mother's day

on west 106th street...

 

the dance

dear dad,

once upon a magical time

we danced 

at el's wedding

beneath 

a scalloped

white canopy

on grounds

so green

you led

i followed

in my stocking feet

floating

in your 

elegant

embrace

lots of love,

deb

memorial day weekend, once upon a time...

 

a mosaic moment

at bedford street station, brooklyn 

https://www.davidzwirner.com/news/2021/marcel-dzama-unveils-a-new-mosaic-in-nyc

 

a tulip day

at home

 

furious flurries

February 1st, a snow day! stay home! 

Winter Trees  

(william carlos williams) 

All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon 

moves gently among 

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold. 

riverside park uws

FLOTUS

grateful for this week, for democracy, for the hope of unity, for the nation's youth poet laureate, and for this quote by benjamin franklin that our new first lady jill biden had discreetly sewn inside the bespoke gabriela hearst coat she wore for the inauguration evening celebration: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember.  Involve me and I learn."  

photos gabriela hearst
@gabrielahearst

 

so much style

so much to celebrate.

good night for now, America the beautiful!  

kamala harris, jill biden, michelle obama
inauguration day, photo credit nbc news...

amanda gorman, youth poet laureate,
photo credit getty...

 

on Martin Luther King Jr Day

On this day of remembrance, looking back to the crisp December morning in 2017 on which i traveled by train to Washington DC to discover the bright, bronze-hued National Museum of African American History and Culture.   i was joined there by a talented designer i had worked with a few years prior while curating local finds for the lifestyle store created for Four Seasons Hotel Georgetown.

Jennifer and i shared the journey through the museum and the full range of emotions accompanying it, a physical, emotional and spiritual pilgrimage of sorts from which it was impossible not to emerge changed. 

One aspect of the experience i responded to most were the quotes by legendary African American writers, poets and leaders engraved into the walls of the now iconic David Adjaye designed structure, from Maya Angelou to Langston Hughes to Martin Luther King Jr himself. 

In the grand interior Contemplation Court meant for quiet and reflection, Dr King's words echoed through the force of water raining down into a cylindrical pool from a skylight above:  "We are determined ... to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." 

We look to the future again this week, looking forward to new hope, to change, beginning with the upcoming inauguration and the first Youth Poet Laureate, and youngest inaugural poet ever, Amanda Gorman, to share her words, and her vision when she reads a poem written at the invitation of Joe and Jill Biden, "The Hill We Climb."   

The mighty legacy of Dr King and so many other courageous men and women, flows on...

national museum of african american history and culture
(photos, mine) 

dreams

2020, an awakening and a reckoning alike. what will take with you into the new year?  

i choose dreams, and living each day with intention, making each moment and each life matter, even in the smallest ways, by choosing gratitude, kindness and love. 

happy new year! here is to great happiness, health, peace and joy! 

xoxo, 

fashion is love

dreams

hold fast to dreams 

for if dreams die

life is a broken-winged bird 

that cannot fly.

hold fast to dreams

for when dreams go

life is a barren field

frozen with snow.

langston hughes (1902-1967)

with gratitude to jen for the lingua franca sweater
and peru and ghana made pillows 

(from the collected poems of langston hughes

copyright 1994 by the estate of langston hughes) 

pondering paradise lost

mihaly munkacsy oil on canvas 1877, blind milton dictating paradise lost to his daughters...
lenox library collection
ny public library....

fashion is love

a new week begins.  as a nation, we have barely processed the tragedies of the past weekend, our hearts heavy and our souls scarred yet again. our anger real.  

then the call came to me on Monday from a former Bloomies colleague to share the impossible news that we had lost our dear friend Tamera to her long struggle with Lupus disease, a battle which i have come to learn was more brutal than Tamera ever let on but not brutal enough to keep her from her equally fierce recent fight on behalf of human rights, active in her local Bay area and vocal in the name of those around the globe.  she gave a damn.  Tamera was too young, had too much more to do, and too many of us to inspire with her love, loyalty and light.  

i am so grateful to have literally bumped into her a few years back during New York Market Week where we stopped in our tracks in the Javits Center upon recognizing one another, immediately parked on the base of a few display mannequins, and chatted and hugged and laughed and promised to meet up again. 

Tamera was by then the proud owner of Kostum, a fashion consignment boutique she had acquired from a prior owner in Piedmont. she of course also heavily promoted emerging talent with small accessories buys and in store events, true to her Fashion Office roots at Bloomies and her accomplished industry career savvy.  clearly, the store was a passion project she led with both her head and her heart, sharing the entrepreneurial venture with her devoted husband, Robert, a true creative talent, and embracing the contributions of her dedicated staff. 

when Tamera and i did meet up a season or so later,  emailing and following one another on social media in between, it was aptly during September Fashion Week. following a fresh fall rain, i dragged her to an intimate trunk show event at Canon, a new boutique on Sullivan Street, and she coordinated a group dinner at Palma in the Village with another Bloomies alumna, the exquisite Ms. Gerry.

at the store party, Tamera enthusiastically talked small business with Stacia, the shop owner, and introduced her brother in law, Udo, a global fashion photographer, to the crowd, making new contacts and authentic connections left and right.

later in the evening, from across the rose strewn, votive lit dinner table, i can remember nothing but the music in her sweet voice, the life in her infectious giggle and the magic in her sparkling eyes.  at one point in our conversation, she did reference her medical trials and just as quickly, shrugged them away,  expressing pure joy at currently feeling healthy and strong enough to take on a Manhattan buying trip and realize her vision for her store.

this morning, social media revealed that we had lost another beloved, writer Toni Morrison.  my first thought was disbelief, and then a kind of instant calm.  i could only think that this larger than life being must have followed Tamera for a really worthy reason and that the two divine women will join forces to serve us and to guide us from a better place.

Ms. Morrison once wrote, "at some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. you don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. it is enough."  sublime. and peaceful.  and yet, i have these few photos snapped during the special city reunion with my friend which i will, for the time being, cherish.

i miss you, T, sister, friend, role model, and will always honor your brave, beautiful, creative life! D

Tamera, Fashion Week, NYC...

love who you are

sending love to my best friend, who teaches us every day that kindness is the way! 

happy birthday, Jennie, always present, always beautiful!  xoxo 

Shantell Martin, Who are You,  New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center, February...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrynking/2019/02/26/how-new-york-city-ballet-attracts-a-wider-audience-with-vibrant-art/#7b2720cf1208

fossils, and folk art

in college, i defected from geology and fared better in astronomy to meet my science requirement.

if only i had seen it all through the eyes of Orra White Hitchcock!  how divine! 

" ... in nature there is wisdom, system, and consistency. ... the result, therefore, of our enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."  James Hutton, Theory of the Earth, 1785. 

why may we not add geology to the list of poetical sciences? 

american museum of folk art
https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/charting-divine-plan-art-orra-white-hitchcock-1796-1863/