A Black Woman’s Blog Posts
“A Black Woman’s Blog Posts: Writing for Personal and Social Empowerment and Healing is a book chapter in Writing for Wellbeing: Theory, Research and Practice by Katrin Den Elzen (Editor), Reinekke Lengelle (Editor), forthcoming in 2023. An overview is below: Writing can support our wellbeing under the most difficult of life circumstances, helping us to adapt to […]
From Harlequin to Hallmark
I don’t remember when it started… My absolute love and obsession with Hallmark movies. Well, maybe it started when I was young, and I smuggled Harlequin Romance novels home in high school; secretly reading and devouring love stories – love where a delicate and vulnerable girl was captivated by some rugged, handsome, and a little […]
Seven years ago
I started working at Virginia Tech, 7 years ago on this date, February 1, 2016. I started reflecting on how far we have come as an institution. Seven years, in the Christian tradition, as well as in astrology, and indigenous perspectives, is a time period that represents a milestone. After seven years, there is a […]
Reflections on the 1619 Project
I recently read The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It’s a book that has generated legislation in Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi to prohibit schools from teaching The 1619 Project or cut funding from those that do. I needed to understand why the book was banned. I needed to understand the content. The reading was so important for me and it […]
The Circle of Life: Birth, Life, Death, Rebirth
(rewritten from original post at now inactive website, menahprattclarke.com) I have been thinking about the circle of life: the miracle birth from literally out of thin air or no where, and death, the seeming disappearance into thin air, or no where. Death seems ever present on social media posts and in news stories: gun violence […]
New Beginnings
My old website, menahprattclarke.com just died, literally. A “fatal error.” Ironic in a way. I just wrote a blog post on the circle of life: birth, life, death, and rebirth. And that old website just faded. I wanted to be super sad and frustrated, but it would do not good, so I just tried to […]