The Byrne Diaspora

Every Girl meets the world

Monica's play What Every Girl Should Know, commissioned by the Little Green Pig and performed to sold-out audiences the last three weekends, also featured choreography by Clare. It is about four girls in a 1914 Catholic reformatory discovering Margaret Sanger and themselves. It eerily coincides with current events in which Catholic bishops add to Republican calls for roll-backs on federal funding for women's health and birth control, as well as abortion. Which has led Monica to bypass the usual pathways and send the play "out there" to the rest of the world, social-media-style. Yet the play is the opposite of polemical. In fact, it is unsettlingly complicated and very funny. The "crimes" of "sexual irregularity" that have landed the girls in the reformatory turn out to involve equal parts poverty, games, prejudice, spirit, hurt, fantasy, abuse, experimentation, sexism and adolescence. And then ... the miracles start. Bravo!!!--to Monica, Clare, director Lucius Robinson, actors Marie Garlock, Carolyn McDaniel, Alice Rose Turner and Skylar Gudasz, and all involved in the production, including the soundtrack by Jane's Addiction. May the play have a long and influential future!--JEB

Jordan-Matthews is #4 in NC

Don III teaches ESL at Jordan-Matthews High School in Siler City, NC. For the second year in a row, Jordan-Matthews, which enrolls among the highest percentages of Latino kids and economically disadvantaged kids in the state, has ranked among North Carolina's top high schools, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Don said the whole school is super-proud. All the more, with the realities that teachers and students face. Poverty means not having enough money for necessities, but also, for schoolkids, it means family disruption, not enough sleep, not enough routine, not enough reading. More, dozens of kids at Jordan-Matthews are undocumented, meaning that no matter how well they do in high school, they cannot attend college in the U.S. We need to pass the Dream Act already. Meanwhile, Don III says they motivate the kids by advising them to graduate, do a correspondence degree from a Mexican university, and hang on til things change. Above, Jordan-Matthews seniors (and members of the state-championship soccer team) on graduation day. What can be said about such an image? GO JETS!--JEB

Esta es nuestra sobrina

Last weekend I got to meet Laxmi Sade, who is giggling, testing, trying, "talking," and mostly looking, looking, looking. Also I saw two performances of Monica's play, one with Donald, after which we called Clare, because the choreography kicked a$$. Saturday was full of activity. I hung out in Bear Creek while Pam did Zumba, Don III did soccer, and Nicole did a fish fry (a new venture!) for the opening of Nancy Harmon's midwifery clinic. Niko and Laxmi hung out with Nicole and friends. On Sunday we re-celebrated Don II's 70th--yaaaaaa papa! yaaaa abuelo!--and had a great time catching up with Monica's friend Allison, too, who is living and working with NGOs in the Dominican Republic. So. Did I successfully pictorially document all the variety of NC people and activites? As you can see, not nearly. But hopefully there is a glimpse of everyone, and more of the babies. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!--JEB