Non-Fiction by Vicki Milewski
My writing is another expression of abstract experientialism--I take experiences and abstract them. As a published non fiction writer, I have been moving further into creative non fiction. Creative non-fiction allows me to have fun with some of the profound experiences I write about and bring more readers to these pieces.
TELL
A White River Valley
by
Vicki Milewski
Saddle Pass Trail
Badlands National Park South Dakota
Photo by Vicki Milewski
The Full length book can be found here:
https://issuu.com/vickimilewski/docs/a.white.river.valley
An excerpt from TELL: A White River Valley:
She needed stars in new constellations to study.
Joe continues thoughtfully, “Joseph Campbell said that ‘every moment of time bursts free from the fetters of the moment before’ which is true to a point since each moment is linked through our memories, through our experience, like links in a chain we can be fettered to the past if we do not move fully into the present. But it is also more an awakening to those linkages that breaks the fetters of being asleep to our life and to the time we spend living it. To live in the present is to also break those fetters of the past and the future since both can hold us fast to an illusion of what was and what could be instead of living what is.
“But you cannot slay your past self just as you cannot slay your future self since all are you. The past, if remembered accurately and through the lens of the present, is the instructor; the future is the instruction learned which makes the present the act of learning, dissolving any illusion of time revolving with myriad choices seen as outcomes and forever in a state of change.
“You and I have embarked on such a path; it may be lonely since no one has yet to walk this path. But once we clear the way many will come to know it and then have to find their own unmarked trail, their undestined outcome.”
Red Blood, Blue Souls:
Teaching in an Urban School at the Turn of the 21st Century
by
Vicki Milewski
Students from Vicki Milewski's
Radio & TV Broadcasting School
taping their TV show Teen Talk
Photo by Vicki Milewski
A synopsis of Red Blood Blue Souls: Teaching in an Urban School at the Turn of the 21st Century
At its heart Red Blood Blue Souls: Teaching in an Urban School at the Turn of the 21st Century is about what schools are for. I compiled case studies of 10 students from my Radio & Television Broadcasting School including information from school, DCFS and arrest records combined with my personal experiences with these 10 students and their families, friends and community in order to make sense of what works and what does not. Readers are given snapshots of these 10 students that may cover one day or four years. Instead of stating what I have found works, I give the reader the same information I have and let them decide.
Based on my experiences of running a school and being a teacher on Chicago's south side, Red Blood...captures the moment before the notorious Robert Taylor Homes Housing Projects were demolished. The 28 buildings 16 stories high across the street from our school were filled with gangs, single mothers, violence but also loving families, aspiring children and communities. These disparities are what the 10 highlighted students of Red Blood...had to navigate in order to make their way toward their own futures.
This is the moment before charter schools and welfare reform and yet the same problems that created space for those events still remain.
Red Blood...is an ideal read for parents and students and individuals interested in education, teaching, school reform and the system which surrounds students.
Gems
Beneath Our Feet
by
Vicki Milewski
Mount Shasta, California
Photo by Vicki Milewski
Simply put Gems Beneath Our Feet is a sequel of sorts to TELL. The story begins on Mt Shasta and moves forward from there. The title comes from a moment standing in a gravel parking lot that had crushed rubies, sapphires and quartz showing me beauty and value are everywhere.
Essays, Articles, Academic Works
by Vicki Milewski
Lilies on the Farm
Drawing by Vicki Milewski
I have many essays, articles and other shorter non-fiction works that have been published. Please visit vickimilewski.academia.edu/ for a glance at some of these and others.
You can also download one of my pieces below concerning the state of wilderness designated areas during this Age of Man or Anthropocene Era inspired by architect Vito Acconici and called The Little Green Housing Project: 21st Century Wilderness Architecture