Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón

In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.

 

But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.

As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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Academy Gold Rising program helping boost diversity in Hollywood

“..A total of 100 young people selected from among more than 9,000 applicants took part in the 2021 edition of Academy Gold Rising, which was held virtually for the second straight year and will hold its graduation ceremony on Saturday.That group has spent the past eight weeks participating in panel discussions on filmmaking and networking with industry professionals and receiving support and guidance from the Academy, best known for organizing the annual Oscars ceremony.Christine Simmons, the Academy’s chief operating officer, told Efe that her organization is excited to see the positive impact Gold Rising has had on the careers of program participants from the United States and abroad.One of the participants in Gold Rising 2021, Sofia Ayerdi, said she was thrilled to learn she had been selected for the program, whose partner companies include AMC Networks, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures and WarnerMedia.“It was something I simply couldn’t believe. I said, ‘there has to be some mistake. This is really happening to me? The Academy?’ It’s something truly incredible.”A Texas-born woman of Mexican descent who studies film production at California State University, Northridge, Ayerdi said the Academy Gold Rising program is introducing younger generations to the inner workings of Hollywood…”

https://www.laprensalatina.com/academy-gold-rising-program-helping-boost-diversity-in-hollywood/

 

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Poem
“…And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while…”

T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Mexican American Proarchive Annual Report for 2022

The American Community Survey is an annual survey administered by the federal government to help local officials and community leaders and businesses understand the changes that take place in their communities. It includes percentages of our population’s graduate school attainment and the employment of Mexican Americans in various occupations.  These important factors influence the allocation of federal resources. Mexican American Proarchives uses the data provided by the American Community Survey to better understand how Mexican Americans compare to the general population.

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