Three years ago, my friend and I attended an Emerging Artist Lecture at the Phoenix Art Museum. The featured artist was Brooklyn-based contemporary artist, Arcmanoro Nile. Beyond the event invitation, neither of us knew anything about Nile, but we were excited to be out. Doing anything. We are both English teachers who had recently left …
Tag: freedom of expression
Rewritten (personal essay)
Writing, like nothing else, gives people a chance to examine personal history and rewrite the narrative. Literally. We call this “reframing” in the narrative therapy workshops I assist with. I credit author, Sandra Marinella, for introducing this potentially life-changing and scientifically supported writing technique to me. I have personally benefitted from this writing approach, and …
Deliberate Decisions
The decisions of a few have angered the masses The decisions of millions are altering the planet Life is a delicate balance - a series of individual choices With outcomes sometimes decided by others "With our equal rights and justice, it's unattainable, just like our future if we don't live sustainable. Money and privilege can …
The Giver by James Baldwin (audio poem)
James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924 in New York City’s Harlem. Baldwin had a difficult upbringing, which included an evangelical preacher stepfather who struggled financially and who demanded rigorous religious behavior from his nine children. Baldwin’s personal challenges are reflected in his writings, especially in Go Tell It on the Mountain. Baldwin was …
Let your Spirit take Flight! (dance)
Grounded, I know how to be. Feet planted for writing, teaching, listening, gardening, meditating, photographing, cooking and serving, bed-side tending, and for clothes and hearts that need mending. A responsible grown-up – you can count on me most of the time I am a focused woman moving through tasks but sometimes I must toss aside …
Living Poetry
playing poetry pebble tossed on a hopscotch square one step, two steps, skipping in rhyme get to the end, turn, then do it again reading poetry thank you, Dr. Seuss for writing lines that still delight and to you, Shel Silverstein for your tree that keeps giving loving poetry along the shore in Mexico, a …
“We Deserve to Dream” (dance inspiration)
It is a writer’s nature to think. They can create and save worlds with their thinking. Sometimes writers must save themselves from thinking it over and under and every other way their mind can bend. A story with no end. Always playing a game of mental ping-pong – bounce smack, bounce smack. The game goes …
My Inspired Life 