“Why am I so conscious of the outside world?
It’s really about what is happening inwardly that is the most important thing.”
-Tina Chang
Friends, we are standing at the edge of 2019, about to leap over to 2020. It’s been a wild decade. A lot has happened. A lot will happen. It’s enough to make your head spin, if you let it.
But here in this moment, I don’t want to blast your brains with talk of decades in review, or maximizing productivity, as we bid a Thank You, Next to the last ten years.
Instead, I invite you into a place of relative quiet, to listen to my conversation with the amazing Tina Chang.
Tina Chang is the poet laureate of Brooklyn—the first EVER woman to be given that title—and is the author of the poetry collections Half-Lit Houses (2004) and Of Gods & Strangers (2011). She is also co-editor of the Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond.
Her most recent poetry collection, Hybrida (W.W. Norton, 2019) confronts the complexities of raising a mixed-race child during this era of political upheaval in the United States. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by Publisher’s Weekly and NPR. Of Hybrida, NPR said, “Chang’s third collection is one of the most important books of poetry to come along in years.” She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. And she’s all ours for the next half hour or so.
So pour yourself a cuppa or a nice strong coffee, get cozy, and enjoy.
Here are some of the books, poems, stories and resources mentioned during the show:
Books & Poems
- Hybrida, by Tina Chang
- In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
- Mary Oliver (her poem Summer Day has been my constant prayer since about the year 2001.)
Resources
- Poetry in Motion® “places poetry in the transit systems of cities throughout the country exposing it to millions of viewers every day.” Tina’s piece was called Notes on Longing.
- Poetry Society of America
- How to Find the Closest Independent Bookstore : IndieBound.org
- A Poem A Day
- The Slowdown Podcast“Five minutes of poetry every weekday.”
Stories Mentioned:
Current Obsessions
My So-Karen Life: I Know Karens are Hard. As a Member of Gen X, I Grew Up Surrounded by Them.
By Sarah Miller, New York Times
These days, I find myself in constant dialogue with my teenage daughter on all things cross-generational. It seems the youths of today are fond of labeling us and our parents’ generation in ways that aren’t always flattering, but are always entertaining. I’ve learned phrases like, “Mom, don’t be such a KAREN!” and “Ok, Boomer.” But let’s be clear: just because her generation invented these phrases, the concepts themselves are hardly new. In this wonderful essay, Sarah Miller writes about what it was like to grow up with the Karens of the world, back before millennials and Gen Zers coined the term … back when they were but young Karens, controlling and dominating before they knew how to complain to a manager. I don’t know the author personally, but based on this essay, I really wish I did.
Hustlers
I know. It seems a little outrageous to be flagging a film about strippers in my show notes, but I am what I am. And what I am is a massive fan of this film. I loved it for a lot of the same reasons I loved Goodfellas and Scarface—they are all stories about broken-hearted people trying to get ahead in their own, (very) flawed ways.
Hustlers belongs to that same gangster film genre, with one big difference: it’s female-centric narrative. And while all gangster movies show people justifying awful behavior in one way or another, it was interesting (and satisfying) to hear the femme version of this flawed thinking. But whatever. At the end of the day, watching JLo and Cardi B and Lizzo together on the same screen is pure gold.
Man in the Window: The Golden State Killer
Ali (one of my favorite humans) recently recommended some true crime podcasts. Why true crime? Because nothing makes doing the dishes and cleaning house go faster than the slow build of a terrifying and true tale. Man in the Window is about the Golden State Serial Killer and is nothing like I thought it would be.
While the killer/rapist is key to the story, this ten episode podcast is also about how our society viewed rape, and treated rape victims, in the 1970s. My jaw was on the floor as I listened to how the media and law enforcement portrayed rape … almost as if it were a robbery or other crime against property. The story about tracking the perp is certainly interesting, but the stories of the women he raped (before he added murder to the docket) are what make Man in the Window so powerful. The host (Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter Paige St. John) does an absolutely masterful job of honoring their stories, while still plotting an addictive podcast series.
