The shift in Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech–from heartwarming bio to Churchillian call to action–reminds me of the shift in Sonny’s jazz playing in Baldwin’s story.
Author Archives: Robin Bates
Harris’s Speech and a Baldwin Story
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Democratic National Convention, Election 2024, James Baldwin, Kamala Harris, Sonny's Blues Comments closed
Gorman Dares Us to Dream Together
Amanda Gorman’s Democratic National Convention poem celebrated an all-inclusive vision of America.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Dream Together", Amanda Gorman, American Dream, Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris Comments closed
Thoughts on Book Bans
Books are unsettling, which is why they are often banned. But we need to be unsettled to get a handle on the chaos that confronts us.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Hill We Climb", Allison Bechdel, Amanda Gorman, Beloved, Better Living through Literature, Book banning, Circle, David Eggers, Forever, Fun Home, Judy Blume, Lord of the Flies, Robin Bates, Romeo and Juliet, Stephen Chbosky, To Kill a Mockingbird, Toni Morrison, William Golding, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Few poems better capture for me that vision of God’s heaven on earth than Blake’s “The Divine Image.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Divine Image", Heaven on earth, Malcolm Guite, polarization, William Blake Comments closed
Kamala Harris’s Moment to Rise
Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is the right poem to celebrate Kamala Harris
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Still I Rise", Democratic National Convention, Election 2024, Kamala Harris, Maya Angelou, Michelle Obama, Simone Biles Comments closed
One Man Loved the Pilgrim Soul in You
In which I explain how Yeats’s “When You Are Old and Gray” frames the dedication that opens my book.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "When You Are Old and Grey", Aging, Julia Bates, Marriage, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
The Dangerous Power of Libraries
Libraries as described by poet Paul Engle are sometimes repositories of dynamite, sometimes of comfort.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Library", Anna Karenina, C. S. Lewis, Grand Canyon, Julius Caesar, Leo Tolstoy, libraries, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lolita, Louisa May Alcott, Merchant of Venice, Paul Hamilton Engle, Tempest, Vladimir Nabokov, William Shakespeare Comments closed
On Literature’s Transformational Power
My book “Better Living through Literature” gets released today. It is the culmination of my life’s work.
