This course will explore the theme of artists and history. We will study how creative artists in diverse art forms–fiction, memoir, theater, opera, film, photography, and visual art—interpret and transform history. How does an artist mold materials to expose an audience to new and challenging ideas? How do different texts and different genre illuminate the human condition—the twisting and turning, the metamorphosis, which we all experience as to we struggle to understand who we are and why we exist?

This fall, we began the semester, by seeing a performance of The History Boys, set in the mid-1980s in Cutler’s Grammar School in the North of England. Determined to get into England’s pre-eminent universities, Oxford and Cambridge, a rare phenomenon for grammar school students, the boys received intensive coaching to enable them to sit for the Oxbridge entrance exams. To alter the course of history, their headmaster decided that the traditional teaching methods (Hector’s) needed updating and Irwin was brought in to transform the classroom: to add shock value, rather than content, to the boys’ answers. The results—we discovered—transformed history, often tampering with truth.

Several weeks later, we read Samuel G. Freedman’s memoir about his mother, Who She Was. When Freedman visited our class, he described how he researched and subsequently recreated his mother’s life, which included several years as a student at City College downtown (Baruch). Freedman spoke about his desire to make his reader understand and appreciate the world Eleanor Hatkin, his mother lived in—the larger truths about life in immigrant families in The Bronx and beyond.

We also read Susan Choi’s novel, American Woman, based on the Patty Hearst story, and screened the PBS documentary Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst. In her talk, Tampering with Truth: What Fiction Can Do with Historical Facts, Choi described the ways she reframed the Hearst story, choosing to center her novel on Japanese-American Jenny Shimada (based on Wendy Yoshimura) instead of Patty Hearst.

After our readings and discussions, it was time for students in the class to become artists. Students were asked to create a collage that would relate their version of their family history. The collage was to be approximately 8 ½ by 11 inches in size, incorporating a wide variety of materials. Each creative work was to be signed.

We were following in the tradition of album or autograph quilts which were popular during the 19^th century in such cities as Baltimore, Maryland. These album quilts—with individual squares that were created and signed for a variety of occasions—were passed on from generation to generation, creating an artistic and personal historical archive. This collage project continues the legacy of the quilters, using Web log technology, instead of needles and thread, to sew together our own class family history quilt.

Prof. Roslyn Bernstein (email)
Baruch College
Fall 2006

William Hampton-Sosa (email)
Technology Fellow

My parents were born in Afghanistan, but the rest of my ancestry goes back to Uzbekistan and I am ultimately of Turkic/Mongolian ancestry. However, I do not try to associate myself with a certain nationality, but more with my religion, Islam. I began my collage with the Afghani flag in the background with different pieces of fabric that my mother had lying around. She worked for a sewing company for years so she is always making something. Although I do not hold Afghanistan extremely important in my history, I am still an Afghan-American. Then, I pasted many different articles about controversies that currently surround my people and my religion. The convenient, yet sad, thing is that I did not have to look in many newspapers to find these articles; wherever I looked, there they were.

I believe surrounding the Afghani flag with articles displays the fact these issues literally surround Afghanistan and Muslims. Also, covering most of the Afghan flag highlights the fact that although I am Afghan-American, it is not the most important thing to me. I was able to find certain words in newspapers and magazines that expressed my opinion on certain issues. Words like “cold cash,” “business,” “enough,” and “race issues” address many underlying causes of certain conflicts such as the Afghan War and the conflict in Israel.

Lastly, I put an Islamic symbol that reads, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammed is his Messenger.” This proclamation, when recited with sincerity, makes a person Muslim. I surrounded this symbol for Islam with sunshine and rays that shine over the articles around the page, delivering a message that true Islam, not the kind portrayed by the media, is the Light in life and all worldly matters are trivial next to it.

Samim Abedi

Last year in anthropology class, my professor taught us a very important concept of family history, based upon the idea of ego. In this collage, I am the ego and I used pictures of different points in my life that symbolize something important to my family. Every picture has a value; nothing is placed for the sheer purpose of esthetic pleasure. Overall, they all combine in their layout to deliver a message that will continue to impact my family forever, starting from my parents to my children, my children’s children, and so on.

Let’s begin with the cluster of pictures in the lower right hand corner. As anyone can probably guess, the family of three represents my own family. The Soviet flag shown to their left is the symbol of the country they have sworn allegiance to. The emblem on the right marks the child as a Communist in the eyes of the world. I have found that people tend to be very ignorant, and when I say I’m from the former Soviet Union they automatically label me a Communist. The Red Scare is truly alive and well and I’ve had to fight that stereotype for a long time over things as trivial as presenting papers on Stalin and Lenin. The “got milk?” sign, although humorous in the United States today, reflects the socio-economic status of the people and the country. Food was not plentiful, and people stood on lines to get whatever was being distributed that day at whatever quantities they could afford. The blueberry flavored vodka shows the country’s strongest industry at the time, and I think it acts as a pun on the fact that you have flavored vodka instead of juice.

The kite in the center of the picture represents the flight over to America, and the word it is pointing to represents the reason for the journey—freedom ringing true—freedom of religion, the rights of citizens, freedom of choice, and so much more. The different brand names scattered across the paper represent some of that freedom to choose. In the USSR we didn’t have brands; you wore what was available. But in America you have Levi’s, Gap, Old Navy, and literally thousands of other options. There was no Wendy’s like there is in modern Russia today; you ate at home with your family and stretched food to make it last.

The picture at Disney World and of Mickey Mouse represents a chance to experience a real childhood. The graduation photo is a symbol of me achieving a foothold for my future; the son of immigrants who has gone through the public education system and come out on top. Before I had entered high school, I promised my parents that I would work toward attending a competitive college, and that it wouldn’t cost them a single penny. I made good on that promise.

The picture of me in a suit shows me as I am now, a college student working hard to be the first in my nuclear family to finish college in America. I wish to set an example for my own kids one day by moving on to an excellent career and a good life. That life, I hope, will lead me to the last picture, the one of me in a tuxedo, which I used to symbolize achieving wealth and status, and pursuing pleasures other than working such as performing. The Corvette next to that photo is a mark of being able to afford expensive leisure items simply because I worked hard.

The overall layout of the collage is supposed to convey one message. I don’t care that I was four when I left the Soviet Union. It doesn’t matter to me that I experienced most of my life and opportunities here in the United States. The Soviet Union is where I was born, and no matter how much of it I remember or got to experience, it’s still a part of me. I was raised on its values of hard work and discipline. I can converse in the language fluently, and I know the history of the people. As far as I’m concerned, I will always be a hyphenated American, a Soviet-American, and if I can help it my family to come will always be hyphenated Americans too.

Maxim Bakaleynik

]]> http://web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/seminars/bernstein06/?feed=rss2&p=35 2 http://web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/seminars/bernstein06/?p=34 http://web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/seminars/bernstein06/?p=34#comments Mon, 04 Dec 2006 01:44:33 +0000 whamptonsosa http://web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/seminars/bernstein06/?p=34 Immigration is a difficult process. It is tiring, costly, and time consuming. However, men and women hoping to live the American dream are willing to sacrifice a great deal for that opportunity. My family, which included my parents, brother, and grandparents (mother’s side), experienced immigration in 1981 when moving from the former Soviet Union to the United States.

In my quilt, these two countries are represented by two distinct semicircles (the USSR featuring a yellow hammer, sickle, and star with a red background, and America showing red, white, and blue stars and stripes). My family stayed in Italy for a few weeks until they were allowed to fly to the United States. A smaller circle with the colors of the Italian flag is in the center, since it was the midpoint of their immigration.

From a distance, the quilt appears to be a basketball court layout. This design embodies the difficulty and competition faced in the long process. Russian Jews moving to America required special sponsorship from organizations located in various states, and my family was lucky enough to find support from New York. The blue background represents a mixture of air and water, which stands for the traveling from the Soviet Union to Italy and from Italy to America via plane.

Two triangles near the Soviet region on the quilt show the difficulty of practicing Judaism in the USSR, which was an anti-Semitic society. These shapes are separated since certain Jewish customs could not be practiced due to persecution and hate, thus separating them from the overall belief system of Soviet Jews. When my family temporarily moved to Italy, there was less religious pressure, and they got closer to their faith, as shown by the corresponding triangles. Finally when reaching America, the shapes were connected to form the Star of David. Being permanently established, my family was able to celebrate the various holidays in peace without fear of persecution.

Steven Bariban

The title of my family history collage is “My Family: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” This collage is divided into three distinct sections, from left to right, representing three main stages in my family’s journey. The first section is a sea of vibrant fish swimming freely under a stretch of rice. Divided by a thick, rugged-edged line, the subsequent section is a land of gold with embroidery using a Bangladeshi stitching technique. Finally, the last section is an array of slightly overlapping colors.

The first section of the collage represents Bangladesh, the starting point of my family’s journey. I chose to use fish, a vital economic asset of the country, and rice, the main food source of the country, to represent Bangladesh. The fish and rice, however, hold meaning within themselves. The vibrant sea of fish represents the way my parents view Bangladesh: a land of culture, flavor, color, and liveliness. On a more contrasting level, the stretch of plain, white rice represents the reason why my parents chose to leave Bangladesh: it is a country lacking opportunities and where people refuse to entertain thoughts “outside the box.” The splashes of red on the rice represent my grandfather’s death during Bangladesh’s war for independence. His death at a fairly young age affected my family’s history significantly because he left behind six children, the youngest of which was my mother.

The circular shape on the collage, composed of two rings, represents my family. The outer, red ring represents my mother and the inner, blue ring represents my father. Although my father is the head of our household, my mother holds the family together, which is why she is the outer, binding ring. As one looks at the collage from left to right, the circular object changes, as a violet circle is added to the center. This violet circle represents my siblings and me, the product of a combination of blue and red.

The second section of my collage is a “land of gold,” which is how my parents viewed America before coming here. They wanted to leave Bangladesh and come to America because it is rich with opportunities and is open to a wide range of views and ideas. The embroidered paisleys, stitched using a Bengali sewing method, is symbolic of the culture and morals of our background, which my parents have instilled in us despite growing up oceans away from Bangladesh. My parents have also ensured that my siblings and I are in touch with our religion, Islam, which is why I placed a golden Allahu pendant on the second section of the collage.

The first section and the “land of gold” are divided by a rough-edged black line, which represents the transition into a new country. The line is dark with rough edges because transition into a new country and starting a whole new life is difficult and full of hardships.

The third and final section of the collage is an array of different colors. These colors are in random order and cut unconventionally so no two pieces are alike. This section is a representation of “tomorrow.” The future can hold anything, good or bad, but countless possibilities nonetheless.

My first step in making this collage was to separate the paper into three different sections. For the first section, I glued on rice to represent the reason why my parents left Bangladesh and I drew a sea of fish, using oil pastels, to illustrate my parents’ views on their country. The rugged black line, drawn by charcoal, represents the difficult transition into a new country. I used a golden gift bag to represent the “land of gold”, and when I didn’t achieve the type of gold I had envisioned, I decided to use glitter. Lastly, I used construction paper to make an overlapping section of different colors to symbolize the future and what is yet to come our way.

Preeti Choudhury

Over the years, my family history has largely been shaped by adventure. We have traveled to many places together to visit other relatives and spend quality time. Despite, this travel, I have only been to a few places, often visiting one particular place. My journeys have mostly been within the boundaries of the United States, except once, when I was five years old and I took a trip to Delhi, India.

My collage consists of various pieces of fabric that have unique shades of colors. My idea behind the collage was to show the difference in my travels through different shades of color. For example, I cut out the replica of the United States in black fabric. Despite the regions that are in different colors, the black territory symbolizes the places that I have yet to explore with my family. This decision would make the brighter colors seem more intense, accentuating their different shades. The water all around the land is actually purple fabric. I chose this color because it also a place in the world, which I haven’t taken a journey through. So instead of choosing black or blue, I decided to combine the two and create dark-shaded oceans.

I based the colors of each region on the number of times I visited those particular areas. In order to show the difference, I decided to choose a bright strong color to show where I visited often and a light color to show where I visited least. As you can tell from the collage, the Northeast is in a bright red color, since it is an area where I’ve visited the most and it is also the location where I reside. The second color on the list is actually Florida, assigned a lighter color of pink, because it is the next most frequent vacation location for my family. My aunt has been living in Tampa, Florida for many years, long before I was born, and it’s my favorite place to visit. The green color in Texas is actually the third most frequently visited place because I have visited Houston a few times, to see my uncle. The last color that you can see is a faint light yellow color that outlines a country away from the United States. This land mass represents a portion of India, Delhi, which I only visited once in my life.

All in all, this collage represents the journeys my family and I have taken in the 18 years of my life. I believe that the shades of the colors accurately describe the importance of certain locations to my family and to me. In the next 18 years I hope to be able to color up more of this map and reduce the black or dark areas.

Tarun Dani

I wanted a person to be able to look at my collage and get the main idea without having to read an essay. After thinking for a while, I realized that Flags and National Emblems were easily recognizable to most people. Also, people understand that rivers and arrows usually represent movement. My collage would be simple and easy to understand.

I started with the nationalities of my grandparents. My grandparents on my mother’s side were Ukrainian. So I put up two Ukrainian Flags. My mother was also born in Ukraine, so I used the Ukrainian National symbol. The arrows showed that while there was movement, everyone stayed in the same country. My grandparents on my father’s side were from different countries. One was from Ukraine, the other from Uzbekistan. My father was born in Uzbekistan, so I used an Uzbek Flag. The river shows that one of my parents moved to Uzbekistan while the other was already there.

To complete the pyramid I had to include myself. I used two rivers, because I was born in a different country. My parents moved to the Republic of Georgia, and that’s where I was born. Overall, I think my collage captures my family history in its simplicity, rather than the complexity others have sought. I did not focus on social issues, or on why my parents moved or how they met. I just presented the facts in a creative way.

Yevgeniy Dynkin

I began this project knowing that I wanted to make a collage about my family, but I didn’t how to start. My family means so much to me that it seems almost silly to have to show the magnitude of my emotions for them on paper. My original plan was to use a bunch of old photos and arrange them in such a way that they spelled “double happiness.” However, such a phrase is used only during weddings. I didn’t want to send the wrong message, so it was back to the drawing board for me.

I sat at my desk brainstorming until my father walked by and told me to clean my desk. Unhappily, I obeyed. In the midst of taking out all the junk in my drawers, I came upon several red envelopes. Eureka! I thought. I can use these!

I started by cutting up my red envelopes and pasting them onto my paper. Most of the red envelopes I have say “fortune.” Indeed, I have been incredibly fortunate all my life to have been with them. No matter what we go through, things always seem to turn out for the best.

Next, I taped on my mother’s hanging Buddha decoration. We actually have several, but I chose to use this one because looking at it always gives me a sense of calmness. Both sides of my family come from backgrounds with strong ties to Buddhism. Although I’m not very religious, I feel that the teachings of this religion are extremely valuable and have certainly helped me, as well as my family, understand the world a little bit better.

Afterwards, I taped on some Hong Kong currency. My father is originally from Hong Kong and is always talking about how much he loves it. We try to go there as often as we can, but with my parents’ work schedules and my sister’s and my clashing vacation schedules, it’s pretty hard.

I tried to find some money from where my mother is from, which is Taishan, China, but was unsuccessful in my search. When coming to the United States, she left everything behind. Very little of her life in China remains with us today. What I was able to find, however, was a coin, the type that Chinese people used during the end of the Ching dynasty. It is shaped like a circle, with a square hole in the center. The circular shape represents the universe, and the square shape represents China, which was believed to be the center of the earth.

I taped the hanging charm on the right side to represent all the good luck that has come to us and all the good luck that will be coming. These decorations are usually hung in Chinese homes during Chinese New Year to welcome joy and fortune into households. I believe that joy and fortune come year-round and so I have chosen to make it part of my collage.

Last but not least, are the pieces of jade. In Chinese culture, jade stands for good luck, good health, and protection. Indeed, these properties are properties that I wish for everyone in my family to have. These jade pieces are of my family’s Chinese signs. My father is a horse, my mother is a monkey, my sister is a sheep, and I am a rabbit. I placed all of the pieces together in the same spot to show our unity at home. I arranged them by age, so my father, the oldest, is at the top, and my sister, who is the youngest, is at the bottom.

There is actually a lot more I wish I could put on the paper to show what my family means to me. However, in order to do that, the paper would have to be never-endingly long. So here’s just a little taste of my love for them!

Yvonne Fung

My collage is a representation of my life. Rather then focusing on a particular event or aspect of my life, I chose to illustrate the entire thing. Out of thin pieces of wood, I created a stairs consisting of 18 steps. Each step symbolizes a year of my life. With every step up the stairs, I get one year older.

I filled in the space beneath each step with various fabrics and materials. The different textures and combination of colors of fabrics that I used possess a certain significance; each depicts an important event in my life that had occurred during that particular year.

I made a bright yellow sun (out of yellow fabric) shine through a blue sky (made out of a cotton material) upon the stairs. The sun’s rays symbolize rays of success shining down on me. As I progress up the stairs of my life I get closer and closer to the ultimate triumph, what ever it may be.

I will explain what each fabric underneath each step represents, year-by-year.

1988- I was born on June 9^th 1988. A felt it was appropriate to represent my birth with a button of a bright red heart.

1989- In 1989, at the age of one, I learned how to walk and talk. The two distinct, yet, similar colors (bright yellow and dim orange) represent my newly learned functions.

1990- In 1990, I learned how to ride a tricycle. I used a piece of my old jeans and two metal circles to represent this event.

1991- In 1991, I learned how to swim. I used a blue silk fabric to represent water.

1992- In 1992, I visited my grandparents in Ukraine for the very first time. I used a bright orange colored fabric to signify this event. I chose this color because it is a distinctively different color from most of the surrounding in Moscow, where I’ve lived my entire life prior to this visit.

1993- In 1993, I learned how to read. I pasted different letters onto a blue fabric to demonstrate my learning of the alphabet.

1994- In 1994, I went to kindergarten. I used a soft pink and white material to symbolize this event to emphasize the purity of a child’s mind as he begins his academic journey. I also pasted simple mathematic equations in the fabric to represent the fact that it was kindergarten.

1995- In 1995, my family and I moved to the United States. I used a zipper to represent this epic transition in my life because it symbolizes the opening to a new world.

1996- In 1996, I joined the St Marks basketball team. I used a rough orange (basketball colored) fabric to suggest the game of basketball.

1997- I first started wrestling in 1997. I wrestled Judo (a style of wrestling). Since the uniform in Judo consists of a solely white jacket and white pants, I used a white fabric to represent this year.

1998- In 1998, my mother and I flew back to Ukraine to visit my grandparents. For this year, I used blue and yellow fabrics to show the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

1999- In 1999, my grandparents, along with my other grandmother, and my aunt, uncle and cousin immigrated to America. I used blue, white, and red fabrics to depict the color of the American flag. Also, one can clearly see a black strip next to the other three fabrics. This strip of black leather represents the death of my grandfather, who passed away on January 21, 1999.

2000- I went to Junior High School in 2000. I used a stripe of black jeans to represent year 2000 because it was the year of Y2K. There was a lot of chaos that year since no one knew what was going to happen.

2001- In 2001, I had my Bar Mitzvah. I used a light blue and white fabric to represent the Israeli flag and glued a Jewish star at the top of the step to emphasize this monumental Jewish celebration.

2002- In 2002, I was accepted into Midwood High School. I used a piece of a multi-colored dress shirt to show that I was starting High School and was growing up. The different colors symbolize the different changes I went through in H.S.

2003- In 2003, I got my first real job. To represent this, I used green and white paper and several pennies, nickels, and dimes.

2004- In 2004, two significant events occurred. First, my sister, with whom I was extremely close, moved out to Florida. And second, I became the captain of the Midwood Wrestling Team. The pink fabric represents my sister moving out, and the beige material represents me becoming a captain.

2005- In 2005, I won the gold medal at the New York Empire State Games in Greco Roman Wrestling. I used a golden ribbon to symbolize my gold medal.

2006- In 2006, I graduated from Midwood High School and began my journey in Baruch College. I used the white and blue strings from the tassel from my graduation to represent these events.

Alexander Gizersky

I am very proud of my Jewish lineage. It has been bred into me and I have long ago, without question, accepted my religious background. However, as I began to analyze my Jewish heritage, I started to worry that its influence on my life was minimal. This realization was disappointing – I did not want to be another thoughtless teen who does not understand his own history. Therefore, with ignorance burning a hole in my morale, I set out to prove that Judaism really is a part of my life.

I approached the lobby of my Bensonhurst home, inspired, and with topic in mind. I wondered where I would search first for evidence of my roots. Taking out the keys to the heavy glass door, I started fiddling with the key chain. As I looked down to pick the right key, I saw the first sign of my Jewish heritage. The Hamesh (Hamseh) Hand, with thumb and pinky pointed outward, was on my keychain. My spirits uplifted, I entered my apartment, immediately searching for more Jewish influence. The next Jewish sighting was in the kitchen; it was my grandma and grandpa who were as usual eating at the table. Examining their soup, I noticed matzoh swimming at the top of their bowls. Only a few minutes had passed since my initial self doubts but I had already found four cultural things present in my life.

After a rejuvenating dinner, I continued my religious exploration. Walking into my own room, I looked up at the top of the bookshelves where a golden Menorah was awaiting the upcoming holiday. Knowing Hanukkah will be on December 16^th, after the last day of classes, I decided to temporarily dismantle my Menorah and include its apex in the collage. Before I sat down at my table to begin putting together my artwork I had more Jewish memorabilia to add. Through the open door to my closet, I spotted one of my shirts from an athletic competition for the Jewish Community House. Snatching it off the hanger I instantly knew that the Star of David on the front of the shirt would be a perfect backdrop. It is red, the color of blood and life – representing the fact that Judaism is alive inside my heart. Furthermore, the Star of David is meshed together with a figure of a boy into one symbol. You can not tell where the star ends and where the boy begins, representing my inseparable Jewish heritage and identity.

My final addition was the cover of the Jewish calendar for the year 5767. Nailed to the back of the door in my room it is constantly in use, reminding me of all the Jewish holidays. Looking at the striking year of 5767 it is remarkable how far back into the past Judaism dates. This calendar is a light bluish color that gives off a calming effect as well as contrast to the bright red background.

At the surface, it seems like Judaism for me is just a label. I light the candles once a year. I wear a charm for good luck and my grandparents put Jewish matzoh in their soup. However, my identity as a Jew runs much deeper than the prospect of receiving presents on Hanukah in return for lighting candles. In fact, Judaism has been a guiding value for my family for many generations. I put my grandparents in the center of the collage for this very reason. Living in the Soviet Union, my grandparents – like all other Jews — learned to hide their true beliefs from the public. As a result of this pressure to assimilate, a great deal of Jewish tradition has been lost. However, Jewish families who dealt with the oppression still managed to preserve some of their traditions despite being forced to live a life of denial and denunciation. Their religion was important enough for them to leave behind their home and start from scratch in a foreign country. In this receptive nation, all religions are tolerated and free to practice. It is this freedom that allows me to display my lit Menorah in the forefront of my window. My gratitude for this freedom of choice is illuminated in the title of the piece, Don’t Worry Be Jewish. The title is self-explanatory; no longer do I have to worry about expressing my beliefs for I can carry my culture openly. Although a Hamesh Hand keychain may seem to be outwardly insignificant, it is actually the core of my existence and the definition of my character.

Anton Gringut