Author Archives: milesaway44105

On March 1, The New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood invited columnist Joe Nocera to discuss the relevance of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman in light of the contemporary dynamics and culture of American business. I did not add my ideas or questions to their active digital discussion but IContinue reading “Reading with the Times: Death of a Salesman (March 1)”

In advance of considering Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman, I decided to re-post the following piece. As I considered the play’s critique of the “hollowness of some cherished American ideals,” I wondered how this critique would play out in the age of reality television. Though I’ve taken my copy of the playContinue reading “Models Monday: Repeat Step 1”

I recently watched Shukree Tilghman’s documentary film More than a Month about his plan to see black history month abolished (you can watch the entire film at this address until March 1: http://video.pbs.org/video/2197967045/). Through the course of the film he learns that it’s an ill-conceived project, at least in part, because he did not give enoughContinue reading “Models Monday: More than a Textbook (Washington’s Birthday edition)”

A few years ago, I was trying to figure out what I thought it meant for black women to be considered icons. This was a consideration that had been lingering from some years prior when I saw Congresswoman Maxine Waters in some setting with black male politicians who all referred to her as an iconContinue reading “Models Monday: Fifty-nine and Twelve”

I heard a woman at a conference that I recently attended offer a view on leadership that I disagree with. The woman, who was the moderator for a panel on women and leadership, responded to a question that put forth a concern about the dynamism of the category woman and the simplification of its meaningContinue reading “Models Monday: Women and Leadership”

When my friend Carmen first told me about Walter Dean Myers’s book The Blues of Flats Brown, I knew that I had to get it for my son. The story is about these two dogs, Flats and Caleb, who are the unfortunate wards of a junkyard proprietor named A.J. Grubbs. Flats and Caleb flee theContinue reading “Models Monday: The Seduction of Reading”

One of my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. stories was one I heard several King aides telling through a montage in a documentary about his life. Maybe this was the place where I first heard about how difficult it was to fly with King because of the bomb threats that were phoned in and theContinue reading “Models Monday: Taking King as a Model”

My father seemed deeply marked by the depravations he experienced as a child. He remained wounded, it seems to me, his entire life by his father’s absence. He talked about him and thought about him with a deep sense of regret. By paying close attention to my father, I glimpsed a fragility of manhood thatContinue reading “Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Conclusion)”