Identity Memoir

You will be writing stories about yourself and your neighborhood. These stories will come from both past memories and from present observations. Your stories need to

Your stories need to be about how you define yourself. You need to tell stories that answer questions about your identity, such as these:

• Who am I?
• What groups do I see myself as part of?
  (Examples of groups include: age/gender groups, football/baseball players,sports team groups, religious affiliations, socio-economic groups, racial/ethnic/cultural/country gourds, occupational/job groups, hobby/interest groups, neighborhood groups.) 
• What makes me unique within each of these groups?
• How do my identity groups describe themselves?
• How do people in my identity groups see me?
• What do people outside of my identity groups say about people in my groups?
• What are the stereotypes about people like me?
• Is it better for me to assimilate or to maintain my separate cultural identity?

Your identity memoir should include different kinds of writing. You'll need to write a memory story, an essay, and a description of a weekend in your home and neighborhood. All three of these need to be focused on the same issue or theme connected to "identity." Here are some examples that come from the concerns and questions you wrote about your selves, others, New York City and the World in the first weeks of classes.

Your themes should arise from these themes, from the drama work you have been doing (identity statues, pantomimes, etc.), and the stories that you have already begun to write (People/places/times/things, "Where I'm from," etc.) We will work with you on this project step-by-step, story-by-story, one piece at a time. You will be freewriting, re-writing, revising, freewriting, acting out ideas, drawing, listing, even "looping"...

Tentative Deadlines:

Created by: Paul Allison [email protected] Last updated: September 16, 2000