A panel hangs over me

On Thursday, May 4th @ 6:30 PM I take part in a panel in NYC: “Gender, Power, and Authoritarianism in the Dystopian Age:The dominating power of the state to control our thoughts, emotions, and sexuality has been the dominant concern of many women writers, and is reflected in some of the best dystopian literature of the modern age. We look at this critical topic and why we are at a crossroads. How are female protagonists presented in dystopia and what are some future trends? With Marge Piercy, Alice Sola Kim, Namwali Serpell, and Basma Abdel Aziz, at THE NEW SCHOOL THE AUDITORIUM ALVIN JOHNSON/ J.M. KAPLAN HALL 66 West 12th Street New York, NY 10011.There it is. I managed to write about a page last week but this week I’m working on my speech in earnest. I’m not one of those people who feel every word that drops from my mouth is a gem and therefore I need not prepare but can just wing it. It’s true that I’m fine with impromptu question and answer sessions taking queries from the audience. But I feel if I’m on a panel or giving a speech, I owe it to the audience to write something as good as I can.Otherwise this week, I’ve been moving clothes around. I packed up my winter sweaters, warm pants, warm sox, long underwear and woolen skirts and sent them into the hall closet. I’ve taken out tees, a few cotton skirts and pants, light shawls. I have a long way to go before I’m ready for warm weather. We had some very warm days last week and I had to go through all my drawers to find a shortsleeved tee and my jeans were too warm. I felt overdressed in the garden.The hill outside the diningroom is splendid – toward the bottle, bright blue scillas; then red Emperor tulips; then white daffodils; then yellow daffodils. We have hundreds of daffodils in bloom all over the cultivated part of our land. I look out my office window and the spinach is very visible, as are the broccoli plants, the bok choi, the Brussels sprouts, the garlic, the chervil. The red cabbage is under a light covering as it tends to be more persnickety than the other cole crops. All the hardy crops that I started from seed inside are now out of the greenhouse and planted. The arugula and garden cress are up.I’ve been slowly thinning all the tender seedlings in the greenhouse.   I still have more to do. I do about half an hour’s worth at a time. None of them will go out till the 2nd week in May. Then we’ll start madly planting again.Tonight we have supper at a friend Lilli’s house.

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