It’s an egregious error to consider reading passive; at its best, it is a full body and brain experience... The visions and the word whirl generated primes the next creative act: writing.
Question, Set, Go! Writing Prompts and Questioning in Writing Nonfiction
Even rhetorical questions beg answers. And the answer, an answer is your piece.
Book Review ~ Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream
Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream by Christina M. Greer My Goodreads rating: 3/5 stars (Wishing Goodreads had a half-star: 3.5 is more just than my lukewarm rating!) The distinctions between Black people in the United States is a subject generally ignored both by scholars and in the polity at …
Book Review ~ American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau by Bill McKibben (Editor) My Goodreads rating: 4/5 stars This is a book-lover's book, the kind that's as pleasurable to hold and merely flip through the delicate, neatly formatted pages as it is to read. I picked up the heavy, 1,000-plus-page tome in preparation for teaching a community college …
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The Letters After My Name, Part I
The Letters After My Name, Part IDegrees & HonorsFeb 1, 2009&EssayMarch 8, 2012 Ten years and ten days ago, I received the letters after my name in writing. The document with the embossed seal is scanned above. I was already in La Antigua Guatemala, still freshly arrived and only a month into teaching tercero primaria. …
Book Review ~ Women, Race, and Class
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis My Goodreads rating: 4/5 stars Inspired by a student in my NYC history class last semester, who chose Angela Davis for her research project, I'm so glad I finally read this! If you're asking how Angela Davis relates directly to NYC, the project asks students to answer …
Weekly Wins: A Queer-All
At least three victories and triumphs of (not exactly) the previous week or so. Paramount or minuscule, a win’s a win! This summer, I resumed my concerted effort to find queer company. After attending one event to downright dismay, I took a different tack: I posted an open invitation to join me at the Brooklyn …
Weekly Wins: New-Old
At least three victories and triumphs of (not exactly) the previous week or so. Paramount or minuscule, a win’s a win! Мама's office is moving and purging as they pack. Have I mentioned that new-old is my favorite? I do believe so. Not only did I replenish my stock of pens, markers, binder clips, and …
Weekly Wins:* “Cheer up, the worst is yet to come!”** Part I
At least three victories and triumphs of the previous week or so. Paramount or minuscule, a win’s a win! According to мама, my great-aunt Эвочка ~ a remarkable woman whose glossy greeting cards from the dreamland Америка brightened my childhood ~ would tidy her apartment daily before going to work. Hence, she would never return …
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Weekly Wins: Building Bedding
At least three victories and triumphs of the previous week or so. Paramount or minuscule, a win’s a win! The previously mentioned bed upgrade threw me for a loop. I had deemed my sleeping situation unacceptable upon returning home from the hospital. To goad myself into action, I retired my mattress, once babushka's, and switched …