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White Storks’ Population Soars in Portugal

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Feb 12, 20236 min read

White Storks’ Population Soars in Portugal

White storks in the municipality of Alvito, Beja District, in the Alentejo (Photo by Ines Catry) Thirty years ago, the white stork was a...

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"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 5: "Bolting")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Feb 7, 20232 min read

"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 5: "Bolting")

On the Green River, South Williamstown, Massachusetts (By John Lee Fitch, 1836-1895) CHAPTER 2 Like a wild mare, I bolted from the walls...

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Portuguese Students Defied Salazar: A Coimbra Exhibit

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Feb 3, 202317 min read

Portuguese Students Defied Salazar: A Coimbra Exhibit

Jorge Sampaio, (4th from left in center) during a student protest at the University of Lisbon, where he graduated from the School of Law....

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"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 4: "Bringing Up the Sun")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 31, 20232 min read

"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 4: "Bringing Up the Sun")

The dining hall at Williams College's dormitory, Mission Park, whose name is associated with the birth of U.S. foreign Christian missions...

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"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 3: "Riding the Wind")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 24, 20231 min read

"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 3: "Riding the Wind")

The Celtic knot represents the three forces of nature: water, fire and earth. The single line is said to signify the oneness of the...

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@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 22, 20234 min read

Portugal's Oldest Person Dies at 112

Isabel Gomes Sarmento on her 111th birthday in 2021 Isabel Gomes Sarmento, the oldest known person in Portugal, died at age 112 in a...

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"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 2: "I Can't Go Back")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 17, 20231 min read

"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 2: "I Can't Go Back")

CHAPTER 2 Feale’s face shone in a shaft of morning light rushing through open wooden shutters at the front of the two-room stone house....

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Pete Seeger on Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King: "We Shall Overcome"

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 16, 20232 min read

Pete Seeger on Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King: "We Shall Overcome"

Folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger: "I met her, I met all three of them that day. As a matter of fact, there is a picture taken...

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"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 1: "Run, Run!")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 10, 20231 min read

"Sacred Waters: 19 and Pregnant" (Chapter 1: "Run, Run!")

The raven appears in the mythology of the Celts and many others. It often represents prophecy and insight, connecting the material world...

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@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Jan 6, 20231 min read

"Full of Sound and Fury"

Life may be absurd, but in Belize and the Caribbean, death merits communal traditions. On the ninth night after a person’s death, food,...

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"Being Asian in America": A Short Documentary

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Dec 30, 20223 min read

"Being Asian in America": A Short Documentary

"The challenge is not about who they are. It's about explaining to people who they are." ...

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@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Dec 22, 202218 min read

"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote

Until he was 10, Truman Capote lived with distant and elderly cousins in rural Alabama about whom he writes in A Christmas Memory....

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"Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" by Paul Auster

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Dec 18, 202212 min read

"Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" by Paul Auster

Harvey Keitel and Clarice Taylor in Wayne Wang’s Smoke (@ 1995 Miramax/N.D.F./Euro Space) I heard this story from Auggie Wren. Since...

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Nepotism Divides Portuguese People from Politicians

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Dec 13, 20227 min read

Nepotism Divides Portuguese People from Politicians

In 2020, the then-Minister of Justice Francisca Van Dunem (November 2015-March 2022) approved a National Anti-Corruption Strategy (ENAC),...

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@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Dec 7, 20224 min read

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

Cynthia Adina Kirkwood visiting Santa Claus at Macy’s Herald Square, New York City, circa 1961 Originally published in The New York Sun ...

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Cornwall's "Poet Laureate": Charles Causley

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Nov 30, 20224 min read

Cornwall's "Poet Laureate": Charles Causley

Closing lines of I Saw a Jolly Hunter by Charles Causley (Illustration by Pat Marriott) Foraging through a used bookshop...

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Fado of Coimbra, Portugal: A Sculptural Tribute

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Nov 23, 20222 min read

Fado of Coimbra, Portugal: A Sculptural Tribute

The evocative bronze symbolizes Coimbra’s paean to fado through a Portuguese guitar with the contours of a woman’s body. Lines from fado...

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Say Its Name: Slavery (Chapter 16, Epilogue of "Pirating Slavery")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Nov 17, 20221 min read

Say Its Name: Slavery (Chapter 16, Epilogue of "Pirating Slavery")

The Tower, XVI in the tarot card deck, is a solid structure. However, it has been built on shaky foundations representing false premises....

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Coimbra Jews: Tolerance to Persecution in Portugal

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Nov 16, 202212 min read

Coimbra Jews: Tolerance to Persecution in Portugal

Two steps lead up to an unpartitioned cell. Behind draped white gauzy material and lit by a footlight, two ropes hang from the ceiling...

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Tricky Living on Land: No Omens (Chapter 15 of "Pirating Slavery")

@ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood

Nov 14, 20222 min read

Tricky Living on Land: No Omens (Chapter 15 of "Pirating Slavery")

“Port Royal,” Adrian said, immediately. “What! Not Charles Town,” Edward asked. The Pink House, the oldest stone building in Charleston,...

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CYNTHIA ADINA KIRKWOOD