By Erika Grumet Editor’s Note: Readers of The Ivory Tower Boiler Room know that on Monday, we typically publish our Big Think, an essay giving a perspective on the month’s topic. But then in the days leading up to this important anniversary, Erika wrote the following and we decided just to go with it. SometimesContinue reading “Teaching my Kid about September 11”
Category Archives: Erika
Back to the Big Think
This week’s Big Think is a bit of a special edition. This month’s theme is Back to the Books, and we wanted to celebrate (in slightly punny fashion) by going back to our favorite passages from our previous Big Thinks about reading and about books in general. Of course, if you find one of theContinue reading “Back to the Big Think”
Erika’s Big Think #4: Dismantling Writer’s Block with Friends
By Erika Grumet My younger kid has always been a big fan of Snoopy. When she was six months old, my sister gave her a stuffed Snoopy puppet, who became known as Puppy, and became her lovie. Puppy is Real to us, just like the Velveteen Rabbit is Real to his boy. Asking Puppy toContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #4: Dismantling Writer’s Block with Friends”
It’s Party O’Clock in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room!
If just one person believes in youDeep enough, and strong enough, believes in youBefore you know it, someone else will think“If he can do it, I can do it” Typically on a Monday, we bring you a Big Think entry; a piece by one of us that highlights our own relationship with the theme forContinue reading “It’s Party O’Clock in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room!”
The View from the Wheelchair
By Erika Grumet In college, one of my friends used to say “dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire.” We would go dancing at least once a week, almost every Saturday night was reserved for going to Tracks, a big gay dance club in Washington DC. Some weeks, when money was tighter, we’dContinue reading “The View from the Wheelchair”
Erika’s Big Think #3: “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free.”
I don’t usually think of myself as a teacher. I love teaching, but I also knew there was no way I could handle classroom politics, and so, in spite of encouragement from my parents to consider teaching as a career, I went in a different direction with my undergraduate and graduate degrees. What I ended upContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #3: “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free.””
Finding Myself on the Shelf: Uncovering My Own Identity through Queer Literature
By Erika Grumet “We dance around in a ring and suppose But the Secret sits in the middle and knows” -Robert Frost No one knows what you’re thinking when you’re wandering the library shelves. For me, they were a safe space when I had the kind of questions that no one could answer for me…evenContinue reading “Finding Myself on the Shelf: Uncovering My Own Identity through Queer Literature”
Erika’s Big Think #2, Part 2: Concluding Reflections on Stonewall
By Erika Grumet One Sunday in June, I was folding laundry with my mother. The television was on, tuned into evening news, which was reporting on “gay pride festivities” in New York City. I was a teenager, and as teenagers often do, I held opinions about many things that conflicted with my parents. IContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #2, Part 2: Concluding Reflections on Stonewall”
Erika’s Big Think #2: The Orange on the Seder Plate
By Erika Grumet “That’s why her hair is so big. Because it’s full of secrets.” -Damian, Mean GIrls “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) -Walt Whitman, Song of Myself A hundred and fifty-ish years apart, and we queers are still talking about secrets and contradictions and theContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #2: The Orange on the Seder Plate”
Fine. More “Big Cat, Little Cat”
. . . On the left, a large, orange cat with an apparently benevolent expression takes up almost half of the frame. On the right, a small grey with a squinty, grumpy look takes up less than a quarter. Big Cat appears to be looking down at Little Cat with love. Big cat says toContinue reading “Fine. More “Big Cat, Little Cat””