CGABlog
Seeking Friendly Justice: A Response to Mary Sharif’s Aristotle Courses
According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, justice is associated with the people who are just. Aristotle’s philosophy asks readers to consider what friendship looks like and how friendliness affects both our reasoning and our sense of social equality. At the same time, friendship allows us to answer an unconventional but civil question: are we friendly advocates…
Read MoreLifer’s Graduation Speech
By Jason, Common Good Atlanta student How do you explain the casual way in which you threw away your life? Answering that question honestly took years of struggling with my own failings. It was not easy, and I did not enjoy it. But I had to. That was the question I had to answer for…
Read MoreResearch as a Form of Liberation: A Reflection of English 1102
By Declaration, Common Good Atlanta student As a college in prison program, we have access to two libraries within the prison: one traditional, the other radical. The traditional library includes books that are donated to help people in prison pass the time. They include mainly older novels and other books from the public’s bookshelves. But…
Read MoreOne Big Wow: Crossing Thresholds with MERE WORDS by Dr. Caroline Young
In an early morning of May 2017 before a visit to Phillips State Prison, I had a waking dream. It would be my first visit to the men’s facility, and I was nervous I would forget some of the artwork I was delivering to students there. In the dream, I arrived at the prison only…
Read More“You Can’t Be A Talking Head”: Acting Class for The Tempest Continues
Acting instructor John Frazier gives the students instructions for an exercise: “Pick a word from your chosen monologue, just one word, and keep repeating it.” A storm of words springs forth from the students and fills the room: monster, roaring, devil, listen, overthrown, first, hunted, Lord. “The word creates a feeling and focus and sense of…
Read More“In This Bare Island”: Master Workshop In Acting & Script Analysis
GSU acting instructor John Frazier taught a master workshop in acting and script analysis for The Tempest. CGA Scholars chose scenes and monologues from the play and John workshopped ways to perform the lines. Scholars learned how to deconstruct characters, isolate their language, and emphasize movement and breath. The result? Students brought Shakespeare’s characters and…
Read MoreFirst Annual Common Good Atlanta Conference
Paulo Freire said that ‘reading is not walking on the words; it’s grasping the soul of them.’ At the first Common Good Conference, the scholars grasped the soul of words. And they then projected those words onto the souls of other scholars. The bar has been set very high for every other conference that I…
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