I Want to Write, by Margaret Walker

I want to write.

I want to write the song of my people.

I want to hear them singing melodies in the dark.

I want to catch the last floating strains from their sob-torn throats.

I want to frame their dreams into words; their souls into notes.

I want to catch their sunshine laughter in a bowl;

fling dark hands to a darker sky

and fill them full of stars

then crush and mix such lights till they become

a mirrored pool of brillance in the dawn.

Writing a Research Paper: A Realistic Timeline

So...It's that time of the year. My thoughts and plans were sooooo unrealisitc. I love researching and love writing, but it takes a lot of time to make them work together. I do not want this entire semester to be a wash so here are some interesting things that I have discovered that will hopefully work out in my future writing projects. I hope that you find this information helpful.

Develop your topic over the winter or summer break and start to build your bibliography

Write down your KWL before the Semester Starts (What do you know? What do you want to know? What can you learn from the sources that you are thinking of using?)

Identify at least one major primary source to use and ask ILL for the material as early as possible

Write your Lit Review within the first month of the semester (It will change some, but it is better to have SOMETHING written down)

Write your Prospectus Review within the second month (It too will change, but it is better to have SOMETHING written down)

Select a research day (or couple hours per day) to search for material and look through the material you have found

ALWAYS slow down after collecting documents to write notes about why you gathered them, what does/might it add to your topic, what additional questions do you have after looking at the material? Try to write these documents into a part of your paper within the next week. (It’s ok if it does not all fit, the process of writing gives you shape)

By the end of the third month have your sources selected and summaries written.

Take the fourth month to pull together your notes into a full draft. Revise, Revise, Revise....

Use the writing center, your peers in class, family, AND friends from other departments to help you along the way.

Revise in small chunks. Do not tackle the entire paper at one time. It’s dizzying and unproductive.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, if you work diligently on a schedule like this…you’ll have time to STOP AND ENJOY THE FLOWERS. A good paper cannot be written from within the confines of solitude. Be with people.

The Black Middle

Really interesting read........

Theory Site

Theory Library Online.......

Post-comps reading list...

Bound by Recognition, by Patchen Markell

My Trip to the Inauguration

I am so full with joy and have so many stories that I want to share with you all about the inauguration! Perhaps the best way to summarize the trip is post in segments. Over the course of the next week, I'll add various memories in this order:


I. On the Way

II. Visit to Monticello

III. Inauguration Day














































IV. Returning Home

Time for a Reenactment!

I love...love...love...this movie! Tomorrow I begin my own Get On The Bus experience. My trip to the inaugual will start in the parking lot of the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. I want to document this entire experience.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that my camera's battery lasts.

Lest We Forget

I love this new cover...

 1. Barack Obama
 2. Michelle Obama
 3. Martin Luther King Jr.
 4. Thurgood Marshall
 5. Rosa Parks
 6. Barbara Jordan
 7. Cynthia Wesley
 8. Carole Robertson
 9. Denise McNair
10. Addie Mae Collins
11. Emmett Till
12. Susan B. Anthony
13. C.T. Vivian
14. James Meredith
15. Homer Plessy
16. Harvey Milk
17. Ida B. Wells
18. Malcolm X
19. Bayard Rustin
20. John Lewis
21. Mahatma Gandhi
22. Abraham Lincoln
23. Frederick Douglass
24. Cesar Chavez
25. Sojourner Truth
26. Nelson Mandela
27. Stephen Biko
28. Oliver Brown (Brown v. Board of Education)
29. Chief Joseph
30. Lyndon Johnson
31. Medgar Evers
32. Rev. James Reeb
33. Fred Shuttleworth
34. W.E.B. Du Bois
35. Ralph Abernathy
36. Viola Gregg Liuzzo
37. Marcus Garvey
38. Andrew Goodman
39. James Chaney
40. Michael Schwerner
41. John Brown
42. Jackie Robinson
43. Dolores Huerta
44. Mary White Ovington
45. William Lloyd Garrison
46. Wang Dan
47. Stephen Samuel Wise
48. Harriet Tubman
49. Dred Scott
50. Booker T. Washington
51. David Richmond (and)52. Joseph McNeil (Greensboro Four)
53. Martin Delany
54. The Little Rock Nine
55. William Still
56. Thomas Garrett
57. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
58. Samuel Burris
59. Thomas Paine
60. Abigail Kelley Foster
61. Jesse Jackson
62. Eugene V. Debs
63. Lucretia Mott
64. Paul Robeson
65. Henry David Thoreau
66. Shirley Chisholm

Credit: The Nation

My "Minimalist" Apartment

Here's my attempt at making the coffee table from magazines...first leg!

I like this...

Credit: Apartment Therapy

These little stands are made of magazines. I will try to make a coffee table. 

Ideal Design

So many of you may have noticed that "more than a passing notice" has been dead for several months. I lost my drive during the first semester of grad school. My head of swimming with all this "what if" stuff. Well, most of the "what ifs" happened and now it's time for me to get my head of out the clouds and back in touch with reality.



With that said, as the new semester begins I find myself in the same place that I usually am at the beginning of things--Thoroughly excited about organizing and preparing for new challenges.

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(Image Credit: http://environmentdebate.wordpress.com/2007/09/)

I love watching HGTV and designing spaces (in my head). My university apartment does not have the beloved channel so this is my compromise.

My new project is to use this blog to work on my space...room by room. Considering my apartment's current style is pretty...hmmmm minimalist, this yields numerous opportunities for new posts ;-D.

I'm going to post interesting design and style elements as I come across them. My apt, my way.