savagemama

I'm a tiger mama

2010-05-01T14:58:00.001-06:00

“I’m a tiger Mama,” my three-year-old, Eliza says as she crawls on all fours around the kitchen. “I’m from Africa!”

“Would you like to go to Africa one day?” I ask her knowing that even to a three-year old the question sounds forced.

“I’m a tiger and I bite,” she says and crawls away to chase her little sister, the question of Africa a passing thought.

As my two tiny daughters crawl around the coffee table practicing their growls, I pull an atlas of the world out of a stack of books in the next room. I open it up to Africa and trace my finger around the shape of the continent. I can only imagine what places with names like Dakar or Nairobi smell like. I can only imagine the feel of my skin under the equitoral sun. I can only imagine these things because I have never been to Africa. [Read more]

Prey tell: A profile of Bebe Miller

2010-03-04T15:03:00.002-07:00

During one section of world-renowned choreographer Bebe Miller's modern dance piece, "Prey," two University of Montana students recreate the taking down of a water buffalo. It's not what it sounds like; not even close.

For the audience, it simply looks like an intense duet between Lauren Belland and Stevie Teran. She approaches him from behind, climbs atop his back and ever so slowly positions her weight to drop him gently to the floor. The delicate balance between Belland and Teran, and Teran's subtle switch to submission, looks anything but a scene from some late-night Animal Planet special. "Prey" may be inspired by imagery from the wild, but Miller says the piece deals with experience of everyday struggles.[Read more]

Grassroots Push

2009-11-12T15:06:00.002-07:00

When Nici Holt Cline first heard that her midwife, Jeanne Hebl, had been banned from Community Medical Center (CMC), she wanted to know why. Cline, who is nine months pregnant with her second child, feared that if she had to be transferred to the hospital during her birth, that Hebl would not be allowed to go with her. Searching for straight answers, Cline went straight to the source and scheduled an appointment with the doctor in charge of CMC.

"The hospital sells itself as striving to meet patient needs from day one," she says. "I wanted them to show me."[Read more]

We'll get there when we get there

2009-05-01T14:56:00.001-06:00

When my boss asked if I wanted to go to a conference in Helena last January, I immediately said yes. I needed a change of scenery.

Winter was only halfway over in Montana but I was climbing the walls. I was trying to balance working from home with taking care of my two-and-half-year-old daughter Eliza and my five-month-old daughter Lucille. Somewhere in there I was trying to sleep and still have some time for a marriage that was a little tense.

I could bring the family, my boss said. And she’d pay the bill.

So my husband Seth and I buckled our two tiny children into their car seats and drove the 150 miles east. [Read more]