Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes

Year of Yes

I always have a book on my phone for listening at the gym. While I’m on the treadmill, lifting weights, or doing leg presses, I’m ‘reading.’ Right now, it’s Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes and I’m loving it!

One of the reviews on Amazon says, “Rhimes is, unsurprisingly, a fantastic memoirist: Her writing is conversational and witty and lyrical, inflected with the supple human breathiness you might expect from a person who spends her days writing dialogue. It features lots of great punchlines.”

Nine months ago I first heard her name when her memoir was published. But I had certainly heard of “Grays’ Anatomy” and “Scandal,” two of the three hit TV shows she has created and produced.

If you need to catch up like I did, here is a brief bio from her Amazon author page: “Shonda Rhimes is the prolific writer, executive producer and creator of the hit ABC series ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and ‘Scandal.’ In addition to creating the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ spinoff series ‘Private Practice,’ which ran on ABC for six seasons, Rhimes is the executive producer of the ABC series ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ which premiered in 2014 as the number one new show of the Fall in adults 18-49.”

Through her sister’s chance remark she decides to stop saying “no” and start saying “yes” to invitations and speaking requests. In her memoir Year of Yes she describes her journey as she gradually overcame her fear and learned to enjoy being social.

She also talks about learning to say “no” when necessary, as when she first becomes successful and all sorts of people ask her for money or other help.

Right now I’m debating saying “yes” to an invitation to be on a nonprofit board. I support their work, and they promise the commitment is not large, but can I add one more activity? Is it another way not to work on my writing? Or will it give me more grist for my writing – also possible?

I’ll probably say yes!

Threads of Light

The composer, conductor, and artistic director Ellen Dickinson has created “Threads of Light, A Tapestry of African-American Spirituals.”

It will be performed by her Music on the Hill Festival Chorus joined by the Special Projects Choir from my Unitarian Church in Westport. The performance is October 1 in Norwalk CT’s Concert Hall.

That’s Nigeria’s Independence Day.

We had our third rehearsal this morning.

The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County puts out an online publication called FCBuzz which lists the event and a little background:

“Threads of Light weaves together over 30 spirituals in three movements — Hope, Journey, Glory — connected by poetry by African-American poets read by special guests.”

I am familiar with most of the spirituals.

When our choir director Ed introduced the project, I hesitated.

What gives us – a white choir in a white church, and Ellen’s group – also almost all white – the right to sing this music? African-American spirituals grew out of pain, inflicted by white slave owners.

A website negrospirituals.com says, “[Spirituals] are different from hymns and psalms, because they were a way of sharing the hard condition of being a slave.”

Or is it a sign of respect to sing it – a way to acknowledge the past? How will African-American audience members, if there are any who wish to come – feel about our singing?

Couldn’t a gospel choir, especially a black gospel choir, sing these songs so much better?

I look forward to hearing the poetry that will be read as part of the performance.

One institution is taking major steps to acknowledge its past.

Georgetown University

In 1838 Georgetown University was in danger of folding. To stave off creditors, Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves.

Of those slaves, NYTimes writer Rachel L. Swarns wrote in April this year, “Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century.”

She continued, “But this was no ordinary slave sale. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests. And they were sold . . . to help secure the future of the premier Catholic institution of higher learning at the time, known today as Georgetown University.”

One shipload of 56 slaves held the ancestors of Cheryllyn Branche.

She wrote a very moving piece today about learning of her connection to those slaves. A Georgetown University alum called her in May. He was part of the working group studying how to address Georgetown’s past.

She says, “My relatives — Hillary Ford, Henny Ford, their infant Basil and others –— were on that ship. Hillary and Henny were my maternal grandmother’s grandparents; their son Basil was my grandmother’s father. They didn’t live that long ago: I knew family members who had known them. They were real people with real names.”

On September 1 Georgetown’s President John J. DeGioia said that it would apologize for its history with slaves and that their descendants would get admissions priority. He named other steps too.

But the New York Times Editorial Board thought they could go further.

They said, “The university’s decision to treat the descendants essentially as legacy applicants for admissions purposes is a welcome move. But it falls short of what’s clearly needed: a scholarship fund specifically for descendants who are poor and generationally disadvantaged by the legacy of slavery from which Georgetown profited.”

I agree. The university could set such an amazing example of one way we with white privilege, with our years of ability to accumulate wealth, education, and connections, could begin to make restitution.

We cannot restore the families that were broken by slavery or heal the wounds of the years of unequal, unjust treatment. But helping young people who don’t have financial advantages get an education at an institution like Georgetown would be a step.

What do you think?