Wanted/Needed/Loved: Shana Cleveland’s Grandma’s Hats
It’s such a powerful symbol of who she was.
Posts by tag
grandmother
43 posts
Constellations of Identity: A Conversation with J. Michael Martinez
J. Michael Martinez discusses his third collection of poetry, MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Victoria Ruiz’s Grandma’s Grocery Board
I’m not a trained musician, but my grandma helped me to become fearless...
Mothers of My Diaspora
It paralyzes me to think about the sacrifices my family made before I was in my mother’s womb. When they came here they knew they would lose a part of their language, their memories, their sanctity of self.
TORCH: Lessons From My Grandma on Language and Silence
The sounds I made were pleasant to my ears, but that’s all they were to me. I was too young to understand what culture and heritage meant, too young to understand the reasons behind memorizing ancient poems.
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Fluids
To me, my mother’s body has always been the safest place—a place for me to return and to transform.
Multitudes: The Practice of Forgetting
I want to say it must matter. Because history is erased from our veins when we allow ourselves to forget where we came from.
The Rumpus Interview with J.D. Vance
J.D. Vance talks about his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the perils of upward mobility, and never forgetting where you come from.
The Murder That Shaped Our Family
When I ask her about her childhood, she draws a blank. There is only blackness to her past, her entire early life erased by the trauma of that night.
Finding Inspiration in Grandma’s Cookbook
My characters often follow their own family recipes. Our reenactment of the simple tasks of beating egg whites or stuffing meat into cabbage leaves blasts open a portal to a…