Relatively Speaking

In pooling their talents to write this book, co-authors and siblings Chip Dameron and Betsy Dameron Joseph dip into an immeasurably creative tradition because family artistic collaborations probably have existed as long as have families themselves. It’s not a stretch to imagine Paleolithic mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, working through the night to paint the walls of some dimly lit cave near Altamira or Lascaux with images designed to ensure a successful hunt, or performing a ritual chant to prepare for the undertaking. Many later examples of such partnerships come to mind too, including those of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Robert and Clara Schumann, the Brontes, James Weldon and John Rosamond Johnson, and the Gershwins, not to mention Eddie Foy’s boisterous family or the riotous Smothers Brothers. These of course represent only a miniscule sampling of the innumerable and often nameless family alliances that have helped to shape the trajectories of art, music, literature, and dance through the millennia. What sets Relatively Speaking apart is its seamless incorporation of current concerns and eternal mysteries, the timely and the timeless.

From the introduction by Carol Coffee Reposa, 2018 Texas Poet Laureate