bedazzling
Where did the last months go? A blur of weeks. I visited family and friends I had not seen in so long. I taught classes online, so many online meetings! I read so many student essays, asked so many questions. I developed new reading lists for old courses. I developed new reading lists for new courses. I completed online tutorials for online teaching certification. I made a few deadlines. I missed many more.
The teaching semester is winding down finally, but the next one is fast approaching. Though the conditions have not been optimal, the teaching itself — the conversations, the engagement, the growth — all has offered pleasure, satisfaction, hopefulness. I am grateful to be doing work I love, that sustains me.
I have two manuscripts that have been sitting untouched for months. I have started then abandoned three textile works and one small bookbinding project. I've been "upcycling" some old clothes, and my tendency it seems is to put ruffles on everything. Or a little lace, or beading, or fabric flowers.
I remember a visit to my sister's house years ago. She had spent a week "be-dazzling" everything — mirror frames, table tops, dressers, closet doors — with plastic gems and beads. It was clear that when I got there, she was seeing it all anew through my eyes. She said, "I took the hot glue gun and went a little crazy I guess."
There are worse ways to work through your feelings.
Reading List — the last month or so?
The Making of Asian America, Erika Lee
CURB, Divya Victor
"Sugar on the Gash," Divya Victor
Pillar of Books, Moon Bo Young
Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
Halfway Home: Rage, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, Reuben Jonathan Miller
Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through, T Fleischmann
"Against Conglomeration: Nonprofit Publishing and American Literature after 1980," Dan Sinykin and Edwin Roland, Post45
"A Phenomenology of Whiteness," Sara Ahmed
I made a trailer for my race and art writing class. I began the slow and tedious process of re-designing my own website (the purpose of which is not entirely clear and which may take forever to complete).
I started putting together a new graduate course in poetry for Temple, which I will be teaching online this fall. And I put together a few editorial features for the next issue of TQ.
I worked with Bonnie Jones on her amazing sound piece for PVD Waterways.
I wrote and recorded a new poem for the Pageant for Providence.
When I look at it all, listed like this, I suppose I can see why I have felt tired. (And between all this, I have had to make time for binge-watching Hacks, I Think You Should Leave, and America's Next Top Model. Priorities!)
We have a couple little escapes planned for the end of the month, some time to spend quietly in different landscapes. I have (be-)dazzlingly unrealistic ambitions for that time. There are worse habits to have, I suppose.
