Black. Chinese. Lesbian. Jamaican
I love New York!
In this city, there are a million things to do and a million-and-one ways to get into credit card debt.
I decide to spend the day doing something free for a change.
I head to the New York Public Library. Opened to the public in 1911, it’s a beautiful building guarded by two stone lions named Patience and Fortitude. If you’ve not been to the library lately, go. The topic of one of the current exhibits is the Declaration on Indendence. See it. Hear dramatic readings of the document. View original prints from 1776. I actually got goose bumps (random fact: goose bumps called “chicken skin” in Dutch) as I read it.
The last time that I actually read the document that includes the words “[w]e hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness …”
in its entirety, I was in high school.
For better or worse, this is my country and I love it. At its worse, the U.S. is hypocritical, violent, hateful, aggressive, reactionary, uber conservative and greedy … as well as blind, ignorant and arrogant beyond comprehension. At its best, the US is youthful / spirited, contemporary, innovative, free-thinking, and incredibly diverse. This brings me to a low-cost event that I took in recently.
Have you seen Border/Clash? It’s a wonderful one-woman show currently @ 45Bleecker. Go see it if you live anywhere in or near New York. It’s so good that, even if you don’t live here, I’d actually encourage you to come to town to see it. The writer/performer, Staceyann Chin, has a Chinese father and black mother. Born and raised in Jamaica, she moved to the U.S. after suffering sexual harrassment. (She is a lesbian.)
She’s one of the best storytellers that I’ve seen in a while. This Off-Broadway show is definitely a winner!
RANDOM QUOTE:
“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
– Walt Whitman
