Two Things About A Black Professor in White Vermont

I saw 'Black is the Body" author Emily Bernard speak in Norwich the other night. Bernard's most recent book is a collection of essays, 'Black is the Body," about her experiences with pretty much everything - motherhood, work, relationships and being stabbed.

Bernard digests the things that happen to her and that she makes happen. She waited and waited and waited (Her friends said, 'You write about everything that happens to you. You were stabbed! Write about it!) to write about being stabbed until she could figure out what the story was really about. (It's part of the essay.)

It's amazing how much information she provides while still letting the reader, or in the case of her talk, the listener, draw his or her own conclusions. That must be the professor in her.