{"id":149635,"date":"2020-12-22T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=149635"},"modified":"2020-12-11T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T21:47:08","slug":"from-woe-to-wonder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/22\/from-woe-to-wonder-2\/","title":{"rendered":"From Woe to Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2020. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gwendolyn Brooks, in a 1977 interview, describes an ongoing argument with her husband about the fate of a running Black child:<\/p>\n

Once we were walking down a road and we saw a little Ghanaian boy. He was running and happy in the happy sunshine. My husband made a comment springing from an argument we had had the night before that lasted until four in the morning. He said, \u2018Now look, see that little boy. That is a perfect picture of happy youth. So if you were writing a poem about him, why couldn\u2019t you just let it go at that? Write a poem about running boy-happy, happy-running boy?\u2019 [\u2026]<\/p>\n

So I said if you wrote exhaustively about running boy and you noticed that the boy was black, you would have to go further than a celebration of blissful youth. You just might consider that when a black boy runs, maybe not in Ghana, but perhaps on the Chicago South Side, you\u2019d have to remember a certain friend of my daughter\u2019s in high school\u2014beautiful boy, so smart, one of the honor students, and just an all-around fine fellow. He was running down an alley with a friend of his, just running and a policeman said \u2018Halt!\u2019 And before he could slow up his steps, he just shot him. Now that happens all the time in Chicago. There was all that promise in a little crumpled heap. Dead forever.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For every sorrow I write, also I press my forehead to the ground. Also I wash the feet of our beloveds, if only in my mind, in the waters of the petals of the flowers.<\/p>\n

I cross my arms and bow to you.
\nI cross my arms in armor wishing you protection.<\/p>\n

Read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On talking to children about race, Gwendolyn Brooks, and imaginative strategies for survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2005,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2020"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Woe to Wonder by Aracelis Girmay<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On talking to children about race, Gwendolyn Brooks, and imaginative strategies for survival.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/22\/from-woe-to-wonder-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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