Series – Page 2 – In Reverie Blog

Models Monday: Banah Ghadbian, Spelman College C’2015

Banah Ghadbian gave the valedictory address at Spelman College’s 128th Commencement. Ghadbian and her mother were refugees from Syria who eventually made their way to Arkansas. In her speech, Ghadbian acknowledged the southern hospitality and the southern hostility that she and her mother predictably found there. Spelman became Ghadbian’s choice because she wanted to cultivateContinue reading “Models Monday: Banah Ghadbian, Spelman College C’2015”

Models Monday: Fragility

On Friday, I went to Miles’s school for “Muffins with Mom” in advance of Mother’s Day. I expected to go in, have a muffin and orange juice with Miles and then leave. Instead, the school put together a really nice program. We were directed to our children’s classrooms where each teacher had prepared a specific programContinue reading “Models Monday: Fragility”

Models Monday: Danger, Violence, Repeat

Distinguishing police brutality by distinct historical periods seems a rather pointless enterprise; nonetheless, I want to. As I look at a terrified young black woman desperately attempting to escape further danger from the police, I recognize an important distinction between escaping police brutality in 1960 and escaping it in 2015. In Baltimore, a youngContinue reading “Models Monday: Danger, Violence, Repeat”

I Am Enough

I shared a heartbreaking story with a friend about someone I knew from graduate school who had been exploited, along with her daughter, through her child’s vulnerability. My friend then passed on a mantra that has now deeply impressed everyone I have shared it with: “The first thing I say to myself when I wakeContinue reading “I Am Enough”

Models Monday: Once Upon a Time When Food Was Good

I remember a time when “healthy food” was prescribed for patients whose blood pressure was too high; whose diet needed to consist of more fiber. To my mind, healthy food was clinical, sterile, bland food on a menu medical doctors made. Cooks, however, made food that “was sayin somethin!” It was food that grew inContinue reading “Models Monday: Once Upon a Time When Food Was Good”

Models Monday: A Long View of Days

For a while now, I’ve marked the significance of April 4, the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, as one that calls for serious reflection. This year has been different in how I feel about the loss; this time, mourning accompanied contemplation. Easter, I’m sure, has everything to do with this difference. In 1968, AprilContinue reading “Models Monday: A Long View of Days”

Models Monday: Sick Day Excuse

Hopefully, I’ll be in top form soon. EMM

Models Monday: Grades

The next time someone tells you that they were an “A” student in college, you might consider asking them if they knew that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a “C” student in college and that he earned a “C” in public speaking while attending seminary. King’s goals were bigger than being an “A” student; heContinue reading “Models Monday: Grades”

Models Monday: Revelations

In past years, I never thought much about Women’s History because, unlike Black History Month, it did not come with sufficient indictments. Black History Month calls attention to interlocking systems of domination that cast black Americans as this nation’s civic trash. Even though the celebratory aspects of Black History Month are far too often cartoonish,Continue reading “Models Monday: Revelations”

Models Monday: Oseola McCarty (National Women’s History Month)

I remember when Oseola McCarty donated $150,000 of the $280,000 she saved throughout her years working as a washerwoman to the University of Southern Mississippi. Offering “another model by which to live,” McCarty cultivated a philosophy of life that eschewed constant consumption; instead, she chose living simply and in acknowledgement of the needs of others.Continue reading “Models Monday: Oseola McCarty (National Women’s History Month)”