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FEATURED BOOK |
From yiayia to bubba.
Barbara’s stories about her immigrant experience transcend the bounds of one language, one culture."—Merella Assmus In America, Barbara found herself in another "village community," Flatbush, where she was welcomed with open arms by wonderful Jewish neighbors. There was, she says, a "bubba" (grandmother) in every home and a welcoming spirit pervading the community. "It was my neighbors and elementary school teachers who taught me to love who I was: a skinny little immigrant who loved to draw, sing, dance and tell stories about the grandmothers and village folk I’d left behind and put on a show at the drop of a hat." When Barbara was 3˝, her mother, pregnant with her fourth child, slipped and fell. She died shortly after giving birth. Barbara, her father, brother and sisters, grew up in the home of an uncle and his new wife. The story of coming to America and the loss of her mother provided the stuff of many stories she now weaves with haunting vividness for attentive audiences of children and adults who have also come to America from places as diverse as Haiti, Sri Lanka and the former Soviet Union. |
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