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On March 25th 1911 a terrible tragedy happened. A fire broke out at the Triangle Factory, which ended the lives of 146 working women. Some of these women were as young as fifteen years old and most of them were immigrants. The survivors were left with the agonizing memories of what happened that sad afternoon.

98 years later classes 805 & 806 attended a chalking event in lower east side Manhattan. We took the trip in memory of all the triangle factory fire victims. Before we went on the trip we decided to do our research, and what we found out wasn’t pretty. Those women had been working under terrible conditions. During the fire, the only safety measures they had was 27 buckets of water and a fire escape, which eventually collapsed. The doors were locked, and people were trying to escape any way possible. Most of them jumped nine stories to their death below, and the rest slowly burned inside the building.

If the working conditions hadn’t been so gruesome, maybe more girls would have survived the fire. We thought that the working conditions would have improved by now, and they have, but there is still so much more we can do. Its been 98 years and companies such as Walmart, Nike, and Adidas still have people working under appalling circumstances. Our two classes have learned a lot about the over worked and under paid workers in those factories and have created the following images of satire, poetry interpretations, interviews, and campaign letters to express our feelings on those horrendous companies and their factories. Hope you enjoy.

here is the link;
http://805and806.wikispaces.com/Introduction


-Yasmerlin & Melissa
Class 805

Short Story

I'm Andy Allen, I'm 17. My baby sister means the world to me. I love her more than anything. Point is, you mess with her and you're messing with me.No joke. Her name is Leah.Leah Allen. She's only 4 years old and we just found out she has Leukemia.Man, it's killing me. If you knew her though, you would understand me. Seriously. I mean, she's so pretty, she really is. She has beautiful locks of black hair. Its long too, and silky. She a has the cutest little dimples on her cheeks when she smiles. Her smile is the kind of smile that makes you feel all nice inside when you look at it, I mean everybody doesn't look good smiling. For instance this girl in my Biology class, you'd think she's a goddamn Godess when you look at her.She's really beautiful with strong-facial features like some type super model and all, but when she smiles she looks really awful. Seriously.Anyway, My little Leah doesn't have that issue though, like I said before. Not only is she pretty as hell, but she's also innocent as hell too. Leah's not like most kids in this generation, you'd think they're all innocent and all but if you really knew them you'd know they know quite a bit about sex and all that crap. I mean, one time last summer when my family and I went to some resort in Hawaii for vacation Little Leah walked in on my parents one morning while they were ramming and all. I'll tell you what she did, she just went right on in and sat on the bed with them in asked "Daddy are we going to the beach today, again?". She had no idea what the hell they where doing and why they were naked and all that stuff, because she didn't even notice she really didn't. She has no idea what sex is or what it looks like, I doubt she would even recognize the word. Anyway This is how the story goes. About 4 months ago Dad took Leah to the Doctor because she had been sick, fever and all. But no one at home was really worried, we thought she just had a normal fever, I mean kids always get fevers and all. But then the doctor informed Dad that she has Leukemia. Dad immediately started yelling at poor old Dr.Costco saying he was wrong and all that crap.I know that damn Docter must have been terrified cause man, my dad is a hell of a brolic guy. While he was yelling at the Docter and all dad was crying. I wish I was there, I've never seen dad cry before. According to what I heard he punched a hole through the wall and all. I'm surprised he didn't beat the living shit out of old Dr.Costco. If you're wondering how i know, well I'm good friends with one of the janitors at the clinic. My parents would never inform me of dads beastly actions.

I on the other hand, handled my pain and anger in a different way. That same day at about 12:00 a.m. when Leah was asleep and the house was all quiet my parents informed me, actually mom did all the talking.Dad had to walk out in the middle of the conversation and all, he couldn't take it. At first I was little confused about what Leukemia actually was, then mom mentioned it was something like cancer. It looked like she was really dreading the moment to tell me this, I could see it in her eyes, she was sad too.Sad as hell, devastated actually. At that moment I noticed she looked so tired and worn out, it was probably because she had been cleaning the house that night.She always cleans at night when Leah is asleep. Anyway when I heard the words cancer I basically shut down I didn't say a word more. All I knew is that people get cancer and die, thats all. I didn't want my baby sister to die.


After that day for weeks the house was quiet, mom was always nervous as hell, she barely slept and I would wake up in in the middle of the night and find her crying on the kitchen table with a cup of tea. Dad was basically trying to hide his pain, pretending everything was okay, even though everyday his baby girl looked sicker than the day before. Dad was also being extra nice to Leah. Every night he would bring her loads candy, he would take her to Toys 'R Us on Fridays and buy her everything she asked for, He would take her out for ice-cream or fast food every other night. A lot of times dad had to come home carrying Leah inside because she would fall asleep on him, or she simply had no energy, poor kid was always so tired and sick.One day Dad missed work at Modeling Agency and stayed with her all day because she asked him too. I guess he felt that he didn't have a lot of time with her so he was trying to make her last days happy ones. It was all very depressing to me though, mom and him acting that way.

Meanwhile, I was flunking all my goddamn classes. I' the last guy who can afford to flunk all his classes because I happen to go to a Catholic school and Dad would beast if I was to be kicked out. Usually, I do pretty good in school and all. I mean I'm not a complete bookworm, but I guess I do okay. But with all the worries I had about Leah I just could careless If I was passing or not. I mean, I showed up to every single class every single day, but I just didn't seem to concentrate. I would sit in class and my mind would just wander off, and it was like I wasn't even there. I would think about my poor little Leah, then suddenly I wouldn't try to do my Do Now because my baby sister was probably going to die so it didn't matter if I did the Do Now, or if I wrote down the homework, shit it didn't matter if I fucking shoot myself. A few times I would burst into tears in class and I had to put my head down or something so no one would see, I didn't want to attract any attention to myself. It wasn't because I didn't want to ruin my "handsome, layed-back, rich kid, Andy" view of me from my peers, because at that point I didn't care what they thought of me because my baby sister was going bald, so it didn't matter.

For those few horrible weeks, mom was taking about two weekly trips to the docter with Leah. Once she had to go to a clinic out of state and she had to stay there with Leah for about a week. So what happened was that me and Dad stayed home alone for that 1 depressing-ass week. You see, dad was always working, and when he wasn't he would be home he'd go out to god knows where. I guess he could take being in the house, it was really very depressing, I mean it. Anyway, he'd only come to sleep and use the bathroom, not even to eat or anything. Therefore I was always home alone depressed. I had no friends at that point point because I started acting all weird all the time and when they ask why, I wouldn't tell them what going with Leah and all. I mean, I didn't want anyone feeling bad for me or anything, so i kept it to myself. So everyday I had pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner, it was pathetic. I longed to have a real home-cooked dinner from mom. I prayed a whole lot that week, prayed for my little Leah, and prayed for everything to go back to normal. And it did, sort of.

When mom finally came back with Leah, I could see hope in her eyes. She looked the closest to happy I had seen for about two months. I was so relieved when I opened the door and saw her face, I knew that there had to be good news. And there was. They had put Leah on some type of treatment. It was suppose to control her leukemia and she would be just fine for 10 years, after that she would have another treatment and so on. We were all hoping and praying it worked. Mom said she Leah's hair would start to grow back and soon she would look as healthy as she did before. I was suddenly so happy.

That night I walked into Leah's room while she was sound asleep.She looked so peiceful, asleep. She reminded me of an angel. I guess she felt me in the room because she opened her eyes, looked at me and gave me that beautiful smile that I loved. "Andy!" she said, trying to whisper. I shhed at her and laid down next to her in her tiny little bed. I tapped her behind softly so she would fall asleep like mom did when she was a baby. "I missed you at the clinic a lot, Andy" she whispered. "I missed you too" I whispered back. At that moment I felt that everything would be okay, whatever happened, my little Leah would be fine, I felt it. We both fell sound asleep.

Poetry Interpretation

Poem:Do Not Stand At My Grave & Weep
Author: Mary Frye

In this poem the author is trying to provide some type of consolment to her loved ones so that on the day of her death they wont cry for her. In the poem she states "Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep". With this she means that she is not lying there underground on the grave,so why should people stand and weep for her if she is not there.She also states that she is the wind blowing, the gentle Autumn rain, and the soft starlight at night. She means to say that she is free and happy and that she should not be weeped for because she is not gone, she is here and she is happy.


If I could have done something for those who lost there loved ones in the Triangle Factory Fire, I would have them read this poem. This poem would have provided hope for some of the people when they were in grief. It would help them believe that even though their loved ones were not there with them physically they were there spiritually.In addition to that, it would remind them that their loved ones would no longer have to suffer with terrible working conditions at the Triangle Factory.



-YAZ

-Relate one of Hughes personal Experiences to one of his poems.

In the poem "Let America be America again" Hughes speaks about how America is suppose to be a free country and such great place to dream and accomplish, but how it really is not and how America was never "America" to him. This relates to him because this is the country where no man is better than any other but him as being a Negro was always discriminated by whites.


-YAZ <3

Poetry Responce to "Braver"

-I can infer that the speaker of the poem "Braver" is bored about her life. She is sick and tired of the same routine every single day

-The word that best describes how the poet is feeling is spiritless. This is so, because she mentions in the poem that she puts on the same boring outfit every single day followed by the line "I wish I were braver", meaning she desires to be more courageous and daring so maybe her life would be more arousing.

-The meaning of this poem is that it takes courage and bravery to make your life exciting.

-I do not connect with this poem because I do not choose to follow the same routine every day like the speaker, and I am not afraid to be different or to make a change.



-Yasmerlin Paulino

Poetry vs. Prose

The passage I read was about how in Birmingham, Alabama Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. and a group of other people, including children fought for colored peoples rights and freedom, and to end segregation. The participated in sit-ins in restaurants and marched. Police Officers reacted with violence. They would use fire hoses and release fierce dogs at the people. Many children were hurt as well. In fact most of the protestants were children and teens, unfortunately they would get severely hurt simply for standing up for what they believe in.

The poem I read "Ballad of Birmingham" is about child who wants to march for his/her freedom in the streets of Birmingham. The child asks his/her mother for permission and her mother does not allow her to do so. Instead the mother send the child to church thinking that there he/she would be safe unlike in the Freedom March. However they bombed the church and the mother was left heartbroken. As soon as she heard the explosion she rushed to find her child but could only find the child's shoe.

In my opinion, the poem was way more interesting to read than the passage. This is so because in the poem i can feel whats going on as if it were happening in my life. In the passage there are no emotions or feelings involved.


-Yasmerlin Paulino