TheBadAssWriter
  • Home
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Blog
  • About







​BadAss
Writer
Blog





     







​Photo by Earnest Brillo
.⁠
.⁠
.⁠
.⁠

October 01st, 2021

10/1/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
​GATE A-4

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.” Well — one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
“Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would
stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to 
her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just 
for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee,
answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies — little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — from her bag — and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they
were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands — had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate — once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye
1 Comment

    TheBadAssWriter
    Blog


    is a place to find resources for playwrights & screenwriters.

    So I created this space for people who are actually writing as a practice, not just talking about it or dreaming about it, but are actually doing some badassery on the regular...

    meaning write every day...rain, shine, work, sleep, drunk, too tired, too many kids, blah blah...


    BadAssWriters just fucking write...


    April Yvette Thompson
    Tony-winning producer, writer, actor working across media.

    Categories

    All
    Abandonement
    American Saga
    April's Clients
    April's TED Talk
    April Yvette Thompson
    Artist Date
    Artist Grants
    ARTIST HOUSING
    Artist Success
    Ask April
    AutoEthnography
    Backstory
    BadAssSoloShowContest
    BadAssWriter Group
    BadAssWriterShit
    Betty Shamieh
    Black Panther
    Black Women Writers
    Branding & Marketing
    CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
    Character Inner Psychology
    Characters
    Character's Voice
    Connective Listening
    Conspiracies Of Silence
    Create Character
    Danai Gurira
    David Mamet
    DetachFromTheMatrix
    Dialogue
    Discovery
    DreamingMorocco
    Dreamingoutloud
    DreamingOutLoud Technique
    Emerging Playwrights
    Emmys
    Emotional Chords
    Exposition Vs Action
    Fear
    Fillmmaker
    Film Writers
    Finish Your Damn Script
    Fire This Time Festival
    First 15
    First Draft
    First Person Narrative
    Formulaic Writing
    FREE BadAssWriter Class
    FREE Class
    Fundraising
    Getting Off Your Ass
    Getting Produced
    Good Bread Alley
    Great Writers
    Great Writing
    Hero
    How To Start Writing
    How To Write A Solo Show
    Hyperbole
    IAmEnuf Minicourse
    Inciting Incident
    Intention Vs Action
    James Baldwin
    Jessica Blank
    Journaling
    Kipling
    Liberty City
    Make Your Own Work
    Make Your Won Work
    Memoir
    Me Too
    Miami
    Michael Chekov
    Michael Harriot
    MidLife Writers
    Mini MasterClass
    Monetize
    Morning Pages
    Narrative
    No Time To Write
    Office Hours
    One Woman Show
    Oral Storytelling
    Origin Story
    Outline
    Paulo Coelho
    Personal Legend
    Plays
    Playwright
    Playwrights
    Playwriting
    Political Theatre
    Procrastination
    Psychological Gesture
    Quinta Brunson
    Rainier Maria Rilke
    Release The Struggle
    Retreats
    ReWrite History
    Rewrites
    ReWriteYourStory
    Rilke
    Rumi
    Scify
    Screenplay
    Screenplay Vs Play
    ScreenWriter
    Script Outline
    Self-Publishing
    Sexy Script
    Showrunner
    Silence = Consent
    SimonSays Entertainment
    Solo Perfomer
    Solo Performance
    Solo Performer
    Solo Play
    Solo Play Structure
    Solo Show
    Solo Show Secret
    Solo Show Slam
    SoulsSong
    Spoken Word
    Story
    STORY STRUCTURE
    Storytellig
    Structure
    Syntax
    Tell Your Story
    TellYourStory
    The Alchemist
    The Arsht Center
    TheDreamingOutLoud Technique
    The Exonerated
    The Maori
    The Power Of Story
    The Psychological Gesture
    The Questions
    Thequestions
    The Underground
    Think Like A Writer
    This Is Us
    TIME
    Tom Fontana
    Toni Morrison
    TOP 2 QUESTIONS ABOUT SCREENWRITING & PLAYWRITING
    Trauma Porn
    TV Writer
    TV Writing
    UTube Channel
    Video
    What Is A Plot Point
    Where To Start Writing
    Why Do You Write
    Why I Write
    Women's Stories
    Write Everyday
    Writer Anxiety
    Writer As Listener
    Writer Beats
    Writer-fear
    Writer-habits
    Writer-outline
    Writer-problems
    Writer Prompt
    Writer Questions
    Writers Are Empaths
    WritersArsenal
    Writers Block
    WRITERSBLOCK
    Writers Of Color
    Writers Retreat
    Writers Super Seven
    Writers Voice
    Writer Tip
    Writer Voice
    Write The Story That Wants To Be Told
    Write To Heal
    Writing Formulas
    Writing Mentor
    Writing Time
    Young Writers
    Your Fuck THIS Moment

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Blog
  • About