PAPER 3: The Politics of Hope (Hurricane Katrina)
Format: 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced, 11-12 pt font, proofread!
VERSION 1: Submit a complete DRAFT of the paper as your Module 7 “Connections, Critique, and Questions” Assignment – in two places: under Assignments and on Module 7 Discussion.
Due Saturday, October 31st (by midnight)
VERSION 2: Reflect and revise your draft based on the feedback you gained from the Mod 7 workshop. Re-submit as Paper 3.
Due Saturday, November 30th (by midnight) – or anytime earlier!
Background Discussion/Questions to Consider:
In Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope by bell hooks, writes,
Our senses are assaulted by the stench of domination every day, here in the places where we live. No wonder, then, that so many people feel terribly confused, uncertain, and without hope. More than anywhere else a dominator-controlled mass media, with its constant manipulation of representations in the service of the status quo, assaults us in that place where we would know hope. Despair is the greatest threat. When despair prevails we cannot create life-sustaining communities of resistance. Paulo Friere reminds us that “without a vision for tomorrow hope is impossible.” Our visions for tomorrow are most vital when they emerge from the concrete circumstances of change we are experiencing right now (12).
How can we prevail over despair within the systems that create it?
Spend some time reflecting on how the many stories, representations, and actions within and surrounding peoples’ experiences of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath combine to tell us about the “politics of belief” in the U.S., especially at the intersections of race and class. When a “natural disaster” occurs, humans are always faced with the shock of sweeping change and the feelings of powerlessness that come with losing control to forces much greater than we are. The catastrophe seems insurmountable, though not unexpected, when natural disasters are combined with what Shigeru Ban calls “man-made disasters.” In New Orleans, levees and buildings that should have protected residents of the most vulnerable neighborhoods collapsed, those without resources were “left to their own resources” to evacuate, and the powers-that-be do not choose to use their powers to save the lives of poor black and brown people, children, elderly, disabled, incarcerated…
In what ways can inaction speak louder than action? And how do the survivors of this (and other) “man-made” catastrophes express their experiences and their will to survive in terms of faith and hope? How does this faith transform into resistance and action?
Consider the documentary we screened, Trouble the Water, the ways in which Kimberly Roberts tells her story, the poems by Patricia Smith from her collection Blood Dazzler, the visual art pieces from the articles posted in Mod 7 ITI, the TED Talk by Wendell Pierce about restorative theater and art, the architecture of re-buidling, etc.
Writing Prompt:
How can we prevail over despair within the systems that create it? What is – or can or should (or should not?) be – the relationship between tragedy and hope? How does this case study help us understand the power of creativity, as resistance and resilience? How/where do the different art forms connect most for you?
Use examples from our Katrina case study and anything else you would like to add to support your points.
Works Cited
hooks, bell. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. New York: Routledge, 2003.