The signs are everywhere. Along with so many other institutions, schools – and all those who work in them and for them – are in great distress. Just look at the teacher responses to this tweet from yesterday One thing you wished that people understood about being a teacher in 2020 below… — Nicole Biscotti, M. Ed. 🍎❤️ (@BiscottiNicole) December…
As previously reported in Shakespeare has had enough, a random assortment of Shakespeare’s characters – disturbed and distressed by political leadership – got together to prepare for an intervention. I invited them over, which was probably a bit of a mistake as they were all eager to participate and the logistics of social distancing were a bit of a challenge.…
It’s that time of the month – #6degrees again. Read about it here and join in. Play the animation and the book chain will appear! Our start point is Judy Blume. Her Are you there God? It’s Me Margaret (1970) was a bit of a sensation in the children’s lit world because it shockingly dared to mention the unmentionable (menstruation!…
Disturbed and distressed by political leadership, a random assortment of Shakespeare’s characters got together to prepare for an intervention. And then they confronted the villain himself and gave him the what for. We’ll have to wait for the next act to see what happened next.
What is this Poetic form called Shadorma? Invention So some say. Spanish it is Alleged. Not so fast. Shadorma? Dictionary says Nothing, nowt, Not a thing. It’s a clever little hoax Useful, none the less. Shadorma? Spanish? That’s a laugh. Tish and tosh Internet Myth. But face it, they are fun To write, so there’s that. What I think Is…
As of last week, the only thing I knew about Agnes Smedley was that The Feminist Press had reissued her most famous book and that the poet Robert Lowell had objected that she – a known communist sympathizer – was allowed to stay at Yaddo – the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs. Getting to know her a little better has…
This is a shout-out to all the farmers, staff, and administration at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project (PFP). Thank you for all the great produce this year and for making the weekly pick-up of veggies the highlight of the hunkered week!. COVID-19 be damned. Veggies A to Z: A Shadorma Chain for the PFP Acorn squash and baby bok choy, cilantro…
Because I wrote a piece about starting a school I began thinking about school missions. Mostly about how alike they are and how so often completely hollow when you take a look at what really drives the school in question. And then I thought back to all the hours over the years that I have sat with earnest, caring, dedicated…
The November #6degrees is freestyle. Instead of everyone starting in the same place with the same book, each participant starts with the last book on a previous chain or – if a newcomer – with the last book they read. #6degrees is the book version of Six Degrees of Separation. It usually starts with a book suggested by Kate at…
Looks like having government officials who are Ignorant and Stupid is nothing new. Chinese poet Su Tung-Po nailed it centuries ago. I was browsing through the International Times for 1969 – the way one does. And there – amid the fevered, underground, counter-cultural world of macrobiotics, head shop ads, rock and roll, anarchy, activism, and psychedelia as seen from North…
November Show’s over, folks. And didn’t October do A bang-up job? Crisp breezes, full-throated cries Of migrating geese, low-floating coral moon. Nothing left but fool’s gold in the trees. Did I love it enough, the full-throttle foliage, While it lasted? Was I dazzled? The bees Have up and quit their last-ditch flights of forage And gone to shiver in their…
A musical backdrop to Unreal City: the London of the Lonely Londoners When the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in June 1948 there were a good number of musicians on board. We know that Jamaican musician Delroy Stephens was there because he organized a fundraising concert to pay for the fare for one of the stowaways -Evelyn Wauchope from Jamaica.…
I was pleased to be invited to contribute something to Trevor Day School’s 90th Anniversary magazine. This is what I wrote, with the addition of some photos from back in the day. How the High School Began At the opening faculty meeting in September 1990, Head of School Jack Dexter announced the theme for the academic year: Change. A year…
This is not really a book review, although I did re-read, and enjoy The Lonely Londoners as part of the #1956club. It is rather an excuse to pull out some quotations, share some research and images, and post a quite remarkable documentary. Along the way my journey took me deep into the North Kensington of the novel – a part…