Class Today

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/402/save-the-day

Symbols--in English class we spend a lot of time talking about rhetorical devices and rhetorical strategies--symbols, metaphors, imagery, ext. However, we spend very little time talking about the larger social and political implications of these seemingly stylistic decisions.

I wanted to share a seemingly "symbolic" structure that I encountered over break--and talk about the implications of its "metaphorical" significance.

The "Birwood Wall" was built in the 1940s to separate white and black neighborhoods. It still stands near 8 Mile and Wyoming.

Recently there's been a movement to "re-claim" the Birwood Wall to give the neighborhood's residents more ownership and agency in their community. The Motor City Blight Busters and artist Chazz Miller banned together to turn something negative into something positive.

Questions: How could such a structure function as both a negative and positive symbol? What visual/rhetorical decisions do you notice Miller making in his reclamation of the wall?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXSJhiH0wk&feature=channel