Stand in my window Meditations on home and how we make it

Yvette Yvette, 1989-

Book - 2024

"Home, LaTonya Yvette has learned, is not only the physical space we occupy, but also a source of comfort, grounding and transformation. It is a reflection of communal care; a place that can hold and nurture our dreams. In Stand in My Window: Meditations on Home and How We Make It, Yvette shares the important lessons she's learned about creating a meaningful home, and in doing so invites readers to explore how they can do the same. In essays that examine the process of creating spaces that express one's inner joy, Yvette shows how we can make meaning from both the places we've been and the objects that fill our lives. A magnolia tree in the backyard of her Brooklyn apartment at risk of being destroyed; the comforting sme...ll of palo santo wafting through a hallway; a clothesline that recalls the resiliency of ancestors; the childhood eviction notices that prompted deeper explorations of belonging years later-these images and more serve as portals into Yvette's most foundational lessons in love, loss, family, and self-care. In short: home-making. Sharing her design philosophy and the very personal experiences that helped forge it, coupled with beautiful original photographs, in each thoughtfully designed chapter Yvette walks readers through the process of creating a meaningful space by taking stock of one's inner world, personal history, and unconscious narratives about how-and where-we think we should be. At its heart, Stand in My Window teaches us that home truly is what you make of it-in mind, body, soul, and in the lovingly curated spaces we can build for ourselves anywhere"--

Saved in:
1 copy ordered
Subjects
Published
New York : The Dial Press [2024]
Language
English
Main Author
Yvette Yvette, 1989- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
pages cm
ISBN
9780593242414
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Yvette (Woman of Color) explores the meaning of home in this lyrical essay collection. With chapters devoted to cooking, cleaning, and growing plants, Yvette considers how homemaking tasks have played out across generations, both in history and in her own family. For example, she links the Atlanta washerwomen's strike of 1881 to the care she brings to hand-drying clothes, feeling grateful for "the women who came decades before I did" and allowed her to do so in "the comfort of my own home, during hours of my own making." By finding meaning in other mundane tasks (hanging curtains, organizing a junk drawer), Yvette locates the spiritual quality of homemaking: "This is life at home, we piece together broken bits and reshuffle the mess, even though nobody sees it but us." Elsewhere, she details her recent purchase of a 200-year-old house in the Catskills, which she plans to refashion into a residency for BIPOC artists and their families. Unfortunately, Yvette's unwaveringly sunny descriptions of domestic life lose some of their luster as the collection wears on, and she offers fewer of the glimpses into her personal life that distinguish the early entries. Still, more often than not, her insightful musings brim with quietly radical insight. Readers will be captivated. Photos. Agent: Andrianna deLone, CAA. (Nov.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved