An Epic Epicurean Evening

There is much to blog about beyond last night, BUT....for now.....

I am currently dog sitting at the house of an administrator at Macalester. She has an AMAZING spice cabinet.

Jamila is out of town and Bimbola and I have been experimenting with different meals (one night we made cream cheese wontons, another night nachos, etc). This evening we decided to make a casserole. Recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/chickencasseroles/r/r81116i.htm It was basically a glorified mac & cheese but it was classy and delicious and worth the work! I was so hungry when it was ready and I loved it!

Then, our friend Angelina came over. She's a vegan, and she helped us make this vegan sugar cookie base. Lisa, the owner of the house, has a bunch of great cookie recipe books but we used the spice rack as inspiration. My favorite cookie combos were: orange peel + chocolate chip, lemon peel + rosemary + sugar, garam masala + white pepper + lemon peel, candied ginger + orangle peel + chocolate chips. It was so fun! I had never experienced with spices in cookies before, but it was super delicious!

I will blog more soon!

Jews, Whiteness, Comedy in the United States

Greetings!

As some of you may know, I am embarking upon a one-year honors thesis for my major in American Studies (similar to race and ethnicity studies).

I will be focusing on Jewish American identity, particularly related to race and Whiteness, through the lens of comedy/comedians/comics. This will be an intersectional project, incorporating history, theater studies, Jewish studies, American studies and gender studies!

I am currently generating lists of different artists, performers or texts (in the broadest sense of the word) that might be helpful for this study.

I would LOVE any suggestions for:
-Movies written/directed by/starring Jewish people, either characters or actors
-Plays or Broadway musicals with the same criteria
-Jewish standup or sketch comics

If you can think of any that explicitly engage with identity, race or Whiteness, that's even better! But I'm sure they are all ripe with material.

Any time period, from recent to from the 19th century, is welcome! Suggestions for things like Marx Brother movies, Sarah Silverman, etc, are all appreciated!

Please send them to: elesnick@gmail.com

Thank you thank you!

PLEASE VOTE FOR THIS QUEST VIDEO!

Hi Friends/Readers,

There is a trailer competition online and The Quest wants to win!

If you have a free moment, PLEASE watch this trailer for The Quest and vote for it! You can vote three times per email address

http://www.fringeyawards.com/view-trailer/?v_id=6



http://www.fringeyawards.com/view-trailer/?v_id=6

The Kids Are All Right

I wanted to be sure to review this film before it slipped from my fresh memory. This indie-film about a lesbian family whose children start communicating with their sperm donor is definitely worth seeing.

Number one, I think it is very important that this film, The Kids are All Right, is directed and co-written by a woman, Lisa Cholodenko. It establishes the gaze as not necessarily feminist, but it definitely the gaze upon women and lesbians.

The film looks at a nuclear family, Nic + Juls and their two children, Joni and Laser. While some might criticize the film for being too White, I think the film actually provides a critique of a White, suburban family and a commentary on homonormativity, the notion that gay people can also live normative or dominant lifestyles. Their daughter even comments that she got good grades just to affirm this perfect, lesbian family, to prove that lesbians can parent just as well as straight parents. Everything about this family seems normal, from prodding children to write thank-you cards to slamming doors to rapport between partners. And then comes Mark Ruffalo, their sperm donor. His presence disrupts the energy of the film, first in an exciting way, but then in more of a chaotic mess.

A really interesting moment was when Nic and Juls, wanting to have fun while being intimate, start watching a gay male pornographic film. It is a fascinating scenario that alludes to the complexities of queerness and of human sexuality in general. That moment is later tainted, for me at least, by the fact that Juls ends up sleeping with Paul, Mark Ruffalo's character, and is so happy by what she sees when she pulls down his pants that the audience burst into laughter and applause. This implies, perhaps, that Juls always wanted/needed sexual contact with a male, which disappoints me. Also, why did the audience applaud a moment of infidelity and unprofessionalism? AfterEllen's Sugarbutch discusses this: http://www.afterellen.com/movies/2010/sugarbutch-says-the-kids-are-all-right

But on the whole, I really enjoyed the movie. It had a fabulous hipster soundtrack, it was incredibly acted, and Juls' revelation that sometimes when you are in a relationship with someone for so long you fail to see them, but rather projections of yourself and your issues on them, really gave me goosebumps. I highly recommend the film.

The NYTimes wrote a glowing review of the film: http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/movies/09kids.html?pagewanted=1

Week(end) in Review: 7/11-7/18

What a busy week, sandwiched by improv performances at Brave New Workshop! Both on 7/11 and 7/18, The Quest performed a 20-minute sample of our improvised myth. It went pretty well; I am constantly working on my rhyming so hopefully it will get better!

On Monday night, The Quest performed at Fringe-for-All at the History Theater, a sample night for audience members and Fringe fanatics. Each group had 3 minutes to give the audience a taste of their show, while the audience had pieces of paper with stars so they could rate each show they might like to see. We did well in such a short period of time (I made an awesome rhyme: water/slaughter), but I couldn't stop giggling about the method of keeping time. It was very efficient but also very Midwest passive-agressive. For 2:30, a green light was lit. With :30 left, the light turned yellow, and when the light turned red at 3:00, the audience applauded and you left the stage. Hilarious!

Thursday night was another preview, 5-7 minutes, at the Lyric, a luxury apartment/loft complex on University Ave. The audience was smaller, but excited about our form. It went well! Also, our green room was an apartment, which was pretty cool.

Friday was a busy and exciting day! Friday is my day off and start of the weekend, and Jamila and I drove to Hudson, WI, for a little hiking excursion at Willow Falls State Park. It was beautiful, pretty hot/humid, and we walked to a water fall. We also spotted tiny frogs and drank a lot of water. It was a good good time.

Upon returning, I went with my friend/colleague/supervisor Alina to see the new film, The Kids are All Right. We went to the Uptown theater, a cool, large one-plex kinda place. Old school. A review of the film is forthcoming. Afterwards, we returned to Saint Paul for ice cream at Izzy's. So delicious! I got Coffee Break (think Cookies & Cream + Coffee), Raspberry chocolate chip and midnight snack. Yum!! Alina was craving Everest on Grand, Nepali and Indian food, so she treated Jamila and I to a lovely dinner. It was exciting to eat dessert before dinner.

For a late night excursion, Jamila and I went with her friend Matt to see "OMG! Before We Got Our Lady Bits," an improvised women's night, that was hilariously similar to The Vagina Monologues. Women read from their middle school diaries and improvised, and it was hilarious! Seriously, some wonderful, strange, funny people. I took tickets at the door so I got a comp ticket. Friday was a fabulous, exhausting day.

Saturday I went with my friends Adrienne and Sam to a small festival in honor of Bastille day at some fancy shops/boutiques near campus. Each person got a card and could get stamps at each store. If you got all of the stamps, you enter a drawing for a $500 shopping spree. I hope I win! But regardless, it was nice to walk around, discover new businesses, and hang with friends. Also, some stores gave out champagne and croissants and macaroons! It was fabulous!

For dinner Jamila and I grabbed a quick, cheap bite at El Burrito Mercado, a Mexican restaurant/grocery store in West Saint Paul. It was delicious!

Yesterday was a busy day with rehearsals and a performance (thanks to friends Oleh and Maya for coming to support me!), but I managed to squeeze in some time to see Jamila's aunt Janet for dinner.

Unfortunately, when I came home, I found out we have some mice in our house. Anyone have any tips? I'm looking to borrow someone's cat....


Also, check this out: http://www.shoezooz.com/

My Birthday!!

My 21st birthday has come and gone...now I am legal! The only other milestone ahead is 25 (so then I can rent a car).

Some highlights:

-Blowing out birthday candles with Andrew and Catherine, Jamila's little cousins
-Dancing at midnight of July 8 with friends
-Being the guest of honor at a surprise party- theme: Sex & the Cities (pictures courtesy of Min Enterprises)
-Receiving a nice bottle of wine from Jamila's aunt and uncle
-Eating homemade chocolate macaroons from my friend Adrienne
-Playing Pictionary competitively while drinking home brew with Damian, a member of The Quest Cast
-Bopping around Stillwater, MN, with my supervisor Karla and friend Bimbola as we tasted olive oils
-Eating my mother's chocolate chip zucchini bread, sent in the mail
-Receiving tons of well wishes via text and Facebook

It was an amazing birthweek!

Chicago! Day 3

Our last day in Chicago began with leftover Deep Dish for breakfast. Cold and day-old, that pizza was still delicious!

Jamila and I headed out to the Wicker Park farmer's market, a small and good-vibes kinda market. There seemed to be a wedding party/picnic going on and that was sweet. Afterwards, Joe drove us to the Navy Pier, which, although it's touristy, was BEAUTIFUL. I didn't realize that there was a small beach in Chicago and how beautiful the water was. Navy Pier is also right next to Oprah Winfrey's huge apartment building, but we did not sight her. At Navy Pier, we met up with Zena, a Macalester classmate and former Cultural House housemate. She lives in Little Italy and met up with us. It was so hot and sunny, and the four of us found a cool fountain, which made for refreshment and people-watching.

After that, we headed to Eric's house for a 4th of July BBQ/ fireworks viewing party. Eric set up a wonderful party, but forgot lighter fluid for the fire, so it took a while to heat the grill up. But it finally worked and we made a great fire. I was the GrillMaster, an absolute honor. I held tongs and a spatula and pride and I may still smell like barbecue. There were burgers, different sausages, portabella mushrooms and lamb. It was delicious, and I kept taking bites of everything. After standing in the heat in front of the grill and eating so much, I was tired! But I made it to the fireworks before going back to Joe's to sleep. I should say that all of Joe's friends were so nice and welcoming to us and invited us back. Even though they were about ten years older than me, we had good conversations without any condescension. Yay!

We woke up early for an early MegaBus ride back. We slept for a lot of it and watched Night at the Museum and Ocean's Eleven on the rides. I had never seen either of those films before and they definitely entertained me. On both legs of the trip, we had bathroom lunch stops at fast food restauarants. It wasn't like a big stop with lots of options, but rather a lone McDonald's off the highway. People had no choice but to get fast food, which was frustrating and interesting. Food deserts are a serious problem and while I don't normally eat fast food so I didn't feel too awful about getting it once in a while, I felt saddened that many people do not have or do not know about their options for healthy food and fresh produce.

Anyway, I had an amazing time in Chicago. I met amazing people, got a real feel of the city and the vibes, and would love to go back. Who knows- I could even see myself living there someday! But for now, it's just a fabulous place to visit with dear friends and family.

Chicago! Day 2

On Saturday morning, Joe treated us to breakfast by cooking his signature treat: bananas foster and ice cream. What an indulgent breakfast! Years ago Joe taught me how to make this dish and I made it once at a party; setting the brandy on fire is an awesome trick.

After breakfast, we met Joe's friend Eric, who is into gardening, has an incredible house and art collection, and we walked to a party at for the Third of July at their friend Kate's apartment. Everyone was very nice, and there were all kind of beverages and delicacies. Jamila and I had to leave after an hour or so though....

....So we could get to our show at Second City! As someone who is passionate about improv, Chicago is probably one of the best places in the world to be. The Second City, improv Olympic, these are sites of history, where so many great and talented people have studied. Needless to say, I was excited. We met up with Doug, my father's college roommate and my "fruncle" (friend-uncle), who took us to see a Second City Retrospective Show. http://www.secondcity.com/Performances/Detail/259 It was a mixture of contemporary sketches, older sketches written by greats like Tina Fey and Alan Arkin, and some improv. The whole show was really funny and professional, but I the improv was by far the most exciting to me. We all had a wonderful time and I was so excited and overwhelmed with history and talent and ambition. You really can do this for a living!

After the show, we went with Doug to Lou Minalti's a restaurant famous for its deep dish pizza. I am a New York, thin-as-can-be kinda gal, but I have always had a fascination and curiosity about Deep Dish pizza. We ordered a pie, and it was so delicious. The crust, the sauce, yum!!! For one second I almost switched to being a deep dish fan! But it was great, and I ate two slices (a feat since they're basically humongous).

To top off the amazing night, Doug led us, via the Rock'n'Roll McDonald's, a fascinating place, to the Ghiardelli ice cream parlor. I didn't think I could eat anymore, but my love for desserts made it impossible to NOT order something! Walking around with Doug was so much fun, as he told us stories about why he loves his job, college pranks, and about how HE snubbed Eddie Murphy! It was so great to see him!

After walking through many neighborhoods and experiencing the city with many senses (smell, taste, sight, sound, laughter), Jamila and I returned to Joe's and fell asleep immediately!

Chicago!! Day 1

Jamila and I are back from a fabulous weekend in Chicago, with pictures to follow!

We began and ended the trip with an eight-hour Megabus ride. Although the ride did not feel too long or too unbearable, I must say I felt some nostalgia for the buses in South America. Megabus might have WiFi (sporadically) but the fully reclining seats, the service, the food, the wine and the movies of my South American bus rides were definitely missed.

We arrived late at night to my cousin Joe's apartment, a gracious host. Joe lives in the trendy neighborhood of Wicker Park, right near Bucktown. He lives on top of a Middle Eastern Restaurant, a block from the El Train and from the "Six Corners," where North Avenue intersects with Milwaukee and Damen.

We slept in a bit and then Joe took us for a walk around the neighborhood to see the people, the shops, the architecture. We wandered into The Bongo Room, a delicious breakfast/brunch place on Milwaukee. I ordered Red Velvet Hotcakes (Yes!!!) and they literally tasted like a yummy cupcake. Perhaps a little too decadent for breakfast, but it was a vacation. Joe ordered lemon and blueberry ricotta pancakes, where were delicious and buttery. And Jamila got a more savory red pepper and chicken sausage and mozzarella omelet with some awesome dill potatoes on the side. It was super delicious, and we continued to wander through the neighborhood. There were fancy boutiques, thrift stores, hole-in-the-wall coffee shops and large bars. Many people were on bicycles (though I didn't see many helmets). For dinner we grabbed Vietnamese sandwiches at a store nearby, which were delicious. It was only four when we ate them, and I asked Joe whether these sandwiches were a snack or a meal. He wisely replied: "I don't like to put time labels on my food."

Later that evening, Joe took us to a local art show nearby, where artists open up their studios and sell their work. It was very trendy and we saw some great art work, and Joe even bought me a little piece for my birthday! It was so sweet but I was having trouble deciding between two different pieces, and the artist generously let me take both. I'm a lucky duck.

We then decompressed at Joe's place and watched "Kung Fu Hustle," a Stephen Chow film. I'd never seen a Kung Fu movie before and I was very enthralled. Afterwards, we headed out to Danny's, a local bar right off Damen, and one of Joe's favorite hot spots.

It was a very chill day, filled with yummy food and excitement in a new area. I immediately fell asleep.

Art Reflects Life

In other news, I knew it!

Here is an article from Jezebel.com, and a sketch written/directed by me about GPSs. This sketch was part of Fresh Concepts' 2010 Sketch show and features Walker Bell and Meg O'Halloran. The article is a little ridiculous and offensive, and I hope Gwendolyn is way less one-dimensional than the men in the article seem to think.

http://jezebel.com/5572946/how-the-gps-lady-destroys-dudes-relationships

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0BQL8hknnY

Reflections on the Weekend Past and the One to Come

So, last weekend came and went so quickly!

I had a very interesting improv workshop with Jet Eveleth, a hilarious woman from Chicago. She focused a lot on the body, on natural reactions and removing the performativity from performance. I learned a lot, met some cool people, and Jet even gave me some comp tickets to her group, The Reckoning's, show in Chicago! One discomfort I had with the workshop was that every single one of the 20 participants were White. I know that improv is often a bunch of goofy White dudes, but when it comes to performance, I think it is so important that many perspectives be represented and many voices be heard. I hope that more people of color, more women, more queer people and differently-abled people begin to see that improv is a craft for everyone; an empowering, radical teaching tool about knowing oneself and body, as well as trusting others. It's something I still struggle with, being in improv spaces, but I hope it is improving.
Although I just joined the Quest cast and the Twin Cities improv scene, I am beginning to make friends and feel more comfortable in the scene. I had the incredible opportunity to improvise on Brave New Workshop's stage, one of the oldest satirical theaters in the country!

On Saturday night I began my Pride celebrating by attending the Dyke March, a smaller meeting of people, a more radical convergence than Pride. I had a really good time marching with so many strong people (not just women attended). Sunday's Pride parade was a beautiful day and a lot of fun, but could not have been more different than the night before. Pride was filled with people and families, which is awesome, but also filled with big companies and consumer-driven culture. Target was giving out rainbow flag (temporary) tattoos with a target/bullseye in the middle. While on the one hand it is great that target is reaching out to the LGBTQ community, but the corporate branding was so intense and blatant. I heard that the tattoos had a bit of sunscreen in them so that when the tattoo faded, the special tan mark of the Target symbol would remain intact. One of the chants that stuck out to me at the Dyke March was "We're here. We're queer. We're not going shopping!" While it was a little extreme, it definitely captured the reaction to a treating of LGBTQ as a consumer block. People sometimes ask me what I feel/do if/when I see religious Right protesters at a Pride Parade. While it is uncomfortable, I think it is important to remember that while there is oppression from the Right, there can also be oppression from the Left. A lot of the Gay Rights movement is sexist, classist/capitalist and downright racist. That seems to be rarely discussed, as gays are all lumped together as having common backgrounds and interests. I had a great time at both Pride events, but I am reflecting on the importance of each space in the fight for LGBTQ rights.



This weekend is a big weekend too. Jamila and I are headed to Chicago for July 4th weekend! We are staying with my cousin Joe, meeting up with my dad's college roommate Doug, hoping to eat a lot of Deep Dish pizza, see some comedy at Second City and iO, and enjoy ourselves in a new city! I am very excited. I've been to Chicago a few times with Fresh Concepts, but I have been wanting to explore it longer and more in depth. I'm taking a Megabus tonight. Pictures to come!

This Weekend: Two Awesome Extravaganzas!

This weekend marks two amazing events:

Twin Cities Improv Festival! I will be taking a workshop called "Being A Human - An Improv Workshop for Honest Play" with Jet Eveleth, a member of iO's The Reckoning, and I might try to see a show or two. All shows and workshops are at the historic Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, where I actually performed last Sunday!

Gay Pride Weekend! I celebrated by going to a bar last night and will march in the Parade on Sunday. The Twin Cities apparently have a huge parade! I'm excited to celebrate with Jamila and friends.

More updates/pictures on the weekend, but there is so much excitement in store!

Blogging Live from the Rosedale Mall!

This morning, June 24, 2010, was the launch of the iPhone 4, the newest generation iPhone and a huge change from the iPhone 3GS. Jamila, who has had the same phone for three years, was eligible for an upgrade and was eager to get a new iPhone that was faster and had better memory (I don't exactly know the terms).

We arrived at the Rosedale Mall at 6:30AM. The Apple Store opened at 7AM, the mall at 6. By the time we arrived, there were hundreds of people waiting in line for the launch of this new product. Some people had pre-ordered the phone before the Apple website went crazy; Jamila tried multiple times to pre-order online but was unsuccessful, unfortunately. As we slowly moved down the line, I got crankier, but I also would consider this a very interesting experience. Having never waited for concert/game/movie tickets or to enter an amazing ride at Disney or something, this was my first experience with die hards. One man had a tattoo of the old school rainbow Apple logo! The Apple staff were extremely chipper, like camp counselors, and there were free bagels, coffee and water while we waited. The staff answered our nervous questions, hoarded us into lines and spaces, and must have been working for hours!

While waiting, it seemed like almost everyone in line was tinkering around on another Apple product (iPhone, iPad, or MacBook). We also made friends with the people around us, two men: an outrageous banker at Wells Fargo and a nurse (soon to be nurse anesthetist) with an awesome tattoo. We also met a woman named Nikki Blaze, whose name alone inspired me.

Unfortunately, inspiration did not go far enough, as we spent 4.5 hours making very little progress. At that point, we were told we had about 2 hours left, and, already a little late to work, we left. Jamila will hopefully get her iPhone this weekend or next week. Although she is disappointed that she left empty-handed and that we wasted precious sleeping hours, it was interesting, amusing and blog-worthy.

If anyone got the new iPhone, I am curious to hear if it lives up to its hype.

New Approach to Hate Crimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/nyregion/23hate.html?hp

The NY Times featured a story today about a new perspective on hate crimes; a person need not "hate" a certain group, merely have certain ideas about them. They use the targeting of the elderly with fraud because of stereotypes of older people being vulnerable or senile as an example. One could say that the targeting of tourists who do not speak the language of a country for scams could then be a hate crime.

I find this perspective very interesting and not entirely wrong. After all, hate can often arise from (mis)perceptions. Ageism IS a form of oppression. Young people and older people are targeted or discriminated against because of their age, and it seems as though the scamming of the elderly is rampant. I am interested to see what other legal precedents come from this new approach to hate crimes.

Flying Back & Forth

I'm back from New York! I had a wonderful time with family, but what I keep thinking about is the plane ride.

It feels as though I have been flying a lot lately, MSP, New York, Kentucky....
And I am beginning to see a trend on the planes. I have only flown first class twice in my life (once was an international flight, the other was an accidental standby placement from Chicago to Seattle). But as I board a plane after the Zone 1 Elite Gold and First Class passengers, I look at the people sitting in the first few rows. Regardless of the day or time, the people in First Class are almost exclusively White males. Many don business suits and hold Blackberries as they try to squeeze in a few more minutes of email time before the plane takes off. And even if there are both male and female flight attendants, the First Class passengers always seem to be attended to by women.

While respect for women in the workplace and wage equality are increasing, it is hard not to look at the passengers on First Class and wonder why the elite seem to look exactly the same as they did 30 years ago (except for the Blackberry). Small indicators like these and the "re-affirmation" of dominant masculinity (see: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=39581454903&ref=mf) remind me of the continued pervasiveness of male social and political power.

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Thank you to Natalie Clifford for sharing the Man Day link with me and Delta Airlines for spending so much time with me.

The Weekend

After a few exciting days and a small blogging hiatus, I'm back!

I don't work Fridays so I had an extra day to relax, finally unpack in my house for the summer and rest.

Jamila and I took a few nice walks to the Mississippi River and around the neighborhood and went to a pub to watch the US vs. UK game in the World Cup. I'm not really into soccer and the game wasn't very exciting, but it was and interesting experience. After that, we spent the evening babysitting the friends of Jamila's cousins. They were sweet little girls who insisted that we listed to "I'll Make a Man out of You" from Mulan about a thousand times.

This morning I had a practice for my improv show, The Quest. Even though it is improvised, we still need to work on a structure for our theme, a mythical search for a magical object. Everyone else in the cast has a lot more experience than I do and it has been a joy to learn from them and work with them. After that, Jamila and I went to the Saint Paul farmer's market, which was very large and smelled amazing! Lots of flowers, vegetables, incredible! After that, we biked to Lake Street in Minneapolis (about 3 miles away) and had iced tea at Blue Moon Cafe, a local coffeeshop that feels like a neighborhood living room, known for its welcoming community to LGBTQ-identified people. It had nice vibes and was in a new area to explore.

This weekend was busy, in an exciting, fun way, and next week will be no exception. My sister Ariel is graduating from high school on Tuesday (yaay Ari!) so I will be home to celebrate with the family. This is a very wonderful time for my family to celebrate a lot of milestones and I feel very lucky.

Joran Van der Sloot & Violence Against Women

Joran Van der Sloot has finally been charged with murder. Five years after Natalie Holloway's disappearance, Van der Sloot was found to have murdered another woman, this time in Peru. I don't have much to say on the issue, except that this is an example of violence against women, of men exerting force against women and of women being killed. He is a serial killer, yes, and gender is so much a part of this. Shows like Law & Order SVU feature sexually-based offenses, and I'll admit, I watch them sometimes, but these shows do not always address the truth that while we have come a long way in stopping violence against women (the criminalization of domestic violence, for example, which used to be labeled a "private affair), violence against women continues in the same and in new, scary ways. That the victims of Van der Sloot are women is no coincidence; it is part of a larger system and phenomenon.

Info on the crime and charges:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/08/peru.murder.case/index.html?hpt=T1

Van der Sloot's blog, which disgustingly positions him as a celebrity due to suspicions regarding the Holloway case: http://joranvandersloot.blogspot.com/


Some resources and info on violence against women:
http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/
http://www.now.org/issues/violence/
http://www.womenshealth.gov/violence/

Helen Thomas's Resignation & What it Says About Israel

I'll admit, I didn't know much about Helen Thomas before this week. I knew Jamila had seen her walking through the MSP airport a few months ago and that she was somehow significant. And now, although I don't know much, I can't stop thinking about her and her resignation.

A few weeks ago, Thomas made a crude remark about Israel, suggesting that Israel "get the hell out of Palestine." This infuriated many organizations affiliated with Israel and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher, leading to her resignation and subsequently being dropped from her agent and losing future book/speaking opportunities. Perhaps I return to this incident because I agree with Thomas. What is going on in Israel is a new incarnation of old-school colonization. A poignant speaker at Macalester this spring drew parallels between Palestinian and Native American struggles against colonialism. As a person of Jewish heritage, I am expected to demonstrate unwavering support for the small state. While I have been lucky enough to visit the country three times (lucky referring to my privilege in affording to travel as well as in experiencing a beautiful landscape), and I loved the dry Sinai desert, I am profoundly uncomfortable with Israel's position in Palestine, with the way Palestinians and Arab Israelis are treated. This same week, Israel's murdering of Palestinians in a Gaza ship raid, is not leading to anyone's resignation. Who is allowed to patrol and police borders? Who created these borders in the first place? While I understand the importance of the creation of Israel in the wake of the Holocaust, meaning the sheer acknowledgment of the rights of Jewish people, I do not believe that Israel should exist at the expense of Palestine. I hope for peace. However, I am enraged by the need for Thomas to resign. Her comments were honest and yes, controversial, but resigning? More importantly, who had the power to make her resign? Those acting via proxy of those who patrol the borders, Israel advocacy organization. I know anti-semitism and anti-Jewish hatred exist and are still very real real, but with advocates so powerful to make an esteemed White House correspondent step down, lose her agents and book and speaking engagement (essentially ruin her career), I can only think about the power that Israel holds in the United States and in the global system. I am still processing, but I know, viscerally, that we (I'm not sure who we is...Jews? US Jews? I'm still working on it) must negotiate a new self-perception and attitude when it comes to power and positionality in the United States. Because while Jews may not be accepted or able to live/worship freely everywhere in the US, in positions of influence, there is undeniable power. How will we (I need to implicate myself) negotiate this position? As a people who have suffered oppression and injustices, how will we work to stop injustice against others, particularly against Palestine?

For more information on Thomas' resignation and career: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/an-end-for-helen-thomas-and-the-helen-thomas-rules/?hp

Readings and Thoughts on Education- Shame of the Nation

Next year I will be taking a course called "Schools and Prisons," an American Studies signature course that focuses on the schools-to-prisons pipeline, a phenomenon that illustrates the ways in which students from certain public schools seem to be moved (passive voice intentional) directly into the penitentiary system. The course includes readings on educational reform, the prison-industrial complex, and more. Additionally, there is an internship component that places students at various along the pipeline, at sites varying from the Saint Paul Public Schools placement center, a prison, and a halfway house for recently incarcerated individuals. Not sure of my internship placement yet, but eager to delve into the material, I went ahead and read Jonathan Kozol's "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America". This will probably be one of many posts on education reform in general as well as reflections on my own schooling.

For those of you who do not know: I am a third generation college student, my parents are Ivy-league educated. I attended a public magnet school in Yonkers, NY, for elementary school, attended Yonkers Middle school for 6th grade, and entered Riverdale Country School, an independent school, in 7th grade. I currently attend and will be a senior at Macalester College, a private four-year liberal arts college in Saint Paul, MN.

After doing some reading on public schools in the United States (Pedro Noguera!) and trying to process and place my own experiences within a larger context, I am very excited to have an academic space as well as an internship to delve into these issues.

Kozol's book was interesting and frustrating and illuminating. I highly recommend it for anyone with remote interest in the topic, as it is very accessible and steers away from academic jargon. Nevertheless, it is extremely relevant and pertinent to my college course. Kozol's book is based on both statistical research and ethnographic interviewing, as he travels the nation, visiting public schools and speaking with administrators, teachers and students. I think it is so important that he featured the voice of young people whose opinion might normally be dismissed from the situation. However, their experiences and reflections are core to the issue and they (we) are affected the most, so it is important to listen to students, even if they are not deemed traditional "experts."

"Shame of the Nation" addresses many important issues, including something that relates to my previous post. Kozol notes that many schools claim they are "diverse" when their student body consists of many students of color, even if not many identities and backgrounds are represented. This rhetoric of diversity to describe non-diverse school is evident many public schools in the US, but I'll use the example of a small school in Roosevelt, NY, that is almost 100% African-American. Is that really diversity? Kozol outlines the ways that many schools throughout the nation are still segregated, using the strong language of apartheid, and some of his critiques hit close to home. He talks about Stuyvesant High School, an elite NYC high school touted as "the best in the city," that is an overwhelmingly White school, given the city's racial and ethnic demographics. Additionally, he looks to the physical structure of the school; Stuyvesant has a gorgeous new building that commands attention and respect in the area, but not a single new public school has been built in the Bronx since the 1970s. He poignantly states: "There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education" (163).

Kozol looks not only at schools and school systems, but goes to a macro level to address problems like federal No Child Left Behind with over-testing, utilizing military language or business language, which treats children as commodities. Students then become evaluated in capitalist terms to become workers. While some students may be encouraged to pursue a career as an artist, a teacher, a doctor, etc., Kozol visited many schools that call all students "managers," and emphasize their goals as having only one possible career choice in the global capitalist system.

While the book presents an abundance of frustrating and saddening information, Kozol is not cynical and he advocates for legal approaches and policy initiatives. But he emphasizes that legal actions do not entirely make up a movement or a mobilization. He maintains his hope, however, which, for someone who has seen and documented schools where the physical facilities are abysmal, where students lack resources or confidence, is important and proves that the system is not entirely broken. It's easy to opt out of the public schools system and then tune out the conversation, but change can be made on large and small levels.

I am excited to have this piece as an entry point into theory, reflection on lived experience, and conversation on the topic of education reform. More textual and experiential reflections to come.

Currently reading: Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed

Reflections on my time in Berea

After five intense days at the Bonner Summer Leadership Institute, I am back from Berea!

The conference was fascinating, invigorating, disappointing, and interesting. Yes, all of that. The conference was a convergence of students and administrative staff from schools throughout the Bonner Network. For some background, the Bonner Program provides students committed to service with scholarships. This program looks different at each school, but at Macalester, it means 16 students per class year with high financial need earn their work study award at a site doing civic engagement. Some more info on the Bonner Program in general: http://www.bonner.org/

Schools from all over the country are a part of the Bonner Network, but especially schools from the South. I connected most with students from Morehouse College in Atlanta and Oberlin College in Ohio, but there were students from Kansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and one person repping Berkeley, CA! Two Bonner Congress reps (class of 2013) and myself joined the two Bonner Program coordinators for the conference.

The convergence consisted of elective workshops on a variety of topics. I attended a workshop on Tools for Social Justice, which, while it was interesting, reminded me of how advanced Macalester's work in the field truly is. I had a hard time connecting to some of the staff and students in the workshop, but I felt reaffirmed in my values. For example, the term "diversity" kept being used by participants. "My school beats diversity over the head," "Our school has a hard time with diversity," "My students don't want to talk about diversity," etc. Many of these comments were difficult to hear as they seemed closed to acknowledging and celebrating a multiplicity of backgrounds, histories and perspectives, but also because I could not tell what diversity meant. It appeared to me that people were referring to racial diversity, but the term could and should also include a diversity of many other identities and opinions. I spoke up, reminding the group that diversity is a very contextual word, meaning different things to different people, and asking for a clarification on what each person speaking meant when deploying that word. I also attended workshops on Public Policy work and how to write an issue brief, on a non-profit called Music Mobile out of Albany (It was amazing! http://www.musicmobile.org/), on perspectives regarding grad school, how to make meetings more interesting (yes, a meeting ABOUT meetings!), how an issue-based approach to civic engagement differs from a site-based approach and more. One of my disappointments came from the lack of programming regarding LGBTQ issues. There must have been over 100 elective workshop sessions, and it would been legitimizing (both personally, as an LGBTQ-identified woman, and politically) to have a space to discuss LGBTQ activism or any related theme. But people volunteered to lead workshops, and if nobody wanted to facilitate that topic, it means I should lead one at Bonner Congress in the fall! The conference also provided a special track for Senior Interns, which was an important time for me to learn about my responsibilities next year. I was able to brainstorm with other Senior Interns-to be about programming and recruitment. There were also various social events, from contra dancing to a drumming circle and an 80s-themed dance.

I met some intelligent, passionate and impressive students from all over the nation. I also had meaningful conversations with Bonner alums, the president of the foundation, and some incredibly open and insightful staff people from Oberlin College and Carson Newman College.

I also really enjoyed Berea College. The school was the first coed and desegregated school in the South. It also has an incredible program where all students work 10-15 hours a week in work-study, which pays for their entire tuition. Super super amazing. I went into a craft shop, where Berea students make pottery, weave scarves, make brooms, and more. As I purchased a wooden tic-tac-toe game, I met Dennis, a student from rural Kentucky, who told me that he did not grow up with running water and that he would not have been able to attend college had it not been for Berea's program. He also learned the skill of jewelry making and liked it so much that he hopes to make jewelry professionally and sell it in galleries. Dennis's story made me so happy, but it also made me wonder if he would have ever been able to go to a place like Macalester. Even though Macalester offers a lot of financial aid, it is still a prohibitively expensive school.

After this experience, I am still wrestling with important issues of social justice, privilege and positionality when doing service work, and the importance of asking questions. The conference was more (Christian) religious in its undertones and overtones than I was expecting, which made me feel a bit uneasy, but I tried to seek the messages of commitment and love that came from this faith-based approach. I hope to keep in touch with those I met at the conference and I am excited to be a part of the Bonner network.