Dear “Hermana Ann” by Maria Vazquez-Smith
Maria is taking a class with me based on The Book of Mev. One of the weekly themes was Direct Address, and Maria wrote the following and gave me permission to share it. Dear “Hermana…
Share the Wealth with Carolina and Christina: A Glimpse into Two Cubana-Americana’s Stories
Carolina Dominguez from Miami and Christina Arrom from Chicago, are Cubana-Americanas who were influenced by the stories of their parents, but especially their grandparents’ lives in Cuba. After Carolina served with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps…
Gita/Gandhi
Not agitated By grief nor hankering after pleasure, They livs free from lust and fear and anger. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, They are not elated by good fortune Nor depressed by bad. Such…
Darlene Submits a Serious Request
“Dear Dharma Teacher Show me how To yell mindfully” –from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris
What Can You Tell the School Kids?
Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War, introduction by Larry Heinemann Afgantsi (singular Afganets): Soviet veterans of the war Even as Ken Burns’ new documentary on the Vietnam War airs, U.S….
Imagining Dubya Writing Barack
I came across the following when browsing Ralph Nader’s book, Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015. Ralph is not holding his breath that Obama’s successor will be any different. After nearly…
Share the Wealth with Rhodi Celaj and Kestrel Smoot: Fernweh!
Fernweh (Noun) Wanderlust means the desire to travel. Fernweh elevates that urge to a need; The opposite of homesickness. I was once told that one of the most valuable things people can do in life…
1967
Today’s Email: “Thank you for signing up for the [New York Times] Vietnam ’67 newsletter. Over the course of the next year, we’ll examine the participation of the United States in the long war in…
Yiddish Writers/4
I looked at myself in the mirror. A skeleton stared back at me. Nothing but skin and bone. It was the image of myself after death. It was at that instant that the will to…
Not This Spotlight, Please!
Yet, one cannot but wonder whether incessant complaints about Bourdieu’s style and terminology are not a symptom of a deeper and different problem, since other “difficult” writers—Habermas, Foucault, or even Weber come to mind—do not…