Kara Walker and Teaching Confidential

Teaching again on Tuesday was not as great as Sunday but definitely better than Saturday.

I have had some real character moments in my classes. Some of them resulting from misunderstandings:
- The girl who wrote one paragraph on why she wanted to learn English when the assignment was to write about whether or not society is too reliant on technology. (I asked multiple times if anyone had questions, and I rephrased the assignment so everyone understood. This is totally not my fault.)
- The guy who turned in his assignment after fifteen minutes when the assignment was to write for forty-five.
"Is this all you're going to write? You don't have anything else to say."
"Yes." (He leaves)
"Please continue writing, class."

Then there are the personality moments.
- The guy who told me that he doesn't really "study" English because he's getting tired of it (even though he's a third year and almost done with his degree). He spent the summer working as a janitor, and hey - it's good money.
- The girl who told me that she's learning English so she could talk like me.
- The guy who stopped me after class with rapid fire Polish (of which I understood the first two words: Mam pytanie) because he didn't realize I wasn't Polish. But he really wants to join the American group - which I run!

So, after Tuesday classes, I met up with my roommate at the Kara Walker talk and exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is located in this gorgeous castle at the top of Lazienki park - one of the coolest places in Warsaw, if not all of Poland. It's definitely up there with Krakow's rynek and the salt mines.

Anyway, Kara Walker is this African American artist who explores African American identity in some fairly shocking ways. She does some very cool word art, cut outs, and shadow puppet films. The films are probably the most disturbing because they're very in your face. The cut outs are really beautiful on one level, so it's more striking when you realize that she's not necessarily giving a beautiful message. Her most famous piece (probably) is Darkytown Rebellion.

So you can see what I mean about the cut outs being beautiful in their own particular way. She talked a lot about the different things she did and her techniques. Roomie asked a very insightful question about how Walker's art might have extra depth or a different interpretation in Poland. Unfortunately, Walker doesn't know enough about Poland to answer. But it is particularly interesting to have a woman who does very in-you-face artwork about black/white relations in America to then have her work transplanted to one of the most homogeneous societies in the world. Of course, the Polish people might disagree with that assessment of their nation, but the fact remains that Poland in 98% white Catholics (much like Notre Dame!). I think the curator really missed the mark in the display because there were a lot of visually striking things right in a row. Maybe for Polish sentiments it was different? For example, some of Walker's work deals with sexual themes, including rape. When we talked to Polish women about their safety, they told us that they always felt safe and never worried about things like rape. Yet, in America, 1 in 4 college aged women has or will experience sexual assault. Is it that we're more aware of this phenomena or that our society is less safe? Either way, the attitude towards rape changes the way each culture perceives the artwork.