I Am America

- Activity: Speaking; Making questions; Reading

- Topic: Art
- Age group: Teens; Adults jamie
keddie
- Time: 60 minutes
- Material: Four images + two articles
- Language level: B1 +
- Language point: Question forms
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Materials and preparation

1. For this activity, you will need four images which can be found online:

i. Ridwan Adhamis portrait photograph

of Munira Ahmed (I Am America):

[https://goo.gl/0gKpCC]

ii.Shepard Faireys image of Munira

Ahmed:

[https://goo.gl/jpUwLz]

iii. Mannie Garcias 2006 photograph

of Barack Obama sitting beside George
Clooney:
[https://goo.gl/OHrmbH]

iv. Shepard Faireys image of Barack

Obama:
[https://goo.gl/HzXt9w]

Note: In this activity, students have to guess the title of the first image (Ridwan Adhamis
portrait of Munira Ahmed which is titled: I Am America). However, at the photographers
website, the title is clearly visible underneath the picture. Make sure that you can display
the image in class without letting students see its title.

2. You will also have to refer your students to the following articles:

The Guardian: [https://goo.gl/4WvC3P]

Mashable: [https://goo.gl/Un82ld]

About the activity

The 2017 Womens March was a worldwide protest that took place on 21st January 2017,
the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th US president. Shepard Faireys
poster was prominent at many of these marches and as a result, Munira Ahmeds face
quickly became an iconic symbol of resistance to the Trump administration.

Shepard Fairey created his image as part of a project titled We the People. The project
has been coordinated by the Amplifier Foundation, a group which describes itself as an

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art machine for social change. You can download free, high-resolution posters from their
website.

http://theamplifierfoundation.org/

The primary aim of this activity is to bring the image(s) of Munira Ahmed into the
classroom. Students construct questions about the woman, the artists, and the art, before
investigating the story online.

Please be aware that an image like this could provoke strong reactions in some parts of the
world. In such classrooms, it could be quite provocative or controversial. If you are in
doubt about using it, please speak with a more experienced member of teaching staff in
your school or institution.

Please also be aware that different people will construct their own personal opinions and
interpretations in response to the image. For example, some might feel that it depicts an
independent-minded young Muslim woman. Others may see the hijab as an overly-
simplistic representation of Islam. There is no single narrative on offer.

Activity outline
1. Tell students that you are going to show them a portrait photograph of a young woman
called Munira Ahmed. Tell students that they may have seen the photograph before.

2. Before you show the photograph, write the womans name on the board (Munira
Ahmed). Ask students to guess where she is from. Write suggestions on the board but do
not tell students whether they are right or wrong at this stage.

3. Show students the portrait by photographer Ridwan Adhami. Make sure that the title is
not visible. Ask students the following questions:

* Now that you can see the photograph, where do you think she is from?
* Have you seen this image before? Tell us more.
* When do you think the photograph was taken?
* Where do you think it was taken?
* What is she wearing? What do you call this? (Point to her hijab.)
* Can you guess the title of the portrait? What title would you give it?

Discuss students answers. Improvise a discussion by asking follow-up questions when

possible. Do not tell students whether or not they are correct at this stage.

4. Go over the answers:

* Where do you think she is from? This is a trick question. Munira Ahmed is from the
United States of America. She was born and raised in New York. However some people
might interpret the question as: What is her ethnicity? You can draw attention to the
difference between these two questions and point out that Muniras parents are
Bangladeshi and moved to New York in the seventies.
* When? The picture was taken in 2007.

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* Where? It was taken in New York City close to the site of the destroyed Twin Towers.
* What is she wearing? A hijab.
* Title: I am America.

5. On the board, write the following:

* Munira Ahmed
* George Clooney
* President Obama

Tell students that one of these people is the odd one out. In other words, one of them is
different to the others in some way. Ask students if they know who it is and why.

Note: If no one knows the answer, invite students to guess by asking you questions. Give a
limit to the number of questions that they ask (12, for example). Students should ask
closed questions only (questions to which the answer can only be yes or no). You can
provide students with clues such as: It has something to do with art. It has something to
do with an artist called Shepard Fairey.

Answer: George Clooney is the odd one out. Both Munira Ahmed and Barack Obama have
been the subjects of posters by New York artist Shepard Fairey. The images that Fairey
created were both based on photographs.

6. Show students Faireys images of Obama and Ahmed. Let students compare them with
the original photographs.

7. Make sure that students are now clear about who the following three people are:

* Munira Ahmed the young woman with the Stars and Stripes hijab
* Ridwan Adhami the photographer
* Shepard Fairey the artist that created the image based on the photograph

8. Give students the following task: Imagine that you could meet these three people. I
want you to think of two questions to ask each of them six questions in total.

9. Let students write their questions. They can do this in pairs. Meanwhile, you can provide
grammar support if necessary.

10. Ask students to get into groups to compare the questions that they have written. Write
some of the best ones on the board. You can also add some of your own. For example:

Questions for Munira Ahmed

* How do you feel about being the subject of these images?
* Where did you get the Stars and Stripes hijab?

Questions for Ridwan Adhami

* Why did you take the photograph and what did you do with it?
* Why did you choose to take the picture just after 9/11, close to the site of the
destroyed Twin Towers?
* What does the title (I Am America) mean?

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Questions for Shepard Fairey

* Why did you choose to use Ridwans photograph for the subject of your artwork?
* Did you make money from it?

11. Direct students to the articles mentioned in Materials and preparation (page 2) which
provide a lot of answers.

12. Ask students to get into groups to share their answers.

13. When you start to investigate the story or facts behind an image, you may start to see
it in a new light when you return to it. Put this idea to your students. Display the images of
Munira Ahmed once again and ask students if their attitudes or opinions to it have changed
at all as a result of this activity. If so, how?

Follow-up
The part of this activity that I like the most is the simple idea of showing people Ridwan
Adhamis photograph of Munira Ahmed and asking:

Where do you think she is from?

I have tried this a few times and it is interesting to note that USA is not always the
immediate answer. For me, this is a central issue of the lesson plan and one that can be
explored. For example, students could carry out a survey / make a video in which they ask
people this same question and report back with the different responses that they get.

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