First, for Day 23 of National Poetry Month, Valerie Wetlaufer’s “Method” uses third person to describe a victim of mysterious migraines, and for Day 24, Tyehimba Jess calls for the curtain to rise “to show the face that is known” in “Sissieretta Jones, Carnegie Hall, 1902: O patria mia.“
Then, in the Saturday Essay, Anca Szilágyi highlights the surprising anti-semitism thickening around her as she comes to know her own ethnic identity better. From Montreal to Seattle, Szilágyi faces veiled and often confusing prejudice. At the same time, her relatives crave pork. “I’ve got sacrilege on both sides,” she writes.
Finally, Alia Volz’s Sunday Essay tells the tumultuous story of the road trip she takes with her eccentric mother, Mer, from Mexico to the US border, in order to undergo chemotherapy treatments. Mer is a raucous, exuberant, irreverent parent whose challenging qualities pale in comparison with her charm. Eventually, they cross the border, despite a trunk full of illicit international goods.
