Lloyd Alexander died today. People know him best for his Chronicles of Prydain. They fueled my imagination when I was a child, and I did love them. But where he really captured my interest was with the Vesper Holly series. I like to have a character with whom I strongly identify in a book, and Vesper Holly was that character. Vesper Holly, Teen Archaeologist. I don’t remember much about the series except that I loved it and I read it while my parents were at the gym. I think I shall have to get it from the library in memoriam. The internet has shockingly little information about the series. It doesn’t have its own Wikipedia entry. It’s just briefly mentioned in the entry for Lloyd Alexander. We may have to set about fixing that. Who’s with me?
I acknowledge that I live and work on unceded Lumbee, Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, and Shakori land. I give respect and reverence to those who came before me. I thank Holisticism for the text of this land acknowledgement.
We must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development throughout history and across time, has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their ascendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking of their people, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We are indebted to their labor and their sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact that can still be felt and witnessed today. I thank Dr. Terah ‘TJ’ Stewart for the text of this labor acknowledgement.