TGIF!!!
I had not expected to be able to work from home today. I had several meetings that I needed to be in person for, but all but one meeting was canceled and that one meeting could be changed to a virtual meeting. So, I changed my schedule to work from home. This week has been busy and stressful for many different reasons. I tend to love for Friday to come around, but I am truly thankful this week. I need a more relaxed work from home day.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, 55 years ago today, the Stonewall Riots began. It was a momentous event for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. It certainly wasn’t the first time LGBTQ+ people stood up for their rights, but it was the spark that continued to build the flame that continues to grow, even if certain states are passing laws throwing water on those flames. We can’t let the far right and the so-called Christian Nationalist (aka fascist anti-christs) diminish the rights we have fought so hard for over the past century. (Vote blue in November, if you are in the US!) And yes, I say century because LGBTQ+ rights began its sparks in the days of the Roaring Twenties and even before then. If you are interested in learning more about Stonewall and its cause and effects, you can read more about it in a series of posts I have done in past years about what happened 55 years ago today:
Stonewall.
Behind the Scenes
Last night, I conducted four tours in two hours to about 60 high school students. That might not pound like a lot, but I talked for two hours straight. As soon as I finished with one group, the next was ready to go. At the museum, we are in the process of changing out exhibits and installing new ones, so there isn’t much to see. I had thought installations would be further along when I agreed to do the tours. So, I had to improvise and came up with the idea of giving the students a special “behind the scenes” tour. I showed the the process of transitioning from one exhibit to the next but also took them into our storage area where the majority of our collection is and show them some of our most unique items.
The kids were great, and I think they genuinely enjoyed the special “behind the scenes” tour. I think the adults who were guiding them enjoyed it just as much. Who doesn’t like being made to feel extra special, and I did my best to make sure they felt that way? And, who doesn’t like to see behind the scenes?
My new director was there because I was training her on giving tours. Someone has to do it if I’m not available, and I think everyone should be able to give tours. You never know when you’ll be the only person working in the museum when a dignitary shows up unexpectedly, and we are asked to give an impromptu tour.
I think my new director was suitably impressed, if nothing else because I was able to talk for two straight hours and at the volume of my “teacher’s voice.” I don’t often have to project my voice for that long without a break. My throat was so raw by the time we finished the tours. I’ll be lucky if I can talk today. My throat is feeling better, but there is still some lingering soreness. I wish I could take today off, but I have two very important meetings today that I can’t miss. Summer is supposed to be my slow time of year, and for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been busier than ever.
Lazy Morning
I’m getting a rare lazy morning, which is much needed after an exceptionally busy week. I won’t be going into work until around noon today. I will be working until about 8 pm tonight because I’ll be giving tours of the museum. In the meantime, I get to take it easy this morning. I’ll probably just do some reading, but whatever I do, I plan to take it easy.
I hope everyone has been having a good week. It’s half over, and I’ll be ready when this week comes to a close. I’m on two committees that are taking up nearly all my time at work leaving little time for other tasks I need to complete, but hopefully, things will slow down soon.
At the Gym
At the Gym
By Mark Doty
This salt-stain spot
marks the place where men
lay down their heads,
back to the bench,
and hoist nothing
that need be lifted
but some burden they’ve chosen
this time: more reps,
more weight, the upward shove
of it leaving, collectively,
this sign of where we’ve been:
shroud-stain, negative
flashed onto the vinyl
where we push something
unyielding skyward,
gaining some power
at least over flesh,
which goads with desire,
and terrifies with frailty.
Who could say who’s
added his heat to the nimbus
of our intent, here where
we make ourselves:
something difficult
lifted, pressed or curled,
Power over beauty,
power over power!
Though there’s something more
tender, beneath our vanity,
our will to become objects
of desire: we sweat the mark
of our presence onto the cloth.
Here is some halo
the living made together.
About the Poet
Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee, on August 10, 1953. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently Deep Lane (W. W. Norton, 2015); A Swarm, A Flock, A Host: A Compendium of Creatures(Prestel, 2013); Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins, 2008), which received the National Book Award; School of the Arts(HarperCollins, 2005); Source(HarperCollins, 2002); and Sweet Machine (HarperCollins, 1998). Other collections include Atlantis(HarperCollins, 1995), which received the Ambassador Book Award, the Bingham Poetry Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award; My Alexandria (University of Illinois Press, 1993), chosen by Philip Levine for the National Poetry Series, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and Britain’s T. S. Eliot Prize, and a National Book Award finalist; Bethlehem in Broad Daylight (D.R. Godine, 1991); and Turtle, Swan (D.R. Godine, 1987).
In 2010, Graywolf Press published Doty’s collection of essays on poetry titled The Art of Description: World into Word, in which Doty asserts that “poetry concretizes the singular, unrepeatable moment; it hammers out of speech a form for how it feels to be oneself.”
Doty is also a noted memoirist. In 2020, he published What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life (W. W. Norton), in which he traces his own experiences alongside those of Whitman, in the context of the elder poet’s creation of his best-known work, Leaves of Grass. In 1996, Doty released Heaven’s Coast (HarperCollins), which received the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. His other memoirs are Dog Years (HarperCollins, 2007); Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy (Beacon Press, 2000); and Firebird (HarperCollins, 1999). He has also edited The Best American Poetry 2012.
Doty has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Whiting Foundation. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2011 to 2016.
Doty has taught at the University of Houston and is currently serving as a distinguished writer at Rutgers University. He lives in New York City.
Not Ready
I am not ready for it to be Monday, and I was not ready for Isabella to wake me up. I’m not sure what time she began trying to wake me, but I refused to get up before 5 am. I’m trying to train her, but I suspect it will be a futile attempt. She can be extremely stubborn.
Whether I’m ready for it or not, Monday is here, and I have to go to work. It’s going to be a very busy week. The current exhibit in the museum will be coming down, so we will all be busy helping with that. In addition to that, I’m on two hiring committees for jobs in another department, and we have a slate of virtual interviews for the second position (we did virtual interviews for the other one last week). I also have to call references for one of last week’s candidates. On top of all that, I have some evening tours to do. It’s going to be a busy week, and I’m just not ready for it.
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