City Life
The Evergreen State College
Winter 2008
Faculty:Stephanie Kozick Sem II A2112 867-6439 kozicks@evergreen.edu

Photo: Mike Lee (Keith Haring Sidewalk Art - Prince and Broadway in SoHo)

In winter quarter City Life continues a sociological study of cities through an interdisciplinary curriculum that considers the life and work of urban people. Cities are centers of culture, the arts, architecture, employment, social change, tourism, and environmental concern, creating a complex of human activity. Fall quarter’s grounding in the historical and conceptual features of cities moved to discussions and activities about city film, music, and dance. Winter takes our inquiry to contemporary issues related to economics, sustainability, and design. A documentation project will engage students in recording sounds and images in nearby cities. Book responses will act on students’ interests and practices in art, music, and writing. Movement studio will focus on city dances, while also securing our collaborative learning community. Research work in winter will be directed at planning spring quarter travel and fieldwork.

Readings:
Week 1 - One of the following 4 novels: 1) Invisible Cities (Calvino), 2) City Life (Barthelme)
3) City (Simak, or 4) Moveable Feast (Hemingway)
Week 2 – The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities (Sennett)
Week 3 – Down in New Orleans (Sothern & Page)
Week 4 - Parts 1&2 (pgs. 1-238) in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Jacobs)
Week 5 - Parts 3&4 (pgs. 241-448) in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Jacobs)
Week 6 & 7 - Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (Chang)
Week 8 - Planet of Slums (Davis)
Week 9 Urban Wilds: Gardeners’ Stories Of The Struggle For Land And Justice (Woelfle-Erskine) and Asking and Listening: Ethnography as Personal Adaptation, (Bohannan & van der Elst)
Resource Book:
The Elements of Style, (Strunk &. White)


The Weekly Schedule: The week begins with a Tuesday workshop to develop and practice learning skills required for the successful completion this quarter’s work, which includes field study planning, digital photography, audio recording and editing. Tuesday afternoon continues the series of City Stories by invited guests. The book seminar is on Wednesday morning, followed by student group meetings for fieldwork discussions and editing/review of book responses. Thursday morning is movement studio in a new space on the ground floor of the CRC building. Thursday afternoon continues our film series and film seminar, with the addition of a short writing period following each film. In week 3 we will go to Tacoma for the theatrical production, The New Orleans Monologues and week 6 is devoted to the city recording project. Other program events may require announced program changes.

Attendance and Participation: Our learning community relies on full attendance by all program members. Absence will result in reduced credit. Seminar preparation promotes ease in participating in conversations about the readings, and workshop attendance is required for group projects. Participation includes discussion, critique, engaging in academic inquiry by asking questions, and raising new topics of interest to enrich our study.

Covenant: The program covenant that was composed by the class in fall will be reviewed and edited as needed. Each student is required to sign the covenant, which is a written agreement and community promise.

Book Seminar and Pre-seminar Writing: Wednesday seminars feature the books selected by last quarter’s program vote. We come together for the seminar to understand the readings more fully and to actively pursue connections across program readings. As you read the books write down impressions that occur, ideas that especially interest you, general concepts about city life that emerge from the text, and notable quotes. Pre-seminar writing must be collected in a program portfolio. Students who are prepared to facilitate a seminar will be offered the opportunity to do so.

Book Responses: All readings require a thoughtful response. The program agreed to self-selected modes of response. Suggested responses styles include: composing/arranging music, media production, movement/improvisation, visual art forms, or writing in any of its many forms. All book responses must be submitted and at least 2 responses must be shared with the program in a performance or reading. Responses may be shared with the group in seminar, after some films, or in Movement Studio. Four member program groups will reform for the quarter and meet together weekly to discuss program material, required work, and book responses. Wednesday afternoon is scheduled for that work.

Movement Studio: Winter quarter movement studio work includes instruction in dance forms that have emerged in cities, improvisation, and other activities. If interest in a progressive choreography to create a performance piece on “city identity” is secured, that project will be included. Attendance is required.

Group Project: All Students must participate in either a film group or a city life current events group. Groups must seriously take on the work of coming together to accomplish their assigned task, which is also an essential behavior of productive city action groups. There is a sociological behavior known as “social loafing" that takes place when individuals in a task group do less work, put in less effort or expend less energy on the project than they would if they were working alone. Group members must commit to resisting that behavior by negotiating a meeting time that works, deciding on a process to accomplish the work together, and practice compromise to achieve fulfilling results and to present a quality project. The film groups will discuss a selected week’s theme and readings, search film data bases, preview films, prepare a film handout for the program, introduce the film, and facilitate the film seminar. The current events group will come together to review the selected week’s theme and readings, search, review and discuss current national and international media that relate to the week’s theme and reading, determine how to prepare a program report, and develop a half hour report for presentation to the class. Current events presentations will follow city stories on Tuesdays weeks 2,3,7,and10. On the remaining weeks we will have an open discussion of city current events.

Research Project I - Spring City Fieldstudy Plan This project includes several written sections that act as preparation for the spring travel component of this program. A handout for this project will be distributed in week 2.

Research Project Documenting the City: The Illustrations page for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Jacobs) notes that, “The scenes that illustrate this book are all about us. For illustrations, please look closely at real cities. While you are looking you might a well also listen, linger and think about what you see.” For this project city teams will form to document the sounds and sights of a selected local city. Sound recording and photography workshops will develop the skills needed for this program activity. City teams will present their documentaries during week 7.

City Event This project requires attendance at an organized city performance event: museum exhibit, music performance, dance performance, cultural celebration, book reading, or theater performance. You are required to take notes during the event to structure the content of a piece of journalistic writing (News style writing) that formally critiques the event. News style writing requires a specific style that structures an account of the event. A lead sentence followed by a summary is a typical approach to news writing. Information about the event is composed in terms of importance aimed at answering event questions of: Who? What? When? Where? And How?

Integration Paper: This final writing assignment facilitates the process of integrating the program curriculum from fall and winter to compose a full study of a city concept. First create a map of concepts that you’ve identified in our studies, then choose the one that most inspires your energy to compose a 4-5 page typed paper that references program material that has informed your understanding of that concept. Paragraphs must be organized to introduce the key concept and its subconcepts.

Program Portfolio: A winter program portfolios are due Thursday March 6. A checklist of specific content will be distributed.

Syllabus

Week 1 - January 8-10 Novel Cities
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 City Life Gathering: A City Attitude
1:00-3:30 Michael Clifthorne “Getting Ready to Travel”
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: (Novel of Choice)
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: Circle Dances
12:30-3:30 Film: Metropolis (Lang, 1927)
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 2 - January 15-17 Private and Public City Life
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 Workshop: City Field Study Planning: Ellen Short Sanchez & Chriset Paleshus of the Center for Community Based Learning and Action
1:00-3:00 City Story: Architect Helen Brown
3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: East Coast Swing: Christine Corey & partner (www.olyswing.com)
12:30-3:30 Film: Part 1- When The Levees Broke (Lee, 2006)
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 3 - January 22—24 New Orleans Stories
Tuesday
Field trip to Evergreen Tacoma Campus: Theatrical production: The New Orleans Monologues
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: Down in New Orleans & program visit: Rosalind Bell: Playwright, The New Orleans Monologues
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: Christine Corey & partner return for more city dance
12:30-3:30 Film: Part 2- When The Levees Broke (Lee, 2006)
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 4 – January 29 - 31 The Nature and Conditions of Cities
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 Workshop: Introduction to Digital Still Photography; Ryan Richardson Library 1412 (next to the stairs below Computer Center, directly to the left)
1:00-3:30 City Stories: David Wolach on City Work
3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: Part 1&2- The Death and Life of Great American Cities
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: Street Corner Singing with Marla Elliott
12:30-3:30 Film: The End of Suburbia
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 5 – February 5 - 7 Decline and Regeneration of Cities
Tuesday 10:00-12:00 Making Audio Field Recordings: Zena Vergara Mac Lounge                   1:00-3:00 Editing Audio Field Recordings : Amy Greene - Mac Lounge

3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: Part 3&4 The Death and Life of Great American Cities
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: Tiffany Nicolow- Dancing in West Africa
12:30-3:30 Film:
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar


Week 6 – February 12 - 14 Sights and Sounds of the City I

Recording the City Week

Read: - Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, Jeff Chang

Week 7 – February 19 - 21 Sights and Sounds of the City II
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 Workshop: What City Mayors Think
1:00-3:00 City Stories:
3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00 – 12:00 Seminar: - Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio
12:30-4:30 Field Recording Presentations

Week 8– February 26 - 28 The Plight of Megacities
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 City Stories: Photographing the City: Matt Hamon:
1:00-3:00 Workshop: City Concepts
3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: Planet of Slums
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio: Capoeira Angola - Silvio Aleixo dos Reis
12:30-3:30 Film:
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 9 – March 4 - 6 Sustaining Picture of City
Tuesday
10:00-12:00 Workshop: City Sustainability: Stephen Buxbaum
1:00-3:00 City Stories: Kate Robinson: Travels in Vietnam
3:00-3:30 City Current Events
Wednesday
10:00-12:00 Seminar: Urban Wilds: Gardener's Stories Of The Struggle For Land And Justice
1:00-3:00 Program Groups Meet
Thursday
10:00-11:30 Movement Studio
12:30-3:30 Film:
3:30-4:30 Film Seminar

Week 10 – March 11-13 Oh, The Places We’ll Go!

STUDENT FIELDSTUDY PRESENTATIONS

Evaluation Week MARCH 17-21
Prepare for your evaluation conference by writing a self-evaluation and a faculty evaluation. In this program self-evaluations will become part of your transcript.