Response to the first three stories(Krik Krak)

Read the next 2 stories in KK. Write a blog post in response to the first 3 stories. Choose a theme that you see to be common in all 3 and explore what Danticat is showing us or asking us to think about this theme. Analyze 2 direct quotes. 500 words 

Children of the sea I already talked about it in the last blog post. It is about the letters between two characters who would never meet each other again. The second story is called "Nineteen Thirty-Seven". The background of it is that Josephine's mom, who was a survivor during the massacre of Haitians, was arrested. People claimed that she was a witch because when she took care her friend's baby, who was suffering with colic, and that kid died. Later on her mom was burned in the prison. The third story is called "A Wall of Fire Rising". The main characters are Guy, his wife Lili, and his son Little Guy. They were poor, and sometimes they could not even have supper. In my opinion, Guy is the main character. One day his son gets a role of the play, which is acting as Boukman, a revolutionary during the fight. The lines that his son get really touch Guy's heart. His son is more like a narrator in the play, the lines his son recited seems refer to the life of Guy. Guy got a temporary job in the sugar mill. At there Guy found his destiny - an hot air balloon. He talked about flying by the balloon to his wife, but Lili thought that was too dangerous. At the end, Guy still got on the balloon, but he committed suicide.

Through reading these stories, I found out that all the stories have one theme in common - revolution. In other words, Haitians tried to do revolution. In the first story, the male narrator fled the country because he was a member of the youth federation, a revolutionary group. In the second story, Josephine's mom survived during the Haitian massacre, and every year she would go to the rivers with other survivors to "see" the dead. In the third story, Guy was tired of the repetitive things; at the end, he suicide in order to get freedom. I think Danticat wanted readers to see the revolution Haitians did, the unfairness they got, and the unfortunate life. In the third story, the little Guy at the end recited that: "I call on our gods. I call on our young. I call on our old. I call on our mighty and the weak. I call on everyone and anyone so that we shall all let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die." This quote typically talked about the revolution. The lines urged people to do revolution. He said that if they do not do revolution, they will die. Just like Guy in the story. He had to work in order to feed his family but he wanted to revolt to his life. His wife is also a contradictory character. Lili does not want their child to be a permanent worker, but at the same time he does not want Guy to take risk. It is like she wants revolution but at the same time she is scared. During the conversation between Guy and Lili, Guy asked: "Do not you ever want to be something new?" Lili however said she does not like it. But at the end of the conversation, Lili asked: "If you were to take that balloon and fly away, would you take me and the boy?" I think in this quote, Lili knew that she could not stop her husband to get on the balloon, which means that she knew that her husband would revolt to the unfair life. Just like Lili's thought, Guy broke the rule; he took the balloon; he flew to the sky; he died to get freedom.
Danticat wrote this to show readers that how much effort Haitians did for the revolution. They would even used their life to revolt. In the second story, Josephine's grandmother fled away from Dominican Republic's army while saw her mom was killed. Guy used his death to fight against the unfairness Haitians got. This all confirms an quote from the story: "We may either live freely or we should die."

Notes for "Krik? Krak!"

 1) identifying characters, 2) summarizing the plot, and 3) offering some personal response/ideas about the story

Children Of the Sea:
There are two story-lines in this chapter. One is from a girl, who loved a boy who fled away because he was one member of the youth federation, and macoutes were killing them.  Another one is from the boy, he fled away and wrote down these on a boat with other "refugees". From the girl's side, she lived with her father and manman(probably her mom?), and her father had a cousin. From the boy's side, he was not sure whether his parents were killed or not. But on the boat, the main characters are an old man, a pregnant girl who named Celianne.
From the girl's story-line, she hated his dad at the beginning of the chapter because his dad did not allow her to be with the boy. And she said that rape and killing happened all around them. Their neighbors were killed by the macoutes because their son was a member of the youth federation. Also she talked about macoutes forced a dad or a mom to have relation with their daughter or son, and then they arrested them said that they had moral crime. At the end of the chapter, the girl changed her mind about her dad. She found out that her dad gave up everything in order to protect her. From the boy's story-line, he described that sailing was the most terrible thing he had met. Everyday was the same and he disgusted the smell of the ocean. They even pooped in the sea while everyone can see them. One of the person on the boat was Celianne. She was raped by mascoutes, and her brother was forced to have sex with her mom; after that, her brother was arrested and never came back. After the baby was born and died, Celianne at first did not want to throw the baby away. But finally she did, and she also jumped into the sea.
When I read the book, I got shocked. The rape and killing was all around the people. People even feel hopeless just like the male narrator on the boat; he said that if the death come, he will totally accept it. Another thing that shocked me was the rape and the sex happened in the family. Mascoutes seems could do everything they want. They just carried the machine gun and killed the people who they did not like. And they could impose crimes on anybody: forcing them to have sex with one of the family members, and arrested them by saying they violated the moral crime.

Research on history of Haiti/Danticat

biographical info about the author: Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in January 19, 1969. When she was two, her dad emigrated to US. And when she was four, her mom went to US too. When her parents went to US, she lived with her dad's brother. When she reached twelve, she moved to Brooklyn and joined her parents and two new younger brothers. She had difficulty in adjusting new family, and had difficulty at school. They called her "refugee" or "boat person". Later on, she published her debut novel: "Breath, Eyes, Memory." She has written an array of award-winning fiction and non-fiction books over the years, including Krik? Krak!

timeline for Haiti's history from Independence to present:

1492

Christopher Columbus lands and claims the island of Hispaniola for Spain. The Spanish build the New World's first settlement at La Navidad on Haiti's north coast.

1697

Spanish control over the colony ends with the Treaty of Ryswick, which divided the island into French-controlled St. Domingue and Spanish Santo Domingo.

For over 100 years the colony of St. Domingue (known as the Pearl of the Antilles) was France's most important overseas territory, which supplied it with sugar, rum, coffee and cotton. At the height of slavery, near the end of the 18th century, some 500,000 people mainly of western African origin, were enslaved by the French.

1791-1803

A slave rebellion is launched by the Jamaican-born Boukman leading to a protracted 13-year war of liberation against St. Domingue's colonists and later, Napoleon's army which was also assisted by Spanish and British forces. The slave armies were commanded by General Toussaint Louverture who was eventually betrayed by his officers Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe who opposed his policies, which included reconciliation with the French. He was subsequently exiled to France where he died.

1803

The Haitian blue and red flag is devised at Arcahie, by taking the French tricolor, turning it in its side and removing the white band. The Battle of Vertières marks the ultimate victory of the former slaves over the French.

1804

The hemispere's second Republic is declared on January 1, 1804 by General Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Haiti, or Ayiti in Creole, is the name given to the land by the former Taino-Arawak peoples, meaning "mountainous country."

1806

Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines is assassinated.

1807-20

Civil war racks the country, which divides into the northern kingdom of Henri Christophe and the southern republic governed by Alexandre Pétion. Faced with a rebellion by his own army, Christophe commits suicide, paving the way for Jean-Pierre Boyer to reunify the country and become President of the entire republic in 1820.

1821

President Boyer invades Santo Domingo following its declaration of independence from Spain. The entire island is now controlled by Haiti until 1844.

Haiti's fight for and gain of Independence: In 1791, a slave revolt erupted on the French colony, and Toussaint-Louverture, a former slave, took control of the rebels. In 1795 he made peace with revolutionary France following its abolishment of slavery. Toussaint became governor-general of the colony and in 1801 conquered. In January 1802, an invasion force ordered by Napoleon landed on Saint-Domingue, and after several months of furious fighting, Toussaint agreed to a cease-fire. He retired to his plantation but in 1803 was arrested and taken to a dungeon in the French Alps, where he was tortured and died in April. Soon after Toussaint’s arrest, Napoleon announced his intention to reintroduce slavery on Haiti, and Dessalines led a new revolt against French rule. With the aid of the British, the rebels scored a major victory against the French force there, and on November 9, 1803, colonial authorities surrendered. In 1804, General Dessalines assumed dictatorial power, and Haiti became the second independent nation in the Americas.(https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/haitian-independence-proclaimed)

Toussaint L'Ouverture: Best-known leader of the Haitian revolution. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, for Saint-Domingue against Napoleonic France. He then helped transform the insurgency into a revolutionary movement, which by 1800 had turned Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous slave colony of the time, into the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking. He died betrayed before the final and most violent stage of the armed conflict.

Boukman: An early leader of Haitian revolution. Boukman was a key leader of the slave revolt in the Le Cap‑Français region in the north of the colony. He was killed by the French planters and colonial troops in 7 November 1791, just a few months after the beginning of the uprising.

1937, Dominican Massacre: took place in October 1937 against Haitians living in the Dominican Republic's northwestern frontier and in certain parts of the contiguous Cibao region. Dominican Army troops, who came from different areas of the country,[7]:161 carried out the massacre.

Rafael Trujillo: A Dominician politician, soldier and dictator, who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents.

Voodoo religion: A religion practiced in Haiti. Vodou is a creolized religion forged by descendents of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups who had been enslaved and brought to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word Vodou means “spirit” or “deity” in the Fon language of the African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin).

Duvalier (Papa Doc): The President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. An undercover death squad, the Tonton Macoute, killed indiscriminately and was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became fearful of expressing dissent even in private. Duvalier further solidified his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.

Tonton Macoute: A special operations unit within the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute ("Uncle Gunnysack"), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack (French: macoute) and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast.

Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc): The President of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's  and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency.

Research on Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian novelist and short story writer.

Prominent themes in her novel: National Identity, Mother-daughter relationships, and diasporic politics.

Danticat also penned Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (2010), a collection of essays concerning the hazards of writing about Haiti while living in the United States

 As an immigrant teenager, Edwidge's disorientation in her new surroundings was a source of discomfort for her, and she turned to literature for solace.

She said: "Writing has been the primary way I have tried to make sense of my losses"

Reflection on term quiz

This year, I think I am pretty good at the terms that are about the basic things(like types of the stage, stage directions, projection and articulation, etc). But I think I need to work on the the methods or techniques from those famous actors or directors( for example, Uta Hagen). I am also weak at the concepts of the actors. Like what should actor do, what is emotional memory. I did not learn enough about the acting techniques, like how to prepare for the performance, 9 questions, and ideas of other theorists. I also need to work on the terms like dramatic pauses, suspense, and stage whisper, those terms for the actors. Right now I am not that familiar with those terms.

Reflection on mini performance(FITM)

In Aaron's group(Yun, Grace), Aaron is the little boy, Grace is the white police, and Yun is the black captain. It shows that different police treats People there in different ways. While Aaron is doing community service, Grace came up and knocked off him and tried to arrest him. However it was the black captain who came and freed the little boy. The occasion was also noisy, it might shows that the white police was confused about the behavior of the little boy. Probably it emphasizes that the confusion between the races, and different behaviors might confused other people. Like the Jewish rules are unbelievable for the black. Because of this, people think other races are weird or even think they are stupid.

In our's group(Me, Helen, and Joey), our topic is about violence. Helen talked about Jewish view of the accident; A jew thinks that the driver made the best decision during the car accident. Rather than hit amount of people in the sidewalks, he chose to steer at the building. However he hit a black boy. When he tried to lift up the car, he was beaten by the African-american. The passengers also got beaten. In Joey's part, he represented black people's point of view. When they saw the car hit a boy, they were just angry. So that Joey shouted to the black to catch the driver. However they just stopped there. In my part, I was a black female but I was neither on Jewish side nor on the black people's side. I said that no one wants to hit a seven-year-old boy. It was just an accident and people festered it. Violence takes place during the bully. And that bully was just an accident or because of the conflict between the Jew and the Black. Their relationship was already bad enough that made this happen. It was also about the confusion between the two groups.

In Nan's group(David D, Josh), they talks about religion and they have different stories. In Josh's, he said that the black will become DJ, rapper, or become a bad boy. In Nan's story, she talks about the stories happened on Shabbos. During the day, the Jews were not allow to touch the electronics. But her son accidentally turned the radio on. They find a little boy in the neighborhood and ask him to turn off the radio. And that little boy just thinks that the Jews are stupid that they even do not know how to turn off the radio. In David's performance, he talks about a person who thinks the riots was absurd. In their performance, I found out that they also show that the difference between religion causes problems. Because of this, the hatred between two groups is increasing and their relationship is getting worse.

In class writing(about Verbatim theater)

I think people do it because it shows the authenticity of a event. By doing that, the viewers or audience can get the details of the event. Because people are analyzing a person as a group, it will be easy to find out many detail of that person, and people can give different opinions on how to act like that person. In our group project, I am the performer (which means that I act as somebody else). Because I need to act as Grace, I tried to find the details of Grace when she is talking. Because Grace's story is interesting(her roommate is a sleepwalker),  it is actually easy to understand. But for me, it is hard to imitate someone else; sometimes I remember how Grace did her body movement but I just could not act it out. Besides that, I think observing other's behavior is actually easy. I wrote down some notes like Grace will move the chair around when she gets excited. Everyone has a custom when they are talking. For me, observing that behavior is easy. I really enjoy in this; I can hear some interesting stories and I can learn more about others' behavior. From this experience, I learn that everyone has their own style of speaking or standing or sitting. By imitating that, audience will know about that person's behavior or even recognize who that person is.

Blog--What is theater

Consider the following questions as you write your post: What is theater, in your opinion? What makes it good to participate in, to perform, or to watch? Why do people do theater or watch it or like it? Why do YOU? What aspects of theater are most important for performers to learn and think about? In your experience, what is easy and fun about theater and what is challenging?

In my opinion, theater is a place for audience to have a extraordinary experience by viewing performers or actors act out the journey which was written by a playwright. It also gives actors a stage to show their talent and win fame. 
Unlike a cinema, audience just stay their and watch movies, in the theater plays were performed by real people in front of the audience. Because they are real people, it is easier for the audience to participate or get into the play.
Also, a theater is made specifically for audience to see a play, so the view is better in theater compared to the audience who watch the play on TV. Furthermore, a theater has a better atmosphere, so the audience could hear the voice and sound clearly. 
For the audience, it has a lot of professional settings on the stage that the audience can use. Take stage lighting as an example. In a theater it has different kinds of light. When the actors are doing monologue, stage lighting can help them to create the specific atmosphere for that monologue. 
People go to theater to watch a play because of several reasons: the view it gives, the experience it provides, and the creativity it has. Because actors are really close to the audience, audience can sometimes get the feelings from the audience, or they can notice on many details in the play. Also, theater presents a good atmosphere; by watching the play inside of a theater, audience will have a better experience. The last reason is that when people are watching a play, their creativity can flourish; because every play is a total different journey to the magical world. I like the theater just because of the atmosphere it creates, and I can hear actors' talking and orchestra's performing easily.
Talking about the aspects of theater, actors should learn about the staging, the scripts and themselves. By learning about staging, actors can know about the basic, fundamental information. By LEARNING the scripts, actors will know what kinds of facial expressions they should use, what kinds of body movements they should do. Finally, learning about themselves, they will know how loud they should talk in a theater, or what kinds of character they should pick in order to give audience the best experience. 
For me, the fun and easy thing about theater is figuring out about the staging, about where should people stand, about what kinds of props performers should use. But it is also challenging for me to stand in front of a lot of people to perform; I will feel nervous and i will forget about the scripts. To speak louder in front of people is another problem for me; sometimes I am shy to speak loudly.

Verbatim questions about boarding life

Interviewee: Josh

Boarding life:

Q: how's roommate

A: awesome. First year, I hear VdP is terrible. This year, ac, cool roommate, TV.

Like dorm parents?

Mr. Q is cool. Have cool accent.

Rule change.

Study hall hours change, 

Miss home

Not really, senior year.

Friendship

Disconnect last, meet some people in the dorm. Feel separate as a day student.

DH

Really, let's be real. Common man.....?

Kitchens?

Like to cook, fridge, bake. Although we have microwave

First year live in dorm

Open door policy- worried of stealing 

Verbatim theater notes

Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre which is based on the spoken words of real people. In its strictest form, verbatim theatre-makers use real people’s words exclusively, and take this testimony from recorded interviews. However, the form is more malleable than this, and writers have frequently combined interview material with invented scenes, or used reported and remembered speech rather than recorded testimony. There is an overlap between verbatim theatre and documentary theatre, and other kinds of fact-based drama, such as testimonial theatre (in which an individual works with a writer to tell their own story) and tribunal theatre (edited from court transcripts). 

Verbatim Theatre gives voice to people who would not normally have a platform.

The process creates dialogue in a way that most playwrights have to manufacture otherwise. The subjects speak naturally, so their dialogue includes all the ums, pauses, slang, regionalisms, repeated words, and other speech mannerisms that happen in conversation.

Finally it is a tool to study the physicality of a specific person or group of people. How do you imitate the gestures, physical stance, and expressions of someone else?

Verbatim Theatre is a great way for students to work on creating a physical character and to hear/analyze natural dialogue.

Verbatim theatre is a form of documented theatre in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic.

The playwright interviews people who are connected to the topic that is the play's focus and then uses their testimony to construct the play. In this way, the playwright seeks to present a degree of objectivity akin to that represented by news reporting. Such plays are focused on politics, disasters, sporting and other social events.

Not a form but a technique: a way of incorporating the words of real people, as spoken in private interview or public record, into drama.