26/06/2024
My wife, Mariah, and I now live in Atlanta, on one acre of land. Each morning, Mariah and I wake up and go about our morning routine. Let the dog out, use the bathroom, check on the chickens. As I write this, we have two roosters and nine hens. There’s Hootie, who looks a lot like an owl, and Angelica, named after the bossy little girl from Rugrats. Then there’s Logan, after our cousin whose nickname is “Chicken.” We got Little Brother’s name from the movie Mulan, and Reptar’s name also comes from Rugrats. My sister Brooke named Henrietta, and my sister Blair named one Zen after our nephew and godson. My father said we needed a Disco and a Chicken George, so those two names quickly followed. April, like Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez’s childhood hen. And, lastly, Ruby the Rhode Island Red.
In her new book, ‘Rooted,’ Brea Baker unpacks the legacy of land theft in America. But first, a visit to her own backyard.
