"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." – Maya Angelou
Hopefully, you saw Danai Gurira dominate her role as Okoye in Marvel's Black Panther recently. Or maybe you know her as Michonne in The Walking Dead, even though I certainly don't because I'm not super into the zombie survival story. Her role in Black Panther was both electric and promising. Obviously, I'm a white woman, so I have... Continue Reading →
A stage is a place to question things, to take BIG concepts like death and masculinity and racism and make them entry points for educational purposes. I learned that last night when I got to attend Guante's re-release of his book of poems, lyrics, and essays at Icehouse last night. And for $15 a ticket,... Continue Reading →
The story of James McBride, a black man with a white mother, was recommended to me and my students by my colleague Chris who came in last year to do a book talk about a book he loved. I had never heard of the story, even though memoir is my favorite genre. How McBride knits together... Continue Reading →
As I write this, I'm about halfway through Whole 30 (detoxing and cleaning up the way I eat), and now I'm about to detox my house. If you haven't heard of Marie Kondo yet, she is becoming more and more famous as the world's best tidying consultant and expert on the Japanese art of decluttering... Continue Reading →
Any story about motherhood captures my attention pretty quickly. And this one has the perk of being set in Minneapolis. In it, a 26-year-old pregnant native woman named Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted by very white, liberal, vegan parents, faces a new wave of politics in the U.S. when evolution is being called into question and... Continue Reading →
The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone: what Tupac Shakur called THUG LIFE. Angie Thomas does a brilliant job intertwining the real-world issues of racism, police brutality, gang violence, poverty, and privilege in her novel for young adults. The book is no joke- more than 400 pages of a narrative that I've seen on... Continue Reading →
This book is actually an excellent place to start for many of my white friends who would have a hard time saying "Black Lives Matter" out loud, especially considering the current events of the Charlottesville terrorist attack and the "free speech" rallies. Dr. King inspired the title and content of Jodi Picoult's novel, Small Great Things.... Continue Reading →
For Christmas 2014, I asked for Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow. It is 300+ pages of dense notes exposing racial disparities in the United States' criminal justice system. Not exactly light reading or a cheerfully seasonal gift. But the text's importance is urgent, and I am slowly but surely working my way through all... Continue Reading →
This weekend, I finished reading a good book. This book can also be seen as a good poem, based on the way it is written. Good? As in, makes you think. Speaks truth. Halts your relative acceptance that the world could be better and forces you to engage in the conversation and the practicing of, in fact, making the... Continue Reading →
Alright. Where do I even begin with this one? I suppose I'll begin with my sister Lizzy, who is amazing by the way. I have been thinking of her a lot recently, realizing how much I took advantage of being her next door neighbor and sharing a bathroom with her for six years and... Continue Reading →
bekah noble 