Death of a Grandparent, Open to Hope, Special Topics

Writer J.W. Basilo on Starting Fresh When the Old Guard is Gone

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

writer J.W. Basilo

How can you use a death and a birth to foster a new culture of decency around the dinner table? This and more when memory artist Nancy Gershman talks with Chicago-based writer, performer, and director J.W Basilo. A National and World Poetry Slam finalist, Basilo is also a PushCart Prize Nominee, and co-host of the Uptown Poetry Slam. His work has appeared on NPR, CBS, WGN and the Chicago Tribune. Catch him on http://BustedMouth.com and http://chicagoslamworks.com. Start a tradition when the Old Guard dies New at the head of the table? Speak your mind Be truthful about the dead without crossing yourself Complete the conversation before anyone’s dying, […]

Death of a Child

The Terms of My Surrender

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

From the moment you came into my life, I hated you. I despised you. You came on the heels of my worst nightmare come true – the death of my young daughter. I didn’t know your name at the time. I just knew that you brought with you all the horrible feelings and emotions I had spent a lifetime learning how to repress and ignore. You broke my defenses down like they were candles trying to stay lit in a hurricane. You pounded me with pain, panic, anger, confusion, hysterics, anguish…and too many more to list. Mostly you came in […]

Death of a Child

Grief and the Loss of Control

Monday, June 9, 2014

Possibly one of the hardest aspects of grief for me has been that I can’t control it. I spent the majority of my life trying desperately to control everything in it. I wanted life to be predictable and – above all – peaceful. The problem has been what I tried to control and how I’d gone about it. I spent many, many years trying to control the people and situations around me through careful, strategic use of my own words, actions (or lack thereof), and responses. It was exhausting and depressing. And as you can imagine, it never really worked. […]