Memoir of life looking for my daughter — Truth and life are painful. In life, children die and disappear, and the pain is still there even after the story ends. In fiction, the writer creates an imaginary world of pain and lives in it while she writes. But when the story is told, when the last word is…

Grandma’s Historical Menstrual Tour — My 6-year-old granddaughter Josie wants to be ten. My response is: “Six is a great age.” She doesn’t buy it; she wants to be ten. “I’m ten,” she tells me, holding up her fingers. “What about six, seven, eight, nine? You’ll miss all those great years if you are ten…

I Know not this person whose snow-capped eyebrows express concern and confusion emphasized by the parenthesis around his mouth exclamation points shouting above his lip As if to say Enough! Enough Already? No, no I know not this person Whose eyes have sunk Far into his skull Layers of life Shadowing the…

Luchino Vistonti and Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica — ∘ Film|Early Cinema · Luchino Visconti · Roberto Rossellini · Watch Martin Scorsese discuss the Films of Roberto Rossellini. · Vittorio De Sica Italian Neorealism is my favorite period of Cinema History. I think it’s because I can watch many of the films in Italian and my students can read…

It’s all Political — There’s been a great deal of talk over public radio lately about what should and should not be taught in English classes and why certain classic writers like Steinbeck and Tolstoy are privileged over other works like contemporary writer Ichaso’s Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets. Seriously, does it matter? Why…

A poetic rumination on relationship longevity — I will give this to you a place to plant your seedlings where your hopes and dreams germinate, flourish, and grow in this space that is yours I will celebrate with you seasons of hopeful blooms dazzling bursts of imagination in all their poetic glory and mesmerizing magnificence in this space that is yours…

The influence of Russian Revolutionaries — Whereas now it is social media, that spreads misinformation, in the past, revolutionaries like Lenin used film, believing that it was the perfect medium to spread subversive ideas to the illiterate masses. The Russian Revolution inspired a demand for propaganda and also brought with it another revolution in which filmmakers…

A meditation on walking — I like to walk; it doesn’t really matter where as long as I’m walking. I don’t even need a destination. In fact, I think I prefer it this way. I put one foot in front of another, one aimless thought in front of another, and off I go. When I…