I Bought Nothing Day And More On A Monday
Friday was my I Bought Nothing Day. I learned early on, about as far on as some of you, my favorite po' bloggers, are in age -- that far on -- that the most revolutionary thing I could do is stop consuming. Besides, I love the serendipity of segundas. A former student, Kayann Short has projected that message in Boulder with Buy Nothing Day, the day after Thanksgiving, usually with a farout fashion show on the mall for years. If it were me, I like the meat idea: [insert link to "carne at the courthouse" sometime soon] But, that's me. If you know me you know that I'm a lifetime non-driver. I decided that it was something I could do in my lifetime, never drive, for El Mundo's sake. El Mundo, which is about as close to a concept of "God" as I can fathom. La Gaia. Ya. So I know enough about driving to get someone to the hospital if need be, but that's about it. And get a car with a stick shift started. Otherwise, cars just aren't part of my culture. Talk about feeling like an alien. Or feeling in exile in one's own homeland. Ahem.
Anyway, every Thanksgiving I swear I'm going to fast. Just because. For history's sake. But, I don't. I get into Thanksgiving. I'm in my element -- feeding people. I always make enough food to feed a Mayan village. But it gets eaten. That's what the rest of the long weekend's for. That, and working puzzles. Gets the old stress valves down. I was hoping for T-Day by the Bay this year, but it was not to be. Too much, "The check is in the mail." Oh well. I love turkey on my table. It makes me feel so grown up. And, in control of my own life. You ACA types will understand; the best part of about having such a crummy childhood is that it all gets better in every way on every day. Yeah. And a good leek soup, too -- might as well -- with roasted butternut squash this year.
I'm getting ready to type up some prose, some essays I've had for a year or so. But for the grading. And grading. And grading. I ought to have a whole stadium erected by now, with an olympic-sized swimming pool what with all the grading. I'll also be posting soon about the books I've been blurbing this year, including the new anthology of new Latina/o poets. Killer. I think I've been inspired by it. That and Alfred Arteaga's new book, Frozen Accident, which just came out in the vellum November 11. I'd say, Poe to my Eliot, but, that's me.
One thing I'll be typing is part two of my long literary autobiography. One of the things I've been thinking about alot lately has been the unwritten unheralded connection between Boringuens y Xican@s in this country, especially in the early years of the Chicano Renaissance. For example, no ever writes about all the years I spent visiting the Nuyoriquen Poets Cafe every six months and hanging with Miguel Algarin all those years from 1976-1986. And of Miguel and poets hanging in my driveway, the MANGO courtyard back then, in their van while on their venture made adventure to "Discover the West." There would be no Chicano Literature were it not for Pedro Pietri's "Puerto Rican Obituary" and his First Draft Movement just as there would be no market today for the Latina Re-emergence in ChicLit. But, that's a long story. We can take it up in Amherst this weekend. I'll be accepting the Louis Reyes Rivera (one of those poet/activists whose work influenced me in those early formative years) Lifetime Achievement Award on December 2, along with one of my earliest influences, Victor Hernandez Cruz, at Amherst College saturday night. We'll be joining some great poets & spoken word artists; it's bound to be a great & historic night.
Meanwhile, here's a MySpace video of one of my new MySpace buddies, La Bruja without the band and scratch. Check out the rest of her music and poems on her site and blog. She started out in the Cafe as well. "There are many paths. They all lead to the same place, nowhere. But only one has a heart. One path weakens you. The other will make you strong as long as you are one with it." I've been listening to Manu Chao, "Esperanza" this season. It makes me happy. All that polyglossia and intertextuality. Una Esperanza y ahua. Chao. Y provecho.
Posted By:LA BRUJA
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
(currently listening to Mana, AMAR ES COMBATIR: "Combatiente" y "Somos Mar y Arena") Somos.
Anyway, every Thanksgiving I swear I'm going to fast. Just because. For history's sake. But, I don't. I get into Thanksgiving. I'm in my element -- feeding people. I always make enough food to feed a Mayan village. But it gets eaten. That's what the rest of the long weekend's for. That, and working puzzles. Gets the old stress valves down. I was hoping for T-Day by the Bay this year, but it was not to be. Too much, "The check is in the mail." Oh well. I love turkey on my table. It makes me feel so grown up. And, in control of my own life. You ACA types will understand; the best part of about having such a crummy childhood is that it all gets better in every way on every day. Yeah. And a good leek soup, too -- might as well -- with roasted butternut squash this year.
I'm getting ready to type up some prose, some essays I've had for a year or so. But for the grading. And grading. And grading. I ought to have a whole stadium erected by now, with an olympic-sized swimming pool what with all the grading. I'll also be posting soon about the books I've been blurbing this year, including the new anthology of new Latina/o poets. Killer. I think I've been inspired by it. That and Alfred Arteaga's new book, Frozen Accident, which just came out in the vellum November 11. I'd say, Poe to my Eliot, but, that's me.
One thing I'll be typing is part two of my long literary autobiography. One of the things I've been thinking about alot lately has been the unwritten unheralded connection between Boringuens y Xican@s in this country, especially in the early years of the Chicano Renaissance. For example, no ever writes about all the years I spent visiting the Nuyoriquen Poets Cafe every six months and hanging with Miguel Algarin all those years from 1976-1986. And of Miguel and poets hanging in my driveway, the MANGO courtyard back then, in their van while on their venture made adventure to "Discover the West." There would be no Chicano Literature were it not for Pedro Pietri's "Puerto Rican Obituary" and his First Draft Movement just as there would be no market today for the Latina Re-emergence in ChicLit. But, that's a long story. We can take it up in Amherst this weekend. I'll be accepting the Louis Reyes Rivera (one of those poet/activists whose work influenced me in those early formative years) Lifetime Achievement Award on December 2, along with one of my earliest influences, Victor Hernandez Cruz, at Amherst College saturday night. We'll be joining some great poets & spoken word artists; it's bound to be a great & historic night.
Meanwhile, here's a MySpace video of one of my new MySpace buddies, La Bruja without the band and scratch. Check out the rest of her music and poems on her site and blog. She started out in the Cafe as well. "There are many paths. They all lead to the same place, nowhere. But only one has a heart. One path weakens you. The other will make you strong as long as you are one with it." I've been listening to Manu Chao, "Esperanza" this season. It makes me happy. All that polyglossia and intertextuality. Una Esperanza y ahua. Chao. Y provecho.
Posted By:LA BRUJA
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
(currently listening to Mana, AMAR ES COMBATIR: "Combatiente" y "Somos Mar y Arena") Somos.
posted by Lorna Dee Cervantes at 10:53 AM
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