comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable

I recently attended a poetry reading at Georgetown University by Bruce Smith & Tracy K. Smith. During the Q & A, I mentioned Audre Lorde's famous line, "Poetry is not a luxury," and asked Ms. Smith how she connects her poetry to the world, and how she sees the world through the lens of her poetry. In response, she quoted Lucille Clifton, who said "I write poetry to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable," and said that she wished poetry was mandatory. Ms. Smith later wrote me a very sweet inscription in one of her books.

A good life has many moments in the presence of poems. Thank you, Tracy K. Smith.

Farm Sanctuary Walk for Animals on Sept. 15, 2012

I'm participating in the Farm Sanctuary Walk for Animals on the National Mall on Sept. 15, 2012. Can you donate to the cause? Even $5 would be great. Thank you in advance!


Bonus: here's me at SASHA Farm in Manchester, MI with a month-old pygmy goat named Katie.

musing on the past year

Tomorrow I turn 31. This is not a very exciting birthday, as far as they go. I don't get any new rights or privileges and I'm not doing anything big to celebrate. (Going out for food with friends, yes, but nothing past that.)

My friend Sarah recently posted about the 30 things she intends to do before turning 30. I don't know if I have goals like that. Instead, here's a list of some of the things I've done between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012.

• participated in a community-supported agriculture farm share, and split the produce with neighbors
• attended vegetarian and vegan potlucks
• visited the Smithsonian Folklife festival
• went to a lot of museums: the Newseum, the Phillips Collection, the Hirshhorn, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of the American Indian, the Air & Space Museum (both on the mall & the extension by Dulles Airport), the Smithsonian American History Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Hillwood Estate & Museum, the Bonsai & Penjing Museum, the Museum of African Art, the Freer-Sackler Gallery, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• hosted family and dear friends: both of my parents,Vani, Nadia, my cousin Andrea, Molly C, Craig, Jennifer J, Debbie, Beth, my cousins David and Yehudit
• visited the National Zoo
• pro-choice escorting at Planned Parenthood
• participated in Restaurant Week in Washington, DC
• visited Boston for the first time
• attended book sales at local libraries
• saw Linda Pastan and Sarah Vowell at the National Book Festival
• attended the Crafty Bastards art fair in Adams-Morgan
• visited Poplar Farms animal sanctuary in Poolesville, MD
• participated in the open house at Alley Cat Allies to celebrate National Feral Cat Day
• edited three books (two non-fiction, one fiction)
• weekly yoga and pilates classes
• attended the neighborhood farmer's market
• saw some amazing poets: Phillip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa
• attended funerals and unveiling ceremonies for an uncle and aunt
• cat- and dog-sat for various fuzzy critters
• switched from a terrible doctor to a better doctor
• attended Handel's Messiah at the National Cathedral
• traveled to California and Michigan
• visited the embassies of Portugal and Estonia
• switched to strictly vegan food
• attended roller derby bouts
• visited lots of memorials: Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt; Arlington Cemetery; Jefferson; Lincoln
• got a massage
• saw "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" and "The Avengers"
• attended the Reason Rally
• saw Doug Aitken's "Song 1" at/ on the Hirshhorn
• attended concerts: nervous but excited, Ani DiFranco, Magnetic Fields & Devotchka, Girlyman, Great Lake Swimmers
• took lots of pictures

go hoyas!

I work at Georgetown University as a research assistant. I am a feminist and believe in reproductive choices on demand without apology. I'm proud of our university's president, who sent this email today to our campus community.

Please note: any comments that I consider irritating, obnoxious, rude, anti-woman, inflammatory, ignorant, or anything else worthy of my disapproval will be deleted. Consider yourself warned.

March 2, 2012


Dear Members of the Georgetown Community:

There is a legitimate question of public policy before our nation today. In the effort to address the problem of the nearly fifty million Americans who lack health insurance, our lawmakers enacted legislation that seeks to increase access to health care. In recent weeks, a question regarding the breadth of services that will be covered has focused significant public attention on the issue of contraceptive coverage. Many, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have offered important perspectives on this issue.

In recent days, a law student of Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, offered her testimony regarding the proposed regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services before a group of members of Congress. She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction. She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people. One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagreed with her position – including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels – responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.

In our vibrant and diverse society, there always are important differences that need to be debated, with strong and legitimate beliefs held on all sides of challenging issues. The greatest contribution of the American project is the recognition that together, we can rely on civil discourse to engage the tensions that characterize these difficult issues, and work towards resolutions that balance deeply held and different perspectives. We have learned through painful experience that we must respect one another and we acknowledge that the best way to confront our differences is through constructive public debate. At times, the exercise of one person’s freedom may conflict with another’s. As Americans, we accept that the only answer to our differences is further engagement.

In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: “Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.”

If we, instead, allow coarseness, anger – even hatred – to stand for civil discourse in America, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our Founders. The values that hold us together as a people require nothing less than eternal vigilance. This is our moment to stand for the values of civility in our engagement with one another.


Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia
President
Georgetown University

craving wisdom, he bites into memory

The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems
by Yusef Komunyakaa

Was he looking for St. Lucia's light
to touch his face those first days
in the official November snow & sleet
falling on the granite pose of Lincoln?

If he were searching for property lines
drawn in the blood, or for a hint
of resolve crisscrossing a border,
maybe he'd find clues in the taste of breadfruit.

I could see him stopped there squinting
in crooked light, the haze of Wall Street
touching clouds of double consciousness,
an eye etched into a sign borrowed from Egypt.

If he's looking for tips on basketball,
how to rise up & guard the hoop,
he may glean a few theories about war
but they aren't in The Star-Apple Kingdom.

If he wants to finally master himself,
searching for clues to govern seagulls
in salty air, he'll find henchmen busy with locks
& chains in a ghost schooner's nocturnal calm.

He's reading someone who won't speak
of milk & honey, but of looking ahead
beyond pillars of salt raised in a dream
where fat bulbs split open the earth.

The spine of the manifest was broken,
leaking deeds, songs & testaments.
Justice stood in the shoes of mercy,
& doubt was bandaged up & put to bed.

Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words,
their sweet, intoxicating flavor. Banana leaf
& animal, being & nonbeing. In fact,
craving wisdom, he bites into memory.

The President of the United States of America
thumbs the pages slowly, moving from reverie
to reverie, learning why one envies the octopus
for its ink, how a man's skin becomes the final page.

from a visit to DC's Eastern Market

Yes, it's true, I am:



By local-to-DC photographer Claude Taylor. I bought myself a medium-size framed copy of this and will feel inspired by it for years to come.

fun with food and science

I'm a big fan of eating my colors. There are a lot of fun ways to do this with seasonal produce and thinking about food is one of my favorite activities. Recently, I roasted some farmer's market purple cauliflower with olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. Below, check out the hot pink coloration that resulted! Very cool!

You're probably wondering about the color, by the way, which is not artificial. Purple cauliflower's color is caused by the presence of the antioxidant group anthocyanin, which can also be found in red cabbage and red wine. (cite)