Tag: bonobos

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“Nathan” live in Longreads

After a time of few updates, owing to a heavy focus on teaching and raising my daughter, I have some writing news to report.

“Nathan” is live at Longreads. I could make the case that I began this essay in June 2009. The first actual draft came about in 2017. I submitted it to one contest, was a finalist, and then did not even look at it for the next 5 years. It wasn’t until the last year or so that I was able to revise it again and start submitting. Over a decade of thinking about it and it is still so fresh in my mind. I miss him a lot, but I’m grateful to share a little bit of him with the world.

Soon, I’ll have another link for everyone. I also have an essay (about being raised in a house of guns) coming out in Consequence Forum this month. I hope it contributes (constructively) to the dialogue we’re having about firearms.

The last update worth noting is that I will be returning to Vietnam at the end of the month with my father and younger brother in the hopes of completing everything we could not get to the first time around. All while the country is experiencing its worst heatwave on record.

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New Site Section- Ape Resources

For this site, I’ve tried to keep my writing and primatology lives distinct except where they overlap in my prose. However, every so often I get a heavy dose of brand new visitors who have stumbled on one of my stories (usually ape-related) out in the wild.

“No Machine“ just led a flood of new visitors here over the past 48 hours. While I might be a little too late to catch that particular wave, I want to ensure that this site is ready for any future ones. It’s a fault of mine that I have not been confident enough in my writing to believe that it would resonate with so wide an audience for so long after its publication date. But here we are, years after I sent that little story into the world, and people are still reading and sharing. I’m encouraged and inspired by my readers who continue to gift me their time and attention.

But my writing is just one step. If you’re inclined, I invite you to take another (or two) with me. I have created a separate page of this site where you can, if moved, find worthy primatological organizations to support. If you enjoyed my story— any of them— and are interested in the nonhuman people I describe, or just apes in general, please visit the Ape Resources tab of this site. The apes and animals I write about deserve every ounce of support I can send their way.

To the readers: Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. Continue to do good and be well.

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January Events

And so begins a new year. This household rang in the event by working on various Powerpoints or story drafts until about 10 PM and then headed to bed like the responsible adults we pretend to be in front of our parents’ friends. (I was still reading by the time the totally unnecessary fireworks went off. So, you know, I’m not a total square…)

This month is a busy one. My show, Convergence: Challenging Anthropocentrism opens on the 4th. Details for the reception can be found at Convergence: Opening. If you’re in the neighborhood for Tulsa’s First Friday, come on down and chat me and my co-curator up. For those that can’t make it, the exhibition will be up all month long. There will also be some cool programming after MLK Day. Such as:

Animal People— Lecture I will give a lecture on how my work with apes, and my education by animals, led me to writing. Science just couldn’t encompass all the truths I found in nature.

HumanNature— Photography and Writing Workshop For those who would like a more active event, I’ll also be leading a workshop wherein we explore the urban landscape and the ways nature rebels against our efforts to exile it from our human centers. Through photography, we will train presence, which will then be used to generate short written pieces questioning the human/nature binary.

Mural Design and Creation— Yatika Starr Fields My co-curator, Yatika, will be leading a mural workshop throughout the week. He, along with participants, will create a permanent mural exploring the themes of the show. Join in on this collaborative work and leave a (literal) lasting mark on the McKeon Center for Creativity.

The Development of Complex Tool Use Among Chimpanzees— Lastly, perhaps the real treat of the whole month, join us for a lecture with the smart, incredible, illustrious, beautiful, [superlative] [superlative] [superlative] Stephanie Musgrave to discuss her research on the development and transmission of chimpanzee tool use in Central Africa. I’m biased but I can’t recommend enough letting this woman learn you something.

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‘Worry’ in Best American Essays 2017

“Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes is time.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday

I often turn to Vonnegut, not just for inspiration, but also consolation. August has been difficult for my family. I had to say goodbye to my loyal writing partner of over a decade, my dog. As I figure out a whole new daily routine and realign my senses to not be alarmed by my dog’s absence, there has been good news on the writing front. Small victories, as they say.

One of those victories I can share with you now is that my essay, “Worry,” was selected as a notable essay in the 2017 Best American Essays anthology. I am extremely humbled by this recognition. Worry was an ape who took me in and guided me through seven years. She was, in almost all ways, my grandmother, looking over me. She passed away in 2014, but I like to think that she’s still taking care of me.