Lingua Inglese 3 (L-11) - GILBERT 2023-2024
Topic outline
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"America"
"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And walked off to look for America
"Kathy", I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America
Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera”
"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field
"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America -
"Winter In America"
From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain
Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
Living in a nation that just can't stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it's winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
'Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America
The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but it died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
Looks like it's hoping
Hoping for some rain
And I see the robins
Perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it's winter
It's winter in America
And all of the healers have been killed
Or been betrayed
Yeah, but the people know, people know
It's winter, Lord knows
It's winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your souls
From Winter in America
And now it's winter
Winter in America
And all of the healers done been killed or sent away
Yeah, and the people know, people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows, nobody knows
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save -
lyrics: https://www.google.com/search?q=lyrics+%22This+is+America%22&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS702US702&oq=lyrics+%22This+is+America%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l2j0i22i30l7.11621j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' has become an overnight cultural phenomenon. The internet was quick to point out tons of hidden messages throughout the piece. Here's some you've might have missed.
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Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, more than 1,500 people have been executed in the U.S.A..
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Maps of U.S.A.
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In the greatest human migration in modern history, from 1892 to 1954 more than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island and the Port of New York, more than the immigrants passing through all the other North American ports combined. The ship companies that transported these passengers kept detailed passenger lists, called ‘ship manifests,’ which have been transcribed into a vast electronic archive of nearly 65 million records on the Ellis Island website, which can be easily accessed at no cost in search of individuals who passed through the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957. Some records are more complete than others, with information about names, ages, dates of arrival, ship names and sometimes ship pictures and descriptions, ports of departure, nationalities, birthplaces, occupations, last residences, final destinations and more (information taken from the Ellis Island website).
Instructions: Go to the website of The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation www.ellisisland.org and register for free in order to look for family or friends’ names in the Passenger Search database.
Type in your family’s paternal and maternal surnames and start the search (to find all recorded immigrants with that name, you can ignore the request for first name, approximate year of birth and gender.). If you click on “refine search,” you can narrow down your search by specifying a particular “ethnicity” and even the name of the town or village of origin.
Finally, write a short essay (minimum 700 words, no maximum limit) presenting and analyzing the information that you find in your research. Essays should be typed and double spaced. Respect paragraph structure (indenting paragraphs) and include a clear introduction and conclusion. N.B. Do not plagiarize from the Ellis Island website or from other sources.
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"Ode to Billy Joe"
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay.
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered out the back door, y'all, remember to wipe your feet.
And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge.
Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas:
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please.
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow.
And mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.And brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
I'll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don't seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge.
And now ya tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.And mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today.
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way,
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge.
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe.
And brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going 'round; papa caught it, and he died last spring.
And now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge.
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
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Girls you know you better watch out
Some guys, some guys are only about
That thing, that thing, that thing
And 'lick' two shots in the atmosphere... Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah...
It's been three weeks since you've been looking for your friend
The one you let hit it and never called you again
'Member when he told you he was'bout the Benjamins
You act like you ain't hear him then gave him a little trim
To begin, how you think you really gon' pretend
Like you wasn't down then you called him again
Plus when you give it up so easy you ain't even fooling him
If you did it then, then you probably fuck again
Talking out your neck sayin' you're a Christian
A Muslim sleeping with the gin
Now that was the sin that did Jezebel in
Who you gon' tell when the repercussions spin
Showing off your ass 'cause you're thinking it's a trend
Girlfriend, let me break it down for you again
You know I only say it 'cause I'm truly genuine
Don't be a hardrock when you really are a gem
Babygirl, respect is just a minimum
Niggas fucked up and you still defending them
Now Lauryn is only human
Don't think I haven't been through the same predicament
Let it sit inside your head like a million women in Philly, Penn.
It's silly when girls sell their soul because it's in
Look at where you be in hair weaves like Europeans
Fake nails done by Koreans
Come again
Come again, come again, come again, come again
Guys you know you better watch out
Some girls, some girls are only about
That thing, that thing, that thing
The second verse is dedicated to the men
More concerned with his rims and his Timbs than his women
Him and his men come in the club like hooligans
Don't care who they offend popping yang like you got yen
Let's not pretend, they wanna pack pistol by they waist men
Cristal by the case men, still in they mother's basement
The pretty face men claiming that they did a bid men
Need to take care of their three and four kids men
They facing a court case when the child's support late
Money taking, heart breaking now you wonder why women hate men
The sneaky silent men the punk domestic violence men
The quick to shoot the s***n stop acting like boys and be men
How you gon' win when you ain't right within
How you gon' win when you ain't right within
How you gon' win when you ain't right within
Come again
Come again, come again, come again, come again
Girls you know you better watch out
Some guys, some guys are only about
That thing, that thing, that thing
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Inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and set in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the mid-1950s, a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood, the story is based on the conflict between “the Jets” and “the Sharks,” two teenage street gangs, respectively “white” and Puerto Rican.
"America"
Puerto Rico, my heart’s devotion, let it sink back in the ocean!
Always the hurricanes blowing, always the population growing, and the money owing,
and the sunlight streaming, and the natives steaming.
I like the island Manhattan. (I know you do!) Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
I like to be in America. O.K. by me in America. Everything free in America.
For a small fee in America.
Buying on credit is so nice.
One look at us and they charge twice.
I have my own washing machine.
What will you have though to keep clean?
Sky-scrapers bloom in America. Cadillacs zoom in America. Industry boom in America.
Twelve in a room in America.
Lots of new housing with more space.
Lots of doors slamming in our face.
I’ll get a terrace apartment.
Better get rid of your accent.
Life can be bright in America.
If you can fight in America.
Life is all right in America.
If you’re a white in America.
America, Olè, etc.
Here you are free and you have pride.
Long as you stay on your own side.
Free to be anything you choose.
Free to wait tables and shine shoes.
Everywhere crime in America. Organized crime in America. Terrible time in America.
You forget I’m in America.
I think I go back to San Juan.
I know a boat you can get on. (Bye-bye!)
Everyone there will give big cheer.
Everyone there will have moved here.
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"How the founding fathers turned Christopher Columbus, a mediocre Italian sailor and mass murderer, into a historical icon."
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The settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving Pilgrims issued government orders offering cash for dead Native American children.
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Wednesday Addams’ speech: “We cannot break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now, my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides. You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d’oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller. And for all of these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.”
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Paragraph reordering exercise: The early 17th century North American Dutch colony of New Netherland and its capital New Amsterdam.
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146 workers, mostly immigrant young women and girls, died. But this tragedy instigated a movement for workers' rights.
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Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (1h 27m) is a 1984 U.S. documentary film about the LGBT community prior to the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, widely considered to be a major development in the history of gay and lesbian rights in the U.S.A., investigating national cultural perceptions of homosexuality before the event, looking back on previous decades, particularly in regard to conflicts with police and censorship. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg.
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James Brown (1933-2006) was and is considered “The Godfather of Soul,” the self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business.”
His smash hit “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” was released in August 1968, just 4 months after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). The line “I’m Black and I’m Proud” is sung by a large chorus of children in the call and response tradition of Afro-American spirituals and gospel music. The song was n. 1 on the R&B Chart for 6 weeks and it hit n. 10 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”
This song became an anthem for Black Pride and the Black Power Movement of the 1960s: “We won’t quit movin’/until we get what we deserve” and “we'd rather die on our feet/than be living on our knees." It put to music the ideas expressed in the 1966 “Black Power” speech by Stokely Carmichael, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later a minister of the Black Panther Party, marking the adoption of the ideology of Black Power by the SNCC. Another slogan which became popular at the time was “Black is Beautiful.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft0vkKCadgk
A song which became an anthem of the mass U.S. anti-war movement against the U.S. war on Vietnam (ca. 2 million Vietnamese & 60,000 U.S. soldiers dead), as sung by Country Joe McDonald & the Fish at the Woodstock Music Festival 15-18 August 1969 in Woodstock, N.Y.
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4 May 1970 Kent State University, Ohio massacre by Ohio National Guard of unarmed university students protesting U.S. war in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Four dead (Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, William Knox Schroeder, 19) and nine wounded (one permanently paralyzed).
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“The riot that changed America's gay rights movement forever: Stonewall was a rebellion and a release of fear. But it was also the celebration of personhood by queer Americans standing proud and unashamed”
by Ed Pilkington in New York, The Guardian, 19.06.19
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