The Clouds/Las Nubes

Ms. Maillis, her 7th grade Spanish For Spanish Speakers (SSS) class and I have been reading Sandra Cisneros' The House On Mango Street/La Casa En Mango Street. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, author Sandra Cisneros will be presented with the Fuller Award for her lifetime contribution to literature by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (CLHOF), an increasing active force on the cultural scene. Congratulations! 

En "Darius Y Las Nubes”, a chapter in La Casa En Mango Street, Esperanza says: 

También hay poquitas mariposas, flores y casi todas las cosas que son bellas. A pesar de eso, hacemos lo mejor con lo que tenemos. (Translation: There are a few butterflies, flowers and almost all things that are beautiful. Nevertheless, we make the most with what we have.)

I say: 

In the sky, with the clouds, I am free. There are no worries. That’s because my problems are here on the ground with me. They’re heavy. They weigh me down. But, in the sky with the clouds, I’m weightless and free.

At other times, the sky is empty or the clouds are formless. They have no substance. That makes me appreciate what I have all around me. The natural beauty and the beautiful feelings that they bring.

Winter Wonderings As I Wander: The Who, What, Why's and More Of Lori's Landscape

What animal made that print in the snow?

What if it were a coyote? They've been seen everywhere in the neighborhood!
Why didn't someone pick up the empty cup now that they've spilled their coffee?
Why are they getting out of the car on the street side?
Where is that little kid's mother?!
Who put all of that garbage in the recycling bin?
Why don't people break down their boxes before they put them into recycling?
Who shoveled the sidewalk but didn't put down salt?
Who put down salt but didn't shovel? Now, I'm walking on icebergs!
Why didn't the snow removal team salt this last little bit right here and right there?!
Why do I even bother to come out in conditions like this?
Why don't I stop thinking and talking to myself and just get inside?!

Who else loves to wonder as they wander in a winter wonderland?

Black History Month 2021

It's Tuesday Newsday! It's also the second day of the second month which is doubly good for offering suggestions to supplement your Black History Month educational exploration. The resources below are intended for an adult audience, (though some books are YA titles). They are categorized into topics that represent important areas of study when understanding the multifaceted nature of black people's experiences. 

Happy Reading! 

Empathy

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 

 "Sympathy" (from which the above title was taken) Paul Laurence Dunbar

Diversity/Globalism

Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) was a black Puerto Rican activist, author, collector and historian who firmly believed that black people around the world had rich cultures and histories. He spent his life collecting artifacts to prove that. "For 95 years, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has preserved, protected, and fostered a greater understanding of the Black experience through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship."

Queer/Transaffirming

Troublemaker For Justice:  The Story Of Bayard Rustin, The Man Behind The March On Washington Jacqueline Houtman, Walter Naegle (Rustin's long-term partner), et. al.

Bayard Rustin was a major figure in the Civil Rights movement. He was arrested on a bus 13 years before Rosa Parks and he participated in integrated bus rides throughout the South 14 years before the Freedom Riders. He was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., teaching him the techniques and philosophy of Gandhian nonviolent direct action. He organized the March on Washington in 1963, one of the most impactful mobilizations in American history.

Despite these contributions, few Americans recognize his name, and he is absent from most history books, in large part because he was gay. This biography traces Rustin’s life, from his childhood and his first arrest in high school for sitting in the “whites only” section of a theater, through a lifetime of nonviolent activism.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Audre Lorde

In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

Intergenerational/Black Families

Roots:  The Saga Of An American Family Alex Haley 

Based on of the bestselling author's family history, Roots tells the story of Kunta Kinte—a young man taken from the Gambia when he was seventeen and sold as a slave—and seven generations of his descendants in the United States, where they live and how they survive through major historic events.

A made-for-TV miniseries premiered in 1977 starring Levar Burton as Kunta Kinte and the late Cicely Tyson as his mother, Binta. The History Channel released a remake of the classic in 2016. 

Black Women & Unapologetically Black 

Lifting As We Climb:  Black Women's Battle For The Ballot Box (2021 Coretta Scott King Honor book) Evette Dion

Women of color, especially African American women, were fighting for their right to vote and to be treated as full, equal citizens of the United States. Their battlefront wasn't just about gender. African American women had to deal with white abolitionist-suffragists who drew the line at sharing power with their black sisters. They had to overcome deep, exclusionary racial prejudices that were rife in the American suffrage movement. And they had to maintain their dignity--and safety--in a society that tried to keep them in its bottom ranks.

Lifting as We Climb is the empowering story of African American women who refused to accept all this. Women in black church groups, black female sororities, black women's improvement societies and social clubs. Women who formed their own black suffrage associations when white-dominated national suffrage groups rejected them. Women like Mary Church Terrell, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women and of the NAACP; or educator-activist Anna Julia Cooper who championed women getting the vote and a college education; or the crusading journalist Ida B. Wells, a leader in both the suffrage and anti-lynching movements.

When They Call You A Terrorist:  A Black Lives  Matter Memoir Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele 

Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free, Patrisse’s outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.

Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin.

Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country―and the world―that Black Lives Matter.

Hope. Hate. Heal.: Beyond Inauguration Day 2021

I saw the words "hope", "hate" and "heal" used to caption images of the 44th through the 46th presidents of the United States. I used it as the title of this blog because I believe it to be fitting in many ways. And, so I weigh in! 

Wednesday was a glorious day, not only here in America but around the world! The inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president, respectively, was a much-needed change. In an instant, I am sure we could almost feel a sense of hope that decency, direction, empathy, intelligence and plain old know-how, to say the least, would return to the highest office in our nation. But, let us not forget...

People elected 45! Those people include the ones who actually voted. It also includes the ones who silently sat during the campaign, after the election and during his (terror) reign. I can only imagine how awful the past four years were to Americans, especially black Americans, who were again subjected to the brutality and cruelty that they experienced physically and emotionally in the 1960s. And, so I must implore you! 

Please read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. In his "Letter From Birmingham Jail", you will find his response to racist white clergymen who refused to support all of God's children and who criticized his marches. Read it! I'll say it again: Read it! But, do not reinterpret it! 

Racism is alive and well in this country! It is not insidious. We see it everywhere! It is obvious, and it is intentional! The fact that we live in the United States Of America and we are currently saying "the first black ____, the first Indian-American _________, the first woman whatever" makes that clear!  Therefore, we cannot keep lying to the faces in our mirrors. And, so here's where I suggest you read some timeless books that have helped me along my journey! 

"Old school" books that will speak clearly about where this nation has been and why we still have so far to go include:

1. Black Power:  The Politics Of Liberation Stokely Carmichael

2. "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" Zora Neale Hurston

3.The Fire Next Time James Baldwin

4. The Souls Of Black Folks W.E.B. DuBois

5. Women, Race and Class Angela Davis

6. Why We Can't Wait Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Happy Reading! Happy Reflecting! Happy Renewal!