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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A journalist’s journey, guided by curiosity for her father’s illness
“…Now the story of a daughter who grew up on the border between the United States and Mexico. She searches for herself, while also coming to grips with her father’s mental illness.
Amna Nawaz has the latest selection from the “NewsHour” Bookshelf…”
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Incoming student rises above personal adversity in debut song “Broken Wings”
“…Izzy Escobar flies with broken wings every day.
The incoming first-year musical theater student released her debut song “Broken Wings” on June 25, stemming from her experience of abuse from a stepparent, which she turned into inspiration for her music at a young age. The four-minute pop song, accompanied by an original music video, celebrates overcoming difficult situations in life and ultimately learning to let go and grow from them, Escobar said…”
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How to best serve Latino students
“…The University of California has received criticism for not adequately serving Latinos, the state’s largest ethnic group, since affirmative action measures were banned from use in admissions decisions in California’s public institutions in 1996, The New York Times reports.
The university system’s newest campus, UC Merced, most closely resembles the diversity of California with an undergraduate Latino population of 53%. UCLA and UC Berkeley, the system’s flagship campuses, serve Latino populations of 21% and 13%, respectively…”
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Diversity in teacher degree programs lags nationwide
“…The report showed that at Central Washington University, which graduates the most teachers in the state each year, the number of minority students was very close to their ratio in the population — including about 12% Hispanic, the largest minority. Other Washington colleges did similarly well in matching the state breakdown…”
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Minority youth will keep America great, white anxiety will not
“The Census Bureau reported last month that the nation’s white population declined for the first time. This dip was previously not projected to begin until the next decade, though it will continue for much of this century.
Many white supporters of President Trump will view this as yet another sign of the end of the America they know, as the country inches toward “majority-minority” status. To them, this means relinquishing dominance and privileged status to browner and newer Americans, whom they perceive as competing with them for jobs and government resources, while distorting their way of life. This “white anxiety” underlies many proposals from Trump, such as the Mexican border wall and Muslim ban..”
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Positioning Ourselves to Support College Success for Males of Color
“…my colleagues Jelisa S. Clark at Fayetteville State University and Matthew Smith at California State University Dominguez Hills, our recently published book, Empowering Men of Color on Campus: Building Student Community in Higher Education, takes an in-depth look at the collegiate experiences of males of color at a Hispanic serving institution in the southwest region of the U.S.
Our main objective in writing this book, published by Rutgers University Press, was to investigate how a select group of students, all of whom were engaged in a male success program on campus, narrated their educational experience,s including their pathways to and experiences during college. We wanted to know how these students thought about themselves, built relationships with their male peers, made meaning of their engagement experiences and aspired to success. We argue that despite the overly projected deficit narrative about males of color, there is much to learn from their meanings, associations, engagements and efforts, as well as their connections to and uses of community…”
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New Chicago college opens for Latino students
“…Latino students with limited English skills and lacking a high school diploma will be able to attend a new, private two-year college in Chicago this fall that will help them get middle income jobs, according to Inside Higher Education…”
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Borders, mobility and belonging
M Gilmartin, P Wood – 2018 – books.google.com
Questions of migration and citizenship are at the heart of global political debate with Brexit
and the election of Donald Trump having ripple effects around the world. Providing new
insights into the politics of migration and citizenship in the UK and the US, this book …”
Link to book preview
California college students can take free online course from any state institution
“…The California State University system is more broadly promoting an initiative that will allow its residential students to access online courses at any of its 23 campuses through a new database launched this week, Inside Higher Education reported. Students will be able to take one free online course each semester…”
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Six CSU Campuses Top Producers of Latino Doctorate Recipients
“…According to data recently compiled by the National Science Foundation (NSF), six CSU campuses are among the top in the nation for graduating Latino students who go on to earn a Ph.D. in the sciences.
Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, San Diego and San Francisco are among the nation’s top 55 U.S. bachelor’s and master’s granting institutions for producing Latino doctorates in areas such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer sciences and biological sciences…”
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UC admits record number of transfer students for fall
“…The University of California offered admission this fall to more transfer students than it has at any point in its history, officials announced Wednesday.More than 137,000 students were offered spots at one of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses, including roughly 28,750 transfer applicants, according to UC.California residents comprise the majority of the newly admitted students, making up 71,086 freshmen and 24,568 transfer students. The California freshman admission numbers rose by 1,114 students compared with last year’s numbers…
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To meet state attainment goals, higher ed will have to get explicit about race
“…Nearly every state has set, revised or adopted a degree attainment goal in the last few years, fueled primarily by projections that 65% of job vacancies will require some type of post-secondary training by 2020.
In most cases, however, these degree attainment goals do not focus on the various racial and ethnic sub-populations in each state, which the Education Trust’s senior director of Higher Education Research and Data Analytics, Andrew Nichols, said is problematic, particularly as the nation’s demographics continue to shift toward a browner population…
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Study: Key to boosting student outcomes might be emphasis on cultural learning
“…Preliminary data from a San Francisco State University evaluation study demonstrates that students in ethnic studies majors graduate at approximately 20% higher rates than nonmajors. At the same time, students enrolled in at least one ethnic studies class also graduated at a higher rate than students not taking the class. According to a press release from the university, ethnic studies majors maintained a six-year graduation rate of 77.3% compared with a rate of 52.3% for nonmajors…”
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Trump Officials Reverse Obama’s Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools
“WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it was abandoning Obama administration policies that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, signaling that the administration will champion race-blind admissions standards…”
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Mexico Presidential Election Results: Meet Anti-Trump Winner Andrés Manuel López Obrador
“Mexico has chosen left-leaning hopeful Andrés Manuel López Obrador to become its 58th president for the next six years, in what is considered the country’s largest election in history.
López Obrador of the Together We Will Make History coalition won the election with more than 40 percent of the votes, defeating Ricardo Anaya from centrist For Mexico to the Front coalition, who obtained 27.6 percent of the votes. José Antonio Meade of the Everyone for Mexico coalition only received 18.3 of the votes and Jaime Rodriguez Calderón “El Bronco,” who ran as an independent, acquired nearly 5.2 percent of the ballots. Mexico’s former first lady and independent candidate Margarita Zavala dropped out of the race last May because her campaign faced economic hardship and could not garner enough support of more than 10 percent of voters, according to some polls.
Eligible voters also cast their ballots for more than 3,000 posts at the state and federal level, which also include the election of eight governorships, 500 chamber of deputies and 128 Senate seats. López…”
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What you need to know about Mexico’s historic election
“Mexico holds an historic election on Sunday: its biggest to date in terms of the sheer number of races.
Eighty-eight million registered voters — many of whom are fed up with corruption and inefficiency under the administration of current president Enrique Peña Nieto — will get the chance to change the face of Mexico’s government, and affect the course of U.S. relations, with major border and trade issues at stake.
Beyond the presidential race, more than 1600 elected positions at the state and local level are up for a vote across 30 of Mexico’s 32 states — including Mexico City’s mayor — as well as its entire federal legislative body: 500 seats in the legislature, and 128 in its senate…”
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UTSA faculty help local educators create Mexican-American Studies curriculum
“…June 25, 2018) – Faculty in The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies and Mexican American Studies Program are sharing their expertise with local teachers who are creating history and fine arts curriculum focused on Chicano/Mexican American content…”
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More Latino students stay in college than white students – but only if they’re prepared
“…Latino students lag their peers overall
Latinos are the fastest-growing population in Arizona, and Latino students make up the largest percentage of students in the state’s K-12 public schools. However, Latino students lag their white peers in academic achievement across the K-12 education system and are underrepresented in postsecondary degree achievement.
Only 18 percent of Arizona Latino fourth-graders are proficient in reading, compared with 46 percent of white students. Only 20 percent of Latino eighth-graders are proficient in math, compared to 48 percent of white students…”
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Report finds differences in degree attainment levels for various Hispanic populations
“…A new report from the Education Trust examines degree attainment levels for blacks and Hispanics versus their white peers. It says that overall, gaps between degree attainment levels for Hispanic adults versus their white counterparts have grown since 2000, and Hispanic younger adults do not have much higher attainment levels than older adults — meaning there’s not the intergenerational improvement people like to believe there is.
There are notable differences in Hispanic attainment levels based on nationality and whether the individual migrated to the U.S. or was born here. According to J. Oliver Schak, one of the report’s co-authors, a majority of Latino adults age 25 to 64 were born outside of this country; those born inside the U.S. have a degree attainment rate of 30%, compared with 17% for those born outside of the U.S….”
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Don Quixote rides anew (on a bicycle!) in Cal Shakes world premiere
“…Brandishing a bedpan as a helmet and reclaimed auto parts as a coat of armor, a bedraggled “Quixote Nuevo” charges on stage at Cal Shakes atop a rickety bicycle instead of a steed.
Octavio Solis’ cheeky new re-imagining of Cervantes’ Don Quixote mythology, exuberantly directed by KJ Sanchez, throbs with wit and poignancy in its world premiere at California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda. Letting acclaimed playwright Solis (“El Paso Blue,” “Santos and Santos”) rub elbows with Shakespeare on the docket is part of Cal Shakes’ mission to redefine the classics in a more inclusive and relevant way that speaks to the soul and politics of life in America today…”
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