Month: February 2020

Oscar Joy

Writing

There were a lot of nice moments at the Oscars last night, but one of my favorites was when producer Karen Toliver talked about her animated movie, Hair Love, and how important it is for children to see themselves represented, especially in cartoons, which is for many, the first time they get a sense of what kids should look like.

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Reading India

Fiction

I first traveled to India nearly twenty years ago. Like a traveler arriving in the United States for the first time, one is conscious of what there isn’t time to see. Imagine claiming to have ‘seen’ America with a stop in New York, a visit to Boston, maybe Miami and San Francisco. What about the deep South, or the Badlands, the New England coast, the west coast. The list goes on. That’s how I feel about India.

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Off limits words?

Fiction, Writing

Recently one of my fellow MissDemeanors mentioned that her family doesn’t like the word chortle. I’ll admit that this made me chortle. After all, it’s a word about laughter. Or is it? Perhaps there’s been a bad moment of exultant singing / chanting that simply should not be repeated.

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Reading for Black History Month

Fiction

This weekend, happenstance led me to my dog eared copy of Chinua Achebe’s amazing book Things Fall Apart. It was an old friend, the story of Okonkwo’s exile from his tribe, and the shattering changes that come to him and his family with the arrival of European Imperialism. 

February is Black History month and after revisiting Okonkwo’s story I wanted more ‘local’ voices. 

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Food and memory

Uncategorized

Proust immortalized the madeleine cookie in his seven volume In Search of Lost Time (A la recherché de temps perdu). Eating this simple French dessert he relived the memories of his childhood through his senses: tasting, smelling, touching and seeing this treat in both the past and the present.

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