Memoirous

This is Resurrection Week or Passover, depending on one's religious background. For some there will be no miracle or rescue, symbolic or otherwise. (WBEZ/Odette Yousef) Jack King lived under the Wilson Ave. viaduct, beneath Lake Shore Drive. It's where he slept as he had no permanent address. Recently Mr. King was interview by WBEZ, local PR station. CLICK HERE to hear, listen to news piece. I saw Jack probably 4 times a week as I ran from my house to the jogging path thru the park. Granted he seemed fairly healthy then, but many of the homeless that I've written about and also Jeremy Nicholls at his blog: Setting Prisoners Free many of these men and women are in fragile health--both mental and physical. Yet as Jeremy and I have written sometimes all it takes is giving these people a proper bed, a simple room, allowing them to have routine, a chance to take medications, a meal schedule and, as we can testify, a miracle occurs. Read HERE and HERE (I love how Je...

2013 is starting out publishing-wise to be pretty good. I've just had my 8th acceptance. Here is a flash that just recently came out: http://www.theshinejournal.com/hertensteinjane.htm When I spoke at a workshop last week I mentioned there are MANY sub-genres of flash--this magazine was looking for flash fiction about grief, and I just happened to have a mini-essay in my portfolio to submit. Now I just have to finish writing my how-to-book on writing flash memoir!!! Stay tuned--it should be out in hopefully a month. Thanks for letting me brag.

Readers of this blog (and the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune ) have been aware of a kind of class warfare taking place in Uptown. It’s no secret. Articles have been appearing in the media for about three weeks. As someone who has written for and about the homeless and under-housed (See Orphan Girl ) I am very sensitive to this issue. The issue of zombie-fying the homeless. And, to be fair, not all those targeted are actually homeless—maybe they’re characters, troubled, alcoholics—they are, for whatever reason, poor people. They are the OTHER. They remind us that we have a comfort zone and we better retreat back into it. I understand. But I also believe that these individuals are human and have rights. Lately I’ve been reading about Vivian Meir and Henry Darger. Both artists, both truly “different.” Vivan Meir was a nanny on the North Shore who often after the kids boarded the bus to go to school took off with her camera, making forays into downtown Chicago or out on he...

I taught a class this morning in Winnetka at the Off-Campus Writers Workshop (OCWW). I like the name of this group because even though it is “off-campus” it means that somewhere there is a university. It might be as close as I’ll get to being an adjunct (which, in some situations, is not saying so much). Anyway—it went well. We talked about where flash comes from and one of the things I mentioned was to-do lists. I create lists for just about everything. I’ve been keeping a list of things that remind me of Mom. My mother died about a year ago. I wasn’t exactly devastated when I got the phone call. She’d been in a state of fragile health for going on two months. My grief was mixed—relief and a sense of closure. Lately, though, I’ve been getting these sudden nudgings, memories provoked by the weirdest things. Here is a partial list: --excess handlotion Mom would routinely squirt too much out and then make me come over, hold open my hands, and then rub the excess lotion on ...

Yesterday there was a march in support of the homeless and the agencies that work among marginalized populations in Uptown (Chicago). The march was called as a result of some political missteps from the ward alderman who has tried to shut down various services in the area. All in the name of “public safety.” Of course this is a euphemism for NOT IN MY BACKYARD. For those of my readers who might feel I’ve taken up too much of my memoirous blog writing about James Cappleman and the plight of ethnic/cultural diversity in Uptown—sorry. At some point art and action need to intersect. I’m passionate about many things—writing and story amongst them, and I volunteer time at a homeless shelter working with the residents on memoir, being able to tell their story. Putting all this together—I am concerned about the recent actions of the alderman that are targeting “the least of these”—remember the golden rule?—to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Since takin...

Where is He Going To Put These People? http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/18522480-452/aldermans-reason-for-shuttering-cubicle-hotel-cock-and-bull.html A series of articles in the Chicago Sun-Times by Mark Brown So today I sat down and worked on a timeline pieced together from newspaper articles on-line mostly from last year and early this year. Cappleman Promises: a timeline 1/31/2007 before coming into office campaigned that he would fight to preserve and maintain existing “affordable” housing in the 46 th ward. 1/2012 after elected alderman, Cappleman came into office and established a “Problem Building List” targeting several SROs, a type of housing often the last stop before homelessness and shelters http://james46.org/problem-building-list/ 2/27/2013 From article by Mark Brown: I asked Cappleman if he’d worked to build any new single-room occupancy housing in his ward since taking office two years ago. The answer was no. The Chateau, 3820-3838 N...