Life Story Links: October 31, 2023

“Are you there? Can you hear what I have to
tell you? Our lives are finite—and yet…Look
at the way they preserve themselves.”
—Judith Kitchen, The Circus Train

Vintage poster with original artwork by Martin Weitzman announcing a roller skating carnival in New York City’s Central Park, October 1936, produced by the Work Projects Administration; image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Digital Collection. The posters were designed to publicize exhibits, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia between 1936 to 1943.

Towards truth in memoir

MERE BELIEF?
“And so we mold our pasts into a story that may bear little resemblance to the genuine mess of actual life. When I write from memory, am I writing a history or a story? Isn’t it both?” A fascinating look at the sliiperiness of memory, by Sallie Tisdale.

CONTRADICTIONS IN MEMOIR
“As time goes by, we may find ourselves further removed from one kind of truth (what it was) but edging ever closer to another (what it means).” On why it matters how we tell the story of Sinead O’Connor.

WHAT WE TELL, WHAT WE HIDE
“It becomes part of the work of the writer and of the artist to expose the humanness of our stories to light, to air, as a way to transcend and move beyond what binds us, often generationally, to silence.” Elissa Altman on writing, permission, and the certainty of our stories.

What we write about

LESSONS FROM A CHILDHOOD IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT
“Like a welcoming restaurant server, [Curtis Chin] invites the reader to share in digestible bites of memories from childhood up through college graduation. Instead of chapters, anecdotes are dished out in menu sections such as ‘appetizers and soups,’ ‘rice and noodles’ and ‘main entrees.’”

LIFE WRITING INSPIRATION
Last week I shared ways to discover life writing prompts all around you, so the glaring white of a blank journal page doesn’t interrupt your regular journaling practice.

Family history finds

AN AMERICAN PUZZLE
Census categories for race and ethnicity have shaped how the nation sees itself. This graphic-heavy, meticulously reported piece looks at how they have changed over the last 230 years.

WHAT TO SAVE, WHAT TO TOSS
What do you save from the pile of old journals, pedigree charts, group sheets, loose papers and books of remembrance? How Swedish death cleaning can help you declutter your family history documents.

ONCE UPON A CAMERA
Thousands of historical New England photos destined for the trash were saved by a photographer who painstakingly restored the glass plate slides and donated the archive to the UMass Amherst Library.