Sitcoms, Slow Jamz & The White Cube

BOOK DESIGN

The Standard English Test Booklet (SET) was a collaborative project with fellow RISD student Oge Mora. Drawing inspiration Vershawn Ashanti Young’s book, Other People’s English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy, our test brings the African-American Vernacular into the standardized testing space and challenges its singular authoritarian voice. In this exploration, we explored the concept of code-switching and code-meshing, the ability to blend different languages from private and public spaces. In our design of the SET, we expanded the notions of what qualifies as English and questioned the existence of a “standard.” Inspired by standardized testing, we wanted to address how your knowledge of "Standard English" often determines your success on tests such as the SAT not necessarily your aptitude.