Feedback from Meeting with Advisor

I met with my advisor Abbéy Odunlami, yesterday, (Monday 23/05) and also got feedback from my peer critique group on my work on Saturday (21/05); so am updating my blog with information from those meetings in this post.

1/ Feedback from meeting with Abbéy Odunlami

Abbéy started out by asking me to give a thesis statement that sums up my story on the basis of the research I have carried out during my time at the Academy thus far. I struggled to condense it into one meaningful and impactful sentence, and am grateful to him for the reminder that this will be necessary to give focus and direction to my story. I do know what my story subject is: Althea McNish, star designer; and my theme: the impact of the two important black migrations her family underwent that helped shape her identify and perhaps even her destiny. But I still need to figure out a compelling way to say it in one sentence.

For me as a podcaster, that one sentence will serve as my logline, which is a standard feature of any pitch deck submitted to funders of documentary projects, whether film or audio. So I will spend some time working on this before Abbéy and I meet again early next month. I also hope to have a preliminary pitch deck prepared for input from him that I will use to pitch my story idea to funders of documentary projects.

My advisor, Abbéy , also helped clarify further the meaning of some of the journal articles I included in my blog related to memory. He summed up one author's statement as saying simply that the memories of our past determine in large measure the way we navigate our way through life. That is the point I am making about Althea.

He further pointed out something I had not given much thought to: the fact that her forebears the Merikins would have had memories of being both black and American, and would have brought those memories with them to Trinidad. Their interactions with locals on the island may well have been shaped by that knowledge of and absorption in American culture. That is an interesting thought worth exploring further, since I did get the impression from one film on the Merikins that I saw that they did have a great sense of pride in themselves, perhaps shaped by both the fact that they were free men and the fact that they were migrants from the US. Did that also contribute to Althea's self-confidence and impart to her a more cosmpolitan worldview than typical for many Trinidadians at the time?

(1 June 2022. UPDATE on idea of Merikins being proud of being Americans. This does not appear to be true, according to an authoritative book I am currently reading about the 1812 war, entitled The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832. According to this book, the slaves viewed the British as their friends while they considered their American masters as the enemy and oppressors. The slaves were eager to escape America, hence the willingness to accept the offer of land in Trinidad made to some of them in return for their services to the British navy. So I think Abbey's suggestion that they were proud of being Americans is incorrect.)

He also inquired whether the Merikins are viewed as "other" by Trinidadians and what effect that might have had on Althea growing up in Trinidad? A question I do need to explore further.

Finally, and very importantly, Abbéy's response to my question about guarding against commoditized versions of the past was simply that it will never be possible to determine fully what parts of an account are shaped for marketing purposes and what parts are absolute truth. Perhaps because even in "history as a commodity" there will always be elements of truth. He reminded me that every society, including Western ones, offers up these versions of their history to achieve particular ends. So I conclude the most I can do to help me in analysing any history is to understand the socio-economic and political contexts in which they were shared. I can then make an attempt at a fair interpretation of the reasons why a particular history is shared in a particular way, especially if there are contrasting accounts from other groups with opposing interests.

2/ Feedback from peer critique group:

I was reminded of the importance of choosing sounds that highlight the different cultures being discussed in this podcast. Upon further reflection, I decided it would be a good idea to have one type of music that is recognisably Caribbean when discussing Althea's life in Trinidad; a second type of music that is recognisably British for sound effect purposes when discussing the essentially British aspects of her existence; and then a third that is a recognisable blending of the two to depict story segments dealing with how she blended the two strands of her identity. Does the third type of music exist? Probably. I will have to look.

I was reminded at both meetings of the fact that there is currently an exhibition on of her work, which I already knew, but am now asking myself whether it might be possible to visit the UK before the exhibition ends in September to view it in person.