The world’s treasures, many of them at your fingertips, in the pages of a book.
Such was my experience during a recent museum visit when I discovered an inspiring and uplifting work of art, Girl Balancing Knowledge, by the sculptor Yinka Shonibare. A British-Nigerian artist, he explores themes of cultural identity in a globalized world. The bright colors of the African Ankara fabrics he uses in his pieces are appealing and strikingly eye catching.
As you can see in this picture, the sculpture depicts a girl standing on one foot with a pile of books on her back begging the viewer to consider the following. The challenges children face to obtain an education. The joy of learning. The ability of children to learn and their amazing versatility to navigate through complex and difficult lives.
Relatives and friends from other countries often speak about the wonder of America’s libraries and bookstores. Books are available on any topic to borrow or to even buy and keep for your very own. Not so in all parts of the world, even in this day and age.
Girl Balancing Knowledge made me value books all the more increasing my eagerness to hear voices from other cultures, to discover the ways in which they use words, to enter into and to experience the worlds they inhabit, to see the lives they live and gain new perspectives; all from the pages of the books that they write, and the stories they have to tell.
I know that every reading journey will be a flowering new discovery.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on August 22nd!
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When you love someone, you want to know everything about them. That someone, in this case, was my maternal grandmother. We shared a close bond, but there was a wrinkle on the face-map of her life that I could not trace. I wish I had asked her my questions while she was still with me.
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The Many Colors of Us: Remembering 9/11
by Veronica JorgeMost people are a combination of various cultures, though I think their ancestors tended to confine their marriages to one continent.
Mine didn’t.
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A story of second-chances, hope, friendship, gratitude, and yes, the redeeming power of love, A Slight Change of Plans, satisfies at many levels. As the title suggests, things may not always work out the way we plan or expect. Colby encourages us to believe that there is a good plan for our lives, and a Master Planner who knows how to put all of the pieces together in the right place if we would only trust Him and let Him.
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The world’s treasures, many of them at your fingertips, in the pages of a book.
Such was my experience during a recent museum visit when I discovered an inspiring and uplifting work of art, Girl Balancing Knowledge, by the sculptor Yinka Shonibare. A British-Nigerian artist, he explores themes of cultural identity in a globalized world. The bright colors of the African Ankara fabrics he uses in his pieces are appealing and strikingly eye catching.
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Below is an excerpt from one of our 2024 mentees, Veronica Jorge, from her project, Crushed Like Sugarcane, based on her Chinese ancestor, Zhou Zhijian, who left China to work in the sugarcane fields of Cuba where he was enslaved. In this portion, newly arrived and unwilling to accept the situation, he decides to escape:
Nothing Found
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I love that statue and your book vase! I just went down a rabbit hole looking at Yinka Shonibare’s other. Such talent.
Thanks, Marianne,
The book vase I made at our local library craft event. We read and discussed the book, Paradise Under Glass by Ruth Kassinger,
and then we participated in a flower/book themed craft. The book is about a lady who, after the death of her sister, and dealing with her
own health battles, finds comfort in creating an indoor garden.
And yes, Yinka’s work is awesome!
Thanks for commenting.
Veronica