I hadn't known about the "With These Hands" sculpture. I find it beautiful and very moving. Thank you for having shared it. One of my favorite exhibitions commemorating the enslaved people who built America is Fred Wilson's "Mining the Museum" in the Maryland Historical Society, in which Wilson was given free run of the collection to rearrange, reorder, and recontextualize in ways that highlighted the previously hidden history of the enslaved people in the region. An exhibit entitled "18th-century metal working" for example, included ornate sterling silver tea sets, along with a set of heavy iron slave shackles--connecting the enslaved people who kept the tea set shining with the normally uncontextualized display of opulence. But "With These Hands," with the gigantic hands in front of the house they likel built, takes the juxtaposition to a new level. I'm glad to know about this!
Ruth- Wonderful piece, and I didn't know about the incredible Davidson sculpture. I was the visiting writer there in the fall of 1992--which was, thank heavens, many lifetimes ago for the community. Sounds like visitors encounter a very different place these days. My first Sunday there, the KKK marched through the town and held a "rally" at a parking lot across from the college. THere were more horrified observers than Klan people (20 marchers, 25 observers--and yes, the KKK had a permit). The hatred spewed in the parking lot was old school Klan talk. I later learned that the nearby town of Mooresville was the headquarters of the KKK in NC. Don't know if this is still true or was then. (And I do NOT mean at all to implicate Davison College in this event!!)
In 1992, the college was still still newly co-ed, to the displeasure of some of the old boy trustees, and not a welcoming place for gay students, as one left the college mid-year after being harassed and not given support by the administration. I had young women students who did not want to be in co-ed dorms because they felt they had to get dolled up whenever they left their rooms--because they'd encounter males. Faculty found all of this bigotry and sexism abhorrent, and we did our best to offer other perspectives and models to the students!
The sculpture and museum sound like evidence of a different place today. How to commemorate enslaved people who built the country? Give their descendants back their voting rights--a good, if now aspirational place to start. Thank you for sharing your travels, observations, and questions.
EAT YOUR HEART OUT by Kelly deVos is a great teen novel about diet culture, fat camp and, well, zombies. It came out in 2021 and I reviewed it for Locus magazine. Here's the shorter Booklist review which does a good job of conveying how smart (and funny) the book is. You might like it!
June 2021. 352p. Razorbill, $17.99 (9780593204825). Grades 8-11.
REVIEW. First published May 15, 2021 (Booklist).
Vivian Ellenshaw is popular, beautiful, and athletic. She’s also fat, but while that’s something that seems to bother her soccer coach—who’s also, ugh, her new stepfather—it hasn’t affected her health, stopped her from being elected soccer captain, or kept her from being the life of every party, and Vivian has no intention of trying to lose weight. So she’s pretty pissed when she finds out that her stepfather’s sending her off to Camp Featherlite in Flagstaff, Arizona—a weight-loss camp—for winter break. Making matters worse is the fact that she’s headed there with Allie, her ex-best-friend and a wannabe filmmaker, who actually does seem interested in the “miracle fix” that Camp Featherlite is peddling. But their drive to Flagstaff is almost derailed by a freak blizzard, and it turns out to only be the start of the weird: the camp is quickly becoming overrun by thin, fast, hungry zombies, and Vivian, Allie, and four other teenagers may be the only survivors. If they don’t figure out a way to escape the elements and the monsters and find help, they won’t be survivors for long. The author of Fat Girl on a Plane (2018), deVos superbly blends humor and horror in this sharp-witted, high-stakes adventure that unpicks genre conventions and wades fearlessly into the dialogue surrounding fatphobia. A gory, no-holds-barred zombie story that manages to both celebrate and terrify.
I hadn't known about the "With These Hands" sculpture. I find it beautiful and very moving. Thank you for having shared it. One of my favorite exhibitions commemorating the enslaved people who built America is Fred Wilson's "Mining the Museum" in the Maryland Historical Society, in which Wilson was given free run of the collection to rearrange, reorder, and recontextualize in ways that highlighted the previously hidden history of the enslaved people in the region. An exhibit entitled "18th-century metal working" for example, included ornate sterling silver tea sets, along with a set of heavy iron slave shackles--connecting the enslaved people who kept the tea set shining with the normally uncontextualized display of opulence. But "With These Hands," with the gigantic hands in front of the house they likel built, takes the juxtaposition to a new level. I'm glad to know about this!
Ruth- Wonderful piece, and I didn't know about the incredible Davidson sculpture. I was the visiting writer there in the fall of 1992--which was, thank heavens, many lifetimes ago for the community. Sounds like visitors encounter a very different place these days. My first Sunday there, the KKK marched through the town and held a "rally" at a parking lot across from the college. THere were more horrified observers than Klan people (20 marchers, 25 observers--and yes, the KKK had a permit). The hatred spewed in the parking lot was old school Klan talk. I later learned that the nearby town of Mooresville was the headquarters of the KKK in NC. Don't know if this is still true or was then. (And I do NOT mean at all to implicate Davison College in this event!!)
In 1992, the college was still still newly co-ed, to the displeasure of some of the old boy trustees, and not a welcoming place for gay students, as one left the college mid-year after being harassed and not given support by the administration. I had young women students who did not want to be in co-ed dorms because they felt they had to get dolled up whenever they left their rooms--because they'd encounter males. Faculty found all of this bigotry and sexism abhorrent, and we did our best to offer other perspectives and models to the students!
The sculpture and museum sound like evidence of a different place today. How to commemorate enslaved people who built the country? Give their descendants back their voting rights--a good, if now aspirational place to start. Thank you for sharing your travels, observations, and questions.
Oh my goodness, what a story. The college and town are definitely a different place today!
EAT YOUR HEART OUT by Kelly deVos is a great teen novel about diet culture, fat camp and, well, zombies. It came out in 2021 and I reviewed it for Locus magazine. Here's the shorter Booklist review which does a good job of conveying how smart (and funny) the book is. You might like it!
June 2021. 352p. Razorbill, $17.99 (9780593204825). Grades 8-11.
REVIEW. First published May 15, 2021 (Booklist).
Vivian Ellenshaw is popular, beautiful, and athletic. She’s also fat, but while that’s something that seems to bother her soccer coach—who’s also, ugh, her new stepfather—it hasn’t affected her health, stopped her from being elected soccer captain, or kept her from being the life of every party, and Vivian has no intention of trying to lose weight. So she’s pretty pissed when she finds out that her stepfather’s sending her off to Camp Featherlite in Flagstaff, Arizona—a weight-loss camp—for winter break. Making matters worse is the fact that she’s headed there with Allie, her ex-best-friend and a wannabe filmmaker, who actually does seem interested in the “miracle fix” that Camp Featherlite is peddling. But their drive to Flagstaff is almost derailed by a freak blizzard, and it turns out to only be the start of the weird: the camp is quickly becoming overrun by thin, fast, hungry zombies, and Vivian, Allie, and four other teenagers may be the only survivors. If they don’t figure out a way to escape the elements and the monsters and find help, they won’t be survivors for long. The author of Fat Girl on a Plane (2018), deVos superbly blends humor and horror in this sharp-witted, high-stakes adventure that unpicks genre conventions and wades fearlessly into the dialogue surrounding fatphobia. A gory, no-holds-barred zombie story that manages to both celebrate and terrify.
Love this.
Thank you!!