Only Harmony Holiday can deliver a song a prayer and a poem in one gloriously true and heartbreakingly beautiful sentence. Another must read: “The point of the standard or trope Louis Armstrong delivers so well is not to invite pity or alms or complain about anguished emotional neglect, it’s to admit that this very feeling of being stranded in an incomplete childhood is the DNA of the song, the good American genetics of it, and the singing itself, which is the only substance near enough to unconditional love to finish rearing us on this earth, under these conditions, where yo mama so broken you must become whole.”
Deeply appreciative of this piece both as an Ethiopian who loves Emahoy immensely, and a person who shares this wound (as you pointed out in the piece, we are in company with many here). The repetition of performance as atonement is a subject I think of and try to capture in my own writing. I’m sure that line: “Why evolve when the audience accepts you at your most pathetic” had Marvin Gaye clutching his pearls in his grave (respectfully)! Appreciate the work, thank you!
(I'm working on yet another piece about my childhood and my parents--mostly about my mother too. "Under the right conditions, which she sets up early, your mother can make you obey her even when you believe you are fleeing, rebelling, or transcending," you write.
Despite railing against my parents and their narrow-minded fundamentalist beliefs (they were missionaries in Ethiopia in the 60s and 70s), and despite my efforts not to follow in their footsteps, I deliberately returned to Ethiopia as a researcher many years ago, and many times since, and now find myself writing about various aspects or themes, still working things out, currently the whole White Savior trope.)
I love you Harmony, and Emahoy, and I know you know that for some reason I still can't grasp, "Send in the Clowns" accompanied me in the most unusual ways, in the first months after my mother's death. Shirley Bassey and Sarah Vaughan especially cut me in two, but all of them. My love to you.
Only Harmony Holiday can deliver a song a prayer and a poem in one gloriously true and heartbreakingly beautiful sentence. Another must read: “The point of the standard or trope Louis Armstrong delivers so well is not to invite pity or alms or complain about anguished emotional neglect, it’s to admit that this very feeling of being stranded in an incomplete childhood is the DNA of the song, the good American genetics of it, and the singing itself, which is the only substance near enough to unconditional love to finish rearing us on this earth, under these conditions, where yo mama so broken you must become whole.”
Deeply appreciative of this piece both as an Ethiopian who loves Emahoy immensely, and a person who shares this wound (as you pointed out in the piece, we are in company with many here). The repetition of performance as atonement is a subject I think of and try to capture in my own writing. I’m sure that line: “Why evolve when the audience accepts you at your most pathetic” had Marvin Gaye clutching his pearls in his grave (respectfully)! Appreciate the work, thank you!
Just brilliant!!
(I'm working on yet another piece about my childhood and my parents--mostly about my mother too. "Under the right conditions, which she sets up early, your mother can make you obey her even when you believe you are fleeing, rebelling, or transcending," you write.
Despite railing against my parents and their narrow-minded fundamentalist beliefs (they were missionaries in Ethiopia in the 60s and 70s), and despite my efforts not to follow in their footsteps, I deliberately returned to Ethiopia as a researcher many years ago, and many times since, and now find myself writing about various aspects or themes, still working things out, currently the whole White Savior trope.)
whew beautiful
I love you Harmony, and Emahoy, and I know you know that for some reason I still can't grasp, "Send in the Clowns" accompanied me in the most unusual ways, in the first months after my mother's death. Shirley Bassey and Sarah Vaughan especially cut me in two, but all of them. My love to you.
damn.
thankyou🙏🏼