528 research outputs found
Ben Crump and Racialized Professionalism
No full text(Excerpt)
Benjamin “Ben” Crump is the country’s most influential civil rights lawyer. His advocacy led to the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman. He has represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others, negotiating record-breaking settlements despite a body of civil rights precedent that is overwhelmingly pro-defendant. Crump is also a modern lawyer who uses press conferences and social media to advance his clients’ cause. To his clients, he is a lawyer, confidante, and friend. Yet, based on the way national media covers him, his significance isn’t always clear. When his work isn’t being erased, it’s downplayed. Articles that compare him to Thurgood Marshall spend an equal amount of time describing his attire.
At George Floyd’s funeral, the Reverend Al Sharpton referred to Crump as “black America’s attorney general, probably because we don’t feel like we have one.” Yet ever since, reporting on Crump omits the second part of Sharpton’s comment, diminishing Sharpton’s point about Crump’s role as public prosecutor on behalf of a community that the federal government arguably does not otherwise does not protect.
Before Ben Crump became the “go-to lawyer” for Black families seeking justice for the murders of their loved ones, before he became a press conference mainstay, he was a Florida-based personal injury lawyer. His national prominence is not the inevitable result of the traditional road to legal stardom, the sort that begins at an Ivy League law school, is followed by a judicial clerkship, and capped off by a coveted position in the Solicitor General’s office. Ben Crump is not that kind of lawyer. He is “a state-college-educated attorney with no establishment connections who has nevertheless become “one of the best-known lawyers in the United States.”
In a country that loves to mythologize rags-to-riches stories, Crump’s rise is fairy tale-worthy. As inspirational as he is to this author, Crump occupies a different place in the American consciousness than the likes of Neal Katyal and Paul Clement, lawyers just as famous but far less scrutinized for their professional choices. When the press reports on Crump, instead of expanding its understanding of what professionalism looks like, it catalogues Crump’s departures from the norm.
This Essay explores how Crump’s professional persona is racialized. It uses Leah Goodridge’s framing of legal professionalism as a racial construct to explore how Crump is unnecessarily othered. Following this Introduction, Part I describes Ben Crump’s professional trajectory, from personal injury lawyer to the lawyer who gets “the call” when a Black person is murdered by the police. Part II then describes how professionalism is constructed in such a way that undermines Crump’s importance. The Essay concludes by describing the consequences of othering and even erasing Ben Crump’s triumphs
Neverland:the unreal Michael Jackson stories
No full textWe follow a thoroughly unreliable narrator Lamar (a former member of the Memphis mafia who has now been employed by Michael Jackson) as he loses his wife, drinks drugged coffee and sleeps for years at a time, gets shot and dies - an event that only seems to incapacitate him in so far as he can no longer smoke his favourite brand of mini-cigars. His employer, meanwhile, takes part in the last great gold rush of 1898, tries to buy a unicorn from Ebay, starts fights in shopping malls with Uri Geller, forces Lisa Marie Presley to play with his lego and attacks a horse. it took three years to put together Neverland, a novel about "Michael Jackson and his loud mouth friend Uri”. Three years during which, Simon Crump said, Michael Jackson was "with me at home, at work and in my car. He shared my meals and even some of my dreams." Crump finished the book around 9pm BST on 25 June. The real Michael Jackson was dead less than four hours later
My Elvis Blackout and Neverland: Truth, Fiction and Celebrity in the Postmodernist Heterobiographical Composite Novel
No full textA PhD by publication comprising two of my books, My Elvis Blackout and Neverland, accompanied by a reflective and critical exegesis, which examines notions of truth, fiction and celebrity in the composite novel through a broadly analytical and practice-based methodology. The exegesis begins by exploring the links between the methodology of the fine artist and the new creative writer. It then demonstrates that My Elvis Blackout and Neverland represent an original contribution to knowledge in the way that they explore and develop literary form (the ‘composite’ novel), and, in their exploration of celebrity, myth-making and fictional hagiography, and that the two books function as performative critiques which probe the boundaries between fiction and the fabricated reality of celebrity culture. My exegesis analyses Linda Boldrini’s term ‘heterobiography’ (2012) with particular reference to Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy The Kid (1981), which as a bricolage relies upon the reader’s pre-conceived recognition of the historicity of its protagonist and continually tests the boundaries between fact and fiction. In this section of the exegesis, I propose that what sets My Elvis Blackout and Neverland apart from Billy The Kid is that whilst Ondaatje’s book certainly does exploit the confusions between fact, fiction, autobiography and history, it remains firmly set within the timeframe that its historical protagonist inhabits. My Elvis Blackout and Neverland remain grounded within their readers’ expectations of American settings contemporary to their nominative protagonists, but both books also feature dilations in both historical and geographical setting. Through analysis I have come to perceive ‘the celebrity persona’ as an identikit image assembled by thousands of witnesses. A photo fit photomontage tiered with impressions of subjective provenance, each layered transparency filtered through the fears and desires of fans and critics. Whereas other historiographic metafictions use historical figures as singular characters, My Elvis Blackout and Neverland can be seen to be utilising an ‘identikit’ concept to present their respective protagonists as manyheaded Hydras, or multiple probability ‘versions’ from parallel universes. By a conflation of terms, Hutcheon’s ‘historiographic metafiction’ (1988) and Boldrini’s ‘heterobiography’ (2012), My Elvis Blackout and Neverland are in fact historiobiographic metafictions. The exegesis concludes by establishing my own works’ live impact on the overarching celebrity metanarratives, and their inevitable organic status
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Session C6: Efficiency of a Vertically Oriented Bristle Pass for Upstream Moving European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) and River Lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) at an Experimental Crump Weir
No full textPresenting Author Bio: Jim Kerr undertook an integrated Masters in Oceanography at the University of Southampton between 2004 and 2008. After graduating he worked for a small marine environmental consultancy (Seastar Survey Ltd.) undertaking a range of work including EIAs for the oil and gas industry and acoustic noise pollution monitoring for offshore wind farm projects. He then switched to focus of freshwater aquatic ecology and is currently in the final stages of undertaking of a PhD focussing on fish passage and the behavioural response of fish to complex hydraulics.Abstract: Globally, populations of diadromous anguilliform fish, such as eel and lamprey, have experienced substantial declines, partly as a result of habitat fragmentation caused by river infrastructure. In the UK, a new configuration of bristle pass (sidemounted and vertically oriented) has been developed to help upstream moving European eel (Anguilla anguilla) negotiate low-head structural barriers such as gauging weirs. However, the efficiency of this type of anguilliform pass remains untested, despite regional implementation and recommendation of nationwide deployment in England and Wales. This study investigated the behaviour of European eel and river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) as they attempted to pass an unmodified (control), or modified (treatment - with bristle passes installed) Crump weir, under experimental conditions. The experiment was repeated under three hydraulic regimes (low, medium and high velocity) that represent a range of conditions frequently encountered at Crump weirs in the field. Passage and delay were quantified and the influence of hydraulic regime and treatment assessed. Both species were highly motivated to explore their surroundings and move upstream during the trials. Bristle passes helped European eel and river lamprey pass the Crump weir, although interspecific variation in efficiency was evident. Passage metrics and behavioral reasons for interspecific differences are presented and discussed, as is the need for further research on design optimisation
My Sister in This House Production Photo
No full textProvidence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film
Angell Blackfriars Theatre
My Sister in This House by Wendy Kesselman
February 17-19 & 24-26, 2006
Director, Mary G. Farrell
Costume Design, David Costa-Cabral
Lighting Design, Katherine Abernathy
Properties, Heather Crump
Scenic Design, Dan Bilodeau
Sound Design, Chris Warren
Cast: Caitlin Elizabeth Doyle - Christine; Jill Palmer - Lea; Katie Hughes - Madame Danzard; Lisa D\u27Alessandro - Isabelle (her daughter); Todd Page - Voice of Photographer; Jeff Dujardin - Voice of Medical Examiner; Alisa D\u27Amore, Todd Page, Shane Quinn, Lisa Sacchetti - Voices; Kaitlin Costello - Videographer
Photography by Adrienne Johnson \u2705https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sister_photos/1029/thumbnail.jp
My Sister in This House Production Photo
No full textProvidence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film
Angell Blackfriars Theatre
My Sister in This House by Wendy Kesselman
February 17-19 & 24-26, 2006
Director, Mary G. Farrell
Costume Design, David Costa-Cabral
Lighting Design, Katherine Abernathy
Properties, Heather Crump
Scenic Design, Dan Bilodeau
Sound Design, Chris Warren
Cast: Caitlin Elizabeth Doyle - Christine; Jill Palmer - Lea; Katie Hughes - Madame Danzard; Lisa D\u27Alessandro - Isabelle (her daughter); Todd Page - Voice of Photographer; Jeff Dujardin - Voice of Medical Examiner; Alisa D\u27Amore, Todd Page, Shane Quinn, Lisa Sacchetti - Voices; Kaitlin Costello - Videographer
Photography by Randall Photographyhttps://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sister_photos/1039/thumbnail.jp
My Sister in This House Production Photo
No full textProvidence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film
Angell Blackfriars Theatre
My Sister in This House by Wendy Kesselman
February 17-19 & 24-26, 2006
Director, Mary G. Farrell
Costume Design, David Costa-Cabral
Lighting Design, Katherine Abernathy
Properties, Heather Crump
Scenic Design, Dan Bilodeau
Sound Design, Chris Warren
Cast: Caitlin Elizabeth Doyle - Christine; Jill Palmer - Lea; Katie Hughes - Madame Danzard; Lisa D\u27Alessandro - Isabelle (her daughter); Todd Page - Voice of Photographer; Jeff Dujardin - Voice of Medical Examiner; Alisa D\u27Amore, Todd Page, Shane Quinn, Lisa Sacchetti - Voices; Kaitlin Costello - Videographer
Photography by Randall Photographyhttps://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sister_photos/1053/thumbnail.jp
My Sister in This House Production Photo
No full textProvidence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film
Angell Blackfriars Theatre
My Sister in This House by Wendy Kesselman
February 17-19 & 24-26, 2006
Director, Mary G. Farrell
Costume Design, David Costa-Cabral
Lighting Design, Katherine Abernathy
Properties, Heather Crump
Scenic Design, Dan Bilodeau
Sound Design, Chris Warren
Cast: Caitlin Elizabeth Doyle - Christine; Jill Palmer - Lea; Katie Hughes - Madame Danzard; Lisa D\u27Alessandro - Isabelle (her daughter); Todd Page - Voice of Photographer; Jeff Dujardin - Voice of Medical Examiner; Alisa D\u27Amore, Todd Page, Shane Quinn, Lisa Sacchetti - Voices; Kaitlin Costello - Videographer
Photography by Randall Photographyhttps://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sister_photos/1111/thumbnail.jp
My Sister in This House Production Photo
No full textProvidence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film
Angell Blackfriars Theatre
My Sister in This House by Wendy Kesselman
February 17-19 & 24-26, 2006
Director, Mary G. Farrell
Costume Design, David Costa-Cabral
Lighting Design, Katherine Abernathy
Properties, Heather Crump
Scenic Design, Dan Bilodeau
Sound Design, Chris Warren
Cast: Caitlin Elizabeth Doyle - Christine; Jill Palmer - Lea; Katie Hughes - Madame Danzard; Lisa D\u27Alessandro - Isabelle (her daughter); Todd Page - Voice of Photographer; Jeff Dujardin - Voice of Medical Examiner; Alisa D\u27Amore, Todd Page, Shane Quinn, Lisa Sacchetti - Voices; Kaitlin Costello - Videographer
Photography by Randall Photographyhttps://digitalcommons.providence.edu/sister_photos/1067/thumbnail.jp
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