Poetry Saturdays: William Shakespeare...
Posted by BeckySharper in Poetry Saturdays on 07 28th, 2012 | 1 Comment
If you were watching the by turns corny, head-scratching, and acid-trippy opening ceremony of the London Olympics last night, you may have seen Irish actor Kenneth Branagh declaiming lines from Shakespeare (while in a Victorian morning coat, which was sort of odd but it was that kind of night). The lines...
Tuesday Teasers: Stuff I’ve Been R...
Posted by annajcook in Linkaround on 07 24th, 2012 | No Comments
brought to you by a notebook and fountain pen*
Andreana Clay @ The Crunk Feminist Collective | Man or Beast?: Revisiting the White Male Gaze:
Benh Zeitlin is a white male filmmaker–as are most that gain attention–and I don’t fault him for that. He (and Alibar) have created one of the most beautiful...
Poetry Saturdays: D. Nurkse...
Posted by BeckySharper in Thoughts on 07 21st, 2012 | No Comments
D. Nurkse is an American poet, translator, and human rights activist. He has served as poet laureate of Brooklyn, and teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence and Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York.
How We Are Made Light
Pity the visitors
bent under shopping bags,
who have kept their huge hats
here...
The Only Review of Fifty Shades of Grey ...
Gentle readers, I give you the greatest reader take-down of a lousy anti-feminist novel ever. It’s hilarious! It’s insightful! There are fabulous, fabulous gifs! Please enjoy Katrina Lumsden’s GoodReads review of Fifty Shades of Grey. (Yes, I have read the book. And yes, she’s...What I Did For Love: An Overshare...
Posted by BeckySharper in Thoughts on 07 19th, 2012 | 20 Comments
First a warning: I’ve written before—often with plenty of feminist snark—about the many ways women are told that our genitals need to be pinker, surgically altered, and more aesthetically pleasing. But that was just to lambast some ridiculous new trend in genital grooming (pube conditioner!...
Placeholder Post: Hugh Masekela’s ...
This summer has brought back a lot of memories from the summer before my little sister was born (1987). The summer I learned to swim because we spent — at least in my child’s memory — virtually every day at the “big lake” (Lake Michigan) trying to stay cool by staying wet....Movienotes: Brave...
Teenage Merida and her mother Elinor (via) To escape the heat on Saturday, Hanna and I went to the movies and saw Brave (Disney and Pixar, 2012) which most of you have probably heard much of a muchness about since it was released back in June. There’s been tons of insightful, critical...Poetry Saturdays: Eve Merriam...
Posted by BeckySharper in Thoughts on 07 14th, 2012 | No Comments
Eve Merriam (1916-1992) was an American poet who specialized in works for children and young adults. Her book of poetry, The Inner City Mother Goose was so controversial it’s been described as one of the most banned books of all time.
How to Eat a Poem
Don’t be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up...
Quick Hit: Jay Smooth on Frank Ocean...
Posted by annajcook in Discussion Time on 07 12th, 2012 | 1 Comment
I didn’t know who Frank Ocean was until his name started appearing all over my dash along with words like “is gay” and “comes out.”
Actually, as you’ve probably gathered by now, it’s a wee bit more complicated — and in my opinion, brilliant — than...
Tuesday Teasers: Stuff I’ve Been R...
Posted by annajcook in Linkaround on 07 10th, 2012 | No Comments
brought to you by Teazle, pictured here chillin’ with Auntie M.
Is the Department of Justice asking the SCOTUS to rule against DOMA?
How does the cultural discourse around menstruation reify the gender binary? And how do we change it for the better?
This thoughtful and hilarious piece at The Guardian...
Poetry Saturdays: William Cullen Bryant...
Posted by BeckySharper in Thoughts on 07 7th, 2012 | No Comments
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post. This poem captures how dreadful the heat wave is in most of North America at the moment!
Summer Wind
It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk
The dew that lay upon the morning grass;
There...