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Created January 6, 2020
Community? Engagements? Arts? Well, for starters this is a class taught at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY by professors Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde. The goal of this class is to form a relationship with the community by engaging in artistic projects with the community. The outcome of this will manifest itself in many ways, some recognizable and others not so much.
CETA 2020: Our first 2 emojis (of hundreds)
Created January 6, 2020
Individual Tasks
Collect addresses, make & write thank-you cards, design pronoun buttons--Anna Davis
Blog Manager--Paige Wessling
Recorder/archivist for This I Believe essays--Sarah Metcalfe
Social Media--Lydia Baggett & Garrett LeVan
Photographic Inventory (3 people)--Yousef Alsdudi, Sarah Bennett, & Faith Boles
Space, raw material, & tool inventory manager AND order enforcer--Emily Neat
Quality Control & Class Ethicist--Alex Toney
Software Design Team (3 people)--Shelby Barker, Emily Cecil, & Abby Pearson
Fabrication Team (3 people)--Brooklyn Greer, Will Hemingway, & Marissa Price
Finishing Team (4 people)--Nannie Baze, Emon Daneshmand, Ally Frederick, & Madison Phillips
Additional photographic documentation--Kremena and Kurt
Working with production design at Kre8Now Makerspace--Kurt and Kremena
Publicity for the class--Kremena and Kurt
Securing materials needed--Kurt and Kremena
Normally, I don’t get excited about the people who are in my classes. We’re friendly, we joke around, but I’m not like I can’t wait till we have class again! All we’ve dedicated to each other is about three hours out of the entire week. And I’m probably even less excited about classes this semester, given that three of them are writing based, but I do look forward to Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday nights.
ReplyDeleteI never would have expected this though. We’re a varied group and I don’t think we would have ended up in class together under other circumstances. But I guess you’re bound to get close when you spend six hours together over two days, pretending to poop, singing the Dixie Chicks, speaking with deceased relatives, and dancing with the local wildlife.
It feels like there are no boundaries between the stage and the real world; it’s as if that piece of black tape dividing the sculpture room doesn’t exist. I love it. There’s no worrying about what others think of you. There’s no listening to a lecture for what seems like an eternity. There’s no censorship. We can talk about the things that administration won’t. We can slowly roast the professors who get on our nerves. We can throw boxes, scream, and make jokes that wouldn’t fly in a normal classroom. We can connect with a community that feels miles away on the self-contained sea of white, but is right outside our door.
Walking out of Shearer at 10 o’clock, I feel exhausted and unchained. It’s all because room 103 pushed us together and gave us a space to envision the world as it should be. I believe in this room.
Postscript: Credit to Elizabeth who said, “I can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.”
Literally almost crying. I think this piece should be used to recruit student to take the class and be sent to the admin as one of the reasons why this class is so damn important.
DeleteI'd love to see any other class try and replicate this feeling. (they cant)
DeleteI love how you say you feel unchained....so do I....
Delete(Mine is way different but it low key relates to the optional topic because my favorite thing is that we can talk about real shit in class without having to censor ourselves.)
ReplyDeleteNever Have I Ever. It’s a game that many of us started playing when we entered our teenage years. We were dying to know what everyone else has experienced, just to see how we measure up. At the ripe old age of 22, Never Have I Ever is exclusively a drinking game when I play it nowadays. Nearly every Never Have I Ever statement is related to sex or drugs or other things considered to be intriguingly risqué. Rarely, if ever, are the statements of any actual substance. So I want to take this opportunity to play it a little differently:
Never have I ever felt safe or protected thanks to a gun.
Never have I ever been comfortable alone with a straight man, especially a white man in a position of authority.
Never have I ever been proud of where I’m from.
Never have I ever felt protected by a policeman, particularly a DPS officer.
Never have I ever felt safe in romantically or sexually rejecting a man.
Never have I ever had sex sober.
Never have I ever felt that I genuinely loved my parents.
Never have I ever felt that my parents genuinely loved me.
Never have I ever been anything but ashamed of speaking my last name aloud.
Never have I ever been able to look at a man who even somewhat resembles my brother without wanting to rip off my own face.
Never have I ever been confident saying anything material-related in a college classroom.
Never have I ever been seen in public with absolutely no makeup on.
Never have I ever been able to endure an invasive flashback without digging my nails into my arms or into the palms of my hands.
Never have I ever been able to sustain a romantic relationship for longer than a few weeks.
Never have I ever felt anything but anger when a therapist refers to my life events as “traumatic.”
Never have I ever thought that I should have children.
Never have I ever been successful at not texting a friend back, even the most toxic “friends” that I know that I should give up on.
Never have I ever believed in absolute democracy.
I had more of these statements written, but this essay has to end at some point. Every single one of these statements originally had an accompanying “because” to explain why, but that made it far too long. There were many statements that I had to erase because they were too personal and I’m not in a place where I can say them aloud just yet.
But if I were sitting in a circle, taking shots with my friends on a Friday night, I think I would be comfortable expanding on these statements. I think I would tell my friends my stories and explain my reasons, in a way that I never have before. And we would connect on a much deeper level than we would if someone said “never have I ever had sex in public” and those were the stories that we heard instead. I want to hear every story that my friends have to share and we do have the occasional deep discussion or heart-to-heart conversation. But I believe that something special could happen if we focused on real stories and real issues more often.
You are so damn real and I love it!
Delete<3 you, Kacy
DeleteMy favorite moment in the class over the semester is something that I would have never expected. When I signed up for this course, I thought that I was just taking a course in community engagement through by spending class time volunteering at somewheres like God’s Pantry and I am not trying to say that God’s Pantry is not an amazing organization that helps the community greatly, but the work volunteers typically do there is sometimes impersonal. I also really did not expect that I was going to have “to act”. I now understand that this is not as terrifying as it sounds. I also did not suspect that the actual acting part of this course would become one of my favorite aspects of this class. Over the last semester, I have found a sense inclusion and community being apart of this course. In the beginning, I was very unsure how this class was going affect me and the rest of my life. I know that seems very egocentric but it did require a lot of time commitment and most importantly it required me to put myself out there.
ReplyDeleteI am a relatively shy person and am very introverted, though I do like being around people for a certain amount of time. In this class I was encouraged to write, speak, and most importantly share what I believed in. I was able to develop friendships that are stronger than the ones that I have with some of my roommates. I still cannot figure out how our class builds such respect and trust for one another but I feel that this bond was stronger than really any other course that I have had at Transylvania University. So, I am not able to say that there is a particular moment in this semester that I really enjoyed more than others, but I do know that the work we as a team were able to accomplish is something that I will remember for a very long time. I believe in CETA.
I believe in CETA and I believe in you, Alyson--and you are part of my CETA story (look below!)
DeleteAn Open Letter to the Faculty of Transylvania University
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of all of your students, I would like to thank you for doing an often thankless job.
Thank you for acting as student advocates, both academically and personally.
Thank you for suggesting that we “find more reputable sources” rather than demolishing the papers we wrote as first-years, which read more like Tumblr posts than insightful academic works.
Thank you for issuing the miracles that are course passes.
Thank you for showing up for your students and for feeling comfortable serving late night tots at every Brinner.
Thank you for not taking it personally when we haven’t done the reading, and for occasionally allowing the conversation to wander to cover for our inadequacy.
Thank you for instilling in us a passion for social justice, and for giving us the words to describe the injustices we see: the glass ceiling, climate disruption, systematic racism, generational poverty.
Thank you for giving us the tools not just to talk about unjust systems, but to act in situations of injustice.
I believe that you are more powerful than you know.
When I signed up for this class it was because it was the only area four available in the arts I could take. I read the description and figured this was going to be a community service class, which did not sound terrible. The first day of class I sat in a circle facing people I had never seen before, which is probably typical for the start of any class. We were asked to share special talents we had when it came to performing or being creative because this class would end in a performance, I drew a blank. Listening to the experienced people in the room share how they have been acting for years or could build a set, my stomach dropped because I knew I did not belong in this class. I almost dropped that first day.
ReplyDeleteWith the semester coming to an end I realized dropping would have been missing out on one of the best classes I have ever taken. Dropping would have meant missing out on friendships that are better than the ones I had coming into the classroom. Dropping would have meant missing out on long nights filled with endless laughter and raw conversations that spoke the truth.
The room went from faces of strangers to friendships: true, strong, judgement free, and real. The friendships made in the room have a special shared experience and I have never met a group of people so free to speak their minds and hearts without being judged or punished for doing so. We have similar beliefs but differences that make us even stronger. I have never been a part of a group who actually does what they commit to do. A group of people who can create a performance, create event after event, and rally the whole school to actually care about something and fight for what everyone is keeping in the dark.
The room is filled with big hearts, confidence, ambition, strength, love, friendship, truth, honesty, and community.
When I look around on the last day of class, the faces I see will no longer be strangers. The faces will be Kacy, Alyson, Blake, Hannah, Joe, Ken’yale, Madison, Rachel, Samantha, Zach, Kremena, and Kurt.
The faces will have their own stories and now shared stories. The faces will have cried, laughed, cared, loved, and rallied in a shared story.
I believe in CETA.
Elizabeth, I was so worried you were going to drop CETA after our first class... Thank you for not dropping it and us <3
DeleteIt has to be the evening Alyson and Ken’yale joyfully self-select as Zach two mothers. A first-year student, Zach grew up in a house so small, he could hear his parents whisper to each other in bed on the other side of the wall between his bedroom and theirs. Zach is often anxious about his classes. He needs Ken’yale and Alyson’s rolling laughter as they hand him a Game Boy on his pretend-ninth-birthday and insist on a picture together. “We love you, son,” they assure him. In that moment, he knows they do. Things feel right.
ReplyDeleteBut this is not the story of Zack, who on this Wednesday evening accepts Alyson and Ken’yale as his mothers. Ken’yale loves calling him “Son” and claiming him as her own. “He is so much YOUR son,” Alyson says to her, a note of happy envy in her voice. “Let’s take a picture, son,” Ken’yale commands her white child though by the rules of our society, there is no way a Black mother can birth a white child. Undaunted, Ken’yale tells him he can have no privacy while he shares her house. Because this is a poop joke, the kind we all stopped telling in public back in 3rd grade, we burst out laughing, racism be damned.
But this is not the story of Ken’yale or of Alyson either— though both of them love to tell a good story. Ken’yale’s stories usually circle back to her beloved granny or her beloved bar, where she passes her Saturday nights even when her throat is so sore, she can hardly talk. Alyson loves big old trees and the feeling of dirt under her nails. Together, they make one of the most fun couples I know, cutting straight through prohibitions of skin color and sexuality. Although Ken’yale refuses Alyson a morning kiss until all teeth have been brushed, the audience can tell love when we see it and we know Ken’yale is just being coy.
But no, this is not the story of Ken’yale and Alyson, love or no love. This is the story of CETA where creating families free of prejudice feels natural, as if we are all Alyson and Ken’yale’s children.
This is the story of us and I believe in us: always ready to offer comfort, feed the hungry, and imagine worlds that are better. So much better.
So the semester is coming to an end I see....and I have to write about my favorite part of the class this semester. Well, my favorite part overall was I don't know to be honest because I loved everything about this class but I can say this. Remember, I mentioned the reason why I came to Transy, was to co-exist with white people in the world because they are the ones who are in control of this country and I have to learn how to survive and succeed among them. Well in this class I learned how to have them coexist with me. I was able to be myself and everyone accepted me for who I am and my culture. Little do I know now that I actually came to Transylvania University to help this predominantly white university to learn how to coexist with me because at the end of the day...the Transylvania Bubble is not going to exists for the rest of their lives. It is only for four years and I am so glad that I did not succumb to the systematic conversion of being someone who I was not in order to fit in with others. I didn’t become the “ideal black person” for the people here at Transylvania so they can be comfortable. Community Engagement class allowed me to build a community who was able to disconnect from the Transy bubble and just be ourselves. I’ve never been so comfortable in a class before here at Transy and I can say this was my Senior Seminar class because I learned the most and can apply it to the real world after I leave. I hope I am able to follow all of my classmates and most of all watch them succeed and hopefully I helped them become more comfortable with individuals who may be different from them from personality differences to just a skin color difference. I have made some new friends in this class I call them, not just associates and I just want to thank everyone in this class. We laughed together, cried together, became angry together, and uplifted one another together which made us mend as a Family personally. This is my CETA Family and I will never forget any of you all in my life because you guys impacted me so much and I believe all of you can can impact the world in some way. I believe that one class can make a lifetime impact on anyone.
ReplyDeleteyou'll forever be the best wife!
DeleteI believe in the power stories have to bring people together. At the beginning of this semester I didn’t know what to expect. Being an actor, I was excited for what laid ahead, but I was fearful about the general willingness of people to share. What came next was incredible. I’ve done devised theatre before, but I’ve never done it with people who had no previous interest in being onstage. My favorite moment that came out of this whole experience was the first time we improvised the Zach scenes. Improv is hard, you have to be willing and able to make a fool of yourself. You have to be willing to fail. I trained for two years to learn how to fail. This incredible group of people just seemed to know how to do that. The response was not so immediate from the common good fellows, but there have been moments where you can see the power these students have found in telling their stories. When we first walked in, I think we were all skeptical. Skeptical of each other, and many skeptical of what we were doing. Now, through theatre, we’ve made connections with people who before we never even would have waved at. I’m leaving this class with a fuzzy feeling, and a renewed appreciation of what my art can do.
ReplyDelete