There’s a beautiful book from 2008, written by Menena Cottin and illustrated by Rosana Faría, called “The Black Book of Colors.” Printed in both English and Braille, it’s a picture book about a boy named Thomas, who describes colors without the benefit of any language related to sight: “Red is sour like unripe strawberries and sweet as watermelon,” he says on one page. “It hurts when he finds it on his scraped knee.” The accompanying pictures are all black, with intricate embossed lines - of strawberries and leaves and waves and the other things Thomas is describing - all of which are meant to be experienced tactilely, with your fingers, instead of visually, with your eyes. The result is a simple and elegant tool meant to help readers experience a sense as a blind person might - even one as visual and abstract as color.
Empathy is the theme this month on Something I Heard. Our ability to experience and understand one another’s feelings, an essential civic component of strong communities and social connections. I especially like the definition offered by the author, Sue Monk Kidd:
“Empathy is the most mysterious transaction that the human soul can have… it's accessible to all of us, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, to plunge ourselves in a story where we see the world from the bottom up or through another's eyes or heart.”
On this week's episode of Something I Heard, Tomás Baiza, reads Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s poem, “Hombres Necios” (or “Foolish Men” in English). A 17th century poet, dramatist, and nun, de la Cruz wrote what many scholars consider the first feminist manifesto in 1690, defending a woman’s right to education. She died at the age of 44, leaving a trove of poems, music, plays, letters, and other influential writing.
Our writer-curator this month is Tomás Baiza. Baiza is the author of the novel, Delivery, and the mixed-genre collection, A Purpose to Our Savagery. Baiza’s manuscript, Mexican Teeth, will appear on Inlandia Press in 2026.
