Military Madness Board Game Project – Version 0

I used to love this game back in the day. I have fond memories of playing it on my NEC Turbographx 16. The Turbographx was sort of niche even back then - Genesis and then the SNES were much more popular, and to be honest I eventually sold my TG16 and moved on to those … Continue reading Military Madness Board Game Project – Version 0 →

How This Really Ends (please, prove me wrong)

"You can be angry, you an be outraged, but you need to stop being surprised." That is what a retired coworker said to me one day when I was debriefing with her about a particularly frustrating discussion about racial equity in our classrooms. I had told her I was just so surprised how often so … Continue reading How This Really Ends (please, prove me wrong) →

It’s a Perfect Time to Update My Blog

So this has been an on-again, off-again thing since sometime around 2003. There used to be several of us writing - then just a couple - then just me, 17 years later. There's a lot hidden within the archives at this point, especially some multi-part projects that I really did put a lot of time … Continue reading It’s a Perfect Time to Update My Blog →

Something Nelson Mandela Taught Me about The United States

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher Growing up in white suburban America in the 80's, I thought I knew some things about South Africa. Mostly I was taught that there was something called "apartheid" there and that it was bad (though I was not taught that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher both did what they could … Continue reading Something Nelson Mandela Taught Me about The United States →

The Overstory – A Study in White Environmentalism

White environmentalism is a thing. I know I'm not the first to say that, but as I read over The Overstory, Richard Powers' in some ways majestic, and in other ways, deeply problematic 2018 environmental epic of trees, I got a clearer and clearer picture of what white environmentalism is and what some of its problems are. … Continue reading The Overstory – A Study in White Environmentalism →

James Baldwin – The Evidence of Things Not Seen

This is - I believe anyway - the last book James Baldwin wrote and published before his death. There are lots of other incomplete manuscripts and unpublished materials, but this is a full essay. It's about a series of murders of black children in Atlanta in the early 1980's. Its foremost project is to problematize … Continue reading James Baldwin – The Evidence of Things Not Seen →

The Amen Corner

I missed reading this the first time through. I was trying to stick to chronological order but since this play wasn't included in the Library of America volumes (neither is Blues for Mr. Charlie) I'm coming back to it now. I don't have that much to say about it. In the edition I found, there's … Continue reading The Amen Corner →

Just Above My Head

This is Baldwin's final novel, and also his longest, by far. It is a multi-generational saga, the most crucial stage of which unfolds during the 1950's and 60's. Its narrator Hall Montana reports at the outset he has just lost his brother Arthur, and it sends him into a depression. Baldwin uses the processing of … Continue reading Just Above My Head →

The Devil Finds Work

The Devil Finds Work is the last book-length piece of nonfiction (Baldwin calls it an "essay") that Baldwin wrote, and though it's similar to some earlier pieces in its focus on Baldwin's autobiography, and obviously addresses similar themes, it picks a new point of departure: the movies. The sweep of this book is captured really well … Continue reading The Devil Finds Work →

If Beale Street Could Talk

When a student told me last year that If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin's 1974 novel which I had not read at the time - was being made into a movie, I was sort of nonplussed. There were other better choices, I thought (even though I hadn't read this one). Why not Giovanni's Room … Continue reading If Beale Street Could Talk →