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Two weeks left

2011-11-28T04:57:54Z

TWO WEEKS LEFT!!!

My goodness, where did the time go? Clearly, it has gotten away from me, since I haven’t posted here since the beginning of the semester. That really is a testament to how much we have been working on our papers, our internships, and spending time decompressing, writing, and enjoying our time with our program members in Chicago.

I am currently taking a tiny break from taking some last-minute notes. This Thursday I am giving my presentation about my paper to the Newberry staff, my classmates, the ACM staff (I think), and my parents. It’s absolutely terrifying, but not as terrifying as the thought that next Friday we will be turning in our papers and packing up, saying goodbye to the Newberry (for now) and the great friends we have made while here.

It truly has been a roller coaster ride to get to where I am right now. I came in thinking that I was going to write a paper on Native American women marrying fur traders, which disappeared after the first week. I started looking into children’s literature in Victorian England and met with Jenny Schwartzberg, who was a great resource. I highly recommend that someone in the future look into this collection and ask Jenny for assistance. My topic now is looking at class issues in the late nineteenth century elementary education legislation. My thesis is still a little up in the air, which is not a good thing at all. I’m working on it! I have a meeting with Diane and Linda on Tuesday to go over what I have so far.

I have many things I intend to discuss on this blog for the posterity of those looking into the Newberry program:

deciding on a topic

out internships

exploring the city

graduate school advice from the library staff

Canterbury Courts

my wonderful classmates

how wonderful the Newberry is

When I have more time to devote to these topics, I will cover them to the best of my ability. This will be, realistically, over my winter break, after the completion of my semester here.

Still working hard

2011-09-28T03:59:35Z

Class and homework filled up last week, but we still found some time to hang out. A group of us always have lunch together, either in the Visitor’s Lounge or in Washington Square Park when it’s nice out. Last weekend Sam, Erin, and I went to a play with my parents, which was quite enjoyable. Of course, food that I don’t have to pay for or cook is a nice perk to hanging out with my parents. They also brought me sweaters, since it’s starting to get colder out. That Sunday Sam and I hung out, watching a bunch of Victorian romance movies. I also got my tragus pierced. I think it looks awesome!

Last Tuesday a group of us went up to the gorgeous Music Box Theater to see a movie. We saw ‘Mysteries of Lisbon,’ a four-and-a-half hour long Portuguese movie. It didn’t have a lot of plot to it, per se, but there were some great camera angles and cinematographic decisions they made that impressed me. Is cinematographic even a word? It is now! I spent the rest of the week, and most of Saturday, working on our three paper proposals and annotated bibliographies for Linda and Diane. That didn’t turn out to be too bad. I took a lot of notes on my sources, wrote the annotations, then wrote out the proposals. Writing out the annotations always helps me formulate what my ideas are and what argument I could make.

This Saturday I also took a trip to the Farmer’s Market on Division, which is really nice. That afternoon a group of us went thrift shopping in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area. After catching a cheap, Thai dinner, most of them went to a concert while Tim and I took their stuff back to Canterbury Courts.

Sunday morning arrived in time for me to finish my proposals, then go have tea with Jaci and Sam. Jaci had this black tea called PG Tips that was very good with a little milk and sugar. I might have to invest in it. We impulsively took a bus up to a larger location of a thrift store we had been to Saturday afternoon, which was totally worth it. We went to Canterbury to drop off our findings, then jumped on the L to get Downtown to meet Linda and Diane at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert they had tickets to. We picked Tim up along the way, and Liz had walked to the concert hall with Linda. We got split up inside the theater, but the concert itself was beautiful. We were treated to some Beethoven and a piece called ‘Firebird,’ I think. Something along those lines. After the concert, we walked back to the Gold Coast as a group.

This week is consumed by looking forward to this weekend. I’m going up to Beloit to visit my friends and to hang out for Homecoming and the Ballroom Dance on Saturday. We’re having our first Homecoming Parade since the ’60s, and both the Alliance and my sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau, are supposed to be participating. I’m really looking forward to that, and hanging out with my fellow Beloiters. We did have an interesting guest lecturer come in yesterday (Monday) to discuss with us his research and publication process. He seemed to be a friend of Linda’s. We had a nice lunch of Subway sandwiches with him. Today we had our Brown Bag Lunch with the Newberry staff, with pizza provided by Emily and the ACM Office. Sam and I also have wireless in our apartment now, which is extremely exciting! Now we don’t have to wander into Starbucks at various hours. I always felt bad going there and using their internet when I didn’t buy much.

I just realized I didn’t set the time for this blog correctly, so it looks like I’m posting this at 4 in the morning, when it’s really 11 o’clock at night. Bed time!

Two Weeks In

2011-09-18T23:22:46Z

Since we’ve had problems with our wi-fi in our room, I’ve gotten lazy about posting on this blog! No more! This blog is going to cover everything that I have done since moving to Chicago.

Last Sunday (the 4^th) we moved in to the Canterbury Court Apartments. It was really exciting to finally see what my room for the next three months was like. It turned out to be a small living space with a desk, comfy chair, small table, and two desk chairs. Attached to the living space is a small kitchenette with lots of storage space, a microwave, a stove/oven, and a small fridge. The oven is always really hot due to the pilot light, so we trap it in with the doors to the kitchenette. Our closet is huge! We only had one small dresser for the two of us, so my parents offered to bring down another one. Our bathroom is decent. The hot water is scalding in the bathroom, but not in the kitchen, which is odd. We’ve also had weird issues with getting hot showers. Oh well! Out first night in Chicago, Sam, my new roommate, and I went for a walk down to Hancock Tower for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was wonderful!

That Monday, we went for a walk up Lake Shore Drive to the Lincoln Park Zoo before meeting my parents with the dresser and a bookcase. It was extremely windy, so there were a lot of waves on the lake. We spent the afternoon in our apartment getting used to our new living space. As a group, the ACM Newberry students went to our professors’ apartment building for a group dinner. It was very exciting finally meeting everyone! We talked a little about safety in Chicago, roommate agreement forms, room condition forms, health care, etc. before enjoying our Thai food. I got to know Tim and Erin during dinner with our professor, Diane. Sam and I came back to the apartment and conked out after watching one of my favorite movies, Shaun of the Dead.

The first day at the Newberry, Tuesday, was also really cool. We got there early for a PowerPoint orientation of the library with a short history and brief overview of what the research centers are. We got our nametags for the library (which I think act like VIP passes). I brought leftovers for lunch, which we had while sitting in the ACM Chicago office. A group of us talked a lot about favorite movies and genres. We then joined up with the other ACM Chicago programs to learn about the grid system. The ACM office sent us off on a scavenger hunt after that, giving us a few addresses of interesting places to go. We had to take a train and a bus during the trip, so my group took a bus up to Wicker Park. We walked past an author’s house (I can’t remember his name anymore), a nice park, and a Turkish bath, which was closed. Since our food wouldn’t be ready until 4, we wandered around a thrift shop and a really neat bookstore. Our food wasn’t ready yet, so we took a walk and found a gorgeous Lutheran church in the neighborhood. The food we brought back was falafel and a lot of hummus. We took the L back to the ACM office and shared food and stories with all of the other groups, who went to places like China Town and Hyde Park.

Wednesday was our first day of actual class where we discussed Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis. It was nice to have a class discussion of people who are all interested in this subject and want to be in the class, as opposed to people who are in a class for credit. After a lunch sitting out in Washington Square Park, we had a workshop on paging materials. You have to fill out two slips to call materials to your carrel, which can get tiring on one’s hands. We were all tired and had to do homework for the next day, so most of us went back to the apartments after class was done.

For Thursday we read parts of Richard White’s Middle Ground, which was an interesting way to build upon Turner’s thesis. We are having some really good discussions about the theories behind boundaries. Linda and Diane handed out an assignment on the Jesuit Relations to look further into White’s sources, which I liked since I have worked with the Jesuit Relations before. I had an interview with Diane Dillon, an important library employee, for a job at the Newberry during this semester. That night we walked down to the river to join the rest of the ACM Chicago programs on a boat tour. I thought it would be really corny, and it sort of was, but the tour was actually really informative. There are a lot of things about Chicago’s history that I did not know. We had a great view from the lake of the Chicago skyline at sunset. We walked back to the apartments in the rain, which a lot of people weren’t prepared for. Hopefully it’ll be a story to laugh about later!

We reported our findings on the Jesuit Relations for the beginning of class on Friday, which yielded fascinating results about White’s evidence and possible misuse of it. We had a discussion after that about interdisciplinarity at all of our various institutions, which was quite amusing. We had a meeting with John Brady about reference material in the library and the card catalog. He also took us into the stacks building, which was really cool! I had my conference with Linda and Diane today about potential research topics. I was thinking that I wanted to work with narratives of women on the western frontier and how gender was constructed there and they gave me some more sources to find. I also found out that I got a position in Development, which I’m excited about. That night Sam and I hung out for a while, got cupcakes at a really cute store called ‘Sprinkles,’ and then Erin and Owen came over to chat and watch How to Train Your Dragon.

Early Saturday morning, a group of us went to the farmer’s market, which was full of some great looking food. I’m looking forward to the next farmer’s market to get more stuff. I got some flowers for the room, which are nice, as well as some green beans and an onion. We went up to our rooms to put things in our fridges before going down to the beach to build a sandcastle. Erin brought her trash can so we could build a lot bigger than I am used to. For a while it was just me, Sam, and Erin, but Becky showed up, then Tim. After that was all done, we went back to our apartments to have lunch. We had all agreed to meet Jaci down in the lobby to join her in an event at Millennium Park for the Lyric Opera. We took the Red Line down to Monroe then walked to Millennium Park. After staking out a spot and leaving Jaci as a guard, the rest of us went to Cosi for dinner. We finished our dinners and chatted while we waited for the event to start. As the concert started, the speaker made a point of saying that this concert was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which we all thought was beautiful. Then the opera began! It was a previous of performances that the Lyric Opera are doing this season. It was beautiful, but a few of us were exhausted by Intermission, so we went home, but not before noting the 9/11 in lights on the side of a building.

On Sunday, Sam and I went off to Lincoln Park Zoo again. We ran into the St. Andrews’ school doing a 5k benefit thing, which was quite amusing. We wandered around the zoo for a while before returning to the apartments for lunch. At 2 we met Erin, Tim, Becky, and Jason in the lobby to go to the Art Institute. We went to the Miniature Rooms before splitting up. I spent a lot of time in French Impressionism (my absolute favorite) and the rest of the European art. I walked through the Folk Art section before happening upon Erin. We went to the Contemporary exhibits before meeting the rest of the group to go to Big Bowl for dinner, which was really good.

For the next Monday, we presented our first Source Assignment. I had found an interesting encyclopedia of words used in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and The Hunting of the Snark, which made me rethink my women on the frontier idea. Now I want to find out why the library would have something like this book, which seems like a very odd piece. We discussed an article we read about chocolate and Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative. That afternoon we had a cool workshop about books as objects where we tried to put books in chronological order based on our observations from their covers. We weren’t allowed to open them. It wasn’t too challenging, but there were a few that stumped us.

Tuesday we discussed another article about boundaries, Native Ground, and an oral history about the first encounters between the French and the Ho-Chunk Nation. We then learned about interesting boundaries in relation to maps when we were asked to map out Mary Rowlandson’s journey, as well as the Newberry’s location in Chicago, which produced very amusing results, including a map based off of Tolkein’s Middle Earth. We had a brown bag lunch with Diane Dillon, Emily Gaul, and a variety of Newberry staff members with pizza provided. It was great to sit down with Emily and some staff people and talk about how they came to be here at the library/in Chicago. After lunch, Scott Stevens gave us a funny introduction to the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, speaking about the legacy of Native Americans in the United States. I went in to work in the Development office today, which was a completely new experience than what I’m used to.

Our focus on Wednesday was Jane Addams’ Twenty Years at Hull House. We spent a little time on that before meeting with Martha Briggs to learn about the Newberry’s manuscript collection, which has a lot of cool materials. I think my favorite was the LifeCup (a small, reusable cup sort of the size of a Dixie cup) with political figures on the side. We had lunch, did some research, then joined Linda and Diane at their colloquium about the ACM Newberry Seminar. It was fun learning about their previous research and how they found themselves teaching this seminar.

We discussed Jane Addams again Thursday morning and had Danny Greene come in to tell us about the Pullman neighborhood and the Pullman strike. Since I knew nothing about them, it was really cool to hear about this Utopian idealistic town that Pullman wanted to establish here. After lunch we had an introduction to the map collection with Jim Akerman before splitting up to work on our Source Assignment with the maps. I had to go to work, but loved what I saw of what Erin and I will be working on. We are looking at a map of Yellowstone National Park that was advertised to female tourists with the title “Alice’s New Adventures in Wonderland,” so with what I’ve been studying, I found it interesting. We are also working on a map of Iowa that I didn’t think was as interesting, but I’ll go look at it more tomorrow. After getting out of work, Sam, Kyle, and I went to Starbuck’s for a while before heading off to Burger Bar. They had good burgers and Sam and Kyle enjoyed their beer. When we got back to the neighborhood, we wandered around trying to find dessert before going back to Starbuck’s for sweets. We went off to Jewel for lunch and dinner fixings before heading back home.

On Friday we talked more about Hull-House then had a presentation of the Hull-House maps that focused on wage and ethnicity, which were very cool considering the amount of work that went into them. After that we took a bus down to the Hull-House Museum. We ate a quick lunch before our tour, focusing mostly on one room with numerous displays and a lot of information. We went to a room upstairs quickly because it had the same maps that we had seen earlier that day. We joined a member of the museum staff for a discussion on immigration which was very interesting. We discussed us versus them dichotomies and the idea of human rights. A few of us had things to do, so after the immigration discussion we took a bus back to either the Newberry or the apartments. I got off at the Newberry to go to work. Sam and I went up to Boystown to go to dinner at the Chicago Diner, an all vegetarian-vegan restaurant. We walked around there for a while before getting back on the train and coming home.

"Home"

2011-09-05T04:02:00Z

There are many adjectives that describe Chicago, and yes, many do begin with the letter "c." Although, I do like my adjectives, I am currently drawn to a noun, "home."

It is common for people to equate "home," with "house," something that complicates the phrase "home is where the heart is." So, what is "home?" Is "home" a physical structure where people live? Is "home" a people, a community? Is "home" a set of values, attitudes, customs, etc.? Is "home" a feeling? Is "home" a food, a warm gesture, a favorite pair of shoes, wearing glasses instead of contacts, or is it an animal? Is "home" just one thing, or is it everything? Is "home" at "the heart" of us, individually and as one?

Right now, "home" is Chicago, and to be honest I do not know what that means, but I am curious to find out.

While I deconstruct and reconstruct defintions of "home," here is a "home" playlist for you:

1. Take Me Home Tonight ~ Eddie Money
2. Home ~ Iggy Pop
3. Homecoming ~ Kanye West
4. Don't Leave Home ~ Dido
5. Sweet Home Alabama ~ Lynard Skynard

Gros Bisous,
Your Neighborhood Feminist

Summer Lovin’

2011-07-28T19:35:37Z

My mom, sister, and I drove down to the Newberry Library yesterday and had a blast! I was worried about living in the city because I have this vision of it as really noisy and polluted, but this area is nicer than I envisioned. The Canterbury Court Apartments look like a fun place to live and are near enough the Lincoln Park Zoo and the lakefront that I could easily walk there. I’m looking forward to moving in and for the seminar starting and begin discussing our texts with Linda and Diane.

Chicago - From Uncertainty to Unbelievable

2011-08-30T03:45:00Z

A week from now I will be in Chicago, as a student in the Associated College's of the Midwest (A.C.M.), Newberry Library Seminar, Research in the Humanities program. Yes, it takes more than one breath to pronounce, and yes, I have taken my fair share of inhilations to prepare.

Two autumns ago, I participated in the Gettysburg Semester at Gettyburg College - an intellectually stimulating program dedicated to Civil War Era Studies. Due to my previous off-campus experiences, I believed early on that I would not be nervous about going to Chicago. But, as luck, or life, will have you, I felt nervous and overwhelmed, a more appropriate word -- uncertain. Through my dose of uncertainty came a slew of realizations:
*Uncertainty is an organic feeling, something that is not produced by low self-esteem, unpreparedness, or a lack of confidence.
*Uncertainity is a liminal state, it will not last forever.
*Uncertainity, equals empowerment, and once again, the perception is a personal choice.

So, last week I felt uncertain. Yesterday, I felt overwhelmed. Today I feel excited. And all of it, all of the emotions, are absoultely perfect.

So, here is to my uncompleted list, my empty boxes, and my overly excited heart.
Here is to Chicago!

Gros Bisous,
Your Neighborhood Feminist

Image source

Miss Celia Foote

2011-08-12T02:20:00Z

The Help is HUGE right now. Many aspects of the book warrant a warm feminist discussion, but I choose Miss Celia Foote. Her strength, committment to individuality, and unwillingness to forget where she came from, inspire me to do the same. Each day, and each moment, is an opportunity to choose who we are, and Miss Celia emulates that theory in her actions.

So, if you have not read The Help, pick it up at your local bookshop or Target, and fall into the beauty of individual characters and their actions.

Gros Bisous,
Your Neighborhood Feminist

Image Source

Summer Lovin’

2011-07-29T20:51:33Z

Our Kind

2011-07-25T01:16:00Z

Everytime I read Plath's poem "Mushrooms," I feel inspired, accomplished, and connected, to both myself and the world around me. Take a moment to read her poem and reflect on your response.

Do the words remind you to be the change, and be the love?

Plath's poetry does not speak to everyone. Like Professor Watson tells her students in Mona Lisa Smile when they witness one of Jackson Pollock's paintings, the assignment is not to like the painting, but to consider it.

So, the question then, goes beyond feeling. Although you may disagree with the poem's structure, style, or message, do you consider the features and what they offer?

Gros Bisous,

Your Neighborhood Feminist

Mushrooms

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widden the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

Image Source - Plath
Image Source - Mushrooms

poem courtesy of:

Plath, Sylvia. "Mushrooms." The Colossus. New York: Random House, 1998. 37-38. Print.

Smorgasbords: Sounds & Shades

2011-07-21T15:57:00Z

I love smorgasbords ... they are a full throttle 'everything' experience. Why place limitations on your life or pleasures? With that said, musically, I am much the same way. My iTunes library spans from Siouxsie Sioux to The Dead Kennedys, Faust operas, von Weber's clarinet serenades, French electro-pop ... it is quite a smorgasbord.

I recently received Bon Iver's latest album Bon Iver, for my twenty-first birthday. (Yes, I love his music, but I also love that he is a fellow Wisconsinite!) Although "Perth" and "Towers" are my new favorites, I am in love with the featured artwork by the Midwestern, Wisconsin born, artist, Gregory Euclide. Ethereal and peaceful, the texturized natural images pull me deeper into my consciousness.

So, here are two awesome links that will hopefully, aid you, reader, on your journery of self-awareness and acceptance.

http://www.gregoryeuclide.com/

http://boniver.org/#/sections/categories/blogtower/all/0/

Bon chance and remember ... Be the change. Be the love.

Gros Bisous,

Your Neighborhood Feminist

Gregory Euclide's patterns of my own acceptance became making

Valkomna!

2011-07-21T02:54:00Z

As a person who is privy to nineteenth century American customs, it seemed a bit strange to step beyond my pen and paper, and into the world of pixelated fonts. However, the transition feels smooth, comfortable even. Although nothing can replace my Moleskine notebooks, writing for a larger audience, a community, is a nice change of pace.
Stay tuned for feminist-esque musings and contemplations.

Gros Bisous,
Your Neighborhood Feminist