By Marc W. Polite
Good evening, everyone. Like many Americans at this difficult moment in our country’s history, I am on state recommended quarantine. Given this reality, it affords me some time to reflect on recent occurrences, and what I have not really had time to process or fully delve into.
Since the coronavirus has forced many of us inside for our own health and safety, it gives you a lot of potential time to sit with a few things. Tonight, I found myself flipping through some pictures that I took on my smartphone, but never shared. There are plenty of those. (Mind, ya bidness, b!)I decided to share the one above for the purposes of this post.
The above picture you see is a poster from a PEN America book party that I attended back in January of this very year. I snapped the pic, but never got around to sharing it on this site. It’s just one of those things that happens in the hustle and bustle of the literary scene of New York City.
It was an event that I attended with fellow members of the Harlem Writers Guild. It was a really nice event, with plenty of wine and snacks. It was a celebration of literature and new writers with recently published books. I saw a number of friendly, familiar faces, and met some new writers too. You didn’t read about it on here, because I was in the moment at the time.
At that moment, there were collaborations in the works, and an alliance was coalescing. Then.. like 4 weeks later.. the outbreak began. It just goes to show how quickly shit can get real.
Why am I sharing this almost three months after the fact? Well, number one, because I have time… and 2.. because I found myself reflecting on occurrences not that long ago. It is what I have been doing to help get me through this lockdown. It might help you or someone else you know too?
What are some photos you didn’t share or upload pre lockdown?