Earthworks Reflection Prompt!

Loved seeing this reflection prompt over at Earthworks!

Michigan grows an incredible variety of crops, second only to California in crop diversity. Michigan ships over $1 billion of goods to countries like Mexico, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Germany.

This feat would not be possible without the necessary labor or skills to sustain it. The Midwest Migrant Stream represents tens of thousands of migrant farm workers that follow the seasons, from farm to farm, harvesting, processing and packing food that eventually ends up on our dinner tables.

What is the human cost of our food?

Please send your thoughts to earthworks@cskdetroit.org. We want to hear from you!

Remember to also:
1. Follow us on twitter! Our twitter handle is @EarthworksDet.
2. Keep up with us on Facebook found here http://on.fb.me/earthworksurbanfarm

See you soon!

Head over to Earthworks and leave your thoughts over there!

Community Conversations: Evan Major

Hey Detroit Future! Here is the lastest in the Community Conversation!

Community conversations are some of the things I love most about #detroitfuture. We build these conversations as a way to respect and honor the basic life truth: Communication is a human right. All of us have the right to be heard, all of us have the right to be in community with others, and all of us have the right to communicate with our community in the way that most suits our comfort and abilities.

This conversation focuses on Detroit Future Media participant, Evan Major.

This clip was filmed at the beginning of the DFM 2012–when Evan was still throwing ideas around and talking with a partner on what his work could possibly look like. He’s shared with me since then that his ideas for the program’s project have shifted in major ways! But it’s still great to see that his work began first with a thought, and then with a conversation with his community.

This is what happens when we talk with eachother. When our conversations are for eachother.

#detroitfuture presents The Privacy Bandaid

What is the Privacy Bandaid?

–At Detroit Future, we recognize that online privacy issues are an ongoing concern of our community. We also recognize that historically, privacy invasions (or: surveillance) have been at the center of many different attacks on our communities. We think that issues around privacy and surveillance are an ongoing conversation that require a detailed and comprehensive community response. But we also recognize that building that response is going to take awhile–even as privacy continues to be an immediate concern.

So until we create that more comprehensive community response, we decided to put together a Bandaid of sorts, one that could be used immediately and that could be shifted around or reworked easily as needed.

What Bandaid do you use?

1:  Do not use my words or my name, do not mention me in anyway!
2:  You may quote me, but do not name me or otherwise identify me!
3:  You may quote me and identify me according to my online account names!
4:  You may quote me and use my legal name!

You can use these designations in multiple ways. For example:

* Let people who are live tweeting events that you are a two, or they may report what what you said on their twitter feeds, but they may not identify you in  any way.
* Tell your friends who post all their party pictures on Facebook that you are a one, or you don’t want any pictures of yourself or your name posted on their feeds at all.
* Ask classmates who are livetweeting classes to remember that you are a three, or that they may report what you said but they should use your twitter handle to identify you.
* Any other time you feel that “privacy” is an issue that isn’t be lifted up but needs to be.

Also, get in the practice of proactively advocating for the Privacy Bandaid! At the beginnings of meetings, ask if anybody in the room will be livetweeting or otherwise publicly broadcasting what is said in the meeting! If there will be live broadcasting, you have the right to know who is using your words and under what context!

Or, if you are the person who will be live tweeting, be sure to announce your intentions and make sure that everybody in the room is comfortable with that (within the bounds of reason, clearly, some officials/people in power are not going to ever be comfortable with live broadcasting what they’re saying!).

These Bandaids do not solve all the problems around online privacy. But they can work to solve immediate problems around privacy as we continue to work on a more detailed response!

Please join us for a more extended discussion around privacy on April 24 from 2-4 at Memorial Hall in the Community Commons!

The American Dream is a Lie…New Art Pieces

would be good for the newsletter

 

Favianna.com :: Art & Activism

via The American Dream is a Lie…New Art Pieces.

Weekly Writing Prompt #4: More Descriptions!

For the last writing prompt, we focused on description and describing things. Now we’re going to look at how to put those descriptions into action! Last week I described a picture of a field of grass on a sunny day in this way:

This is a picture of a field. The field has tall brown grass with a lot of green coloring in it. There are a few white flowers nestled in the grass and there are dark green trees in the distance behind the field. The sky is blue with a few large white fluffy clouds.

This picture makes me feel warm and relaxed, especially during the winter when it is so cold and I always feel so tight.

Now that we have descriptions, the question becomes, how do we use these descriptions? What is the point of them? And what are the different ways we can most effectively use these descriptions?

How can we take a random description about a field of grass and make it important to readers?

The best way to look at this is to think of how to use descriptions with different mediums. For example, when I wrote the description above, I wrote in a blog where I could unwind and describe the picture using as many words and with as flowery language as I wanted.

If I were to describe that same picture on twitter, where there is a 140 character limit on how many words I can use, that same description might look something like this:

Went to Mackinaw today! Saw a lovely field out by the airport, lots of blue sky and green grass! linktomypicture.twitter.com

Audience also plays a big factor in how you choose to describe things. If I was going to describe that same picture to twitter users who were mostly digital justice activists, I might say something like:

Sat in a large green field of grass today–let the breeze float all around me while soaking in the sun! It was so nice to get out from my computer!

On the other hand, if I were talking to environmental justice activists who are going to notice and value many different things than digital justice activists, I might say something more along the lines of:

Tried to enjoy a field of green grass today, but there were discarded pop bottles and cigarette butts everywhere. Wish folks would practice recycling!

See the differences? See how your descriptions change according to who you are talking to and what shared values you may have with your audience?

So let’s get practicing!
Using the descriptions you came up with last week (or that you just now wrote! ) let’s practice describing things for different audiences and using different mediums! Here are a few scenarios you can use to get your juices flowing:

* You are live tweeting your description to your followers, who are mostly food justice advocates. What would you say to them?

* You are live tweeting your description to your followers, who are mostly policy wonks at the local government agency. What would you say to them?

* You are writing a long letter to a dear friend. You are telling your friend about your description. What do you say?

Feel free to use any of these prompts to get you going, or to think through your own prompts that are more relevant to your needs! The point here is to *practice* and begin crafting your own style!

As always, if you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment!

Writing Prompt #3 Descriptions

For this week’s writing propmt, let’s work through the idea of describing things!

Describing things effectively is a skill that can be easily learned through practice. The easiest way to begin is to think of (and to read!) descriptions that you’ve really enjoyed in the past.

As an example, one of my favorite descriptions of lost love and a hurting heart is from Bob Dylan’s song “Don’t think twice, it’s all right”:

It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

But words are not the only way to describe things. Take a look at how this video sets up (or describes) the world of the Legend of Korra series:

Then, of course, instrumental music (jazz!) can describe emotions with no words, and many people use colors to describe anything from their mood to their sexuality to their gender.

So let’s get started!

For this week’s writing challenge–let’s find a video, passage, song, picture or some other type of media that you love, and then describe it. Here’s an example of what I mean:

This is a picture of a field. The field has tall brown grass with a lot of green coloring in it. There are a few white flowers nestled in the grass and there are dark green trees in the distance behind the field. The sky is blue with a few large white fluffy clouds.

This picture makes me feel warm and relaxed, especially during the winter when it is so cold and I always feel so tight.

Now, it’s your turn! You can use any of these examples as a model to write your own stuff–or you can use your own way to describe. The point here is not to do this prompt the “right” way–the point is to begin to understand your style and develop that style!

Any questions? Leave a comment!

Weekly Writing Prompt #2: Fears Fears Fears!

Although it doesn’t really seem possible (and it doesn’t really occur to us on a daily basis), a lot of structural violence is enacted against people through the medium of communication in general and writing specifically.

Think about how if there’s spelling errors in a resume, it gets trashed (thus denying a person a job based solely on their ability to spell). Or how many immigrants are considered stupid and put in “the slow classes” because they don’t speak English.

On a more specific level, many people hold major blocks when it comes to writing because of how teachers (or, people in power) treated their writing in school. As a teacher, I’ve heard stories from my students about neglect (oh, you can write a whole paragraph when you’re a senior in highschool, you get an A and my job is done!) to outright abuse (the number of people who had their essays covered in red “correction” ink and then held up and mocked in front of the entire class is just astonishing).

So for this week’s prompt, let’s talk about our fears around writing and communication!

What are you afraid of when it comes to writing and/or communicating? What makes you sweaty, sick, nervous, anxious, or so blocked up you can’t get anything to come out at all?

Don’t feel like you have to only talk about this through words! If a picture or a song or a particular video you’ve seen explains things for you, post those! The point here is to really emphasize that we all speak in different ways, and while some of those ways are coping strategies because we’ve been so hurt by the enforcement of structural violence through writing–that doesn’t mean those ways don’t count. That means those ways prove we’re survivors. And Tuff!

Here’s some inspiration to get you started: