My Name Is Child of God ... Not "Those People"

by Julia K. Dinsmore

Overview

This personal and provocative look at poverty in America isshaped around the author's own engaging stories, song lyrics, andpoems, including the well-known Call Me Child of God ... NotThose People. The story of her growing up in a large Irish Catholicworking-class family in Minneapolis, Minnesota, draws togetherthe experiences of living in poverty, the role of the church andmusic in her life, and the many remarkable people who populatedher life and the lives of her family.

The author describes economic hardship and social challenges asbeing as "regular as the turning seasons in my coming up years,"and refers to her life in poverty as the "soil of my art." Through herstories and reflections, Julia Dinsmore puts a face on poverty andchallenges readers to answer God's call to respond to poverty andits effects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806656243
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	04/17/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Julia K. Dinsmore is a freelance writer, storyteller, and singer/songwriter. As a child she lived in poverty and as an adult she has found herself living below the poverty line. Her riveting stories, songs, and poems reveal what it is like to be poor in America. Articulate, clear-visioned, and endowed with a marvelous sense of justice and humor, she makes frequent presentations to college classes, church groups, and civic organizations. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Table of Contents

Foreword   Marlise Riffel     9
Quantum Bridges     12
Foreword   Nancy Maeker     13
Preface     16
My Name Is Not "Those People"     20
Story of a Poem     22
Head Winds-The Promise of a Sure Foot     29
Spring     29
Coming Up Years     30
Sown Seed     51
Baptism Prayer     52
Peace Poem     53
I Am the Puppet     54
I'm a Lot Like You     54
Food Stories     55
Oh, Little One     69
Blame & Shame     70
There Were Rainbows Somewhere over Our Sorrow     77
By Grace Go I     77
Reclaiming Working-Class Men     78
Introduction to "When We Left Minneapolis"     82
When We Left Minneapolis     83
Cold Day Thankfulness     87
Angels Unaware?     88
Song for Jerome     92
Terrible Storms, Night's Weeping Endured     95
Be Careful What You Pray For     95
Don't Give Up     103
Depth Charges     104
Home     112
History, Survival, and theUnderground Economy     115
What's in a Poem? Introduction to "A Glimmer of Heaven"     118
A Glimmer of Heaven     120
Song for Jacob     121
If, When, and Did You Know?     123
Company Came Calling     129
In the Tail Winds with No Construction Materials in Sight     132
Born Again?     132
Birds in the BBQ, Chronic Sorrows, and Speaking Life     133
Katrina Survivor     136
When God Created You     137
The Main Course     140
Me and the Lutherans     141
Grace on the Loose!     146
We the People     149
Meg's Robin     150
Birds Live in Nests     154
Just Like God?     155
Psoem in Six Movements: Rant/Ode to My Desire for Change     158
The Muse and I     158
Freedom Train     159
Missin' Papa     160
Motherless Child     162
Tedious Journey     164
Strangest Dream     166
Just This Week     169
Dear Mother     171
I Call Myself...     176

Editorial Reviews

"Julia Dinsmore will not allow us to hide behind the statistics of hunger and poverty in our country, protected by those dispassionate numbers. In telling her stores, and her own, Julila brings us face-to-fact with people hwo know poverty all too well..."

From the Publisher