Peuo Tuy is a 1.5 generation Khmer-American spoken word poet and educator from Lowell, Massachusetts and New York, New York. Her poetry collection, Khmer Girl (2014), is inspired by the traumas of her life, including her family escaping the killing fields of their native Cambodia and enduring the inequities of…
Boarding School Blues: Chapter 30 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 30: The Chapel The boarders, all itching to hear about one another’s Thanksgiving break, were dispatched to the chapel at 4:30 that Sunday afternoon. The two-by-two march to the Almighty’s SFA residence was less than orderly but the girls knew that…
Contemporary readers might be surprised to learn that of the 47 individuals who have served as President of the United States, at least 15 of them have visited Lowell. Below is my list of the names and dates of these visits. If anyone knows of anymore, please let us know…
From the Pollard Memorial Library’s “Library History” webpage: Lowell’s public library was founded on May 20, 1844 by an enactment of the Lowell City Council. At the time, the idea of “free” public libraries supported by solely by municipalities was a relatively new one, but the leaders of Lowell clearly…
Living Madly – Women’s Work By Emilie-Noelle Provost My maternal grandmother had a sewing room in her house that she jokingly referred to as her “sweatshop.” Once a spare bedroom, the space was home to her two sewing machines and hundreds of yards of fabric of all types and colors. Throughout…
“Little child won’t you dance with me” Lennon-McCartney, 1963 By Louise Peloquin The Ed Sullivan Show was a family entertainment staple. Across the narrow hall from the kitchen, my parents would settle into their armchairs and my brother and I would sit crossed-legged on the floor while our two younger…
If Lennon Were Here By David Daniel He’d be a different guy. Older, face bonier, nose sharp as a box-cutter, hair like thin grass. He’d be wiry and spry, from yoga and walking everywhere (like Hemingway and Kerouac, he was never one to drive). And he would still need glasses.…
Four stories about Cambodian Americans of Lowell have been prominently featured in the Boston Globe in recent weeks: A changing of the guard in Lowell as a diverse leadership takes office (Dec 26, 2021) Lowell city councilor is nation’s first Cambodian American mayor (Jan 4, 2022) I said to myself,…
Divorce or Rebirth?? By Nick Cote Author’s Note: I wrote this piece soon after I made the very difficult decision to leave a very long term relationship and marriage in 2017. To me, writing is very cathartic and therapeutic. I write pieces such as this about my life as a…
Boarding School Blues: Chapter 29 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 29: Tempus Fugit Mundane activities filled Thanksgiving weekend. Maman asked Blanche to haul four large, mothball-perfumed boxes up from the basement. Long ago, they had served as receptacles for a wedding trousseau of fine linens and dainty lingerie. Although they had…