#he only refers to her in this as the queen and this is a letter/interview he knows is being transcribed for cromwell. so... | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

joealwyndaily · 3 years ago

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Joe Alwyn currently occupies one of the strangest spaces in the greater celebrity matrix. He’s not yet the sort of movie star your parents would recognize at the airport and text you about, nor does he have the box-office draw of a Chalamet or Pattinson, at least not yet. The 31-year-old has been working steadily in film and television since his straight-out-of-British-drama-school debut as the lead in Ang Lee’s 2016 high-def experiment Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. He racked up a series of well-received supporting roles in big period Oscar dramas and small critically appreciated indies, usually playing a Ken-doll-faced dick (Harriet, Operation Finale, Boy Erased, The Last Letter From Your Lover) or a blushing Brit from a bygone era (The Sense of an Ending, The Favourite, The Souvenir Part II, Mary Queen of Scots). Now, his first lead role since Billy, in Hulu’s second Sally Rooney adaptation, Conversations With Friends, threatens to make him fully Recognizable to Moms.

For a specific and rather substantial subset of the global population, however, Alwyn is not only a household name but a dinner-table centerpiece. To Google him is to stare straight into the stan-culture abyss. Lengthy YouTube videos are dedicated to his rare and rather unremarkable public interactions with his overwhelmingly famous longtime girlfriend — “Taylor Swift turns around to look at her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, and sticks her tongue out at him” — or to the opaque references the two have made to the mere fact of each other’s existence. Breathless lists of “everything Taylor and Joe have said about their private relationship” abound in the Us Weekly universe. Alwyn is left to choose his words and body language wisely or risk their becoming permanent parts of the elaborate Swiftian canon. The man is not simply well-versed in the art of concealment; he is the Criss Angel of conversational dynamics. In interviews, he often demonstrates an ability to politely answer a question while revealing absolutely nothing about himself, sometimes even backtracking mid-answer to negate a benign detail. (From a recent piece in Mr. Porter: “Well, do you like football?” asks the reporter. “Football?” replies Alwyn. “Yeah. Am I allowed to say those kinds of things?”)

Yet he believes he has gotten better at the whole press thing over the years. “I don’t think I don’t enjoy interviews,” he says carefully. “I think I have seemed guarded.” He definitely “would like to not seem so guarded in them.” I can see those contradicting desires roiling inside Alwyn now, sitting across from him on the patio at Fairfax, in the West Village, for lunch. His energy is vaguely uncomfortable but determined, like that of someone preparing to swim laps in the English Channel in January to prove something to themselves. Perhaps sensing he has already revealed too much, he falls back on one of his tried-and-true lines: “If you were to ask a stranger on the street questions about their private life, let alone with the intent to then post it everywhere, why would that person not be like, ‘Sorry, what, why?’ So why would I not be like that?” He points at a woman sitting across the way from us who is, to my knowledge, not on a press tour. “I’m not going to go over there and ask that woman about her personal life.” “Actually, maybe you should,” I suggest. “I mean, I might do later,” he says, now looking cheered. “I’ll just holler across the street.”

Alwyn orders a Guinness (which is not available, so he opts for an IPA) after confirming I will also be drinking. “I’m just clinging on to that Irishness,” he says, referring to the five months he spent filming Conversations With Friends in Belfast. I start with some simple questions — When did he realize he wanted to act? What was he like as a child? “See, these are the questions I find hard,” he says. Was he introverted? Outgoing? Sporty? “I was on the introverted side but not a crippling introvert. Like an extroverted introvert,” he answers. “Is that allowed?”

In small spurts, I learn Alwyn was “not hammy” as a youth — instead, he was the family baby, “displaced” at age 12 by a new sibling, and an athlete who realized what he really wanted was to act. He kept his burning theatrical desires quiet, à la Zac Efron in High School Musical. He admits to an early obsession with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and talks joyfully about how he was brought up watching “random French movies” with his documentary-filmmaker father and psychotherapist mother. Occasionally, he broke free from the chains of jockdom and played Banquo in a version of Macbeth performed entirely on Rollerblades, and Snowy the dog in a production of Tintin despite looking exactly like Tintin: “Snowy was more of a stretch.”

Alwyn says he “secretly would look up drama schools online” as a teenager. Once in university, he applied to four and was rejected by all but one. He was yanked out in his last year by Lee, who had fought with the studio to cast an unknown as the naïve, PTSD-ridden Billy Lynn. “It was terrifying and surreal and happened so quickly,” Alwyn remembers. Critics were almost unilaterally derisive of the film, but Alwyn was praised for his naturalism, his believable innocence, and, per one review, a “cuteness roughly akin to that of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting.” Like most things that have happened to Alwyn, that image has proved to be both a boon and a curse. Directors feel they must either play off it directly (place him somewhere in the past when evidently it was more normal to look like that; make him the evil, rich trophy husband to 1960s amnesia victim Shailene Woodley; cast him as Margot Robbie’s devoted, winsome courtier) or subvert it (he looks this way because he is an actual Nazi). Before filming Billy Lynn, Lee had been concerned that Alwyn was “too handsome” to play a run-of-the-mill contemporary dude; ultimately, he decided Alwyn’s face is “so compelling it doesn’t matter.”

The conversation about his looks gets meta in Conversations. In the series, he plays Nick, an emotionally walled-off, married, 30-something actor who begins an affair with a college student and slowly lets his guard down. His character is a classically attractive, heavily restrained man with hidden depths who struggles to be taken seriously while everyone around him says stuff about his face. In one scene, he and his paramour, Frances, are bidding each other farewell after a drawn-out romp when she blurts out, “You’re so handsome.” Nick turns pink. “I thought you were attracted to my personality,” he jokes half-heartedly. “Do you even have one?” replies Frances, who then looks equally humiliated. Alwyn begins mock-pulling at his cheeks and widening his eyes at any talk of said face. “Two eyes, one nose, one mouth,” he says. “I don’t know what to say.” But did he relate to that moment with Nick and Frances? “It’s not something I wrestled with,” he says, studying me as he spoons up some steak tartare. He tenses a bit. “What are you trying to get me to say about my face?” I explain that I have no specific face-related agenda, and he visibly relaxes. “No, sorry, I’m sure,” he says. “I would much rather work with an interesting director in a smaller, weirder, darker part, than something big and obvious and getting typecast just for the sake of it.”

COVID had messed up his plans to star in an “Emily Brontë origin story,” so he put himself on tape for Conversations director Lenny Abrahamson one weekend at an unnamed friend’s “beautiful, immaculate” house. Thinking he needed to look older than his three decades to play the mid-30s Nick, he went upstairs to find a jacket from his friend’s “older husband,” where he found a paperback copy of Conversations With Friends lying on the bedroom floor. He got the part a week later. “I’m not superstitious,” he adds, before spending the next five minutes discussing the things he actually is superstitious about — namely, and randomly, magpies. (“If I see one, I’m like, ‘Oh, shit,’” he says, whipping out his phone to show me a photo of a magpie, appearing genuinely thrilled to be talking about this.)

Alwyn’s performance in Conversations is his best yet. He’s convincing as a sensitive, depressive guy who desperately wants to open up to someone but doesn’t quite know if it’s safe to do so. The role is bold. There are more sex scenes per capita in this series than anything he has ever done, scenes of the caliber and intimacy that turned Paul Mescal, the previously unknown star of Hulu’s first Rooney adaptation, Normal People, into an icon of early-pandemic-era sensuality. “When they sent the audition, they said, just as a heads up, that it would be to sign up for the possibility of full frontal,” Alwyn says, though he ended up going tush-only. Is he prepared to be the subject of a new type of public frenzy? “To be honest, I forget that other people will see it.”

In the summer of 2020, Swift surprise-released the Grammy-winning album Folklore. Fans speculated endlessly about the identity of William Bowery, a mysterious co-writer on two songs. That November, Swift revealed that Bowery was in fact Alwyn and that the pair had taken up songwriting together in quarantine. I assume Alwyn will give me one of his speak-arounds on the subject. Instead, he leans forward, putting his English Channel–swimming face back on. “What would you like to know?”

Although he grew up playing a bit of piano and was the guitarist in a “crappy school band called Anger Management,” Alwyn doesn’t consider himself a musician or songwriter and insists that he is, in fact, an awful singer. He was merely “messing around” on the piano when Swift heard and walked over, intrigued. He had been singing the fully formed first verse to the song that became “Exile.” (Bon Iver handles the male vocals on the final version.) “It was completely off the cuff, an accident,” he says, shrugging. “She said, ‘Can we try and sit down and get to the end together?’ And so we did. It was as basic as some people made sourdough.”

I press him on this point — he wrote an entire verse to a Taylor Swift song without trying? “Who doesn’t walk around the house singing?” he asks. I explain that it’s unusual for hit songs to spring forth like that from nonmusicians’ heads. He says he wasn’t trying to write to Swift’s personal sound but had been listening to a lot of the National (Aaron Dessner ended up producing the album). Alwyn wrote the chorus for “Betty” just as casually, albeit less soberly: “I’d probably had a drink and was just stumbling around the house. We couldn’t decide on a film to watch that night, and she was like, ‘Do you want to try and finish writing that song you were singing earlier?’ And so we got a guitar and did that.”

Initially, Alwyn didn’t want his name credited, anticipating that what he describes as the “clickbait conversation” would distract people from actually listening to the music. So he went by William Bowery as a nod to his music-composer great-grandfather and the Manhattan street. But then he recognized the “clickbait conversation” was happening anyway — “I don’t say that vainly,” he adds quickly — so why not let the world know it was him? He stresses his blissful ignorance of, say, those videos dissecting his relationship with Swift: “I’m aware of those when people tell me in these situations.” It seems like a healthy, practiced denial; he has worked at tuning this shit out because otherwise he might never utter a single syllable again. And despite having a face that launched a thousand Swift songs, at certain angles in his normal-boy outfit, he does have a certain ability to blend. None of the other 30-somethings lunching at Fairfax seem to have any clue who he is. “I suppose it’s not as if you’re Jennifer Lopez,” I joke. “I beg to differ,” he shoots back with a laugh. “I am Jennifer Lopez.” I start to warm to Alwyn. He knows that what he wants (privacy) and what he has to do (publicity) are fundamentally at odds and has embraced that contradiction with dry, charming wit.

We’ve finished our food, which means the moment we’ve both been dreading can no longer be avoided. “You have things you have to ask,” says Alwyn, folding his hands together. “And I’ll either choose to answer or not.” I look him gamely in the face and ask if he is, indeed, betrothed to marry one Taylor Alison Swift. He exhales. “The truth is,” he begins, “if I had a pound coin for every time someone told me I’ve been engaged or I’m getting engaged, I would have a lot of pound coins. If the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say. If the answer is no, I wouldn’t say.” I’m struck briefly speechless. It is perhaps the best non-answer I have ever received. I ask him how often he’s practiced it, and he explains that recently, back home in the U.K., a journalist had tried to sneakily phrase the engagement as a statement rather than a question. “You’re not the first person to ask,” he says. His tone conveys that he understands I will also not be the last.

Before I release Alwyn back into the wild, I ask why, in one of his rare forays into celebrity endorsement — a perfectly confusing Tom Ford perfume commercial — he appears physically appalled by the sight of his own neck in the mirror as he sprays himself with the scent. “How dare you!” he says, laughing, looking both offended and delighted. “If that’s not how everyone puts perfume on themselves, then I’ve been lied to.” He suddenly remembers his professional obligations: “Tom Ford’s amazing as a person.” He stands up and bids me a polite farewell. Walking solo toward Tribeca, he is instantly snapped by the paparazzi.

#joe alwyn #interview #vulture

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jesuisgourde · 4 years ago

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gay/queer references in Peter’s journals

Again, I have probably missed stuff due to going through pretty quickly and also due to having stared at this document for so long, everything has kind of blurred together.

Sometime close to the day that Carlos & I watched 'Love And Death on Long Island' (and afterwards paraded through the tea rooms of Picadilly) we both filled in application forms and were tres excited to be invited to the same group 'interview' - twas more like an audition though. I got the part. Carlos never. This did not bring any animosity - we both know that success for either of us is magnified a million times if it is shared by us both.

from 'A Diamond Guitar' by Truman Capote "Except that they did not combine their bodies or think to do so, though such things were not unknown at the (Prison), they were as lovers. Of the seasons, spring is the most shattering: stalks thrusting through the earth's winter-stiffened crust, young leaves cracking out on old left-to-die branches, the falling asleep wind cruising through all the newborn green. And with Mr Schaeffer it was the same, a breaking up, a flexing of muscles that had hardened. It was late January. The friends were sitting on the steps of the sheep house, each with a cigarette in his hand. A moon thin and yellow as a piece of lemon rind curved above them, and under its light, threads of ground frost glistened like silver snail trails. Tico Feo had been drawn into himself - silent as a robber waiting in the shadows."

Then a meet with Bounds Green's African prince outside whitechapel tube, rugged lookies at I in military attire & to a ruptured Albion rooms tidied in hours and now lids drawn heated on the eyes. A young looking fella has a crush on me.

Jackie/Camillia/Marie/Kate/Chris/V. churchill Jackie/Evelina/Jasmine/Sachi/Dalston/Sussie Sandra/Carlene/FP/Jay/Dalston/Kraut

There sat a young black man, perhaps in his early or middle twenties. He looked for all the world like the archetypal rude boy. Clean, cheap reebok, nike, adidas variously rolled, laced & zipped about his lean, spreadeagled body that hung loosely about the waiting room chair. Gold & tattoos adorned his person, and a blank animal look was attached to his clear face. He sat before me in a row of four empty chairs, staring at polished floor or the mundane television. A balding white man minced in & all perceptions were suddenly proven to be false as they embraced and snuggled up to each other, giggling & whispering & touching each others noses.... very much in love, fingers crossed for the blood tests.

[Image: an article from Gay Times of an interview with Peter. For some reason, the portrait included alongside the article is of Carl wearing a grey and black t-shirt.] Name? Peter Doherty Age? 22 Where are you? I'm on the motorway just north of Southampton. What kind of day are you having? (Vaguely) Erm... quite misty. Something's waiting around the corner, but there are no corners on the motorway, so we'll just have to wait and see what lies ahead. Maybe something will happen tonight.... What's this we hear about you once being a rent boy? Well, when times are hard, duty calls. How long ago was it? When I was 19, about three years ago. How do we know this isn't just a Shaun Ryder-type lie? 'Cause if it was, it would make me a complete scumbag and I'm not, and I'm not interested in that kind of pantomime. It wasn't a very happy time. I didn't really enjoy it. Why did you give it up? (grimly) Well, certain people disappeared... and anyway, ultimately I found myself no longer in such a vulnerable position anymore. Dawn broke, and I realised that it was a beautiful world after all. Have you done any other dodgy jobs? All of us in the band have tried to deal, but it's not good if you like the drugs too much. You just end up using them yourself! I once was a gravedigger. I used to do it with my mate in Willesden Green cemetery. We didn't actually do the digging, a machine did that, but we used to have to fill them in. It was pretty grim work. So are you gay then? Love is love, wherever it comes from. I'm not anything, really. I am a very sexual person but... I dunno, I believe in liberty... The Marquis de Sade has a lot to answer for... Do you get a lot of gay fans? Yeah - well, there's one guy in particular. He's very shy and he follows us around. He brings in letters and cards and stuff, but he's very quiet. I think John (the bassist) is the main pulling power in the band. Are you jealous about that? Nah! I've known him too long.

You know I'm alright i dont even care i like it when they stare & stare call me queer, dear oh dear a million things & what I wear He's real hard when he's with his mates but I'll saw him again & he was too late

Dear NME I'd have thought after the Gay Times piece, the interview with Rapture fanzine & our recent gig at the Slum Club everything would be clear. No it still remains to give a big hearty fuck off to all these twisted suburban types calling me a liar. Vulnerable young men & women all over the world find themselves victims of circumstance.

she was dressed in suit & tie & lightly etched-on moustache. 'I've always wanted to kiss a bird in the back of a taxi.' she says, running her hand up the fishnet ladders of my thigh. Stepping onto the front line in Bow puddles, elevators, buzzing doors,

[Image: the original page in the book has been preserved. Two paragraphs have been boxed off with biro. They read:] “...cast Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as bickering queer barbers and then much more uncompromisingly in William Friedkin's adaptation of The Boys in the Band (1970), which introduced some of the plainer four letter words in the English language to the screen for the first time. 'Who,' asks Cliff Gorman, in his brilliant portrayal of the most effeminate of the homosexual group as they gather for a soul-searching party, 'Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?' Other homosexual manifestations to occur in movies around this time included an elliptical but unmistakeable male fellatio scene in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969) when Jon Voight, as a broke and disillusioned Texas stud importunes in a New York cinema....”

[Image, top left: a blurry photo of John onstage, playing bass. Image, top right, sideways: a photo of the band onstage. Carl and John are on the left, sharing a mic. Peter is on the right, playing guitar and singing into his own mic. Image, centre left: a torn photo of Peter sitting in a chair, shirtless, playing guitar. Only his bottom half from the chest down is visible. Image, centre left: a torn photo of Peter sitting in a chair, shirtless, playing guitar. Only his top half from shoulders up is visible. Image, bottom left: a torn fragment of a photo. What looks like a denim-clad knee and a yellow carrier bag are visible. Image, bottom middle: a photo of someone's knee in torn jeans, taken from under a table. Image, bottom right: a torn photo of Carl in a black sleeveless shirt, posing with his fingers in his mouth.] [A paragraph from the original page of the book has been left exposed and boxed off with black biro. It reads:] “The Boys in the Band was displaced by an immeasurably more powerful portrayal of homosexual groups, Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971). Set in a Quebec prison, this disturbing, factually based drama vividly recounted the corrupted of a heterosexual convict trapped in a tough, potentially vicious homosexual society. In one horrifying scene, a weak, put-upon prisoner is gang-banged by his fellow inmates; in another, the 'hero' is blackmailed by his cellmate into accepting him as his lover for the duration...”

Like a cat on a hot tin roof Like a macho man in a roomful of poofs I have tried in my way to be free.

[Written in Peter's handwriting] Jerome... is that how it's spelt? [Written in someone else's handwriting] Yes it is [Written in Peter's handwriting] Can I read you something? [Written in someone else's handwriting] Yes please.....

I insist, new book of Albion, befuddled by drugs I may yes about 2 but I do not miss out entirely on the subtleties of the inhuman relation ships that are this the mainstay of my stay here in one bounce of a loaf. Boys are fooled into fooling with boys. [...]

More general references/some extra explanations:

“The boy looked at Johnny” is a line from Patti Smith's song “Horses,” part one of a three-part song called “Land.” In the song, a young man named Johnny is assaulted by another man in a locker room; he then mentally journeys to other fantastical lands and visions. A lot of people interpret it as being about gay sex, although some people interpret it as being about a stabbing.

Peter quotes and references Jean Genet's writing and works about Jean Genet many times. While Genet's works are nearly all about crime and prison (one of Peter's main interests and points of fascination), all of his works are very explicitly gay. The Thief's Journal is more about Genet's various lovers than it is about his criminal history. Our Lady Of The Flowers is about a drag queen and her criminal lovers, and is also extremely erotic.

(“Jerome” is Jerome Alexandre, vocalist of The Deadcuts, who was friends with Peter and Mark Keds.)

#squash transcribes books of albion #peter doherty #feel free to request compilations of other kinds too

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bananaofswifts · 4 years ago

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For Women's History Month 2021, GRAMMY.com is celebrating some of the women artists nominated at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards show. Today, we honor Taylor Swift, who's currently nominated for six GRAMMYs.

When we met Taylor Swift in 2006, it was immediately apparent that her songwriting approach was like ripping a page out of her diary.

"Just a boy in a Chevy truck/ That had a tendency of gettin' stuck/ On backroads at night/ And I was right there beside him all summer long/ And then the time we woke up to find that summer gone," she lamented in the first verse of her debut single, "Tim McGraw(opens in a new tab)." The way the then-16-year-old Swift could turn personal anecdotes into instantly memorable hooks mirrored the prowess of an industry veteran, appealing to more than just the teenage girls that could relate to a short-lived high school romance.

Now, nearly 15 years later, Swift has introduced another layer of intrigue with a foray into indie folk, unveiling a pair of albums, folklore and evermore, last year. Recorded entirely in isolation after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, folklore has been widely acclaimed(opens in a new tab) as Swift's best album, touted for its intimate songwriting and cinematic dynamics; evermore has received similarly glowing reviews(opens in a new tab).

folklore was 2020's best-selling album(opens in a new tab) and earned Swift five GRAMMY nominations at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards show, including her fourth Album Of The Year nod. (evermore will be eligible for the 64th GRAMMY Awards in 2022.) As her 10 previous GRAMMY wins suggest, though, this new chapter isn't an abrupt departure for the star—it's a masterful continuation of her evolution as a singer/songwriter.

If there's one thing that Swift has proven throughout her career, it's that she refuses to be put in a box. Her ever-evolving sound took her from country darling to pop phenom to folk's newest raconteur—a transition that, on paper, seems arduous. But for Swift, it was seamless and resulted in perhaps her most defining work yet. And folklore’s radiance relies on three of Swift’s songwriting tools: heartfelt balladeering, autobiographical writing, and character-driven storytelling.

While there was always a crossover element to Swift's pop-leaning country tunes, her transition from country starlet to pop queen began with Red. The album’s lead single, the feisty breakup anthem "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together(opens in a new tab)," was Swift's first release to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and, ironically, scoffed "indie records much cooler than mine"). She declared a full pop makeover with 2014's 1989, but the response proved that her bold move was the right one: Along with spawning three more No. 1 hits, the project won Swift her second GRAMMY for Album of the Year.

From there, 2017’s Reputation, a response to media scrutiny, and 2019’s Lover, an often bubbly exploration of all facets of affection, followed. Although they shared similarly grandiose production, Lover featured a handful of poetic ballads, including "The Archer(opens in a new tab)," a self-reflective love song that teased Swift's folk sensibilities through storybook lyrics and ambient textures.

Swift’s ballads are key in understanding the full essence of folklore. They’ve regularly marked standout moments on each of her albums, both thanks to her poignant vulnerability and rich tone. Fearless standout "White Horse" earned Swift two GRAMMYs in 2009; Red's painstaking "All Too Well" was an instant fan favorite; 1989's "This Love" and Reputation's "New Years Day" provided tenderness amid otherwise synth-heavy sounds.

The raw emotion she puts into her downtempo songs comes alive on folklore, introducing a new wave of neo-classical sonics that elevate her fanciful penmanship to an ethereal level. Whether or not Swifties saw a full indie-pop record coming—at least not yet—the shift isn't all that surprising. Folklore’s romanticized lyrics and relatively lo-fi production are arguably what many fans have been patiently waiting on.

Lyrically, the super-personal nature of Swift’s music has always captivated fans and naysayers alike; diehards and critics dissected each of her albums for its real-life subjects and hidden meanings. While she played into those conspiracies at the time—whether she was revealing names in titles like "Hey Stephen(opens in a new tab)" and "Dear John(opens in a new tab)" or scathing the other girl on "Better Than Revenge(opens in a new tab)"—even Swift herself admits that her teenage method had an expiration date.

"There was a point that I got to as a writer who only wrote very diaristic songs that [it] felt unsustainable for my future moving forward," she told Apple Music's(opens in a new tab) Zane Lowe in December of 2020. "It felt like too hot of a microscope ... On my bad days, I would feel like I was loading a cannon of clickbait when that's not what I want for my life."

That realization is what helped make folklore so memorable: Swift stripped away the drama to let her artful storytelling shine. Sure, there are occasional callbacks to personal happenings ("invisible string(opens in a new tab)" references sending her exes baby gifts and "mad woman(opens in a new tab)" alludes to her legal battle with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun). Still, she largely shies away from her autobiographical narratives to make way for her imagination.

"I found myself not only writing my own stories, but also writing about or from the perspective of people I've never met, people I've known, or those I wish I hadn't," Swift wrote in a letter to fans(opens in a new tab) on social media the day folklore arrived. "The lines between fantasy and reality blur and the boundaries between truth and fiction become almost indiscernible."

folklore might be her first full project dedicated to creating characters and projecting storylines, but Swift has shown a knack for fantasy from the start. Tracks like "Mary's Song (Oh My My)(opens in a new tab)" on her self-titled debut and "Starlight(opens in a new tab)" on Red saw Swift craft stories for real-life muses ("Mary's Song" was inspired by an old couple who lived next door to Swift in her childhood; "Starlight" was sparked from seeing a picture of Ethel and Bobby Kennedy as teens). Even when songs did pertain to her real life, Swift often had a way of flipping memories into whimsical metaphors, like the clever clap-back to a critic on Speak Now's "Mean(opens in a new tab)" or the rebound relationship in Reputation's "Getaway Car(opens in a new tab)."

To think that we wouldn't have folklore without a pandemic is almost surreal; it's already become such a fundamental piece of Swift’s artistic puzzle. There was no telling what may have come after the glittering "love letter to love itself” that was Lover, but it seems isolation made the singer rethink any plans she may have had.

"I just thought there are no rules anymore because I used to put all these parameters on myself, like, 'How will this song sound in a stadium? How will this song sound on radio?' If you take away all the parameters, what do you make?" she told Paul McCartney in a November (opens in a new tab)Rolling Stone(opens in a new tab) interview(opens in a new tab). "And I guess the answer is folklore."

Even if she hasn’t been making indie music herself, Swift has shown an affinity for the genre over the years through curated digital playlists(opens in a new tab). Those included four songs by The National including "Dark Side of the Gym," which she references on folklore single "betty(opens in a new tab)," and "8 (Circle)" by Bon Iver, Swift's collaborator on folklore's gut-wrenching "exile(opens in a new tab)" as well as evermore’s title track. (“Exile” is one of folklore’s GRAMMY-nominated cuts, up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.)

The National’s guitarist Aaron Dessner co-wrote nine and produced 11 of folklore's 16 tracks, soundtracking Swift's imaginative tales with sweeping orchestration and delicate piano. Their partnership started with "cardigan(opens in a new tab)," a melancholy take on teenage love(opens in a new tab) that's up for Best Pop Solo Performance and the coveted Song of the Year. The team-up was a dream come true for Swift, a self-proclaimed National superfan and a career highlight for Dessner, who shared in an Instagram post(opens in a new tab) about folklore that he's "rarely been so inspired by someone." He sees the album as a pivotal moment for both Swift's career and pop music.

"Taylor has opened the door for artists to not feel pressure to have 'the bop,'" Dessner shared with (opens in a new tab)Billboard(opens in a new tab) in September. "To make the record that she made, while running against what is programmed in radio at the highest levels of pop music—she has kind of made an anti-pop record. And to have it be one of the most, if not the most, successful commercial releases of the year that throws the playbook out.

"I hope it gives other artists, especially lesser-known or more independent artists, a chance at the mainstream," he continued. "Maybe radio will realize that music doesn't have to sound as pushed as it has. Nobody was trying to design anything to be a hit. Obviously, Taylor has the privilege of already having a very large and dedicated audience, but I do feel like it's having a resonance beyond that."

Swift's other primary folklore collaborator was Jack Antonoff. He has been her right-hand man since they first paired up on 2013's promotional single "Sweeter Than Fiction(opens in a new tab)" (Swift referred to him as "musical family" in her folklore announcement(opens in a new tab)). Even after years of creating stadium-ready pop smashes, Antonoff said in his own folklore Instagram post(opens in a new tab), "I've never heard Taylor sing better in my life / write better."

As Swift recognizes herself, folklore ushered in a new way of thinking for the superstar that not only brings out her best, but sets a promising precedent for what's to come. "What I felt after we put out folklore was, 'Oh wow, people are into this too, this thing that feels really good for my life and my creativity,'" Swift added in her interview with Lowe. "I saw a lane for my future that was a real breakthrough moment of excitement and happiness."

Her enthusiasm is tangible on both folklore and evermore. Dubbed folklore’s sister record, evermore further expands Swift’s newfound mystical atmosphere. Much to the delight of many Swifties, the follow-up also calls back to her country beginnings on tracks like the HAIM-assisted “no body, no crime(opens in a new tab),” as well as her pop expertise on more uptempo cuts like “long story short(opens in a new tab).”

Together, the albums are a momentous reminder that Swift is a singer/songwriter first. Her wordcraft is some of the most alluring of her generation, and that’s never been lost on her music, regardless of the genre she’s exploring. But now that Swift also feels she's at her best, it’s evident folklore was just the beginning of Taylor Swift in her finest form.

#taylor swift #folklore #Grammy #WOW

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queen-susans-revenge · 4 years ago

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Couple interesting developments in the saga of House Sussex. First of course, the queen’s conciliatory statement. Royal scuttlebutt has it she rejected a first draft that took the tone of an angry rebuttal. And issued a “three line whip”--which I assume is a brief internal memo but who knows, might actually involve a conga line of three pages beating each other with riding crops--to tell everyone else in the palace to stop talking to the press now.

Second, this article from Vanity Fair. Like so much royal coverage, it’s not so much what’s said as who’s saying it: in this case Katie Nicholls, who is widely understood to have sources from the Middleton camp. The most interesting line in the article is buried near the end, the final sentence of the next-to-last graf. “As for William, he is said to regret that early conversation with Harry about Meghan, because it led to the rift that continues to this day.”

William regrets. That’s really interesting. That’s super interesting because right up until yesterday all of the reporting to come out of the Cambridge camp was implacably hostile to the Sussexes--or at least Meghan in particular--and in fact the most hostile briefings against them consistently trace to Kensington Palace (such as the bullying allegations, leaked by William’s aide Jason Knauf). And up until this moment every description of William’s feelings toward the Sussexes has converged on the phrase “incandescent rage.”

So all these details together paint a portrait. William has been opposed to Harry’s marriage from day one and has been using his aides to destroy Meghan’s reputation in the press, while forbidding her from retaliating.

But of course the Sussexes have now succeeded in outmaneuvering him in the court of public opinion, at least in America and the Commonwealth. And while William is most likely absolutely frothing at the mouth about it, the Queen has now stepped in and is enforcing peace. William’s being forced to express regret, publicly through his press contacts and most likely privately as well.

And in response, the Sussex camp is putting it about that Harry hopes to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with his brother at the unveiling of the Diana statue. And I think it’s pretty obvious that Harry and Meghan would like to be on the balcony for Trooping the Color.

So, while all the royal machinations and backbiting are of course very interesting, I’m also thinking about the extent to which this is really a labor dispute. I mean Meghan made it very explicit when she said that in her former job, she had a union to protect her. A princess union is not such a terrible idea, really.

What Harry and Meghan are doing here, honestly, is attempting to renegotiate their contracts. They're saying: We can absolutely do the job. We are vital assets to your Firm. But you're going to have to change the working conditions. And frankly if you attempt to ditch us altogether we’re going to consider that being fired without cause, and we’re going to pursue it.

Will it work? I don't know. I think at this point it would make a lot of sense for the Palace to offer some tangible concessions, and stand firm on other points.

One of the easiest gestures of goodwill they could make would be to suggest that Archie begin using his father’s subsidiary title, Earl of Dumbarton. This could be done with a simple statement advising the press that Archie is to be referred to formally as Lord Mountbatten-Windsor. He’s already entitled to this courtesy without changing any of the existing protocol; it really just is a matter of issuing a press release.

It would still fall short of what Harry and Meghan are asking for, which is a Letters Patent granting Archie the title of Prince, same as was done for Charlotte and Louis. Only George would otherwise be so entitled, although Archie is currently slated to become Prince when Charles takes the throne. And Meghan divulged in her interview that Charles is planning to issue a subsequent Letters Patent which would change this protocol in a way that prevents Archie from ever gaining the title of Prince--presumably, by restricting that title to the children of the sovereign instead of including grandchildren. Meghan and Harry are angry about it because royal security is bound to the title, and they have come under such outsized threat (partly because of Harry’s own brother briefing against them in the press jfc).

But the move actually makes sense. It’s in line with Charles’ stated desire for a “slimmed down monarchy,” and let’s be real, this whole family is a bunch of leeches on the public good desperately attempting to justify their existence with various acts of public worth. The sovereign fulfills both a constitutional function and a cultural one, but the likes of the Wessexes can hardly be considered essential, and the likes of Prince Andrew are downright detrimental. It makes sense to restrict the titles. There’s already too many of these entitled jerks swanning around.

Harry and Meghan have already proven that they don’t need the monarchy to thrive. So the Palace could easily make Archie a Lord for now, in order to demonstrate respect to the Sussexes, and kick the question of whether he gets upgraded to Prince at Charles’ coronation down the road for a bit.

The second obvious concession would be to reinstate Harry and Meghan as heads of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. They are outstanding at the job, they want to do the job, and allowing them to do the job involves no use of public funds. Similarly, their royal patronages should be restored, and so should Harry’s ceremonial military titles. All of these moves are literally free for the palace, and all together they would give the Sussexes “something to lose,” again. Right now the Palace has zero leverage, and Harry and Meghan have all of it.

#house sussex

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meet-me-in-the-pouringrain · 5 years ago

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Good evening I’m currently crying about the Cullen Family dynamic I have concocted in my head.

- Carlisle and Jasper sitting down together to better educate their old asses on the social conducts / normalities today.

- Esme and Rosalie taking nature walks together and just talking. Mother - Daughter day. Sometimes, if she wants, Alice joins them.

- Emmett fully starting all out battles be it Nerf, snowball or water balloons early in the morning and all of them throw caution to the wind and join in. It usually ends in couple v couple with Edward off to the side in a huff until Bella joins and fuckin obliterates every single one of them.

- Jasper, Emmett and Edward (when he’s not being so annoying) embrace their brotherly relationship. They wrestle, argue, throw things and fight but it’s usually all in good fun. Until Eddie gets pissy then it’s real.

- Carlisle bonds with the kids when they are turned and makes it a point to do it as often as he can after. With Bella, he sits and discusses Literature for hours, with Alice they discuss her visions and he helps her delve into her past, Emmett (don’t tell Esme) he helps him Scheme, Jasper ^^^^, Edward they barely talk now that Bella is in the picture but when they do they could be up there for hours talking about whatever. He tried with Rosalie but she scares him.

- Esme makes it a point to spend time with the kids too. She and Emmett discuss their farm lives and debate over easier methods, Alice tries to style her differently every summer, Bella and her cook, Jasper usually prattles on for hours about horses and whatnot and Esme smiles patiently unwilling to tell him her farm was a vegetable one and not animal. Sometimes he just wants to be near her because she had the Best Vibes , Rose and her bond over their trauma at first but it slowly morphs into idle chatter about nothing. Edward, in my head, clings onto Esme more than anyone thinks because she reminds him of Elizabeth and usually is just around her while Esme is busting herself with design or painting.

- They honour Esme’s Jewish heritage along with Carlisle’s Anglican beliefs every December and have a mix of the two holidays. Rosalie, Bella and Alice spends hours every November making a menorah for Esme from scratch whereas Emmett, Jasper and Edward tackle the Christmas decorations. Emmett is on light duty. Alice spends hundreds of dollars buying matching clothes and pyjamas for all the Cullens.

- Esme and Bella spends hours in the kitchen whipping up Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner for the pack. Esme also makes various meals for Bella to take to Charlie while they still lived in forks.

- Whenever Carlisle decides to scold one of the children for one stupid stunt or other someone is guaranteed to bite back “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned”

- Emmett calls Esme “Momma” and Carlisle “Pops”. He’s the only one who refers to them that way. But Renesmee called them Nana and Poppy.

- She has nicknames for everyone. Rose is Rosey, Jasper is Jassy, Alice is Alley Cat (Alice thought of it herself and was so proud she tried to get every one to use it. Nobody does) Emmett is Emmy. Bella is simply Mom and Edward is Dad.

- Edward is fucking nice to Rosalie in my head and they have a tradition every December to personalise baubles for the other. 2008 had Rosalie make “Listen to Rosalie next time” whereas Edward made one that stated “you were right”

- Fun Fact! Vampires can smoke weed and drink alcohol in my head. Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper definitely were/ probably still are smokers. Alice claims it helps her ignore visions when she doesn't feel up to it, Jasper says it helps ignore the emotions emitted by everyone. As soon as he heard that, Edward jumped on the bandwagon and immediately regretted it.

- They can also drink. One bottle of alchohol and they’re all bladdered. The venom sobers them up quickly but hell if Emmett doesn’t make it hard.

- Jasper and Emmett started a weed farm and did in fact start dealing at their school. Once Esme caught wind, however, all hell broke loose because. "You're hundreds of years old Jasper, you should know better!" "What about Emmett" "HE'S EMMETT"

- The Cullens are forced once a month by Esme to have a game night. Not monopoly though, she's still mad over the fact they had to move from Boston because Rose threw Jasper out of the window.

- Alice in retaliation makes them all have a movie night once a month. Once they had a vampire marathon. They put on Dracula, Interview with a vampire, Hotel Transylvania for Nessie and finally They binged Buffy the Vampire slayer. After the first five episodes, Carlisle almost spontaneously combusts and Edward convinces himself that somehow Angel was modelled after him. Bella threw the TV out of the window.

- Renesmee once suggested a huge game of hide n seek. Her and Jacob (who did NOT FUXKING IMPRINT THANK YOU) were the seekers. She found Carlisle and Esme after a few minutes, her parents after 10, Rosalie an hour later, Alice they didn’t find for a week, Jasper was about two weeks and they still hadn’t found Emmett after a month. He convinced Seth to go with him so Alice couldn’t cheat and they each phone at least once a day. He just giggles and hangs up.

- Rose eventually snaps and she and Leah (look I feel she’d get along best with Rose idk why) head out to find him. She comes back a day later with a sheepish and petulant Emmett behind her.

- Edward has written piano pieces for every woman in the coven. Esme actually has about 20 because Edward’s indecisive ass couldn’t sit still when it was the three of them but she’s memorised them all and hums a tune or two when she’s painting. Rose has 5 because he found his music calmed her in the early days, Alice has two and Bella + Nessie have just the one. Edward cries daily about it.

- Emmett was the one who instigated Mothers/Fathers day. He asked Rose and EmoFuck one day what they did for them and Edward had a panic attack while Rose zoomed out the house to go get Esme a bunch of flowers. They celebrated it ever since.

- Bella + Alice + Emmett blasting “Am I a Man or am I a Muppet” on repeat both out loud and in their heads just to fuck with Edward.

- When hunting, Esme has a tendency to climb a tree and just sit and wait for her husband to walk past. As soon as he’s in her eyesight she ‘falls’ onto him/next to him. She fake breaks her leg and he reverts into Doctor Cullen. The coven in absolutely mortified by this and the two love it. They embrace their embarrassing parents act willingly.

- The Cullens have a naughty corner. The two most frequent users are the Choas triplets; Alice, Emmett and Bella. Carlisle has been put in the corner multiple by Esme for his own stunts- such as turning Rosalie for Edward- and once Esme was put in the corner by Carlisle. They won’t disclose what she did but the next time they were all together in town, a group of Drag Queens came up to Esme and asked where she got her body glitter from.

- The Cullens learning from their past mistakes with the Werewolves and being godsends to the communities they live in. Esme baking and cooking food and donating the lot of it, Rosalie helping out at preschools and kindergartens and being called “Miss Rosie” by half the kids, Bella tutoring students in English, Alice donating clothes to women’s shelters, Edward giving music lessons, Carlisle donating money to those in need. Emmett being that guy who protects all the women from creeps, Jasper helping the quiet kids out with confidence boosts, Renesmee just being an all round kind person and the one who can make friends anywhere.

- When they leave Forks for the last Time, Carlisle donates a huge check to the Tribe with a letter giving gratitude and apologising for everything. Billy cried and Sue had to take the cheque and spread it amongst the tribe.

- Jacob continued phasing for the next 20 years, he regularly takes trips to wherever the Cullens are living to visit Bella and Ness. Whenever it happens, Alice buys him a whole suitcase full of shorts and jeans, Esme bounces of the walls in excitement, Emmett loses his shit and Bella is insufferable but they don’t seen Rosalie or Edward of a day for however long he stays. He eventually stops phasing when Billy passes.

#twilight saga #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #esme cullen #carlisle cullen #edward cullen #rosalie cullen #rosalie hale #jasper hale #jasper cullen #alice cullen #bella swan

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gstqaobc · 4 years ago

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THE ROYAL FASCINATOR

Friday, March 12/2021

Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is another special edition of your dose of royal news and analysis.

Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox.

Janet Davison Royal Expert

The Harry and Meghan interview: Beyond the turmoil

While sifting through everything Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, had to say to Oprah Winfrey Sunday night, many saw parallels to other troubled times for the Royal Family.

The interview raised concerns particularly around race and mental health, and many found in it reminders of what Harry’s mother, Diana, experienced, as she laid bare the lack of support she felt after her ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles.

But the Diana period, which came as the clock wound down on the 20th century, was hardly the first time of family turmoil.

And in those earlier experiences going back decades — and centuries — there could lie hints of the House of Windsor’s fate after this latest crisis.

“I don’t think the history of this Royal Family, which has been written off so many times, tells you anything other than they know how to survive,” said John Fraser, author of The Secret of the Crown: Canada's Affair with Royalty, and founding president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.

“Going back, back, back, there has never been a reign that hasn’t had some domestic problems.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for an institution that emphasizes keeping calm and carrying on, there have been only the slimmest of hints this week of what will come next.

In a 61-word statement issued by Buckingham Palace Tuesday, the Queen said she and her family were saddened to learn of Harry and Meghan’s experiences, and that issues raised, particularly of race, would be addressed privately by the family.

In response to a question from a reporter while at an engagement at a school in east London on Thursday, Prince William said, ”We're very much not a racist family.”

BBC royal correspondent Sarah Campbell said William could have ignored the question.

“Despite the Queen's statement saying the race issue would be dealt with privately, the prince clearly felt he had to push back on what has become a very public and damaging allegation," Campbell wrote on the BBC website. “Remaining silent, he felt, was not the best option.”

In the interview with Winfrey, Meghan and Harry said there was a conversation — or conversations — with an unnamed family member in which concerns were raised about the colour of the skin of their first child before he was born.

It was perhaps the most damaging moment of the interview for the family, and one that is still surrounded in murkiness.

While Harry told Winfrey later that neither of his grandparents — Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip — was part of that particular conversation, he refused to say during the interview who was.

“The fact that [Harry’s] on the outs with his father leads everyone to believe it must have been Charles, or possibly William, and until that’s dealt with, it’s this huge problem if they’re going to be future sovereigns,” said Fraser.

He said he finds it “unbelievable” that Charles, the man who walked Meghan halfway down the aisle at her wedding, would be worried about the colour of his grandson’s skin.

“Nothing in his life suggests that he is that callous or stupid,” Fraser said.

Still, it’s not clear who might have said it.

“It’s been left like a timebomb,” said Fraser. “How can [Charles] be the head of the Commonwealth, which has so many Black nations, until this is resolved? It’s a real dilemma.”

Fraser expects we will eventually learn who was involved in the conversation in question. “It’s just the nature of the way things go.”

But Fraser hopes it will be a given a context, and that it will be worked out within the family, “at some point down the road when they’ve got some distance from the immediate hurt that everyone must be feeling at the moment.”

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a lawyer and human rights activist in London, says the family’s circumstances are not beyond repair.

“But the point is Buckingham Palace better take this seriously, not come out with any stiff-upper-lip nonsense,” she told Adrienne Arsenault, senior correspondent and co-host of CBC’s The National, this week, before the statement from the palace.

“Nobody’s going to stand for it. Not for the racist comment, not for their lack of support for Meghan’s mental health, suicidal thoughts, not that fact that Prince Charles apparently failed to even speak to his son….

“All of those things should be answered and they should be answered humanely, like the Royal Family is in touch with what the public expects from it.”

Maybe there is at least one more signal of efforts within the family to work things out. While the relationship between William and Harry has been deeply strained, William said Thursday he will be speaking with his brother.

Who can be a prince or princess

Amid the many issues Meghan raised during the interview, one that seemed particularly troubling for her concerned conversations before Archie’s birth.

“They were saying they didn’t want him to be a prince or a princess — not knowing what the gender would be — which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” she said.

That got a lot of people wondering about just what provisions there are for determining who becomes a prince or princess.

Under provisions of a letter patent issued by King George V in 1917, Archie would not at this point in his life be eligible to be a prince.

But his cousin — Prince William’s eldest son, seven-year-old George, who is in direct line to the throne — is a prince. George’s siblings can be a prince or princess, too, under provisions of a letter patent issued in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth, before George was born.

But that’s where it ends for that generation of royal great-grandchildren of the monarch, as things stand now.

“None of Harry’s children automatically get to be a prince except if there’s some reason that the Queen would bestow it on them,” said Fraser.

Grandchildren of a monarch can be princes or princesses, however, and things could change for Archie when his grandfather, Charles, becomes the monarch.

Whether Meghan’s comments might refer to what might happen then isn’t clear.

There is a broad understanding that Charles is looking toward a more streamlined monarchy, with fewer working members.

"I saw that Meghan mentioned that there were plans to narrow eligibility and I imagine that this is a reference to the Prince of Wales's stated view that the size of the Royal Family needs to be reduced," Bob Morris from the constitution unit at University College London told the BBC.

"However, he has not so far as I know given details of how it should be accomplished."

Fascinator readers write

Readers of the Royal Fascinator shared their views in droves after the Winfrey interview. Here’s a sampling of emails and excerpts from longer messages that reflect the wide range of thoughts offered on Harry, Meghan and what they said on Sunday.

From Linda: “I was saddened by the interview. It could have been a great opportunity for the royals to move forward and acknowledge mental health issues, but The Firm refused to take that route. Shocked to hear how the men in grey suits direct so much of the agenda.”

From Susan: “Unsubstantiated accusations are very damaging. It’s easy to allege things were said and then refuse to say who said them. Then it’s just a case of he said, she said. But the damage is done.”

From Charlie: “I feel for Harry and Meghan and I don't blame them one bit for the decision they made for leaving the U.K. and the Royal Family, in search for a more peaceful, sane and healthy lifestyle and mental health. I have never been a royal watcher or a fan of all the pomp that goes into it. I personally think Canada should abolish all that nonsense as it relates to a Governor General as the representative of the Queen in Canada (who is still our head of state). Canada should maintain close ties with the U.K., for sure, as partners, allies and friends, but this monarchy BS is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

From Margaret: “I am still grappling with the intent of the interview and tell-all. And what is to be gained by the couple? Probably more paparazzi and Hollywood-like behaviours…. The constant referral back to Diana gives one pause for thought as well. Yes, Harry was totally traumatized by his mother’s death…. That said, although there are some similarities in press and media reporting, Diana was very young and naive when she joined ‘The Firm,’ whereas Harry and Meagan were well into their 30s when they married and should have known full well what could happen…. I do not mean to downplay or negate the comments on race/skin colour. Hopefully there will be some conversations around that at the palace level.”

From Tina: “I felt so much of this interview resonated with the Diana era. It left me with many questions, but mostly: How on earth can a parent stop taking calls from their child? How on earth can a parent not want to keep their family safe? How on earth can a parent allow the words of racism to be spoken amongst anyone, never mind their own? How on earth can a parent knowingly watch your child go through such pain and not reach out?... I applaud the two of them for coming out to the world and letting people be reminded, once again, of a dated monarchy who cares more about how they are perceived to the world than that of their own. One can only hope for Meghan and Harry to have a life of joy with their little family and always be safe .... and perhaps maybe Harry's wish that 'time heals all' comes true and his family come to their senses.”

From Paul: “Unless I misheard Meghan, she mentioned that she was not informed/prepared with the protocols of ‘The Firm.’ I find this difficult to believe. She is an intelligent, successful woman with a mind of her own.... I am not naive enough to not know there would be some racial problems. But I do believe too much emphasis was placed on the racial issue. As for protection being dropped for Harry, why not? He is in a foreign country, by choice…. With all Harry and Meghan's money, they should be paying for their own protection. Remember, they optioned out of the U.K. Nevertheless, I wish them the best in their endeavours.”

From Anna: “I do not feel this interview will damage the Royal Family. There are differences of opinion in all families. I do not feel the whole Royal Family should be painted with the same brush. This interview will be so hard on the Queen. My heart goes out to her.”

We’ll continue to include comments from readers in future editions of the Royal Fascinator

Royal reads

1. Harry and Meghan’s interview might have some thinking it’s time for Canada to retire the Queen and its connection to the monarchy, but it wouldn’t be that simple to do, writes CBC’s Aaron Wherry.

2. Harry talked of an “invisible contract” between the media and the Royal Family. The BBC took a closer look at what it is.

3. Journalist and TV presenter Piers Morgan left British broadcaster ITV after long-running criticism of Meghan that reached a crescendo after the interview with Winfrey. [CBC

Cheers

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to [email protected]. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

GSTQAOBC🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

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knives-and-narcissi · 4 years ago

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Suns, Moons and Songs.

My favourite. The soundtrack is littered with songs that allude to Historia and Levi’s part in the plot. I’ll just bring up some of the major ones.

Okay, first biggie - Zero Eclipse.

This song is purposefully vague in a lot of places, in that a lot of the lyrics could fit to Ymir, and I believe the sentiment is genuine. Ymir was a huge part of Historia’s life before she left. However, there are a lot of similarities between her and Levi, which is handy for Yams. Same for the bond Erwin and Levi shared. Clever, clever.

The first verses could work for either on the whole, but the lines about jealousy and blades doubling and the use of kid absolutely reminds me of Ymir when she joins the survey corps with Historia.

When we get to the bridge, the first lines about never hearing the person sigh of ecstasy likely suggests that Ymir wanted to get to that point with Historia but they never did. And of course the chorus very much reflects Ymir’s speech to Historia about living a life she can be proud of, and not doing silly suicidal things to be the hero, like she did with Daz.

Okay our next verse is where it gets very interesting!

Every single line fits Levi perfectly. Seeing the fallen? It’s that image at Shiganshina of Erwin surrounded by their fallen comrades. Still we have that question, what will Levi do with those sacrifices? A recurring theme, but now we should have a pretty good idea of the answer.

Next we have a direct reference to the Beast Titan - which conveniently also links perfectly to Historia’s childhood bullies - both threw stones to ‘make us go away.’

‘It was only the face of anger, and kindness, it lit my way’ - well this has soo many connotations. So firstly, Historia and the bullies. Because Frieda taught her to be a good, kind girl, Historia understands that the bullies were only acting out of anger, and kindness is the answer here. Hmm ... who else right about now in the story could do with realising anger and revenge won’t solve anything - but working together might, even if you’ve been pelted by stones at the hands of this person? It’s Levi and Zeke. And Historia’s influence on Levi - the idea of kindness lighting his way - will mean he makes the right decision. It’s also worth noting very briefly here, because I will explore this more later, that in the manga, we have that removed scene of Levi behaving aggressively towards Historia, although she later puts this aside. Originally, Isayama also wanted to parallel Levi with Historia’s childhood bullies, but he changed his mind for the anime. We’ll look at this more when we check out an interesting interview by Yams.

‘Ain’t no picnic to be abandoned’ - again, such a simple line, so many meanings. Historia and Levi’s childhood parallels are uncanny, and both were abandoned by parental figures in their youth which we see in Uprising had lasting impacts on them. So much so, they work together to open an orphanage, saving children from within the walls and even the underground.

‘It led us here, we had to share the pain.’ I mean, I’ve said this so many times, but how could they not end up bonding over all this!? But wait, there’s more. Shiganshina happens, and Levi looses Erwin. Historia has not so long ago lost Ymir, and we see how upset she is when she receives her letter. Remember that scene though where Levi arrives and she wipes away her tears? Yep. They were both abandoned again in a sense, and so, it only serves to push them closer together. They mourn for what have been pretty much their other halves since the start of the series, and they do it together. Yams is screaming at us to read between the lines for these two, while he drops just enough surface hints to keep the trail warm, so to speak.

Okay the next lyrics ‘Now you are a part of me, I will defend and honour thee’ ... what do they remind you of? I get knight protecting Queen vibes. And this literally used to be the role of the Ackermans according to Kenny's grandpa - the sword and shield to the crown. Levi is virtually back in that role for Historia, and we come full circle after the years of persecution.

NEXT. ‘Did you think that you could die a hero?’ Kenny tells Levi everyone is drunk on a dream in order to keep moving forwards. He asks Levi, what are you? A hero? Everyone expects Levi to go out fighting, taking out Zeke and finally fulfilling his vow to Erwin. But that's not the message of this story. We need to break the cycle of revenge and hate, remember? Kruger said so himself - love someone within the walls, it's the only way to stop this cursed history. Levi won’t choose revenge. He’ll give up on his dream to go out like a hero, because now he has something to return home to.

‘Our awakening means less than zero.’ And just in case you were wondering, it’s not because of any Acker-bond crap. It’s the real deal; just like Zeke told Eren in chapter 130. Being an Ackerman has nothing to do with either Levi or Mikasa’s feelings towards their respective loves.

Let’s look at that chorus again, while I start to blush in the corner. ‘You’re trembling, we share a kiss, our worlds eclipse.’ Heck, I never knew SNK could be so ... ahem, yeah. It gets raunchier further on, by the way. But besides the obvious suggestion of passion here, we have the symbolism from the song’s title - the eclipse. What happens during an eclipse? Well, depends what sort to be fair heh, but for a solar eclipse, we have the moon moving in front of the sun, blocking it’s light. And we see the Dark Side of the Moon. Wait!? Isn’t that literally the title of Levi's character song ...? Oh, shit. We’ll check out those lyrics later. Historia is often associated with dawn light, which of course means the sun. The eclipse here is her pregnancy. The two solar bodies appear to become one. Not to mention the literal shape of her stomach! We had those lyrics about ‘letting our worlds collide’ earlier too. Not just referring to the pregnancy, but their supposedly different ideologies around violence/revenge and love/kindness/forgiveness.

Now for the best bits.

‘Black sugar, keep it, up til the dawn.’ Told you it gets better. Black sugar is apparently something very addictive. So Levi and Historia are engaged in something very addictive here, keeping them up until the dawn ...? Ah. Yes. Makes sense, considering her current condition.

And then my very favourite line, that hit me right in the gut when I first listened to this. Because the words sounded very familiar, but not for Historia.

‘Make a promise that I cannot regret.’ Levi’s whole theme is not regretting the choices that you make. It’s repeated over and over. He makes a promise to Erwin in his vow, but he comes to terms with the fact that fulfilling this is no longer what he really wants - we’ve just seen that realisation in 136 when he talks about how he’s never bungled one of Erwin’s orders, but yet his last one ... He knows attempting to keep that promise will mean he likely won’t ‘get back out alive,’ so instead, he will make Historia a promise that he can’t regret, because he just can’t ‘learn how to let you go.’ I’M NOT CRYING - YOU ARE. Do you remember the two letters - from Petra and Ymir - about marriage? I think we know what Levi is going to dedicate his heart to in the end. Note also the, ‘as long as I can see you, but in secret.’ That just gives us that final confirmation that the relationship alluded to here in Zero Eclipse is one that has been hidden from us - this fits neither Historia/Ymir or Levi/Erwin, although there are elements of both of these in the song.

Okay, here's the lyrics to Levi’s song. I’m not going to rip it apart like I did with Zero Eclipse, because a) I think a lot of it is self explanatory, and b) the next chapter comes out soon and like, I’d love to have got through everything I want to say before then. So some quick (ish, knowing me) notes:

Okay so this second set of lyrics is the one I want to draw attention to - cleverly nestled in the middle of the song. We’re going to ‘someday’ see the dark side of the moon ‘revealed’. Yeah, when there is an eclipse. This is the only time you see the dark side of the moon. Literally. So we’ll see Levi’s other side when he finds Historia, and they create this eclipse - this child. His true nature will be revealed, and he will not choose violence or revenge.

‘Persuasion by memories of pain an essential lesson.’ Okay, I can’t really go hugely into this without the Akatsuki no Requiem video, which we’ll look at in a bit. Because then things will mind-bogglingly make sense. If you’ve already seen it and know the theory behind it, then you’ll get what I mean. But essentially, our ending for Levi is going to be bittersweet, because while he ends up with a family of his own finally, he is also plagued with regret and sorrow for what came to pass before, and the huge role he played in it.

‘Just being without regrets, is my own decision.’ Such a simple line, so many powerful meanings. Levi will make the ultimate choice with no regrets in his promise to Historia, and their child. He cannot regret either of them. But he has to make that decision, and we know it will be difficult, because it will mean failing to execute Erwin’s last order. It will probably look likely that he will make the wrong choice up until the very last moment. This again too links in with the ackertalk between Zeke and Eren. Levi is confirming that his decision to be with Historia does not stem from duty or something in his genes. It’s the real deal.

More Fun Song Facts.

Here's the lyrics for Before Lights Out:

Freedom! Freedom! Forgive Me! Retake Maria! Victorious, triumphant! All of my kingdom For your return I will let it burn! I will let it burn! Dear departed I’ll cry for you in a dream Now I must rise to be queen Be worthy Be worthy

The song that is a different version of APETITAN - the soundtrack to Zeke’s Beast’s first appearance. Before Lights Out plays when Erwin leads the suicide charge towards Zeke, after Levi makes his vow to ‘take down the beast titan.’ He watches Erwin and the scouts charge to their deaths and whispers, ‘I’m sorry.’

Because he’s never going to fulfil that vow, is he? And we know why when we read the lyrics of the song.

HOLY MOTHER OF FORESHADOWING I have chills.

Ahhhhh I need to talk about Akatsuki no Requiem I guess. This one definitely needs it’s own post.

You still with me? I have drunk a lot of coffee at this point.

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rosethornewrites · 5 years ago

Text

Fic: Bemuse’d

Relationships: Caline Bustier & Classmates, Caline Bustier & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Caline Bustier & Nadja Chamack

Characters: Caline Bustie, rNadja Chamack, Alec Cataldi, Principal Damocles, Classmates, Ms. Mendeleiev

Additional Tags: caline bustier salt, Enabling, Bullying, Interviews, Bad Teaching, bad adults, call outs, Alec Cataldi salt, Badass Nadja Chamack, ml salt, Salt, Exposure

Summary: Caline Bustier is excited but nervous when invited for an interview by Nadja Chamack about teaching what's become known by Paris as the Akuma Class.

Notes: Many thanks to angelofthequeers for the beta, and to CallMeDale for the conversation that inspired the title. Basically, Caline’s been bemuse’d by becoming the news. Boom. Fic idea inspired by a Discord conversation.

AO3 link

--------

Caline Bustier had hesitated when contacted by Nadja Chamack for an interview, but she realized how much good it could do for Paris to know how she worked with her class. She had learned through the request that Paris had started referring to her class as the Akuma Class, as so many of them had been akumatized. The interview would allow her to dispel some of those unfortunate stereotypes, she hoped.

So, ultimately, she said yes, and set a date.

Principal Damocles was supportive of her representing the school on a platform that was, as he put it, a bit more “reputable” than Alternative Truth. Apparently he had found Mme. Mendeleiev’s appearance on that venue embarrassing.

At least this wouldn’t be with the insensitive boor, Alec Cataldi. Nadja Chamack had a banner reputation, aside from her time as Prime Queen—and Caline couldn’t judge, given her own akumization.

She wore her best professional clothing: white pants, white blazer, a collared shirt that matched her eyes, and a white tank to keep the neckline from dipping too far. Her hair she put in her normal bun, which she felt added to her image.

It was a whirlwind, being prepped with makeup, and she was taken aback a little when they redid her hairstyle, moving her bun lower and making it more ornate. But they were the experts on TV appearances, so Caline said nothing.

Her nerves were jittery when her cue came to join Nadja Chamack on set, and she was relieved to make it to the armchair meant for her without tripping on national television.

“Here with me I have Mme. Caline Bustier of Collège Françoise Dupont, who teaches the class commonly known as the Akuma Class. Thank you for joining us!”

Caline managed a smile. “Thank you. I wish people wouldn’t refer to the class in that manner—they’re all bright young people who shouldn’t be blamed for their emotions.”

Nadja smiled. “Of course they shouldn’t. So many people in Paris have had the misfortune of being targeted by the terrorist Hawkmoth. Your class simply has such a high rate of akumizations, so it unfortunately leads to these things.”

“Yes, I suppose so. We do have a couple students who have not been akumatized, and they serve as positive examples for the others. These students are so important, as they have a lot of love to give. It’s important they learn responsibility.”

“Ah, yes. We of course can’t release their names, as they’re minors,” Nadja warned gently. “I understand you have been akumatized as well?”

Caline flushed, trying not to lose her composure. She had nothing to be embarrassed about, but it was still humiliating. “Yes. A student was unduly upset, and as I was reminding them of the love she had to share, and the forgiveness she should offer, an Akuma targeted her. I was akumatized trying to fend it off.”

Nadja tilted her head. “The student was upset? What had happened?”

“Well, the student made me a birthday gift, and another student had taken a marker to it.”

A shocked murmur went through the audience.

“I hope the other student faced consequences—vandalism isn’t acceptable.”

“I believe it’s more important to teach children forgiveness and help them avoid giving in to feelings of anger.”

Caline was startled by the frown that crossed Nadja’s face.

“So you expected the wronged student to… just be positive?”

The way she said it sounded so… negative.

“That’s—no. Basically, if we can serve as positive examples to people who have trouble thinking beyond themselves, we can set good examples. She could help the other student change in that way.”

“I see.” Nadja Chamack’s voice was icy. “You expect the victim to ‘suck it up,’ essentially. It’s unsurprising an Akuma came for her, in that case.”

Caline was shocked silent.

“Have the other akumizations occurred in similar situations?” Nadja asked.

“I…”

She thought about it, running through the situations. Ivan because Kim had teased him. Kim because his romantic aspirations hadn’t worked out. Nathaniel had been upset his crush had been revealed. Myléne because she’d been embarrassed about her stage fright. Alya because she had been suspended. Juleka because of the class photo. Rose because her letter to Prince Ali had been torn up. Max over video games. Nino because he’d been upset over not having a party for Adrien’s birthday. Sabrina because of arguments with Chloé. Chloé because she was upset with Ladybug. Lila had been upset once by Ladybug and the other time by Marinette’s accusations.

“I don’t think so… All of them have been different.”

“As I understand it, the mayor’s daughter has been the cause of quite a few of them, and was behind the vandalism of the student’s gift to you. And has never faced any punishment.”

Caline felt like the chair had been pulled out from under her.

“I can’t… Students are minors and I can’t talk about them like this. They are entitled to privacy.”

Nadja’s smile was like the blade of a knife, cutting. “You expect students who have had their belongings vandalized, who have been bullied, to accept their treatment with a smile, Mme. Bustier. And that treatment just continues because there are no consequences for the perpetrators.”

“W-we can’t force people to change, Mme. Chamack—”

“No, but you can make their behavior inconvenient via consequences so it’s in their best interest to change how they act.”

“But that isn’t true change!” Caline protested.

“It is to their victims!” Nadja almost shouted. She looked momentarily surprised at herself, before continuing only slightly less forcefully. “What you are doing is known as enabling, Mme. Bustier, and it is a form of abuse. Goodness, it’s little wonder your class has had so many Akumas!”

Caline stood shakily. “I didn’t come here to be attacked. I came here to clear up misconceptions about my class.”

The look on Nadja Chamack’s face was one of disdain. “Oh, you have. Just not in the way any of us expected.”

The hostess turned toward the camera as though dismissing Caline.

“As you can see, Paris, there is a need for more appropriate training of teachers to handle bullies and bullying, so that victims receive the appropriate support. Perhaps we all should learn how to prevent harcèlement moral, in all levels of society, in an effort to help our heroes fight Hawkmoth. After the break, I’ll be discussing the psychology behind helping Akuma victims with an expert—maybe she’ll weigh in on this issue.”

As the crew broke to commercial, Caline felt as though she might collapse. In five minutes, it had all been turned around. She had been made a villain to all of Paris. Even being interviewed by the ridiculous Alec Cataldi would have been less humiliating.

Nadja stood, looking at her with a measure of pity. “My daughter’s babysitter is in your class. And she deserves better than what you’ve provided.”

Caline could only stare, frozen, as the woman walked off-set. She was escorted off herself by a crew member, too numb to do anything but obey as she was seated in a chair away from the camera lines.

Where had she gone wrong?

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfiction #my fanfiction #caline bustier #bustier salt #nadja chamack #alec cataldi salt #ml salt #miraculous salt

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kingedwardvi · 4 years ago

Text

Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Edward VI 1547-1553

1550

January 27. Place torn away. Count Ludovico Rangone to the Duke of Somerset. Returns thanks for renewed instructions to the Ambassador for the promoting of his affairs with the Emperor. [Italian. Half a page.]

---

March 24. Copy of the treaty of peace at Boulogne. [Fifteen pages. Printed by Rymer, Vol. xv., p. 211, ed. 1728.]

--- 1550. April. [Before the 6th.] "Memorandum of the Commission [to the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Cobham, and Sir John Wallop] for delivery and receipt of the hostages." [Three pages. Draft.]

--- June. "The names of the French gentlemen." A list of the French Ambassadors Extraordinary, and those who accompanied them to England in May 1550, partly in the handwriting of Cecil. [One page.]

--- June 2. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Narrates the reception of M. de Chastillon and others sent to England to receive the King's ratification of the treaty of Boulogne, with the entertainments provided for them. Mentions the discussion of matters connected with the peace; such as the liberation of prisoners, restoration of captured vessels, and the demolition of Roxburgh and Eymouth.

Enumerates the presents made to them by the King. Refers to Bowes' proceedings with the Scots, and the encroachments made by the French at Calais. The King having pardoned some Frenchmen justly condemned to death, the Council hope that if any Englishmen are in similar case, the like clemency may be shown to them by the French monarch. [Ten pages. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 284. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---- June 3. Konigsberg. Albert Marquis of Brandenburg to the Duke of Somerset, "Lord Protector." Letters of credence for John Alasco. [Latin. One page.]

---- June 14. Paris. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their letters on the 2d and 5th. The reception of the French Commissioners gave much satisfaction. Details his interview with the French King on preceding Thursday, in reference to the encroachments at Calais.

Having had secret intelligence of the arrival at the French Court of George Paris, sent from Ireland by M'William with letters of credence, and of the despatch to Ireland of M. de Botte, a Breton, disguised as a merchant, mentions his conversation with the King as to these practices with the Irish.

Had conferred with the Constable regarding the frontiers and the Scots at St. Andrew's. Recommends caution and preparation. Various reasons assigned for the Emperor going to the diet at Augsburg. Expense of living in France. Stourton desires to return to England, but is afraid to do so without warrant of protection. Sends a cipher. [Ten pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 291.]

--- June 29. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Since Francisco's departure has had one or two conferences with the Constable as to the frontiers, and had been again in hand with him touching Ireland, about which country there is some stir in the French Court worthy to be looked into. These Irish wild beasts should be hunted down. T

The Emperor is reported to have left Spires on the 13th, and is expected at Augsburg on the 20th. He has grown into a notable pensiveness, and is specially troubled that peace has been concluded between France and England without him, and that he cannot frame his son to such a sort as he much desires

Notable feud between Roygnac and De Nevers. The Bishop of Rome has made an old bawd of his Cardinal, having neither learning nor any other virtue or good quality, wherewith the Holy College are much offended. Has been requested to intercede for François Robin, formerly in the service of Sir Thomas Speke, now a prisoner in the Marshalsea on suspicion of being a spy.

Stourton still importunes to obtain licence for him to return; his companion Horsemonden, than whom never was there a verier ruffian, and who to make himself a gentleman has fathered himself upon Pole's kindred, bragging the said Pole to be his uncle, has been commanded to avoid the Court.

Great want of rain lately, but much fallen within the last three days. The French King has nominated Basse Fontaine and Erskine Ambassadors to the Regent for pacifying the matters of Scotland. On the 27th, between four and five in the morning, the Queen was delivered of a son, whom they call M. D'Angoulême. Various surmises who shall be the godfathers; they who know much say that the Queen is desirous the King of England should be one of them, and that for that purpose a gentleman will shortly be sent to England. [Six pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 301.]

---

June 30. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Send further instructions how to act in the matter of the encroachments. Sundry requests as to prisoners had been preferred by the French Ambassador. Inform him of the prohibition against the exportation of horses from Scotland to France through England, in consequence of their great scarcity and high price.

The French Ambassador had had appointed for his lodging the Lady Yardford's house,—one of the fairest in London,—but this he misliked, and as such as he wished were occupied by noblemen and others who cannot be dislodged, he seemed not altogether satisfied, although offered the best that could be had Scottish ships on the coasts of Cornwall, Devonshire, Essex, Sussex, and Suffolk, having not only pillaged the Emperor's subjects, and the Portuguese trading with the English, but also of late spoiled the King's subjects, proclamation had been made forbidding them to be supplied with provisions or other necessaries in any of his Majesty's ports. Send letter from Bowes of the 19th instant in regard to the Scots. [Five pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

---

July 20. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Complains of the French Ambassador's misrepresentation of him in regard to the Scottish hostages, and gives an account of his explanatory interview with the French King and the Constable, who said that the Ambassador had been mistaken, but that, under the impression of a promise of their liberty having been made by some of the Council in London, the King had released the Scots taken at St. Andrew's, who otherwise should have rotted in prison, so cruel was their offence, so cruel was their murder [of Cardinal Beaton].

The King refused to interfere for the Archbishop of Glasgow, who must "stand to his folly." Incloses memorial from de L'Aubespine as to liberation of the French prisoners in Jersey. After great suit by the French King, and considerable difficulty made therin, the Bishop of Rome has extended the jubilee to the French Court. One or two sons of Lord Stafford have lately passed through Paris towards Rome; knows not whether Horsemonden has gone with them, but here he appears no more.

The Emperor's Ambassador and Nuncio from the Bishop of Rome have of late been twice or thrice at the Court together, it is supposed to persuade the King to agree to the Council. Intended exchange of the Emperor's Ambassadors at Rome and France. Roygnac's castle taken, and himself escaped to Flanders. No English prisoners now at Marseilles.

In seven or eight days the Prior of Capua and suite go to England on their way to Scotland to bring the Queen. Having the grant of the keeping of the abbey of Abingdon by letters patent, requests the Council's aid against the recusancy of a previous occupant to vacate the same. M. de Humiez, who was the Dauphin's governor, is dead.

Villebonne, who made the first payment of the money [conditioned in the surrender of Boulogne], is also to make the second; it is whispered at Court that his present at said first payment was very simple; if it were so, the Council have now occasion to make amends. [Ten pages. Copy in Sir John Masone's Letter-Book.]

--- July 26. "Acta Conventus Augustani anni 1550 summatim et breviter expositis Ces. M. ac principum responsis confecta xxvj° Julii, ex Cæsa. Matis. propositione." Copy of the proceedings at the Diet of Augsburg, assembled professedly for terminating the difference between the Catholics and the Protestants. [Latin. Twenty-one pages.]

---

August 3. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. The Prior of Capua has altered his intention of going to Scotland by way of England, and has gone to Rouen, whence he will depart within three or four days. Has this day been to Court for redress of injury done to certain Englishmen in Brittany.

Has been required to write for the good entreating of the Queen Dowager of Scotland, in case she should be driven by stress of weather into any English port, or require a passport for a hackney or two. It is said she is to be married to the King of Navarre, whom the Lady Margaret has refused.

Sends much general information relating to the Emperor's proceedings, and of those of the Bishop of Rome in regard of the French bishops. Has had an interview with Geoffrey Pole [younger brother of the Cardinal], who, being very desirous to return to England requested him to write for permission to do so.

In consequence of Andelot not having returned from Spain, the King has deferred his journey to Rouen, whither he will not likely go till the 15th of next month. M. de Thermes comes from Scotland in the French King's company. [Seven pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook. Printed, except one paragraph, by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 308.]

----

August 11. Windsor. The Council to Sir John Masone. On Sunday the 3d inst. the French Ambassador had audience of his Majesty at Windsor, when he exonerated Masone in the matter of the Scottish hostages, and sought to transfer the blame to some of the Council, which they repudiated.

He also presented letters from the French King, Queen Dowager of Scotland, and two from the Scottish Queen, requesting a safe conduct for the galleys that were to convey the said Queen Dowager and her suite, with permission to send 300 horses through England; which requests were acceded to, the number of horses being reduced to 200.

A safe conduct for Henry Sinclair, Dean of Glasgow, and Thomas Menzies of Pitfoddels, with 24 men and horses, has also been granted. The Ambassador also intimated that the second payment for Boulogne was to be ready there on the 4th inst., and requested the sending of Commissioners to receive the same and set free the three remaining hostages.

Farther, had arranged for an interview between the English Commissioners on the Scottish border and the Scottish Commissioners touching the castle of Edrington and a fishing place in the Tweed. Desired to communicate all the preceding to the French King at his next audience. Instructions for the protection of Somerset herald [Atkynson] from the effects of a liability for a prisoner in France six years before. [Eight pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

August 26. Poissy.232. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their Lordships' letters, and communicated to the French King their concessions in regard of the Scottish Queen, as also the invasion of the debateable land by 2,000 Scots and 400 or 500 Frenchmen.

His Majesty admitted that he had heard something of this previously, but supposed it to have been a mere private quarrel between an Englishman and a Scotchman concerning the erection of a border peel. Expressed his regret and would issue immediate orders for the prevention of such in future; and confidentially informed him of a design by the Emperor and Lady Regent to send Skipperus to the English coast to carry away the Lady Mary, and of the Emperor's hatred of England, in despite of which he had made this cruel inquisition for heresy in the Low Countries.

Mentions his conference with the Constable as to the affair of Somerset herald. Great preparations are made for the reception of the Scottish Queen, for whose coming the christening has been deferred, the King desiring to have her as godmother. M. de Guise, with the flower of the nobility, has gone to Dieppe to meet her. Before going to Scotland the Prior of Capua provided for above 1,000 ells of white damask wherewith to apparel the slaves and mariners.

Again applies in regard of liberating the French prisoners in Guernsey and Jersey. Has often been required to write on behalf of a merchant of Orleans, whose ship of wines had been seized at Dover long since by the late Admiral, but had positively refused to do so, the matter being so old; yet the same being so pitiful, he cannot hold his pen from recommending it to their Lordships, if there be any remedy. [Seven pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Sept. (prior to 6th.) Commission from Henry II., King of France, to certain Commissioners appointed to meet with those of the Emperor for the purpose of settling commercial disputes between their subjects in Flanders. [Three pages. Copy.]

--- Sept. 10. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. For the last 10 or 12 days the Queen of Scots has been so dangerously ill of the prevailing flux, that her recovery was doubted, but within the last two she is considered to be out of danger. On Sunday the Duke of Angoulême was baptized by the name of Charles Maximilian, so given by the Deputy of the King of Bohemia (no longer called Archduke), who being godfather had place above the King of Navarre.

The deputy godmother was the King's bastard daughter, who held the infant in place of the Duchess of Ferrara. Mentions the entertainment and presents given to the Deputy and his suite. The non-arrival of the Dowager Queen of Scotland had caused considerable alarm at the Court, lest the recent storms should have driven her to the coast of Flanders, but they have been relieved by hearing that she did not embark until last Saturday.

Immediately on his return M. de Thermes is to go as Ambassador to Rome, and the present one there, M. d' Urfé, is to come to be governor of the Dauphin in room of the late M. de Humiez. Revision of the mintage. M. de Biez is released from close confinement, and it is thought will eventually be restored altogether, much to the disappointment of Chastillon.

Three or four ships have lately arrived from England laden with images, which have been sold at Paris, Rouen, and other places, and being eagerly purchased, give to the ignorant people occasion to talk according to their notions; which needed not had their Lordships' command for defacing of them been observed.

The Sherif had attempted to surprise Oran, but being chased by Don Bernardine de Mendoça, had gone to Argel [Algiers] to see if he could succeed better there.

"This good fellow seemeth to be indifferent to all men, and careth not of what religion he be from whom he may catch any place to put his foot in."

Dragut Rey lately had made a descent on the African coast. Urges the regular payment of his salary, to prevent the necessity of his borrowing, which he must do at 40 per cent. besides interest, in consequence of the depreciation of the currency, so that his daily allowance of five marks a day does not yield him 40 shillings, while his expenses amount to double that sum.

The French King leaves this about Monday or Tuesday next week, and is to spend six or seven days at Anet, a residence of Madame de Valentinois, intending to enter Rouen on the 25th if no alteration in his plan. The Constable has had leave of absence till the King arrives at Anet, and has gone to his house called Chantilly. [Three pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Sept. 14. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had their letters of the 6th, and on the 13th audience of the French King, who was attended by the Cardinal of Lorraine acting in absence of the Constable. The King returned thanks to his Majesty for the enlargement of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and was contented with the appointment of two Privy Councillors as Judges of Appeal from the Admiralty Court, of the delays and lack of justice in which he had heard many complaints.

As to the Scots taken at St. Andrew's, he would defer the question of their full liberty till the arrival of the Queen Dowager, when that and all other matters connected with Scotland should be adjusted; but in the meanwhile would take steps to restrain the Scots on the borders. Has not lately seen De Boses, whom he believes to be attending on the Constable, but expects to see him at Rouen.

The Emperor's Ambassador here has written to the one in England to get him two geldings, and has requested Masone to be the means of procuring a licence for exporting them, notwithstanding the prohibition by reason of their great scarcity.

"There is a little square between the Duchess of Valentinois, who ruleth the roast, and the Constable; a great many of the Court wisheth the increase thereof. He is very ill beloved, for that he is a hinderer of all men saving his own kinsfolks, whom he doth so advance as no man may have anything by his will but they, and for that also he feedeth every man with fair words, and performeth nothing."

The King leaves for Rouen to-morrow, taking en route the Constable's houses, then Roche Guyon, and so to Anet. [Five pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Oct. 6. Rouen. Sir John Masone to the Council. Describes the entry of the French King into Rouen on the 1st of the month, the preparations in the city not having been completed by the 25th ult., in consequence whereof he had to reside in an abbey half a mile distant; but had kept the feast of St. Michael very solemnly within the city, when the order was conferred upon the Rhinegrave only, although there were four vacancies.

Sets forth the various pageants exhibited. Has had communications with the Constable in regard to the Scots; the settlement of these matters is deferred until the arrival of the Master of Erskine, who is expected in three or four days. Has been spoken to on the subject of the commercial Commissioners, and had seen De Boses about the counterfeiting of the English money.

Has this day waited upon the Queen Dowager of Scotland, who arrived on the 25th ult. with a large retinue of Scottish gentlemen, and had been received with much honour. Africa had been carried by assault on the 20th ult. with great loss. The English merchants much alarmed at the prospect of a war with France.

Sends the names of the principal Scots who are with the Queen Dowager, and who are squabbling greatly among themselves about their lodgings. The King will remain eight or ten days, and then visit Dieppe and his other fortresses on the sea coast.

The Emperor is still hot about the Council. The Pope's Nuncio and the Venetian Ambassador have been frequently of late with the King. The Duke D'Aumale is very desirous to have a portrait of the King of England, which he says was promised to him by his Majesty on his leaving England; urges that it may be sent to him while he is here as he speaks very highly of the King and of the realm, and of the courtesy which he met with there. [Six pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Printed, with small omission, by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 325.]

--- Oct. 27. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Have received his last three letters, and commend his diligence. They are willing to entertain the Constable's proposition for a renewed negotiation by the same or other Commissioners, as he may prefer, but in the meanwhile require that the French troops quartered at Sandingfeld shall be withdrawn.

Mention their subsequent interview with the French Ambassador on the same subject, and the right of the English to the disputed boundaries. Send memorial of certain depredations by the French on some natives of Jersey, transmitted to them by Sir Hugh Paulet, the Captain of said island; also another touching an Englishman, named Broughton, prisoner in the hands of Mons. de Brissac. [Seven pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

--- Oct. Proposal, by medium of Dr. Bruno, from Albert Marquis of Brandenburg, to raise troops for the service of King Edward VI., for which he shall have a pension of 2,000l. per ann., and the command of said troops.

Refers to proposed marriage of the Marquis with the Princess Mary. Table showing descent of the Marquis from Frederick Burgrave of Nuremberg. [French. Five pages. Indorsed by Cecil, "Doct. Brunonis et Alb. Brandb. mq. opinio."]

---- Oct. Discourse by Dr. Bruno, wherein enumerating the various Sovereigns and Princes of Europe favourable to Protestantism, he proposed that each should send learned men, such as Bucer, Melancthon, &c., to the next pretended Council, for the purpose of disputing with the Papists, and if they should be unable to prevail, then to form a general league, and invoking King Edward to take the initiative. [Latin. Five pages. Indorsed by Cecil, "Discursus D. Brunonis."]

--- Oct. "Articles of the credence of the messenger from the Princes of Germany." With reference to forming a general league in defence of Protestantism; wherein is to be considered "the colour and craft whereby the war shall be dissembled not to be made for religion," and in such respect the league to be regulated by the terms of a "treaty of the Duke of Prussia with Mr. Alasco, had three years past." [Four pages. Indorsed by Cecil.]

---- Nov. 2. Caudebe. Sir John Masone to Sir William Cecil. Refers to his letter to the Council for an account of his proceedings. "If words can make all things hot, here lacketh none of that stuff." The French profess much, but he doubts their sincerity:. the thing that feareth him most being "that they know too well our estate, and thereby think they may ride upon our backs."

Is at present confined to bed with the gout, and his body so droops that he fears he shall never see the end of winter, a great part whereof will be spent in journeying. Earnestly begs to be recalled, as he would gladly die, if it might be, amongst Christian men. Mons. D'Estrees, who has been appointed to join the other Commissioners, is esteemed a sober, wise gentleman; he was lately captain of the guard, and has since been preferred to the office of the Ordnance, which is one both of more ease and reputation.

Hopes the Council will select a person of like quality to answer him, and suggests Mr. Blount of the privy chamber, if he is sufficiently acquainted with the language, because having been long in these parts he knows the ground. Hears that their Lordships having found some fault with the rolls of Parliament, have determined to commit them to the Exchequer. If this is done in his absence, it may compromise him, and therefore begs it may be deferred until his return. [Two pages.]

---

Nov. 9. Augsburg. Philip Prince of Spain to King Edward VI. Much mutilated;—apparently recognizing the Ambassador sent in room of Sir Philip Hoby. [French. Broadside. Signed by the Prince, and countersigned "G. Perezius."]

---

Nov. 18. Westminster. King Edward VI. to Herman, formerly Archbishop of Cologne, re-accrediting the bearer James Omphalius on his return to the Archbishop. [Latin. Broadside. Signed by the Members of the Council. Indorsed "The King's Matie to the old B. of Collen."]

---

Nov. 29. Westminster. Commissions from the King to Sir John Wallop, Sir Richard Blunt, Sir Richard Rede, Dr. William Cooke, and Francis Hall, Esquire, to meet with the French Commissioners for settling the boundaries round Calais. Signed by his Majesty, and counter signed by the Lords of the Council. [Latin. Broadside. Indorsed "Commission to treat with Commissioners of frontiers about bounding of the frontiers."]

--- Nov. 30. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Send copy of a commission for settling the question of depredations, wherein the Dean of St. Paul's and Dr. Glyn of the Arches are appointed to act during the absence of Rede and Cooke. Mention the argument between them and the French Ambassador as to jurisdiction, &c., and that Sir Richard Blount of the privy chamber was appointed a Commissioner of the boundaries in room of Sir Thomas Wyat, who is unwell and unable to act. [Three pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

--- Dec. 4. Blois. Sir John Masone to Sir William Cecil. Thanks him for assisting in obtaining his recall. Has written also to thank the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Warwick, at whose good agreement he rejoices. T

There is much talk of the dissensions in England. Offers his opinion on the mistaken policy of a proclamation in England touching the price of cheese and butter.

Desires the interference of the Council on behalf of Mr. Warner, who has been very ill handled at Winchester. As he has not heard who is to be his successor, has sent the names of some whom he considers fit. [Two pages. The greater portion printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 340.]

--- Dec. 12. Westminster. King Edward VI. to Christian King of Denmark. Refers to the mission of Albert Knoppert, mentioned in the previous letter of 18th November. Some of the English merchants complain that the dues exacted at Elsinore from all ships of whatever tonnage, which prior to 1548 never exceeded a Henrician noble, of the value of ten shillings, have been raised to one pound on every hundred of the value of the freight, both going and coming.

Requests that the ancient customs may be restored, or reason for this modern innovation be given by letter from his Majesty. Signed by his Majesty. [Latin. Broadside.] Duplicate, signed by the Council, viz.: Somerset, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rich Lord Chancellor, Warwick, and Bedford. [Latin. Broadside.] Copy of the preceding in modern writing. Another copy.

--- Dec. 17. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Mention their conference with the French Ambassador on the preceding Sunday, when he made various trifling objections to the Commission for settling depredations. Complain of the conduct of the French Commissioners for the boundaries in advancing groundless claims, and desire him to request an audience of the French King for the purpose of remonstrance. [Five pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Dec. 30. Blois. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their letter of the 17th on Christmas eve, and on St. Stephen's day had audience of the French King. Details this conference, and a subsequent one with the Constable on the same points of remonstrance; at both of which amity was strongly professed and entreaty made for friendship between the English and the Scots.

Erskine arrived this day with the conclusion of peace between the Emperor and the Scots. Warlike preparations both by sea and land are great, and the completion of the ships formerly mentioned is hastened. Lately at Court war against the English had been strongly urged, on the ground of their internal dissensions, want of supplies, &c.

The galleys for re-conveyance of the Queen Dowager of Scots are still at Rouen. The Earl of Huntly is lodged at Court, and much called to secret conferences; he has been twice or thrice with Masone making profession of friendship to the English, explaining his escape, and his desire to have a safe conduct to return by land.

The French King leaves soon after Twelfthtide for Tours, and is reported thereafter to go to Guienne. The Landgrave had nearly escaped from Mechlin; if he had "there would have been shortly a jolly revel in Allmaigne." The Rhinegrave and his brother are reconciled. Chastillon, after long absence, has returned to Court, bringing with him 30 or 40 captains, and above 100 great horses. Among other marriages "muttered," is that of the Dauphin with the Queen of Scots. "Wavering Dr. Smythe," (fn. 1) who is presently reading at Paris, begs permission to return; his leaving England "was, he sayeth, for lack of living, being less ashamed to beg here than at home."

States his own financial difficulties; he has exhausted his credit in England, sold all his own plate, "and shall shortly be driven for very extremity to do the like with the King's." "If the realm be in that poverty that the King's ministers of honour, who were wont to be served with the first, cannot be paid six months after the day, God help!" [Fourteen pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

---- Dec. 30. Augsburg. Sir Richard Morysine to Cecil. (fn. 2) In consequence of a post from Rouen to Flanders having been robbed of his packets last week, he essays cipher, which if Cecil be as weary with finding as he is of hiding what he writes, he will henceforth be plainer. Is weary both of writing, and that he can by none of his letters get his diets to come a day sooner than they should. Others might better shift than he can. If he is not helped soon, he shall borrow no more where he borrowed last. [Two pages. Partly in cipher, undeciphered.]

#Edward VI #King Edward VI #King of England #King Edward VI of England #Edward Tudor #House of Tudor #Tudor Dynasty #The Tudors #Mary Queen of Scots #Marie de Guise #primary sources #Henri II #Henry II of France #Diante of Poitiers #1550

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Septima Poinsette Clark

Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – December 15, 1987) was a black American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Septima Clark's work was commonly under-appreciated by Southern male activists. She became known as the "Queen mother" or "Grandmother" of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King, Jr. commonly referred to Clark as "The Mother of the Movement". Clark's argument for her position in the Civil Rights Movement was one that claimed "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn't."

Biography

Early life

Clark was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1898. Her life in Charleston was greatly affected by the era of Reconstruction, as well as power relations during the time. Charleston was strictly segregated and harshly divided by class. Her father, Peter Poinsette, was enslaved at birth on the Joel Poinsett farm between the Waccamaw River and Georgetown. Joel Roberts Poinsett was a distinguished US politician of his time and the namesake of the Poinsettia plant. Peter was a house servant to Joel and his main task was taking the children to and from school each day. After slavery, Peter found a job working on a ship in the Charleston harbor. During one of his travels, he went to Haiti and it was then that Peter met Victoria, Clark's mother. The couple got married in Jacksonville, Florida and then moved back to Charleston.

Her mother, Victoria Warren Anderson Poinsette, was born in Charleston but raised in Haiti by her brother, who took her and her two sisters there in 1864. Victoria Poinsette had never been enslaved, and vowed to never be anyone's servant. She returned to Charleston after the Civil War and worked as a launderer. She raised her children very strictly, only permitting them to play with other children on one day of the week. She was also determined to make her daughters into ladies, so she told them never to go out without gloves on, never yell, never eat on the street, etc. Victoria Warren Anderson Poinsette lived in a constant struggle of wanting to improve her social class; she wanted to live in a middle-class society but on a working-class budget. Victoria made it plain to Peter that he was not providing enough for her and their family. Victoria raised her children separated, with the boys having more lenient rules than the girls. The boys could have friends over and play many days of the week, but the girls had to do chores and lessons, every day other than Friday. Clark rebelled against her mother's strictness through never becoming the lady she wished her to be and marrying a man Victoria called a "stranger". Clark remembers only ever being punished by her father when she did not want to attend school; however, Clark's father was not able to write his own name until the later years of his life.

Clark's first educational experience was in 1904 at age six, when she started attending Mary Street School. All Clark did at this school was sit on a set of bleachers with a hundred other six-year-olds, learning nothing. Clark's mother quickly removed her from the school. An elderly woman across the street from their house was teaching girls, so Clark learned to read and write there. Due to Clark's poor financial status, she watched the woman's children every morning and afternoon in return for her tuition. At this time there was not a high school in Charleston for blacks, however, in 1914 a school opened for blacks in 6th, 7th, 8th grade. After sixth grade, she took a test and went on to ninth grade at the Avery Institute. All of the teachers were white women, whom Clark admired. In 1914, black teachers were hired and this brought much controversy to the city, which Clark later took part in through the NAACP.

Clark graduated from high school in 1916. Due to financial constraints, she was not able to attend college initially, so she took a state examination and began working as a school teacher on John's Island at the age of eighteen. She taught on the islands from 1916 to 1919 at Promise Land School and then returned to Avery from 1919 to 1920. She was able to return to school part-time in Columbia, South Carolina to complete her B.A. at Benedict in 1942 and then she received her M.A. from Hampton. As an African American, she was barred from teaching in the Charleston, South Carolina public schools, but was able to find a position teaching in a rural school district, on John's Island, the largest of the Sea Islands. During this time, she taught children during the day and illiterate adults on her own time at night. During this period she developed innovative methods to rapidly teach adults to read and write, based on everyday materials like the Sears catalog.

Clark recalls the gross discrepancies that existed between her school and the white school across the street. Clark's school had 132 students and only one other teacher. As the teaching principal, Clark made $35 per week, while the other teacher made $25. Meanwhile, the white school across the street had only three students, and the teacher who worked there received $85 per week. It was her first-hand experience with these inequalities that led Clark to become an active proponent for pay equalization for teachers. In 1919 her pay equalization work brought her into the movement for civil rights. In an interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Clark explains how these experiences with her education, as well as her early experiences with growing up in a racist Charleston and teaching in the slums, prompted her to want to work towards civil rights.

NAACP involvement

Clark first heard of the NAACP while she was teaching on John's Island from 1916 to 1919. There was no NAACP chapter on John's Island, but a meeting was held in which various preachers came and spoke about what the NAACP was and what exactly it was trying to do. The superintendent was in attendance to collect dues and it was then that she decided to join the organization. In 1919, Clark returned to Charleston to teach sixth grade at Avery Normal Institute, a private academy for black children. In Charleston, she joined the Charleston Branch of the NAACP and began attending meetings regularly of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Under the guidance of Edmund Austin, the President of the local NAACP in Charleston, Clark took part in her first political action with the NAACP in Charleston. Despite the orders of her principal, Clark led her students around the city, going door-to-door, asking for signatures on a petition to allow black principals at Avery. She got 10,000 signatures in a day, and in 1920 black teachers were permitted. In 1920, Clark enjoyed the first of many legal victories when blacks were given the right to become principals in Charleston's public schools, under the education board of aldermen of Charleston. Her participation in the NAACP was Clark's first statement in political action. In 1945, Clark worked with Thurgood Marshall on a case that was about equal pay for white and black teachers led by NAACP in Columbia, South Carolina.

The late-1940s proved to be a difficult time for Clark as she stood up for the NAACP's aim of equalization to integration against many other members and activists.

Marriage and children

While teaching at Avery from 1919 to 1920, Clark met Nerie David Clark. He worked as a warden cook on a submarine in the navy during World War I. In late 1920, she went to teach in McClellanville until 1922. She and Nerie wrote letters back and forth and dated for approximately three years and got married in 1923. They got married in McClellanville and then shortly moved to Hickory, North Carolina, Nerie's hometown. Clark's mother was disgraced by her marriage. Victoria believed that to marry any man outside of the state is to marry a stranger. She refused to have her in-laws for dinner or for any occasion. The marriage severed Victoria and Septima's relationship. While living in Hickory with Nerie's family, Clark became aware of the many cultural and ideal differences they had. They grew up in different worlds; a mountain man and a low-country girl. In Hickory, Clark attended the church Nerie's family did, which was an African Methodist church. She found this church to be much more of a community than her church in Charleston, the United Methodist Church. Throughout Clark's religious journey in life, she found there are many ways to serve God, rather than only one correct way. Clark got homesick, so they moved back to Charleston, where she taught at Promise Land again from 1926 to 1929. In Charleston, they had their first child, which died. Clark viewed the death of her baby as a punishment to her because she married a man not from South Carolina. Her mother was not sympathetic and refused to help her; however, her father was friendlier towards her. To get over her lost baby, she took a job with a white woman for a summer. They stayed in the mountains for the summer and the woman was helpless, which gave Clark optimism and hope. She then moved to Columbia and began teaching in 1929. It was in Columbia she got much more involved in civic activities.

She settled in Columbia, South Carolina in 1929, and accepted a teaching position that year. In total, Septima Clark spent a total of 17 years in Columbia, South Carolina. Much of her work there is documented by the University of South Carolina History Department which, under the direction of B. J. Donaldson, has conducted extensive research on African-American education, with special emphasis on the history of the Booker T. Washington High School. In 1929, Septima Clark was employed at Booker T. Washington where she is still remembered as an outstanding educator. She worked closely with the principals of Booker T. Washington High School, both C. A. Johnson who recruited her for the teaching position she would hold for 17 years and later with J. Andrew Simmons, who was originally from Charleston and whom she may have known previous to their working together in Columbia. While in Columbia, Septima Clark completed the foundations upon which her career, reputation, and memory would rest: she became a highly valued faculty member at Booker T. Washington High School, she completed her bachelor's degree at Columbia's Benedict College, and she completed her graduate studies at New York's Columbia University and Atlanta's Clark College. The level and quality of the education that Septima Clark achieved was typical of what was required by the administrators of the Booker T. Washington High School of Columbia who recruited highly trained teachers from all over the country. After J. Andrew Simmons left Booker T. Washington High School to take a position in New York in 1945, Septima Clark stayed on for two additional years, before finally leaving Booker T. Washington High School, an institution she had helped to mold, in order to return to Charleston, SC, to take care of her ailing mother, Victoria.

During this time, Clark had trouble providing for Nerie, Jr. In 1935, she decided to send him back to Hickory to live with his paternal grandparents. Clark's decision to send Nerie, Jr. to live with his paternal grandparents was a common action at this time due to the Great Depression and its resulting financial issues. Septima Poinsette Clark's marriage to Nerie David Clark resulted in a course of depression for Clark, as well as a significant decline in her self-confidence.

Columbia University and NAACP leadership

During summers, Clark began studies at Columbia University in New York, and at Atlanta University in Georgia with the landmark figure in the racial equality movement, W. E. B. Du Bois. Between 1942 and 1945, she received a bachelor's degree from Benedict College, Columbia, SC and a master's degree from Hampton (Virginia) Institute (now Hampton University). While earning her B.A., she was taking classes in the morning, teaching from noon to five in the afternoons, and taking more classes in the evenings. She was earning $62.50 per month in college and every summer she traveled to Maine to earn more money. The NAACP in Columbia, SC, had approximately 800 members and all were black. The biggest NAACP impact during Clark's time in Columbia was they sponsored a suit that won the equalization of teacher salaries. It was a huge win for the NAACP. In 1947, Clark returned to Charleston to take care of her mother who had had a stroke. While caring for her mother Clark's role as an educator and activist did not subside. During this time, she taught in the Charleston public schools, she was active with the YWCA, and served as membership chairperson of the Charleston NAACP. The YWCA was one of the few organizations in Charleston that was interracial. There were black and white branches. In 1956, Clark obtained the position of vice president of the Charleston NAACP branch.

That same year, the South Carolina legislature passed a law banning city or state employees from being involved with civil rights organizations. Clark believed that a combination of relations, such as social and power relations, were a major contributor to schooling. Clark was upfront in her refusal to leave the NAACP, and was thus fired from her job by the Charleston City School Board, losing her pension after 40 years employment. She soon found that no school in Charleston would hire her. A black teachers' sorority held a fundraiser for her benefit, but no member would have their picture taken with her, fearing that they would lose their own jobs.

Highlander Folk School literacy courses

Around this time, Clark was active with the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. She first attended a workshop there in 1954. Myles Horton, the founder of Highlander, quickly hired her as the full-time director of workshops. Before long she was teaching literacy courses, drawing on her experience on John's Island. "In a compressed week's workshop, Clark promised to turn sharecroppers and other unschooled Negros into potential voters".

Highlander was one of the few interracial schools in the South at the time and Clark prospered as a teacher there. After being fired and unwelcomed in her hometown, Clark found Highlander to be a great community.In 1959, while she was teaching at Highlander she was arrested for allegedly "possessing whiskey"; however, these charges were later dropped and seen as false.

Clark and her cousin, Bernice Robinson, expanded and spread the program. They taught students how to fill out driver's license exams, voter registration forms, Sears mail-order forms, and how to sign checks. Clark also served as Highlander's director of workshops, recruiting teachers and students. One of the participants in her workshops was Rosa Parks. A few months after participating in the workshops Parks helped to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many other women who took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott also attended Highlander and participated in Clark's workshops. Upon seeing the success of Clark, Ella Baker traveled to Highlander as a representative of SCLC and observed to see if Clark's program could be incorporated into SCLC's Crusade for Citizenship.

The spread of Citizenship Schools

Clark is most famous for establishing "Citizenship Schools" teaching reading to adults throughout the Deep South, in hopes of carrying on a tradition. The creation of citizenship schools developed from Septima Clark's teaching of adult literacy courses throughout the interwar years. While the project served to increase literacy, it also served as a means to empower Black communities. Her teaching approach was very specific in making sure her students felt invested in what they were learning, so she connected the politics of the movement to the needs of the people. She was not only teaching literacy, but also citizenship rights. Clark's goals for the schools were to provide self-pride, cultural-pride, literacy, and a sense of one's citizenship rights. She was recruiting the rural communities to get involved with the movement. Citizenship schools were frequently taught in the back room of a shop so as to elude the violence of racist whites. The teachers of citizenship schools were often people who had learned to read as adults as well, as one of the primary goals of the citizenship schools was to develop more local leaders for people's movements. Teaching people how to read helped countless Black Southerners push for the right to vote, but beyond that, it also developed leaders across the country who would help push the civil rights movement long after 1964. The citizenship schools are just one example of the empowerment strategy for developing leaders that was core to the civil rights movement in the South The citizenship schools are also seen as a form of support to Martin Luther King, Jr. in the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement.

The project was a response to legislation in Southern states which required literacy and interpreting various portions of the US Constitution in order to be allowed to register to vote. These laws were used to disenfranchise black citizens. Citizenship Schools were based on the adult literacy programs Clark and Robinson had developed at Highlander. They required a week's worth of training in a program that was ultimately designed by Clark. Septima Clark hired her cousin Bernice Robinson, to be the first teacher. Bernice was also a Highlander alumna. In addition to literacy, Citizenship Schools also taught students to act collectively and protest against racism.

The leadership schools ultimately spread to a number of Southern states, growing so large that, upon the recommendation of Myles Horton and Clark, the program was transferred to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), in 1961 though initially Martin Luther King, Jr was hesitant about the idea. Transferring the program to the SCLC was also a result of financial troubles at Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. With the increased budget of the SCLC, the citizenship school project trained over 10,000 citizenship school teachers who led citizenship schools throughout the South, representing a popular education effort on a massive scale On top of these 10,000 teachers, citizenship schools reached out and taught more than 25,000 people. By 1958, 37 adults were able to pass the voter registration test as a result of the first session of community schools. Before 1969, about 700,000 African Americans became registered voters thanks to Clark's dedication to the movement. Clark came to national prominence, becoming the SCLC's director of education and teaching. Clark was the first woman to gain a position on the SCLC board. Andrew Young, who had joined Highlander the previous year to work with the Citizenship Schools, also joined the SCLC staff. The SCLC staff of citizenship schools were mainly women, as a result of the daily experience gained by becoming a teacher. Clark would struggle against sexism during her time on the SCLC, as had Ella Baker, with the bulk of sexism emanating from Martin Luther King, Jr. Ralph Abernathy also objected to her, as Clark said, "I can remember Reverend Abernathy asking many times, why was Septima Clark on the Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? And Dr. King would always say, 'She was the one who proposed this citizenship education which is bringing to us not only money but a lot of people who will register and vote.' And he asked that many times. It was hard for him to see a woman on that executive body." Clark claimed that women being treated unequally was "one of the greatest weaknesses of the civil rights movement."

Other civic service

During her career in service organizations, she also worked with the Tuberculosis Association and the Charleston Health Department. She was also an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Clark retired from active work with the SCLC in 1970. She later sought reinstatement of the pension and back salary that had been canceled when she was dismissed as a teacher in 1956, which she won. She was later to serve two terms on the Charleston County School Board.

Death and legacy

In 1978, Clark was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by the College of Charleston. U.S. President Jimmy Carter awarded Clark a Living Legacy Award in 1979. In 1987, her second autobiography, Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement (Wild Trees Press, 1986) won the American Book Award.

Septima P. Clark died December 15, 1987. In a eulogy presented at the funeral, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) described the importance of Clark's work and her relationship to the SCLC. Reverend Joseph Lowery asserted that "her courageous and pioneering efforts in the area of citizenship education and interracial cooperation" won her SCLC's highest award, the Drum Major for Justice Award. She is buried at Old Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.

Clark had major relations to other black activists of the Civil Rights Movement, such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. Washington and Clark both emphasized the importance of self-improvement before the importance of institutional reforms. DuBois and Clark agreed on the emphasis of education as the most important approach to the civil rights movement.

Septima Clark Public Charter School in Washington, DC, is named in her honor.Septima P. Clark Parkway (also known as the Septima P. Clark Expressway) and Septima P. Clark Memorial Park in Charleston, SC, are named in her honor.

Minor planet 6238 Septimaclark, discovered by Eleanor Helin is named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 2019 (M.P.C. 117229).

Quotes

I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.Don't ever think that everything went right. It didn't.This country was built up from women keeping their mouths shut.I never felt that getting angry would do you any good other than hurt your own digestion- keep you from eating, which I liked to do.

Autobiographies

Septima Clark wrote two autobiographies during her lifetime, in which she recorded her lifelong experiences. The first, written in 1962, was named Echo In My Soul. It is a combination of her life story, as well as her work at the Highlander Folk School. The work also discussed her views concerning the Jim Crow laws and the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Clark's second autobiography, Ready from Within (1979), was an oral recollection of lifelong experiences.

#05/03 #12/15

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