It’s Day 5. How ‘bout that. Feeling good? Feeling accomplished? Getting stronger? Good. Here’s your fresh flash prompt.
Many, many, many years ago, I worked at a non-prof teacher development organization. I won’t tell you which decade that was, but I did karaoke until 4am on weeknights and carried a micro bag. On slow days at work, I’d close out of Lotus Notes, download songs from Napster, and think about what kind of AngelFire website I should have.
I loved that job. I stayed for five years and got paid to have deep-dive discussions about racism, antisemitism, group membership, individualism, and social justice. I was exposed to histories and cultural criticism they didn’t teach us in school. (Also, I met people like Kwame Anthony Appiah, Iris Chang, and Bernard Gotfryd. Y’ALL, I MET John Lewis.) Being a biracial suburban kid, growing up mostly confused, silenced, and struggling with my identity, that job changed my life.
So I doubt I would have heard of Jesús Colón if not for that job. Colón was a Puerto Rican writer and labor organizer of African descent. At 16, he emigrated alone from San Juan to the United States. He lived in Brooklyn, was a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and became known as the Father of the Nuyorican Movement.
His short essay “Little Things Are Big” is one of those stories I come back to often. Anyone who’s taken one of my flash nonfiction workshops has read this too.
Your turn.
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