“Freedom Writers”
Freedom Writers is a movie I would recommend for all! The movie is about a new teacher who teaches High School English in a low-income school in Los Angeles. Her students are from different backgrounds and there is only one white student in her class. Most of her students are members of some sort of gang and must worry about violence all the time. The main idea of the movie is when the teacher decided to have her students write in journals about anything they want to. She has a shelf in her room where they may place the journals if they want her to read them and the shelf remains locked so no one else can read them. When she first tells her students about this, she figures that no one will want to leave the journals for her to read. To her surprise, the whole class leaves them. The students want their teacher to learn as much as she can about them and the way they live. The teacher finds out that a lot of these students have not had very many opportunities to explore different places around the area in which they live, so their teacher tries really hard to make these things possible.
I think the movie is amazing because it shows that students and teachers can learn so much from each other. Not only were the students going through a lot in their own lives, but the teacher was also going through a lot-dealing with a bad school and an administration that would not support her; a divorce; no support from her parents; and no support from her students’ parents. Some how, they all make it through and her students all become very close to each other. The students were able to succeed because they had a teacher who was willing to help them and the teacher could succeed because she had a group of students that needed her help, guidance, and kindness.
“Hair”
Hair, a production that was put on by students from Luther, gives a strong message of peace and protest of the war in Vietnam. The play is about a young man’s story that has been drafted, but does not want to fight. His friends, who are fellow “peace lovers,” or also known as “hippies,” do not want him to go, especially because it goes against what they all believe in. As the play goes own, his mind begins to change and he can not bring himself to burn his draft card. His friends try to stop him and try to explain how he is going to die, but he wants to serve his country and fight. He goes over seas, despite what his friends tell him, and ends up dying, serving his country.
I thought that the musical was very interesting and done very well. I knew that a lot of peace demonstrations took place during this time, but it was interesting to see how people may have taken it to the extreme-not living in houses, doing a lot of promiscuous things with others (sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll), and fighting for peace however they could. The cast was dressed in very random clothing, depicting how I would imagine “hippies” to look. The set was very simple, yet easy to imagine that a group was on an island climbing around on things. The cast was amazing- very well articulated and looked like they were having fun while doing the production.
“Vagina Monologs”
The Vagina Monologs are stories about women dealing with…womanly things. The stories are all true –some funny, while others are very sad and disturbing. It seemed like the play was meant to bring out different emotions from the audience, but I think the actors were trying to give out different messages for women in the audience.
Overall, I did not really like the play. I have a lot of respect of the women at Luther that did the play, and there were some funny parts and some parts made me really think, however, there were parts of the play in which I was very offended (having the audience say a word referring to a vagina that I really do not like is just one example) and I really did not like how open people were. I found it to be very feministic and it seemed like it was aimed for women, so if a man was sitting in the audience, it would probably make him feel uncomfortable and more like a “bash fest” towards members of the opposite sex.
“Push”
This mini play was a student production by Siri Carlson. It was a dance number that used no words, just music and dancing. The story was about an author who could never write stories that her publishers liked. It was so frustrating for the author and there were points where she wanted to give up, but she would suddenly slip in to this dream-like world where she was free to express herself in any way. The author was so much happier in the dream-like state and wished that her publishers would just like her work.
I thought the mini play was very interesting, mainly because you had to use your own interpretations as to what was going on until you found out what the story really was about. I assume it also took a lot of work and time for Siri to put on this production. I thought it was amazing how talented she is and was able to write and produce her own dance like this.
Ethnic Arts Festival
At the Ethnic Arts Festival this year, 22 different countries were represented by Luther students. At each table, one could try foods, games, and learn more about each country. My friend, Shayna, even got her groove on by teaching a traditional Korean dance to spectators. One was also given a passport and each table that would be visited, a passport stamp could be received. Many people attended this cultural event and was well enjoyed by all.
I really enjoyed attending the Ethnic Arts Festival because it gave me the opportunity to learn more about the countries that Luther students come from. It also helped me support my friends who are from different ethnic backgrounds and learn more about where they came from. I really enjoyed a lot of the food that I tried and learning the Korean dance was quite interesting.
