By Kwesi Billups Over the course of the semester, I’ve learned a great deal about the theories that have governed humanity’s perception of the world we live in, and the four-dimensional continuum of spacetime. Countless scientists and philosophers have contributed to the discourse surrounding our place in the universe, marking a transition from early intuitive […]
Author: Kwesi
How Do We Save the World?: Civic Engagement in the 21st Century
As I reflect on the ending semester, I realize that college has been the longest period of the most agitation that I’ve experienced… in a good way. The courses I’ve taken- centered on topics ranging from identity negotiation to the rhetoric of built environments to the environmental detriment caused by anthropogenic development- have wrested me from […]
A Look Towards the Future: Fleming’s Commonplace
Rhetorical Analysis #5 By Kwesi Billups In Chapter 8 of his City of Rhetoric, David Fleming defines the terms by which he believes the reductive societal pictures of suburbia, home, and ghetto can be discarded and replaced by doctrines that seek to erase discrimination, violence, and isolation from the subtext of housing planning and, thus, public […]
Sociospatial Dialect: The Future of Discourse
Reading Analysis #4 By Kwesi Billups In Chapter 3 of his City of Rhetoric, David Fleming makes use of theories of proxemics, linguistics, and chronemics to present a framework by which a revitalization of public discourse can come forth. Fleming’s proposal of the urban sphere as the tool by which groups can better communicate and restructure the public […]
Mapping Commonplaces: Replanting The Mayflower
By Kwesi Billups Introduction Throughout the course of the semester, students in my College Writing Seminar have embarked on a semester-long journey to investigate the rhetorical situations of various locations around the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Some students chose to work with street intersections, while others chose more historically documented and culturally relevant locations such as […]
VoL Part IV. Old Age
Kwesi Billups PART IV. OLD AGE My initial reaction notes to the piece while I was in the gallery: The Stream of Life has reached a vast ocean of infinite scope. Man’s Guardian, who accompanied him unseen throughout his journey has shown herself to the tattered and tired man. His interest in the barren rocks […]
VoL Part III. Manhood
By Kwesi Billups PART III. MANHOOD My initial reaction notes to the piece while I was in the gallery: Man knew nothing of the evils of his world. How could he have known? He casted off his Guardian in preparation for his own domination of his surroundings. In the foreground, a dying tree, poisoned and […]
VoL Part II. Youth
By Kwesi Billups PART II. YOUTH My initial reaction notes to the piece while I was in the gallery: Man has become his own god in the wake of his awakening. Gone are the days of his infancy, and he has demonstrated through his piloting of his own destiny. His Guardian bids him a safe journey […]
VoL Part I. Childhood
By Kwesi Billups PART I. CHILDHOOD My initial reaction notes to the piece while I was in the gallery: Man is narrow-minded, his view limited. The ominous cave from which he has escaped with his Guardian is empty. He has escaped [a world of] perpetual ignorance, bursting into a world of vibrance. But, his view is […]
VoL- Video
By Kwesi Billups As I perused the works exhibited within the National Gallery of Art, I found myself amazed at the technical quality of the pieces, and impressed with the extensive collection of artwork spanning centuries of content material. However, while I found the many of the National Gallery’s collected works impressive, I hardly felt […]