🔖 Read Taking on the Feminine Labor of Creating Holiday Magic by Sarah Hunter Simanson (Catapult).
This year will be the first Christmas that my mom has leukemia, that she can’t walk. I hope we will have more Christmases with her. I think her household is in for an awakening about this form of labor. In our household, everyone is responsible for a little of the holiday magic - we decorate together and bake together. I’m hoping it builds a connection for our son while it also makes the labor visible and reduces my holiday stress.
I acknowledge that I live and work on unceded Lumbee, Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, Cheraw, Catawba, Saponi, Occaneechi, 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.
