Weekend in Louisville

Immediately I am charmed by the elegance of my hotel room. The moment I walk in. In an oblique way it makes me remember the old days, minus the nostalgia. You know the stories. Selling just enough CDs in one city to get me to the next destination. Sleeping on the side of the road, fetus curled in my backseat. Sleeping on airport floors and pull outs, their springs with serious appetites for my flesh.

That is not to say those days are entirely over. Hell, just last weekend in Richmond I slept on a pullout so I'm not five starring it all the way. So I just take a moment to stop and take in the days blessing. I hope I never get used to this. Because then I would stop enjoying it the way I do now, with this almost childlike wonder. I am coming to find that gratitude is the best medicine for my life right now, hence the odes I can't seem to stop writing. Though my wallet says Holiday Inn, the fact that I am here, in this five star situation means I am a five star gal, doing five star thangs. I like being cognizant of the spaces and situations that honor my writing. I felt this intensely at Hedgebrook Retreat when I walked into my own cottage. It charmed my tears from their hiding place. This wasn't nearly that emotional, just a small smile to the universe.


Professor Thornhill

Check out your girl, giving an academic lecture at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Their MFA program in children's writing invited me to come down and discuss the research methodologies I used in order to create my poem about folk singer Odetta, which is being published by Scholastic next spring in the form of a picture book.

All in all, I enjoyed myself immensely and really appreciate Spalding, more specifically Kathleen Driskell, for having me come down. It felt like talking for 45 minutes with friends about stuff that so naturally jazz me to the bone.





Sister Chairs

Here we are in the lobby of the Brown hotel, situated in the heart of downtown Louisville. The seating area is expansive with antique furniture that I would not buy for my house yet would admire in the homes of others.

Or so I thought. I found myself infatuated with this chair from the beginning. Shaped like an S, it seemed the chair had tried to say my name, but could only get out the first letter. I would have this chair in my house, and build a whole room around it in order to justify its existence. Suddenly I understand those folk that scour auctions for specific objects, once they hit it rich. Well, since I won't be taking home such a chair anytime soon, I wanted nothing more than to have a damn good conversation in it before I left Kentucky.

I got my wish. After my lecture and the banging Indian buffet dinner that followed, my homegirl Bianca Spriggs drove over from Lexington, an hour away. Initially we had made plans to go somewhere and beverage. Surprise surprise we gravitated over to the sister chairs, sat down, and fell face first into conversation. In it, we went to Africa and back.