the first minute of this clip.

The protagonist of the film, Carrie has one desire overall. That desire is to be cared for. Carrie getting her period awakens that desire. That was the Inciting incident because not only in her life, in so many other young girls lives, that is what creates the bridge from being a girl to a woman. Most people, even if they don’t have friends, has family who loved them and had a home they can go home to and feel accepted. Carrie did not have that. She came home to the antagonist, the villain of her life. She didn’t even have a dad, he died when she was younger. The journey that Carrie took to pursue that desire was left undone due to the unexpected prom incident, which was the crisis, the moment that led up to the climax of the film. The Climax, the final showdown between protagonist and antagonist was the death of Margaret. In the end, she really didn’t find that love. Although the audience can see that Miss Collins cared for her, I don’t think Carrie was satisfied with that. I believe she just wanted a mom to love her and that’s probably what she needed too. Overall, I would say that this film was successful in pre-production.