2 posts tagged “motherhood”
THE children whispering and fidgeting in front of the stage at Union
Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn, looked like any kids awaiting, say, a
storyteller. Then Zora Sicher and Hugo Orozco, the two 11-year-olds who
make up the band Magnolia, climbed onstage and broke into a
hard-driving original song called “Volume.” It was clear this was not
quiet time.
“Wooooo!” a dreadlocked woman shouted from the back of the room, where a crowd of adults, many in vintage concert T-shirts and cardigans, looking like kids themselves, cheered and sipped bloody marys.
For this set of performers and audience members, indie rock is as familiar as a lullaby. “We like punk, classic rock, metal, riot grrrl,” said Hugo, an elfin-face sixth grader from Brooklyn, who was given her first drum set at 7.When my daughter was an infant, I would drive her in the car if I was unable to get her to sleep. We would head out in the car at 4AM in the soaking November rain of Vancouver and I would usually drive to Spanish Banks, the best beach in Vancouver and the furthest west on the peninsula. She was so tiny and so loud with her jarring cries. But usually she would fall asleep by the time I got here. I was so tired and overwhelmed and scared I would often park at the beach and cry. I would look at the waves and the big ships and the lights of the city and I felt so alone. The water looked alluring. Now when I think of Spanish Banks, I think of birth and death intertwined. And I think of the rain that started three days after my daughter was born and lasted for 50 days. And I think about the reason I did not listen to the voice that told me to walk into the water until I couldn't breathe anymore. It is an instinct and a love that is unlike anything else. It is being in love all the time and fiercely and there is nothing like it. It's like something in the blood and body that comes alive and now that is who I am first.
