In this new issue from The AutoEthnographer, we follow a ballerina through the desert, glimpse into the funeral industry, and process parental grief.
I write of parental grief & my mother's sweater as a comfort to me, exploring cultures of grief where pain meets love and love meets pain.
"She needs to be an artist to be an artist-teacher in adult community learning. She needs to do both to become the best she can be."
"Unspeakable is a consideration of the silencing effects of stuttering, political censorship, unspeakable wartime atrocities, and the silent communication within virtual relationships."
"When a favorite perfume ceases to exist, it is another kind of death. Having been created, it leaves a special sort of emptiness," from Eulogy for a Perfume.
"And these are the things I carry: the memories of those gone before us; the names of those entrusted to me to care for."
"Have you ever crossed the desert in a circus train? I took such a detour—by choice— in 1978 when I hung up my pointe shoes to ride an elephant named Peggy."
"Ami Tau Ami (I Am Who I Am), is a story about a mother letting go of her own dreams but passing it to her daughter, as my mother did for me."
I pay homage to Nina Simone’s already iconic and thorough exploration of stereotypes by setting the project to the song “Four Women.”
”I still aim to engage in the process of life, commit to a meaningful purpose, and structure my life around an intrinsically satisfying activity. For me, I will continue writing as a way to make sense of what it means to be alive.”
”As of January, 2022 The AutoEthnographer Literary & Arts Magazine is recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a registered nonprofit organization with the mission of becoming a trusted, open-source platform to share and educate readers about evocative personal inquiry, to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding.”
Autoethnographic Literary Nonfiction: I Just Want to Go Home – Moving, Loss and Unacknowledged Grief
"Moving away from a beloved home at a tender age was traumatizing, in part, because that home was the only place in which I felt safe."
