Reading

I finished Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. This is the third book of his I’ve read in the past few years (first was Sag Harbor and then The Nickle Boys). As I read more of his books, I find myself trusting him more. Like when a chapter starts and it’s about a whole new person we have yet to meet – and I’m a bit disoriented as a reader – I trust him that it will not only matter but will be worth it for me. I imagine all authors deserve this generosity from their readers, and we the readers are the ones who loose if we cannot muster such a gesture toward the author. So I’m hoping I can extend it toward other writers, too.

Teaching

We are taking our foot off the gas a bit in Readings in Young Adult Lit + Antiracist Teaching. The challenge in reading Ghost Boys was to understand how a novel written from the standpoint of a young Black protagonist could, at the same time, center whiteness. I think we got there without critiquing all goodness out of the novel. Now, we are onto an assignment that has students listen to, annotate, and draw insights from how they had been discussing the past three novels. This is possible because I had them audio recording their pod conversations, even though they didn’t know the exact purpose at the time. It’s a very different kind of assignment – one I’ve been thinking about for years and finally designed this semester while leaning on the excellent Letting Go of Literary Whiteness. I’m excited to see the results. I always tell myself: If I’m not excited grading and giving feedback, then how must students feel while actually completing it?

Listening

A whole bunch of beats on vinyl that I put together in this mix on my Soundcloud. It’s called “People Still Make Beats” because people still make beats! The standout track comes in 11:20 and is from one of my favorite Detroit producers, Illingsworth. His signature vocal chops are in there. Check it out.