by Toni McNaron | Mar 19, 2019 | Uncategorized
When I began my career teaching literature at the University of Minnesota in 1964, I lectured. That’s how I’d been taught as an undergraduate and graduate student, occasionally by brilliant lecturers who gave me hoards of facts and concepts, some of which...
by Toni McNaron | Mar 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
Recently I was in Birmingham with a close friend. We’d flown into the city so we could drive to Montgomery to experience the Legacy Memorial and accompanying museum focused on lynchings in America. My friend asked if I’d show her where I was born....
by Toni McNaron | Feb 19, 2019 | Uncategorized
The more poems I read these days by writers like Robin Coste Lewis, Tracy Smith, and Claudia Rankine, the more I know deep in my bones that it is this medium that draws me most intensely. For years, I’ve said, half in jest and half in regret, “When I grow...
by Toni McNaron | Feb 3, 2019 | Uncategorized
Catholic priests are not known for preaching profound sermons, so it’s a blessing that most conform to the idea of making homilies short. Custom has it that ten minutes is the ideal length. But every now and then, congregants are surprised, as I was a few...
by Toni McNaron | Jan 21, 2019 | Uncategorized
In a recent interview, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama, was asked what Dr. King would think if he were alive to witness our political world today. He said he’d be heart-broken but also excited to know that if he called a...
