burn don't lie..

Oh GOD!
I spent three more hours in the darkroom last night -- AND I STILL DIDN'T GET IT RIGHT!
Keep in mind, this is all work on the same photo.
I also spent four hours in my beginning term's last Saturday lab working on the ONE print.
Arghmmmphlmpklllmph.

I DID, in fact, learn a new skill, however. Rockin'.
I learned how to burn.
Here's the story behind the photo...I went to a large protest in downtown Portland, OR (home). 500+ people-- we all marched together protesting the grand jury's decision not to indict the cop who killed #EricGarner, and also in support of the growing #blacklivesmatter movement. It was awsum.
Well, I only took my little $15 Vivitar, completely manual, film camera to shoot pics.
And, well, I'm a beginning photographer so I didn't expose my film very well, but I got this BAM! of a photo! A white woman holding a sign that read:
WHITE SILENCE IS VIOLENCE
Gawwwwds Yes.
Except that I just cannot get the words on her sign to burn-up.
Instructor Mike's words of the night.. "Burn don't lie."
In the two photos below you can see the myriad of prints I've tried to make. First using black and white light on the enlarger and then going to filters (colored light), and learning to burn. I expose the print on one filter/f-stop setting, and then use an entirely different one while I burn her sign.
Check it out. In the left-most print you can see one try where a small portion of the sign literally looks burned. And, well, it was.
Burn don't lie.