My Process Writing

Looong story...but it's a good one :)

I came across the Black Arts Cultural Center when I went to the Art Hop of May. I went on a class trip with my Interrogating Contemporary Art course with Jessica Santone. We had to pick out an art work and write a review about it for our class website. One of the exhibits was the BACC gallery. I never knew that there was a BACC. I looked and enjoyed all the art, but I couldn’t focus and pick out details from them because our class had to keep moving and go to the next gallery. I didn’t like the fact that my whole trip to the Art Hop was very rushed because there was so much to see. So I decided to go back downtown on my own time, specifically to the BACC because it is not often that I hear of an African American organization in Kalamazoo other than the Black Student Organization in Kalamazoo College.

            That day I went back, Mrs. Jones came out of the back office and she welcomed me, asked me who was I and what interest I had in the center. I told her I was a student at K and I wanted to write an art review on one of the paintings. Right at that moment, a man walked into the BACC who Mrs. Jones introduced me to as Mr. James C. Palmore. She said he made the painting that was hanging out in the hallway in front of the BACC. I told him how I really enjoyed that painting during my first visit. It looked very realistic, it stood alone on a red-ish wall as a background. The background within the painting was black so it made the figures specifically pop out in their elegant white gowns, elaborate hairstyles and diamond, dangling earrings. Mr. Palmore explained the four women were a singing group called The Velevelettes. Their record label was Motown during the 1960s. Two of them still lived in Kalamazoo and did performances. Then, standing up for a good thirty to forty minutes he started telling me the whole history about the Velvelettes, Motown, how he came to do the portrait. All of it sounded so good! I got really excited and thought it would be a great idea to write an art review of the painting for my art class and write a profile on Mr. Palmore for my Narrative Journalism class. The assignment was not even introduced yet by then, but I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip away.

            We exchanged contact information and set up an appointment to meet and talk more about the painting. When we met the following week, Thursday, May 17^th at noon, we took a couple of chairs and sat in front of the painting in the hallway. He continued to talk about African American history, his career as an artist, and his artistic techniques. We met once again, this time it was an interview for the profile I wanted to write. During our interview he seemed to talk about the BACC history more than himself so I started getting more interested in the center itself.

            Right when I was having this thought as Mr. Palmore continued to talk, a tall, dark and very professionally dressed man walked through the doors and he introduced himself to me as Sidney Ellis. Mr. Palmore told me he was the executive director of the BACC and that I should talk to him. After the interview, Mr. Ellis had stepped out so Mrs. Jones gave me the number of the center to set up an appointment with Mr. Ellis.

            In our first interview, Mr. Ellis said a lot of great stuff, all within thirty minutes. His thoughts were gathered very well; it was naturally easy for him to talk about the center, and I really enjoyed that. I really got the sense of what the BACC is, its involvement within the community, and all the great work they do. But it kept bugging me that people didn’t seem to know that the BACC even existed, like me. So I wanted to know more why that is. And we couldn’t come up with an answer.

            When it came to writing the profile on the BACC, I realized all I had was a whole bunch of information. I couldn’t figure out how to write a narrative. I became really frustrated because the more I tried, the more it was just all very informational and objective. So I waited until our workshop to see what others thought should be the story. During the workshop, I was still really frustrated that I couldn’t figure it out, so I went into a mini rant about the BACC and what I thought that stood out to me the most. Right when I finished, my workshop group said, “Wow, that should be your story.” But I had no idea what I said. I had them repeat to me what I had said in order to re-collect my thoughts and take notes.

            When I went back to writing mode, I still couldn’t figure out a good narrative. And the thing that kept bugging was why is it that people don’t know about the BACC?! They do so much within the community, they put up annual events, they have different forms of media as advertisement, and they collaborate with so many other organizations that people are familiar with.

            But anyways, I didn’t actually believe that they were involved with the community until I actually saw it in front of my face; it was like a slap on the face. I bumped into Mr. Ellis on the Thursday morning, the day right before the Art Hop of June. I walked into the library to run and get a tape recorder because I was actually on my way to the BACC. I had sent an email to Mr. Ellis the night before to ask if we can meet again for follow up questions. I thought the center was going to be busy all day preparing for the Art Hop.

            But here I was, in our campus library, and Mr. Ellis was getting a lid for his Biggby’s coffee. I did a double-take head movement when I saw a tall, dark, very professionally dressed man wave hello to me. I was really surprised. I stopped to greet him and told him I was actually on my way to the BACC. He told me he came for a presentation an economics marketing class was going to have. I guessed it was a ten o’ clock class because it was 9:30 a.m.

            I accepted that we wouldn’t meet that day, but I went downtown to take the pictures for my audio slideshow.

            At first, I went through a lot of problems with creating this slideshow; my audio recordings were saved under windows format and Garageband on imac was not accepting it. So I decided to use Windows Movie Maker, which I thought was going to be a bad idea. But once I started playing with the program, I patiently figured everything out. I saw what the “divide” button did, so once I got the hang of that, I began to edit the recordings by cutting out parts I didn’t want. I had to listen to everything over and over again, and I experienced how time consuming this part of the project was going to be. So I was happy that I started at least a week before it was due and had went through all the problems I could possibly have in getting started.

            The audio slideshow was pretty fun to do. I saw the project as a game; I had to hit the divide button at the exact right moment to separate the fragment of recording and use the part that I wanted and delete what “ums” and pauses in between sentences. And this was specifically hard because I ended up using what I recorded the first time I interviewed Mr. Ellis for that half hour. He spit out a lot of great stuff so fast, it was really a game to divide the fragments because he hardly had any “ums” and pauses.

            While I was putting the audio slideshow together and listened to the audio over and over, I tried to figure out what my story should be. I had an idea of what should be included after workshop, but I still didn’t have a cohesive narrative.

            But then the thought came to me that it would be really cool for my final assignment to be about my experience of finding out who are the BACC, what do they do, where they are, who are involved, and so on. It kept frustrating me that they do so much, but for some reason, people didn’t seem to be paying attention to the actual center itself and the people who run it.

            Then finally I had a narrative. I mentioned when I first came across the center, what I was doing there, what interest I had in coming back. And then everything just unraveled from there. I thought that my encounter with Mr. Ellis at K was significant.

            I also actually bumped into one of Mr. Palmore’s paintings in the office of Student Accounts. My encounter with the painting was such a coincidence. I took a picture of it with Mr. Palmore’s signature for the audio slideshow.

            Going to the Art Hop on Friday, the day right after I bumped into Mr. Ellis was a good experience. I took the opportunity to ask people randomly if they had been into the BACC and see their show. One Caucasian woman said yes and she loved it. Three college students never heard of the BACC and they went to the second floor but didn’t think there was anything past the first exhibit on the hallway, which was completely ridiculous. I built up a lot of frustration because of that.

            Mr. Palmore was having a show of his own across the street from the Epic Center in the Midtown Gallery, and that was fun. I saw Mr. Palmore and he looked really happy with the audience; I took pictures of that too. And I asked an African American and another Caucasian about what they thought of the exhibit and if they went over to the BACC. Both said they truly enjoyed it so that was good.

            Then Mrs. Jones came into the gallery and she was very happy to see me. She said, “I usually don’t come out to the Art Hop. But I’m so glad I did! It’s amazing how creative one can be!” She was completely enjoying herself. I wanted to include what she said within the writing assignment, but I couldn’t go over the word count.

            There was a lot of stuff I wanted to add to the writing assignment. It would’ve been cool to have at least 1700 or 2000 words. But I’m content with what I have.

I’m happy I decided to include myself within the piece to walk my reader through my experience of learning about the BACC. And in doing that the reader would also ask themselves why they don’t know about the BACC if they do so much and advertise themselves in so many ways. Why is it that the BACC is not being recognized? The question still bugs me but I hope my readers get what was my intention in this project.

I want to thank the BACC for allowing me to have insight in what they are all about. It was a great experience, and I wish them the best. J

And, of course, I want to thank my professor, academic advisor, SIP advisor, and dear friend, Marin Heinritz for all of her support!

The Black Arts Cultural Center: A Building Community

Intended publication: The Index

Walking into the Black Arts Cultural Center in downtown Kalamazoo, I entered its gallery space for the first time, where African American artists displayed their artwork. It was the first Friday of May and the city’s monthly event, the Art Hop, brought in many visitors to the center.

I cruised around the gallery with my classmates of our Interrogating Contemporary Art course. Our professor had us attend the event and select an artwork to write an art review to publish on our class website. With over twenty people in the small gallery and bodies moving at a fast pace, I couldn’t observe the art for more than twenty seconds. Overwhelmed, I walked out with a promise to return another time. The Art Hop poster on the center’s glass window read “Open Hours, Weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

On my second visit to the BACC on the second floor of the Epic Center the following Tuesday, the center was completely empty. I noticed an office at the back I failed to see the first time.

The office has been occupied by the BACC’s executive director, Mr. Sidney Ellis, and the center’s receptionist, Mrs. Joan Jones for the past five years.

Mr. Ellis has been a volunteer of the BACC for twenty years before becoming the executive director.

“Because we are a part of the monthly Art Hop, there are a lot of people who know us for that. You have a group of people who are a little diverse who frequent the Art Hop,” Mr. Ellis said.

Since the center’s very first event in 1985, known as the Black Arts Festival, part of the goal of the BACC was to bring diversity within the Kalamazoo community through art.

The organization has worked to promote art by black artists and created and established a space for the African American community to interact and connect with other cultural communities within Kalamazoo.

“Art is essential to every culture. Art connects us in a variety of different ways yet essentially it shows us that universally we are all the same, we hate, we cry, we laugh and we love,” said Mr. Ellis.

I began to develop an interest on the BACC so I visited their website, www.blackartskalamazoo.org.

Under “What We Do” it read Art Exhibitions, Black Writers, Theatre, Community Linkage, and Yearly Special Events, including the Black Arts Festival. Their descriptions promoted education, art appreciation, community interactions, and opportunities for networking, career development, and success of African American artists of all ages.

“We are hoping to build bridges culturally within the community to create conversation and create an understanding. When you experience art from a different cultural perspective you can get an understanding of what that culture is,” said Mr. Ellis.

The BACC has provided art mentoring programs in elementary and high schools to encourage exhibitions within their facilities. The center also has collaborated with Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College.

I became more aware of the BACC’s collaboration with our college community as well. I saw Mr. Ellis one morning as I walked into the library. From Biggby’s, he greeted me with a smile and wave, professionally dressed in a full charcoal suit and soft pink dress-shirt.

Completely surprised with the encounter, I stopped to greet back and ask about his visit to our campus.

“I’m here for a presentation from the marketing class,” he said. During our next encounter at the BACC the following day, Mr. Ellis said the class presented how they would market the Black Arts Festival. They talked about how to utilize social media to advertise the event.

The BACC’s first Black Arts Festival (1985) was co-sponsored by the City of Kalamazoo Parks and Recreation Department who helped advertise the annual event.

The center also has been well advertised through different types of media: online website, flyers of on-going and up-coming programs and events, and posters. The Kalamazoo Gazette has contributed articles to the BACC, mostly promoting the Black Arts Festival since 1985.

“Although our name is out there and we’re doing things people don’t necessarily connect those things together always. They may see us out doing a program with some students at New Genesis or at the Douglas Community Association, and for some odd reason they don’t connect that with the BACC who they know run the Black Arts Festival,” Mr. Ellis said.

Executive director of Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, D. Neil Bremer, commented on the BACC.

“I think BACC is a critical organization that needs to find the way that it can thrive. It’s a small organization and Sid is an almost one man organization. It’s a struggle for the competing sense of priorities his group can have. It’s a struggle for them to reach their own African American audience in this town,” Mr. Bremer said.

On Friday, June 1^st, the Art Hop once again took place in the downtown area of Kalamazoo. I was excited to hear what visitors and members of the art community thought about the Black Arts Cultural Center.

Near the entrance of the Epic center on the strip of Kalamazoo Mall, I saw a woman in her forties with long blonde hair walking out with her two little daughters. When I stopped her to ask if she had entered the BACC during her evening out at the Art Hop, the woman gladly stated positive feedback of the center’s native feature of African American art.

A group of three college students went to the second floor of the Epic Center but didn’t think there was anything at the back end of the hallway.

Walking into the BACC, the gallery was occupied with handcrafted pieces on pedestals in the center of the room. Vibrant colored, gold paintings and wood-carved pieces hung on the walls.

“We have a good range of Art Hop people who consistently come. It’s going great. People are very much enjoying the art. Several people went out and brought people back with them,” Mr. Ellis said. 

My Audio Slideshow

Final Assignment: No Title

This is very rough, but that's what workshopping is for :) 

Walking into the Black Arts and Cultural Center in downtown Kalamazoo, the Gayle Sydnor gallery space displays paintings and various artworks by local community African American artists who desire to contribute to the center’s focus on becoming a primary source that explore the arts and culture of the African Diaspora.

The center is completely empty, except for about twelve paintings that hang on four walls with plenty of floor space for visitors to stroll around the room and observe the paintings. Not many people walk into the center to observe the artworks after they were first introduced during Kalamazoo’s Art Hop, open to the public for the month of May. (Description of center will change due to change in exhibition for upcoming Art Hop).

Co-founder of the BACC, Mr. James C. Palmore, 68, an African American artist who teaches basic painting at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, spoke about the center’s evolvement since 1985.

“At first, it was a lot of work in forming this new organization because we had to find people that would be fully committed to it,” Mr. Palmore said.

During the summer of 1985, Mr. Palmore, along with Bertha Barbee-McNeal, a founding member of Motown’s The Velvelettes, Lois Jackson, City of Kalamazoo's Recreation, Leisure and Cultural Services Division manager, and her close friend Gayle Sydnor, were the first people to gather a calling to a public of about thirty people, to present the idea of having a festival for the art community.

With more consents and involvement from the community, their first major event was the Black Arts Festival in August. The festival ran for three days during a weekend, where people sang gospel music and artists hosted art shows in Spring Valley Park and Bronson Park.

“The festival was such a real success. People came from Detroit, Battle Creek, all of the surrounding cities, and they saw people they haven’t seen since high school and so on,” said Mr. Palmore.

The Black Arts Festival and advertisement for the event was co-sponsored by the City of Kalamazoo’s Parks and Recreation Department. The event was elaborately advertised with posters, flyers, and buttons, which the committee dropped off in different nearby cities. The Kalamazoo Gazette also contributed by writing an article to promote the festival within Kalamazoo city.

Due to the success of the Black Arts Festival, the Downtown Kalamazoo Incorporation offered the founders a vacant building, now known as the Kalamazoo Museum on Burdick Street, which used to be a furniture store that closed down. The new Black Arts Center occupied a large space, enough for three offices, on the second floor where a set committee was formed and the center officially became the Black Arts Cultural Center.

Mr. Sidney Ellis has been a volunteer and board member for twenty years before becoming BACC’s executive director. During his experience in working with the center, Mr. Ellis has observed the changes in the center’s success in being recognized by the general public of Kalamazoo.

            “In the first five years, we were located on the mall and we had a store front location. Our doors were open to the sidewalk where people could hear us playing music, acting, they would look at some artwork on the windows, and were exposed to what we were doing. So in terms of exposure, that was probably one of the best times,” Mr. Ellis said.

Now relocated to the Epic Center, along with other art organizations, such as the Crescendo Academy of Music, Fontana Chamber Arts, and collaboration with many others, the BACC continues in building connections and exposing the African American culture through art.

Co-founder of BACC, Mr. Palmore commented on the diversity level of the general public’s interest in the black arts during the 1980’s, “Caucasian people had either fear or just weren’t interested in our festival. Maybe the title for them just read ‘only for black people,’ but all of that has improved since the 1980’s. The arts have helped bring black and white people together,” Mr. Palmore said.

Mr. Ellis also noted the level of diversity in the BACC, “With the name of ‘Black’ in our title, people assume it’s only for the black community. However, we have Caucasian, Hispanic and African American participants in our programs. Our mission is to enhance awareness, connect people to people and organizations. We are always hoping to build bridges for the African American community, for them to experience art from a different cultural perspective. Through art one can understand what that culture is,” Mr. Ellis said.

The ongoing programs are the art exhibitions, Black Writers, Theatre, and the Black Arts Festival, a yearly special event. The purpose of these programs is to provide education, promote art appreciation and community interactions, and give opportunities for networking, career development, and an audience that supports the works, performances and success of African American artists of all ages. 

CYOA

http://vimeo.com/thismustbe


I hope you all enjoy these video profiles. I think they are great!


There is something about visually seeing a profile that makes writing a lot more challenging, but very interesting. A couple things Paul and I want you guys to keep in mind when commenting on the questions posted are what will help you all when you write your profiles:


-Think about how the video captures stillness. What do you listen to/observe when there is no sound? How would you write it in a scene?


-Think about how the dialogue correlates to the descriptions of the scenes, and the mood that they both set throughout the video. Let the visuals around you help you create the right questions for interviewing in order to get that dialogue you need.


Enjoy guys!

Reading Response: Week One

Norman Sims' The Art of Literary Journalism helped me refresh my memory on what is Narrative Journalism and made me think of this new form of journalism in ways I never thought of approaching it. When I was first introduced to literary journalism, I saw it as a great break from news-writing, which I always found very objective and left no room for personal opinions on current events. With literary journalism, I had more freedom in choosing a story, who I wanted to interview, and deciding what would best fit the piece as a whole. And this freedom was really important to me because it gave me the opportunity to have people tell me about their lives and learn so much about life in general, through a narrative of experiences.

Ever since I was a little girl, people watching was one of my favorite things to do. I was very observant, I paid attention to the smallest details and constructed a whole story based on what I saw to share with my parents. So when Sims said "Literary journalists write narratives focused on everyday events that bring out the hidden patterns of community life as tellingly as the spectacular stories that make newspaper headlines" (Sims, 3), I completely related to that. However, once I started practicing this form of journalism, I realized that what I mostly enjoyed is interviewing. By simply having a good, progressive conversation with someone, I could somehow relate myself to that person as a human being in this world, even though we might have completely different backgrounds. I saw Narrative Journalism as the best way to learn about society by putting myself in positions that I would've never considered and embracing new ways of viewing all types of communities. Reading Sims definition and connotations of new journalism served me as practical tips and as a reminder of why I love journalism so much.