{"id":6879,"date":"2019-11-07T13:10:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/?p=6879"},"modified":"2019-11-07T13:13:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T18:13:14","slug":"memory-and-community-person-place-and-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/2019\/11\/07\/memory-and-community-person-place-and-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory and Community: Person, Place, and Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"text-align:center\">Person: Cynthia Cruz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download.jpg 624w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-300x160.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">Cynthia Cruz is a poet of German and Mexican descent, born in Germany but raised in northern California. Her work reads like a scrapbook, image after image placed on top of one another. Her third book <em>Wunderkammer<\/em> translates to &#8220;a cabinet of curiosities&#8221;. Each poem heavy with German history, German artists, and fragments of the personal. Each image is locked in a multi-leveled vitrine for the reader&#8217;s consumption. The poet&#8217;s mother was a hoarder, the poet is obsessed with archiving, the need to &#8220;collect, assemble, and name&#8221;. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018 I attended Cynthia Cruz\u2019s craft talk at the Poet\u2019s House entitled \u201cThe Archive as Resistance\u201d. In 2010, as a Hodder fellow at Princeton, Cruz scoured through archives to research for <em>Wunderkammer<\/em>. She drew inspiration from German visual artists: Hanna Darboven, Gerard Rictor, and Rosemary Trockel. As well as great German writer and thinkers Aby Warburg and Walter Benjamin. Throughout her collection, she created \u201ctotems and objects that carry memory or meaning\u201d. She describes the poems in <em>Wunderkammer<\/em> as dense, long lines, and no space, a type of claustrophobia\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/IMG-5589-e1573148688425-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6882\" data-link=\"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/?attachment_id=6882\" class=\"wp-image-6882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/IMG-5589-e1573148688425-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/IMG-5589-e1573148688425-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>taken from Cruz&#8217;s <em>Wunderkammer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Wunderkammer<\/em> is an exploration of trauma and how trauma informs and changes people. A part of her research involved reading about the building of the Jewish Museum in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>The creation of a museum that houses artifacts and relics of Berlin Jews chronologically create a sense of closure as if the Holocaust was now in the past. When in fact that past has not passed. Questions of how it could have happened and it\u2019s impact are felt throughout and informs contemporary Germany, Berlin, and the world.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In conversation with Sharon Macdonald\u2019s \u201cIs Difficult Heritage Still Difficult?\u201d, Cruz\u2019s work remains personal (fictional or not), her use of German history is through her lens (girlhood, failure, and mental illness). Macdonald\u2019s piece deals with the right way to present such a dark past: facts versus emotions, how much of the horror to show, heritage versus nationalism, and etc. Through the poems in <em>Wunderkammer<\/em>, Cynthia Cruz takes fragments of her past, her mixed cultures and works from people from her native country to make a sort of collage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"text-align:center\">Place: The Historic New Orleans Collection <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1938, General\nL Kemper and Leila Williams purchased two properties in the French Quarter\u2014The Merieult\nHouse and a late 19<sup>th<\/sup> century residence on Toulouse Street. Throughout\ntheir lives they gathered a hefty amount of important Louisiana artifacts. After\nthe couple passed, their home became the Historic New Orleans Collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"582\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-1.jpg 582w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-1-300x259.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px\" \/><figcaption>The Historic New Orleans Collection &#8211; Merieult House.\n533 Royal St., New Orleans, LA 70130.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, during\nmy first trip to New Orleans, I got to witness the award winning and traveling <em>Purchased\nLives: The American Slave Trade from 1808 to 1865 <\/em>exhibit at the Historic\nNew Orleans Collection. I walked in with two childhood friends and my one\nfriend\u2019s aunt, we moved separately, sometimes we regrouped but we never spoke. From\nwhat I recall, you could hear a pin drop, it seemed like every visitor was busy\nabsorbing the information to say anything of value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"889\" src=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-2-1024x889.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6885\" data-link=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/?attachment_id=6885\" class=\"wp-image-6885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-2-1024x889.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-2-300x261.jpg 300w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-2-768x667.jpg 768w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Historian Erin M. Greenwald curated the exhibit which includes period broadsides, paintings, and prints illustrating the domestic slave trade, interactive displays, historical records by tracking the shipment of more than 70,000 people to New Orleans. While there were interactive components, most affective, was the &#8220;Lost Friends&#8221; ads placed after the Civil War by newly freed people attempting to locate family members. The preservation of those ads made everything so three dimensional. In Cloonan\u2019s \u201cW(H)ITHER Preservation\u201d, she writes, Preservation allows for the continuity of the past with the present and the future\u201d. I was there on vacation, steps away from Bourbon street, filled with tourists and bachelorette parties, but on a ground drenched in history and blood. The presentation of the ads-from floor to ceiling- daughters looking for mothers they had not seen in 30 years, gave the memory institution have a pulse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> Thing: Little Free Library (Take A Book, Share A Book) <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A small wooden box full of books, where neighbors are encouraged to take a book and leave a book. Little Free Library is a non-profit whose mission is to increase access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds. The organization boasts 90,000 street libraries in 90 countries. Those who want to start a Little Free Library can order a kit through their website or build their own. Their website also has a map where the user can type in their zip code and find the Little Free Library nearest to them. There are two in walking distance from my apartment in Bushwick. I think the idea is adorable and promotes community building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"753\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6886\" srcset=\"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-3.jpg 753w, https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/download-3-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 753px) 100vw, 753px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This reminds me of Chatman\u2019s four concepts in \u201cThe Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders\u201d. She names deception, risk-taking, secrecy, and situational relevancy as reasons \u201cinformation outsiders\u201d remain on the outside. But with something like the Little Free Library, it\u2019s open to everyone, there need not be any sharing of personal information or personal stories. There is a freedom, no need to sign up for a library card, or fees for lateness, it is almost encouraged for it to be anonymous. The only concern is not enough people knowing about such a uniting program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>-Herbert Duran <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>2018: The\nArchive as Resistance: A Craft Talk with Cynthia Cruz. (n.d.). Retrieved\nNovember 7, 2019, from Poets House website:\nhttps:\/\/poetshouse.org\/audio\/2018-the-archive-as-resistance-a-craft-talk-with-cynthia-cruz\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chatman, E.\nA. (n.d.). The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chatman\u2014The\nImpoverished Life-World of Outsiders.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/lms.pratt.edu\/pluginfile.php\/924614\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/Chatham-Information%20Povertyt.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloonan, M.\nV. (2001). W(H)ITHER Preservation? The Library Quarterly: Information,\nCommunity, Policy, 71(2), 231\u2013242.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloonan\u20142001\u2014W(H)ITHER\nPreservation.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/lms.pratt.edu\/pluginfile.php\/924550\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/Cloonan_2004.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cruz, C.\n(2014). Wunderkammer. New York: Four Way Books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exhibition &#8211;\nPurchased Lives: New Orleans And The Domestic Slave Trade, 18081865 &#8211; New\nOrleans, LA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2019, from\nhttp:\/\/www.americantowns.com\/news\/exhibition-purchased-lives-new-orleans-and-the-domestic-slave-trade-1808aeur1865-22900958-new-orleans-la.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macdonald, S.\n(2015). Is \u2018Difficult Heritage\u2019 Still \u2018Difficult\u2019?: Why Public Acknowledgment\nof Past Perpetration May No Longer Be So Unsettling to Collective Identities.\nMuseum International, 67(1\u20134), 6\u201322. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/muse.12078<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macdonald\u20142015\u2014Is\n\u2018Difficult Heritage\u2019 Still \u2018Difficult\u2019 Why Pu.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/lms.pratt.edu\/pluginfile.php\/924553\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/MacDonald_2015.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Purchased\nLives Exhibit Opens At The National Civil Rights Museum. (2018, January 25).\nRetrieved November 7, 2019, from Black Then website:\nblackthen.com\/purchased-lives-exhibit-opens-national-civil-rights-museum\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What We Do.\n(n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2019, from Street Books website:\nhttp:\/\/streetbooks.org\/what-we-do-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Person: Cynthia Cruz Cynthia Cruz is a poet of German and Mexican descent, born in Germany but raised in northern California. Her work reads like a scrapbook, image after image placed on top of one another. Her third book Wunderkammer translates to &#8220;a cabinet of curiosities&#8221;. Each poem heavy with German history, German artists, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[578,22,579,572,70,573,113,577,571,207,574,576,575],"class_list":["post-6879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-slave-trade","tag-archive","tag-community","tag-cynthia-cruz","tag-difficult-heritage","tag-germany","tag-information-access","tag-new-orleans","tag-poem","tag-special-collections","tag-the-holocaust","tag-trauma","tag-wunderkammer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6889,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions\/6889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}