One thing I learned about my decade and location that I didn't know before is that David Dinkins was the first and only black mayor of New York City. He defeated three term mayor Ed Koch in the primaries and defeated republican Rudy Giuliani to be come mayor. Mayor Dinkins also stopped a 30 year upward trend of crime rate in New York City and began a trend of falling crime rates.
One thing I learned that I connected to the world today is the crack epidemic in the 80's. The government took their time trying to resolve the issue, even ignoring it was happening for a while. This connects to many events today. The opioid epidemic is almost the exact same thing. Everyday more people are dying from opioid abuse and the government is moving extremely slow to fix this issue. Another thing I connected to today's world is that there were a lot of civil rights protests at the time mostly because of hate crimes or the killings of innocent black people. This is still happening today, black people have to fear for their lives when they get pulled over or when they are just walking down the street. They have to fear getting the cops called on them when they are doing their jobs or barbecuing or shopping.
My personal favorite product that our group produced was the recreation of Keith Haring's "Crack is Wack". This was my favorite because I like art and I like Keith Haring's work, so it was really fun to recreate his art piece. It's also my favorite because I put a lot of effort into it and I think it turned out really good.
I learned the most about social/cultural scene of New York in the 1980s. In the 80s a lot of things started that still effect the world today. Things like the Air Jordan 1, which is a shoe that changed the way people look at sneakers. It changed the view on sneakers from workout shoes to fashion statements. This shoe started a line of shoes that is still going today.
If I could change one thing about this project it would probably be how we ended it. I think it would have been nicer to end with an exhibition rather than presentations.
As a group we read the book Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Bright Lights Big City is about an unnamed narrator who struggles with a cocaine addiction. During the day he works as a fact checker for the newspaper company in Manhattan, and at night he manages to go bar hopping with the help of cocaine. Through the book you learn how his cocaine addiction developed and why he feels like he needs it. The cocaine allows the narrator to get rid if his stresses and he avoids harsh realities of everyday life because of this he continues to live in an isolated world of narcotics - induced pleasure. This book was set in New York in the 80s and it focused on a cocaine issue, which was a real issue in the 80s.
You can find all of our group's artifacts below:
One thing I learned that I connected to the world today is the crack epidemic in the 80's. The government took their time trying to resolve the issue, even ignoring it was happening for a while. This connects to many events today. The opioid epidemic is almost the exact same thing. Everyday more people are dying from opioid abuse and the government is moving extremely slow to fix this issue. Another thing I connected to today's world is that there were a lot of civil rights protests at the time mostly because of hate crimes or the killings of innocent black people. This is still happening today, black people have to fear for their lives when they get pulled over or when they are just walking down the street. They have to fear getting the cops called on them when they are doing their jobs or barbecuing or shopping.
My personal favorite product that our group produced was the recreation of Keith Haring's "Crack is Wack". This was my favorite because I like art and I like Keith Haring's work, so it was really fun to recreate his art piece. It's also my favorite because I put a lot of effort into it and I think it turned out really good.
I learned the most about social/cultural scene of New York in the 1980s. In the 80s a lot of things started that still effect the world today. Things like the Air Jordan 1, which is a shoe that changed the way people look at sneakers. It changed the view on sneakers from workout shoes to fashion statements. This shoe started a line of shoes that is still going today.
If I could change one thing about this project it would probably be how we ended it. I think it would have been nicer to end with an exhibition rather than presentations.
As a group we read the book Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Bright Lights Big City is about an unnamed narrator who struggles with a cocaine addiction. During the day he works as a fact checker for the newspaper company in Manhattan, and at night he manages to go bar hopping with the help of cocaine. Through the book you learn how his cocaine addiction developed and why he feels like he needs it. The cocaine allows the narrator to get rid if his stresses and he avoids harsh realities of everyday life because of this he continues to live in an isolated world of narcotics - induced pleasure. This book was set in New York in the 80s and it focused on a cocaine issue, which was a real issue in the 80s.
You can find all of our group's artifacts below: