I live in Baltimore City. If my city were a character in a middle grade novel, it would be described by reviewers as "a mass of contradictions," "quirky" and proud, "intensely loyal," and the kind of kid whose self-destructive outbursts camouflage a wounded heart. Readers would be fascinated by Baltimore's mercurial nature: he is strict but playful as he distributes lunch money to his younger siblings; goofy and creative hanging out with his friends; but can become ferociously confrontational when he believes himself opposed.
Anger and love, the urge to destroy and the will to build - not mutually exclusive, not in people and not in a city.
Yesterday, as the sun shone on my beautiful, messed-up city, hundreds of impassioned people, young and old, took to the streets to express themselves publicly. Dance groups, drummers, elected officials, clergy of all creeds, moms and dads and kids and college students stood outside and chanted and sang and prayed and roller skated. And this is after getting up at dawn and clearing the wreckage of the previous night's public expressions.
My city is populated with heroes, y'all.
During the worst of the looting Monday night, when young men were gleefully breaking things and setting stuff on fire - and let's not kid ourselves: setting stuff on fire is FUN, and the fact that people restrain themselves from doing it ALL THE DAMN TIME is THE miracle of civil society - community members came outside, walked into the most dangerous place, and interposed themselves between police and looters. "Let us try to handle this," said Councilman Nick Mosby to the cops.
After all, sending cops to confront those angry young people is like sending an abusive parent to control a child who, after years of mistreatment by that parent, has gotten his hands on a crowbar. I have so much respect for the community members who put themselves between those two parties.
And all this responsible action, all this civic pride, all the hard work and courage and dancing and counseling and sweeping and feeding is being undertaken - unsolicited and unpaid - largely by people who have... who have not been well-served by civic policy. That's a nice way of saying it.
David Simon put a finer point on it in a recent speech at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas:
And so in my country you're seeing a horror show. You're seeing a retrenchment in terms of family income, you're seeing the abandonment of basic services, such as public education, functional public education. You're seeing the underclass hunted through an alleged war on dangerous drugs that is in fact merely a war on the poor and has turned us into the most incarcerative state in the history of mankind, in terms of the sheer numbers of people we've put in American prisons and the percentage of Americans we put into prisons. No other country on the face of the Earth jails people at the number and rate that we are.
David Simon is the author of The Corner and creator of The Wire, and he lives here in town. Everything he says about the U.S. is extra-true in Baltimore: education is underfunded, public safety is minimal, infrastructure is antiquated, transportation is woeful, huge numbers of adult men are in jail... and still Baltimoreans will not allow our city to be defined by violence. JUST like a teenager who has assumed responsibility for his younger brothers and sisters in the absence of an incarcerated or addicted or overworked parent, Baltimoreans bootstrap each other. We mentor, we police, we care for and house each other. And still we rise.
Many of my friends have periodically been posting videos of baby cheetahs and foxes eating bacon on Facebook as brief emotional breaks from the intensity of media coverage and valuable but sometimes exhausting exchange of opinion. But the unadulterated.us version of a panda video is...
Picture book roundup!!
If you have a small person close at hand, grab that person and read 'em a book. You'll both settle down considerably. Nothing like beauty, a few rhymes and a giggle to restore one's faith in our world and its future.
let's start with a couple of pretty ones...
Such a Little Mouse
Oh my gosh. So simple, so pretty, like a glass of water when you're thirsty. Little mouse is curious and friendly and nothing much happens - it's like Beatrix Potter without the plot, a balm for the eyes and psyche. Makes me wish I had a little little kid again whom I could read this to every night.
Sleeping Cinderella and Other Princess Mix-ups
Are you in a rut? Get outta Dodge and try someone else's life on for size. Then come back home with the energy you need to make your changes.
This art is girly in kind of a mod midcentury way. Best of both worlds.
The Dinner That Cooked Itself from Kenard Pak on Vimeo.
The Dinner That Cooked Itself
Terrific fairy tale from China, lovely illustrations. I brought this book home from work and immediately checked my cookbooks for a recipe for chicken with plums! With a 10 o'clock curfew in effect, we're eating at home for sure.
and then some food for thought...
I Say Shehechiyanu
This is excellent. A little girl says "shehechiyanu" - the Jewish blessing for when we experience something for the first time or for the first time in a long time - all through the year. Changes in the weather are linked to Jewish holidays, seasonal school and play activities, and milestones in her baby brother's development. A new tooth? Shehechiyanu!
I can't hear helicopters buzzing over our house? Shehechiyanu!
Grandma in Blue with Red Hat
"Why do you think this in the museum?" asks Ms. Montebello as she shepherds her 'little Picassos' through the Metropolitan. The art students all have different answers as they look at art that includes a Monet, a Pollock, a Van Gogh, but also a Benin bronze and a Chinese landscape.
Books about art for kids FREQUENTLY only acknowledge the Western tradition, so including these two pieces makes this book significantly more inclusive than most. Also the kid in the book reads about Georgia O'Keeffe, so there you go, one female artist. Actually, THE female artist - if you read as many books about art for kids as I do you will see that the girls are represented by Georgia or Frida. Occasionally Faith Ringgold or Mary Cassatt.
But leaving aside this one high-horse issue of mine, this is a terrific book. It addresses concept as well as process, acknowledging the role of contemplation and inspiration in creating art.
AND - Grandma has a few books scattered by her chair, and one of them is "AARP Comics" with the word "CRUMB" prominent on the cover. Now THAT's funny, folks. I bet R. Crumb is totally an AARP member - he's pretty old for one thing, and he cannot resist a discount for another.
a couple of picture books that are just for fun...
Worst in Show
A variation on the old 'you're still special even if you don't score well by the standard metrics' plot, in which the standard metrics are AWFUL - parasites, warts, smelly smelly farts. This takes the sting out of that implied message of 'we still love you even if you don't measure up.' Living in the land of the underdog, I take that message to heart. Lots of fun.
Click!
How many faces can YOU find illuminated by the bird lamp as he ventures around the house locating and alleviating dripping faucets, sneezing brooms, and creaking rocking chairs. A great jumping-off point for finding "faces" on inanimate objects at home and abroad.
one dud...
Yard Sale
And there you go. I often find Eve Bunting's issue-oriented books to be kind of lugubriously heavy-handed. I mean, we just HAD riots in Baltimore, and STILL I find Smoky Night, her book about the L.A. riots, needlessly alarming. STILL I would not recommend it to a parent. One Green Apple, in which a recent immigrant to America learns that she can blend in on a school trip to a cider mill, boasts an unusually violent metaphor for assimilation - a CIDER PRESS.
I assumed Yard Sale was a book about a yard sale - right up until a friendly neighbor buys little Callie's bike and puts it in his truck. "Oh Callie!" says dad. "We told you, sweetie. We have no place to keep it. And there's no sidewalk outside. Just a street with lots of traffic."
Oh my god they're going to go live on a traffic median. After their adorable single family detached home with the slate roof and the round gable window has been foreclosed upon!
Listen, man. I have friends who have lost their houses while their children were little, and there was no need to menace the kid's little red bicycle as part of the conversation. My #1 rule for books that address difficult themes: "FIRST, INTRODUCE NO NEW FEARS."
"You wouldn't sell me, would you?" Callie tearfully asks. Good lord.
Please note however that Lauren Castillo's art is as natural and homey as always.
but let's end on a high note:
Bird & Diz
It is impossible for me to articulate my admiration for this book without using profanity. If I could play the trumpet or the saxophone I might be able to do it. But just typing? Forget it. Ed Young puts it all on the page in order to visualize a glorious improvisational jazz duet.
Ed Young came to Baltimore for the Baltimore Book Festival a couple of years ago. After he did his bit on stage, I noticed him wandering the festival, taking in the architecture of the historic intersection where the festival was held, sketchbook, as always, in hand. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, just like it's been for the past two days. Kids were busy at the craft tables, couples were dancing to the band.
It's 8:52 pm as I type this and the damn helicopters have started back up. Let's divert ourselves with the faces of happy, engaged people at the book festival - this is Baltimore.
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