Tales of migration
A powerful new non-fiction graphic anthology tells the stories of Latin American migrant farmworkers working in Vermont, drawn by New England-based cartoonists. “The Most Costly Journey” (Vermont Folklife Center), introduced by Julia Alvarez, includes 19 stories about the harrowing journeys people make to arrive in Vermont, and what it is to survive once they’ve gotten there. There are moments of striking candor: “When I’m far from my family I have a bit of an alcohol problem,” Carlos admits. And many stories of perilous desert crossings led by a coyote to reach the U.S. border. José tells of a woman in the group heading towards the border getting bitten by a rattlesnake and being left behind in the desert. A migrant from Hildalgo turns to drawing and painting for solace; others emphasize that they’re doing everything they can for their families. They’ve left behind corruption, extortion, violence, and poverty, and they grapple with a mix of gratitude for the money they’re able to make on farms and making food, and the challenges of working seven days a week, being far from people they love, learning a new language, and getting used to a wholly new environment. The anthology as a whole speaks to the connective, corrective, and healing power of telling stories, and listening to them.
Communal Douglass readings
“The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me,” said Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, delivering a speech on the occasion of the 76th birthday of the United States. “This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” In its Reading Frederick Douglass Together Program, Mass Humanities has organized a number of readings and discussions across Massachusetts centered on Frederick’s speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” “Oppression makes a wise man mad,” Douglass said that day, and his words resonate with prescient force right now. On Sunday, July 4, there are gatherings at South Congregational Church in Amherst, the Old Parish Cemetery in Norwood, the Shaw Memorial Library in Plainfield, Union Square in Somerville, and virtually through Renaissance House on Martha’s Vineyard. On July 5, the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center will host a gathering in East Falmouth, and on July 11, one will take place at the Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain. For more information and a complete schedule, visit masshumanities.org/events.
Spirituals, illustrated
The 98-year-old multi-award winning author and artist Ashley Bryan has centered his attention on bringing the Black experience to children’s books. A new exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art focuses on Bryan’s illustrations of spirituals. He’d wanted for a collection of spirituals aimed at young readers, and when he couldn’t find any, decided to make one himself, using a variety of media to highlight and celebrate lyrics and songs. The songs “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”; “Little David”; and “Let Us Break Bread Together” are depicted in fluid and lively hand-carved linoleum prints. Other songs are presented in cut-paper collage and tempera paint. Raised in Harlem, Bryan now lives on the coast of Maine on the Cranberry Isles. “The enslaved were not permitted to read or write,” he’s said of his project. “But they had freedom of the mind, a gift to be expressive, to offering something creative of their lives. And they created songs called spirituals.” The exhibit is on view through November 7, 2021. For more information, visit carlemuseum.org.
Coming Out
“Wayward” by Dana Spiotta (Knopf)
“The Letters of Shirley Jackson” edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman (Random House)
“Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship” by Catherine Raven (Spiegel & Grau)
Pick of the Week
Jean MacKenzie at the Brewster Book Store in Brewster, Massachusetts, recommends “The Orphan of Salt Winds” by Elizabeth Brooks (Tin House): “England, 1939. Ten-year-old Virginia Wrathmell arrives at Salt Winds, a secluded house on the edge of a marsh, to meet her adoptive parents ― practical, dependable Clem and glamorous, mercurial Lorna. The marsh, with its deceptive tides, is a beautiful but threatening place. Virginia’s new parents’ marriage is full of secrets she doesn’t quite understand, and their wealthy neighbor drops by too often. Only Clem offers a true sense of home.”
Nina MacLaughlin is the author of “Wake, Siren.” She can be reached at nmaclaughlin@gmail.com.