In this last year, I lived in ten different cities and towns. I lived in four different timezones, who knows how many different landscapes: desert, mountains, plains, coast. One week, I went from a tank top in Oakland winter to -7 in Nebraska City. This last month, I experienced the first snowfall in Monson, Maine …
Continue reading "Reflections on a year of residency-hopping"
To this day, my graduation week at Brown with my family still stands out as one of the happiest weeks of my life. At Campus Dance, my entire family danced together on the Main Green for what felt like hours without stopping, twisting our hips down until we touched the grass, dancing until the band …
Three years ago, I wrote about my yearly tradition of going through the Notes app on my phone, compiling all the odd sentences, notes and phrases into a kind of end-of-the-year poem. I've continued the tradition, and wanted to share what I got from this past year -- as well as the other two years …
Continue reading "Fragments from my Notes app in 2024 (and 2023 and 2022)"
When I look up the etymology of the word "estrangement," it brings me back to Spanish, and family, and home. The word "estrangement," comes from the Latin "extraneare" which means "to treat as a stranger." This is the same etymology of the Spanish word "extrañar", which we say when we miss someone. This means that in …
One week into my residency at Vashon Island, I feel my brain change. I recognized the feeling around the same time into my last residency in March. I love this part, the part when my brain has emptied all thoughts from life before I arrived here, and now the only thing left to process is …
Continue reading "“Residency Brain” and the Coyolxauhqui Imperative"
Two days before Día de Muertos, I decided I wanted to build my own ofrenda for the first time. Even growing up in an Mexican family, I had never made one myself before, and so many things about this year made me feel like it was the right time. I've been on Vashon Island for …
Continue reading "Día de Muertos, Ancestors, the Election and Deep Time"
In October of last year, a few weeks into the genocide in Palestine, I wrote this post as a way to process what I witnessed. I used this prompt: “Recall the last few weeks, and observe the moments, mental pictures, scenes, or objects that pop up. Choose ten, and write them down.” I wrote it …
Continue reading "A year of witnessing genocide, in ten moments"
A few months ago, a friend introduced me to this writing prompt from Suleika Jaouad: “Recall the last twenty-four hours, and observe the moments, mental pictures, scenes, or objects that pop up. Choose ten, and write them down.” It's now my go-to prompt whenever I’m overwhelmed, and these last few weeks, it has been the …
Continue reading "Oct 27th, 2023: The last few weeks in ten moments"
On this last trip, I wanted to spend more time exploring what France felt like outside of cities. One weekend, my friend and I took a train to Fountainbleu Forest, the second largest national forest in France. Our hike took us through nearly every season in four hours: we started in the misty woods, passing …
On my last night in Paris, we made an offering to the Seine. We stood looking over the edge of the bridge, staring at the glassy water flowing beneath us, and slowly tossed dried leaves of sage and rosemary into the river. Over these last five weeks, there was something beautiful about living by such …
Continue reading "Notes on the Seine, ancient water, and becoming a river person"
Amanda E. Machado 