Hammonton’s First Joe Berenato Turns 150!

For as long as I can remember, the question most asked of me, upon furnishing my name, is, “Which Berenato are you?” My family, you see, has been in Hammonton for more than 125 years, and my name — Joe Berenato — is the most common name in town. And, with few exceptions, we’re all……

A few updates

Well, three weeks ago I finished “A Wreath on Sam’s Grave,” my sonnet wreath that I’ve worked on for months. When I began, inspired by A Wreath for Emmett Till, I had no idea just how much work actually went into the completion of the project. I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy -……

As I Hoped, A Personal Perspective

Thankfully, the interview answers I was most anticipating have arrived in my inbox. This whole project was conceived as a way to honor my friend Sam. Her story is by far not unique; but she was the first person I knew who went through it. Combine the tragedy of her story with her age at……

Coffee Talk

Last night I finally had the opportunity to sit down with A.S. and T.B. for the first time in close to a decade. Sure, we’ve seen each other at parties, at weddings and at funerals, but not like this. We spent much of our formative years at the local diner, going through urns of coffee and……

A little less action, a little more conversation…

After being postponed by a few weeks for scheduling conflicts, I’m finally getting ready to sit down on Thursday with the interviewee I first mentioned two months ago. Out of all of the people I’ve talked with, he is actually the only one who re-enlisted. After finishing his time in Iraq, he spend time in the……

Seeing Something for the First Time

 One of the sources I’ve been using during my research is a book entitled On Looking, by Alexandra Horowitz. In it, Ms. Horowitz goes on “lookings” with several experts of different fields (“expert” being a broad term; they can be anyone from a Ph.D. to a bright-eyed child) in order to learn new ways to look at……

A Personal Perspective, Hopefully.

As I stated in my proposal entry, the original inspiration for this project was the untimely death of my friend Sam. I’ll never forget the night it happened. I had fallen asleep on my  couch, and I got a text from her phone number well after midnight. It was from her girlfriend, telling me what……

Following a Scholarly Lead

One of the topics that came up in my talk with Dr. Aikins regarded a study about the effectiveness of video games – Tetris in particular – when used as treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Though he was not familiar with this particular study, he did see the benefit of thought suppression offered by……

Well, I certainly learned a lot.

My interview with Dr. Deane Aikins was, to say the least, enlightening. A noted expert in his field, Dr. Aikins was once called by the Pentagon to testify via telephone before a Congressional subcomittee regarding homicidality in PTSD patients. If he was considered expert enough to be called before Congress, he’s certainly good enough for……

Paging Dr. Aikins…

In a few short minutes, I’m going to be conducting an interview via Skype with Dr. Deane Aikins. As I mentioned in a previous post, Dr. Aikins has worked extensively with the military over the past several years, researching treatment methodologies for PTSD. For a number of years, he was an associate professor at Yale……