Learning In Lowell

The city of Lowell is known for its role in history because of people, events, and places that are a part of this great city. Lowell plays an important role in educating the people who are lucky enough to visit or live here. This city brings many different types of people with many different interests and helps to teach them or get them started on an educated journey. The University of Massachusetts Lowell invited Piper Kerman to speak at the college to its students and faculty. Jack Kerouac, a famous author, lived in Lowell and is recognized by the Kerouac festival every year. They city of Lowell is home to many textile mills and museums like the Boott-Cotton Museum and the American Textile Museum. All of these things educate the people that run into them and leave them wondering and wanting to learn more.

Piper Kerman visiting the University of Massachusetts Lowell was a very interesting experience for me. Going in to listen to her speak I had assumed that she would talk mostly about her book, Orange is the New Black, and it’s growing popularity as a show on Netflix. I had never seen the show or read the book up to this point, but many of my friends had and wanted to go see her speak so I tagged along. I was interested to learn what Orange is the New Black is all about. When Kerman started speaking I was confused that I had been wrong in my assumption of the topic of her speech. While she did talk about her book and the show most of her talk was about life in prisons.

Kerman discussed her belief and facts about modern day prisons. She believes that there are too many people in jail for non-violent crimes and that eighteen years old is too young to be considered a legal adult and people of this age should not be sent to jails with people who are older. She also brought up the huge racial gap in jails with white people being a minority. I had not expected to actually learn about stuff like this when going to listen to Kerman speak, but after listening to her I wanted to learn more.

I decided to learn more about Piper Kerman’s book and show to see how it related to what she had discussed at UMass Lowell. I originally thought that the book was just a fictional story about life in a prison, but I learned that it was actually a memoir about Kerman’s time in a prison for women. I soon began to research more about life in prisons and how the people are treated and found many articles that seemed to agree with Kerman. Had I not been in Lowell I would not have heard Piper Kerman speak. Kerman taught me about life in a prison and made me want to learn more and research information myself.

The city of Lowell holds a festival in honor of the famous writer Jack Kerouac, who had lived in Lowell. Lowell High School participated in the festival and had students write poetry that was inspired by Kerouac. They wrote poetry about their lives and to be honest most of it was pretty bad. One that was better than most of the rest written by a boy who had the crowd snap, stomp, or clap to a beat and he read his poem to the beat that was produced by the crowd. We decided not to stay for the whole reading because it was getting kind of painful to listen to and was quite boring, but I was still impressed that the kids got up and read their poems in front of everyone and let them into private aspects of their lives.

I did learn something from this experience though. I wanted to see if these high school students had reflected on their lives like Kerouac reflected on his own life. I decided to finish reading Kerouac’s story The Mexican Girl, which I had not finished reading and was not really planning on finishing (Sorry). But I finished it and I learned that Kerouac had reflected on sad aspects of his life, but he did not really show any emotions along with his reflections like the students had done in their poetry. He left a girl he said he really cared about and said that he knew that he would not see her again, but acted as if he was not affected at all. Kerouac then went on the talk about his time in Hollywood, completely forgetting about the girl, or least he was pretending that he was no longer thinking of her. Going to this event put on by Lowell made me want to learn more about Jack Kerouac and his writing styles and techniques.

Visiting the Boott-Cotton Museum made me want to visit the American Textile Museum to see if I could learn more about the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution as well as other technology of that time. Both museums in Lowell are there to inform the people who visit about the textile industry mainly during this time period. While walking through the American Textile Museum I saw how the textile industry has grown over the years. This museum filled in the some of the blanks that were created by the Boott-Cotton Museum. Not only did it show textiles that were made during the Industrial Revolution, but it showed other pieces that were in fashion at the time and other types of machinery used to create clothing. The American Textile Museum showed textiles from before, during, and after the Industrial Revolution and expanded more on outside of textiles in Lowell than the Boott-Cotton Museum did.

We did not have a tour guide going through the American Textile Museum like we did when we walked through the Boott-Cotton Museum so it was harder for us to learn in depth about the objects that were on display. But since we had recently been given a tour that gave us information about textiles I found it was easier to understand the exhibits than it would have been if we had not previously been to the other museum. Unlike the Boott-Cotton Museum the American Textile Museum showed both old fashioned and modern clothes side by side to help the patrons of the museum to understand how they have changed over time. Together these two museums in Lowell helped to get me better acquainted with Lowell’s history and help me understand the textile industry as a whole.

Together all of these events and places in Lowell enlightened me to many aspects of life I did not previously know about. Without Lowell I would have never looked into Orange is the New Black or probably have even heard of Jack Kerouac. I would never have learned how a writer like Kerouac could affect how students writes and portrays themselves to other students. Though I had previously been to the Boott-Cotton Museum, without moving to Lowell I most likely would not have ever visited the American Textile Museum and get a better understand of the textile industry over the years. The city of Lowell has educated me greatly over the past few months.