Deborah E. McDowell @dem8z Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@blue_morpho444

@Jooji0070

@morinaga3

@drbernielim

@its_chantel1

@TheoGriezmann

@RosaHerrera1987

@EXEClashGame

@Mental3rror

@ThomasB2801

@das_archivee

@TheOnePhantomy

@gozaruhoe

@joshtupapi

@rkivenokyojin

@dkirch888

@AlhwryHady34936

@kyb384810833466

@proj_mayhem_one

@_HometownGlory

@CVFutrell

@mgorbis

@LoraleeMay44793

@ohlf

@MarekFurjan

@Andreza88639766

@swordpackm

@UCONNSOCCER

@PolpsPapua

@PartisanWay

@KitCull

@MadoFuck

@rudyshoushany

@BonchaeManchaee

@Breathinbutera_

@LeafBladeX_YT

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

You need not comment. Just sending along a bit of Sunday sunshine. Can’t quite believe he’s already five months old. Enjoy you day.

1K

424

17K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 years

May we eventually get to the point when we won’t feel compelled to mention that an innocent black person, slaughtered in cold blood, was a college grad or held a job. Whether or not Atatiana Jefferson knew the alphabet, she should not have been murdered in her own home. Full stop

54

5K

13K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Forgive me for sending pics two days in a row, but this beauty just arrived and I know that these days call for steady infusions of joy.

234

85

6K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

I argued fiercely with Toni Morrison about the positions she took in this this interview in TIME. As I attempt as a 71-year-old to parent adolescents, I want to revisit those conversations when I insisted she was wrong.

63

459

3K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Just now a couple🚶‍♀️down my street comes upon me at my evening chore: deadheading, weeding & watering. Didn’t recognize them. Perhaps they are new to the neighborhood. Me: Good evening. Woman: “When you finish over here, there is plenty to do around the corner at our house.”

233

157

3K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 months

Toni Morrison asked THE essential questions: “What would you be doing or thinking if there was no gaze or hand to stop you?” She also created characters who posed essential ??, including Pilate: “When am I happy and when am I sad and what is the difference?”

3

519

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

10 months

The sudden deaths this week of two Black women administrators has alarmed and saddened us all. It concerns me, though, that we habitually reduce Black women’s to their work as administrators. If these women are like most Black women I know, they are also carrying other heavy 1/

16

405

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

“You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.” —Toni Morrison

5

599

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Question of the afternoon, which comes from Toni Morrison: “What would you be doing or thinking if there was no gaze or hand to stop you?”

13

594

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Hiring “Chief Diversity Officers” is a standard move of many unis invested in impression mgt. Such officers typically wield no power, set no policies, & hence make few structural changes in the workings of institutions. This explains the skepticism many hold for such hires.

Allyson Hobbs

@allysonvhobbs

4 years

I am happy to read that ⁦ @Harvard ⁩ has hired a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. I hope ⁦ @Stanford ⁩ will do the same.

10

16

79

30

568

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

It would have been good to see the prize-winning groundbreaking work of @Tera Hunter referenced in this article. 1/ Black washerwomen in the South went on strike and changed U.S. labor - The Washington Post

How Black washerwomen in the South became pioneers of American labor

In 1866, a year after Emancipation, formerly enslaved Black female workers launched a widespread work stoppage and jump-started a wave of Black-led labor organizing.

www.washingtonpost.com

17

381

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

You were great with the last photo drop. You didn’t break the internet and the comments were restrained. Since I’ve gotten a few requests, here’s this little lemon drop.Yesterday he smiled but withheld his belly laughs, as he was preoccupied w/rolling from his belly to his back.

138

31

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

“A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.” —W. E. B. DuBois

3

326

2K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Toni Morrison from the archives: The Work You Do, the Person You Are | The New Yorker

The Work You Do, the Person You Are

The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed.

www.newyorker.com

8

392

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Please do not DM me. Block me! Mute me, and disagree with me out in the open. I am in my eighth decade of life. I will not be silenced.

22

69

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

My father was a handsome man. He sent this photo to his mother from Germany.

24

31

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

“Once you understand what your work is and you do not try to avert your eyes from it, but attempt to invest energy in getting the work done, the universe will send you what you need. You simply have to know how to be still and receive it.” —Toni Cade Bambara

5

373

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

@TeraWHunter has written perhaps the most thoroughly and creatively-researched books on household laborers and washerwomen in the post-Civil War south.

5

201

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

This is such great news!! Congratulations to the poet who has given the world so much. Poet Sonia Sanchez Will Receive 2022 MacDowell Medal - MacDowell

Poet Sonia Sanchez Will Receive 2022 MacDowell Medal

Poet Sonia Sanchez, the author of more than 17 internationally renowned volumes of verse, will receive the Edward MacDowell Medal at the MacDowell grounds on Sunday, July 10, 2022. The return of the...

www.macdowell.org

12

266

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Alice Walker completes THE COLOR PURPLE and writes to notify me that she can accept my invitation to read at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, 1982.

24

89

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

“Once you understand what your work is and you do not try to avert your eyes from it, but attempt to invest energy in getting the work done, the universe will send you what you need. You simply have to know how to be still and receive it.” ~Toni Cade Bambara

Monaye

@TheBlackLayers

2 years

Today we remember Toni Cade Bambara who taught us what the role of a writer should be.

1

152

497

5

350

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Our dear, ⁦ @ZyahnaB ⁩, pride of Charlottesville, recognized @WoodsonUVa for her research on gender and/in the Black church. As a high school student, she launched the campaign to remove confederate statuary from the city. Our students do us proud!!

34

61

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Still standing with the Amazon workers in my hometown of Bessemer, Alabama, who are struggling to form a union. It’s estimated that Jeff Bezos is worth more than every citizen of Alabama combined. Workers deserve safe working conditions, hazard pay, livable wages.

3

220

995

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 months

Toni Morrison’s 80th Birthday Party. Marilyn Sanders Mobley and Maryemma Graham are in the background.

13

133

1K

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Every so often, the spirit of Toni Cade Bambara visits and prompts me to put her question back in circulation: “what are we pretending not to know today?”

6

261

995

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Just received a well-meaning note from a colleague, congratulating me on transitioning from chair: “you deserve a chance to devote more energy to your intellectual pursuits.” Me: Building a dept from 3 -15 faculty members in roughly 10 yrs is an “intellectual pursuit”—decidedly.

12

45

995

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

“I realized that the meaning of being Black is summed up in who comes to bury you, who gathers in your name after you’re gone,” he wrote, “what they have to say about how you loved, and how you were loved in return.” AND HE WAS LOVED!!

GREG TATE (C. 1958–2021)

Cultural critic Greg Tate, whose incandescent and incisive writing, particularly on topics surrounding Black American culture, influenced a generation, died today of undisclosed causes at the age of...

www.artforum.com

3

236

902

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

19 days

You know, academic organizations don’t need to have conferences every year.

36

81

897

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Remedial refresher: having a black friend (or more), a black spouse; sleeping with a black person, dating a black person, loving music black folks record, adopting black children—none of these “prove” you can’t be racist.

7

145

817

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

You know, it’s possible to hold two thoughts at once, to register two responses to that commutation. We can rejoice that his life was spared AND condemn the fact that he will remain caged for the rest of it.The one response doesn’t cancel out the other.

2

122

809

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

@annastayshaa The image of a child carrying confetti in her/his pocket is my boost for the day. May there be some reason soon to shower it.

1

10

792

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Years ago, at her request, I spent a week with Dorothy West, trekking each morning to her cottage on Martha’s Vineyard to assist her in sorting her papers, which I hand-delivered to the Schlesinger library at Radcliffe. 1/

ChristinaProenzaColes

@ProenzaColes

2 years

Dorothy West (b. 1907) was a novelist, magazine publisher, & journalist, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance & the 1st Black writer who published in the New York Daily News. She wrote her best selling, critically acclaimed novel The Wedding at age 85.

8

377

1K

13

165

803

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

9 months

Can’t seem to shake the sense that when minoritized people ascend to positions of power, it’s often after conditions inside institutions have badly deteriorated. The new leaders are left to try to clean up a mess not of their making, but for which they are typically blamed.

37

135

788

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 months

Students chanting: you failed us. You are the terrorists.

21

190

762

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

7 months

Dear friend texts to get my 💭 abt Gay’s resignation. It’s all been said already and countless times before today: we Black women mainly exist in these academic spaces on sufferance. We can (and often must) be scapegoated & sacrificed to satisfy whatever/whoever wants us gone. 1/

350

165

758

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

On this day in 2019, Toni Morrison joined the ancestors. In these times her words here are especially resonant; her voice becomes a clarion call. User Clip: Toni Morrison - Racism and Fascism |

User Clip: Toni Morrison - Racism and Fascism

Toni Morrison - Racism and Fascism

www.c-span.org

4

317

728

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

7 months

“What are we pretending not to know today?” —Toni Cade Bambara

9

344

733

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

11 months

This James Baldwin passage from *The Evidence of Things Not Seen,* is evergreen: “Black death has never before elicited so much attention. The publicity given to the slaughter becomes, itself, one more aspect of an unforgivable violation.”

5

216

697

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

10 months

I STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. This is not an invitation to debate. “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” —Frederick Douglass

7

170

708

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

My dear friends, I have sad news to report. Over the last three years of my brother’s illness, many of you have offered your prayers and provided whatever support & cheer you could. I wanted you to know that he passed away this afternoon. As ever, I am grateful for your kindness.

256

7

690

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Keep trying to understand why the same lawyer is called to represent families whose loved ones are victims of police brutality and anti-black violence. The same “spokespersons” are called to comment. The same reverend to eulogize. What’s with this template? Not being snide here.

33

71

645

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Thoroughly abhor the practice of bringing dogs to restaurants, even those with outdoor seating. Not arguing about this, just noting.

35

52

626

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Giggles and Grins

39

15

627

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Audre Lorde: “If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” Toni Morrison : “You are your best thing.”

Black Women Radicals

@blkwomenradical

4 years

Happy Birthday to both Toni Morrison (Feb 18, 1931-Aug 15, 2019) and to Audre Lorde (Feb 18, 1934-Nov 17, 1992)! 🎈 How have Morrison & Lorde inspired you? What is a book, quote, or essay by Morrison & Lorde that resonates with you? Tell us below in the comments! 💫

113

2K

4K

4

253

605

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

7 months

How does a university invite someone to deliver an address honoring Martin Luther King, then rescind the invitation because of their principled stances on the current crisis in #Gaza ? Folks prefer a King from whose words & works they can cherry pick. He was no coward. Shameful!!

16

156

605

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

“The inescapable & irreducible danger of being a blk man or blk woman in this country is being forced to live w/so vast a horror, day in and day out, that one finally ceases to be able to react to it. Another man done gone; and one clicks on the television set.” —James Baldwin

1

227

589

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

So Harvard had a KKK chapter. Are you folks truly surprised or just performing shock? Why would/should anyone be shocked? And what would such shock assume? I wish I had others’ faith in the transformative power of removing the names of racists from buildings.

11

101

577

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

10 months

Black women assume extend far beyond academia: child care, elder care, etc. We live and work within exploitative systems, period. 3/

2

78

576

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Let me explain it to you, Auntee.

48

17

559

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

10 months

loads simultaneously, including within their families and extended families. None of this is meant to gloss over the extractive, exploitative working conditions within these institutions. They must be called out and condemned, but let us not forget that the responsibilities 2/

1

77

559

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 years

This July 4th, join me in re-reading Frederick Douglass’s fireworks of a speech: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" - Teaching American History

12

245

522

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 months

Tressie McMillan Cottom gave a brilliant (and beautiful) lecture on “Beauty,” followed by an equally brilliant Q & A session. The supple workings of her minds—what a wonder to behold!! I was ordered to take a picture with her and I happily obliged.

23

43

548

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

9 months

I have never deplored the words “nuanced” and “complicated” more than now, as both get trotted out to rationalize and defend atrocities.

9

167

528

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

RIP, Jean. We learned so much you and are thankful for your gifts. Jean Fagan Yellin, Who Uncovered a Slavery Tale’s True Author, Dies at 92 - The New York Times

Jean Fagan Yellin, Who Uncovered a Slavery Tale’s True Author, Dies at 92

Her research proved that a 19th-century book presumed to be a novel by a white woman was actually an autobiography by a formerly enslaved Black woman.

www.nytimes.com

13

176

531

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

I’m daily amazed at the number of people who believe that, if the public is “educated” about a thing—say, democracy, racism, anti-black violence, white supremacy—all will be well in the end.

12

77

522

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

On this day in 1974 my father died at age 51. He dropped dead on the street from a massive aneurysm on his way to the hardware store. I was then a grad student. He, who gifted me a love of words & jazz & BBQ, did not live to see the woman I became, nor the woman I didn’t become.

36

6

522

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Earlier this week someone sent this photo from the UVA archives, taken at a 2010 (?) gala in Julian Bond’s honor in NYC. Still missing my friend. This image may strike some as a tad risqué, but as I settle into my golden years, I’m trying to be less concerned w/“respectability.”

55

14

526

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 months

This lie concerning anti-semitism on college campuses will not magical convert to truth through the force of repetition.

11

133

518

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Suddenly, with an hour’s notice, I’m headed to get the first dose of the vaccine.

19

0

513

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Black Studies, noted June Jordan, is “Life appealing to live, and to be, and to know a community that will protect the living simply because we are alive.” —June Jordan. “Black Studies: Bringing Back the Person.” (1969)

3

145

507

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 years

W. E. B. DuBois: “We shall never have a science of history until we have in our colleges men who regard the truth as more important than the defense of the white race ....1/

White Supremacy in the Academy: The 1913 Meeting of the American Historical Association

The men of the Dunning School might not advise theses any more, and the historical interpretations these men crafted might now be largely discredited and discarded. But their legacies remain.

activisthistory.com

3

138

489

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Why must we keep stating the obvious? Cease and desist from this endless drone about who went to Harvard or Stanford or Yale, as if the credentials those institutions confer on their graduates inoculate them against stupidity, self-aggrandizement, and craven self-interest.

9

83

500

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 months

Just received this news: yesterday, as cops were moving in to arrest UVA student activists, there was a conference on youth activism…sponsored by the UVA President’s office, among others. The gathering discussed student activists, including the “disruptive” Barbara Johns.

9

179

492

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 months

Good souls, I will be mainly scarce #onhere . My sole remaining sibling has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke & I am traveling to be w/him. Because I always feel your presence & love #onhere , and know your thoughts & prayers are w/me, please don’t feel a need to respond to this post.

83

8

485

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Reposting and adding two more questions: What are we pretending not to know today?” —Toni Cade Bambara What are we pretending not to see? What have we pretended not to see for a long, long time?

9

146

468

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Black woman = “intimidating”= nearly everybody’s go-to tag for any black woman who can utter a simple declarative sentence without falling on her face. It is a tag for all occasions, life and death alike.

3

125

447

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

“Oppressed people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is, and move to transform it.” – Ella Baker

0

143

446

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 months

@Hanine09 The cowardice of Western universities in these times is plainly disgusting. They seem to be competing with each other to win the trophy for moral bankruptcy.

2

33

441

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

Can’t believe some folks actually believe this latest public incident spells the end of Harvard. Bastions of privilege tend to weather all storms.

15

24

441

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

I admired so many things about the impressive body of work that bell hooks leaves us, but I also admired her very being—her fierceness, her fearlessness, her spontaneous acts of kindness, to say nothing of the sheer joy she took in living. 1/

1

54

441

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

“Just Friday chilling.”

29

14

434

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

How can I be this lucky? Another friend just baked and dropped by a lemon pound cake for the children and me. Remember yesterday when I said my cake-eating (and holiday gorging) was coming to an end? Well, my mind was willing but my belly was weak.

34

11

427

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Today is the anniversary of my father’s death. I honor the man who died too young at 51, but before he left this plane, he introduced me to John Coltrane, crossword puzzles, and a love of words.

20

7

431

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

At 10:15 am, I arrived at the polling station in my neighborhood, walking the four blocks from my house. I was third in line. It’s now 10:30, and I am headed back home. A poll worker asked to take a photo. I obliged, holding the church fan provided by the Dem Party of Virginia.

45

22

428

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 months

I imagined all the family there—those long gone, too soon—who urged and encouraged me. Now, nearing the end of a 40-year career, I proclaim again, a la Etheridge Knight: “I am all of them; they are all of me.” 4/

42

22

426

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Our ancestors meant us well when they told us “You have to be twice as good....” You know the rest. They were fervently hoping that our lives wld be/could be better than theirs, if only we committed to being “super-plus.” Visit the ancestors. Tell them, “We give this up today.”

4

76

410

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

My employer has issued a mask mandate inside all university bldgs. Yesterday student after student entered the bldg without masks. B/c my office door was flung open, several stopped to ask if I had an extra mask. Should we have masks in visible locations in all campus buildings?

38

22

411

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

“What are we pretending not to know today?” —Toni Cade Bambara

3

143

409

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

7 months

I think most of you who follow me know that I don’t suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. Don’t come to me with your silly little “but what about plagiarism?” Not having it. Will not dignify you with a response.

420

41

417

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

29 days

Friend: Given the events of the past week, don’t you think about moving out of this country? Me: To go where?

46

47

408

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Diversity is PR at most universities. As I like to say, it is mainly about impression management.

4

60

396

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

2 years

So grateful—and blessed—to be in this pic with three of my very favorite people in life: Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Mary Helen Washington, and Thad Davis.

30

32

403

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

bell hooks. “Love as the Practice of Freedom”

1

125

399

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

10 months

I wish for everyone toiling at a stressful job the privilege of quitting. For many, not only is quitting unthinkable, it could kill them in other ways. Wish we had more convos about changing the working conditions & environments in which we work. Perhaps my take is all wrong.

11

73

395

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

When Fran Leibowitz, one of Toni Morrison’s best friends, paid tribute to her at the memorial service, she announced that she existed to hold grudges for her friend. I😂, knowing I feel the same way too. Don’t come for my friends or those who teach me everyday. You hear?

4

52

394

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

5 years

Yesterday I popped off—as I am wont to do—to condemn the obscenely smug statement from “Mayor Pete” about blk kids lacking educational role models. Read this more considered rejection of the Buttigieg rubbish. Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF via @TheRoot

8

91

362

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

Gordon Gee’s scandalous expense reports: OSU - $7.7 million on Gee’s expenses, almost equaling his $8.6 million salary. Brown spent $3 million renovating his 🏠. Vanderbilt spent $6 million renovating his mansion & $700,000 for hosting social events

Everyone at West Virginia University Knew Something Was Up. I Hate That We Were Right.

The student population got smaller and smaller while fancy new buildings appeared.

slate.com

19

183

391

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

A dear friend dropped by on this, Pi Day—and also my birthday—bringing a miniature🥧 to celebrate. She updated me on having placed herself on the waiting list for one of these “senior living facilities.” I said, “No, no, let’s not speak of being old.” Grateful to be 72 today!!

94

16

383

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

“Women responding to racism means women responding to anger; Anger of exclusion, of unquestioned privilege, of racial distortions, of silence, ill-use, stereotyping, defensiveness, misnaming, betrayal, and co-optation.”

(1981) Audre Lorde, "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism" •

In June 1981, Audre Lorde gave the keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut. Her presentation appears below. Racism. The belief in the inherent...

www.blackpast.org

5

158

376

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Again, Toni Cade Bambara bids me ask you, “what are we pretending not to know today?”

1

111

375

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 year

A mentee just got a new job & asked for 2 pieces of advice. Me: Why just two? Her: I want to see what comes right off the top of yr head Me: 1) Don’t be misled by rumors. Make up yr own mind abt your colleagues.” 2) Don’t put anything in email that you wldn’t ✍️ in the sky.

15

53

375

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

1 month

I assume that those joking abt dementia never witnessed this horrible disease up close, never saw the terror & confusion in a loved one’s eyes, never felt the hopelessness & despair caretaker’s feel, to say nothing of the grief of loss before loss. This is no laughing matter.

14

61

369

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Perhaps this a good time to be reminded of Toni Morrison’s terse assertion: “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” ―BELOVED

2

93

367

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

I sit in a chair six feet away from my brother’s hospital bed. UVA just announced that, effective immediately, all visits are suspended until further notice. He naps and makes soft sounds. Although my visit with him will end in 40 minutes, I will stay here just in case he wakes.

45

5

365

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Let me give a shout out to Leslie Mitchner, the acquisitions editor @RutgersUPress , who brought #Passing & Quicksand back into print. She just reached out to see if I had seen the film. Uni press eds do so much unseen & unheralded work. Let us praise them. cc: @RColesworthy

5

62

366

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

On this day two of my favorite guiding souls were born: Toni Cade Bambara and Aretha Franklin. Honoring Toni’s memory by asking her evergreen question: “what are we pretending not to know today?” Honoring Aretha’s memory by saying a little prayer for you.

4

83

355

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Mama visited me this morning from the spirit realm, as I sat in a state of agitation. She reminded me of something she tried hard to drill into my head when I was a child:the work you do is its own reason for being. You may never gain recognition or applause, but do it anyway. 1/

10

34

358

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

6 months

@RobinMBernstein I also wept at seeing her perform after so many yrs. At seeing her so radiant, her voice so strong. Reminded me of what I’ve missed on these stages in the “years gone by.” She’s still here, seemingly free & above it all, even the hollowness of that occasion, which she filled. 1/

5

7

365

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

4 years

Academia is teeming w/Karen’s, as well as their male twins. If I had a 💵 for every person of that ilk who claimed to be scared of me, I wld be living on the interest. A male colleague once called me scary in a crowded public forum. I sat right next to him. 1/

Jonathan W. Gray

@elmcitytree

4 years

@tamaranopper @dem8z Omg. So so many. Smh.

0

4

5

67

354

Deborah E. McDowell

@dem8z

3 years

Yesterday, we lost Professor Raboteau; this evening, Charles Mills; last week, Steven Gregory. I am grateful for their powerful and influential intellectual contributions, which will live on. May they all Rest In Peace.

6

52

360