iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What does it mean to be deeply connected to a particular place, to be embedded in it, over an extended period of time? This is one of the questions that occupies the amazing work of Canadian artist Marlene Creates. kelliedbrown.substack.com/p/embeddedne...

kelliedbrown.substack.com

Embeddedness

Memory and Place in the Work of Artist Marlene Creates

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I'm grateful to St. Katherine Review for publishing my poem "Blessings for Cleaning Your Parents' Hoarded Kitchen." www.stkatherinereview.com/post/blessin...

stkatherinereview.com

Blessings for Cleaning Your Parents’ Hoarded Kitchen

Blessed are you who vie with ants and all trespassing pests for yours is the companionship of angels.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My parents just died in the past 4 months, aged 80 and 82. This giant generation of baby boomers have hit 80 ish and are dying. Just like Dolly Parton and Annie Dillard. God help us. It's going to be mass loss.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Name a non-LOTR character who could resist the One Ring

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

This is my reflection on losing Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry. It is also about what place means in our losses, specifically how does the location where we hear the news of loss impact us. Is that place forever marked? kelliedbrown.substack.com/p/the-sticki...

kelliedbrown.substack.com

The Stickiness of Loss

How Grief Roots Us

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Dolly had a unique capacity to speak in a universal way that made people from all walks of life able to resonate with her music and spirit. In 2019 I took a group of university students from East TN to Europe. On a bus in Greece at 4 am, we were singing Jolene. That is the power of Dolly.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

What does it mean to find closure when trauma and complicated grief are present? What windows can we push open to let new life flow in? I'm searching for those answers. kelliedbrown.substack.com/p/closed-doo...

kelliedbrown.substack.com

Closed Doors and Opened Windows

Reflections on Complicated Grief

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“How fragile we are, between the few good moments.” These words of Jane Hirshfield in her poem “Vinegar and Oil” come to mind often. Life throws so many punches. This morning, 2 students at the university where I teach were killed in a cycling accident. Lord, why so few good moments?

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

As I read about the drought exposing hunger stones along European rivers, I began to think about metaphorical hunger stones in our own lives and memorial cairns. I think stones have much to teach us. kelliedbrown.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

kelliedbrown.substack.com

Lessons from Stones

What we can learn about place markers and hunger

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

My poem “Render” was published today. It is about the fear that all creatives have that one day the well will dry , & we’ll have nothing to say. It offers solidarity with that fear & a hopeful path during those fallow times. I hope you'll take a moment to read it. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Render

Author Kellie Brown

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Memoir writing has you thinking about all kinds of things, such as what’s calming & what’s frightening. The ocean is that type of place for me, memories & mystery, safety & danger; a good metaphor for a life that includes complex grief and trauma healing journeys. open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb...

open.substack.com

Dolphins and Warning Signs

Trauma Awareness and Healing

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Yuck. I feels like I've stepped into a jungle this morning. This humidity can go to hell.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

With the heat index soaring, it's a perfect time to look forward to fall. I've already seen pumpkin decor making its way into stores.nThere is a reason why Summerween is a thing. So, enjoy this reflection on a quirky film from 1979. open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb...

open.substack.com

Love at First Bite, a GenX film

The nostalgia of Halloween in June

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

What does it mean if you look at a clump of leaves, and it looks like the face of Lady Elaine Fairchilde? Asking for a friend.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I'm needing to sell some high-end costume jewelry and carnival glass from my mother's estate. Does anyone have advice about whether Ebay or Etsy is the better place? I appreciate any advice you have.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Today is my late mother's birthday and my father's second Father's Day in memory care. It's a lot to process. I hope I can be gentle with my tender self.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I'm celebrating the sixth anniversary of my book by highighting the story of Herbert Zipper. A man of great resilience, he survived two concentration camps and used music to bring comfort to others and as a spiritual resistance to hatred and prejudice. kelliedbrown.substack.com/p/the-sound-...

kelliedbrown.substack.com

The Sound of Hope

Holocaust Stories of Resilience and Spiritual Resistance through Music

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I'm not much of a photographer, but the glory of nature did all the work.

Sky above calm ocean water. Dark clouds with the sun shining through one.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I'm choosing to believe that this "Uncle Yam" is making fun of the orange one.

Mr. Potato Head in America 250 edition labeled Uncle Yam

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

“I’m inclined to think that we’re all ghosts…It’s not only the things that we’e inherited from our fathers and mothers that live on in us but all sorts of dead things…they’re not actually alive in us, but they’re rooted there all the same.” —Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

If there was one magical power I could have, it would be to summon the book I need and have it fly from my shelves or stacks into my hand. (A lot of writing time has been lost today trying to find the books I need to be in conversation with.)

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

"The people we love are built into us. Every day I am suddenly aware of something someone taught me long ago—or just yesterday—of some certainty and self-awareness that grew out of conflict with someone I loved enough to try to encompass..." May Sarton, The House by the Sea #SundaySarton

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

I can't stop thinking about this quote from Arundhati Roy's recent memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. “All personal achievement comes with a sense of foreboding. On the occasions when I am toasted or applauded, I always feel that someone else, someone quiet, is being beaten in the other room.”

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

A poem and love letter to trees. How they sustain us, teach us, and point us to those holy thin places. open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb...

open.substack.com

The Pedagogy and Poetics of Trees

And Thin Places

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#SundaySarton "Because I am thinking so much about the past these days I have come to see that the past is always changing, is never static, never 'placed' forever like a book on a shelf. As we grow and change, we understand things and the people who have influenced us in new ways." (p. 95)

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Reposted by Dr. Kellie D. Brown

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#SundaySarton “I spent the night at Carol & Jim Heilbrun’s, in their spacious old apartment on Central Park West … As we sat & talked, I felt perfect happiness & accord … glanced now & then at Duncan Grant‘s self-portrait on one wall & Vanessa Bell’s self-portrait over the mantle.“ (p152)

Self-Portrait by Vanessa Bell (ca. 1926) - Mills College Art Museum/Bequest of Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Self-Portrait by Duncan Grant (1926) - Mills College Art Museum/Bequest of Carolyn G. Heilbrun

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Reflections on the allure of the sea and the journals of May Sarton open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb... #SundaySarton

open.substack.com

How to Be a Poet at the Beach

Waves and Words and Midlife and Grief

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I really enjoyed the film adaption of Remarkably Bright Creatures starring Sally Field. It's on Netflix.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

“It is essential that true joys be experienced, that the sunrise not leave us unmoved, for civilization depends on the true joys, all those that have nothing to do with money or affluence—nature, the arts, human love.” May Sarton, The House by the Sea #SundaySarton

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

How to Be a Poet at the Beach - some words on creativity, longing, midlife, and the restoring power of water open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb...

open.substack.com

How to Be a Poet at the Beach

Waves and Words and Midlife and Grief

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

So angry at how much time I am having to waste building a case that a student has submitted an AI generated paper. It was so much easier when they cut and pasted from the internet. ah, the good ole days.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

After this semester, I think I'm going to have to drop the research paper requirement in my music history course. Even with scaffolding built in, I get AI or the old fashioned Britannica heist now from many students. So frustrating

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

If you were having students create a website for a project (but not publish it), what free service would you use? I have been using Weebly, but students are not loving it. #academicsky

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Thank you to everyone who has spoken kind and supportive words to me during my mother's long illness. She passed on Thursday. I felt the need to write down an inventory of what was in her room when she died, the sparseness of what is necessary.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I’m in this terrifying and beautiful liminal space as my mother is transitioning to life eternal. It feels like keeping vigil, a mysterious place in the dark waiting for the light. The Burial Service from the Book of Common Prayer says it best: “In the midst of life we are in death.”

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I accidentally hit delete on that annoying email. Oops. [That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.]

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

When you're listening to an audiobook thriller that is so good that when you pull into the work parking lot you don't know who you are or what you do

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Watch a remake of Little House on the Prairie? My Gen X self says nope, nope, and triple nope.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I am looking for beauty and peace wherever it can be found, and for me, the poetry of Mary Oliver and the piano music of Amy Beach are great starting points. #poetry #music #Classicalmusic #Academic #musicstudies open.substack.com/pub/kelliedb...

open.substack.com

In Praise of the Hermit Thrush and Composer Amy Beach

birds, poems, and piano music, oh my

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

“We become what we have loved.” May Sarton, A World of Light #SundaySarton

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

"Clutter is what silts up exactly like silt in a flowing stream when the current, the free flow of the mind, is held up by an obstruction...In the end what kills is not agony (for agony at least asks something of the soul) but everyday life." #SundaySarton

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I'm dressed for the weather I want. In other words, I'm freezing.

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Dr. Kellie D. Brown @kelliedbrown1.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Evidently I thought the answer to my problems and existential dread was purchasing several cute pencil cases. It's hard to argue against office supplies.

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