ABOUT ME

Since the 2024 election the whole world has tipped. Two days after that event I woke up thinking, We are all now—everyone one of us—about to live under the dignity shattering, ever-changing violence of Jim Crow. I wrote that sentence down and it became Noticing Unalienable Rights. I’ve been writing ever since posting NOTICINGS here and on Substack.

Then, to my surprise, I began to remember a bunch of things I’ve done as the result of ideas that pop into my head. I’ve been doing stuff like this since I was ten years old. As a person incapable of planning ahead, I was startled to see a through-line. No planning. Just a blank wall ahead. Now a clear pattern is visible. In every instance I wanted to solve a problem. Each project, production, or event I have produced appeared on its own kind of stage. 

To my way of thinking, problems are dramas unto themselves. Every play ever written and performed pivots on a central problem in search of a solution. Seeing that problem on a stage is clarifying, sometimes tragic and sometimes funny.

My work attempts to unravel specific puzzlements. In 1972, my partner and I coined the phrase, “single mother” to give visibility and respect to women raising children by themselves. We called our project Momma, the Newsmagazine for Single Mothers. At that time unmarried mothers were considered to be teenagers from poor families. They were viewed as wild and semi-literate. Betty Friedan, herself, the national leader of the new feminist movement, when telling her about our project, responded curtly, “Single mothers? Can they read?” 

In (Out)Laws & Justice my goal was to bring American history to life for secondary students oh so bored by history. This was achieved by students turning the historical events provided in the (Out)Laws textbook into plays they wrote and performed. In From A Child’s Point of View I set out to create a space for elementary school students to notice their feelings about climate change. This was important because no one was asking how young children felt about habitat loss or rising seas. Their nightmares about the world around them had been unaddressed in the curriculum. Cup of Sugar began when I wanted voters to connect their personal needs with issues on the 2024 ballot. 

So. Now here we are. And the mess that needs to be fixed is bigger than the sum of the few parts I’ve paid attention to. I understand that most folks are jumpy when it comes to politics. Yet, as it turns out, the personal is political. 

My perspective is non-partisan; neither Red nor Blue. I am partisan solely to the Declaration of Independence, which established the unalienable Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Fundamental are the ideals of Equality, Justice, and Consent of the Governed. We have the Right to Alter or Abolish government. 

So. This is where I find myself today. Trying to figure out through Noticings how to reclaim our rights to freedom, reclaim the rule of law, and revise the ideals of the Declaration so that they are solid for all Americans in our private and public lives.

You can find me here, on Bluesky or Substack: Lisa Citron or @gotcupofsugar

Rose and Poppy talking about it.