tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73227556512766942872024-03-14T10:38:55.655-07:00Poetic IllustrationsPoetic Illustrations is a “book dedicated to monumental immigrants in America who have tectonically shifted the landscape of their respected profession for the betterment of the United States. In lieu of an overabundance of negative rhetoric about and towards America's immigrants, this book is a breath of fresh air showcasing their true disposition.”
- Reza Khanzadeh
Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-77451669505624360382019-05-27T16:17:00.002-07:002019-05-27T16:17:45.919-07:00Ramadan: More than just fasting<img alt="Image result for ramadan mubarak 2019" height="355" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2019/05/ramadan-ramzan.jpg?w=759&h=422&imflag=true" width="640" /><br />
Picture source: <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/happy-ramadan-2019-ramzan-mubarak-wishes-images-quotes-status-wallpaper-messages-greetings-photos-sms-and-pics-5711270/">https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/happy-ramadan-2019-ramzan-mubarak-wishes-images-quotes-status-wallpaper-messages-greetings-photos-sms-and-pics-5711270/</a><br />
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Today is May 26, 2019. I am writing during the month of Ramadan. A holy month for Muslims (followers of Islam) to fast, pray and reflect. Ramadan falls on the lunar calendar (instead of using solar calendar--the sun; the moon is used to measure the passage of time). Therefor, each year Ramadan starts and ends on different days. This year the starting date was May 5, 2019 and ends on June 4, 2019. In order to be able to fast, you must hit the age of puberty! You cannot fast if you are pregnant, medically ill, or on medication. You must be healthy, since the process can take a lot of your energy. I wanted to walk you through my day of fasting. First, Ramadan is not just about fasting, it is more about self reflection. Introspective, of how to be a better human being in our community; locally and globally.<br />
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Last night I was up until 2 AM, drinking water and snacking on fruit. It is really difficult to have a meal at 2 AM, especially when you are half asleep. The latest that I could eat a meal last night was 3:58 AM, which means that my fasting begins at 3:58 AM (when the sun is rising). How do I know this? I'll be honest, my brother helps me out with this part. He emails us the schedule with the dates and times of when to break fast, prayer times, and when the sun rises. He obtains a copy of the schedule from a local mosque (which can be obtained online). So usually my last meal of some sort, is about midnight. I do not wake up until 6 AM. When I wake up, I am not allowed to drink my hot tea, or eat my bagel, or even put chap-stick on my lips.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for dates and tea for ramadan" src="https://img.timesnownews.com/story/1557054536-dates_khajoor.PNG?d=600x450" /><br />
Pic source: <a href="https://www.timesnownews.com/health/article/ramazan-special-health-benefits-of-eating-khajoor-or-dates-popular-ramadan-food/413091">https://www.timesnownews.com/health/article/ramazan-special-health-benefits-of-eating-khajoor-or-dates-popular-ramadan-food/413091</a><br />
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I head out to work, to see my patients throughout the day. The first week was very difficult. I could not focus or concentrate, so I had to pace myself a bit. But as time passed, it became easier. The entire day is without food or water. No drinks of any sorts. Not even gum, or hard candy. This is to reflect on what we have and be appreciative. This is to reflect on the many people in this world that do not have clean water to drink, or food to eat. This is to reflect on not wasting food, and to eat the small portion that our body needs. In the time of fasting, it is not just about the food and water, as I mentioned before. You reflect on how to be a better person. For example, no lying, cheating, or engaging in verbal or physical acts that are harmful to yourself and others.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for inside a mosque" height="320" src="https://mvslim.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mosque.jpg" width="640" /><br />
Pic source: <a href="https://mvslim.com/iranian-mosque-will-amaze-beautiful-islamic-architecture/">https://mvslim.com/iranian-mosque-will-amaze-beautiful-islamic-architecture/</a><br />
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It is a time to be kind. Love others and give back to your community. It is a time to appreciate the goodness in your life. To send peace to all mankind; friends and foe. So today, on May 26, 2019 Sunday at 11:05 AM I am working on running errands, then I will do my prayer. The fast breaks at 8:46 PM (each day the time moves later in the night). I plan to go to my mother's home to break fast with some yummy food. We typically start off with either hot water, hot tea and a date. The Prophet Mohammad would break his fast with dates, and water. Before eating, you do a prayer. A prayer for the living (to be healthy, strong and have inner peace) and for the dead (to rest in peace and watch over us). Then at 8:46 PM, we eat. Tonight, on the menu, Ghorme Sabzi! My favorite :)<br />
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The picture below of a traditional meal in any Iranian household that is about to break fast. To all, Ramadan Mobarak!!<br />
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<img alt="Image result for ghormeh sabzi iranian sofreh" height="640" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f1/ea/c1/f1eac17b65bd6762c20f786f9a6c0ad5.jpg" width="512" /><br />
pic source: <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/509891989054612118/">https://www.pinterest.com/pin/509891989054612118/</a><br />
<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-54453390589924242522019-05-03T10:25:00.001-07:002019-05-04T05:21:28.310-07:00May: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Source: drectionasia.com)</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Addressing Stereotypes in Celebration of Culture</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">May: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In our household we talk often about the many cultures represented throughout the United States and the impact they've made on us personally as a family, and within the history of this country. We have a diverse family. We are from: South Korea, India, Switzerland, Haiti, different parts of the UK, and many other countries. We are a mixed bag around here. We lovingly embrace our unique ethnic roots. We assign ourselves the responsibility to honor the customs associated with the cultures who make us who we are, though we know that our versions are a mere adaptation of the true fashion likely celebrated in the mother or father lands of our fore-mothers and fathers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of our sons is part South Korean, and his father is adopted. I am part Swiss, so this gives our son pale skin and freckles, while also granting him Asian features. He has always naturally taken to Asian culture and has long had a taste for flavors of the Orient. As a baby he loved raw Tofu. As a young man he is quite adept at using chop sticks and longs to learn more about his culture and who might have been his family in South Korea had his dad been raised overseas. He often questions why Asian culture is ridiculed and mocked so heavily in American culture and is regularly frustrated by how The United States and our culture here in the states utilizes stereotyping normalities to depict Asians and Asian culture. He has experienced a shift in how he is treated or how others address him once they realize that he is Asian. Our eldest daughter has similar experiences, which she laughs at and shirks off the surprise over, when friends learn that her dad is Asian though she is caucasian. She has gotten somewhat use to the bewildered look of an attempt to seek recognition of Asian traits within her features. They won't be found! She describes herself as, "painfully pale" and explains that she is half adopted. Further confusion carries on, which allows for an entirely different form of humor to be enjoyed. But alas, I digress. Our son actually looks a great deal like his sister, and together they are rarely mistaken for anything other than siblings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We contradict Ernie from Sesame Street quite often. Though as the lyrics say "One of these things is not like the other" in lieu of the intention of the song which points out that different things don't belong together, we are more along the lines of the Randy Newman melody from Toy Story, "We Belong Together". W</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">e have a wide cultural dynamic. We stick out from a mile away. Wen turn heads pretty much wherever we go. We are definitely not like one another, but we absolutely do belong together. Given that we are so different from one another, we do engage in discussions about the variety of cultures we come from regularly. In a recent conversation with my son Leo we discussed some common misinterpretations regarding Asians that he would like to address.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some of the examples that came up in conversation are the following: </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The perception that all Asian people are good at math. For some reason this is seen as a code of honor or a badge of cultural requirement for all Asians. There are, however, just like any other culture, people of Asian descent who struggle with this subject just as they might struggle with any other subject they are being taught in school. If you are Asian and you struggle in math, welcome to the club! You’re not alone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Take a look at the following article: You're Asian, How Could you Fail Math?! You're not Alone! By Wayne Au and Benji Chang</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/you-re-asian-how-could-fail-math">https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/you-re-asian-how-could-fail-mat</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Another stereotype discussed is that of the almond shaped eye, which is referred to in the tackiest of ways with fairly degrading words which I’ll refrain from using. As his mother, with absolutely no Asian heritage in my background, I too have almond shaped eyes. Yet I have never once had the unfortunate experience of having someone refer to my eyes in such an appalling manner. So let’s all consider abandoning the use of degrading and pejorative terms, and stick with something more appropriate such as, “You have your father’s eyes!”. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Source: vetorstock.com)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The concept that all Asians are small is a bit interesting. Similarly to any continent, Asia is not one country, but 48 countries. Countries like Russia, Turkey, Siberia, and Southern India are just a few that are located on the continent of Asia. So perhaps this misconception should be reconsidered. Researching the average height of the Northern Chinese population should turn those assumptions around quickly! </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The idea that a country’s population is represented by its government! This is a BIG one. For instance, orth-K orea-K’s (use of Pig Latin is totally applicable here because we don’t want to boost the tag’s) population continues to needlessly suffer under the tyranny of a dictator. They languish in a post-war era, just over the border from a free South Korea where family members of loved ones torn apart by the division of the war must carry on with life with little to no knowledge of what has become of their loved ones in the north. The perception that those in the North agree with the political leanings of the Dictator who suppress them is nothing shy of absurd. It would be just as flagrant to assume that our entire country follows the political decisions of each president we elect. We know that is certainly not true based on how partisan and divided our political system tends to be. Based on who we elect our country shifts wildly from left to right like a teeter totter with one side or the other winding up in arms over the decisions made while a president holds power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Among the many cultures represented in our home we have notes of Asian decor from tapestries to antiques, tea kettles and his and hers tables, coins and carvings, a blanket handmade and given to my husband with the South Korean flag adorned on it. We don’t attend formal ceremonies, and neither my husband nor my son speak the language, but we are proud of their heritage and are happy to learn more when we come in contact with those who have traveled to or have lived in South Korea. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Source: governor.pa.gov)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is important for not only those who come from Asia to celebrate the heritage of Asian culture, but for our country to embrace and honor the history of our cultures. The celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage month began with Representative Frank Horton from New York, and Representative Norman Y. Mineta from California. These representatives initially brought forth a 1977 House resolution that Asian Pacific Heritage should be celebrated. Their resolution suggested a celebration during the first ten days of May.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">May was chosen as a significant month of choice for a few reasons: In observation of the first Japanese immigrants to come to the United States on May 7, 1843. Additionally in celebration of the work done by Chinese immigrants who laid tracks in the transcontinental railroad system, which was completed on May 10, 1869. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Following their House resolution, during the month of June 1977 Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii brought forth a Senate bill, later passed by President Carter. In October, 1978 the joint resolutions passed and the tradition was upheld.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">After a 1990 bill was signed into law in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush, and the month of May became the official month we dedicated to celebrate on behalf of Asian and Pacific Island Americans. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Source: imdiversity.com)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Asia has played a significant contributory role in our nation’s history. It should not be underestimated that our allies from the Orient have long been undervalued and mistreated in our society. We are right to honor the relationship we have with this region filled with ancient wisdom. Perhaps as we grow, and with time, we will understand how lucky we are in having had such a beautiful mentor in this cherished jewel filled with a myriad of splendor and vibrant culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This piece was a collaboration between my son Leo and I.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://asianpacificheritage.org/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">asianpacificheritage.org</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://worldometers.info/geography">worldometers.info/geography</a></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Source: diversitystore.com)</td></tr>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-43422238642897458622019-04-10T16:10:00.000-07:002019-04-10T17:22:55.127-07:00Forced Relocation of A Continent of People<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>"<span style="caret-color: rgb(40, 27, 33); color: #281b21; font-family: , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">315 years. 20,528 voyages. Millions of lives."</span></b></span></div>
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The Trans-Atlantic Slave Route and the gory details of hundreds of years of slavery have been considerably consolidated and meticulously captured in the following impressive video thanks <i>Slate's</i> Andrew Kahn.<br />
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Sometimes, fewer words are better. Watching this speaks volumes for itself. Please read the details in the article in this link pertaining to the information contained in the video, for instance how Mr. Kahn designed each dot representing an individual ship to be interactive. A viewer can click on each dot to see relevant information regarding the ship such as the country of origin, flag, and destination.<br />
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<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/06/animated_interactive_of_the_history_of_the_atlantic_slave_trade.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_fb_top&fbclid=IwAR3htiF9aBJiP7p-w3GEOFiAiguHqT5O_v3lhmg-f47WjYeYGVYNcUmb9Vk" target="_blank">315 years. 20,528 voyages. Millions of lives. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.</a></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-88827015723647412302019-03-17T06:34:00.001-07:002019-03-17T06:34:22.330-07:00St. Patrick's Day in America<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source:OnSuttonPlace.Com</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/st-patricks-life-kidnapping-catholic</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">St. Patrick Day is an annual religious celebration intended to celebrate the death of St. Patrick. It has been celebrated for over 1,000 years.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> At the age of 16, Patrick was </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">kidnapped and brought
to Ireland as a slave.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">He eventually escaped. At a later time, he returned to Ireland and introduced Christianity to its people.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is said that he used the three leaf clover, known as the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to the people.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is believed that St. Patrick died on March
17, 461.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The Irish</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> celebrate St.
Patrick’s life and death by attending morning mass services followed by a feast with
family and friends in the evening.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States was held on March 17, 1762 in New York City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched to traditional Irish music. Over the following 35 years, a flood of
Irish Immigrants poured into America to escape starvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Overwhelmingly, the Irish immigrants settling in the United States were not accepted and respected, but rather disparaged and disrespected. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Unfortunately our American media portrayed Irish immigrants in the cartoons as "drunks" according to History.com. In 1948 President Truman attended a parade, which was a significant moment for many Irish Americans. After many adverse experiences in the immigration process, the President's presence was noteworthy, and appreciated by many. It was a sign that their struggle was not going unnoticed and that they were welcome by the leader of our union.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Image result for irish immigration" height="359" src="https://r.hswstatic.com/w_907/gif/now-4b661f37-edd5-4209-9f39-b384807a16eb-1210-680.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Source: <span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.5333333611488342px;">https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/when-irish-immigrants-werent-considered-white.htm</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span>In Ireland St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday. Many of the pubs were closed by law until 1995 when a campaign was launched to increase tourism by showing Irish culture to the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.5333333611488342px;">In the United States there are approximately one hundred parades held annually. New York City and Boston hold the largest celebrations. The New York City parade </span></span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4pt;">involves
150,000 participants, and nearly 3 million Americans line up to watch it in person.</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4pt;">Thank you to the Irish immigrants that
have introduced St. Patrick’s Day to American culture! May the luck of the Irish be with us all!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Image result for st. patrick's parade new york" height="404" src="https://www.irishnews.com/picturesarchive/irishnews/irishnews/2016/03/07/153910359-0cd0362e-0be4-42b1-8cb7-4a3fe62442fd.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Source: <span style="color: #181818; letter-spacing: 0.5333330035209656px;">http://www.irishnews.com/news/2016/03/08/news/new-york-st-patrick-s-day-parade-to-be-broadcast-in-ireland-and-uk-442339</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; letter-spacing: 0.4pt;">Information Resource: </span><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4pt;">https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Irish Blessings:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9U_ZDqkGFpyFX96vaHNUcimfyQFWvx6nCGaGFSYXBSxm8wdVlwnaikOqzIvRM_fJR1bL9D-ezYDRm9HmrRVu6y_G7tWNmoVz7AP8YqEHAfUUONMiEI7U5aLrJW0u6ju8mhYVj2hvFIA/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9U_ZDqkGFpyFX96vaHNUcimfyQFWvx6nCGaGFSYXBSxm8wdVlwnaikOqzIvRM_fJR1bL9D-ezYDRm9HmrRVu6y_G7tWNmoVz7AP8YqEHAfUUONMiEI7U5aLrJW0u6ju8mhYVj2hvFIA/s320/Unknown.jpeg" width="228" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Source: TheIrishGiftHouse.Com</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMWlG6Z1o2p27GpqSNRthmHtGi4x0r0MrxB6aLasTIKFvuDbGe_LfvgBSP1pkJyzGpoh33p2Z3H9WuYRVnLCvtSvi-ocoKkQbm75XI-kdhUJIzDTGZ5SKmnCOUTZnZXqbstfhJThiPw/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMWlG6Z1o2p27GpqSNRthmHtGi4x0r0MrxB6aLasTIKFvuDbGe_LfvgBSP1pkJyzGpoh33p2Z3H9WuYRVnLCvtSvi-ocoKkQbm75XI-kdhUJIzDTGZ5SKmnCOUTZnZXqbstfhJThiPw/s320/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="216" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Source:AllPosters.Com</span></td></tr>
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-3636872351994304452019-03-08T03:57:00.000-08:002019-03-08T03:57:19.013-08:00Women's History Month<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (Picture resource: https://bilderbeste.com/foto/womens-history-c9.html)</span></div>
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I had to do
some major research on Women’s History Month (March) to write a blog about
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here is a quick timeline:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>1911—International Women’s
Day established on March 8<sup>th</sup></li>
<li>1978—School district of
Sonoma, California began to celebrate Women’s History Week starting March 8<sup style="text-indent: -0.25in;">th</sup></li>
<li>1982—The week of March 8<sup style="text-indent: -0.25in;">th</sup><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
was declared by President Carter as “National Women’s History Week”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1986—14 states declared
March as Women’s History Month</span></li>
<li>1987—Congress passed Pub.
L. 100-9 which declared March as “Women’s History Month”</li>
</ul>
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I see the
timeline, and I realize that it has only been 32 years since Women’s History
Month has been declared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This month is a
very special month for Jen and I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
only because we are working women, but we are mothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have this joke of “how many plates are up
in the air today?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to our
personal and work life, we are collaborating on a book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this book, we have come across many strong
ladies!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From all walks of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just to name a few:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li> Ruza Wenclawska</li>
<li>Ana Mendieta</li>
<li>Alicia Partnoy</li>
<li>Shoshana Johnson</li>
<li>Pailadzo Captanian</li>
</ul>
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This list
can go on, and on, and on!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of the women represented in our
book are heroes in our eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all
have some traits in common;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>determination, dedication, devotion, ambition, and no fear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The poem I have written is celebrating all
the women that have sacrificed or set aside their dreams and goals for their
partner and family to succeed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
poem is dedicated to the ladies that are the backbone and spine of the family, without
fear or any hesitation, they do!<o:p></o:p></div>
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i will manage
the rails<o:p></o:p></div>
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as you sail
the sea.<o:p></o:p></div>
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i will be
the leader,<o:p></o:p></div>
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placing anchors
on the rock<o:p></o:p></div>
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as you follow
me up<o:p></o:p></div>
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to the
mountain top.<o:p></o:p></div>
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i would be
your shield,<o:p></o:p></div>
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protecting <o:p></o:p></div>
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and covering
you from <o:p></o:p></div>
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the pain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I will lift
you up <o:p></o:p></div>
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with a song,<o:p></o:p></div>
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with a soft
melody.<o:p></o:p></div>
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bring you
down, to stay calm<o:p></o:p></div>
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when you are
angry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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wake you in
the morning <o:p></o:p></div>
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with a tea,<o:p></o:p></div>
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as we close
the night<o:p></o:p></div>
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with a sweet
kiss from me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-43719580281044758932019-02-20T17:39:00.002-08:002019-02-20T17:39:08.228-08:00Immigration Laws, American Dreams & Nightmares<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
The United States has long offered a golden opportunity. The promise of opportunity and safety for those who seek a new life by traveling to our borders and our shores. A hope to have a life of happiness with the ability to thrive. A chance to contribute to a community giving to them.</div>
<div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
It is what we call The American Dream.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUdvN0AbUV5aycGTw8Xrkh3M0M0apHMJYsQBxM-iJs6MR5DvfjWYypkCM7jeSy6UnAq9mE1nWzQD9hwOR_KP4iIzbz4evVfcNWwx11iequ5OtDWwVpA7oqoz0-EM6a1yIRyv4ePZv8g/s1600/Coat+of+Arms+%2528American-Historama.org%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUdvN0AbUV5aycGTw8Xrkh3M0M0apHMJYsQBxM-iJs6MR5DvfjWYypkCM7jeSy6UnAq9mE1nWzQD9hwOR_KP4iIzbz4evVfcNWwx11iequ5OtDWwVpA7oqoz0-EM6a1yIRyv4ePZv8g/s200/Coat+of+Arms+%2528American-Historama.org%2529.jpeg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: American-Historama.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What has happened to that dream? The United States policies on immigration have changed over the years, particularly regarding refugees, unauthorized immigrants, and in supposed attempt to thwart terrorists from entering our country. Since the inception of the United States, limits have been placed on immigration. Favoritism is often placed on European immigrants. In 1965 a new law made it possible for immigrants to enter the United States from many countries worldwide. In recent years attempts have been made to drastically reduce immigration from certain countries, step up or enforce penalizations, and many in our country support the building of a wall at our southern border. In many ways, it feels like we are stepping backward in time in lieu of progressing.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvh0e0EHfdtoQFfM9QHFoCikwtaaTg-4je8JEnKoTkGFE5yQVhLyHmogz4rPVGYB5T74ZWDr_tSf2YjW5hwo34p2jk8LHn53qTxeuA97T7edvXae9MtzpX8kuOK06K6BnH_eaAbD75nA/s1600/U.S.+Customs+%2526+Border+Protection+%2528Security+Today.com%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="306" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvh0e0EHfdtoQFfM9QHFoCikwtaaTg-4je8JEnKoTkGFE5yQVhLyHmogz4rPVGYB5T74ZWDr_tSf2YjW5hwo34p2jk8LHn53qTxeuA97T7edvXae9MtzpX8kuOK06K6BnH_eaAbD75nA/s320/U.S.+Customs+%2526+Border+Protection+%2528Security+Today.com%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: SecurityToday.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Our country has acted on and implemented a similar type of policy in the past. During World War II when millions of families faced peril at the hands of hatred, they humbly asked for safe harbor in foreign nations. While many were granted that kindness, hundreds of thousands were instead denied. Some were even turned away when they arrived on ships just off shore and were informed by immigration officials that their documentation was denied, their ships were returned to their origin, and many met their grim fate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The immigration laws here in the United States have been through quite a few changes since their inception. Under President Harding in 1921, The Emergency Quota Act resulted in the enforcement of immigration quotas on Ellis Island. The quota was not enforced at US consulates, however, resulting in a monthly passenger ship rush known as a “midnight race”. Passengers would attempt to reach Ellis Island within the monthly quota. A few years later Congress passed an additional law called the Immigration Act of 1924, or the Johnson-Reed Act. It was also called the National Origins Act, which was intended to solve the “midnight races” issues. This become a permanent immigration law. The Johnson-Reed Act was rather discriminatory and selective in nature. It required that all documentation be presented abroad, resulting in the receipt of visas for travel to the United States from embassies and consulates prior to travel to the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In 1929 the immigration quota was further reduced by a cap. A series of laws in the 1930’s based on “national origin” limited the number of immigrants who could enter our country. When Jewish refugees tried to flee the Nazi’s, these laws largely prevented their safe harbor in our country. Given that many may not have had family established in the United States at the time, they had no one to vouch for them for the immigration process. Complicating their attempts to apply for refuge, at the time, the term “refugee” had no legal standing under our laws. Thus, Jewish refugees were at a particularly difficult disadvantage when applying to the United States. If the odds weren’t stacked against them enough, American citizens were struggling with the complications caused by the Great Depression, and a general anti-immigrant sentiment plagued our country due to fears that immigrants may take the few available jobs from struggling American families. Regardless of how much time has passed, some things remain the same.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The story of Anne Frank is likely known by many. I use it as an example of the time as it is a sadly it allows for a comparison and chronology of events that match up with a family that followed the process, submitted all of the proper documentation, and should have qualified to immigrate to the United States at the time. If only someone had taken the time to look at their documents. Their story illuminates how we as a nation failed during this period. Our quota system, and our fear failed this family and many more like them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Born Annelies Marie Frank, on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany Anne was a young jewish girl with her whole life ahead of her. That was, until the rise of Hitler. She was given a diary and she loved to write in it. She became known posthumously through the publication of her diary. Her writings have been read world wide and serve as a voice of many lost to the Holocaust. Anne wrote about her experience as one of eight people hiding in an attic space for two years before being found by the Germans during the occupation of the Netherlands.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlGywNXwBsOhNon0pRgXELUXn8hqCeeD9hxmaq2prv2kElLdpyJnZeEGxwwXOMz7EHs1xYL47vrZOs3PDxVh1pzV11KRM_8BHeMgd_WjeiAwZQhp1Z6KhL-2jWkyXpsUb4n78o68d8IQ/s1600/Anne+Frank+%2528annefrank.org%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="207" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlGywNXwBsOhNon0pRgXELUXn8hqCeeD9hxmaq2prv2kElLdpyJnZeEGxwwXOMz7EHs1xYL47vrZOs3PDxVh1pzV11KRM_8BHeMgd_WjeiAwZQhp1Z6KhL-2jWkyXpsUb4n78o68d8IQ/s200/Anne+Frank+%2528annefrank.org%2529.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: AnneFrank.org</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0K0NyJSaSwGZGUruhff1iFdadU36tcDNTCzoq5XXhqnhjGEslKPRx8YYPTirVH44U30F2fr4HAPJEBWm3jgGWw_mHenRYMhHJ8mKhk42j3QiWfoc6PCPCVXQJn_O_a8GM_CbZZuwqZQ/s1600/Anne+Frank+diary+page+%2528web.annefrank.org%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="296" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0K0NyJSaSwGZGUruhff1iFdadU36tcDNTCzoq5XXhqnhjGEslKPRx8YYPTirVH44U30F2fr4HAPJEBWm3jgGWw_mHenRYMhHJ8mKhk42j3QiWfoc6PCPCVXQJn_O_a8GM_CbZZuwqZQ/s320/Anne+Frank+diary+page+%2528web.annefrank.org%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: AnneFrank.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Public anti-anti-immigrant sentiment remained fairly high, and the U.S. Congress tried to pass several bills to aid refugees, but none passed. Applicants seeking admission to the United States had to go through an increased level of procedural steps. A new “relatives rule” was introduced. It required required the submission of sworn affidavits of support from family members living stateside on behalf of applicants intending to seek visas. Additionally, vetted formal personal affidavits and two financial records, fees paid in full, and all personal documentation supplied as requested such as: birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc. The U.S. State Department centralized the alien application process on July 1, 1941 through the visa control office in Washington DC. All alien applications were reviewed by: the Visa Division, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, Military Intelligence Division of the War Department, and the Navy Department’s Office of Naval Intelligence. For many, this new process meant the end of their attempts to enter the United States to seek refuge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Otto Frank, Anne’s father tried desperately to obtain visas for his family to travel to the United States to escape the brutality of the gestapo. He later explained the steps he took and the heartbreak he felt when a 1940 bombing of the Rotterdam Consulate destroyed everything he submitted with the applications he submitted in 1938 for his family. None of the original documents he had supplied for a sponsored visa application could be recovered. All of them were original birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc. In desperation, Otto took further steps in hopes that a friend who was in charge of the United States Housing Department might be able to help him as he was also a mutual friend of both Eleanor Roosevelt and Nathan Straus Jr., the son of a co-owner in the department store Macy’s. Even with these rather impressive connections, Otto eventually found himself hiding his family in an annexed apartment at 263 Prinsengracht for two years until the fateful day when the Germans found them, separated his family, and sent them all to concentration camps.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoksLheirAVcqLBXcHqBMeQ_ey5PK4_Pb0DEOKlfWY3cMAwX44qrWvbaHz4iU-fu2Y2T9iCMcusf_gj5SNhKuG8Qz1z7wK9fHKMTUb-JLBjwfWuI0E_JW7hyOq7zko4Ie96ufpVUMTA/s1600/Anne+Frank+House+%2528Anne+Frank+Guide.net%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="224" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoksLheirAVcqLBXcHqBMeQ_ey5PK4_Pb0DEOKlfWY3cMAwX44qrWvbaHz4iU-fu2Y2T9iCMcusf_gj5SNhKuG8Qz1z7wK9fHKMTUb-JLBjwfWuI0E_JW7hyOq7zko4Ie96ufpVUMTA/s320/Anne+Frank+House+%2528Anne+Frank+Guide.net%2529.jpeg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Anne Frank House,<br />Amsterdam, Netherlands<br /> Source: AnneFrankGuide.net</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGAxATYoSoc6Rml97SlZkHXCZfnkOLmWWouGXMKaKHq667fzHr_o-utjs3Ozh3Y06xxuNCoB_nGEPEFVPg3IhwYaWaoDmHYRtKgsKZ8Fx9zAJ6SNm_z2hPnY6SICQ9vU0H7RPauqoNA/s1600/The+Hidden+Annex+%2528Electric+Literature.com%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGAxATYoSoc6Rml97SlZkHXCZfnkOLmWWouGXMKaKHq667fzHr_o-utjs3Ozh3Y06xxuNCoB_nGEPEFVPg3IhwYaWaoDmHYRtKgsKZ8Fx9zAJ6SNm_z2hPnY6SICQ9vU0H7RPauqoNA/s320/The+Hidden+Annex+%2528Electric+Literature.com%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hidden annex, accessed behind a bookcase<br />Source:ElectricLiterature.com</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">With fears rising as Hitler’s regime spread across Europe, The U.S. government started to question if Jewish refugees were a security risk, and an anti-immigrant sentiment developed overall. So much so that dwindling quotas even went unfilled. Why were we filled with so much fear that we didn’t allow families to fill these quotas? A file like that of the Frank family sat for two years after it had been submitted for review abroad, and our quotas were still open and could have accepted more numbers. So many people lost their lives while we let bureaucracy dictate decisions of morality.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">After being discovered, Anne spent the last year of her life in a concentration camp prior to her death at the age of fifteen. It is unknown whether she passed away in February or March of 1945 of Typhus. She spent her final days at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp without her diary. Anne’s father Otto was the only survivor of the eight people living in the attic space who were sent to the concentration camps. He returned to the attic and found Anne’s diary. The home located at Prinsengracht 263, where the secret annex is located, is now a museum dedicated to the memory and the life of Anne Frank.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank<br />Source: AnneFrank.org</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is sadly a great bit of similarity between the nature of what Otto and his family went through in the process of trying to obtain visas to enter our country to flee the Nazi’s, the climate of fear around national security and immigrants and today’s tone on immigrants. It is for this reason that I wanted to draw the comparison to this story and point out why we have our current day refugee laws. It is important that we honor the history that has given us insight, and not abandon what we have learned from it. We should not repeat it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Six million European Jews were killed and hundreds of thousands more suffered from deplorable conditions in concentration camps or from the diseases they suffered from subhuman care they experienced during their time hiding from the Gestapo, Hitler’s military force.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">After World War II roughly only about 5% of the American public indicated a willingness to allow for additional immigrants. Even with photographic documentation and proof of the atrocities inflicted upon the Jews at the hands of the gestapo. President Truman took it upon himself to solve the issues Congress and the American public weren’t capable or willing to agree upon themselves. He established the “Truman Directive”, which allowed for the issuance of priority visas under a set of provisions within the existing quota system. Most of the visas issued between December 1945 through July 1948 were to people of Jewish decent coming in from Europe after the Holocaust.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of a Petition for Naturalization document<br />Source: TimeToast.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The establishment of The International Refugee Organization (IRO), which was eventually taken over by the United Nations Commission on Refugees in 1951, which originated in 1946, and was implemented in 1948, was intended to help victims of displacement find their loved ones. The Displaced Persons Act, supported hesitantly by President Truman in 1948, allowed for up to 200,000 people displaced by conflict around the world to enter the United States. Additionally, it allowed for up to 50% of the unused remainder of the quota spaces to be filled by displaced applicants. Truman’s criticism of the bill was warranted. It focused primarily on applicants from Germany, Australia, and Italy. Excluding Jews and displaced people who had been in zones of Gestapo occupation. Congress later made an amendment to the bill. Geographical and chronological information that would have discriminated against people of Jewish descent was removed from the bill. Between 1948 and 1952 nearly 800,000 Jewish applicants entered the United States under The Displaced Persons Act.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The international community recognized the term refugee and gave it a specific legal status under international law at the 1951 Refugee Convention. A refugee was henceforth described as, “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear is unwilling to return to it.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The 1951 Convention further defined a refugee’s rights as the following, “Refugees are granted the right to work, to housing, to education, to public assistance, to freedom of movement within the territory, and cannot be punished for illegal entry. Under Article 33, known as the “non-refoulement” provision, refugees cannot be returned against there will to a place in which they would be endangered, In exchange refugees must abide by the laws and regulations of the country of asylum. Those who have committed crimes against peace, war crimes, or non-political crimes outside of their country of refuge, are not eligible for refugee status.” These worldwide protective practices were expanded in 1967.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The United States opted to pass its own laws regarding refugees. In lieu of signing the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, in 1953 the Refugee Act defined a refugee as an “escapee” (fleeing communism), or an “expellee” (Ex: an ethnic German). This legislation was set to expire in 1956. Under President Johnson, in 1956, the Immigration and Nationality Act, or the Hart-Celler Act eliminated the “national origins” which complicated the quota system and now allowed for immigrants from southern European countries as well as from the continents of Asia and Africa to immigrate to The United States. This act allowed for 6% of the visas issued annually to be allocated among those escaping from a multitude of situations, including natural disasters. For this reason it resulted in refugees and immigrants to remain in one category under the immigration law structure.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Gates Quote, Source: DoubleQuotes.net</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“Parole” directives were issues by Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson in 1958 and 1966 to assist Hungarian and Cuban refugees fleeing turbulent uprising in their countries, and in 1975 and 1977 Presidents Ford and Carter advocated for the assistance of several hundred thousand Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees to enter the United States. Many would later become US residents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The United States Congress responded to the international community by passing the 1980 Refugee Act stating it, “is the historic policy of the United States to respond to the urgent needs of persons subject to persecution in their homelands.” It further explained how the United States would go about following the United National Refugee Protocol. The United States had finally collectively caught up with President Truman’s example. Between 1980 and 2018 roughly 3,000,000 refugees have been allowed safe harbor in the United States. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Emblem<br />Source:Fornarolaw.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If a young Anne Frank could believe that something good could be found in even the most hardened of souls doing the worst humankind could think; we as a people should honor and care for others from the most beautiful place within us, the heart. Like Anne did. We can open our gates and our homes, place another chair at the table, and another glass can be filled. Those who are in peril today may be those who help us tomorrow. Today we feed our friends, tomorrow they may feed us. We orbit the sun together. We are all of the human race.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">"It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality," Anne Frank wrote in 1944 in her diary, which helped personalize the tragedies experienced by millions of Jews. "It's a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">- Anne Frank</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sources: </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/.../united-states-immigration-and-refugee-law-1921-1</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/anne-frank-family-escape-usa.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/the-short-life-anne-frank/</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/anne-frank-1</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/24/anne-frank-and-her-family-were-also-denied-entry-as-refugees-to-the-u-s/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4a3b6aba5539</span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-60258138163819506752019-02-01T09:14:00.001-08:002019-02-01T09:14:22.122-08:00Peace & LoveI discussed with Jen last week through our regular daily text, that I would love to do a blog topic of our other passions. Particularly <i>peace </i>and <i>love. </i> Jen and I strongly believe in those two small words. These minuscule words carry intense and heavy connotation. We both have strong conviction that it is these words, emotions and behaviors that will change humanity. That will lead us to treat one another with respect and dignity. There are two months in the calendar year that reflects these two words. Guess what the month is for Love? February? how did you guess? Each February, Jen creates amazing valentine cards. These are not just any cards, they are hand-made and tailored to the ones she loves. She does not ask anything in return, no expectation. Just spreading the love out. As you can see below, lots of love goes into her hearts. Now you are probably wondering what month is for peace. Peace is in September. To be exact, it is September 21st. It is the International Day of Peace holiday, as it is recognized by the United Nations. During this holiday, the goal is for all to seize fire, put away their weapons, their harmful and hurtful words, and to not swing their fists at one another. During this day, we embrace, love, support, cherish, and guide one another. For past two years, I have asked for volunteers to be "peace ambassadors." Each of the ambassadors receive 10 hand-made doves to pass out to others. This year the target goal of making 300 doves total with 30 ambassadors!<br />
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Jen and I had a strong faith and belief in both peace and love. In doing this book, we want for those words to be illustrated, not only in the art work but within the words of the poems. We want the readers feel love and love the heroes that we portray in the book. Hatred has never works in history, and it never will. So as I write on my doves, I do hope that we all can do the following for just today, and everyday after...</div>
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<i>Give a little</i></div>
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<i>Smile a little</i></div>
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<i>love a lot!</i></div>
Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-54637586942430417172019-01-23T16:24:00.000-08:002019-04-16T19:25:54.085-07:00Reflect - Reset - Breathe <div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: a kind stranger, thank you!<br />
1st Annual Pittsburgh Women's March <br />
Pittsburgh, PA January, 2017<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've spent the past few days reflecting on the various marches, protests, and the fighting we have taking place within our country over our positions. Topics. Choices. The ways we feel we need to use our voices. We're feeling misinterpreted. Misunderstood. Misrepresented, or mischaracterized. It all has me wanting to take a breath. To draw in a cleansing full breath and pause for moment. To stop. To take a long hard look at who we are, what we're becoming, and how we got to this point. Then to reset. Then we may know how to properly respond to one another.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I strongly believe in the use of our voices. I've always said that I love a good protest! Oh yes! I do! One of my biggest goals in life is to honor what the suffragettes have done for me, and to teach my children of their sacrifices. I want to carry them with me and in my voice as I march with the freedoms they granted me through their sufferings and sacrifices.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Reflect</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">However I may honor these sacrifices, I do pledge to do so without trampling upon the rights of others. I want to utilize my rights, my voice, and channel the voices of the voiceless. I can only hope that others will mutually respect me, and do the same with the honor and respect that I choose to try to exhibit in the marches and protests I participate in. Alas, that is not always the case as we've seen so often.</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Reset</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Each year I participate in the Women's March. Last year a photo of myself with my girls went viral through National Geographic on Instagram. Before I had eaten dinner the night of the march I was hearing from friends in Haiti and other parts of the world who had seen our image online. I was unaware that the photographers in the crowd we had granted permission to were from National Geographic, but I have long loved their work, so I was honored to find that we had been chosen and displayed.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: Lynn Johnson for National Geographic<br />
Originally posted on Instagram by: LJohnPhoto<br />
2nd Annual Pittsburgh Women's March <br />
Pittsburgh, PA January 2018</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: Lynn Johnson<br />
2nd Annual Pittsburgh Women's March <br />
Pittsburgh, PA January 2018<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Much to our sadness, many posted horrific comments about my baby under our photo. My warrior. My hero. My miracle child who has survived more in her short life than many can even begin to imagine within the expanse of theirs was now being viciously ridiculed. One ignorant comment after the next was lobbed our way and tacked on to this beautiful tribute to female strength due to the color of her skin and the origin of her birth, Haiti. Now I'm a pretty tough momma, and I don't subscribe to, nor do I fall prey to unknown online trolls and their commentary, but some of these comments were hitting all of my buttons. I've experienced quite a bit in the twenty years I've been a mom, and in particular over the the past eight years while adopting, immigrating, and raising my three Haitian and two home grown children together. Yet this one photo brought every racist out of the proverbial woodwork and had them marching around like a proud little tribe of termites formerly festering beneath the surface. It was as if they'd smelled something tantalizing above them, and just couldn't help themselves but to surface in numbers to seize the opportunity. Then they found themselves on display for the world, and they felt no shame attacking an innocent little girl. A six year old little girl. Sure I wanted to lash out at all of them. Tell them our story. Tell them all who she is, and why she will always be better, wiser, stronger than them. What will it change though? Who will it help? What will it do? Photos speak 1,000 words, yes? I've decided to let these photos speak our truth. My girls can tell you our story through the photos of that day better than any tongue lashing and any rage filled cry fest and fury straight from a Mother's broken heart would. We love one another. We are family. We have fought long and hard to be with each other. We have come from different countries, traveled far and wide to be with one another. We have conquered illness, bureaucracy, apathy, mountains, and we will conquer hate too. So I chose to breathe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Breathe</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ignorance is all over the media. It's on t.v. It's on the radio. It comes from the mouths of those we know, not just from strangers. Sometimes it flies right out before we can shield our kids from hearing it. My child repeats something. I teach the lesson. I reteach the lesson. I explain. I explain again. I teach the lesson again. I explain again. We all see more ignorance in the media. In social media. From a relative of another generation. My child cries because her hair is curly and not long and blonde. My son is made fun of because his eyes are of Asian origin, and everyone calls him Chinese and makes any variety of dumb joke that none of us find funny. He explains that South Korea is different country than China, and that we respect China and the Koreas, Japan, and all of the Asian and the world's countries in our home. Ignorance comes at our children at a dizzying rate. Even more so when you're an immigrant. When you have an accent. When you have melanin. Ignorance has turned to hate. Hate has sadly been condoned. There aren't good people on both sides of hate. Hate isn't innate. It is taught, and those teaching it and preaching it need to STOP. Our children are watching. They're listening. They deserve better. It's time to take a position of positivity. It's time to reflect. To reset. To breathe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One day not long after the second march my phone rang. It was Azy. Our President had just made a heartbreaking statement about my home away from home. The birthplace of three of my children. She was calling to see if I was ok. She asked me to meditate and to send him love and kindness. That's the kind of person she is. I needed to reflect. I wasn't feeling kind. I needed to reset. I wasn't feeling loving. I needed to breathe. I was feeling like a flamethrower.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Reflect. Reset. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe...and Create.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our conversation began our bookmaking process. I definitely did not meditate and send my love to him, but I have spent this past year working on project filled with love for many people I identify with. People who come to this country with a passion to make their lives better. With a dream to make something of themselves. A goal to improve this world. This year I marched again. With a prototype of our book in my hands, and with thoughts of all of them in my heart. With their voices in my head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I marched quietly, and in reflection. Thinking about this past year and all we have accomplished working on this book. I thought of the people we have met. Where we have traveled. Those we have written about. The faces I have painted. I reflected on what they went through to come to this country. What they had accomplished, and how much love they brought with them. How much hope they had. The dreams that carried them through their struggles.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I reflected on my own struggles with the immigration process for my children. It occurred to me that so many Americans have never had any experience with this process, and thus have no perspective on it. I want to teach them through this book. I want them to know what the experience of being an immigrant is! I want them to understand the dream of being an immigrant! I want then to know the love and the enduring spirit one has and what it takes to leave your family and your belongings and even risk your life to seek new shores in desperation to fulfill your dreams with hope that they will one day be a reality. I want those who read this book to know that seeking a new life in this country is not just to gain freedoms, but to contribute.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As I drew in my own cold breath in the arctic morning wind, the book I carried was heavier and heavier. It grew harder to carry, and I thought of those who are, have, and will suffer through months of walking with little of their remaining belongings in brutal conditions. They do this sometimes with no food, water, or shelter. They hold on to one thing, and that is their dream. Their dream to be an American.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I want this book to reflect upon the good those who have come to our country have done for you and me. I want you to know what immigrants have done for this country and what you wouldn't have if not for them. I want you to know how your daily life has been positively impacted by immigrants. What might be different had an immigrant not come to this country, not been allowed to enter, or had been turned away and sent elsewhere. What would not have been invented, improved, or advanced? What would life in this country be like? I'd like this book to allow for time to reflect, and reset, and allow us all to breathe. To allow for the reader to lay it across their lap, flip through the pages, and see for themselves that walls shouldn't be built, children shouldn't be caged, but rather tables should be built bigger, our schools should be advanced, our children should be cultured, and the narrative should be rewritten.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We all need to reflect. We need to reset. We need to breathe. Let's reset the narrative. This is our response. This book.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Time to Reflect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Time to Reset. Time to Breathe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Time to Create.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Come take a deep breath with us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Immigrants: The Foundation of our Nation</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Presented by Poetic Illustrations is Coming Soon!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: Britt<br />
3rd Annual Pittsburgh Women's March<br />
Pittsburgh, PA 2019</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhruaHFvpvXOrkjTVH3pN3rfwGbZyZjO9xC5hfE-wiO2Z8xsSr21iRseTIQsf3HwNsfG33m6ztq_-36xFyCG7xu_pBy11KXEvhLWLoTeLflQTSinmjo1GdLlVw9Dh_ApXLudJK2SEtJrQ/s1600/Women%2527s+March+5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="732" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhruaHFvpvXOrkjTVH3pN3rfwGbZyZjO9xC5hfE-wiO2Z8xsSr21iRseTIQsf3HwNsfG33m6ztq_-36xFyCG7xu_pBy11KXEvhLWLoTeLflQTSinmjo1GdLlVw9Dh_ApXLudJK2SEtJrQ/s320/Women%2527s+March+5.jpeg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: Britt<br />
3rd Annual Pittsburgh Women's March<br />
Pittsburgh, PA 2019</td></tr>
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-64627124551654357662019-01-11T03:52:00.000-08:002019-01-11T03:52:12.429-08:00First Year Anniversary! 2018 Was AmazingJanuary 11, 2018 is the day that Jen and I decided to begin this project. To work on a book that we both felt very passionate about. A book about immigrants in The United States of America that have played a significant role in our culture. Hoping that one day this book would be in the hands of every individual in this great nation.<br />
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If we delved into our day to day grind in this blog, it would be about 25 pages long. Each day, we text, video chat on Skype, email, IM on Facebook, and of course talk on the phone. We created our list of the amazing immigrants that have contributed and shaped the culture of United States. Each individual is researched. Based on specific criteria, we select that ones that would fit with our goal. The criteria is simple; they are immigrants, lived in United States and have contributed within their own industry. We purposely focused on both males and females from all over the world. The book is diverse, just like America.<br />
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In 2018 we had the honor and pleasure of meeting several of our heroes. We met Alicia Partnoy, Lady Pink, Maz Jobrani, and Christine Clifford (representing Ana Mendieta). Each meeting was so unique and special. From Washington, D.C. to New York City. We also met with Larry Moffi from Settlement House Press, he believed in us and our work from day one. We cannot forget the wonderful and beautiful Candace, owner of Rock Candy Vintage store in New Paltz, New York and April & Christian, owner of Katora Coffee in Fredericksburg, Virginia for their support and encouragement. Not only did Jen and I have great support from others, but within our circle of family and friends. To just name a few; Britt, Omid, Kate, Reza, JJ, and Michael. They have been our cheerleaders and are always in our corner. We thank you! We greatly appreciate the amazing support from our friends and family members. It is wonderful when we hear "this book is going to be amazing" or "you guys are rockin' it." That makes us smile.<br />
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Finally, in 2018, we signed on with Ronnie Ann Herman of the Herman Agency Inc. in New York City, as our literary agent. This was a big moment for both Jen and I. When we received the news from Ronnie, we both cried and laughed over the phone trying to compose ourselves. It was very emotional because we felt validated. The book that we are so passionate about is being recognized from outside of our circle. We are very happy and excited to take this journey with Ronnie and see how it all develops!<br />
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A video clip of various pictures from 2018 has been created to show our journey. It is very difficult to put one year worth of pictures into a two minute clip. You may notice a very young Azy and Jen from 20 years ago, when our friendship solidified. We do hope you enjoy it. Thank you again to all that have supported us, encouraged us, challenged us, and believed in us. With much love, Azy & Jen<br />
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-77174116664986210342018-12-24T19:34:00.002-08:002019-01-09T13:42:47.410-08:00Have yourself a Cultured Little Holiday!<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What would the holidays be like without the influence of immigrants in our culture? If we’re honest, we’re all immigrants. We’re first, second, third, fourth…you get the idea…we’re all immigrants of some generation if we’re not of an indigenous tribe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up here in the United States, but I have a family that spans the world both through marriage and adoption. We are multicultural, and we have many different religions in our family. So my youth was spent learning about and celebrating our diversity. Azy moved to the United States as a first generation immigrant when she was nine years old. She has simultaneously celebrated multiple cultures in her own way, and she teaches me a bit about her faith through the process of our work. We love learning about the cultures our country represents and how our modern celebrations are a fusion of such diversity, though few really understand where it all begins or why we celebrate the customs we do!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During this holiday season I wanted to share a bit more about what I learned as I grew up. Although, I wanted to learn more for myself as well. In celebration of the holidays, I decided to take a look at a few of my favorite basic traditions. I wanted to learn more about where they came from, how they came to be, and what made them so popular here in the United States. I learned a bit, I was surprised by some of what I read. I was inspired and humbled by my research as well. I think this past week as I’ve been posting these hi-lights on our Instagram page, I’ve been gradually building my anticipation for our family time spent together, which is ultimately the part I cherish the most as it is the true gift of the season, and it has been a nice reminder of all of the loving details that go into the holiday season. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Christmas tree</b> is an iconic symbol of the holiday season, thus it is a good place to start in reflecting on the history of how varied and diverse the history of such an important part of our holiday season came to be. There are many stories of trees of different kinds from Northern Europe. Some were handmade, while natural trees, such as pine or fir were cut down or even potted. Many communities shared a tree and moved it from place to place or home to home as a tree was an expensive item for a family to purchase. This promoted the intended communal gathering. Regardless of where the trees were located, or how they were assembled and used, they were consistently adorned with decorations. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: Me, Myself, & I</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check into the history of the Christmas tree! It’s interesting to see what kinds of decoration were used in places like Latvia or Germany, or how it has changed as it gained popularity across Europe as more came to utilize this tradition in places like England and throughout the United Kingdom. Here in the United States we’ve experienced significant changes in how we decorate our own trees over the past decades. From the invention of the electric lights that we now string our trees with, unlike the days when the beautiful glow of a candle would unintentionally set a tree ablaze, we now enjoy a myriad of designs and color to compliment pretty much any choice we can think of to illuminate our tree regardless of whether it is natural, or stored away each year after use.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What’s your custom? Do you cut down your own tree? Is it a tradition in your family? Who is the wise one who chooses the perfect tree with the best needles and the straight trunk? Or is your tree the kind that stands the test of time and makes a yearly visit, and just keeps on ticking? Do you have more than one tree? Many do. Some like them large, some like them small. Here in the states we like them all!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tinsel </b>is something I really did not expect to learn much about, but I was WRONG! Tinsel dates back to the 1600’s when trees were draped with silver! The silver was eventually replaced with aluminum then lead foil which had to be replaced due to the risk of ingestion toxicity in children. Modern tinsel is made of mylar. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: WhyChristmas.com</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did you know the use of tinsel first began to mimic the look of spiderwebs? In tales from Eastern Germany, Ukraine, Finland, Scandinavia, and Poland the spiderweb magically turned to silver or gold. Remember the song? Silver and gold comes from a folktale that tells that in poorer households the spiderwebs on trees would magically turn to a glistening magical strand by morning the result children took as proof that St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, or Das Christkindkommt had been there to deliver his magic. Info Source: <a href="http://whychristmas.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>WhyChristmas.com</b></span></a>, Photo Source: Aunt “Didder” Kate Romero</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: Aunt Kate</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Poinsettias</b>, probably my favorite story of the year yet! The folktale goes that a young Mexican girl named Pepita had no gift to give the baby Jesus. So in trying to comfort her, her older brother explained to Pepita that it wasn’t the gift that she would give him that mattered, but the love and intention that she put into it that would mean so much to him. As she walked to go meet the baby, she gathered weeds along the side of the road. Upon laying them next to the Christ child, the weeds miraculously transformed into the beautiful bouquet we all know and use so popularly at this time of year to decorate and adorn our homes! </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gvT5fIyZiee5BYKIsHgGOVHJyd2ZDGjBOWNTRZG0WDSbCSOgH4HqMPKtIVEtjU2M1KdOM4NQCzjWGd58F8DxPt317lEhsc6R7SKT7SSPFQq9zp77bg_BlVSVueR9oNDKI2m_xayebQ/s1600/Poinsettia+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1271" data-original-width="1600" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gvT5fIyZiee5BYKIsHgGOVHJyd2ZDGjBOWNTRZG0WDSbCSOgH4HqMPKtIVEtjU2M1KdOM4NQCzjWGd58F8DxPt317lEhsc6R7SKT7SSPFQq9zp77bg_BlVSVueR9oNDKI2m_xayebQ/s320/Poinsettia+1.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: The Miracle of the First Poinsettia</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Poinsettia, or first called by its Latin name, the Europhobia Pulcherrima, was brought to the United States by the first ambassador the Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Poinsett, who owned several greenhouses in South Carolina gifted then to several friends and sent many to botanical gardens here in the United States. The first known sale of the plant for the use around the holiday season was in Philadelphia. The beauty of the plant was seized upon and recognized for it’s compliment for the holidays!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: Me, Myself, & I</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Poinsettia, once used in Mexico for dying fabrics, fabricating cosmetics, and for use in producing latex (the white milky sap on the inside of the stem), is now a favored traditional selective of festive holiday decor in the United States! Thank you Mexico! Info & Image Source: the Miracle of the First Poinsettia, WhyChristmas.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Gingerbread Houses</b>, which are usually highly decorated with recognizable and festive adornment have long been an artistic way of representing culture during the holiday season. For me, the gingerbread house has always been a symbol of warmth and kindness. They're often gifted by the maker as a gesture of friendship. I found it interesting to learn that they have been used to manipulate those who consume them in an effort to bribe them. For instance, these amazing creations brought to the new world by English colonists were often used in an effort to sway voters! However, nowadays they have become a much more benign common staple of the holidays. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Gingerbread House decorating contests are held annually, and a grand display of artistry can be seen. While some of the designs and customs related to the yearly traditional display of gingerbread fair date back to ancient China when ginger was discovered as a medicinal ingredient. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Middle Age Europeans had their own recipes, and often decorated custom cookies and cakes with extravagant designs topped with gold leaf for times of celebration, or court gatherings. England, France, Holland, and Germany are all known for their recipes, but the German style gingerbread house is most notably credited as being the first associated with Christmas, whereas other recipes for gingerbread were traditionally used for fairs and other types of celebrations and parties. They were often so highly decorated that they eventually influenced architecture. This is where the term Gingerbread Home comes from. The gingerbread houses we decorate yearly may not be show-stoppers, but we have fun making them, and now we’ll know the history of this tradition to share. Info Source: <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://pbs.org/">PBS.org</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Nutcracker</b> ballet may serve as the quintessential point each year for many to feel the holiday season has arrived. Tchaikovsky’s music is timeless, and this piece of work rarely disappoints, regardless of its interpretation. With its classic beauty and endearing charm, regardless of how each company may have subtle changes and unique assemblage, it is a masterpiece that crowds have enjoyed since the 1800’s. This image from lewisfamilyplayhouse.com located near Los Angeles, California provides an example that this production originated in Russia yet is seen worldwide annually in just about every major city. The first time it was performed outside of Russia was in England in 1934. It later came to the United States and was first performed in San Francisco by the San Francisco Ballet Company in 1944. Ten years later, The New York City Ballet started performing the famous Balanchine Nutcracker in 1954. The story of this toy soldier, our honored Nutcracker, takes place at Christmas time and follows a young girl who receives a him as a gift from her uncle. The young girl who is referred to by several names, ranging from Marie to Clara, depending on the adaptation of the story, falls asleep with her toy Nutcracker and awakens to find herself in a magical winter wonderland. She and the Nutcracker turned Prince experience an adventure beyond her wildest dreams. By morning, she wakes at home to find that her Prince has returned to a nutcracker toy. She remembers he told her that the magic will always be there for those who see it. I guess we can all use the reminder that a little belief in magic fills your heart with hope and anticipation, dreamy far off places and a glisten in a loved ones eye sure don’t hurt either. Cheers to believing in magic! Info Source: Moscow Ballet </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Yule Log</b> was admittedly one that I tried to shy away from. I was asked to research this one, and I’m glad I did. After so many corny references about this one, I wasn’t sure I’d find something inspirational that would leave me so close to Christmas with a warm and fuzzy. I was more worried it would leave me with steamy stomach turning thoughts. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the research related to the Yule log showed me that it is actually a lot more diverse than I even suspected!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It dates back to Medieval Times when Pagan Nordics participated in the Yule, or Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia, and other European countries. Initially, the log was ceremoniously chosen and doused with cider or wine followed by the trunk being placed in the fire while the remaining part of the tree would lay inside the home. The log from the prior year, stored for safe keeping, and burned over the twelve days of Christmas would be used to light the new Yule Log. This practice varied from Holland to Ireland and the United Kingdom as each country used different species of wood, conducted their own ceremonies, and had different names for their logs. In the UK, the log is known as the Mock. The Mock is first dried and cleaned of its bark before its brought into the house in parts of Ireland. Additionally, a candle may be used in lieu of a log. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image Source: whispersofyggdrasil.blogspot.com</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A twist on the variation of flames is an interesting touch as well, as the use of various chemicals one can add to the log can provide a myriad of color when burned. The use of: potassium nitrate for violet, barium nitrate for apple green, borax for vivid green, copper sulphate for a blue tone, or for bright yellow one may use table salt. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As traditions do, the Yule Log eventually became popular in France and Belgium where a new take on the celebration formed, known as Buche de Noel or Kerststronk in Flemish. We certainly enjoy these here in the US! These chocolate desserts mimicking the look of a log are made from layers of rolled sponge cake and cream, covered with decorated icing. Some are heavily adorned with woodland features, while others are more simple. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apparently Americans like a good log burning. Interestingly, in 1966 when the WPIX TV Station in NYC was left with 1.5 hrs of dead air time to fill, a decision was made to run a close up of a burning log in a fireplace, adorned by stockings with festive music playing in the background. It was wildly popular! So much so, that it became a standard until 1989 when it became popular to own it on VHS, then DVD, and eventually it moved to its permanent home on the web, good old YouTube. My grandma gifted my parents a copy of the VHS format. It was amazing. It may have been just about the absolute cheesiest gift we’ve ever received, but clearly Grandma knew her stuff! Who knew? Grandma knew. Of course Grandma knew. Info Source: whychristmas.com Photo Source: whispersofyggdrasil.blogspot.com, <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://oetker.co.uk/">oetker.co.uk</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Christmas Stocking</b>, ah! A traditional favorite of my childhood that without, the day just wouldn’t be the same. No matter the size or the contents, this piece of holiday decor is a must! When we lived in Haiti we learned that the children would leave their shoes outside for Papa Noel, and he would fill them with treats. Here in the states we use stockings of all sizes. I wanted to know why, and where this tradition started. The European tradition is thought to have originated with Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus placing presents under the tree while leaving gold coins or oranges in stockings hung from a mantle or bedpost for children to find in the morning. Apparently the use of stockings started as legend tells, when a recently widowed man who needed dowry for his girls found golden coins left by Saint Nicholas in stockings he had hung to dry near his fireplace one night. The following morning his girls awoke to find the coins, and they joyously celebrated that they’d have honorable marital opportunities thanks to an unknown kind soul. Thus, the custom of hanging special stockings began! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Germanic and Scandinavian Christmas tales differ a bit, and actually seem a bit more like the Haitian custom. Children in these parts of the world fill their boots with straw, carrots, and sugar for Odin and his flying horse. Odin would repay their kindness with gifts and candy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whether your stockings are mismatched or recovered from the dryer sock monster, carefully restored vintage finds, needlepoint gems with painstaking impressions of leaping carousel horses, or sewn from up cycled burlap with that perfect coffee stain paired with an amazing ribbon you found on clearance somewhere with just the right kind of piping, whether they’re store bought, or home made, big or small, here in the states we love them all! We just don’t want to find them neglected by morning…or worse, filled with coal, a universal sign that you’re on the naughty list! Info Source: Smithsonian.com, thoughtco.com. Image Source: <a href="http://smithsonian.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">smithsonian.com</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We hope that your stockings are filled with more than just the items you might have in mind. We hope they’re filled with love and anticipation of more time spent with those you care about. We hope that your lives are enriched, and that your minds are broadened and filled to the brim. We wish for you a year of bounty, but also safety and health. We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with the warmth of your families, near or far. Please keep the happy glow of giving in your heart. And we hope that next year a copy of our book is at the top of your giving list!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy Holidays from Poetic Illustrations!</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jen & Azy</span></span></div>
Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-29378621593442621382018-12-16T18:25:00.001-08:002018-12-16T18:29:06.300-08:00Major Announcement: We have an AGENT!!!<div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is a shout it from the rooftops sort of moment! We are very excited to announce that we have an agent, an extremely important step in the process of becoming published! </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Azy and I are coming up on the one year anniversary of deciding to begin the collaboration that is Poetic Illustrations, the effort to bring our book to life. It began when Azy started posting an image along with a short blurb on Facebook just over a year ago. She wanted to share the range of contributions immigrants have brought to the United States and to the world. I saw her posts, and LOVED them from the start. One night we spoke about this daily effort she was making, and she mentioned that her family had been encouraging her to turn it into a book. I thought this was a beautiful idea, and I encouraged it further by telling her that if she turned it into a book I would illustrate it! Within a few weeks, we were on our way!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This past year we have not let a single day pass without calling, texting, or meeting in some capacity to plan and strategize for how we would cover the many people we’ve selected to honor in the body of this work. We have so much passion and commitment for this work and we truly hope that when this project reaches the point of publication that you, our readers, feel the energy and love we are pouring into each and every page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">About five months ago, Azy and I recognized that we would need help to find the right fit in the publication industry. So we started seeking an agent. This is not an easy task! It takes trust to place your work in the hands of an agent! It also takes the right person to see your vision, and help a publishing house understand the potential you and your work have. We had no idea how many times we would hear the cutting harshness of such a simple word, “NO” nor how many ways the industry can dress it up to try to diminish the pain of the rejection it comes with. However, just under a year after starting this project, we are excited to say that all of our hard work has resulted in the honor of being signed on to work with an exclusive agent by the name of Ronnie Ann Herman. Ronnie is a boutique agent, which means she deliberately keeps her workload and selection of authors and illustrators small. The knowledge of this intensified our honor of being selected to be represented by Ronnie ten fold if not more so. The next steps will be carried out behind the scenes so to speak while Ronnie does her magic! She will advocate for our work within the publishing houses she works with, and she will be in touch with us with their feedback. We hope to be in touch soon to notify you all that we will soon be publishing, and who with!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Thank you for your support! We cannot wait to place our book in your hands!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jen & Azy</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We’d like to share a bit about Ronnie’s vast experience and professional career:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://hermanagencyinc.com/">http://hermanagencyinc.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/243890/ronnie-ann-herman">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/243890/ronnie-ann-herman</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/2016/05/agent-spotlight-interview-with-ronnie.html">www.literaryrambles.com/2016/05/agent-spotlight-interview-with-ronnie.html</a></span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-43470049611600793932018-12-08T11:51:00.001-08:002018-12-11T18:03:13.829-08:00Thanking Christen for keeping Ana Mendieta's memory alive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Portrait of Ana Mendieta</div>
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Source: www.as-coa.org</div>
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Ana Mendieta was reportedly alone in her home with her husband Carl Andres when police responded to 300 Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan after her body went out the window of their 34th story apartment.<br />
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<b style="text-align: left;">After a three year court case, Carl Andres was acquitted of charges of murder in Ana's death and still resides at 300 Mercer Street in the apartment they shared with his new wife. Many believe he is responsible for Ana's death, and that she would never have taken her own life. She feared heights. </b><b style="text-align: left;">She had a promising career ahead of her. </b></div>
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<b>She loved him.</b></div>
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Ana grew up in Iowa after being relocated to the United States from Cuba when she was twelve years old. She was a talented Sculptress, and performance artist on the cusp of beginning to experience career success in New York. After her father joined the Cuban rebel army, and was thus placed in a prison camp for eighteen years to follow, Ana's work in the United States gradually took on a fusion of the two cultures she experienced in the formidable years of her growth. She utilized the Cuban traditions she had grown up with, along with what she had learned in her education in Iowa, and additional experiences shaped her work when she traveled to Mexico and Europe. With the financial backing of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant she moved herself to New York city, sometimes living in Rome, to pursue a career in the fine arts. Her work primarily focused on minimalist abstract natural sculpture with a performance quality to it. Though her work was not well known during her lifetime, she has become an inspiration for many since her death. She is an icon in the feminist art movement.<br />
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Azy and I try to make contact with as many of the people we are honoring in our book as we possibly can. In the event of not being able to honor Ana personally, we reached out to an artist in New York honoring the memory of Ana, responsible for coordinating a group of individuals who advocate for Ana's work to remain in galleries where Andres' work remains displayed. The captions, "Where is Ana?" and "I wish Ana Mendieta was still alive" are brief but powerful statements Christen Clifford and the dedicated groups of Ana's supporters often utilize to reinforce their feelings of loss, but also frustration that galleries continue to support the work of Carl Andres, while seemingly forgetting about Ana. We met with Christen at 300 Mercer Street to spend some time talking about Ana's work and what her legacy means to the three of us. We presented Christen with our gift of appreciation for keeping Ana's memory alive, and spent a bit of time in appreciation of womanhood.<br />
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Christen is an incredible woman herself, and an extremely talented artist. We sincerely appreciate that she devotes so much of herself to keeping Ana's memory alive. We were very happy to share with her that we look to do the same by including Ana as a cherished hero in our book. Below are links for more information on both Ana and on Christen. We encourage you to look further into their work.<br />
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Christen, thank you for your time, your passion for Ana's work and memory, and for your friendship! We look forward to placing this book in your hands, and seeing your sweet smiling face again!<br />
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Ana Mendieta's Work:<br />
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https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/ana-mendieta<br />
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https://www.theartstory.org/artist-mendieta-ana.htm<br />
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/ana-mendieta-overlooked.html<br />
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Christen Clifford's Work:<br />
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http://www.projectforemptyspace.org/christen-clifford/<br />
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http://www.smithmag.net/memoirville/2009/05/06/my-home-birth-a-graphic-graphic-memoir-by-christen-clifford-and-david-heatley/<br />
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An article written about Christen's advocacy of Ana's work:<br />
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https://artreview.com/features/ar_april_2018_feature_ana_mendieta/<br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 120, 42);">We're happy to see that Ana and her work are receiving some of the attention she and it finally deserve. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was a recent screening of several short films by Ana i</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">n advance of an</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;"> exhibition </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;">, at </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 120, 42); font-family: inherit;">Americas Society in New York on December 6th, 2018: </span><br />
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https://www.as-coa.org/events/film-screening-ana-mendieta?fbclid=IwAR2vs6TO6vBHC2y_BZkhJNlUhvowyuknlZuWmMNWYSCSIuYxoBDyEklTmh0<br />
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-86022799884125948042018-11-24T12:10:00.002-08:002018-11-24T13:36:59.526-08:00Maz at the Kennedy Center<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have been contemplating on how to even begin writing this blog. The greatest gift that Jen and I receive through this project, is meeting our heroes. Each individual we meet is an experience of its own. In the month of November we had an amazing opportunity to meet the one and only Maz Jobrani!!! Personally, he is one of my favorites, and yes...it is mainly because he is Iranian! :) He has an amazing story to tell, and he tells it through his jokes and stand up comedy shows. One of the areas that he has been talking about in his shows is immigration. (please check his show on Netflix-- <a href="https://youtu.be/Vz8-MGVDs2M">https://youtu.be/Vz8-MGVDs2M</a>) It is a hot topic in the news and in our country. The main reason why we decided to do this book. Maz Jobrani is an immigrant, from Iran. He is our hero because he is proud of who he is. He does not try to hide it, or deny it. On November 16, 2018 Friday at 8 PM, we attended the Maz show at the amazing Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Before the show, we had the opportunity to meet him in person. As usual, we always like to give a gift to our heroes. The gift is a picture frame (the illustration on the left side and poem on the right side). As he read it, he liked how his teeth were "very straight" in the illustration and the poem gave him goosebumps. It always puts a smile on our face when our heroes are moved by our work. The work that THEY have inspired. Oh yeah...I HAD to ask Mr. Jobrani for an autograph. I just had too!! :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Jen was not present with me on this journey, because family is our number one priority and her son had an important football event the same night. So the video below is just me, myself and I. Hope you enjoy and as always thank you for following us and supporting us. It means a ton! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-30844333617235751252018-11-17T18:44:00.000-08:002018-12-11T18:05:35.253-08:00Rock Candy Vintage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rock Candy Vintage</b></span></h2>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; text-align: start;">"Vintage & New Apparel & Homegoods”</b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">77 Main St</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">New Paltz, NY</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">rockcandynp@gmail.com</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; text-align: center;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Phone</span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">: (845) 255-1090</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We walked up and down the main street in New Paltz, checking the front windows, and enjoying the scenery. It’s a pretty cool town. Drawn to Rock Candy Vintage in hopes for vintage finds, we found so much more when we decided to enter the store. The first thing I laid my eyes on was a bag on the wall with the words, “Emotional Baggage”, and I knew I had to have it. I didn’t even have to shake the hand of the owner to know that we were in the presence of good people. The better than best part is that there were two “Emotional Baggage” bags. Perfect. One for each of us. So of course, we bought both. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKbyknYni9h_nsrORaBHoIFq7I6Ya5c0CqgnkHSq1grW7wwoY6kL44rlPvC0CZDddkvGgAhW6VY-aXvoXd_vnpdyBGZ2gcxktX7hF1fH9wQt21Int0hsCvQmjYf3FWT-pGR1B0d1jzg/s1600/emotional+baggage+bag.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="984" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKbyknYni9h_nsrORaBHoIFq7I6Ya5c0CqgnkHSq1grW7wwoY6kL44rlPvC0CZDddkvGgAhW6VY-aXvoXd_vnpdyBGZ2gcxktX7hF1fH9wQt21Int0hsCvQmjYf3FWT-pGR1B0d1jzg/s200/emotional+baggage+bag.JPG" width="176" /></span></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Next we introduced ourselves to the owner, Candy and Dan. We exchanged a few pleasantries, but in short order found ourselves in a great conversation as if we’d known them always and we were locals in this town. This was our store. A familiar place that we had been many times. We scooped items up left and right knowing that though this is how it felt, we would soon find ourselves miles from there, and if we didn’t take the opportunity to get something while we could, we’d likely regret it. They not only carry vintage apparel, but also home goods, sewn works and artwork made by New Paltz locals. On top of that, they give back! For their grand opening, they returned 5% of their sales to the National Association on Mental Illness of New York State.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">While Azy learned about Ganesh, and chose a beautiful sculpture she spoke with Candy about a bit, I turned my eye toward a vintage iron-on of the cover art from Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album…and then it was as if the sky opened up rays of Heaven's light shined on this iron-on and angels with sequins jammed with guitars and a grand piano and ELTON HIMSELF was in the store serenading me and begging for me to take the iron-on home and craft it into the most divine custom t-shirt the world, or just my closet, had EVER seen. How fitting as I had tickets to his farewell show that very next week! So that's what naturally had to happen. Among the other sublime findings we immediately plunked into category of “HAVE TO HAVE” were essential oil roll-on’s in a strangely appropriately named Mermaid scent, and Mandarin Orange & Coconut, Feminism & Squash the Patriarchy patches, a “Love is all you Need” pin, and a National Parks hat we bought to honor one of our our heroes, none other than the “Father of National Parks”, John Muir. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2v4BCBBtn3C25QfYxFdf5J6KNRbRIwdGDRlcS3zSaQCImbu45os2tT1BzkkLItgKktdrhyuRf77cs_kEhvliB-T3DhJscCIvlPUoBT4I42OWTq9PPMU32x4P5sjSmKeG_AVyHpdMpw/s1600/ginesh.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1439" data-original-width="959" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2v4BCBBtn3C25QfYxFdf5J6KNRbRIwdGDRlcS3zSaQCImbu45os2tT1BzkkLItgKktdrhyuRf77cs_kEhvliB-T3DhJscCIvlPUoBT4I42OWTq9PPMU32x4P5sjSmKeG_AVyHpdMpw/s200/ginesh.JPG" width="133" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The variety of amazingness we picked up there has been added to what I’ve come to call the holiday collection of “A few of my favorite things”…which ultimately will be best given wrapped up in packages tied up with string, of course. PERFECT. Holiday shopping that supports small, local, female owned businesses - CHECK, CHECK & CHECK! Gifts that give back - CHECKAROO! Gifts that support causes we can feel good about - ALL OF THE CHECKS!!! Upcycled, Vintage, & Recycled items as gifts - YES TO THE CHECKS!!!! I get a CHECK! And you get a CHECK! EVERYBODY GET A CHECK!!! Mic drop. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgIBakVPngNl0atRgkmg42_w0lWs7TgfqwTZTTGynMs0Pduo46G5kEE-IadXO6QHpvv4I8etf99rEiQX9pY_IwiRUSa1muDO4RFFj7Nig5oiBNs4ssVLg-2IRMa8WRQqSmkqtjvhUMA/s1600/A+few+of+my+fav+things.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgIBakVPngNl0atRgkmg42_w0lWs7TgfqwTZTTGynMs0Pduo46G5kEE-IadXO6QHpvv4I8etf99rEiQX9pY_IwiRUSa1muDO4RFFj7Nig5oiBNs4ssVLg-2IRMa8WRQqSmkqtjvhUMA/s320/A+few+of+my+fav+things.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A few of our favorite things!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yK5gGgyaCWR-gQ1MRFc2h2hCxLGoUaiadXcLurpVUzm0Ml-aGXmrYUTZwtVXe_guYm8Le3lMrsT05D3ekx8N00it4pR1kUBKnn4-BSJ3DZ1poHJrHrO0L0kEfF7cH5TzgI-51XBH9g/s1600/Untitled-741b8226.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yK5gGgyaCWR-gQ1MRFc2h2hCxLGoUaiadXcLurpVUzm0Ml-aGXmrYUTZwtVXe_guYm8Le3lMrsT05D3ekx8N00it4pR1kUBKnn4-BSJ3DZ1poHJrHrO0L0kEfF7cH5TzgI-51XBH9g/s200/Untitled-741b8226.jpeg" width="197" /></span></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Rock Candy Vintage is an awesome place that supports and brings the community together! If we were locals, we’d be there every last Friday night of each month for their Late Night Fridays! Tequila shots, live music, opportunities to meet local artists, a $5 vintage T-shirt rack, and 10% of the profits returned to Puppies Behind Bars sounds like a legit great time to us! See?! We told you they’re awesome! Go meet them! Fall in love with the store! Just go!! Find out for yourselves!!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">This hat had to come home with us. We'd like to share a </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(19, 19, 19);">little</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> bit more about why! If you zoom in, you'll see that it says National Parks on it! Being that John Muir is responsible for establishing and advocating for so many of our natural parks and open park spaces, naturally (pun totally intended) we had to have him in our book! Muir was originally from Scotland, so he's our resident Scotty hero!</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">Without him, we simply cannot imagine what it would be like in the United States without our National Parks such as Yosemite, as well as public park spaces like Golden Gate Park in San Francisco or Central Park in New York City.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DPHoqMmWSXQXRkmUf1AXBRdjrUZJpcbr6p-1MqSR5kH09lpUpZIyj3nHJhFO3d8awpTnVRkFTcjRQkFjC0imU6rrAbrcAHC081avn1v-TdbfCg6uSAaGJNGdrg58aR4nUTenVwIAzg/s1600/national+parks+hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DPHoqMmWSXQXRkmUf1AXBRdjrUZJpcbr6p-1MqSR5kH09lpUpZIyj3nHJhFO3d8awpTnVRkFTcjRQkFjC0imU6rrAbrcAHC081avn1v-TdbfCg6uSAaGJNGdrg58aR4nUTenVwIAzg/s200/national+parks+hat.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DPHoqMmWSXQXRkmUf1AXBRdjrUZJpcbr6p-1MqSR5kH09lpUpZIyj3nHJhFO3d8awpTnVRkFTcjRQkFjC0imU6rrAbrcAHC081avn1v-TdbfCg6uSAaGJNGdrg58aR4nUTenVwIAzg/s1600/national+parks+hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club, an explorer, a conservationist, philosopher, glaciologist, an advocate for preservation, a wanderer, and a naturalist with roots in farming. He also invented from time to time. He walked countless miles in this country, and saw it as many should. If we could see it the way he did, we'd likely never want to pave another piece of it. We’d want to preserve the beauty that we destroy haphazardly and frequently without guilt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Read more about John Muir here:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/our_national_parks/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/our_national_parks/<span style="color: #131313; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://blog.oup.com/2009/09/john-muir-national-parks/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://blog.oup.com/2009/09/john-muir-national-parks/<span style="color: #131313; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/john-muir-yellowstone"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/john-muir-yellowstone<span style="color: #131313; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Learn more about Ganesh here:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.lotussculpture.com/ganesh1.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://www.lotussculpture.com/ganesh1.html</b><span style="color: #131313; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">The image in my iron-on added the perfect touch to my concert experience! </span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Tour really is all the badassery you'd hope it would be, and so is my shirt - TRULY AMAZEBALLS! I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this at Rock Candy! It was perfect! As was the concert.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); caret-color: rgb(19, 19, 19); color: #131313; font-family: Helvetica;">If you don’t already own this album, do yourself a solid:</b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/goodbye-yellow-brick-road-remastered/798901876"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/goodbye-yellow-brick-road-remastered/798901876</b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/farewell-yellow-brick-road">https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/farewell-yellow-brick-road</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000ee; font-size: x-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000ee; font-size: x-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></span><span style="color: #131313; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/farewell-yellow-brick-road"></a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJq1VvRjeM3eKLp-o6AY4374i1EYa08Hr5o_e5kQCsa0cxwCx9nl9MWqZLu-J-g3IPlT9lK7AbBNkwGdGgJE0j-YzGZyFVkJGcPtjxre3VgA-Txz-TWvVIhV0YVenfk7HqaSaRPka_2Q/s1600/cropped+elton+shirt.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1573" data-original-width="1600" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJq1VvRjeM3eKLp-o6AY4374i1EYa08Hr5o_e5kQCsa0cxwCx9nl9MWqZLu-J-g3IPlT9lK7AbBNkwGdGgJE0j-YzGZyFVkJGcPtjxre3VgA-Txz-TWvVIhV0YVenfk7HqaSaRPka_2Q/s200/cropped+elton+shirt.jpeg" width="200" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Spoiler Alert - If you haven't read the articles and reviews already then you may not want to know how the concert ends!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">The end of the concert...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">Are you sure you want to <span style="caret-color: rgb(19, 19, 19);">know?...</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">For those who are still reading...with Elton </span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="caret-color: rgb(19, 19, 19);">panache, he exited the stage by stepping into the scene of the yellow brick road to say, "Farewell"...and it was humorous...beautiful...touching...and vibrant, just like he will always be!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "helvetica";">Just like a good ending, our time at Rock Candy Vintage did have to conclude. However, Azy and I luckily make friends where we go. And Candy and Dan are definitely on the friend list! Thank you to you both! You made our side trip through New Paltz a wonderful experience and we can't wait to get back to explore the town some more, visit you both, and see the special new finds you have waiting to be discovered and treasured!</span><br />
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-36178277006944886132018-11-03T19:40:00.001-07:002018-11-04T04:42:05.529-08:00Marching the streets of DC!One thing that I love about working with Jen is that we both are driven when it comes to this book. We have taken a cruise, bus, metro, and many ubers to take us to where we want to be.<br />
This video gives a glimpse of what our October 29th 2018 day looked like, and below we will take you on a journey to see what Poetic Illustrations completed within 24 hours!<br />
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October 29th 2018 was a big day for us. We woke up with a very specific mission and goal. That is typically how we approach any trip really. We started off with a collaboration with ModCloth (<a href="http://www.modcloth.com/">www.modcloth.com</a>).<br />
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ModCloth is an online retailer of indie and vintage-inspired women's clothing. They provided us with four (roughly 20 lbs in weight) boxes to donate to local organizations in the local Virginia/Washington DC area. We were much honored to help ModCloth is providing the donations to Empowerhouse (an organization that provides support for women in domestic violent relationships) and to Loisanne's Hope House (a homeless shelter for women with children). We greatly appreciate ModCloth for their kindness and generosity. Please visit their website, they have pretty amazing items :)<br />
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After the adventures with visiting the two organizations in Fredericksburg, Virginia, we just HAD TO stop at Katora's Coffee shop! Oh my...that place is A-maz-ING. You are drawn in every corner of the shop; with the graphics, wall art, items to shop, and of course their none other than vegan chocolate chip muffins! I have never seen so many varieties of teas!! (<a href="http://www.katoracoffee.com/">www.katoracoffee.com</a>) Not only did Jen and I have our amazing mid-breakfast break, but made a new friend with the owner of Katora Coffee shop, Ms. April!!<br />
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Of course we had to say our goodbye to April, and head out to our hair appointment! Oh yeah. Jen and I had our do's done. We had a big event in the evening and needed to look our best. So we headed out to Winning Image in Stafford, Virginia (<a href="https://www.winningimagesalonanddayspa.com/">https://www.winningimagesalonanddayspa.com/</a>)</div>
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and during our appointment, we goofed off just a bit. Jen even did the "vogue"! I have the video...I may share it one day. ha.<br />
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So after a grueling 3 hours of twirls and swirls, and 20 cans of hairspray...We were ready to head out to DC! We ventured with the metro, and met with Larry Moffi from Settlement House Press at -Old Ebbit Grill. It was great to meet "Larry the Man." (Jen and I have knighted him with that nickname--and yes---we do give nicknames). Food was fabulous, and so was the company. Super nervous about the event and not knowing what to expect, the Catalogue for Philanthropy (<a href="https://www.cfp-dc.org/cfpdc/index.php">https://www.cfp-dc.org/cfpdc/index.php</a>) event was so much fun! We had a wonderful opportunity to meet great individuals that help out their communities. In order for a non-profit organization to be in the Catalogue, they must apply and go through a vigorous process. We recall one organization applying three times, and they were extremely happy that they made it! The Catalogue for Philanthropy provides opportunities for many of the non-profit organizations to receive financial support and awareness within the community. That evening we met incredible individuals from:</div>
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1. artivate (<a href="http://www.goartivate.org/">www.goartivate.org</a>)</div>
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2. The Arc (<a href="http://www.thearcofnova.org/">www.TheARcofNoVA.org</a>)</div>
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3. Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (<a href="http://www.gandhibrigade.org/">www.gandhibrigade.org</a>)</div>
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4. dcgreens (<a href="http://www.dcgreens.org/">www.dcgreens.org</a>)</div>
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5. Thomas Raffa (<a href="http://www.raffa.com/">www.raffa.com</a>)</div>
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6. Matt Gayer-Catalogue for Philanthropy</div>
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Not only did we build relationships, but friendships. But that is what we do. This book is not just another book. It is not just another poetry book, or an illustration book. It is about connection, relationships, friendships, humans bonding around the community, nation, and the world. No matter what the storm, barrier, conflict, that comes our way, we face it head on. On this trip, we did just that when it was crazy windy!</div>
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-83621904786203400162018-10-22T18:35:00.001-07:002018-11-03T10:24:02.216-07:00Lady Pink in the HOUSE (Book)!<br />
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(<i>Lady on the Leaf</i> by Lady Pink, Acrylic on Canvas)</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Click here to watch our video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIm3UGmeq4s" target="_blank">Poetic Illustrations hits the road to meet Lady Pink!</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Whether she’s tagging a wall in the city, or sitting in a cherry picker seven stories up, buckled into a harness, which she hates, Lady Pink and her crew have taken on jobs wall-size to several stories tall. They work under permits to create murals that transport minds into wonderlands of fantastic realms, far beyond the flat facade of a mundane brick sided building menacingly hanging over a parking lot. Her work leaves a space transformed. It transcends dimension, and transports the viewer elsewhere. Her work allows an audience to step into her world, a vivid place of color and wildly imaginative zone where a visual dance to silent music takes place. Formerly Ecuadorian, and now considered to be a member of the Human Race, Pink’s rebellious acts of self expression are part of a wide spread effort around the city of New York to empower women using graffiti and murals to make bold statements that women hold a presence in what was previously considered to be a “boys club”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Meeting Pink was a calm experience that left us a bit lost for words for how to explain the time we spent with her. Did that just happen? Wait. Yes. Uh…..Yeah. I just met one of my heroes. I repeatedly thought. But she wouldn’t want to be called that. Because she’s just doing her thing. She wouldn’t want to be analyzed. She’s just doing her job. She see’s images, and she puts them onto spaces. For those of us who view her work, and stand back in awe of it, we find it to be the kind of impressive that we view from a distance and wonder how one accomplishes such beauty from a can that sprays with such a rapid pace that many often struggle to adequately manage to apply it, let alone use this material to create a piece of fine art. But Pink is a master of this craft. She wields these cans like Picasso would pick up a brush and place it to canvas. She puts her mask on, and climbs up ladders and just gets the job done. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Pink works hard. She’s not prideful. She’s not boastful. She works hard. She’s an animal lover. She’s an inspirational teacher. She’s bold. She’s outspoken. She’s feisty. But she’s calm and extremely compassionate regarding kids and education of youth. I admire her tenacity and gift for mentorship of youth. We were extremely happy with our decision to take our sons with us to meet her. It was an experience we know they will always reflect on, and she was highly responsive to having the boys there. She encouraged their participation and conversation over our meal, and was happy to know that we travel with our kids and teach them about the world, stating that it is important for kids to travel and learn. It was truly an honor to spend time getting to know her, and we look forward to seeing her continue to do just that - her thing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of the coolest parts about the experience of meeting Lady Pink was seeing how down to earth she and her family are. We enjoyed meeting and spending time with them and are so thankful for their encouragement of our book. We cannot wait to place a copy of it in their hands! We are honored to have Pink’s participation in our book. We are beyond ecstatic to display her work to introduce her to those who haven’t yet come to know who she is and what she has done. Working with Pink for the image in our book has opened a door to include works by artist Jenny Holzer and photographer Lisa Kahane, and as an artist and a student who studied these women, I’m beyond honored and can’t say with enough gratitude how thankful I am to include them in our work. Ladies, THANK YOU for what you contribute to our country and our world. Thank you for who you are, what you teach, how hard you work, and the messages you send. Thank you for your inspiration, and thank you for saying yes! We are filled with gratitude for your acceptance and look forward to sharing our book with you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I’m just doing my thing, you know. There are classes being taught on the theory behind why I do something, or why I make it a certain color. But I’m just doing what I want to do. I’m just doing my thing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">- Lady Pink</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For more information about Lady Pink and her artwork, please visit her website:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.ladypinknyc.com/">www.LadyPinkNYC.com</a></span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-38784213734131516972018-10-18T20:11:00.000-07:002018-10-19T06:48:27.863-07:00Merci Agha Jobrani Merci Agha Jobrani (English translation: Thank you Mr. Jobrani).<br />
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As an Iranian, I am beyond honored to present Mr. Maz Jobrani in our book. Maz Jobrani is a well known stand up comedian. He has been in various television shows, movies and has published books. One of his best sellers, and my favorite is "I'm Not a terrorist, but I've played one on T.V." I would highly recommend the read. What is so great about this <i>Poetic Illustrations of Immigrants of the United States</i> is that we have such a diverse selection of heroes. Some of the individuals hit Jen with intensity, while others hit me the same way. While others we both are impacted by their story.<br />
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When we work on someone's poem and illustration, we do a lot of research to learn as much as we can about the individual. I remember watching a video of Mr. Jobrani (resource: https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/10/07/inside-middle-east-stage-comedy-maz-jobrani-vision-b.cnn) and there was a very specific line "...I never felt American enough, and I never felt Iranian enough." That was it. That was the line that inspired my poem. I sat with that sentence for almost a week before I started writing. When I put the words on paper, it was effortless. Mainly because I have felt the same way. Not knowing where I belonged. <br />
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In our journey, Jen and I make all efforts to meet with our individuals, our heroes. We are crazy excited to have Mr. Jobrani's blessing to move forward with having him in the book. When I tweeted the video (oh yea...I tweet now) and to see Mr. Jobrani not only like the tweet, but respond? oh man...I was beside myself. We cannot wait to see his show on November 16th, and laugh our ass off. :)<br />
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-85610602818701450512018-10-13T18:52:00.002-07:002018-10-13T19:38:54.911-07:00Lady Liberty<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We take this symbol of our passage to freedom pretty seriously. Many think her tablet beholds a quote, but it actually holds Roman numerals for the date of our Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. The Emma Lazarus quote commonly thought to be on her tablet is actually located on the plaque at her base is one I never tire of. It's message reads: </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Give me your tired, your poor,</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A broken chain lies at the feet of the statue, symbolizing the freedoms we have in the United States of America. The statue is a welcoming signal to immigrants from all around the world who arrive from the corners of the earth to enter our country at Ellis Island. The seven spikes on the crown of the Statue of Liberty represent the seven oceans and the seven continents on our globe. She holds a torch, which illuminates a pathway to freedoms one has a right to in our country. The statue represents that Liberty is sought here, freedom is won here, and none shall be neglected here. Her torch stays lit for all to seek the shores of freedom by. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Statue of Liberty was gifted to the United States by France in 1886. It is a 305 foot tall Copper neoclassical sculpture located on Liberty Island in the New York Harbor in New York City. It was designed by sculptors<span class="w8qArf" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"> </span><span class="LrzXr kno-fv" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><a class="fl" data-ved="2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoATAhegQICxBf" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Auguste+Bartholdi&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LQz9U3MDcqsFACs7IKMsy0VLKTrfQTi5IzMktSk0tKi1L1i0uKSsEsK7gwAJpsbg48AAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoATAhegQICxBf" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi</a>, and <a class="fl" data-ved="2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoAzAhegQICxBh" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Richard+Morris+Hunt&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LQz9U3MDcqsFDiBLGMyrNMqrRUspOt9BOLkjMyS1KTS0qLUvWLS4pKwSwruDAAqAXr6z0AAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoAzAhegQICxBh" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Richard Morris Hun</a>t, and built by architect </span><a class="fl" data-ved="2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoAjAhegQICxBg" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Gustave+Eiffel&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LQz9U3MDcqsFACs4zNCpO0VLKTrfQTi5IzMktSk0tKi1L1i0uKSsEsK7gwANy0nWk8AAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo_cC_44TeAhWmwVkKHUjiDDoQmxMoAjAhegQICxBg" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Gustave Eiffel</a>. After originally being constructed in Paris in 1885, it was deconstructed and packed into 214 separate containers and shipped in 350 pieces to the United States where it was reassembled in New York upon it's arrival.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Hungarian American Publishing giant Joseph Pulitzer galvanized the American public to contribute to the effort by publishing the project in his newspaper, The World. Within six months of publication of the <span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">project he raised $100,000 for the statue. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We encourage you to see her for yourself. Pictures do not do her magnificence justice. Her symbolism is profound. Her presence, indelible.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We decided it was naturally appropriate to pay tribute to the group of individuals we are honoring by visiting the Statue and passing by Ellis Island. In some small way, as we walk the streets those we seek to celebrate in our book have, as we feel the tides under the boat, and as we sail near the lights we see in the distance and can see it as they would have seen it themselves, we are hoping that we are experiencing a small piece of their voyage so that we can honor it, pay tribute to it, and teach you about it. So that you can do the same.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For more information on the Statue of Liberty please see the following links:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Statue of Liberty National Monument</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.nps.gov/stli/</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.ellisisland.org</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ellis Island National Monument</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.nps.gov/elis</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/history/10-facts-about-the-statue-of-liberty/449874393</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://www.countryliving.com/life/a35726/statue-of-liberty-facts/</span></span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-57042691684564922142018-09-30T16:23:00.001-07:002018-09-30T16:23:55.515-07:00We are hitting the BIG APPLE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Azy and I are off to New York Friday morning, October 5, to meet one of our heroes! We plan to visit several publishers, honor an incredibly talented woman we can't wait to share more about with you, take in the sights, and teach our boys a little bit about the process of working to try to get this book published. We also plan to have a little bit of fun in the BIG apple!</div>
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You can follow our adventures on our new Twitter and Instagram accounts!</div>
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@BookPoetic</div>
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<br /><br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-14249425109271739032018-09-24T18:45:00.000-07:002018-09-25T11:20:57.266-07:00Read it while its HOT!<h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Okay, I have to admit the title is a bit cheesy. Jen is usually much better with the nice catchy titles. I digress. Two weeks ago, we took a survey on our Facebook page to see how many individuals had a bottle of the sriracha sauce in their kitchen as daily condiment use. The polls showed that about 54% of the voters DO have the sauce. I personally have two bottles. Not for me, for my son. He LOVES it. In my family, spice is all so good and nice. We love anything that will tingle and make our taste buds dance. So of course sriracha is on the list. The history behind the sauce is pretty darn amazing. I will not go into the details of it all but encourage you to look up the man behind the Rooster. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">His name is David Tran. David is a first generation immigrant to the United States from Vietnam. He is Chinese/Vietnamese, with a military background. He was a refugee when he came to America after the Vietnam War. When he started to venture into making this amazing sauce, he started selling it in recycled glass baby food jars. From company has grown into a multi-million dollar company called Huy Fong Foods. It is based in California, and uses ingredients grown by local farmers within the state. I know personally, I enjoyed writing the poem for Tran, given that it's one of our favorite condiments. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">d</span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">escribe who I am."</span><span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">w</span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">ith a Green hat on</span><span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW221283046" paraeid="{87b9f71a-7388-4bf9-8ece-ec8703d71cab}{192}" paraid="1547005813" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">a </span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Rooster</span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> on my shirt</span><span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">w</span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">ith bright red</span><span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW221283046" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">o capture the eye</span><span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW221283046" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">What to read the rest? Just wait...and you will be able to enjoy the entire poem with the illustration by Jen. He has an amazing adventurous story to tell. But don't we all? His story ends with a kick in the taste-buds! (again, too cheesy for an ending?)</span></span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-17585351956189587132018-09-17T17:45:00.000-07:002018-09-18T09:38:20.799-07:00They're here!!! THEY'RE HERE!!! <br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">These shiny little cards hold so much excitement for us! They are our way communicating to the world, one at a time, that this book is coming! We have so many ideas for these and we look forward to sharing them with you. Stay tuned for our next set of heroes! We will be adding some from the Y chromosome collection in the near future, but for this set we couldn’t help but start with three of the most amazing women we’ve ever learned about:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian Mathematician, the first female to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics. Pearl Primus, Trinidadian Dancer, a world renown talent known as "The Mother of African Dance". She is seen as a major pioneer in the field of dance in the United States, though she was denied admission to many schools due to her pigmentation. Alicia Partnoy, Argentinian Poet, and a fierce and loving advocate for the voices lost to tyranny. Her writing is invigorating and beckons readers to stand up and follow her drum beat as she pounds her fist into the sky with a smile on her face. She has become not just a hero of ours, but also a friend. We wish that we could say the same for all of our heroes, but sadly we cannot travel back in time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">These women were/are mothers. They were/are revolutionaries. They were/are brave, independent, spirited, fiery, bold, intrepid leaders who did/do what brave, intelligent women do so well. They skillfully walked/walk with dignity and grace but also immeasurable strength. They stood/stand firm in proverbial chapping winds. Oh and did they LEAP! at the chance to prove that they were willing to work, toil, practice, fight, and press on despite immeasurable obstacles. Whether those impositions in life be political opposition, religious oppression, patriarchal suppression, or racist and bigoted idolatry, they pressed on. With their spines straight, and their heads high even when adversity wanted to push their chins down, they succeeded. </span></div>
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Azy and I are dedicated to the dream that one day you will hold our book, and it will be a portal of pages providing you the opportunity to know these individuals the way we've come to know them. We hope you teach yourself and your children, your family, your neighbors, your parents, and your friends about these amazing people. Learn with us who has influenced our lives, improved our environment, invented the products and items that we use daily, and enhanced our experience as humans.<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br />
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For starters, THANK YOU Maryam, Pearl, & Alicia.<br />
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With deepest gratitude and love,<br />
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Jen & Azy</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><br /></span>Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-26092745373636312282018-09-02T18:51:00.002-07:002018-09-02T18:52:25.956-07:00Business About Cards!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Sometimes writing and illustrating a book is like juggling cats. Azy and I are both moms. We are both busy people with full more than time schedules. So to say that we have already bitten a lot off to chew would be a grand understatement. We knew that taking on this book would be a challenge. But we did so with a full heart for this project. With a commitment that burns continually through the excitement and spirit from deep within. We believe in this book. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So days like today, when Azy spent the day with family, and I tried not to stroke out at my son’s football game while my six year old slathered her hot little self across my lap, we volleyed messages back and forth regarding discounts on business cards. We are moms. We like bargains. And this is on a shoe-string, because again, it’s a TWO WOMAN SHOW. Plus, we also like shoes. So the less we have to pay for promotional materials, the better! </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">After some serious lip biting, and throwing designs and coupon codes into a couple of programs online, we have finally made our decisions and have our cards chosen and in process. It feels like we have purchased ourselves our own birthday gifts…or stuffed our own stockings…because we are making our dreams come true for this book! </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It might seem a little over the top that we’d get *THIS* excited about a business card. It seems so old school. It does. We know. But this is a big step for us. It means that for the first time we will be reaching outside of the familiar territory that we’ve comfortably found support in here on facebook and on our blog. We’re going to look complete strangers in the eye and confidently hand them our cards and refer them to our site with full awareness and hope that it will result in them one day holding the book in their hand.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So today we threw some cats in the air, and I think we actually caught all of them! </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Imagine how exciting it will be when the book is hot off of the presses if we are THIS excited about business cards?!!! </span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-13230871317198044992018-08-29T18:29:00.004-07:002019-03-02T14:31:36.243-08:00Who was she?<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<span style="font-family: "bookantiqua";"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Azy and I </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">would</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> like to challenge our </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">rea</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ders. Do you </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">know</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> who this is? What she did? Why she was chosen as an </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">inspirational</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">immigrant and included in our book? I've included a passage from the poem inspired by her, written by Azy below along with a clip from the image I created of her. Who was she? What did she do? How will she be remembered? What did she inspire? My little girl wants to be just like her. Did you ever want to aim for the stars? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookantiqua";"><b><span style="font-size: large;">laying on a flat roof top </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookantiqua";"><b><span style="font-size: large;">staring at the blanket above </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookantiqua";"><b><span style="font-size: large;">as each exhale could be seen</span></b></span></div>
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This is Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian American woman in space. She traveled on two expeditions in space and sadly perished along with the entire crew of the space shuttle Columbia when the shuttle exploded upon re-entry on February 1, 2003. As a child she would lie on the rooftop of her home and look into the sky, dreaming of her future among the stars. Her work covered a wide range of impressive subjects from robotics to aerodynamics. We would like you to know more about the amazing contributions to our country and to the space program that Ms. Chawla made during her prestigious career with NASA. Please read more about her here<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">: </span><a class="" data-lynx-mode="hover" dir="ltr" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jsc.nasa.gov%2FBios%2Fhtmlbios%2Fchawla.html&h=AT183REHQjGFIvEobC-hMVkhLn0LO4vuwjm_3W66SWvudn6Fu28Q2xH5TAUvqUl8FKL98wwp_MqJmpX9c1KM1eFQ2SJLygrBtrCxq4zGLsXZduHws5E-i-IhwiXFo4iKuNcvjeY" rel="nofollow noopener" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chawla.html</a></span></span></div>
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Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-77045826407911058062018-08-13T17:20:00.000-07:002018-08-13T17:20:11.676-07:00Our Motto<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322755651276694287.post-20779185764492058062018-07-22T17:40:00.001-07:002018-07-23T16:52:46.330-07:00Meeting Alicia Partnoy at Sisterfire 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12pt;">This woman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="text-align: center;">Alicia Partnoy, Poet and human rights warrior, delivered this inspiring speech at the 2018 Smithsonian Sisterfire Festival of American Folk Life on the Mall in Washington DC on Sunday, July 8.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Azy and I went to the festival to meet her. To gift to her. We wanted her to know that we would like to honor her. But we left as recipients of the gift of her friendship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Alicia is like a cloud. She contains thunder if necessary. Lighting when needed. But otherwise she’s soft and floats like a mist. She’s tender. But bold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">July 8 was a day that checked all of the boxes. It filled all of the buckets. It will stand the test of time. It will present doors and open them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Alicia is one of our heroines. She represents the tenacity and spirit of the individuals we would like you - our audience and viewers to know! Please consider reading her works and about her life. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to meet Alicia and we will cherish her friendship! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">She is the one, the only, Alicia Partnoy.</span><br />
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<br />Poetic Illustrationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11365733363431767431noreply@blogger.com0