Important Articles:

• “Paris Has Burned” from the New York Times.
• “Burning Down the House: Why the Debate Over Paris is Burning Still Rages On” from The Guardian.
• “Paris Doesn’t Always Have to Be Burning” from Public Books. (This article is excellent. It considers the alternate stories that could have been told in the film in light of the unseen footage that was publically released a few years ago.)

Unseen Footage:

Interview with the Cast of Paris is Burning by Joan Rivers (Interesting but also Uncomfortable)

Judith Butler’s Famous and Controversial Essay on Paris is Burning

The prompt for the second response paper is now available for your review below.

Note that the final draft of this essay is due on Wednesday, December 20th by 11:59 p.m.

You have no post due this Thursday. However, I will expect you to do the following:

• Read Riggs’ short essay “Black Macho Revisited.”
• Review Rigg’s Tongues Untied (Watch Here!). I am not saying you need to rewatch the film, but I would like you to skip through it and re-watch some scenes so that you are able to have a robust discussion of the film on Thursday.

On Tuesday, we will be turning our attention to a new set of texts. We will spend Tuesday evening viewing Tongues Untied (1989), a film by Marlon Riggs.

Since we will be spending time closely analyzing this film in subsequent discussions, I will expect you to pay close attention and take notes.

Note that your first response paper is NOT due that evening. Rather, it will be due on Thursday, 11/9 by 11:59 p.m. Therefore, you will still have time to get questions answered about the response paper both before and after class on Tuesday.

“Y’All Better Quiet Down Speech” by Sylvia Rivera (1973)

A Conversation with Cam Awkward-Rich

Cameron Awkward-Rich on Revising the Archive

While you do not have a post due over the weekend, I would like you to begin thinking about and writing Response Paper #1. Specifically, I would like you to develop a *rough* thesis statement over the weekend.

Please bring your rough thesis statement to class on Tuesday. This may be neatly hand-written on a clean sheet of paper, or it may be typed out. JUST MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A HARD COPY OF YOUR THESIS!

Again, this can be ROUGH. No need to produce something anywhere near perfect. We will spend some time on Tuesday reading each other’s theses and offering feedback.

If you want assistance over the weekend, please feel free to email me, and I will be happy to offer advice and feedback. In addition, you can see me in my office before class on Tuesday to chat about your thesis/paper.

Below is the handout we went over in class.

Take a look at some of the supplemental material below concerning the delightfully strange–and certainly formidable!–CA Conrad.

ESSAY by Conrad: “The Queer Voice: Reparative Poetry Rituals & Glitter Perversions“

Writing Prompts: CA Conrad’s (Soma)tic Poetry Exercises

Interview: The Rumpus Interviews CA Conrad

Below is the prompt for your first response paper, along with several other handouts from class.

Hello, everyone,

Unfortunately, I am not feeling well today and will need to cancel our class tonight.

I’m sorry for the short notice and inconvenience.

If you have not yet completed your fourth post assignment, please do so today.

In lieu of class, I am going to ask that, before we meet again on Tuesday, you respond to at least TWO of your classmates’ post assignments. That way, we can have at least a little bit of conversation about the poems we were supposed to talk about today. I will also be offering some responses.

For complete instructions on how to respond to your classmates’ posts, see here:

Post Assignment #5: Responding to Your Classmates’ Fourth Post

Please reach out if you have any questions!