BTBF Graphic Novel
Graphic Novel
BTBF reflection
Initially, I was going to continue my narrative about jollof rice and dive deeper into the idea of a changing recipe. However, the Munchies episode, “LA’s Oldest Japanese restaurant” expanded my thoughts regarding the creation and maintenance of food legacies. Before, I was examining food and identity from an inside perspective. I explained how I viewed jollof rice and the positive aspects of a changing recipe. However, the Munchies episode made me realize it’s important to examine food and identity from an outside perspective. On the outside looking in, cultural food often gains popularity after being “trendified”. The difference between how one views food they are attached to versus how others (without the same bias as them) view that food has become my most exciting idea. I am able to make observations regarding this difference in the individual blogs of our class. Many of the foods talked about in class do not have a direct meaning to me, but the stories connected to the food allow me to relate. After reading "Understanding 'ethnic' food trends" by Ann-Derrick Gaillot, I realized that when cultural foods trend their stories do not trend with them. Instead, their value is tied to how different they are and their monetary value. This then shapes how others with no affinity toward that specific cultural food view and talk about the food and the culture it comes from.
Moreover, the graphic novel format pushed me to be concise about my ideas.This resulted in me re-writing my sentences to have the best structure and word choice possible. Moreover, this format granted me the opportunity to use abstract techniques to convey my point. For example, I was able to use thought bubbles to convey what characters or even different food icons were thinking. As a result, I was able to directly illustrate the different perspectives and feelings connected to trending foods. Nevertheless, this format also restrained me in some aspects. Graphic novels place as much emphasis on visual aspects as they do on writing aspects. I chose to use a digital platform because I am more comfortable with digital art, but it was still hard to find a balance between visual and writing contributions.
Read "Understanding 'ethnic' food trends" by Ann-Derrick Gaillot here
All characters belong to Canva.com, as well as pictures with watermarks. The remaining pictures included in the graphic novel do not belong to me. They were all pulled from open-to-the public sources on the internet.
WOWWW!!! This was a great way to use the format of a graphic novel. It had all the components with also making a statement about making ethnic food trendy, forgetting about the rest of its culture. It was a really great story to tell. Its also amazing how you explain your thought process in choosing this story instead of continuing with your previous work and what you said makes a lot of sense. The only constructive feedback I would give is to fix literally one grammatical error but other than that I loved it. Good job Biscuit!- Jaleel Cardoso
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is amazing. The actual graphic novel pages themselves were perfect, I really like how you went into depth about the changes of cultural food because it becomes a “trend”. I also really like that you added where you got the ideas for your blog. This is perfect! - Gabby
ReplyDeleteThe message that you mention in your graphic novel is really important as people are being exposed to other cultures recently. You addressed an issue that is completely relevant, and I think the format of the graphic novel allowed you to tell that narrative in a clear, simple concise way. -Briana
ReplyDeleteBeautifully executed Bless!! You knocked this out of the park, the concept that you chose to cover in this assignment is very interesting relates to the "theme" (if you will) of the course. This is a topic that is not talked about as often as it should. As people of color we are shamed for our cultural foods until it becomes a trend and is later renamed and made "cool."
ReplyDelete- Isabella :)
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