I bought peanut butter today. Buying peanut butter is nothing new.I love the sticky smooth feeling as it moves through my mouth, The way it lingers a moment longer than I might want it to, how that takes me backTo memories of beach parties with my big brother, how I proudly made lunch for him:two…
Author: Erika Grumet, MSW
Why 30 Days? Why 30 Poems? Because April is the Cruelest Month
As we look back on our recently concluded 30 Days, 30 Poems Project celebrating National Poetry Month and continue to mark Mental Health Awareness Month in May, we are sharing this piece today, about the intersection between the two. If you are in the US and need urgent mental health assistance, you can call, text…
Bi+ Visibility 2023
Note: A lot of language surrounding gender is new. These words/ideas have been around for years but it’s only in the last decade or so that the singular “they” and the idea of gender as a spectrum have entered the public consciousness. You’ll see a lot of the outdated style of language in this piece,…
Disability Wrath Month
July is Disability Pride Month. And I could write some empowering piece about how I make my life work even though fibromyalgia and I’ve got all these things that don’t work in the ways bodies and brains typically do and rah rah rah. I know how to write about Pride. I’ve done plenty of it,…
Coming out versus Letting In
It’s the end of Pride Month. Usually I’m overflowing with words about queer topics, especially in June. I had a year of queer rage in 2022. And 2023 has me filled with even more rage. And yet this month, when I should have been able to say something I’ve had trouble saying anything. Every time I…
Pride is for… ?
I began June not with celebration, but with tears. “Happy” Pride, right? Who the fuck thought I would be watching a TV show with a character who was wearing overalls and I would absolutely breakdown in tears? And now, I’m alternating between writing and ugly crying. And the makeup I put on earlier today is a mess…
Catching Up With Poetry
Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? We did. And we’ve been celebrating it joyfully as part of our annual 30 Days, 30 Poems project. Oh So That’s Where You’ve Been All Month. But Why? We love poetry here. It’s no secret. We know there’s something magical about finding a poem that feels…
I’m Officially Disabled Now; Where’s my Prize?
Update on the Sydney Beers Story–Remember? The Wheelchair being Pushed Down the Stairs? Anyone? I really don’t follow hockey. Definitely not NCAA hockey. But Carson Briere’s name has popped up on my various news notifications for the last month or so, ever since the wheelchair incident. So I saw the news that he’d been removed…
Rape Reporting Requirements are Dangerous
“Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate…” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Big Life Events have a Kind of…
Of Fauxpologies and Wheelchairs
For the second year in a row, my plans to use World Poetry Day to actually talk about poetry and to talk about our 30 Days, 30 Poems Project–one of my favorite things I get to work here. Once again though, something has happened that has focused my attention elsewhere. A year ago, instead of…