How I Spent My Summer… by Cutcha Risling Baldy
JUNE:
- Got really excited because I’m teaching Native American Literature in the fall and decided to put together my syllabus and course reader. Needed to find a non fiction essay about the second Wounded Knee... looking and looking.
- Finished this book (teaching it Fall 2011)
- Reread this book (teaching it Fall 2011)
- Reread this book (teaching it Fall 2011)
- Started to read the Hunger Games book and thought “what am I doing? I can’t read this book. I gotta read a real book instead!”
- Still have no idea what the Hunger Games is about. But it sounds yummy. Ba dum dum dum.
- Officially became a (1/3) business owner of Wren Usdi Productions.
- Continued job working as Project Coordinator for “The Uneasy Remains Film Project.”
- Finished a grant to plan and host a symposium on Native Arts & Culture in Northern California for the Native Women’s Collective (where I am the Executive Director)
- Filmed for the Arts, Voices, Perspectives Project
- Went camping with family and swam in Whiskey Town lake. Jumped off the back of my Aunt’s patio boat. Swam until I couldn’t feel my toes or fingers.
- Started job working as a Graduate Student Researcher for the Environmental Justice Project at UC Davis.
- Went to my first Fourth of July in Davis. Sat right underneath the fireworks. Had some guy come stand right in front of me with a kid on his shoulders. Tried to enjoy the silhouette of a dude and his kid and some fireworks.
- Tried to finish this book. Still haven’t finished that book actually.
- Flower Dance Ceremony – we sing, we dance, we pray, we laugh.
- Home again…
- Grant drafts to foundations and agencies for the Environmental Justice Project and “The Uneasy Remains Film Project.”
- Finished this book.
- Finally finished my course reader and turned it in.
- Made 20 pairs of earrings (for sale at the Native Women’s Collective Etsy shop!)
- Kept meaning to watch The Daily Show.
- Read an article about how The Colbert Report is now better than The Daily Show.
- Am not getting in to that debate.
- Wrote this blog entry: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2011/08/the-subject-line-of-an-email-should-be-its-thesis-statement.html
- And this one: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2011/08/foucault-is-the-guy-who-said-i-am-thinking-of-a-number-between-1-10-panopticon.html
- And this one: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2011/08/the-politics-of-the-listserv.html
- Apparently liked blogging in August.
- Went home for a nice long visit.
- Ate a lot of Mexican food because there is a lot of Mexican food in Humboldt County.
- Deerskin Dance Ceremony – we dance, we renew, we eat, we rejoice.
- September is still summer?
- It is when you are on the quarter system.
- Finished the film treatment for “The Uneasy Remains Film Project.”
- Finished some more grants for various projects.
- Let’s see – was on a panel about how to be a graduate student. Eat cheap food and stay up late… end of advice.
- Worked on the Arts, Voices, Perspectives Project for the Native Women’s Collective and made this “trailer” video.
- Wrote a blog entry about what I did this summer.
- Decided new school year resolution is to get to bed before 1 a.m. each night.
- Broke new school year resolution last night.
- Will probably do it again tonight.
Cutcha Risling Baldy is a PhD Graduate Student in Native American Studies and a recipient of the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. She has her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and her B.A. in Psychology with a special focus in Health and Development from Stanford University. Ms. Risling Baldy is an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe with ties to the Karuk and Yurok peoples. Her research focuses on feminist perspectives in contemporary Native culture, methodologies and theory development for Native American Studies and arts & culture expression (literature, song, ceremony, and oral histories). You can find out more about her here.