Desmond Williams ’23
Standing on a manure pile, nestled in the back acres of my house. This photo was snapped by my dear compatriot, Tess Moore ’23. Immediately after this photo was taken, we ventured into the woods and unearthed an old well covered by a stone slab. By opening the well we probably released some type of ancient terror, but in the end it was all worth it. This pile of manure is much like COA, it gives me the power to seek out the undiscovered wells of my future and release their awesome potentiality. Thank you, Tess, for helping me capture this deep moment.
By Desmond Williams ’23
I grew up on an alpaca farm in southern Maine. I knew in some capacity I needed my college experience to mirror the feeling of chasing alpacas and rolling around in muddy pastures; furthermore, I am a freak. These were the two great truths I considered during my college search. It was inevitable I’d land at COA; it had the rustic, eating-bark-off-trees feeling I so desired, but more importantly, it possessed a unique sense of collectivism that I couldn’t find as readily at other schools.
A song by the Parquet Courts, Total Football, helped me find a name that aptly fits this concept. We’re all working towards this goal of human ecology, but we also exist within the same space with our own individual/academic specialties. The Parquet Courts sing, “Collectivism and autonomy are not mutually exclusive,” meaning we’re all sweepers, but we’re all strikers as well. It’s the community that makes COA special. We’re a bunch of individuals joining together to make a greater whole.
Introduction to Adolescent Psychology
As someone who struggles to connect deeply with the specifics of math and science, psychology has been a bridge for me to interact with these concepts in a way that’s clear in my mind. Introduction to Adolescent Psychology with Ken Hill served to strengthen this bridge as we drove into a myriad of different theories and psychological conjectures. I really appreciated the emphasis on self-application of theory. We would often discuss whether or not our readings applied to our own adolescence and this often led me to question how any theory could truly be universally applied. We were also able to talk about Freud, which was awesome, because, well, he was kind of a freak.
Equity and Social Justice in Education
The power of intersectionality is ever important, even more so when you’re a prospective teacher. Throughout the term, Ming-Tso Chien hammered this point home, illustrating for us how equity manifests or, more commonly, does not manifest within the walls of the classroom. We came to these conclusions through the use of small and large group discussions. Equity and Social Justice in Education was largely structured around the discussion of a core reading assigned for the day. The material we read ranged from peer reviewed and technical to more anecdotal and abstract. I was particularly attached to a poem we were assigned early in the term, Audre Lorde’s There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppressions. The poem’s emphasis on the necessity of intersectionality within any social revolution informed everything else throughout the course. I had an opportunity to combine the final for this class with the final for my Documentary Video Studio class. This gave me an opportunity to express my identity, which, in my experience, can be a rare occurrence within academia. For me, the opportunity to share a slice of the “radical” philosophy of the Black Panthers inside a classroom felt like a subversion of academic norms.
Documentary Video Studio
In Documentary Video Studio, we often explored the definition of documentary or, more broadly, nonfiction filmmaking. Matt Shaw ’11 asked us to consider how nonfictional films exist outside the arena of strict drama but, in the end, can also be fictionalized. We watched a multitude of documentaries throughout the term, many of which reinforced this concept. I worked on three main projects for the class, my first two centered around bigfoot and aliens. The former taught me how soul crushing animation can be. For my final, I put together an archival film documenting the rise and destruction of the Black Panther Party. I wanted to produce something that felt honest; far too often the Black Panthers are presented as hyper-violent and anti-white. It was important for me to use the voices of the leadership in order to present what the Black Panthers actually stood for. Violence is sometimes necessary, but so is intersectionality, community service, Marxism, and education.
