A Raisin in the Sun: day 3 (Conclusion); Raisin/Clybourne Park Project

Today, we will complete our viewing of A Raisin in the Sun. When we are done, please look through your portfolio and select a piece or two or three that you will be likely to perform at the coffeehouse next week. On Monday we will be working exclusively to prepare you for your performance.

Also, I will be introducing you to a project as well. You may have noticed that Clybourne Park (Act 2), takes place in 2009 (the play was written in 2011). 2009 is significant because it is 50 years in the future. The Civil Rights Movement, if it was a person, has grown up, had children and is planning to retire...Can we retire the advances made by the Civil Rights Movement, or is our country now more backward than it was back in 1959? Take a look at a few of these linked articles as food for thought:

• Civil Rights: How Far Have We Come (article)
• America Has a Race Problem 
• Civil Rights - 1969 vs. Now (Youtube)
• How the Unrest of the 60s Compares with Today (article)
• Schools are More Segregated Today Than in the Late 60's (article)

WRITING TASK: Choose 1 of the following writing tasks to complete for your project:

1. Choose a character from A Raisin in the Sun and have that character meet a character from Clybourne Park. For example, Travis is only 10 in 1959. If he met someone from Clybourne Park today, he would be 70 years old--a lifetime of experiences... Write the scene of their meeting (in fiction or playscript form). 
2. Beneatha doesn't make up her mind to marry Asagai and move to Africa at the end of A Raisin in the Sun. While it might be assumed she does, we don't know for sure within the context of the play. Write Beneatha's story (in play, monologue, or fiction form). If she goes to Africa--what does she find, how does she deal with the different culture--one more primitive and restrictive towards women than she might like, for instance. Or, perhaps, she decides not to marry Asagai and does end up marrying George instead...tell her story from her perspective--or from the POV of another character (from Mrs. Johnson's gossipy tone, for example, or from Ruth or Mama's voice.) Your choice.
3. What if Albert (from Clybourne Park) met Walter Lee Younger (from a Raisin in the Sun)--how would they interact? What conversations might they have? Write that conversation using details and evidence from the play. (Your writing might be a script or a fiction story). 
4. Choose 3-5 characters from either A Raisin in the Sun or Clybourne Park and write a poem from each chosen character's perspective. Remember to use details from the text to help you, and don't forget to use similes and metaphors like in Langston Hughes's poem that inspired all this in the first place...!
5. Write a scene or story that doesn't exist, but could have existed if it wasn't edited out or cut from the original play A Raisin in the Sun or Clybourne Park. Write your own scene or story based on what you know about these characters. Ex. write the scene between Ruth and the woman doctor who conducts abortions (from Act 1 of A Raisin in the Sun) or write the scene between Lindner and Bev or Russ from Clybourne Park that we only hear about second hand. Or write the story/scene of the Younger Family moving into the house in Clybourne Park--are they going to be welcomed by the neighborhood? What might happen to them?
6. If you have a better idea, you may choose your own option based on the plays Clybourne Park and A Raisin in the Sun.

Whichever option you choose, your writing should be about 3-5 pages in length (it can be more...but it will be due in next week (Friday, Nov. 22 most likely...) The assignment will be due BEFORE Thanksgiving Break! You will be working on this assignment mostly on your own time due to the coffeehouse rehearsals.

REMINDER: Our Coffeehouse Performance is November 20 (next Wednesday!) Look through your portfolio and select a story, vignette, essay (non-fiction) or poem that you would like to share with the world. Pick something you're proud of--not something too short that you don't care about or that doesn't reflect your genius or creative spirit.

HOMEWORK: None. Choose your coffeehouse selections by Monday! You may get started on your Raisin/Clybourne Park Project. If you didn't finish reading Clybourne Park, please do so this weekend!