I got these gorgeous, kinda nerdy, and awesome reminder stickers from Artery Ink in the mail today and you can bet I’ve already stuck them to all my favorite things!
They make so much gorgeous anatomical art and I love it all!! If you want to, you can check them out at https://www.arteryink.com
P.S. Like always I’m not cool enough to get sponsored or anything, I just really love these 😁
My piece for Light Grey Art Lab’s Arboretum show! Prints can be purchased from Light Grey’s website. Hoping to do a few more of these greenhouse studies. There are some real stunners out there.
Title: Dream Country Author:Shannon Gibney Genres: Historical, Contemporary Pages: 368 Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers Review Copy: ARC received from publisher Availability: On shelves now
Summary: The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom.
The novel begins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when seventeen-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. He’s exhausted by being at once too black and not black enough for his African American peers and worn down by the expectations of his own Liberian family and community. When his frustration finally spills into violence and his parents send him back to Monrovia to reform school, the story shifts. Like Kollie, readers travel back to Liberia, but also back in time, to the early twentieth-century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an eighteen-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias that would force him to work the plantations of the Congo people, descendants of the African-American slaves who colonized Liberia almost a century earlier. When Togar’s section draws to a shocking close, the novel jumps again, back to America in 1827, to the children of Yasmine Wright, who leave a Virginia plantation with their mother for Liberia, where they’re promised freedom and a chance at self-determination by the American Colonization Society. The Wrights begin their section by fleeing the whip and by its close, they are then ones who wield it. With each new section, the novel uncovers fresh hope and resonating heartbreak, all based on historical fact.
In Dream Country, Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.
Review:(Content warnings for graphic violence, rape, police violence, racial slurs, and homophobic slurs.)
Shannon Gibney’s Dream Country is a heartbreaking look into the history of a family across two continents and almost two centuries. The sections of the novel are out of chronological order, but this back and forth between time and place effectively builds a sense of connectivity between the generations. This is most notable in how Gibney portrays violence rippling across the years, pitting people and their communities against one another. This us-versus-them mentality was a constant presence throughout the book and was especially prevalent in Kollie’s section, where he not only had to deal with racism from white members of the community but also anti-immigrant/refugee sentiment.
I was particularly drawn to Yasmine Wright’s section of Dream Country. Yasmine’s yearning for freedom took her and her children across the ocean, where they carved out new lives at their own and others’ expense. It was tragic seeing how the “heathen” rhetoric that was used to justify racism/continuation of slavery in the U.S. became a tool for Yasmine and the other colonists against the indigenous groups in Liberia. I appreciated that Gibney took the time to look at how violence and colonization changed (or didn’t change) the members of Yasmine’s family.
One thing I admire most about Gibney’s writing is how distinct the voices were for all her narrators, especially given how little space some of them got compared to others. The narrators were key in bringing each setting to life, and I cared deeply about several of them. I wished we had more of Angel’s section, though her ending narration and explanation for the stories of her family history (and her present) was well done and provided a surprisingly hopeful end to the book.
As a small side note, readers may find it useful to review the brief timeline of Liberian history provided at the back of the book before starting. While Gibney provides plenty of context to be able to figure out what’s going on, I think I would have had a better appreciation for the novel had I gone in with a framework for my own reference.
Recommendation: Get it soon. Dream Country is a thoughtful, compassionate, and heartbreaking look at the history of an African-and-American family across five different generations. Shannon Gibney’s exploration of freedom and violence and family is a worthwhile, if occasionally difficult, read.
Chris hemsworth and taika waititi really are the chaotic leo class clown bffs who conned their way into getting partnered up for the group project and everyone else was like “ugh theyre not gonna get anything done” but then they showed up on presentation day with a masterpiece despite only using comic sans
I keep thinking how much more powerful the Spiderman origin story would be if Peter Parker was an African American kid, whose Uncle Ben was shot by police while being arrested for a minor parking infraction. There is no formal investigation, and Peter decides to put himself on the line to prevent it happening again. He tackles the white crimes that go unpunished, punishes POC criminals fairly. He is the leveler, always fighting to be without bias, to be just. To protect people like his uncle.
This not only mirrors so much of what’s happening in America, but feeds right into the complex relationship between Spiderman, the authorities and the media.
Peter Parker is a brilliant student, awkward, a nerd, but is branded a thug, a gang member, a criminal, because of his appearance. The media latch on to that and misrepresent him totally.
The police, humilitated by the fact that he refuses to work with them and often punishes cops themselves for brutalizing innocent people, or guilty people who still deserve better treatment than they get, attempt to hunt him down.
I had to.
oh man. This is the shit.
The “with great power comes great responsibility” line gets such a deeper meaning within this context.
Not to mention a white nerdy boy with glasses is not the look of a social outcast or person of ridicule anymore.
