I heard about the "personal curriculum" trend in September 2025 and immediately loved the structure it could provide to allow me to dig into things that I'm always putting off.
I'm using my personal curriculum to catch up on classic literature and pop culture, learn new crafts and other skills, and advance my career. Currently, my "study period" two months, and I'm doing two or three topics per study period as life, and my full-time job, allow.
You can find a list of my previous and on-going topics with links to the topic tag here.
Want to create your own personal curriculum? Here's a guide I put together after spending a month researching curriculum. Here is my syllabus tag if you'd like examples.
Despite feeling defeated by my last curriculum, I've gotten off to a strong start with the new one!
Topic: Dark Academia Classics
I stopped at the library earlier this week and found a copy of Brideshead Revisited (after checking online to make sure it was on the shelf). The Secret History is evidently in high demand, so I put a hold on it.
I enjoyed the preface to Brideshead Revisited, which was written by Evelyn Waugh for a later reprint. He described the book as being full of "gluttony," as it was written in the throes of World War 2. He also admits that he thought grand manor houses would fall to the wayside after the war, but turned out to be incorrect, as many great houses were turned into places the public could visit, even if a family still lived there.
Given that Waugh wrote it while serving in WW2, it is interesting that he uses the war itself as a framing device - an English Army officer finds himself suddenly camping with his company on the grounds of a manor that he used to know well, and reminisces on how he originally came to know the place.
Waugh's descriptions and analogies are really wonderful, and I look forward to reading more of the book.
Topic: Basic Block Pattern
I cut out the paper sloper pattern that I'm using as a starting point last weekend. Based off the pattern envelope size chart, I probably would have started with a size 12, but the fitting instructions inside recommended taking your high bust measurement and picking a size that way. (The pattern is drafted for a B-cup, which I am.) That resulted in a size 10, which does indeed fit well in the bust, but I needed to add about 2in to the waist line.
I'm on version three of my fittings for the bodice. Most of it fits very well, but there is some pulling between the waist and bust darts.
I posted to Instagram for help. One person suggested letting out the waist darts a bit, which I'll try this evening. I'll also be taking it to my sewing circle to get opinions.
I added small shoulder darts to the back bodice, as the original pattern only had a tiny bit of excess which you were supposed to ease into the front shoulder seam. I also raised the point of the back waist darts. I thought I'd have to round in the top of the center back seam to keep the neckline close-fitting, but I think the shoulder darts helped with that somehow, so I can leave the center back seam straight.
On the front, I had to adjust the dart placement because my apex point is not where the pattern apex point is. I've also made significant changes to the armscye and shoulder area, including bringing the armscye edge of the shoulder seam forward by about an inch to account for my forward shoulders. I also carved a lot out of the front armscye seam because of those forward shoulders - the distance between my armpits is a lot shorter in the front than across my back. The armscye won't be finalized until I start working on the sleeves, tough.
*Note to self: I need to make sure the back of the armscyes sit far enough out.
one of the biggest things I can advocate for (in academia, but also just in life) is to build credibility with yourself. It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking of yourself as someone who does things last minute or who struggles to start tasks. people will tell you that you just need to build different habits, but I know for me at least the idea of ‘habit’ is sort of abstract and dehumanizing. Credibility is more like ‘I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it, and more importantly I trust myself to do it’. you set an assignment goal for the day and you meet it, and then you feel stronger setting one the next day. You establish a relationship with yourself that’s built on confidence and trust. That in turn starts to erode the barrier of insecurity and perfectionism and makes it easier to start and finish tasks. reframing the narrative as a process of building credibility makes it easier to celebrate each step and recognize how strong your relationship with yourself can become
Goal: Create a block bodice, sleeve, and skirt pattern set that fits my body to the best of my ability.
Resources
Butterick 6849
The Closet Historian's "Drafting Dangerous" playlist and other basic block videos
Necessary Materials
Several yards of non-stretch scrap fabric for mockups
Poster board or thick brown paper for final pattern copies
Pencil, permanent marker, and misc sewing items
Schedule
Weeks 1-2 - Fit the bodice. Do not finalize paper pattern yet.
Weeks 3-6 - Fit the sleeves, prioritizing range of movement and making any necessary adjustments to the bodice. Finalize bodice and sleeve paper patterns and mark preferred short sleeve length on the final pattern.
Weeks 7-9 - Fit the straight skirt and make an a-line skirt variation. Finalize both paper patterns and mark or note preferred hem lengths (mini, knee, below knee, maxi).
Week 10-11 - Make two princess seam variations for the bodice (one with seams going to the shoulder and one with seams going into the armscye).
Week 12-13 - Make several sleeve variations (a bishop sleeve, a shoulder puff sleeve, etc).
End-of-Curriculum Reward
One cut of fabric and any notions necessary to make one modern wardrobe project of my choice (current contender: black & white rayon for midi a-line or slip skirt).
*Originally intended to be September-October 2026, but extended to put me back on track after my previous curriculums' extension, and to give myself more time on account of my busy schedule.
Learning Goal: Immerse myself in classic dark academia media to capture the spirit of the autumnal, back-to-school season.
Required Reading (pick 2)
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh, pub 1945, 300-400pgs
Maurice by E.M. Forester, pub 1971, 200-300pgs
Sleepwalking, Meg Wolitzer, pub 1982, 200-300pgs
The Secret History by Donna Tart, pub 1992, 500-600pgs
Recommended Watching
Maurice, 1987 movie, dir James Ivory (on Tubi)
Brideshead Revisited, 1981 limited series, produced by Granada Television (on Britbox)
Another Country, 1984 movie, dir Marek Kanievska (on Britbox)
Dead Poets Society, 1989 movie, dir Peter Weir
Brideshead Revisited, 2008 movie, dir Julian Jarrold
Supplies
One small notebook and pen to act as a media journal.
Assignments
Write a short essay (min 500 word) essay on the evolution and modern popularity of the “dark academia” genre. (Due August 28)
Read at least two of the four Required Reading titles. Write a short reflective essay on each one upon completion.
Watch Recommended Watching titles as desired, or after finishing the novel it was based off of, and write a short reflective essay on each one upon completion.
Weekly journals, to be posted by 5pm Friday every week.
Keep a media journal to document thoughts. Write something during/after each reading or watching session.
Field trip(s): Once per month, visit a coffee shop, bookstore, library, or museum to sit and read, journal, or sketch for at least an hour.
*Originally intended to be September-October 2026, but extended to put me back on track after my previous curriculums' extension, and to give myself more time and a better chance of reading more than one of these books.
Well, I have to admit that this learning period has been a bit of a bust. Even with a whole month's extension, I didn't finish what I intended to do.
I would, in the future, like to continue reading James Baldwin's essays. I found some of them very interesting, and they provide glimpses into everyday life that history books just don't.
I have hesitantly settled on soft summer and soft autumn as my color seasons. My opinions may be biased, though. The only thing I'm sure of is that I want to wear more light-to-medium purples. Lilacs, lavenders, and the like. And I still don't like wearing yellow. (I probably do lean cool-toned.)
I'm about to (belatedly) post my two August curriculums - both of which I'm excited about and one of which I've already started! (But more on that in my next journal entry.)
I feel like this learning period has been a bit of a disaster. I think I had a good start, but the chaos of moving and then life just getting super busy this week (and again in two weeks time) has stalled things more than I'd care to admit.
Topic: James Baldwin Deep Dive
I continue to make slow progress on the essay collection I borrowed from the library. I finished Notes of a Native Son, which started with literature reviews and was largely lost on me, then continued on to tell stories of his time as a black American living and traveling in Europe, which I found much more interesting. Because Notes of a Native Son was originally published as its own essay collection, I am going to consider that I have read my required one essay collection.
I am continuing on to Nobody Knows My Name, which was mean as a direct follow-up to Notes of a Native Son. It has opened with two essays on growing up in the ghettos of Harlem, how Harlem has changed over his life, and how people in ghettos feel about "the projects."
Topic: Personal Color Analysis
I went through my closet and my fabric stash and took draped photos of myself with as many of the colors Rees suggests as I could find.
Many people say that people intuitively gravitate toward their best colors, so I tallied how many of the recommended test colors I found in my closet for each season.
Curiously, I had no spring colors, not for any of the spring subseasons. I had five summer colors (one each for light and soft, three for true summer). Five autumn colors (two true autumns, two soft autumns, and one that was sort of between a deep and soft autumn color). Two deep winter colors, but none for other winter subseasons.
I still, after ten weeks of color analysis reading and videos and testing and draping, have no idea whether my undertone is warm or cool. I'm leaning toward warm. But like an almost-neutral warm. Or an almost-neutral cool.
I don't think I'm high enough contrast to be a deep/dark season, nor do I think I'm low contrast enough to be a light season. I'm not decided warm or cool toned, which rules out the true/warm/cool seasons. That leaves me with the soft or bright seasons. I definitely gravitate toward softer colors more than the brighter ones, but that doesn't mean they "harmonize" with my features more.
I think the next order of business it to try draping in the seasonal pallets for just those four seasons and to see which seasons I have more of in my wardrobe.
It's a bit frustrating to be sort of middle of the road on everything, but also color is not the end of the world.
Things got hectic during my move, but they've settled down now and I've had time to read more from the collection of essays I borrowed from the library.
The first group of essays in the collection is "Notes of a Native Son." The first few essays were hard for me to follow because they were essentially reviews of media from that time which I am completely unfamiliar with. The next few essays have been personal narrative essays about his time in Europe in the 40s and 50s, which I've found more enjoyable.
I've found his writing style to be very much reflective of his style of speaking (have I talked about this in a previous journal?). His sentences are long and meandering, and I often have to re-read them to make sense of them. I'm not sure if this is a result of my lately-unexercised longform reading comprehension skills, a difference of time and culture, or just a particular quirk of his writing.
Topic: Color Analysis
This also has been pushed to the side, as I reached the evidently unavoidable draping phase of seasonal color analysis just as I was moving.
In Rees' book, she has you use undertone, contrast, and saturation to narrow down which of the 12 seasons you might be. Then she suggests a few key colors to drape for each season to test your theories.
In the next week, I intend to collect fabric from around my house to start draping colors. Once I've exhausted my own collection, I will be raiding my parents' house.
I still honestly have no idea if I'm warm or cool toned. I think probably I'm neutral-cool, but undertone is definitely not my dominant feature. I think my contrast level is too high for me to be either of the light seasons, but not high enough for the deep/dark seasons. I don't think my saturation level is high enough for the bright seasons, but I could be wrong.
I chose these two learning topics for May and June because I knew it would be a busy month for me. I underestimated just how busy it would be (I'm moving) and overestimated how much I would be able to get done (way less than expected), so I have made the decision to lengthen this learning period by an additional month.
I had already stenciled-in curricula for July-August, September-October, and November-December, but have ultimately decided to add July to this learning period and August to the next, making those periods three months each before returning to two months for November-December. That does mean I'm losing postponing two topics, but I'm okay with that. I think the extra time for my Aug-October topis will be useful.
I originally intended to do this as part of my Zyla "true colors" section, but the more I read about people finding their colors, the more I saw people saying not to do this color-picking thing, because the colors would be much less saturated than your "true colors" should be.
So, having determined my "true colors" already, I decided to color-pick anyway, because it's still sort of adjacent, and I thought it would give me some useful information toward finding my color season.
I used the same three selfies as I used for the color draping quiz.
The top left corner are colors picked from my skin, with the top row being colors picked from a pink-er, more flushed area of skin (my nose or cheeks).
The top right are colors picked from my lips. My lips were very pale in one of the selfies, which you can see in the center column of pinks.
The bottom left are colors picked from my eyes. The top row were all picked from the dark outer ring of my iris, while the second and third row were picked from the larger middle section. I'm actually kind of surprised by how cool these greens are! Not surprised by how muted the saturation is, though.
Bottom right is my hair. Sometimes very warm, sometimes very cool, always very confusing.
So, have I learned anything? I'm not sure. I do think my undertone is sort of neutral-cool, my coloring more muted than saturated. But beyond that? Who knows.
One of my assignments/ways to try to find my color season was to do a "bubble-head" exercise. I would take a selfie (or multiple selfies) in indirect natural light, cut them out so you could only see my face, and fill the background in different colors to see what looked good with my complexion.
This process was made easier for me when I found a website called Vivaldi, which I could upload my selfie to, and it would guide me through pairs or triples of colors to determine first my undertone, then my season, and finally my sub-season.
Since I'm viewing this color analysis thing as an experiment, and a good experiment requires repeatability, I decided to try the same quiz and the same selfies from different devices (screen differences) and from different places (lighting differences) and also sent everything to my sibling to do and see what they got (different screen and lighting, PLUS different color biases than I have).
Attempt 1
My first attempt was done on a laptop in an office.
I got three different results - soft summer, deep autumn, and soft autumn.
Soft summer has a cool undertone and light value, while the two autumn sub-seasons have neutral-warm undertones and dark values. All three seasons have a muted chroma. Interestingly, soft summer and soft autumn are considered "sister seasons," which is a concept I will have to investigate further.
It was honestly really difficult to choose between colors sometimes! I honestly think I have a very neutral undertone, which complicates matters, and I think the gold vs silver issue is given too much weight. You're only going to have that much metallic reflection if you wear a metallic blouse or really chunky jewelry (neither of which I do).
Attempt 2
The first attempt was done on my laptop in an office. My second attempt was done on my phone in a dim room. I used the same website and the same selfies.
This time, I got soft summer (cool, light, muted) with two of the selfies, and cool summer (cool, "leaning light," "leaning muted") on one.
Maybe it's the screen differences, maybe I've just had more "practice" seeing the colors, but I'm starting to think I may actually lean cool in my undertone. I do have blue/purple veins, which is considered an indicator of cool undertones.
I still wonder about how my own feelings about color (independent of how they look on me) are affecting the outcomes. Do muted colors really look good on me? Or do I just dislike neons and pastels?
Sibling's Attempt
I sent my sibling the quiz/website and the three selfies I used and asked them to go through the process for me.
Very curiously, they got deep winter (cool, dark, bright) for two of the selfies and bright winter (neutral-cool, dark, bright) for one.
I was kind of surprised, because I had more or less ruled out the winter seasons! I like the colors in the pallets, but I felt like the colors were too saturated and stark on me.
The Good People of Reddit
Having reached no conclusions, I took a risk and posted digital drapes of all 12 seasons on all three selfies, suggested that I suspect I have cool-neutral undertones, and asked for opinions.
Their opinions were even less conclusive.
I got ten comments in less than 24 hours, mostly leaning toward warm/true autumn and warm/true spring. Very surprising, considering I thought I had cooler undertones! People mostly pointed to my eyebrows and hair as a sign of my undertone, which I think is kind of silly considering it's supposed to be about your skin's undertone.
There were at least one vote each for bright and light spring, soft autumn, and soft and cool/true summer.
No one suggested any of the winter seasons, light summer, or deep autumn. One commenter said I "can eliminate winter and light/deep subseasons entirely as you don’t have the depth/lightness for those," which I think I agree with and which corresponds with (most of) the votes I got.
Conclusions
Well, conclusions about my subseason are still frustratingly elusive! The lack of decided warm or cool undertones are making it very difficult.
I think I will have to disregard my sibling's assertion that I'm any kind of winter, and I think I agree I agree with that Reddit commenter that I can rule out the darkest and lightest seasons as being too dark/light. So I'm of middling brightness.
Am I more muted or more middling in terms of saturation? I prefer the more muted colors (soft autumn and soft summer), but some people like the more middling colors for me (warm/true spring, warm/true autumn, warm/true summer).
So I'm... very middling, I guess.
I just got Rees' color analysis book from the library, so perhaps that will lend some insight.
I have closed out the Zyla portion of my color analysis journey and am moving into the 12 color seasons! I picked up the Rees book this week and have been playing around with a digital draping thing online.
I was worried that my own feelings towards colors might be distracting me, so I made my sibling try it and they got a very different result! I've posted to a color analysis subreddit and we'll see what they say. More on that in an assignment post, though.
Topic: James Baldwin
It's been a month since I started If Beale Street Could Talk. It's a seven hour audio book and I still have almost 45min left. I'm a bit embarrassed.
I'm turning away from his novels for a moment and have just picked up a collection of his essays. The book itself is not excessively large, but it is printed on 800 pages of that tissue-thin paper usually reserved for Bibles. I don't think I'll get through the whole thing, but that won't stop me from trying!
Yesterday I watched a short clip of James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show from May 1969. It starts with a re-hashing of the question about whether or not Baldwin is "optimistic" about the future of Black people in the US. He has been asked this, I think, in every interview of his that I've watched. And once again, he turns it around to talk about the future of the US as a whole, not just African-Americans.
He also mentions two very different-sounding ideas, that are nonetheless both true. The first is the idea that "I don't want to be given anything by you, I just want you to leave me alone so I can do it myself." The second idea is that maybe Black people in America don't aspire to the same things, the same accomplishments, the same kind of greatness that white Americans do. And aren't their ideals still valid?
When Cavett asked about the Black leaders who "scare" white Americans with their rhetoric about "burning the whole thing down," Baldwin points out that the idea only scares white people because it is new to them. He references an old spiritualist song, which was originally a slave song, about tearing down a metaphorical building. He also exposes the double standard of how when groups of white people fight violently for their freedom, they are considered heroic, but when African-Americans take up arms to fight for their own freedom, they are considered scary or extremists.
The interview ends with a discussion of police brutality against Black people in the US, and Baldwin states point blank that just because there may be some good police officers, that doesn't mean he will, or should, tone down or qualify his general statements about police brutality. because it is the police system, as a whole, which allows the brutality to happen.
My reservations about Zyla's theories were not serious enough to stop me from going through the exercises to find my own "true colors." The process was, I'll admit, harder than I thought, and took not one field trip to the hardware store for pain chips, but at least four.
I mentioned, in my review of the book, concern over picking colors from my eyes. From a distance they look sort of mossy green (depending on the light) but up close they are mostly a sort of seafoam green with a golden brown ring around the middle. I decided to go with the color-as-seen-from-a-conversational-distance.
I generally like the colors I "found." They are cooler than I expected (cool-toned, not more hip and interesting), rich but slightly muted.
My "essence" color is a pink-ish cream. My "romantic" color is a sort of cool, dusty rose. My "dramatic" color is a surprisingly saturated, almost cornflower blue, but slightly darker. My "energy" color is sort of mossy, while my "tranquil" color leans more toward lichen. (I think his poetic color descriptions have gotten to me.)
My "first base" is sort of a dark blue spruce. My "second base" reminds me of dark chocolate. My "third base" is almost the color of an old penny.
Based on Zyla's color name groupings and brief descriptions ("Cool and Relaxed," "Mixed"), I believe I fall into his "Summer" season. I'm not sure I fit into his description of a Summer personality, but I'm not super on board with the appearance-and-behavior-are-linked idea anyway.
I'd say my "Summer" "archetype" might be the "Classic Summer" - or at least it fits better than the five other summer types. Zyla suggests muted cool tones, low-contrast outfits, lots of drapery, light perfumes, and avoiding animal prints or industrial hardware.
I'll admit that I don't object to muted cool tones, and I prefer lighter scents for daily wear, and I do tend to avoid animal prints (though that's just personal preference, not because I think I look bad in them). I like a bit more contrast in my outfits (like a medium level of contrast), and I really hate drapey clothes like cowl necks and anything ruched. I'd even go so far as to say that I like a bit of structure in my garments. I suppose that's also personal preference though, and maybe I would look good in draped clothing. But I wouldn't enjoy wearing draped clothing, so I'm not going to.
Overall, I think the "true colors" could be useful in selecting clothes and makeup for myself in the future, but I'm not going to shift my wardrobe toward being exclusively those colors. I'll be disregarding the season and archetype suggestions, though.
Assignment: Review of "Color Your Style: How to Wear Your True Colors" by David Zyla
May-June 2026
"Color Your Style," previously published under the title "The Color of Style" is a book by David Zyla where he instructs readers on finding and wearing their "true colors." It is interspersed with anecdotes about how finding their true colors has helped his previous styling clients find success in life.
The first part of the book leads readers through examining their skin, visible veins, eyes, and hair to pick out eight "true" colors. He calls these colors your "essence" color (white, from the skin), "romantic" color (red or pink, from the flushed skin), "dramatic" color (blue, from the veins), "energy" color (from the iris), "tranquil" color (also from the iris), "first base" (black, from the ring around the iris), "second base" (brown, from the hair), and "third base" (khaki, also from the hair).
Zyla says that strategically wearing your "true colors" for certain kinds of events can help influence how the people around you feel toward and react to you.
After guiding readers through finding their "true colors," Zyla explains the ideas of "seasons" and "archetypes."
Guided by the popular theories at the time, he recognizes four seasons, though he places as much weight on personality as on personal coloration.
His descriptions of the colors for each season are poetic, and therefore somewhat subjective, but he provides the names of famous painters whose color sensibilities match what he envisions, and he also names several celebrities who he has determined fit into that category.
Like many stylists of that era and now, Zyla recognizes the need to break down those four seasons even further. He chooses to break each season into six "archetypes." Much like his seasons, these "archetypes" lean heavily on personality. He doesn't go into specifics about the colors for each archetype (which would be difficult in a black & white printed book anyway), but he does recommend levels of color contrast, fabric types, patterns, and textures, as well as suggesting additional painters who use applicable colors and celebrities who fit into the "archetype."
In the shorter second section of the book, Zyla makes gratifyingly down-to-earth recommendations about how to shift your wardrobe toward your "true colors" and how to make the most of the items you already have. He suggests when it is (or isn't) appropriate to wear certain colors, what kinds of garments you can get in certain colors so that they become easy-to-wear wardrobe workhorses, and more.
I have largely mixed feelings on Zyla's book and theories. I think the correlation of physical coloration and personality is a bit woo-woo for me. I cannot in good conscience believe that our personality is tied to our physical appearance because that idea has been the root behind the rationale of so many theories that have been used to discriminate against people in the past.
Now, obviously Zyla isn't trying to discriminate here or say that any appearance or coloration is bad. In fact, his description of each season and each archetype is overwhelmingly positive! It just rubs me the wrong way.
I think his ideas about picking colors from your appearance is an interesting one, and I enjoyed going through the process (more on that in another assignment), but I have more bones to pick.
Let's start with the first color you find through the exercises - your "essence" color. The "essence" color is supposed to be a smoothing and mixing of all the colors in your skin, something that harmonizes with your skin. He says that it is your version of white.
Sit with that for a minute.
Why is your skintone your version of white?
I think it would be more inclusive - and, frankly, more accurate to the way he suggests wearing it and incorporating it into your life - to say that your "essence" color is your version of "nude." And also I would group it as a neutral or a "base."
I take no issue with the romantic color or the dramatic color, but then we start pulling colors from the eyes.
I have green-hazel eyes. When I pick colors from my eyes, should I pick from the main, seafoam green part of my iris or the bright golden brown ring around the middle? Alternately, do I pick colors based on the mossy green shade my eyes appear from a distance, which is how most people see them?
I take no issue with the other colors specifically except to say that I worry that someone with brown/dark skin might end up with a pretty monotonous color pallet. The Zyla subreddit often claims that you're not color-picking from your appearance, it's more of a vibes-based thing, but it doesn't say that anywhere in the book. I'd be curious to speak to a black peron or other dark-skinned person who has actually had a consultation with him and see what colors they got.
As for the seasons and archetypes, I'll be curious to see, as my exploration of personal color analysis continues, how Zyla's seasons compare to the other color season theories.
He certainly seems to break each season down into more subgroups ("archetypes") than most theories do (six versus three). And with his recommendations for pattern, texture, and even garment styles, it feels like it starts to bleed into the Kitchener essences a bit.
Overall, I think it's a fun exercise, and an interesting way to experiment with your personal style.
Some progress has been made this week with regards to colors. I've determined all my Zyla "true colors" except my second and third basics. And I want to re-do the eye color ones.
The hazel eye thing is still throwing me off. People in the (largely inactive) Zyla subreddit often say that you aren't "color picking," it's more of a vibes thing. So I think I should use the colors my eyes look from a distance, not up close. Up close my eyes are mostly cool tones, teals and aquas and seafoam greens. But, presumably because of the yellow-brown ring right around my pupil, my eyes look like a warmer green from a distance - more mossy and grassy and olive.
Also, I finally decided to check out the seasonal archetypes of Zyla's book, and honestly? I'm just going to skip it. The seasonal archetypes talk personality, silhouette, patterns, and textures. Not colors, which is the point of this exercise.
I did decide to start on the non-Zyla color seasons though! I found a website that lets you do a guided bubble-head style color quiz, which was basically one of my assignments.
I did it three different times with three different selfies taken in indirect natural light and got three different results. More on that in the assignment write-up. I'm also worried that my personal color preferences are affecting my results, so I'm sending the link and the selfies to my sibling to see what they get.
Topic: James Baldwin Deep Dive
Yesterday I watched a conversation between James Baldwin and Kenneth B Clark from June 1963. Baldwin starts by talking about his own past, growing up and going to school in Harlem, New York. He and Clark point out how, in a way, things in NY's school system had regressed. Because when Baldwin was in high school, the public school system had at least one black principal. In 1963, when the conversation was filmed, there were none.
They move on to talk about the Student Nonviolent Movement, and then about Malcom X and other black Muslim leaders who preached the idea of black superiority. Baldwin finds fault with the idea of black superiority, because the superiority of one group of people always means superiority over some other group of people, which is how slavery and segregation got started in the first place.
From there, they take a moment to discuss Martin Luther King Jr and his message of nonviolence and loving your oppressor. Baldwin speaks well of MLK, but says that his idea is one arrived at after a lifetime of religion, serious belief, and strict morals. Baldwin says that it is simply not a relatable ideal for most black Americans, even if it is admirable.
When asked if he is optimistic or pessimistic about the future of racial equality in America, Baldwin states that the future of black people in America is inextricably linked to the future of the country as a whole. Much like in the video I watched last week, he says that white Americans need to examine their own thinking and their own history and question why there was a group of subjugated people at all and how that was made possible. The implication, I believe, is that white people need to find the faults in the racial beliefs they were raised on before America could truly become desegregated and achieve racial equality.
Unfortunately, here in 2026, many white Americans have taken several steps backward.
I have to admit to making no progress this week. It's been harder than I thought it would be to pin down my energy and tranquil colors (from my eyes). They're saturated, but not bright. I intend to make another trip to the paint chip section of the hardware store this weekend to work on those and my second and third basics (from my hair).
Topic: James Baldwin Deep Dive
I'm a little over halfway through If Beale Street Could Talk, which I was hoping to be nearly done with by now. I'm enjoying its conversational and occasionally train of thought-style prose, though there are moments I wish it wasn't so slow-paced.
This afternoon I watched this video, a conversation between James Baldwin and Nathan Cohen that was televised by the CBC in December 1960. Baldwin's conversation point about how racial integration would be achieved in America boiled down to one main point - that Americans think of life in binaries - "black or white, good or bad, straight or crooked" - but, as he points out, "life is not like that." He says that racial integration cannot be fully reached in America until each American, on an individual level, takes the time to examine their tendency toward this binary way of looking at the world.
Earlier in the video, he talks about the flaw in how white liberal Americans are approaching desegregation. He says that white liberals want to help black Americans, but, in an example about a black student and a white teacher, "he doesn't want to be helped, he wants to be accepted." The white liberals are still placing the black people they want to help into the category of the other, as someone not like them, and until white liberals can examine this need to group people and things, these systems of binary thinking, desegregation will not truly work.
Clearly that's still a problem in the US today, that tendency toward black vs white, us vs them. So much has changed since 1960 and yet so much hasn't.
I read all of David Zyla's book (well, I've skipped the archetype part for now) in a day and have started collecting paint swatches. It is... much harder to find a good match than I expected it to be.
I've had a lot of thought on Zyla's methods and how it might result in a very limited pallet for people of color (but more on that in a later assignment). My current, personal issue with his methods is the colors I'm picking for my eyes.
I have hazel eyes, and from a distance they look a very warm green. Up close, however, the majority of my iris is a very cool green - almost a seafoam green color - but there's a golden brown ring right around the pupil. Do I pick based on the distance color or the close-up color? And if I pick the close-up colors, do I pick extra colors because there are two distinct colors in my iris?
Topic: James Baldwin Deep Dive
Less thoughts here. I've just started listening to an unabridged audiobook version of If Beale Street Could Talk. I'm less than an hour in (I think the whole audiobook is about 7hrs), but I'm enjoying it. The reader is very good.
