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Mixtape: Bloom
Our latest edition of Mixtape features authors Nicole Breit and Claire Sicherman who share the songs that shaped their coming-of-age years. Their collaborative memoir, Bloom: Letters on Girlhood (Caitlin Press), unfolds as an intimate letter exchange spanning two and a half years where they have a deeply personal conversation about growing up, self-discovery, and the power of connection.
Hit play and read on for the soundtrack to their coming-of-age years!
Our memoir, Bloom: Letters on Girlhood, is a conversation about the experiences we felt too much shame to talk about when we came of age in 1980s Vancouver: periods, body hair, desire, sex, and a deep sense of isolation and powerlessness.
Between the covers of our book you’ll encounter vulnerable thoughts and feelings we’d only dare scribble in a locked diary, whispered conversations that could only take place at a slumber party. The two of us—Claire and Nicole—didn’t know each other back when we were teenagers, but became intimate friends as we wrote our book. When you read our letters we hope you remember your own stories, the bravery it took to make your way through those awkward teen years—and maybe even laugh a little.
Our mixtape is a selection of songs that play on in our imaginations when we remember our girlhoods—music heard on the radio (or videos watched on MuchMusic); blasted through a boom box at the outdoor pool; performed at Nicole’s first concert; echoed through speakers at a junior high school dance where Claire experienced her first quick wet kiss.
About the book: Bloom: Letters on Girlhood (Caitlin Press) is a raw, searching and intimate memoir told through a conversation between two acclaimed writers about silence and shame and what it means to come of age as young women .
Now, to the songs!
Letter Seventeen: Claire
Album: Love is Strange by Mickey & Sylvia
Song: “Love is Strange”
Why: Dirty Dancing was my first mixtape and this particular song holds a beloved place in my heart. I wasn’t allowed to watch the movie when it first came out; my parents deemed it too risqué. But later, I understood what all the fuss was about. My eyes were glued to Patrick Swayze’s tight black pants and bulging biceps, utterly mesmerized as he swept Jennifer Grey across the dance floor. My husband and I still sing it to each other—especially the part about the “lover boy.”
Letter Seventeen: Claire
Album: Boomerang by Boyz II Men
Song: “End of the Road”
Why: After Nick—the boy I thought I liked—and I got our groove on to C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat” in the junior high gym, we slow danced to “End of the Road.” Then he leaned in and planted the quickest, wettest kiss on my lips. My response? I bolted straight to the girls’ bathroom and hid until my mom came to pick me up. I did eventually learn to love kissing—though I still don’t like wet, slobbery ones.
Letter Twenty-Four: Nicole
Album: Almacantar by Eight Seconds
Song: “Kiss You (When It’s Dangerous)”
Why: I’m tucked in under the pink and blue floral ruffly bedspread, my brother’s orange fuzzy Walkman earphones cancelling out all other sound. This song from the album Almacantar fills my ears as I lay in the dark grasping for a glimpse of my hazy unwritten future. There’s something about the haunting piano melody, the warmth in a handsome stranger’s voice filling the ache of empty spaces. My arms and legs become drowsy, the blankets heavier and softer. I am 13 and unable to conjure my first kiss. So I rewind the tape and listen again.
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Claire Sicherman is the author of Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation. Her writing has been published in anthologies and journals including Awfully Hilarious: Period Pieces, Don’t Ask: What Families Hide, Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food, Grain Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Lost Balloon, Hippocampus, and The Rumpus. Claire is a facilitator, speaker, and trauma-informed somatic writing coach, supporting writers in bringing the stories they hold in their bodies out onto the page. Find her at clairesicherman.com.
Nicole Breit (she/her) is a queer award-winning essayist and writing coach based on the traditional lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people in Gibsons, BC. Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Brevity, The Fiddlehead, Room, Hippocampus, Pithead Chapel, Event, Swelling with Pride: Queer Conception and Adoption Stories (Caitlin Press), Awfully Hilarious: Period Pieces (ed. Heather Hendrie) and Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Books by Hippocampus). Nicole’s essay about first love and loss, “An Atmospheric Pressure”, was selected as a notable essay by the editors of Best American Essays, 2017. When she isn’t writing or coaching creative nonfiction authors in her Spark Your Story programs, you’ll find her wandering by the seaside, hiking in the forest or planning her next escape with her wife in their vintage campervan. Visit her at nicolebreit.com.
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Grab a copy of Bloom: Letters on Girlhood to read along with this rockin’ new playlist. Many thanks to Claire and Nicole for sharing the soundtracks to their coming-of-age!
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