Hey everyone, it’s nice to meet you all and I look forward to the course. I’ll get started with a little bit about myself. My name is Blake Mellencamp. I plan on going into secondary English teaching. Currently I work both at the Indiana Academy and at Village Green Records. I lead the Writers Community here at Ball State, so everyone interested in creative writing should feel free to join us in RB 297 Wednesday evenings at 8 PM. I’m also involved in the Glue & Scissors Society, an organization promoting the arts in the Muncie community. I hope that you’ll come by the village some weekend and join us at one of our many events. Perhaps you’ll even catch me performing at Be Here Now in the local band Radio Cologne. Now that every organization I’m involved with has been thoroughly plugged, let’s get on to Frederick Douglass.
Douglass was a prime figure of the abolitionist movement. While we often idolize figures such as Abraham Lincoln for the Emancipation Proclamation or Levi Coffin for his involvement in the Underground Railroad, none of these men had been affected as Douglass was. Just looking at the photographs of Douglass, one can see that he was a force to be reckoned with. His gaze penetrates two hundred years. Many of us have heard of his work, but this was my first time encountering his testimony of life in slavery. Whereas it took the partnership of men like Lincoln and Coffin to reach the goals of abolishment, we often overlook the true suffering of those like Jacobs or Douglass. Their hearts drove the struggle for equality.
This observation may be obvious, but I feel it still deserves recognition, as it applies to modern struggles. For instance, I read in an article recently about the popular musician Macklemore being embraced for his lyrics’ open support of gay rights. However, the criticism was that while we take this straight, white man’s testimony to heart, many testimonies of genuine suffering by those in the minority culture have been swept under the rug.
I want to research the “Sorrow Songs”, as Du Bois called them, referenced in the reading. I’ve long been a fan of the early Delta Blues, but surely there are some good recordings made later on of the spirituals originally performed by groups such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
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Hey everyone, it’s nice to meet you all and I look forward to the course. I’ll get started with a little bit about myself. My name is Blake Mellencamp. I plan on going into secondary English teaching. Currently I work both at the Indiana Academy and at Village Green Records. I lead the Writers Community here at Ball State, so everyone interested in creative writing should feel free to join us in RB 297 Wednesday evenings at 8 PM. I’m also involved in the Glue & Scissors Society, an organization promoting the arts in the Muncie community. I hope that you’ll come by the village some weekend and join us at one of our many events. Perhaps you’ll even catch me performing at Be Here Now in the local band Radio Cologne. Now that every organization I’m involved with has been thoroughly plugged, let’s get on to Frederick Douglass.
Douglass was a prime figure of the abolitionist movement. While we often idolize figures such as Abraham Lincoln for the Emancipation Proclamation or Levi Coffin for his involvement in the Underground Railroad, none of these men had been affected as Douglass was. Just looking at the photographs of Douglass, one can see that he was a force to be reckoned with. His gaze penetrates two hundred years. Many of us have heard of his work, but this was my first time encountering his testimony of life in slavery. Whereas it took the partnership of men like Lincoln and Coffin to reach the goals of abolishment, we often overlook the true suffering of those like Jacobs or Douglass. Their hearts drove the struggle for equality.
This observation may be obvious, but I feel it still deserves recognition, as it applies to modern struggles. For instance, I read in an article recently about the popular musician Macklemore being embraced for his lyrics’ open support of gay rights. However, the criticism was that while we take this straight, white man’s testimony to heart, many testimonies of genuine suffering by those in the minority culture have been swept under the rug.
I want to research the “Sorrow Songs”, as Du Bois called them, referenced in the reading. I’ve long been a fan of the early Delta Blues, but surely there are some good recordings made later on of the spirituals originally performed by groups such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers.