Meena Ryzik National Museum Essay

In the article “EMP: Music History or Music Trivia?”, Jackie Wyngaard gives her point of view of the Experience Music Project (EMP), an artistic installation in Seattle (WA), that holds information and memorabilia about the various music movements through the American history. Based on what she believes that a music museum should be, she claims that the space is a failure. That is the first important element of an essay: an idea or point of view over something that the author judges important. The purpose of an essay is to inform, clearly, what that idea is, bringing arguments that will support that claim. And the author does that by bringing evidences of what a museum should be for her.

The Civil War museum located in New Orleans is a very interesting museum to visit. On the outside the museum stands out from the surrounding building as it has an older brick style building which almost looks like a church in some aspects.. On the right side of the stairs that lead up inside is a large cannon on display. Upon entering the museum it is made apparent that the building is in good condition, but is also very old. Every step that I took while in the museum sounded as if the floor was about to cave in underneath my feet. I was greeted upon entry to the museum and I paid my entry fee and was given a sheet of paper with some general information on the museum. Once leaving the desk I walked along the wall to my left which was covered in glass cases that contained a multitude of civil war artifacts.

The race most focused in during the course was the African American race. Throughout the course we focused on segregation, educational inequalities, voting rights, housing rights, and affirmation action for African Americans. All of these topics show the discrimination of the African American race. We focused on the challenges confronting the US from 1400s to the 21st Century. Some of these challenges included race inequalities: structural, institutional, and individual. We talked about the interaction between race, gender, and class during the period of African American constitutional history. One topic was The Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr., and how they have helped the progression the African American race. It was the 50th anniversary year of the March of Washington. At

Nevertheless, I do feel that the Jim Crow Museum is important to collect such images. To begin with, this museum does not want to create hate by its

On August 28, 1963 there was about 250,000 people who gathered in Washington D.C. to rally against political and social injustices African-Americans face at this time. This rally was meant to not only pressure congress into adopting civil rights legislation, but to also shed awareness to the continuing injustice even after the passing of the Emancipation Declaration . On its 53rd anniversary the march is remembered for the final speech, Martin Luther King Jr's, “I have a Dream.”

The The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on september 19, 2016. The museum has five floors. The first floor theme is slavery which included many exhibits such as a slave cabin, Emmett Till's casket, and a railcar from the segregation era are just a few of them. The second floor focuses on reconstruction and the third floor features segregation and beyond. The third floor shows exhibits such as women and movement which talks about how women helped in the civil rights movement and also displays exhibits on entertainment which included one on Oprah which had Oprah Winfrey’s couch. Therefore the African American history museum was a good way to learn about African American history.

I've been debating all day on whether or not to comment on the museum. On one hand, I did not go to it due to my schedule, though I felt the museum held a purpose that was justified. The group appears to be an organization that tells the stories of the tragedy of September 11 and how it still impacts people to this day. I can easily get behind that message, especially after seeing some of the footage of students being touched by the museum's message.

This week we talked about the civil rights movement and touched on some of the key elements involved in the movement. Whether that be the change in the education system, the murder of Emmett Till, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The first in the Brown V. Board of Education forced the school to desegregate and was something that society had to get used to back then. Second was the heinous murder of Emmett Till that showed how the court system was flawed and this case was a main catalyst in the civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was what we saw in the documentary how long it lasted and how persistent were they saw a problem that needed to be fixed. This is what needs to happen with all movements is that lynchpin that makes the

Recalling my inability to understand art, you can just imagine how much fun I had in the museum. When I walked into the little area I was immediately stopped by a collection of commemorative plates, each with names of famous civil rights activists on them. The plates looked very elegant, but I couldn’t figure out why the artist would want to create them. “Irony”, I thought, “it must be ironic somehow. Artists love irony – but how is this ironic?” Maybe because the names were in black on white plates? Maybe because they didn’t lead extravagant lifestyles but yet were commemorated on extravagant plates? Or maybe that their names, and all that they have stood for, have been reduced to a cheap souvenir-like object, that may or may not be available at the gift shop. I decided to shake off all the thoughts that were running through my head when I saw a giant sign that described the purpose of the exhibit, and what Brown v Board meant. Beneath it I found a pamphlet describing each work. “Spectacular”, I thought. “Now this is my kind of art museum – one with answers”.

The museum is a very interesting place where amazing exhibits are around you.While entering the museum and exploring the different art one drawing seemed to catch my eye the most. The title of the drawing was called “Dying Solider”. In this piece of art their were three working people in the drawing. It was a man portraying a janitor, an older lady scrubbing hardwood floors, and a woman taking care of an infant. Those three descriptions of the images makes me realize how hard an African American house hold had to work.

On the outside it is not very appealing. The words ‘National Museum of African Art is located right above the glass door. To the left and right there is a banner. One representing The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists collection the other Conversations. Before entering the museum I checked my phone and noted that it was 11:00 a. m. Opening the door, I was hit an old dusty smell. In the background a mixture of African and African American hip hop music was playing. Before I could walk completely inside, I first came across a funerary sculpture. This sculpture hosted a man on top of an elaborate pedestal. This man had a stick in each hand. His right hand was extended, but bent at the elbow. Holding the stick in a tight fist. His left hand was relaxed at his side. In reading the description, I discovered that this sculpture was a grave post that captured the strength, determination, and movement of a powerful warrior. When rewriting my notes I wondered why the museum would put a grave post in front of the entrance. This is the first piece of artwork that visitors would see and the head of the museum chose a grave post. However, I realized that that is an ingenious idea. In Global Shadows, James Fergusons examines the perception of Africa through the lens of the world. “‘Africa’ continues to be describe through a series of lacks and absences, failings and

When you walked into the Holocaust museum there was a sort of eerie quiet that had befallen on the building and it’s visitors. It was not heavily ornamented and it made you feel uncomfortable to even be in the building. When the elevator doors opened and allowed us out to the fourth floor, you feel cramped and awkward with how little space you had. This was exactly the intentions of the designers of the building. They wanted to mimic how all those people, who were herded like cattle, felt when they were forced onto the wagons which would lead most of them to their murder. This museum was significant to me because it brought out all the horrible things that happened during that time. I believe that people should know more about the heinous events

Once again, I found the museum to be trying to shock me while simultaneously awe me, in order to make it clear to me that intolerance exists in the world and in myself as well. It occurred to me that one possible reason this seems so ineffective to me is that I am lucky enough to be well-educated on the ways of the world and the horrors of humanity. For me, I do not need to see the bullet-ridden corpses of women lying dead in pools of their own blood on the streets of Kosovo to know that their death was the result of one people hating another people; I already knew this and understand it. But many people may not, and so the museum is essentially forced to cater to those who do not know, and disregard those who do.

When researching the monuments and historical relics in the surrounding DC area, I figured I would end up writing a reflection on the Martin Luther King memorial in the national mall… But after more thought, I opted out of that. After further review, and walking further down the National Mall, I was intrigued by the Museum of African American History and Culture.

I attended the African Burial Ground and this was a very pleasant experience. I naturally enjoy museums because they provide a sense of peacefulness, but when I arrived at the burial ground I felt unease. It was my first time on sacred land, it was also my first time at a black museum so I was thrilled. At first, I didn’t really feel anything while reading the notes on the outside of the building but once I got inside everything changed. On the inside, there were lots of visuals and information on display. Learning about the struggles your people overcame at the burial ground is a different feeling compared to being at home or in a classroom reading textbooks about the same struggles. There was a section in the museum where a timeline was