The Lure of Folklore
In my final efforts for this last project, I had challenged myself to look into folklore. Folklore is such a world renowned characteristic of many cultures from around the world, but for me, I was inspired by how some folklore is represented in pop culture. As one can imagine, La Llorona was the first one to come to mind, but also, I drew on the idea of how many don't know about other folklore than that. African American folklore was such a popularity and one of the key ways of understanding the slaves of early colonization and all through the Civil War, but over time, those stories were silenced and nearly forgotten. Latin American folklore is notorious for the bone-chilling stories told to children, to teach them to make smart decisions and to continue the line of tradition. In African-American folklore, it was made to bring happiness to the slaves of the Americas and to remind them of their dreams than their nightmares. To bring these two cultures together was a beast to attempt to tame, but I had realized that was a large ask of my abilities. Together, a new tale and tapestry was made to inspire and connect these cultures.
HistoryFor this project, I decided to to look into folklore. As folklore is such a global phenomenon in the histories of nations, I wanted to look at some more wellknown folklore - Latin Ameircan folklore - and some unknown folklore - African American folklore. In this story, I pulled a lot of stylistic efforts from Latin America, specifically, from the stories of La Llorona and of La Sihuanaba. I pulled their gender, the plot of their life and the fate of their tragedy to be apart of this new folklore. Those aspects are usually paired with a dark destiny they are bound to until their destiny is fulfilled. Instead of making the end of this story be a dark and lingering thing people are typically terrified of, it was changed and develop into something better with the influences of African-American folklore. In Afrian-American folklore, it’s purpose was never to put fear into a people, but happiness for their lives were already damaged enough. The aspects I took away from their folklore was characters - Sukey the Mermaid and Big Liz, mainly - inspiration and the happy ending their folklore typically delivers. Now, balance in repesentaiton was my main goal in this new folklore. In order to honor these cultures, I turned the gender and the power within the gender of the charcaters from these cultures and was able to develop a charcter where tradgey had fallen onto her at birth - her blindness. Additionally, I took the theme of slavery and magical relaism and was able to combine it - her ability to great senses that make up for her blindness. For the fate of my character, I combined the destiny of fufilling a duty for the rest of their existence with the happy ending to found a new folklore that inspires the people and to always look for the Lingering Lady.
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ArtFor this project, I wanted to delve into the meaning behind folklore and how it can be represented in different cultures. For myself, personally, this idea of combining Latin American folklore and African American Folklore was such a hardship creatively. With many options and opportunities to honor specific ideas from these cultures, it was simply overwhelming. Luckily, I was able to take the time to understand the “formula” of creating folklore and how that could be applied to my project. When I had broken down one of the more popular stories in Latin American folklore - La Llorona - I had simplified it to be a woman character falls into a great tragedy destined to fulfill a fate to repay a karmic debt. With this understood, I applied this same concentration to African American folklore with the final calculation being a good person with bad luck that can overcome it in the end (a happy ending). With these combined, I had come up with a simple storyline that successfully synthesized into wonderful folklore. However, I displayed the story with a punch needle rug that presented little challenge compared to my last rug. In the process, I had designed a black woman silhouette with eyes in her afro which can be interpreted as freedom, sacrifice, simplicity/straightforward, and pride. With the afro adorned with the eyes, it represents her foes and her purpose - to provide sight for people of a future of color - which can evolve stealing one’s vision. Additionally, the background of the piece can be overwhelming to the eye, but one taken in one by one, it becomes apparent that it all serves a greater purpose. The white in the background shows the The white in the background demonstrates an African pattern which - when paired with the colors - is dialed down, muddled and hidden by this new and brighter world of color. This represents the transformation of slaves being eventually adopted as African American. The colors in the background show the auras of people and of course have meanings that correspond with general Latin American beliefs.
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English
Now, for this project, I had to divide my brain into two ways, one devoted to the now and one devoted to the future. For English, I had to synthesize my hopes for my future and my abilities to make those hopes a reality. For starters, I had to write a resume to see what improvements and what experiences I must make for myself in order to feel a sense of relief rather than fear. To be quite frank, by writing my resume, it had really caused me to think and understand what is at stake if I hadn't pulled myself together. From there, I had to get personal. As many colleges equestrian, they want to know the student before allowing them to enroll. The Common Application was a bit challenging for me as it had stumped me. Typically, I love to write, specifically, fiction - to create my own world to escape this one. However, challenging myself to write from myself rather than a fictitious character of my imagination. For this particular writing piece, I had to think of a time where I was challenged to describe how overcoming that challenge has impacted my life. With that, I wrote about the first essay I had ever written. In most cases, this would be more joyous and shows growth in a person, but that first essay was a challenge for my younger self as I explain in this write up. Once completed, I had started my college research, specifically, look into colleges that offer great History programs. With that in mind, the schools I really became attached to was University of Pittsburg, West Virginia University, Hamilton College, and Barnard College. For the paper, I had dug into what I sought out in colleges as well what the colleges would provide for me. These colleges really prove to be my top choices and probable places for me to go. This project really helped my jumpstart my motivation to make better decisions to benefit myself in the long run and allow me to take time to understand myself rather than what people tell me.
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Though college seems so scary and overwhelming, by being prepared and acknowledging my weaknesses, I hold myself to the expectations which I set - to succeed and prosper but to never forget where passion lies. An excerpt from my informal college essay.
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