El Salto published this piece of mine today (11-1-2020): https://www.elsaltodiario.com/estados-unidos/ilusion-y-desilusion-en-la-etapa-pre-electoral-de-los-estados-unidos Here are some photos that illustrate the article’s theme ..read more

If you read Spanish and are interested in monuments and their symbolism, you might like this piece, published on July 6, 2020, by Revista Contexto (CTXT) in Spain ..read more

Good afternoon. I am writing this short post in sadness and solidarity, and with regard and resolve. Jesmyn Ward’s 2017 edited collection of essays, The Fire This Time. A New Generation Speaks About Race, is dedicated to Trayvon Martin and includes pieces by Ward, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young, among many others.  It is no accident that many of the authors who contribute essays “say their names”—the names of black people killed by white people, and in too many cases, by white police officers in the United States.  ..read more

(Photos from 2017 Women’s March, Washington, DC. E. Mayock.) After the #MeToo (begun by Tarana Burke in 2006) watershed in 2017, here we are.  Another pussy-grabbing moment.  Remember when, in January, 2017, at least five million (five MILLION) people across the globe donned pussy hats and protested the supposed election of a supposed president, whom we knew would mortgage United States democracy and encourage rupture and violence?  Do you remember that they wore PUSSY hats?  Do you care?  Are you so fed up with the swamp-filling, pussy-grabbing, immigrant-hating, Afr ..read more

The older I get, the more I need poetry.  I need to read, hear, teach, write, and evangelize about it.  I don’t know if it’s my age, or the years of teaching, or these more than just trying times.  I’m not sure what makes me turn increasingly to volumes of poetry I read years ago and others that are brand new. I don’t know why I’m experiencing verse in a more physical, visceral, emotional way than I used to.  It’s a little bit like a drug at this point, and I need my fix. Enter Lesley Wheeler’s latest poetry collection, The State She’s In.  Wheeler is a friend and colleague.  We are close to ..read more

(The forsythia turned green early.) Life in the era of Coronavirus in southwest Virginia is both beautiful and scary.  The dogwoods are in full bloom.  The forsythia springs forth, first sunburst yellow, now Saint Patrick’s green.  The sun is shining, and the wind is blowing.  Our cupboards sparkle for the first time in years, devoid of long-expired spices. The trash collectors want everyone to get the hell out of the house so they don’t have to handle years’ worth of household detritus. I’ve tried to develop a taste for hard cider, but I can’t. It smells too much like early motherhood. I jus ..read more

(Cover of Sara Ahmed’s 2014 Willful Subjects) I had never been in better shape in my life.  There I was, for some reason playing intramural flag football with a team from my first-year dorm, sprinting around the field feeling lean and strong.  After about twenty minutes of play against a neighboring dorm, we had scored several touchdowns and smelled victory. As we lined up on the makeshift line of scrimmage, our quarterback planning to throw it to me long, I heard an opponent yell, “Get the big girl.  Cover the big girl!”  It wasn’t until after the touchdown that I registered the exhortation a ..read more

“They’re comin’ for yer guns, no doubt about it.” “Just bury your guns for two years, and then you’ll get ‘em back when we flip the statehouse.” “Guns don’t kill people. People do.” “We’re gonna get to the point where you can’t even give a gun to a child.” “We are not going to be sheep led to slaughter.” “Don’t let liberal elites tell you what to do.” “More guns, less crime.” These are a few quotes from the December 8th (2019) townhall meeting held by Virginia 24th District Delegate Ronnie Campbell (*described in this post). The meeting served as regional Republican Party preparation for the ..read more

(Left: Virginia House of Delegates, 24th District’s Ronnie Campbell at the Buena Vista American Legion Building on December 8, 2019. Right: Two armed police officers at the event.) (I wrote this post on Sunday, December 8, after attending Virginia House of Delegates member Ronnie Campbell’s townhall meeting in Buena Vista, Virginia.  The gun sanctuary decision was made the following night, December 9, by the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors, who met at Rockbridge County High School.  I will write a new post soon about the December 9th meeting and decision. The next post should demonstra ..read more

(50 Ways Rockbridge original call for issues groups / December, 2016) 50 Ways-Rockbridge: Year Three’s Big List I just found in my kitchen drawer a short stack of scrap paper, which included the original 50 Ways Rockbridge announcement to our local community. (*See the photo above.) This simple, urgent community convocation seems quaint to me now—the result of nine or ten people getting together in the wake of the November, 2016, elections to figure out what could be done to combat what we were certain would be a series of unjust and inhumane statements, actions, and orders.  The idea was to ..read more