Year: 2017

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Categories Books2 Comments on Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Every day, women of all ages around the world look in the mirror and hate what they see. As women, our criticism of our bodies is often ruthless; our rolls, dimples, stretch marks, and cellulite are a reflection of our laziness, carelessness, and excesses. In an unending cycle, we hate, try to lose weight, become overwhelmed by the difficulty, give up and then start all over again. This hate is not innate; instead, it has been ingrained in us from an early age through a culture that measures the values of girls and women through their bodies, each pound gained and year aged, lowering that value.

Continue reading ➞ Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Just Kids – A Memoir by Patti Smith

Categories Books2 Comments on Just Kids – A Memoir by Patti Smith

I grew up on classical music and progressive rock. I also grew up in 1990s Venezuela, where musical cliques were so closed-off in their own lanes, it was almost considered treason to listen, or even to admit to like, anything that was considered to be outside the approved bands within the genre.  While in later years these cliques began to open up to a more general appreciation of all that could be considered “rock,” I grew up never listening or learning anything about entire genres, from pop, to soul, to hip hop, all the way to punk

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Summertime

Categories Life3 Comments on Summertime

I moved to Canada when I was 19.  It all happened because of love. I married my husband Sebastian, 21, and five days later, I left my family, my friends and my country forever.  The marriage was a condition for me to move to Quebec, Canada, where Sebastian’s family had moved a year before on a family immigration program. The day Sebastian told me that the papers from Immigration had arrived and that they would be moving in just a few months, I started crying. I didn’t cry because I knew I would be away from him; I cried because I knew right there and then that I would be leaving my family to be with him — there was no question in my heart that this was what I would do.

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Wab Kinew’s The Reason You Walk – A Memoir About Reconciliation

Categories Books2 Comments on Wab Kinew’s The Reason You Walk – A Memoir About Reconciliation

This year Canadians celebrated their 150th anniversary since Confederation. Though the Canadian Government made a great effort to celebrate this milestone anniversary, in true Canadian fashion, the date brought a lot of conflicted feelings and introspection to many Canadians. So while most of us still celebrated the extraordinary accomplishments of this country, many also took the time to reflect on our past and the historical wrongs that have been inflicted towards our Indigenous peoples.

Continue reading ➞ Wab Kinew’s The Reason You Walk – A Memoir About Reconciliation