Zach's Ideas---Prop 8 & more

For my final project, I will create a piece that reflects on our country's political grasp on gay rights. I have always been passionate about human rights, and over the last couple years, I have become increasingly angry over prejudice towards homosexuals. The idea that someone's sexual preference can be denied (as shown by Proposition 8) is disgusting to me. The legislation maintains that exlusively heterosexual marriage is an "essential insitution of society" and that allowing same-sex marriage would be bad because gay individuals would "redefine marriage for everyone else." The need for a fixed definition, the need for conformity (at the cost of restricting people's freedoms)...this bothers me a lot. Senator McCain, the man who nearly became our president, supported the effort to ban gay marriage.

Anyways, my piece will be dealing with contemporary gay rights issues (Prop 8 obviously standing out as a focal piece of legislation within the gay community). I will also be dealing with gay rights issue from a historical perspective. Names like Anita Bryant (gay rights opponent) and Harvey Milk specifically come to mind. The Oppressor vs. the Oppressed.

My plan is to create a chapbook of found poems. As source material, I will integrate the language in interviews with language found in official legislation, and maybe articles. Interviews will vary and will likely consist of language I accumulate from homosexual individuals and gay rights activists (famous figures, both historical and contemporary, and maybe even gays on campus)....And then at the opposite end of this particular spectrum, I will incorporate language that reflects the beliefs of conversative governing bodies. I'm thinking of California politicians, the "straight-laced" folk who recently overturned the legality of same-sex marriage. From a less contemporary perspective, an example of good source material might come from a figure like Dan White, notoriously known as the man who assassinated Harvey Milk. I have studied Milk a bit, but I became a lot more familiar with his cause when I saw the '08 film. For my found poems, I want to illustrate the idea that prejudice towards gays is born from fear--->Dan White embodies this sort of fear.

I'm thinking about how I can pit the language embedded in legislation that opposes gay marriage against the voice of the homosexual oppressed. And also against the voice of straight individuals with gay friends/family members, or people who simply are a part of the the human race. People who support rights and free choice and constitutional guarantees (that our government hypocritically ignores). Visually, I think it is important for me to focus on form. The transmission of one thing into another--language into found text (poetry)--calls for great attention to form. My intent in conveying certain emotions must focus as much on the visual representation as the content itself.

I am also thinking about composing a musical score on the piano that will go with the book, maybe like a CD that is literally a part of the book, sitting in a sleeve on the front of the back cover. I hopefully will gain access to jeff's recording studio (cough...hi jeff!) More on this in the coming weeks. I am already hearing certain things in my head. In the coming weeks, I will begin to play, and hopefully, the music I create will reflect the language (& corresponding emotions) in my book. Please class, any suggestions you might have would be great! I am pretty passionate about this project.