For my group crit I read an extract from my assessment piece last term, to see if my peers had any advice on how it could be improved, and to see their reaction, did they think it was effective?
People said the way I had stitched different texts together was interesting and worked well but that I need to work on my delivery of the texts that were not poems, (as I read these parts too quickly).
We also discussed whether or not they though it was offensively appropriating the stories and in some cases the words of Black people. They said no, they didn’t think it was offensive because I hd not intended it to be, which bought up the question ‘does an act have to have racist intent to be considered racism?’. I don’t believe it does, I think that many acts of racism come from a place of naivety and ignorance. I also have to remember that the high majority of the group are white and none are black.
I spoke a bit about how I felt anxious while performing and was told to work with this, not against it. I am bound to feel nervous when performing, especially when my work is on such a sensitive topic.
Lauren Brockwell 