What We All Long For By Dionne Brand

Everyone has had an embarrassing moment in their life at one point or another; slipping on ice in public or forgetting a coworkers name at the company picnic. Making a fool of yourself is bound to happen, especially in a setting outside of what you are accustomed to. Some people do not like reliving these moments while others have a gift for turning their embarrassment into a great story. Kellie Schmitt’s essay “The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore” is a perfect example of laughing at oneself. Throughout a cluster of Chinese do’s and do not’s, Schmitt tells the reader of one specific event and its comical conclusion. The essay is fun to read and relate to. Laughing with the author is made easy while she gracefully shares her missteps while she and her husband adapt to living in China. Learning new customs for an inevitable occasion most Americans probably are not privy too makes the essay most interesting.

The piece is classified as Aboriginal Australian literature. It was published in the 1960’s. The purpose of the text is to give hope in a new beginning after the events involving the racial tension between the Aboriginals and the white settlers. The poem is directed to the Aboriginal people of Australia who suffered from these events

'Keeper N Me ' by Richard Wagamese, is a novel based on the necessary balance between life and the culture in which one belongs to. This is a necessary aspect in order to maintain a steady relationship with one 's self. In this novel passing on traditions or a certain way of life from generation to generation is one of the most important aspects of guiding someone of the Ojibway culture, as the Ojibway people have very strong beliefs and take their culture very seriously. The people of the Ojibway culture believe that through storytelling and dreams one can realize the importance of tradition and its influence on their identity. Wagamese throughout his novel tries to teach the readers the power of one 's community and traditions as he

Women throughout history have been continually oppressed and have faced inequality in all aspects of life. In My Forbidden Face by Latifa, this theme recurs many times since the main character has been robbed of all basic human rights because of her gender. During the time period of the book, the Taliban took over and forced the people to take part in a radicalized version of Islam and worship as they saw fit. They made their own rules on how people should live, by taking the words of the Koran and twisting it to suit their needs, without any thoughts of how it would affect the people. The majority of the rules were aimed towards women and how they should live their lives.

Under the lights by Abbie Glines. There are three teens that grew up together in a southern small town. Willa’s mom had her when she was a teenager. Willa had gotten into some trouble at a young age and had to stay with her Nonna. Willa’s two best friends were Gunner and Brady. Willa has made some bad choices in her past life which made her go down the wrong path in life. Brady’s a high school quarter back now and with the choices Willa has made Brady sees Willa as a different person. Gunner is also a football star in high school. Gunner is living a good rich life the only matter though he cares about himself only, except for Willa. He understands the person she has grown into over her time. As they were known to be child hood friends secrets start to come out and the truth may be the reason of them losing each other.

The short story “The Love Of My Life” by T.C. Boyle's examines two couples who are imagined to be inseparable and how no love comes closer to theirs. The story follows young high school couples who are in the merge of a bright future. They are always together “wearing each other like a pair socks”. They idolized the love they share is something far from real and it is true love. While Jeremy is set to attend Brown and on the other hand China were in Binghamton things took wrong turn. Over the summer before their going to college they mistakenly conceived a baby while they are at a camping trip. The story was pleasant and everything was green and China and Jeremy went to a trip together and had sex. The couples were so keen to avoid this from

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

“Love on the B-Line” by Adam Kraar gives us an understanding of how to write a play. He gives us great examples of structure, character development, and dialogue that can help young or novice writers understand the basics of making a play.

The themes of power and control in Stokey Carmichael's "What We Want" and Huey Newton's "The Founding of the Black Panther Party" and "Patrolling" are expressed in different methods to make a point. However, they both share similar goal to end racism by educating their communities of their legal rights and ways to create unity in their communities.

In “To My People “by Assata shakur, she’s infuriated that the white men has manipulated and oppressed the black men. She commands the colored men to advocate, assemble, and to fight for their rights, and freedom because the american society and law enforcement is corrupted. She contends that their isn’t any equality and justice for colored people. Also Assata Shakur illustrates that colored people should get their freedom and justice they should to fight for it because the white men corrupts the system to the point where the colored men will remain oppressed. She was a member of the Black Panthers and she was the most wanted person by the FBI and charged with of first degree murder, assault and battery of a police officer, assault with a

In “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose, Rose talks about his school life throughout this short story. He explains multiple things that went wrong, from having bad teachers, to getting abused, and never realizing he deserved to be treated with respect. Being treated in a negative way at school affects your attitude and behavior in class and also outside of class. Not one of the children in Rose’s class cared about school because they realized that the teachers had no training in the subjects being taught and were showing no attention to caring about the futures of the students sitting in front of them day after day. When Rose explains his schooling, he tells us that he was placed in the wrong track, had horrible teachers, and eventually stopped believing in himself.

During the Vietnam War, Mexican American soldiers fought bravely to defend the United States. However mainstream historical chronicles are almost silent concerning the contributions of these soldiers in this war. Most literature omits the accomplishments and experiences of Mexican American soldiers. One example is the bestselling book Everything We Had by Al Santoli, which chronicles the oral history of soldiers in the Vietnam War. However not one Mexican American soldier is interviewed . When they are mentioned they are usually described in a stereotypical way for example Gary Hook who describes these soldiers as “ Mexicans” who speak “Mexican” in his book One Day in Vietnam. The brave participation of Mexican American soldiers in the Vietnam War did not improve the marginalized status of their community within the United States. It also failed to advance their civil rights battles and their war against poverty. Even though they fought bravely Mexican Americans faced prejudice before and during the war and received minimum recognition and rewards for their efforts in the War .

There are a numerous amount of books that have been placed on the “classic” book list. Classical literature is generally associated with well-known novels, however, it is frequently a book that marks a turning point in history. Warriors Don’t Cry, written in the 1990’s, by Melba Pattillo Beals is scrutinized as a “classic” book because it incorporates morals and educational uses.

Rebecca Stead is fame as an American writer of fiction for children and teens. The achievement of her novels is not doubtful. She was born on January 16, 1968 and raised in New York City. Vassar College was the institution where she acquired her bachelor’s degree in 1989. Moreover, she has started to write since she was a child but she altered her career to become a lawyer. However, Stead started to become of writing subsequent to the birth of her two children. Her inspiration of writing children’s novel was from her son and her collections of story stories on her laptop. One day, her 4-year-old son by chance pushed her laptop out off the dining-room table and destroyed her piece of writing. Stead was very angry with her son and she went to the bookstore to find books which can inspire her to write. From that moment, her motivation and loving in writing began to boost up, and her debut novel was First Light which won The New York Best Times. Due to her great spirit in writing, she won The American Newbery Medal in 2010, Winner of the Boston Globe –Horn Book Award for Fiction, IRA Children’s Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, A Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner and A National Parenting Publications Gold Award for her second novel, When You Reach Me, followed by achieving Guardian Prize in 2013 as the first winner for her third novel, Liar & Spy.

For this listening journal I chose to write on the song Forever Don’t Last by Jazmine Sullivan. This song would be classified in the genera of R&B. R&B music is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, and hip hop. The tempo of the song is slow and steady tempo. The beat was very clear to hear, it has a steady snap for the beat. The accents were on the beat. The song has different pitches throughout the song. She begins in a low range then changes to a high range, and it kind of alternates throughout the rest of the song. This song is in a minor key because the singer is talking about hear break and losing her lover, so it has a sad feeling to it. The instrument that I could identify in this song is the