Yellow skyover endless horizonMonochrome backdrop for silvertongues of ocean, dancing wild and alive.With no land to surge into,the waves are ripplingflat plains. No seabirds fly…
Posts published in “Byline: TANIA HAO”
“What Are You Looking For?” And More, Answered In This Book
By TANIA HAO on June 2024
Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is In The Library. Doubleday, Michiko Aoyama “What are you looking for?”This is the question that the seemingly…
In mid-2024, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is expected to release the latest flood maps for Tompkins County, including the City of Ithaca. Flood…
Climate Column: An Electrifying Start to Ithaca’s Building Electrification Project
By TANIA HAO on May 2024
Electrify Ithaca is the city’s ambitious program to transition Ithaca’s homes and buildings towards electric power and away from fossil fuels. Officially initiated in July…
Today is the Day of My Sister’s Wedding
By TANIA HAO on May 2024
My mother and father will not be present, not really. They will sit in the velvet-lined rows clutching plaster masks, perfectly sculpted, performance-ready at a…
Climate Column: Carbon Dioxide Fracking in Tompkins County and Its Implications
By TANIA HAO on March 2024
The Southern Tier region of New York has always been coveted by oil and gas companies, and new fracking initiatives in the region have recently…
House of Birds
By TANIA HAO on March 2024
There was a girl whose mother was a bird. Her mother’s mother was one, too, and her mother before that. In her mother’s stories, they…
Bluebird: “What could have been, based on what was”
By TANIA HAO on March 2024
Project Bluebird was a CIA operation with one end goal: mind control. In 1951, following the Second World War, the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence,…
We were thieves Starlight on our backs, the dark in our eyes The taste of the wind on our lips Your hands gripping the wheel,…
What You Need to Watch Out for This Month
By TANIA HAO on March 2024
Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20): Circular motion will give you an existential crisis. Stay away from revolving doors and conveyor belts unless you want…
Missy was an odd girl. Out of all the children Lily babysat, she was undoubtedly the most mature, but she could also be the most…
Do you remember the soft spring breeze? And how we sprawled on the grass and drank frosty lemonade out of chipped mugs, and how we…
Non-Western Artist Feature: Alexia Webster
By TANIA HAO on October 2023
For photographer Alexia Webster, her most treasured photos are ones of her family. Growing up in South Africa, Webster says that “apartheid loomed large over…
A Few Hungry Pumpkins
By TANIA HAO on October 2023
The thick black mud clutched at Amelia’s legs as she hacked away at one particularly determined pumpkin vine and wondered why she’d ever agreed to…
Sand People
By TANIA HAO on September 2023
It was only the third day of the beach getaway, and Lily wanted to do just that: get away. Leave it to her dad to…
To Our Departing Members: Live Long and Prosper!
By ALIZA PROULX, CLAIRE PARK, MUKUND GAUR, NATALIE PATRONE, SHAINE WEI, TANIA HAO, VALENTINA LEBRET on June 2023
Dear Maggie, It’s hard to believe that it is already June and I’m one step closer to having to say goodbye. This is incredibly sad…
The Red One
By TANIA HAO on June 2023
If only I hadn’t bought the red one The blue one would’ve been fine too I could have picked any one of them The red…
Non-Western Artist Feature: Hung Liu
By TANIA HAO on May 2023
People whom history has silenced are made heroic and beautiful in the paintings of Chinese American artist Hung Liu. Dubbed the “greatest Chinese painter in…
Dragonfly Wings
By TANIA HAO on May 2023
It was sometime in May when I completely disappeared. It began in late January, right around that time when everyone is getting sick and so…
To IHS’s Beloved French Teacher, Language is About Connections and Culture
By TANIA HAO on March 2023
For Ithaca High School’s esteemed French teacher Madame Janet Bowman, teaching a world language is about more than grammar and vocabulary. It’s about deeply appreciating…
March Horoscopes 2023
By TANIA HAO on March 2023
The Signs as Competitors in a Televised Baking Contest Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20): In the penultimate round, you have a vision for the…
The Girl, the Dragon, and the Bird
By TANIA HAO on February 2023
There was a girl who lived in the sky.Her family was the dragon with sparkling scales and the birdwith ink pools for eyes. During the…
The Case for Children’s Books
By TANIA HAO on December 2022
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gradually made the shift from consuming content targeted at young children to content for young adults. As an avid reader,…
The train car is tense. The people in the rows fairly sparkle with quiet nervousness. They don’t look at each other. Everyone is traveling alone,…
Blueberry Soda and Arugula
By TANIA HAO on October 2022
Mango sticky rice on a dockEvenings crayon-streaked orangeBoxes of fragile sun-kissed raspberriesCurtains drawn on sleepy afternoonsSmall black cat with yellow eyesCar rides surrounded by tree-covered…
The Pandemic’s Onslaught of Anti-Asian Hate
By TANIA HAO on April 2021
It’s an ordinary February day in New York City. 61-year-old Noel Quintana boards a train in Brooklyn, heading to the first of his two jobs.…
Distance Learning at IHS: A Clear-Eyed Assessment and a Call to Action
By RUBY LAROCCA, TANIA HAO on March 2021
For many students, the phrase “distance learning” calls to mind a solitary student crouching in some cramped corner of the house, staring listlessly at a…