By any means necessary

We are now not only behind but out of order as well -- to come, if I can get it together: Gandhi; Martin Luther King, Jr; Viktor Frankl. Malcolm X week went well; we discussed privilege, stereotyping, and old lady conspiracy theories regarding the racial/ethnic makeup of the student bodies in the colleges at our university. A former student of mine (from Merrill) joined us as well -- new blood, different Core, same considerations.

Core Café flyer by Clo Blanco.

Malcolm X scared a lot of my students, and that's okay. Many of them came around, and when they started making connections between Nietzsche's "slave morality" and Malcolm's critique of Christianity, the twinkle in their eyes lit up my heart. 

Nothing feels better than 18 year olds coming around to Friedrich Nietzsche (vis-a-vis Malcolm X Shabazz). Will to power, meet (post)colonial theory. 

Woolf on the wall

A backlog already.

Two weeks ago, my students read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and they were, refreshingly, receptive. They were digging Julia Shakespeare, they were digging a room with a lock on the door and $37,000.* They were even digging the Androgyny of Mind. Enthused, I then pushed them on her critique of uncontrolled emotion in writing and asked them how her aesthetic framework compared to Nietzsche's and lost them. Many didn't know what 'aesthetics' meant. But, you know: Baby steps.

Flyer by Clo Blanco

Woolf's Core Café discussion went wonderfully. It was an intimate group -- only a handful of students, none of them compelled to come by their professors or a half-finished essay assignment -- and the conversation was inspired. 

* How much Woolf's 500 British pounds would be in today's American dollars, according to Dr. Susan Gubar, the Mariner edition's editor. 

Pink Freud

I took this snapshot of a flyer for my "Core Café" discussion salon for work last week. I hand out flyers at each week's faculty meeting, and by the time I walk into my classroom at 2 o'clock to teach my second class, a flyer's always tacked up on the grungy bulletin board in the back of the room. A circuitous way of getting things done, but one less thing I have to do myself (i'm so lazy) -- excellent! Thank you mystery instructor who teaches in my room at 12:30!

Freud in the American university classroom: so many penises.

An even bigger thank you to the super helicopterita who agreed to make the flyers for me in the first place. The first link in the chain of posting flyers for Core Café is, of course, the flyers' creator: Claudia! Did you know Clo Blanco is an internationally renowned art director, graphic artist, and painter? Did you know that she designed the NYC Condom "Get some!" campaign? Well she is and she did, and you should see her online portfolio on Behance.

The best part of the fact that I somehow suckered (badgered) Clo into making these flyers for me is that she designs a new one for each week's salon meeting and emails me each week's design on Sundays. It's a fancy surprise every Sunday evening, almost as much a surprise for me as is it for the rest of the faculty and students. Clo, everyone at Stevenson College loves the flyers. They want to mail you cookies as a thank you.

I'll post new photos each week, and then photograph the wall in my office where I put up each week's flyer at the end of the academic quarter -- a grand total of nine flyers! Marx and Nietzsche through Marjane Satrapi! It's quite the canon.

This week coming up is Virginia Woolf!