Good morning, all. I hope the big storm that has closed campus today has not affected you, your homes, or your loved ones in any major way. We had a big leak in our apartment but nothing a baking sheet and a garbage can couldn’t handle.

Anyway … today’s class continues where we left off Tuesday. That day, we introduced a reading practice (previewing) and a technology we’ll use to perform that practice (Hypothes.is). I asked you to broaden the evidence you’ll draw on to make your “Pick a Book” arguments in a few weeks by reading and annotating “The Cover of My Face” by Meredith Talusan. For Sept 9, you’ll read two other pieces, “La Otra” by Jaquira Diaz and “Quick Feet” by Kiese Laymon. These “group reads” give us a shared context to explain our individual arguments. More on this over the next few classes.

Campus is closed today due to the storm but we also have some scheduled days off coming up. There is no class due to holidays on Sept 7 and Sept 16. In campus-being-open news, though, our first in-person class meeting is scheduled for September 9, next Thursday, in NAC 5/108. Hopefully the city won’t experience a plague of locusts, a meteor strike, or a visit from the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man between then and now…

I look forward to hearing your reactions to Talusan, and to reading the blog posts you’ve included for today. You’ll respond to each other between now and the 9th.

If you’re not on our course site, please email me ([email protected]) from your Citymail account so I can invite you. If you’re not on Hypothes.is, please follow these instructions (https://web.hypothes.is/quick-start-guide-for-students/) and join our group (https://hypothes.is/groups/qwY42A5B/engl210-fall-2021).

As always, I’m around on Zoom before and after class, and on email whenever possible (replies within 24 hours, but faster at this time of semester). See you soon!