The United States is not utopia. Some Walgreens ads have gently reminded us of this fact. The platform of every major and minor political party in the United States has a different vision of what utopia would be and how to achieve it. My husband and I recently took a trip to New York, where… Continue reading Improving Our Non-Utopia
Category: Uncategorized
Stephen Schwartz at My Wedding
Stephen Schwartz did not attend my wedding, but he was present in music. With my groom and I, my wedding guests and participants sang "Day by Day" from Schwartz's musical Godspell as one of the two congregational songs at the ceremony. I first heard the song because my mother sang it when I was a… Continue reading Stephen Schwartz at My Wedding
I Was Miles Behind
I thought Miles Davis died before hashtags. I looked up #socialmusic because it was printed on the back of Davis' jacket at the conclusion of the movie Miles Ahead. On Facebook, I found pictures of people partying at bars and encountered jazz pianist Jon Batiste, but most Twitter search results referenced this film. I had suspended… Continue reading I Was Miles Behind
For Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was the only book I was assigned to read twice: once in middle school for Reading/Writing Workshop and once in high school for Honors English. She was the first Alabama-born heroine who was introduced to me at school. My first encounter with her was alongside Anne Frank and… Continue reading For Harper
A Poem for MLK Day 2016
...my inner voice chanted, "Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go."
Listening to Sufjan’s Gift
As an only child on road trips, the back seat of the car was my domain of reading books and looking at billboards. I remember having a colorful box set of Disney short stories on cassette, and my parents tell of stuffed animals I don't remember throwing out the window. For the first time since… Continue reading Listening to Sufjan’s Gift
Thirty Years in Cuban Music
Berklee College of Music in Boston treats with seriousness and depth music I am passionate about. I spent my undergraduate career immersed in the poetry of Nicolas Guillen and emerged with an original song cycle, an honors paper featuring Cuban composers, and two class presentations based on his work. When I graduated, I abandoned my… Continue reading Thirty Years in Cuban Music
Facing Emmett
In my junior year at Vanderbilt University, I took the course, The U.S. in Latin American Literature. It challenged my classmates and me to grasp the Latin American perspective on 20th-century U.S. military and political involvement in Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere through investigating U.S. political documents in English and analyzing short stories, essays, and poems in… Continue reading Facing Emmett
Fiddler Across the Decades
Every song in this musical was familiar to me except Perchik and Hodel's "Now I Have Everything."
Good (Coffee) Globalization
...She expounded on overcoming stereotypes for the sake of five million people in a developing country.
Ars Arvole 