Project Update

This week has been a busy one for my project. It seems like I have done almost nothing else! But, I guess you’ll have that when the semester begins to draw to a close. Anyway, here’s what’s been happening. I never heard back from my librarian contact at the ACPL. I considered calling her again, but as time is running short I decided that a meeting at this point wasn’t really a viable option. I wish I could have gotten the details of my project nailed down sooner so that I would have had more time for that sort of thing. I also got no response from my contact at IPFW’s TV station, but fortunately Dr. Cain had better luck. My griot video should be on its way. I would, again, like to have gotten this sooner, but I have to work within the schedules of others too. It would have been nice to have been able to show some of the video to the kids of TRJE this Saturday when I teach the class, but I don’t know how practical that would have been anyway. I know some of them saw the actual performance, but not all. At least I will get to see the video to get a better understanding of what a griot performance looks like. This week I have been concentrating on my research into griots and storytelling, and it has been very interesting. I have found a lot. I fact, I have way more than I can fit into my planned 1,500 word essay/paper. It may end up being a little longer than that. Still, I don’t want to make it so long that it turns off the internet viewers that I am targeting. Also, as far as the internet thing is going, I think I would like to make more of an actual website than a blog. I think this would fit my format better. I’ll have to talk to Dr. Cain before making my decision as my proposal says “blog” specifically. Our stipulations in RM are much more loose so that shouldn’t be a problem. Now that the main research is done, I’m concentrating on finding good examples of stories and getting my lesson plan in place for Saturday. So far only one of my books of stories has come in at the library so I’m kind of waiting on that. I’m also looking on line and have found some. It’s hard to find ones that seem reliably authentic, come from West Africa specifically, and have themes that I think might be relevant to the kids of TRJE. Ketu wanted me to find stories about community, so I am trying to find at least one good one for my lesson with that theme. I am also a little worried about legal issues with putting a few stories on my site. I would like to place them there in full text, but if they come from a published book this may be a problem. The one book that I have in hand has a full copyright on the text, though I find this questionable since it is openly distilled from an oral tradition and taken from a longer published work. I won’t get into that right now. Maybe I will have to settle with links to online texts on my site. I’ll see what the profs think on that issue. I may be able to get away with putting the full text of stories on the site if they come from other websites that have them published in full in a not for profit setting. Again, I need a more expert opinion on the matter. Until then I will worry about getting my lesson for Saturday finished. That in itself is nerve wracking enough. I’ll lkeep you posted.