Maps and Memories

NEST + m 6th Grade English Language Arts

Sport Story–Writing Contest

May 10, 2012 by · No Comments · Contests and Events!

Cricket Magazine, which you may have seen in class, has a writing contest each month!  Here is the one for May (due May 25th)

Try to read “The Bandit Runner,”by Brenda Moore, in this month’s issue! (page 27)

————————————————————————————-

In “The Bandit Runner,” Bobbi Gibbs runs the Boston Marathon for the first time–and changes the perception of women athletes forever. Even Sluggo shatters expectations when he wins the Cricket Country .0005 K run. All around the world, people are mad about sports. They love the teamwork and fun, as well as the opportunity to test their limits and prove what they can do. So for this month’s contest, Sluggo is all in a sweat to read your best sports story.

Will your write about soccer, basketball, hockey, or a less common sport, such as skate boarding? Will your hero be new at the sport, an underdog unsure of his or her abilities? Or will you write about a star player who hogs the limelight? Maybe your hero overcomes the odds by perfecting a difficult new skill, or becomes a winner by changing the team’s attitude. You might even write a fantasy about an imagined competition. (Quidditch, anyone?)

Whatever you choose, Sluggo has already started racing toward the Cricket Country mailbox (it will take him a long, long time to get there) to be the first to enjoy your best sports story of 350 words or less. Play ball!

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/contests/story-contest-sports

 

What’s in YOUR pocket?

April 29, 2012 by · 2 Comments · Poetry, Sound as Text, The Life of a Reader

In the craziness of the NYS ELA test, we completely forgot to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket day!

Do you have any poems that you know by heart, that you carry around with you?

We’ll spend a LOT more time on poetry in the coming weeks!  I’m really excited to teach you some new types of poems and write poetry together!

And speaking of poetry, did you know that Mayor Bloomberg wrote a poem to honor NYC?  What do you think?

Also, ever listen to a poet read her/his work and think that their voice sounds different than you might have expected?  I woke up to a radio piece about just that!  I’ll post it as soon as it’s uploaded to NPR.

Finally, here’s a poetry “match game.”

What poems have YOU kept in your pocket, in past years?  Do you have a  “go to” best poem?

Have a great day!

JD

Hurray!

April 24, 2012 by · 3 Comments · Uncategorized

Congratulations on finishing the ELA test.  As you know, I’ve been busy training teachers to score the test–and I’ll be out next week, to train teachers on the 3rd-5th grade tests.  I’ve been keeping up with your food memoirs (on wearewhatweate.blogspot.com) as best as I can, and the ideas are really great!  I’m excited to watch you work in partnerships to revise your work.  And then, finally, for us to publish and celebrate and EAT these foods together!

: )

Joanna

Food Memoir (part 2)

April 18, 2012 by · 2 Comments · Writing Process

The NYS ELA test is almost behind us!

Today we looked at my sample food memoir, “Bloody Noodles.”

I asked you to:

Write down two sentences that stuck out.

Answer: Why do these sentences stick out?

What did you learn about me from these sentences?

And in your groups, you discussed: (These questions will hopefully also guide you as YOU start to write YOUR food memoir–remember, your first drafts are due on 4/23!)

How is this a food memoir?

How is this food memoir structured?

Where do you see sentence variation or any type of interesting sentence structure/pattern?

Do you hear any specific tone (attitude of the speaker)?

Is there a theme (message about life, hinted at within the work)?

 

Here’s my draft:

I’d love any feedback you have!

Bloody Noodles

Joanna Drusin

Bloody noodles.  That’s pretty gross, right?  Well, believe it or not, I’ve started to love this repulsive-sounding food.

Here’s the dish.  Cook egg noodles.  You can overcook them—it doesn’t really matter.  Drain them.  And for the final super-complicated step: pour in tomato juice.  Tada!  There you have it, folks: bloody noodles.

I don’t know exactly what’s so appealing to me about bloody noodles.  Maybe it’s the simplicity—only two easy steps.  Maybe it’s the flexibility—you can eat it hot or cold, day or night, fork or spoon.  Maybe it’s the lack of category—it’s not exactly a noodle dish and it’s not quite soup, either.  Maybe it’s the fact that it makes me think of my dad, a cook so lazy that he’s bought the egg noodles for this dish pre-cooked before.  (I wonder if he discovered this dish during his days as a bachelor, a time where society pretty much tells you that it’s OK to be lazy.   But buying pre-cooked noodles—noodles you’ve been too lazy to cook yourself, well that’s pretty bad.  There are few foods easier to cook than noodles.)

I think it’s the tomato juice which I find most appealing.  I can still picture the golden ½ gallon cans that we bought in bulk, on sale.  The word Sacramento was written in white and green swirly letters with a photo of beautifully plump tomatoes beside a juice-filled glass.  Tomato juice from concentrate, the label read.  We bought the juice on sale, and so many at a time that they filled up entire shelves of our pantry.  The rest, those that didn’t fit, were stored sideways at the top of closets.  They were heavy and awkward, hard to store.  But what a comfort to know we’d never run out!

I also remember learning to open each can.  We had an orange, plastic can-opener, a simple piece of orange plastic, with a sharp, curved triangle at one end.  To open the can, you had to position the opener at the rim of the can and push down on the opener into the center of the can.  The can opener would create a neat little triangle-shaped hole which let you see only a tiny bit of the mysterious scarlet elixir you knew lay within.

Next, you would make the same hole on the opposite side.  If you didn’t do this, as you poured, the tomato juice would create a vacuum and it would splash as the can took in air in drips and gulps.  (And yes, tomato juice stains).

Finally, I remember pouring the tomato juice all over the small, wimpy egg noodles, which lay in a large clump at the bottom of the bowl.  I like to pour until the noodles are somewhat covered—sort of like how much milk you’d add to a bowl of cereal.

The tomato juice is an important part of this meal, the heart of it, really, since the egg noodles basically have no flavor—they really just fill you up.  And it’s no surprise that this dish my dad loves has tomatoes in it.  My family LOVES tomatoes.

My dad used to grow tomatoes, back when we rented a house in Brighton Beach for the summer.  We’d pick little cherry tomatoes off the vine and pop them in our mouths like candy.  Later in the summer, we’d buy fresh vine-ripe tomatoes at the height of the season—the best two weeks of the year—when tomatoes are both cheap and delicious.  We’d bite into them like apples and eat the entire fruit (yes, it IS a fruit), leaving only a bit of stem.

Bloody noodles is a go-to dish for me, a comfort food, but it’s definitely not like most other foods.  It’s not complicated.  It’s not specific to a season, nor does it rely on fresh ingredients.  It’s not something I can serve other people—in fact, I probably wouldn’t eat it around other people.  They’d probably say exactly what I once said: gross.  But it isn’t.  At least, not according to me.  Or my dad.

Writing Food Memoir

April 17, 2012 by · 3 Comments · Writing Process

Good job finishing with day 1 of the state test, 6th graders!

Today, classes 6F, 6B and 6A looked at Ms. Dulaney’s food memoir, “Growing Up with Scottish Tablet,” and discussed:

-Which 2 sentences stood out to us?

-What did you learn about Scottish Tablet, based on this piece?

-What kind of food is it?  Can you imagine it?

-Have you had something similar?

-What did you learn about Ms. Dulaney, through this piece?

-How does she relate to this food?

-What memories does the food hold for her?

And finally (and important to consider!):

-How is the memoir structured?

-Are the sentences varied?

-Do you hear a tone?

-Do you see a theme?

For classes 6D and 6C, or those who would like to review, I’m posting Ms. Dulaney’s food memoir below.  I’ll add mine, after we discuss it, tomorrow.

Please feel free to post questions or comments–or answers to any of the questions above!

 

Growing Up with Scottish Tablet

by Ms. Dulaney

Each winter, my family celebrates Christmas at my parents’ house. My brother, Jackson, travels home from the mountains and I find my way back from whatever city I happen to be living in at the time. My parents own a split-level house and when the four of us are home together, the kitchen never closes.

One of my favorite dishes to make during this season was given to me by my Scottish fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kyle. When I was in elementary school, Mrs. Kyle was famous for her Scottish Tablet, a white fudge that she cut into little ½ inch blocks and brought to school every day. The dessert was such a staple in her classroom that sometimes she would kindly insist that my peers and I take fudge even when we couldn’t possibly eat it—she would give it out for voicing a provoking thought, or for giving a grand oral presentation, or at the end of the day because she was in a good mood.

When I think of Mrs. Kyle, I think of her Scottish Tablet: I think of how she would apologize on days when she ran out of “the treat;” I think of how, when we had room in our stomachs, my friends and I would diligently work in order to be able to reach our hands into that silver tin of sugar. Mrs. Kyle used to tell us when she was going to make us another batch—“My homework tonight will be to make some new fudge!”—and I could always imagine her trying to read a novel late at night while she stood over the stove, stirring the thick mixture with one hand for exactly eleven minutes. I could picture her pouring the batter onto a greased pan to cool and then coming back, always before she’d allow herself to go to sleep, to cut the fudge into neat little blocks, place them tidily inside a fresh silver tin, and setting them by her lesson plans for the following day’s class.

When we became fifth graders, Mrs. Kyle held a “baking day” for my peers and me. She had parents come in to volunteer and we all stood around tables in the cafeteria, learning how to make this famous Scottish Tablet ourselves. My peers and I took the recipe and directions very seriously—we cared so deeply about this fudge that had come to symbolize the warm, comfortable relationship we’d grown to have with our teacher. And so we stood, in our last April of elementary school, mixing condensed milk, sugar, butter, and regular milk in a heavy saucepan, around and around and around, until the sugar dissolved and our hands ached. When the final batch came out, we eagerly cut the pieces into the standard ½ inch squares and we took our individual tins of fudge home. Whenever we reached for a piece of fudge that month, we practiced giving it to ourselves rather than taking it from Mrs. Kyle. In the face of this newly won strength and independence, however, we also practiced remembering Mrs. Kyle.

This past winter, when I traveled home to my parent’s split-level house, I followed my tradition and made Mrs. Kyle’s fudge. While I stirred, I thought of how many times I’ve now stood over a heavy saucepan with neither Mrs. Kyle nor my peers at my side. And I noticed how differently I cooked: I changed her directions a little by adding more milk and less sugar. I opted to not store the fudge in a festive tin but instead, to put it on a family plate and set it out for everyone to enjoy. I think now of the ways in which my relationship to this fudge has changed as I’ve grown up. I’ve moved from taking sustenance from others and always accepting their directions, to attempting to sustain myself as an independent young person, to finally becoming an actual provider of sustenance for others. In every phase of my life, however, regardless of whether or not I edit the instructions, my Scottish Tablet recipe calls for me to remember Mrs. Kyle, that lovely fourth grade teacher who lived to learn and eat with her students. And that memory, so dear to me, is perhaps the greatest reason I return to this recipe every winter.

Freewrite Fridays! and the Hunger Games!

March 30, 2012 by · 20 Comments · Freewrite Fridays, Writing Process

Remember this?

Time to post something you’ve written lately (yes 6D and 6C, I’m talking to you!)

On an unrelated note, to those Hunger Game fans out there, I found two three interesting links! (and send along others, if you find them!)

http://hungergames.wfp.org/

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/03/23/450097/the-odds-are-never-in-your-favor-the-hunger-games-winner-take-all-economies-and-commodity-fetishism/?mobile=nc

(This article, above, is complex…but really interesting.  Let me know if you didn’t understand any piece of it–I’d love to discuss!  It also might be a cool Social Studies connection…!)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/03/hunger-games-and-counterinsurgency.html

(This article, also complex, questions the type of violence in the HG.  It also points out part of our culture which inspired Suzanne Collins to write the HG…I’m curious to hear your thoughts!)

 

Food Writing

March 26, 2012 by · 10 Comments · Writing Process

For this next unit, we’ll be posting a lot of writing online.  For that reason, I’ve created a new blog for the sole purpose of our food writing!

It will be used for all 6th graders, and the link is:

http://wearewhatweate.edublogs.org/

Please remember to follow the same guidelines as we use on this blog–be polite, don’t give any personally identifying information, and do NOT post your last name!

Tonight, since you’ve been asked to prepare a recipe to upload tomorrow, (don’t upload it yet!) please revise your recipe.  You may need some verbs or containers…so see below for some ideas!

Some great cooking verbs:
add, bake, barbeque, beat, blend, boil, braise, bread, broil, brown, chill, chop, coat, combine, cook, cover, deep-fry, dice, drain, fold in, freeze, fry, grate, grease, grill, grind, knead, marinate, mash, measure, melt, mince, mix, parboil, peel, poach, pour, puree, refrigerate, roast, sauté, season, scald, sift, simmer, slice, soak, spread, sprinkle, stew, stir, stir-fry, toast, toss, turn, whip.
 
Can you add others?
 
Some commonly used cooking utensils and containers:
This link was a little overwhelming…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_preparation_utensils
These are the ones I thought were most useful:
Saucepan, large pot, cookie sheet, casserole dish, muffin tin, bowl, colander, wok, frying pan…
 
Can you add others?

Organic Chicken, Pink Slime, Chinese Spareribs and other Gastronomic Curiosities

March 23, 2012 by · 16 Comments · REAL LIFE!, Writing Process

Today in class we read and discussed “Home Cooking: An Introduction,” by Laurie Colwin, and “Chinese Spareribs,” by David Haynes.  I’d like to continue the discussion here!

Feel free to “weigh in” (no pun intended) on any connections you made between these texts and your own memories, your general impressions of food memoir as a genre, a specific food-related memory you can think of, or anything else relevant!

If you did NOT participate in our tap-in fishbowl today in class or share thoughts at the end, I’d like to see you post here.

I also wanted to add a few interesting points I heard today in class.

Jan: What we enjoy about food is when it’s connected to our memories

Lauren: Part of what makes a restaurant good is not just the food–it’s when the restaurant enjoys the food and enjoys making it.

Rachel: Instead of just thinking about if food is organic, we should also consider where the food is coming from.  When we import food from far away, it pollutes the earth through transportation.

Anais: A day never goes by without hearing something bad about the foods we love.

Douglas: (in response) I hate that we have to make those decisions (about if we should eat food which is possibly bad for us.)  It’d be easier if that food didn’t exist.

Elena: (in response) We care about this NOW so much more than we ever did, historically.

Sophia: I see a connection to Kim in Seedfolks, who also tried to do something to connect to her deceased father–like David Haynes is, in “Chinese Spareribs.”

Lois: How does knowing that “Home Cooking” was written in 1987 alter our understanding of the text?

Adam: Do all cultures have this concept of “family recipes?”

 

Here are the recipes from Ms. Dulaney’s recipe book!

Essays (and other forms of torture) Just kidding!

March 15, 2012 by · 8 Comments · Feeling Testy?, Nonfiction, The Giver, Writing Process

Almost every English teacher teaches some form of essay-writing.  I’ve been struggling with the question of if I should teach the “golden standard,” the 5-paragraph essay, or if it might be more helpful to discuss broader writing skills, which are more transferable to other forms of writing (ex. in an email to your cousin you probably won’t write a 5-paragraph essay, but you WILL still want to organize your ideas into paragraphs).  I’ve decided to focus on the latter.  To that end, I asked you to design the outline that would BEST match your ideas (in other words, 5-paragraphs might NOT work best for you!)

In addition to discussing the overall shape and structure of essays, we’ve also looked at samples of introductions and body paragraphs.  I am going to include two below: an introduction and body paragraph that both Ms. Dulaney, my wonderful student teacher, and I have written.  I hope that they are helpful guides in thinking about your introductions (how to start by drawing the reader into the topic, narrowing your focus and stating your thesis) and your body paragraphs (starting with a topic sentence, including proof/support for your argument, whether it be from your opinion, The Giver, or your article, and closing your paragraph).

Feel free to post any examples of things you’ve written or need help with!  It’d be neat if you could post an entry of a paragraph you’re struggling with, and we could help you together!

Ms. Dulaney’s intro and body paragraph

           China’s one-child policy raises an important question: Should there be a regulated limit on the number of children a woman is allowed to birth and/or parent? China’s policy is supported by Lois Lowry’s The Giver, a story in which full-grown “family units” are comprised of exactly a mother, father, son, and daughter. Although Emma Kennedy’s article, titled “Family: Who Needs a Sibling,” and The Giver both imply that governments ought to have the right to legislate the number of children a given woman or couple may parent, my personal experience, thoughts, and observations lead me to argue the opposite; that is, individuals in positions of power shouldn’t be able to limit the number of children a woman can have.

In the article “Family: Who needs a sibling?” Emma Kennedy defends parents’ decisions to have an only child by arguing that only children are statistically more likely to succeed than children with siblings. Although in The Giver, parents are restricted to two children rather than one, both texts support the right for government to place limitations on the number of offspring parents can have. Kennedy, an only child herself, uses humor and sarcasm to argue her point: she is healthy, happy, and well-adjusted despite the fact she had no siblings to grow up with. Moreover, Kennedy attributes her “unequivocally positive” experience in life to the fact that she is an only child, arguing that it has turned her into a “fiercely loyal” friend, and that she has “no professional jealousy” due to the fact that she never grew up with sibling rivalry. Kennedy makes her most intimate argument when she states that even in the face of her parents’ eventual failing health, she will be thankful for her situation and for the opportunity to care for her mother and father. Kennedy’s upbeat and honest testimony might very well strengthen the elders’ decision to restrict the number of children allowed in each family in The Giver. Although Jonas had a sibling, one could certainly argue that if Kennedy is correct, it would be better to have just two children than three, or more.

Ms. Drusin’s introduction and body paragraph

Anyone who has attended school can verify the following fact: children can be mean.   Children tease, exclude and belittle one another.  This is something that our society has grown to accept and even promote.  We tell kids that cruelty is just part of life.  School is acknowledged as a place where we must struggle, get hurt, and grow stronger. What would life be like, however, if this behavior was strongly discouraged?  What if it was even outlawed?  Both Vivian Gussin Paley and Lois Lowry consider this possibility, Paley in a kindergarten experiment and Lowry in her science fiction novel, The Giver.  These two authors bravely imagine a world without gratuitous cruelty, one which I believe would be a better place to live.  It is important that we recognize that this type of world is possible, one with kind words and actions, and that cruelty is something we should neither accept nor ignore.

Vivian Gussin Paley’s You Can’t Say You Can’t Play documents Paley’s attempts to alter the typical social behavior of her kindergarten class.  Instead of allowing for friendships and playgroups to form naturally, Paley institutes a rule (you can’t say you can’t play) to avoid the ongoing and painful social rejection she sees among some students.  Though she is around sixty years old during the time of this experiment, Paley can still remember the sting of childhood cruelty, specifically, one classmate who was taunted while the teacher did nothing to support her.  Instead of shrugging her shoulders, as her own teacher once did, and allowing cruel and exclusionary behavior to continue, Paley spends weeks discussing and considering this rule with her kindergarten class.  She asks the opinions of other grades and reports her findings to her students.  Paley’s experiment surely makes us wonder if the cruelty of children is actually necessary—or if it’s simply a bad habit which our culture has overlooked.  Perhaps there’s no reason we must be so unkind.

Edward Hopper meets The Giver!

March 5, 2012 by · 18 Comments · Image as Text, REAL LIFE!, The Giver, The Life of a Reader

Today we are going to try a very different type of project!

Each table will be assigned an artwork.  Each piece was painted by the same person, Edward Hopper.

Monday: We will spend Monday using netbooks and looking at the artwork in a very detailed, thorough way.

Please find your painting by following the links.  You can zoom in to see details more clearly!

Next, work with your table to fill out the “Art Analysis Worksheet.”

“House at Dusk” (1935)

“Night in the Park” (1921)

“New York Movie” (1939) (if this is your piece, also be sure to check out Exhibit L, tomorrow!)

“Room in Brooklyn” (1932)

“From Williamsburg Bridge” (1928)

 “Office in a Small City” (1953)

“Gas” (1940)

I couldn’t find great links, but these paintings are really important, too.  Feel free to check them out, as well!

“Automat” (1927) (I attached the link when this piece was used as the cover for Time magazine)

“The Western Motel” (1957)

Tuesday: Today we’re going to add some more information to the mix and see what happens.  Will looking at other sources impact your “read” of your Hopper artwork?  Are you able to make connections across texts?  Does thinking about your artwork impact your thoughts about The Giver?

Your group will choose a few “exhibits” to read and discuss.  Take notes about each one and anything that each exhibit helped you realize/made you think of.  Once you’ve been able to read and discuss your findings, start thinking about how you could introduce your artwork to your classmates.  (We’ll do that on Wednesday).

Exhibit A: Encyclopedia Entry

Exhibit B: Excerpt from The Giver

Exhibit C: Excerpt from The Giver

Exhibit D: Excerpt from The Giver

Exhibit E: Poem

Exhibit F: Word Definition

Exhibit G: Op-Ed

Exhibit H: (Excerpt from) Oral history interview

Exhibit I: Excerpt from an article

Exhibit J: Video Podcast

Exhibit K: Video Podcast

Exhibit L: Exhibitional Feature

Exhibit M: Mini-Memoir

Exhibit N: Music Review

Exhibit A: Encyclopedia Entry

Search for the encyclopedia entry on “Edward Hopper” in the Grolier encyclopedia, online.  You’ll need to start at http://library.nycenet.edu, go to “Grolier online” and log-in.  Search the high school encyclopedia for “Edward Hopper.”  Write down at least 3 facts you’ve discovered.

 

Exhibit B: Excerpt from The Giver

Read the selection below from The Giver.  Start to think about the ways that The Giver and Jonas are isolated, set apart, from the rest of their community.

Chapter 9

Now, for the first time in his twelve years of life, Jonas felt separate, different.  He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart.

But his training had not yet begun and already, upon leaving the auditorium, he felt the apartness.  Holding the folder she had given him, he made his way through the throng, looking for his family unit and for Asher.  People moved aside for him.  They watched him.  He thought he could hear whispers.

“Ash,” he called, spotting his friend near the rows of bicycles.  “Ride back with me?”

“Sure.”  Asher smiled, his usual smile, friendly and familiar.  But Jonas felt a moment of hesitation from his friend, an uncertainty.

 

Exhibit C: Excerpt from The Giver

Read the selection below from The Giver.  Start to think about the ways that The Giver and Jonas are isolated, set apart, from the rest of their community.

(From Chapter 13)

“You’ll be able to apply for a spouse, Jonas, if you want to.  I’ll warn you, though, that it will be difficult.  Your living arrangements will have to be different from those of most family units, because the books are forbidden to citizens.  You and I are the only ones with access to the books.”

…

“When you become the official Receiver, when we’re finished here, you’ll be given a whole new set of rules.  Those are the rules that I obey.  And it won’t surprise you that I am forbidden to talk about my work to anyone except the new Receiver.  That’s you, of course.

“So there will be a whole part of your life which you won’t be able to share with a family.  It’s hard, Jonas.  It was hard for me.”

 

Exhibit D: Excerpt from The Giver

Read the selection below from The Giver.  Start to think about the ways that The Giver and Jonas are isolated, set apart, from the rest of their community.

(From Chapter 20)

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain.  It’s the loneliness of it.  Memories need to be shared.”

 

 

Exhibit E: Poem

Read the poem below!

Alone Looking at the Mountain
by Li Po
All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I.

 

Exhibit F: Word Definition

Read and discuss the following definition!

par·al·lax

noun /ˈparəˌlaks/
parallaxes, plural

The effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g., through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera.

The effect whereby the apparent position or direction of an object changes with the observation point.

 

Exhibit G: Op-Ed

Read the article “Solitude,” by Bebe Moore Campbell.  Discuss the concept of solitude with your group.

 

Exhibit H: (Excerpt from) Oral history interview

Oral history interview with Edward Hopper, 1959 June 17, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Hopper, Edward, b. 1882 d. 1967 
Painter, Author, Illustrator, Etcher
New York, N.Y.

Size: Sound recording: 1 sound tape reel; 3 3/4 ips. 7 in.
Transcript: 12 p.

 

JOHN MORSE: Mr. Hopper, this program which you picked out of the stack of photographs there which Mr. Goodrich supplied, Apartment Houses, painted 1923; I think you’d be interested to know that both Mr. Goodrich and I thought that in this painting you had, well in a sense, crystallized your style that was going to develop and has continued ever since. Do you agree with that?

EDWARD HOPPER: Yes, I think that is so.

JOHN MORSE: Do you recall where it was painted?

EDWARD HOPPER: It was painted in my studio on Washington Square. That’s all I can remember about it.

JOHN MORSE: It is now, incidentally, in the Pennsylvania Academy, and I think it illustrates also a point that several people have made in your paintings, that one looks in and out. I think this also demonstrates another quality, which Mr. Goodrich has pointed out, that one feels that there are so many, many buildings on to the side, beyond this, this is just a segment, that it isn’t isolated.

EDWARD HOPPER: I think I have tried to render that sensation in most of the pictures of this sort.

JOHN MORSE: And I think that most people will agree that you have succeeded admirably. Mr. Hopper, in 1953, you wrote a statement for the unfortunately short-lived magazine called Reality. I wonder if you would mind perhaps reading that for us now and perhaps commenting on it if you feel like it?

 

EDWARD HOPPER: I shall read the statement. It goes thus: Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception. The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form, and design. The term “life” as used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature’s phenomena before it can again become great.

JOHN MORSE: Thank you very much, Mr. Hopper.

JOHN MORSE ADDENDUM: The voice you have heard in the background occasionally was that of Mrs. Hopper, who accompanied her husband to the interview. It should be recorded here that Mr. Hopper has kept a record book of all his paintings, giving the following information: the canvas, the date of the painting, the pigments, and when the picture was completed. This book has been transcribed by the Whitney Museum, and a copy of it is in their possession. The ultimate disposal of the original ledger is of course undecided at this time.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

This transcript is in the public domain and may be used without permission. Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Edward Hopper, 1959 June 17, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

 

 

Exhibit I: Excerpt from an article

Read the excerpt from the article article “Hopper, Edward: Early Sunday Morning (1930),” by Tom Lubbock.  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/hopper-edward-early-sunday-morning-1930-744415.html

“When we were at school,” Hopper remembered, “we debated what a room looked like when there was no one to see it, nobody looking in, even…” This is the strangest effect in his paintings. He can depict individuals sitting by themselves, or empty rooms, or deserted streets, and he can suggest that the individuals are absolutely alone, the rooms and the streets absolutely empty. There is no one else on the scene at all – no one there to see it, even. What the picture shows is something that isn’t being looked at. Its viewpoint is unoccupied. It is a view without a viewer.

How’s it done? How can this sight suggest that it’s not being seen by anyone? Well, there is sheer probability. At this time of day and week there would likely be nobody around. This particular moment of light-fall must often pass without witnesses. (Part of the magic of a clear early morning is that the world is so intensely visible – never more so – but that very few people are there to see it.)

But it’s more than that. Early Sunday Morning has the look of a scene that isn’t being looked at. It’s without any particular focus. The eye just scans along it; and nothing in it suggests a human eye observing, noticing, taking an interest. The pole and the hydrant, things that might stand out as creature-like – a man and a dog, almost – refuse to become protagonists. They are merely two inanimate interrupting fixtures that catch and break the light. The rendering of everything is even, solid, not too sharp. There is no point at which the picture gets excited. Nor is it assertively blank, in a surreal or alienated way. It is simply, calmly there. With you or without you, the silent street goes on.

Exhibit J: Video Podcast

Use headphones and watch the video podcast from the National Gallery of Art.  http://www.nga.gov/podcasts/video/hi/hopper_large-hi.shtm (3:26 minutes)

 

Exhibit K: Video Podcast

Use headphones and watch the video podcast from the National Gallery of Art.  http://www.nga.gov/podcasts/video/hi/hopper-hi.shtm (8:34 minutes)

 

Exhibit L: Exhibitional Feature

Visit this neat Exhibitional (interactive) Feature from the National Gallery of Art!

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/acloserlookb.shtm  Under “Themes,” be sure to read about “Isolation!”

 

Exhibit M: Mini-Memoir

Exhibit N: Music Review

Read “If Hopper’s Freeze-Frame Magic Sprang to Life,” by Vivien Schweitzer, from the New York Times.  Pay close attention to the last line.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/arts/music/16manh.html

If  Hopper’s Freeze-Frame Magic Sprang to Life

Carol Rosegg

Characters from five Edward Hopper paintings mingle in the opera “Later the Same Evening” at Manhattan School of Music.

By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

Published: December 15, 2008

Edward Hopper’s cityscapes evoke many possible narratives of loneliness and solitude, some of which are imaginatively brought to life by “Later the Same Evening,” a one-act opera inspired by five of his paintings.

A joint production of the University of Maryland and the National Gallery of Art in Washington (which hosted a Hopper exhibition last year), the work, which has a score by John Musto, received its New York premiere last week at the Manhattan School of Music.

In Erhard Rom’s simple, elegant set, five Hopper paintings are hung on a gallery wall. The opera unfolds over one evening in New York in 1932, with each scene a vignette involving people in Hopper’s cityscapes — whose lives then intermingle with the figures in the other pictures. There were additional characters in the plot not taken from any of the paintings.

The clever concept, the brainchild of Leon Major, is vividly realized by his intelligent directing and Mark Campbell’s witty libretto. David O. Roberts’s costumes and Scott Bolman’s lighting evocatively recreate the ambience of each painting.

The opera begins with Elaine and Gus O’Neill, a dysfunctional couple inspired by Hopper’s “Room in New York.” During their scene of marital discontent (in which Elaine picks out Broadway tunes on an imaginary piano) Estelle Oglethorpe, a newly widowed woman waiting for her date, perches on a sofa at the side of the stage — the very image of the solitary lady in Hopper’s “Hotel Window.”

The young woman in “Hotel Room” becomes Ruth Baldwin, writing a letter to her boyfriend, Joe, explaining that she is leaving the city.

Mr. Musto’s musical-theater-like score, which features recurring marimba riffs, chromatic interludes, fugal passages and hints of blues and jazz, was effectively conducted by Michael Barrett. The promising young cast on Sunday from the Manhattan School of Music’s Opera Theater included Jaclyn Bermudez as Elaine and Min Won Shin as Ruth.

Thelma, the woman from Hopper’s “Automat,” becomes the usher in a particularly effective scene (inspired by his “Two on the Aisle”) in which most of the characters (including Estelle and her date) watch a Broadway show. In the final scene a dejected Joe (devastated that Ruth has stood him up) walks into a cafe and encounters Thelma: hints of a future love affair that could allow Hopper’s solitary characters to escape the lonely destiny he imposed on them.