Swimming in the rain

Author Sulaiman Addonia

My sense of direction is epically bad. It’s so unreliable that if I’m confident I should go right, I know to turn left.

I cannot navigate, even with a map app on a phone. The blue dot that represents me goes in circles long before I see there’s a problem.

The only way to compensate is to leave for appointments insanely early, allowing time to do the chasing-my-tail part. No surprise that before my book talk-concert at the Coffee House Club just off Washington Square in NYC Wednesday night, I left with time to spare. (That I have lived in New York, am married to a New Yorker, and have two daughters who live there, does not offset my directional challenges.)

The catch was the monsoon. Predictably, I headed in the wrong direction from the subway. This time, however, I wasn’t walking; I was swimming. Washington Square was 3-4 inches deep. Despite the flood, a crowd of freshly minted, purple robed undergrads were partying outside with their families. I got caught in the pink cotton candy line, in the umbrellaed dance line in the middle of the street (What street? How would I know?), in the dense crowd of jubilant, soaking families stretching two blocks, and finally inside a high rise campus building.

A generous security guard pointed me in the right direction. I dodged a cop to exit through a door restricted to entrants (although shouting at me, the cop stepped back as if from a wet dog). I did the free style back through Washington Square and made my way to our venue.

Despite two inches of water in my shoes, and my spongy copy of DUET FOR ONE, to say nothing of my clothing (talk about a bad hair day!), it was a marvelous evening. Thank you friends and family for braving the weather. It was a joy to be together.

Below: Duo-pianists Barbara Ciannella and Amy Duran, and writer Jai Chakrabarti.

Below is a short encapsulation of another marvelous evening—Tuesday night, at Joe’s Pub in New York with Jean Grae, Amitava Kumar, and Paul Lisicky.

If you’re in Philly, please join us at Main Point Books in Wayne at 6:30 next Wednesday night, May 21.

I just published a review of Sulaiman Addonia’s THE SEERS in Vol.1 Brooklyn. Addonia is an Eritrian-Ethiopian author based in Brussels, whom I consider to be a major literary voice—

With his linguistic fluidity and keen cultural analysis, Addonia’s work is fresh and new. He tells us things in English that a native speaker could not, because his English bends to his storytelling. He infuses his characters’ experience into language so that reading his books becomes a physical act…

Republic of Cruelty

Keeping up with the terrible news is like drinking from a fire hose. Let’s continue to support each other.

Please get ready for the June 14, No Kings Day Protests, organizing against Darth Vader’s birthday “parade.” More information here.

Love to all,

Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s last week’s Substack/newsletter: “Come join us.”