INSTRUCTIONS TO WORK ON THE VIDEO :

00:04

So here we are. I'm at home, as I'm sure many of you are, too. And we've all begun to understand how our relationship with ourselves, with each other and the spaces we exist in can deeply impact our sense of identity and purpose. So much has dramatically changed. There's a sense of distance now unlike ever before.

00:25

But what if I told you that you could find a way from your heart to your hand to reconnect again, and that through this practice and embracing this cause, I could help you to recalibrate your mind so that you could explore this new reality with joy, enthusiasm, imagination and hope? And all it would take is a simple pen. To get you there, let's go back to the beginning.

00:54

As a kid growing up in a council estate in Southeast London, I was an outsider. I'm the oldest of six kids, and all of my siblings look very English: blond hair, blue eyes, very cute. And then there was me: half Nigerian, brown, with an Afro. So what happens when you look different and you feel different, and in many ways, start to think differently from everyone and everything around you? How do you find your way out of a dark, racist, homophobic and very lonely place?

01:27

This is where the pen comes in. I started to draw. So as you can see, I've got this pen, and it knows where it's going. And I've learned very well how to follow it. And the first thing I did is I followed this line, and I drew myself out of a culture that was only telling me what I couldn't do. I trusted my pen, and it led me to Central Saint Martin's, a very fancy art school in London, where I graduated top of my year. However, I soon realized there wasn't a place for me in London, because whether you wish to believe it or not, England is still a country that is rooted and functions within the class system. And as a young, black, gay female artist from a working-class family, I didn't stand a chance.

02:15

So I left London and I moved to Japan, where I didn't experience people asking me where I was really from. I was just another gaijin, which, ironically, means "outsider." I was immersed in a culture that honors both making and craft, where people perfect their craft over generations. It's a culture that masters both time and space, so that artists can truly create with freedom. And what I discovered was a place I wasn't angry with. Tokyo hadn't wronged me in any way. I could no longer create with anger or out of pain. I had to bravely allow myself to create from a different place. And what I found is this incredible tool transcended a line on paper. I found this thing that connected my head to my heart and my hand to everything.

03:08

I could see the world in new ways. I found connections in corners and the solutions to problems I never knew existed. It's like the world with all its positive and negative spaces could now be seen. And just by seeing it, there was no longer any fear. It's like my pen was a flashlight, and the unknown was still there, but it wasn't scary.

03:31

After five years of living in Japan and focusing on my craft, I felt like I needed a new challenge. So I moved to New York, because that's what you do as an artist, right? You move to the greatest city in the world that has the ability to make you feel completely and utterly invisible. This is when I began to truly ask myself, "Who are you?" I would wake up in the morning, and before I began my day, I would meditate on this. And with this question in mind, I kept drawing. I followed the line. I let it lead the way. The process of picking up a pen, something everyone has access to, the act of giving myself permission to let go of all thoughts, all fears, insecurities -- anything that would get in the way of allowing myself to be completely me -- that became my way of experiencing freedom.

04:27

When I got to New York, I didn't want to play by the rules of the art world. I continued my practice as an outsider. I kept drawing. Curiosity became the ink for my pen, and I continued to dive deeper. Over time, I began to create a bold, confident space for myself, a space that was all my own. Initially, it was just my bedroom. But that bedroom ended up in "The New York Times," and suddenly, I was being seen and known for this world I had created. Since then, I've created and collaborated with some of the most unique artists, institutions and spaces, from the screens of Times Square, to the New York City Ballet for their incredible artist series, where I interviewed a number of dancers. Their stories and words became the foundation of over 30 drawings and artworks, which took over the promenade walls, windows and floors.

05:25

For a long time, I wanted to create a space for contemplation and poetry. And in 2019, I was given the opportunity to do just that by the Trust of Governor's Island. They provided me with the perfect canvas in the form of a former military chapel. Meet "The May Room." With drawings on the exterior inspired by the history of the island, you walk inside, you take your shoes off, and there's a drawing on the floor in the form of a maze that brings you back to you. It's an invitation to become calm. And this allows you to see phrases on the wall. "May you be wise." "May you sleep soundly at night." "May we save trees." "May you," "may you," "may we." And these phrases seem like they're rising from you or falling into you.

06:15

I've let my lines become much like a language, a language that has unfolded much like life. And when there has been silence, I've sought connection through conversation, asking questions to push through the discomfort. Drawing has taught me how to create my own rules. It has taught me to open my eyes to see not only what is, but what can be. And where there are broken systems, we can create new ones that actually function and benefit all, instead of just a select few.

06:46

Drawing has taught me how to fully engage with the world. And what I've come to realize through this language of lines is not the importance of being seen, but rather the gift of seeing that we give to others and how true freedom is the ability to see. And I don't mean that literally, because sight is only one way in which one can see. But what I mean is to experience the world in its entirety, maybe even more so during the most challenging moments like the one we face today.

07:17

I'm Shantell Martin. I draw. And I invite you to pick up a pen and see where it takes you.

Comprehension Questions

Questions: According to the video, are the following statements true or false? Explain why and give details.

1. The artist grew up in New York city, in an environment full of racism and homophobia.
2. The artist graduated from Central Saint Martin’s with the highest marks in her class.
3. According to the speaker, England has broken out of its traditional class-based system.
4. Gaijin is a Japanese word that means “stranger”.
5. Despite being labelled as an outsider in Japan, the artist was not angry at Japan’s culture and way of thinking.
6. The artist describes New York as the perfect place to be anonymous.
7. The artists interviewed people who danced for the New York City ballet.
8. In 2018, she received the opportunity to draw on the outside and insider of a former chapel.
9. The phrases on the wall of the chapel began with the modal verb “could”.

Comprehensions Answers

1. False. The artist grew up in Southeast London.
2. True. She graduated as the top of her year.
3. False. She believes that England is still a country that is rooted and functions within the class system.
4. False. It means “outsider”.
5. True. She states that this was a not a space that she was angry with, and that Tokyo hadn’t wronged her in any way.
6. True. She describes it as the greatest city in the world that has the ability to make a person feel invisible.
7. True. These interviews became the foundation of over 30 drawings and artworks.
8. False. It was in 2019.
9. False. They began with “may you” and “may we”.

 Shantell martin

For the 2019 NYCB Art Series, Shantell Martin created Finding Your Way, a meditation in lines.

Beginning with the simple yet profound question, WHO ARE YOU, Martin sought to build empathy between artist and subject, and to gain insight into the dancers’ relationship to their body, the Company, and the process of nurturing the vulnerability of self-expression. As an artist devoted to her own rules of engagement – lines and primarily monochromatic black and white imagery – Martin found relatability in the structure and tradition of dance, the rules of choreography, and the parameters of a ballet company. Inspired by dancer interviews, and drawn largely onsite during Company rehearsals, Martin’s lines changed with the energy of each piece, until “the dancers turned to lines and shapes, and faces began to disappear.”

As audiences entered the Theater, the Plaza windows and Box Office walls greeted them with visual contemplations on questions of identity. The concept of opposites was explored on the Orchestra level, while the Promenade contained 8 large framed pieces, 36 towering canvases, and a massive floor piece, reflecting the movements, thoughts, and feelings Martin observed in the dancers. The exhibit became a living conversation between the art being performed, its visual interpretation, and the audience’s experience in viewing both.

Shantell Martin is a British artist who's been living in NYC for nearly a decade. From her early beginnings with live performance drawings to sound, music and dance projected digitally in the mega clubs of Tokyo, to her trademark stream-of-consciousness physical drawings here in the U.S., her work is a mediation of lines that invites people to share a role in the creative process. Aside from her studio practice and numerous public installations, Shantell serves as an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and is a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab. Her work has been seen in group shows at the Brooklyn Museum and Museum of the Moving Image, in solo exhibitions at the Albright-Knox museum and MoCADA, and in a 75-minute performance with Kendrick Lamar in 2016 during Art Basel Miami.

Here are some colocation from the text. Colocation are words that go together by usage. They come in different shapes and form (that's also a colocation)

I) simple yet profound : two (usually opposite) adjectives that work together

II) rules of engagement : possessor and possessed

III) early beginnings : adjective plus a noun

A) Can you put these colocation in the correct category I, II or III ? (* doesn't fit exactly)

1 A perfect storm

2 sad but true

3 so close yet so far

4 beggar's choice

5 too little too late*

6 a baker's dozen

7 an aspiring star

B) And can you match the colocations with the definitions

a) the worst possible situation

b) insufficient effort

c) 13

d) refusing something you can't really afford to refuse

e) someone full of ambition

f) produced a lot of effort abut still failed

g) something shouldn't happen but everybody accepts it

I) 2,g 3,f 5,b

II) 4,d 6, c

III) 1,a 7,e

Traduire les phrases suivantes en anglais, issues du texte, puis retrouver ces phrases du texte en anglais:

1. Je suis l'ainée dans une famille de six enfants, et tous mes frêres et soeurs sont vraiment typés anglais, cheveux blonds, yeux bleus, tres mignon.

2. Et puis il y a moi: à moitié nigériane, brun avec une coupe afro

Unit 63 – Expressions + -ing (pages 126-127

Unit 63 – Expressions + -ing (pages 126-127

1. 63.1

   2. There’s no point in working if you don’t need money.

   3. There’s no point in trying to study if you feel tired.

   4. There’s no point in hurrying if you’ve got plenty of time.

   63.2

   2. asking David

   3. in going out

   4. phoning her/Lisa

   5. complaining (about what happened)

   6. keeping

   63.3

   2. remembering people’s names

   3. getting a job

   4. getting a ticket for a game

   5. understanding him

   63.4

   2. reading

   3. packing/getting ready

   4. watching

   5. going/climbing/walking

   6. getting/being

   63.5

   2. went swimming

   3. go skiing

   4. goes riding

   5. gone shopping

(please note that this definitions are according to the context)

rooted : has its origin (in)

transcended : go further, go beyond

utterly : synonymous of completely

bold : involving a risk

according to this speaker 1in 4 American has a tatoo.

Do you have a tatoo ? if yes why

if no would you want one ? why / why not?

You can book a one to one class with a teacher who will correct your writing exercise.  One to one classes can be online, with a video call, anytime of the day. 

This gives you full flexibility for your timetable.

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