The new year has always seemed a lot like a beginning of winter, or mid-winter celebration. It does not occur at a time reckoned by natural seasons or lunar cycles. It roughly, inexactly, pays tribute to the solar year. It happens at the beginning of a month because, like most things, a man said that […]
Women Who Left Us in 2017
We lost so many strong, even iconic, women in 2017. And so many of them received little to no public media attention in this year of seemingly non-stop discussion about men. Maggie Roche, of the Roche Sisters, left us at age 65 in January. Here’s the NYT article briefly chronicling her music career. Mary Tyler […]
Clever Gifts Of Storytelling Grandmas
I hope you will consider how the gifts you choose for grandchildren, nieces, and nephews build relationships and generate storytelling, sharing, and yes, even learning. Updated for 2017 Originally posted October 22nd, 2015 Disclosure: Gabrielle Polt Balkan, author of The 50 States is my step-daughter. Other than parental pride per the atlas, and the Amazon […]
Giving Beyond The Boxed Gift
This time of year makes me think of gifts and what women are giving to the next generation. This year, 2017, has been an extremely tumultuous time. To use a kitchen and baking metaphor our cultural batter is being is being whipped up, over-beaten, into a flat mess that may have a difficult time […]
Intersectional Democracy
Write, Just Write I implore every blogger and online writer, every woman who knows how to write an email, a letter, or a message, to step up their writing pace to repair and what is left of democracy in our country, world, and in our minds. I am talking not just about posting on Facebook […]
Intersectionality and Legacy
Intersectionality is a concept applied by black feminists, womanists, to the additive nature of inclusion in non-dominant social groups. Poverty, class, male privilege, and white privilege all reinforce and strengthen the dominant norms of wealth, class, male privilege, and white privilege from which other norms are derived such as beauty, worth, and intelligence. I like the concept that intersecting […]