Humanities Work: Japanese Internment Essay Response 3-8-13
The poetry project was not only educational, but also very enjoyable for me. I really enjoyed listening to the guest speakers, and then applying that knowledge to the poetry performance itself. I learned about fundraising, performance, poetry, and history. All in all, this was a very interesting project.
I was amazed by the knowledge presented by Ms. Carson, Ms. Naito, and the JCCH. Ms. Carson was the first to come to our class, and I was struck with this sense that a piece of history was being laid out in front of us. This woman had fought for the rights of a minority that makes up a large percentage of the people on our island. I think that I definitely gained a clearer picture of what Japanese Internment was about, and what it was like to fight for a cause. Ms. Carson had given us a resource which was the case brief for the Korematsu case. This helped me understand and form appropriate questions from a given reading. As I went through the reading, I thought question such as “If you could do one thing differently during the case, what would it be?” When she came to class, I asked her that question. Her answer was interesting because she said that she wouldn’t have done much else differently. I was surprised by this because I assumed, as with any such monumental endeavor, one would have regrets. However, it was interesting to hear her response.
Since we have only done the research portion of our paper, and we haven’t actually started to write it, I can only say so much about what I learned from the experience. I have high hopes for my essay, and I believe that it will come out very well. The research that I have done thus so far has yielded interesting findings. Through my research, I have advanced my ability to differentiate between fact and opinion. When I research my topic, I often look at multiple sources to make sure that the fact is valid. I will also ask myself “does this sound right?” If it doesn’t pass this simple test, I will usually try to cross check it in order to make sure.
I definitely learned a lot through the fundraising portion of the project. I feel as if my experience in it has actually expanded my ability to market a product and event. I had not previously had any experience in selling items to people. I was surprised that going around to people and convincing them to buy the brownies was rather fun. Not only did I learn more about selling a product, I also learned about pushing an event. In order to make the poetry slam more publicized, I set up a Facebook event for it. I invited my friends, and told my classmates to invite theirs as well. I also used tricks such as posting a picture of the poetry slam poster (which I designed) and getting my classmates to like and comment on the photo so that it would rise higher in their friends “news feed.” I also made postings in Facebook groups, so that my friends would know about the event. In this way, I definitely enhanced my ability to publicize events.
My knowledge of poetry was expanded while I researched which poem I was going to preform. I looked through dozens of poems available on the web, however I did not find one that was satisfactory at first. I finally stumbled upon an online archive of “Legends from Camp” by Lawson Inada. I read all the poems available in the archive, and in doing so, I learned a lot about poetry from that time period as well as what it must have been like in the camps. This helped me to place events in their historical context because I actually had to deal with artifacts that pertained to the historical event. It brought the history to life.
Doing the actual poem was the highlight of the project. I thought that it was really fun rehearsing the poem, and getting it right. After I got it right, it was an exciting experience to preform it in front of so many people. I became more adept at preforming in front of crowds, which is important in most careers. I also became better at interpreting and annotating texts pertaining to poetry and even prose, in order that I completely understand the text. This skill was central to the poetry slam in that in order to preform the poem well, one must understand exactly what it is about.
In conclusion, the poetry project was a success. We planned an event, practiced our presentation, and finally went through with the whole thing. The performance was a success, and people said very complementary things about it. I hope that our fundraising can help another school experience the same things that we did.