Writing Sample 1
BLOG
An Empowered Woman is an Empowered Farmer
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All moms out there know caring for your children is a full time job! What happens when you have two kids and no food to feed them - no money to send them to school, no husband to help and a home in desperate need of repair over their heads? What happened for Gorreti was One Acre Fund. One Acre Fund empowered her to build the life her family deserved from a simple bag of fertilizer and seed.
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Gorreti joined One Acre Fund and was quickly convinced of its rewards. She says, “My harvest before joining One Acre Fund was 5kg of maize and 70 kg of beans, but I am able to harvest 100kgs of maize and 150kg of beans. I will never stop farming with One Acre Fund!”
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Gorreti has two sons, Jean d’Amour Ndayishimiye and Eric Iradukunda. She remarks, “When my husband was prisoner, I experienced hunger in my house, but One Acre Fund replaced him later and the hunger was completely eradicated. I no longer have the problem of hunger” After sale, Gorreti’s 2014 harvest left the family with 50kg of maize, which she has been using to make porridge for her kids. No longer do they go feeling hungry from lack of food. She is a prime example of how every mom is a hero in her own respect.
With the extra harvest Gorreti is able to repair her home, buy a goat, send her kids to school, and put food on the table. She is even able to provide solar light for her home, so her kids can do their homework into the night, and she can charge her phone to keep her thriving, farming business up and running.
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One Acre Fund has empowered Gorreti to be the mom every parent hopes they can be. She is an inspiration to every mom trying to provide the best lives for their kids and family.
Writing Sample 2
RESEARCH
Division of the Avant-Garde
In 1939 Clement Greenberg wrote Avant-Garde and Kitsch, where he attempted to analyze the cultural perception and effect of the art being produced during this time period. Greenberg concluded that while avant-garde artists produce work that evolves cultural norms, kitsch acts as a mechanism of social conformity that works against avant-garde’s intension of social advancement.
Art has a long history of serving a promotional purpose. The Greek’s used sculpture to emulate the perfect aesthetic of the human form; Roman rulers built monuments that displayed their wealth and power and Christianity continuously used art to display its scripture and create an emotional attachment with its followers. As Greenberg explains, in in the 1930s and 40s, kitsch art became popular, putting avant-garde on the backburners. Kitsch art is a mass-market art form that conforms to cultural norms. The art requires no thought, or deeper meaning – a painting of a cat simply means the painter and owner like cats. Kitsch art is an elementary way to display the message of conformity and submission without blatantly demanding the public uphold the proper cultural standards. Greenberg argues that during a period of communist takeover this type of subliminal advertising used by artists of the past, became popular because government agencies harnessed its power to hold control over societal ideas.
Avant-garde holds an entirely different power. According to Greenberg, Avant-garde holds the power to evolve culture and change ideas. It holds the power to spread a message of empowerment and cultural development. The power held within its untamed brush strokes would prove threatening to communist regimes, because there is no predicting an avant-garde’s artists next move, next painting or next message. The art form changes with the artist’s thoughts and ideas, rather than a culture’s norms. Greenberg states that avant-garde is the result of the “artist’s art” meaning that the artist does not create work for society, but instead creates work for himself and his fellow artist. This in turn allows him to find the truth in the art and the material, rather then conform to societies boundaries. This is where the difference between kitsch and avant-garde art lies. Avant-garde is revolutionary, while kitsch is safe and keeps to limits set by society.
Greenberg’s analysis of both art forms’ effect on society highlights an important change in world of art. As stated before, art has as long history of being used as a mechanism of advertising. In today’s world, what is advertising if it isn’t just kitsch art? For centuries, Coca Cola has been releasing ads full of happy, normal people drinking coke. Nike ads depict athletic men and woman wearing their products. Both of these advertisements are mass marketed pieces that answer to societies current wants and desires. They display society as they believe it should be, and convince people that their version of human behaviors is ideal. These are not just marketing strategies, but a use of kitsch art. In Avant-Garde and Kitsch, Greenberg documents and important division in art where advertising and “art,” become separate entities. Kitsch art continues to uphold the traditional values of art as a means of advertising, while avant-garde revolutionizes the art world to have an entirely new purpose. With the evolution of avant-garde, art no longer is used to mold cultural ideas into conformity, but evolve thinking into the future. Artist became unhindered by the needs of the viewer and instead focused on the art, the medium, and the truth they found in their strokes. Greenberg highlights a new era in art where its function branches into a new way of thinking that brings us into the 21st century.