Memoirous

Me and my girlfriends have a joke about sending our husbands to do something and 1) they come back empty-handed because they forgot or 2) they come back with the wrong thing or 3) they come back and say they couldn't find the thing that was RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR NOSE. We call this man's disease. sorry about 1/2 the population or what is it now--about 51% of the population because of gender selection, women are becoming a minority--something I've noticed for a long while--anyway! But come to find out it isn't just man's disease, but a characteristic of just being human. NPR Radio did a story not too long ago, a story that as I listened I thought--geez can this get any worse, and then it did, I listened more and it got even MORE worse. Here's how it goes: Officers in Boston got the report of man down, one of their own had been shot. The bulletin went out and many officers arrived at the scene. One of those who responded was a black undercover officer weari

Just found out today that my daughter has gotten a story of her's accepted into a magazine/zine. I told my husband that if I had had this kind of affirmation I might have gotten started earlier. I mean I was ALWAYS writing as a kid, but didn't get much encouragement. I don't want to be one of those whiney adults who blames everything on their parents, but face it--the day and age I was raised in isn't like now where parents lie all the time to their kids--"You're great. In fact the greatest thing since the discovery of fire!" Overkill, I know. I'm not like the Tiger Mom, more like Tigger Mom, who wants the best for my kid, but I also know she has to face life's ups and downs. That's why we gave her a fare card and told her to get her own way home from art camp at the MCA downtown. She wouldn't be the only 12 year old on the train alone (maybe she was 13, not sure). And she didn't have to sit alone because a kid from the camp got on wi

How I wish this professor had taught me the novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. I read it as an undergraduate in the 1980s (okay, I've never been anything other than an undergraduate). So I was a little dumb and out of it, but full of self-confidence and strident opinions. I thought Uncle Tom's Cabin was a waste of time. Ha. Then about 15 years ago a friend from Norway, when she came over she said her life goals were to read Uncle Tom's Cabin and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I'd read both and frankly found the former sentimental and out-dated and the latter way to depressing. Again I was a little dumb and out of it. I ask myself will I ever be anything other than this--always I seem to "get" things way after the fact. Anyway, I asked her why. And she said this: she started the Civil War. I revised my previous observations and since then Harriet Beecher Stowe has become one of my literary heroes. The woman who started the Civil War By Teresa Cotsirilos  this

Picked up my grant package today at the Cultural Center, in the Grand Army of the Republic meeting room. Love it! I am so so so happy Illinois hasn't defunded the arts, and thankful that our new mayor Rahm Emmanuel is a huge proponent for the arts--check out his wiki (he used to be a ballet dancer, little known fact of the former chief of staff, Mr. Sharp Elbows). On NPR this morning there was more chatter about Kansas and the d-- a-- move to banish the state's arts council. The new plan is corporate sponsorship of the arts. Oh EM Gee. Okay, it might work for Mobil/Exxon and Masterpiece Theater, but really, how many corporations are going to care about the last native grass basket weaver on the prairie?? And I don't blame them, I'd gladly sponsor something where I knew I was going to get bang for my buck. Hence, the Cadillac Theater, Verizon Stadium, Target Amphitheater, the Shell Oil Company presents the Chicago Orchestra. Smaller dance companies, a photographer tha

on I’m Lying to You  by Najeeb Asmin-Wolfe   by  J. Hertenstein   Is it possible to cross the line between writing fiction and living it? At first I did it just to see. Not really a prank, more of a lark. What could it hurt? Certainly not my reputation already swimming in a sea of uncertainty. I mean who would really know. And, anyway, does it matter? Call it frustration, the hard knocks of life bowling me over, utter rejection. Desperation. Or maybe I did want to transform myself, be someone other than the miserable person I was. The liar I turned out to be.  ... FOR MORE CLICK HERE my latest story in the spring 2012 Greensilk Journal  e n I was. The liar I turned out to be.

here's an article in its entirety from ArtInfo about Brownbeck the governor of Kansas defunding the state arts commission BUT before you read it, let me explain the two grants I just received 1) from the Illinois Arts Council and the other 2) from the city of Chicago CAAP. These are grants for professional development. Not income, not a fellowship. Thus the monies granted from them has already been spent or will be spent on: 1) transportation, 2) housing 3) programming/conference staff. This all represents jobs. Along the way I also had to pay for food and souvenirs, etc. Again, I contributed to the economy in small part in T or C, New Mexico. So please Mr. Brownbeck before you go cutting anything else, do the math. ARTINFO The online authority for art news and gallery reviews Q&A With Henry Schwaller, Who Was Head Of The State's Recently Liquidated Arts Commission Posted: 06/ 7/11 01:06 AM ET Over Memorial Day Weekend, while most people were relaxing, Henry Schwa

I didn't mean Missouri--the Show Me state--I meant . . . well you get the idea We all have a lot to lose in this game of defund the arts. Every state has an art legacy built upon the shoulders of brave pioneers who went out there into uncharted territory and created. Whether it was Georgia O'Keefe from Sun Prairie, WI but who popularized the southwest to the pt that she is a painter from New Mexico, specifically northern New Mexico, to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings from Florida to Steinbeck who wrote about the canneries and migrant camps of Salinas Valley. These states CLAIM these artists. They are good for tourism as there are centers and historical parks dedicated to them now. Can these states really AFFORD to lose tourism dollars? That's why it makes sense that my grant from the City of Chicago that I received over the weekend came in an envelope from the Office of Tourism--without culture, Chicago might not have a bean, the Art Institute and a thousand other cool thin

I mean Missouri--not Nebraska Missouri home to Mark Twain, T. S. Eliott, wasn't Marianne Moore, Kate Chopin from St. Louis. Tennessee Williams spent time there before relocating to New Orleans and NYC and Tennessee. Many great writers are from Missouri--home of the excellent Missouri Review which holds annually this contest: Editors' Prize Contest Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in Fiction, Essay and Poetry Not Just Any Contest! Select winning entries in the past have been reprinted in the Best American series $5,000 Fiction | $5,000 Poetry | $5,000 Essay As artists no one can afford to lose funding. I googled defunding and read a little bit of a tea party blog called Liberty, I think. Really, who cares. Anyway the blogger said that it would be fine by him if the governor defunded the arts council because that was big government and big government is bad. His argument was that the market should dictate who gets funded. I mean if people want to

The March sisters (Little Women): "I hate being poor,"  sighed her sister, Meg, looking at her old dress. Most of the time I am okay with being poor—I mean what else can I do? Like the March girls who imbued that hearty New England spirit, I embody Midwestern grit and determination, the make-do pioneer attitude. If it rains lemons then make lemonade. Lately what has descended upon me is discontent, a striving for something out there beyond my reach. There is something I want that I can’t get on my own. Any close readers of this blog (all three of you) must by now know that I am restless for the next big thing. Maybe that’s why I keep applying for grants, residencies, scholarships even though I lack really great credentials. It’s a bit like what I blogged about a few entries back. Hope. You send it out there and see what flies home. Esperanza. A flitty, flighty thing is faith. You crack open the coconut to dig at the sweet flesh inside—it might satisfy or leave you only wan