Author: Archer

End of Quarter Master Post

Final Presentation

SOS EVENT COORDINATION AND COMMODIFICATION 3%2F14%2F17

Self Evaluation

This was my first experience with a Student-Originated-Studies program organized around a weekly day of class, a day available to meet one-on-one with the faculty, and the rest of the week for my own in-program Individual Learning Contract project.  Through reading program texts such as Tompkins’, Racial Indigestion, and bell hooks’, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance, I was able to gain a greater understanding of how the modern day capitalist economy was built on and continues to thrive on, the exploitation of racialized and gendered labor, how eating practices embody racial and sexual desires, the dire need to reform culturally enforced oppressive food practices,  and how when we visually analyse food ads they correlate to the literary analysis of enslavement histories. While reading The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities Markets to Supermarkets, by Kara Newman, I learned how economic value was determined for food items. I hope to leverage this knowledge when exploring modes in which people and businesses are reevaluating the economic value of goods and services. Having been introduced to so many complexities surrounding consumption, I will continue to work to reimagine how we eat in ways that are helpful in reforming problematic food systems.

 

Reading Kyla Wazana Tompkins’ Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century and bell hooks’ Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance were the two seminar texts that I found to be the most thought provoking as well as the most challenging to read. Tompkins and hooks use the term “the other” to define anyone not a part of the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, which is considered to be the hegemonic culture of the world. Both of these authors highlight how commodity culture exploits “the other” for new pleasure and allows for whites to assert their power within their intimate relationship with “the other”. The consumption of others’ culture allows for the white capitalists to expand their palate, viewing the other as an indulgence, while “the other” eats to survive. In my weekly seminar preparation writing, I explored how gender and racial identities are influenced by the dominant power insertion of imperialized white supremacist capitalism. My most successful response was to chapter 5 of Tompkins, which I put into conversation with Eating the Other by hooks and a contemporary news item about how Instagram-loving foodies are perpetuating racist stereotypes about ethnic dishes.

 

Weekly tasting labs that brought the context from seminar texts into conversation with the body helped me to gain a deeper understanding of what Tompkins refers to as “critical eating studies”. Annie Sloan provided a thoughtful examination of how we ingest beyond mindless consumption. Kotomi’s tea labs allowed for me to understand the chemistry on ingestion, as well as allowing for me to curate an intimate relationship with tea.

 

Bringing the body into academia this quarter through our tasting labs felt appropriate and necessary while reading Tompkins and Newman. Through Annie’s labs which related mostly to Racial Indigestion and Kotomi’s educational tea tasting labs we were forced to think of ourselves and our eating as more than just consuming, an act that in itself challenges the nature of current capitalist commodity culture. During Annie’s corn tasting lab we sat eating various preparations of corn (corn flakes, polenta, corn bread, bourbon, and high fructose corn syrup) while watching Michael Twitty’s “Black Corn” in which he explores corn’s designation as slave food during Antebellum America and the importance and varieties of corn that have been so essential to indigenous peoples across the Americas for millennia. In the past hundred years corn has been turned into a staple commodity in the agricultural industry, but in turn varieties so essential to native diets and culture have dwindled.

 

Tompkins’s argument for “critical eating studies” rather than “food studies” highlighted this SOS’s focus on alternatives to commodification processes because I learned to think of the mouth as a site of eating and talking with regard to a body desiring embodiment rather than regarding myself and others merely as consumers.  Our weekly Tasting Labs, which included experiments with foods related to themes in Racial Indigestion as well as weekly tea tastings that I experienced as ceremonies, added lots to my learning experience. For example, when we

 

Bringing the body into academia this quarter through our tasting labs felt appropriate and necessary while reading Tompkins and Newman. Through Annie’s labs which related mostly to Racial Indigestion and Kotomi’s educational tea tasting labs we were forced to think of ourselves and our eating as more than just consuming, an act that in itself challenges the nature of current capitalist commodity culture. During Annie’s corn tasting lab we sat eating various preparations of corn (corn flakes, polenta, corn bread, bourbon, and high fructose corn syrup) while watching Michael Twitty’s “Black Corn” in which he explores corn’s designation as slave food during Antebellum America and the importance and varieties of corn that have been so essential to indigenous peoples across the Americas for millennia. In the past hundred years corn has been turned into a staple commodity in the agricultural industry, but in turn varieties so essential to native diets and culture have dwindled.

 

The past ten weeks have challenged me in a multitude of ways in which have invoked significant academic growth and personal aspiration to pursue a career in event coordination. This quarter I had the opportunity of doing an internship with Evergreen’s Special Event Manager, Correan Barker, as his first ever Special Events Intern. I was able to gain skills and knowledge that will be helpful in mapping out my future and following a career in event coordination. Learning how to curate a space to take an ephemeral moment and to profoundly extend it through its legacy was particularly inspiring. Having the opportunity to work with a mentor who is willing to provide such a wealth of knowledge while maintaining high standards has been a wonderful learning experience for me.
I am looking forward to continuing my Special Events internship with Correan next quarter as well as working to lay the foundations to enter into the world of working professionally as an event coordinator. Next quarter I will begin to make preparations for an Organic Farm to Table dinner that I will be putting on with fellow students in the fall. I will continue to research ways in which to make a positive influence in an era where systemic racism is at large and ecological practices are being challenged. I hope to find ways to further my understanding of ways in which perceptions of consumption can be reshaped to advocate ethical eating practices and modes of production.  I feel this quarter was very successful for me, and I am very proud of the work I’ve accomplished. Programs like this remind me why I originally wanted to come to Evergreen. It’s tremendously rewarding to have the opportunity to work with faculty that supports and believes in your academic interests.

ILC DESCRIPTION

I will be exploring how ethical and ecologically sustainable practices can be promoted within business models, and how politics transform an agricultural and social landscape. I will also largely be focusing on acquiring the skills and knowledge needed to enter into a career field of event coordination. I will be completing a Special Events Internship with Evergreen’s Special Event Manager Correan Barker. This will include extensive planning and programming for fundraising events on and off campus.

 

 

Header Image Credit: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p0QKq2F56Us/maxresdefault.jpg

“It’s the details”

Anyone can plan an event, throw a couple crackers and slices of cheese on a plate and call it good. The events that are so memorable and fantastic are the ones that create an experience. The amount of work that goes into creating an ambiance relies on the details to transform a space. It is crucial to think about strategic placement and ordering of events when mapping out the kind of experience you would like to create. For example, having lights that do not over stimulate and create an uncomfortable atmosphere as well as not being too dim leading to disengagement from your guests. All elements should work seamlessly with one another.

The Art of Giving Gala and Auction was a huge production that required an extreme attention to detail. Name tags, centerpieces, and thematics, and hospitality all had to be cohesive. A vision needed to be created, and then made into a reality. Basically being able to hallucinate the event before it happens is critical to mapping out your desired production.

Switching From Coffee to Tea. My Nine Week Journey.

When I met coffee, I wouldn’t say it was love at first sip. It took me many months of getting to know coffee before acquiring a taste for it. However, after acquiring a taste for the bitter robust beverage I became completely enraptured. Beginning every morning with a steaming cup, study medicine, pumpkin spice lattes in autumn, cold brew in the summer, coffee dates, working as a barista for many years, even studying it and doing extensive research on the commodity for a Terroir course I took my Junior year of college. Coffee became a staple in my day-to-day lifestyle and became engrained into my idendity. However, throughout the years my relationship with coffee became… complicated. Feeling intensely addicted to getting my fix of caffeine in the morning, and having intense physical and physiological side effects. I would down an entire french press each morning before heading to class or work, and then feel extremely anxious and jittery throughout the day. Also being enrolled in a course where I was constantly confronting how our consumption of the luxury commodity is part of the capitalist market that is inherently laced with exploitation, it’s hard to not feel guilty when trying to enjoy a cup of jo.  I felt coffee and my’s relationship becoming toxic and taking a break from one another would be good for the both of us.

During the first tea tasting lab with Kotomi, I decided to substitute my morning coffee with tea and see how this might affect me. Giving up coffee cold turkey was difficult at first. I craved the stuff throughout the day, breathed a little deeper when my roommates were brewing their daily batch and found myself aimlessly browsing the coffee section in the grocery store as if I was deciding whether or not it was really worth it. Despite my cravings I immediately noticed I wasn’t as anxious, I didn’t feel so depleted mid-day and the surprise benefit of my skin clearing up! I decided to really commit to taking some time to detox coffee for the remainder of the quarter, even getting rid of my coffee infused exfoliant body wash. As we enter into the final week of the quarter, a week where I have historically binged in coffee, I am upping my tea game and enjoying every cup. I have discovered so many teas and tea blends that I feel have been very beneficial for my physical and mental health. My relationship with tea is flourishing and I no longer have intense cravings for coffee. There are moments where I reminisce the old times I’ve spent with coffee, or romanticizing the very esthetic of it, but I am completely content with my love affair with tea and think it is just the beginning of a long and healthy relationship.

 

 

Header Image source: https://teasenz.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/coffee-and-tea.jpg

Tea with Kotomi, Week 9

This week we had the opportunity to taste two types of green tea. Bellow are some notes from Tuesday’s tasting.

Type of Green Tea Appearance Flavor Aroma
Genmai Cha: Small dried leaves with hazel colored toasted rice. Light green yellowish and clear after being steeped Dry summer grass, seaweedy Grassy Toasty Starchy
Kabusecha: Darker green leaves. Light green and translucent when steeped Grassy and slightly chewy astringency Light nutty grassy

 

Header image source: https://japaneseteasommelier.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1240236.jpg

Art of Giving Gala and Auction: Event Day

This was the event I spent the majority of my internship hours preparing for. Tons of time and resources went into creating a beautiful and memorable event and was so rewarding seeing it all come together. The lead-up to this event was at times stressful because of the amount of work and deadlines that needed to be met. On event day I was delegated a list of tasks and assigned the role of assistant event coordinator and assistant stage manager. I basically made sure everything that went on behind the scenes went smoothly and to help out wherever needed some attention or sprucing up.

The event was extremely successful, raising over $200,000 for student scholarships and more than 8,000 for the student Emergency Fund.

It was a very interesting experience to curate a space so rich people will feel inclined to spend/donate money and to feel like a good person because of it. It was a great learning experience for me, in the way that it taught me that creating an emotional connection can be a hugely effective tactic in fundraising and making an event so special as well as memorable.

Bellow are are few photos from the event.

 

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

My internship adviser recommended I watch Simon Sinek’s TED Talk when I asked if he knew of any resources that might be helpful for the work I am doing with him this quarter. Simon makes the point that too often we are constrained by apparent obstacles that are not real. His message to step outside of the box and question things in order to achieve your success. This is helpful when considering strategizing for an event, and stepping up into a leadership position.

Having given him a quick search on youtube I also discovered an interview where Simon offers his perspective on the current political climate, and how republicans marketed  Trump in a way that was so appealing. He also offers an examination of whether our politicians are a reflection of ourselves and if we want our politicians to change then we should hold ourselves accountable for the change we want to be made.

Conspicuous Consumption

Triggering Passages:

“‘Too-muchness’ produces moments of spectacular visibility that exceed the advertisers’ intended and literal meanings. In the era of conspicuous consumption the ‘too-muchness’ of the black and Asian bodies as represented in these trade cards is of key importance. The affective excess and semiotic overload of these images encode the use of disgust to facilitate and accompany white bourgeois consumer’s disavowal and enjoyment of commodity pleasure”  (Tompkins, 150)

“Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.” (Hooks, 366)

“Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy. For it is the ever present reality of racist domination, of white supremacy, that renders problematic the desire of white people to have contact with the Other.” (Hooks, 371)

News Media Context:

“A lot of Instagram-loving foodies are perpetuating racist stereotypes about ethnic dishes”

“We’ve never quite escaped the idea that Western is the status quo, so anything other is viewed as, well, ‘other,’” Noche says. “This leads people to exotify and overcompensate in styling dishes that aren’t normal to them, because they don’t understand or haven’t experienced how these dishes can exist on their own.” (Purdy)

While reading Bell Hook’s “Eating the Other” many of the ideas and concepts evident in Tomkins’ writing were explicitly laid out for me. Tomkins contextualizes themes of racial edibility and white palatability, while Bell Hooks explains these key ideas unambiguously. Both authors speak to the concept of  “The other”, and how this idea has been used to fetishize racial differences. Bell Hooks defines the other as anyone not a part of the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, which is considered to be the hegemonic culture of the world.

Commodity culture exploits “the other” for new pleasure and allows for whites to assert their power within their intimate relationship with the other. The consumption of others culture allows for the white capitalists to expand their palate, viewing the other as an indulgence, while the other eats to survive. Such is the issue with foodie culture, as it most often does not change how we consume but sensationalizes exotic flavors. This desire for the other is to view them as something to be eaten, consumed, and forgotten about. Enriching or enhancing the white patriarchal identity with other “flavors” and “spices”. This appetite to possess the other and to be changed by the other has me wondering if the desire for “the other” can ever be innocent without the implication of race?  

Hooks, Bell. “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance.” In Black Looks: Race and Representation, 1st edition. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992.

Purdy, Chase. “A Lot of Instagram-Loving Foodies Are Perpetuating Racist Stereotypes about Ethnic Dishes.” Quartz. Accessed February 28, 2017. https://qz.com/909817/instagram-photos-of-ethnic-food-are-perpetuating-racist-stereotypes/.

Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century. New York: NYU Press, 2012.

Internship Update 2/28/17

For the past week, it has been all hands on deck to finalize timelines and tasks set for the Art of Giving Gala and Auction this coming Saturday. I have been working on the seating chart, follow ups with scholarship recipient volunteers, cataloging the final items for the auction as they trickle in, and creating a plan for event day. There is a ton to get done, however, it is important to work efficiently and to take the time to slow down to make sure everything is being completed correctly. It is easy to get in the mode of working quickly to get these last bits tied up, but this is where the biggest mistakes can be made. I have been asking for help when I need it, as well as double and sometimes triple checking my work. I am incredibly excited to see it all come together this Saturday even though there is still so much to get done.

Kneading of Identity, Seminar Responce, Week 7

Triggering Passage:

“It is not enough, in other words, to create a rigid boundary between what goes into the body and what stays out. America had become too immersed, both in its commercial appetites and its imperial desires, in the business of the rest of the world; similarly, the body and the home are also immersed in the outside world, with all its attendant delights and anxieties. The boundaries that were meant to contain the body, the home, and the nation are thus far more permeable in Alocat’s work. The consumption of the exotic items and profit from overseas trade and the emergent forms of female independence – including interracial marriage – that are predicted on more porous boundaries are only some of the new possibilities that she imagines for her protagonists.” (Tompkins, 144)

News Media Context:

“What Is A Woman’s Role According To A Man?”

“Patriarchy operationalises power through the entrenched notion that women are not just different, but also subservient – and therefore, their spheres of work (‘care work’ and household chores) is naturally inferior to a man’s work out in the world. The notion of ‘honour’ embodied in the person of a woman becomes the logic of limiting women’s mobility, their education, and indeed, their aspirations.‘Honour’, as Jacqueline Rose puts it, is embodied in women, but is the property of men. Therefore, it serves as the perfect tool to rob women of their agency over their own bodies. This honour is damaged by others’ (men’s) actions – and the only way to protect it is to make themselves inaccessible – through veiling, through being confined, through having all sorts of limitations imposed on them, and in turn, self-imposition.”

www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/01/act-like-a-man-act-like-a-woman-roles-defined-by-gender

Response:

Chapter 5 of Tompkins’ Racial Indigestion explores how the domestic role can be navigated as a place of liberation in a way that disrupts patriarchal frameworks but is still submissive to the overarching power structures. Tompkins demonstrates to the reader how domesticity is a prison that simultaneously opposes oppressive regimes through the molding, or “kneading”, of identity. Although those in the domestic roles have the ability to establish their own rules, allowing for a redistribution of power, these ideas are shaped by dominant imperialist patriarchal frameworks. The two texts that Thompkins references, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott, suggest that those in subservient positions are allowed to make their own decisions, but only when given the proper support from those of a higher positioning within social classes. The individual identities of those who navigate subservient roles are at the mercy of those in the ruling class and are characterized by stereotyped personality traits and appearance. Through this mode of gendering and racializing domesticity, it allows for those belonging to the upper class white heterosexual male identity to view others in a way that is more palatable or more easily digestible. Although given wiggle room to move beyond enslavement, those who inhabit bodies that challenge imperial identities operate to appease the colonial power structures governed by a white upper class in order to twist a narrative that seeks to dehumanize and repress cultural differences.  

Works Cited:

Voices, Video Volunteers Empowering Community. “What Is A Woman’s Role According To A Man?” Youth Ki Awaaz, January 31, 2017. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/01/act-like-a-man-act-like-a-woman-roles-defined-by-gender/.

Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century. New York: NYU Press, 2012.