#ouevre

— Evan Morte

Evan Morte

Evan Morte

This is a study for a larger piece titled ‘Shadow of A Doubt’ graphite, charcoal & wash on a pretty nice piece of cotton rag. 18x24 #drawing #sketching #ouevre #type #shadow #contemporaryart #shadowwork #b&w #perspective (at East Hampton, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Ysq3tJl-i/?igshid=s5s725nvc6k7

Fabulation is a creative reimagination of the past. Adding “afro” to this idea (afro-fabulation)  is to understand it as a creative reimagination of the black body’s past. Kara Walker creates multiple works exemplifying the idea. Kara Walker creates silhouettes of antebellum past and has them acting out the myths of slavery. We call these things that she understands to be true in her heart about slavery a myth because it is not based on hard evidence. For example, she could recreate a slave raped by a black man, but it is no one in particular, and even if it was there is no way to know what happened. Therefore, she is left with her imagination to complete her images.  This sense of leaving unknown information to be interpreted creatively can contribute to Fanon’s idea of triplication. According to Fanon, when a black body is in triple, they not only carry the weight of their awareness but of their ancestors as well. It becomes more than just an “I’m black, somethings wrong with” feeling to an “I carry the weight of my ancestors and what does it truly mean to be black” feeling. But when a black person enters the thought process that happens during triplication, they begin to imagine what their ancestors did and who they were because up to a certain point they don’t know who they were.

     In The visible Cripple (Scars and Other Disfiguring Displays Included) Mark Jeffrey's, professor and professional author, claims that it is better to mask disabilities in pictures to present oneself as what is culturally accepted as usual. Jeffrey's illuminates this idea with anecdotes of his past and introducing the philosophy constructivist epistemology. He uses family stories and pictures to establish credibility with his audience as well as using indirect emotional appeals. Full of strange and exciting things, Jeffrey's was bound to tug at a few hearts. The first thing that was strange and stuck out is that this was a family of “cripples” already and they chose to have another one. Maybe it wasn't mentioned because the author was young when his brother was adopted, or maybe it wouldn't have fit into the outline of the story, but it's hard to  imagine an adoption agency wanting to give this child who will need a lot of help and assistance to a family with more than one disabled person. That seems like such a financial strain. Then it was interesting that Jim never had a desire for legs and also that his mother kept pushing him to feel “normal.” Throughout the story, it would appear that there is a tug-of-war game between comfort and conformity. Is it better to separate the two in the time of need like Jeffrey's family or should you pick whether you are going to always conform to societies expectations or be comfortable with your disability no matter what?          The standard way of thinking about a disability would be a physical disability or a disability that is visible. For example, the limitation in Jeffrey's story was a physical disability; his brother had amputated legs. My paper would like to compare and contrast Jeffry's arguments pictures with a disability that can be visible and one that can be hidden. Although Jeffrey's does not say so directly, he assumes that physical disabilities are more susceptible to pity and misunderstandings than mental health issues, because physical disabilities are easier to spot.            As an illustration, there is a picture of two of my little sisters and me. I was in the nine, Leslie two, and Jordan one. I was in this afterschool program called the prodigy where kids would express themselves through various arts. My chosen pathway was dance. My mom wanted me to take as many pictures with my sisters as possible that year because it would be the last year they lived with us. More to the point my sister Leslie, who was two at the time, is autistic. A child cannot be diagnosed with a mental health issue until a certain age, but as my mother had suspected, she has autism. Madison, on the other hand, was just a very ill impressed child until about the age of three. I say this to explain further why neither one of them were smiling in the picture, just me. Jeffrey's would be happy about this idea of unity and bond between the two younger sisters. To him the photograph makes it appears as though I was only excited because it was my night and they were too young to understand my joy and excitement. This also would be the reason that this is one of the last few moments that Leslie wouldn’t be looked at differently from Madison or anyone else for that matter. Jeffrey's would be proud of my family for making this conformity last as long as it did.            On the other hand, what happens when applying his ideas to a picture where the issue is mental health. The image I am choosing to use for this experiment is a picture of me before my homecoming dance senior year. In the picture, I was still seventeen, and I am wearing a style inspired by Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and a girl I saw on my Pinterest. At the time it was hard for me to find something to wear because I had gained 43 pounds and was two sizes bigger than I was used to. Either way, in the picture I am smiling and am seemingly excited about my night and where it would take me. Even though my night was not bad, it was not great either. This was just the beginning of my long battle with depression. Like Jeffreys believed one should do I hid my emotions so that I could have a great picture to look back at and one my mother would be proud to post on Instagram.            Although I agree with Jeffrey's that there are a time and place for certain personal expressions, I have to disagree that it is in the best interest for everyone. His ideas are in the best interest for the majority, and sadly, in this case, the minority is what matters. Applying his supporting concept of constructivist epistemology ( the humane way to look at a subject versus looking at the situation objectively. ) the opposite direction of him, I can make the argument that ordinary people aren't healthy but people who lack disabilities. Of course, many people will disagree with this idea of promoting limitations and making disabled people feel better. Sadly, there continues to be this comprehensive view that disabilities need to be fixed people with them should conform to the rest of society.  

Have you ever heard of the lost village in New York City? Many people walk all over and around the village every day. This lost village, Seneca village, was thought to be the first community functioned by African Americans. Andrew Williams, an African American, purchased the first three lots that would become Seneca Village for one hundred twenty-five dollars. Williams helped build the village from his house to his (where he would marry his wife in the backyard) to the first church (All Angel’s Church). He and Sara would raise their three children in this up and coming neighborhood they called home, where the Irish and Blacks would eventually get along even though both ethnic groups faced mental and physical discrimination. Andrew Williams had open arms for the Scott O’Neal family the day they wanted to come into town and helped build their houses after they were forced to move out of Yorkville. O’Neal’s bakery was torn down to construct the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Williams consoled O’Neal in his time of grief, reassuring him that it was safe in Seneca as long as they stayed united. Then one day all the families received a thirty-day notice (and two hundred dollars) to leave their homes for the bettering of the city. Central Park was born. What is the word that makes the middle and lower class residents cringe, have economists on the fence, and politicians happy? Gentrification. Gentrification is used to displace low-income residents, and it increases crime rates on surrounding neighborhoods/counties by renewing and rebuilding, which has more negative impacts than positive, socioeconomically and politically.          The history of renewal is best understood through close examination of multiple cases. According to the person who coined the word, “One by one, many of the working class quarters have been invaded by the middle upper and lower…once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district changed” (Ruth Glass). Looking down the history of Gentrification in the United States no much good has come from the advances. Shortly after the Vietnam War, the city of Boston wanted to make some breakthroughs. They created new factories for jobs and built new apartments, without acknowledging the lower income neighborhoods who could not afford these higher taxes on rent. As a result, the combat zone formed, full of high crime, mostly drugs, and prostitutes. A Harvard football star ended up on the wrong side of town that night and was murdered. The city did not pay attention to the high crime, and so they lacked police force in that area. Thanks to Brown vs. The Board of Education segregation in public schools is non-existent. Brown was a little black girl who was not able to go to a school because of discrimination even though it was closer to home. Her and twelve other families filed a case against the board of education and were granted access to this school. Now there is a more natural way to deal with wanting your child into a better school, gentrification. As gentrification rises school rezoning increases shown in cases like Shawn v. Reno and Shelba County v. Holder. There are plenty of claims about how these adverse effects are not intentional and that the end goal is to improve the area. Whether or not these effects are intended or not they happen and have continued to occur in the U.S.          As gentrification continues to displace low-income residents, this affects the socioeconomic status and interactions with others. Georgia State is a university but also a major company. The school has bought almost every building surrounding Woodruff Park, like the Sun Trust building. The school makes Atlanta more of a campus instead of a city. The only affordable housing downtown for the lower and middle class are provided to college students. The same thing has happened to midtown Atlanta. For example, I lived in Atlanta for three years. When it was time for my mother and me to move because of a pest issue, we couldn’t. My mother was a teacher and are considered higher middle class, but we could not find any reasonably priced apartments for her income that would allow me to go to Grady High school. So instead I attended Tucker High. When I lived in Candler Park that would let me stay at Grady the neighborhood salary average was $76,354.The average income is now $143,918 (point2homes). Due to the home improvements some made, others were forced or preferred to move. I have witnessed five new homes built, and two remodels on my old street alone since 2012. The neighborhood has become more luxurious over the years, and it used to be cozy with a lived-in kind of feeling. The split between white collar and blue collar jobs in this neighborhood had been close to a 55:45 ratio. Now it is closer to a 70:30 split expecting to be even closer to an 80:20 in five years. It is not hidden that a lot of blue collar jobs tend to have more minorities employed, that is just history. There has always been a social divide in major cities, and the neighborhoods that are being transformed are historically black or surrounded by traditionally black communities: Kirkwood, Edgewood, and Reynoldstown border Candler Park, Inman Park, and Decatur. Simply economics will show that if ten new houses built in each one of these "white collar" neighborhoods that the average home price for old houses will go up at least $15,000. The more demand for larger homes, in safe communities, in a high school district the more family size homes and upgrades that will be built. After this, the average home price may have increased at least4.5% up to 12.3%. Since parts of Edgewood is in the same zip code as Candler Park the tax dollars for those homes will increase, causing families that cannot afford those taxes to move.          Although there were probably two apartments that were affordable, it wasn’t worth it because when you pay for a place to live, you are also paying for the neighborhood. The two homes me and my mother had to choose from were in higher crime areas than we were accustomed to. If this could happen to my family, imagine how many other families continue to go through the same things. No person should have to sacrifice safety to be able to go to the same school. (Plan to place facts/research done on the politics, inflation, and how school systems are affected). In the end, we moved to Tucker, Georgia, a pleasant little suburbia on the outskirts of Decatur. We soon saw with the increases in nice expensive neighborhoods in Atlanta; the more crime spread to cities near us like Clarkston and Lawrenceville.          Gentrification is used to displace low-income residents, and it increases crime rates on surrounding neighborhoods/counties by renewing and rebuilding. Does this process help cities grow? Yes. Does this process lower unemployment? Yes. Has this process divided major cities into white collar blue collar? Has this process diminished the diversity of races as well as income? Has this process got rid of suburbia? Has this system made it harder for the low-class citizens of major cities to receive a better education as well as other opportunities? Yes.

Azurite, thee Oracle...