Summary of WP #1

The place that I have chosen for my writing project is the Sun Angel Stadium, where the track is located.  Writing this paper I used a few of the different lenses that we created in class including Mark Twain’s “Two Views of the Mississippi”, Frank Vanclay’s “Place Matters”, and I also slightly used James Baldwin’s “Fifth Avenue Uptown.  Upon walking into the space for the first time I kind of get the feeling of dullness and boringness.  The first things that I see are the old concrete steps of the stadium and the oval shaped red track.  Neither of these things make me really want to go back to see it again.  What brings me back are the excitement of the races and events going on the track.  I see all the people cheering and for the runners and it just makes me want to come back.  In this paper I was trying to make the reader feel like there was something worthwhile to go and see and or do at the track.  Using the lenses I connected my experiences with the way that Mark Twain experienced being a river boat captain where his views of the river became very different after becoming more experienced or seasoned.  I tried to connect Vanclay in to this project because without the people in the space it is just boring and there is no need to call it a place or destination.  I also used James Baldwin by when Baldwin was explaining that even though segregation was no longer a law or rule, there seems to be segregation based solely upon the skills of the runners.