"How Lil Wayne helped me survive my first year teaching in New Orleans."
Published November 25, 2008 @ 04:58PM PT
Nick Bishop, a friend and Nashville-based Millennials Changing America contact, pointed out the following piece that a friend of his wrote. If this isn't reflective of the post-modern, pop culture orgy cluster that is millennial activism, I don't know what is.
I WILL FOREVER REMAIN FAITHFUL: How Lil Wayne helped me survive my first year teaching in New Orleans.
This story isn't really all that different from Dangerous Minds, or whatever that book was called before its rights were bought and it was turned into a terrible Michelle Pfeiffer movie. It's a bit less sentimental, there's less tangible redemption, and Lil' Wayne takes the part of Bob Dylan as a vehicle for connecting with young, urban youth:
A few weeks later, I gave him a copy of a New Yorker piece on Lil Wayne.
“Actually, that was good,” he said, later. “You teach me to write like that?”
Since the plot-line of the story is old - outsider teacher connects with rough-and-tumble students over pop culture - it is not the plot that pertains exclusively to Millennials. The young activist, in this case a young, out of place teacher, does, however, view his experience through the lens of Lil' Wayne and tells his story by way of his lyrics, legend, and myth. In an exceedingly post-modern style, he openly explains his experience with the same fabric on which he experienced it, which is, especially after having been raised on a wave of post-modern fiction that we've been privy to in print (R.I.P D.F.W.), on screen (in it's pop form, David Fincher's adaptation of Fight Club or any film for which Spike Jonze of Charlie Kaufman have been responsible), or in music (via Weezy himself), predominantly how we tell our stories.
The greatest irony about our being a generation that so very-much values authenticity is that there are so many self-referential layers to our narrative - especially useful when connecting with an otherwise alien culture - that assessing what is "real" and what is not is a task worthy of a doctorate.
Andrew WK Addresses Criticisms of the so-called "Mr. Rogers Narcissism Generation."
Published November 25, 2008 @ 07:22AM PT
Last year, there was a lot of talk about how the Millennial Generation were probably spoiled babies because we watched too much Mr. Rogers. Really.
Apparently Andrew WK addressed a question regarding this generational assessment while speaking (in a church?) last year:
[Warning: To all generational curmudgeons who are worried about the softness of this younger generation, there is a non-ironic man-on-man hug in this video.]
Adaptability, (slow) tech-integration, and Focus the Nation
Published November 25, 2008 @ 06:58AM PT
Focus the Nation had a huge impact on me when I met with them a few weeks back. I was wholly awed by their four full-time staff members who are totally bright, well-organized, and devoted to fixing the climate mess by way of creating nation-wide campus mobilization.
I was struck most not just by their intelligence and passion — we talked seamlessly for well-over an hour — but by the way they approached organizing:
- Tech-integration. I now spend so much time in "early adopter" circles, where socially minded tech geeks try to figure out how to integrate the cutting edge into their overall performance, that it is easy to forget that doing requires action. The four young people I met at Focus the Nation had all been organizers elsewhere and they had a tremendous amount of on-the-ground experience. When it came to organizing 1900 teach-ins throughout the United States, they got on the phones, maintained excel sheets, and set up meetings one by one.
- Adaptability. Their ability to adapt their message campus-to-campus also inspired awe. They went into organizing this nation-wide campus movement imagining that every university had a pocket of socially-interested, climate-passionate students and faculty who would be willing to take this issue on. Realizing that this is not actually the case, they pursued scalable events, which ranged from help with setting up recycling clubs (in part so that they could lay out concepts and ideas that will eventually lead to more comprehensive action), to several-thousand-people-strong rallies. Having seen many groups crumble under the unmanageable weight of "our way or bust" models, seeing their approach regarding adaptability was refreshing.
After pulling off a successful mobilization by way of their model, they then organized their online campaign around the architecture of this success. It is easy, of course, to get caught up in the magic the tools of online action and activism, but having seen the successes that Focus the Nation had found in doing things the opposite way, it reminds that while the Internet is a great way to get a lot of people doing things at once, face-to-face organizing has a rich depth to it that can well-implemented when organized then leveraged and better-organized by way of online communication.
Focus the Nation just launched their new site. Be sure to check it out.
Couchsurfing across America.
Published November 25, 2008 @ 06:15AM PT
I tried to organize most of our housing for the tour by way of the social network Couchsurfing. It didn't really work, though really by no fault of Couchsurfing. You can read more about all of that here.
Desire for volunteerism pre-existed President-Elect Obama
Published November 24, 2008 @ 10:19AM PT
Who knew? Read more at Boston.com.
The Millennials Changing America Tour has come to a close.
Published November 24, 2008 @ 07:21AM PT
I'm back in Boston, friends.
This means the first leg of the Millennials Changing America Tour has come to a close and that I'm looking at the next few months as a time where I'll be processing and posting about all of the conversations, experiences, and other odds and ends that happened along the way. I'll be looking at the oodles of external literature that have been and will be released on the generation over the next handful of months and respond accordingly based on my experiences with the activists and do-gooders I met along the way. In addition, I'll be feature profiles of some of the individuals and organizations I spoke with, include follow-up interviews, and other resources that pop up along the way.
I must thank everyone who gave time/money/advice to the tour (and anyone who is still interested in giving, of course). I also must thank Callum Ingram, my exceedingly patient co-pilot for over half of the adventure. And of course I've got to thank anyone who allowed us to crash on their couches.
I look forward to posting along the way.
Too little time / too many flames in Los Angeles
Published November 15, 2008 @ 10:57PM PT
It appears that Los Angeles is totally ablaze, and I just missed being barricaded in the city by a wall of flames/smoke. A few pre-catastrophe highlights from my time in birthplace of Guns and Roses / setting of Terminator 2:
- I met with Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like over a few beers in order to talk about an unconventional year on race (and what its like to get asked to give a commencement speech on the basis of being a very popular blogger).
- I talked with a beautiful, young, fashion-oriented woman at a hipster-posh bar who explained to me her political/modern-consciousness awakening that was dawned entirely by the candidacy of Barack Obama. What was her diet for eye-opening? A whole lot of NPR, she explained.
- I was especially sad to miss out on meeting with anyone from Participant Media, but I had to take a very-unfortunate rain check due to a case of the mixed-up insides.
- I was fortunate, though, to be able to meet up with ever-incredible Morley Winograd, co-author of Millennial Makeover, and biggest academic inspiration to me regarding the subject of political movements and modern young people. We discussed a time when publishers didn't believe there was a millennial phenomenon, so-to-speak, the role of the academic in the world of generational advocacy, and what's he plans on scribing next.
And now a few questions for you, my friend:
- Who should I have been in contact with in Los Angeles? Who should I reach out to upon my return?
- What cool stuff is happening re: digital activism and natural disasters?
