Hugs and thanks

Martha's Newsletter: Hugs and thanks

By now you have seen enough lists to last for a long time, so I am refraining from loading your inbox with more.

What I most want to share this week is hugs and thanks.

I know that for so many of you this has been a year filled with loss and uncertainty, health challenges, stops and starts, and frustrations and fear about the state in which we find ourselves.

I hope that 2022 offers whatever you most need, that you discover new things to get excited about and learn, and that your family and friends bring you joy.

I am incredibly grateful for the support and kindness you have shown my work, and to the many beloved family and friends—old and new—with whom I’ve been able to connect and in some cases, sit down and visit. The simple joy of sharing a coffee or lunch feels like a miracle.

Here’s my recent review from the Washington Post of Dvořák’s Prophecy, about Dvořák’s prediction that the future of American classical music would be Black. Unfortunately, despite many accomplished Black classical composers and musicians, this prediction was doomed. In a dense but interesting book, author Joseph Horowitz explores the racism of the late 19th-early 20th century classical music world, without quite naming it “racism.”

A few final notes. I want to pay tribute to the truly totemic bell hooks, whom we lost too soon this week. It is not possible to overstate her scholarly and literary contributions, to say nothing of the love she spread around the world. Her work on the intersection of race and feminism is catalyst and inspiration to generations of scholars and writers. May she rest in power.

I also wanted to gush about a stunning book by a young Black British photographer named Caleb Azumah Nelson. His debut novel, Open Water, blew my mind. Lush with the poetry of falling in love, the book also plumbs the brutality visited on Black bodies on both sides of the Atlantic. Such mastery is breathtaking, and in 160 pages.

Here’s to health and well being in 2022 and beyond.

Love, Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s a link to my most recent newsletter.

P.P.S. I’ve switched over to Substack for ease of administration. Please let me know if it’s working for you.