I’m going through two trunks of stuff related to a documentary I once tried to make about my aunt, Julie Arden, and her companion Charlotte Brooks. I’m determined to whittle it down to one big box. It should be easy. Just don’t look too closely. Keep the essentials. Toss, toss, toss. I find scraps…
I interviewed Maya Angelou for the Greensboro News & Record’s Go Triad arts section in the fall of 2010. She lived in the next town over, Winston-Salem, NC, and was releasing a cookbook for the holidays. I was nervous meeting an icon whose work I had admired greatly for decades, especially after being instructed to only refer…
I’ve now been in the doll adoption business about 18 months. If I had to pick the one doll with the most universal, indestructible appeal, it would be Shirley Temple in all her various sizes and outfits. Barbie is too polarizing. Madame Alexander dolls too prissy. No one dislikes Shirley Temple. She appeals to a…
Just in time for Mother’s Day, here’s my essay on the laughter and tears of selling my mother’s dolls that I wrote for The New York Times. Be sure to check out the slideshow as well as the short video made by the very talented Jacob Rosdail. Mama Jo had several Mother & Child dolls in her collection. Here are two that I…
Photos of me by Mama Jo To commemorate the anniversary of my mother’s heavenly ascent, I’m introducing the Forever Home Photo Contest using photos sent to me by new “moms” and “dads” of her dolls. Mama Jo loved to take photos. Many were of her/our dolls. Whimsy was never in short supply in her world, nor…
“I hit a fox last night.” I told Rita this as we drove up Lawndale Drive toward Summerfield, just after we’d passed a small carcass on the side of the road. It was late, the streets empty, the air filled with the sweet sadness of a fleeting summer night. “It dashed in front of my…