User:Antithesis

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Welcome to My User Page!! My Grandmother and I, circa 1986

Image:Old School.jpg

My name is Anthony Greene, and I am a student in the History and Education program. Ultimately, I intend on graduating from Teachers College with an Ed.D. I am in my second semester of course work.

Contents

[edit] Background

I was born in Staten Island, NY and lived there until my family and I moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania where I was raised from the age of seven until I left for college at 18.

In 2004 I graduated from Fordham University, Rose Hill Campus, where I majored in History and minored in African-American Studies. I also participated in the Debate Society and was a member of the Fordham University men's rugby club.

After graduation I backpacked across Europe for a 5 weeks, going from London to Prague and back.

Upon returning I began a career in teaching through the New York City Teaching Fellows program. I taught history and special education courses at the James Monroe Academy for Visual Art and Design in the Bronx River section of The Bronx. At the conclusion of that program I earned a Masters' Degree in Secondary Education at Mercy College.

After final year in the classroom I was hired as the Education Coordinator for The Bronx County Historical Society where I am still employed. This job has been a drastic change from working in the classroom alone. I am responsible for running the adminstration of the Education and Development Departments as well as doing original research, publishing articles, writing educational books, facilitating workshops, and working with students of all ages. It is truly a wonderful job.

[edit] Scholarly Interests

I'm very interested in the American Civil War and have been since I was very young. My current interests are centered around The Bronx, and the stain of urban plight that has been attached to it. I am eager to study what happened in the school environment during the 1940s through the 1970s to trace what social indicators might have been present to trigger the rapid population decline and residential destruction that took place during the 1970s and 1980s, thus branding The Bronx as a burned and charred place.

I'm very interested in the creation of the genre of hip-hop, especially since it was born in The Bronx. I grew up listening to it, and had a much different experience than contemporary hip-hoppers. Rap was not on the mainstream radio, and was rarely sold in stores where I grew up. We had to order tapes through magazines, and watch Yo!MTV Raps one night out of the week to catch up with it. Now that its become big-business like Con Ed (Talib Kweli), there has been a fundamental change in lyrics, marketing, and accessibility. Also, many artists in the late 80s and early 90s were highly educated and often rhymed about social issues, problems with formal education, and were very Afro-Centric. This has almost disappeared from the cultural landscape. Fortunately there are a few places were grown up hip hoppers can get some good info, post blogs, and have some decent intellectual discourse. [1] [www.allhiphop.com]

Ultimately, here are some questions I would like to answer through my work:

  • How did the Urban plight of the 1960s and 1970s Bronx influence the formation of hip-hop?
  • What was the influence of early Jazz, R&B, and Rock N Roll on The Bronx's black community?
  • What caused the genre of hip-hop to change during the mid 90s?
    • What social circumstances led it to tip to a "mainstream" audience?
  • How does today's hip-hop artists compare to blackface minstrel shows of the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

[edit] Of Interest

There is a great oral history project going on at Fordham University and The Bronx County Historical Society. I was a research assistant on this project in 2003 and I am very excited where the project has gone since. Most importantly, this is a great example of a University/Cultural Institution/Community based project. http://www.fordham.edu/baahp/project.html

I'm a big-time art junky! Whenever I travel I do my best to visit the local art museum. I was recently in Chicago and caught the Edward Hopper exhibit for the third time in the last four years. I caught it in London at the Tate-Modern (http://tate.org.uk/) in 2004, then at MOMA (http://MOMA.org), and most recently at the Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/.

I try to appreciate all art, but I'm very fond of the greats of the late 19th century and the surrealists of the 20th century. Hopper is my favorite American painter, but I enjoy Dali, Picasso, and Warhol.

[edit] Project

My work and research this semester! [[2]]

[edit] Local History References

Local history is vital to contextualize the formalized, historical school experience. It is especially important to students who are being introduced to national or international history. It is very easy to talk about the Constitution, the men who wrote it, and leave out a particular locality's connection to the document. For instance, for Bronx teachers who are teaching the Revolution and the Constitution there are many connections. There were dozens of skirmishes that took place in lower Westchester County (today's Bronx), including a very important battle in October, 1776, where the colonials, outnumbered almost 2:1, helped cover Washington's retreat from upper Manhattan to White Plains by bogging Admiral Howe's men down along the swamps of the east Bronx. (See David McCullough's 1776). For the Constitution, men like Gouverneur Morris played a crucial role in formulating the debate of representation and slavery that would result in our current bi-cameral representation system. In fact, Morris (a Bronxite) was the penman of the Constitution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris. These two tidbits are merely a sampling of what is available around New York, and the country, pertaining to local history and its importance.

There are 22 public historic houses in New York City. Here's a link to search through these sites and their resources:

[edit] Research Reference Sources

Here are some sites that I refer to while conducting research.

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