House of Cotton Is a Haunting Debut From Monica Brashears

Table Of Content

• "House of Cotton," by Monica Brashears
• Cotton in California: The Sustainable Cotton Tour
• A stunning, contemporary Black southern gothic novel about what it means to be a poor woman in the God-fearing south.
• A LITTLE LIFE
• 'House of Cotton' is a bizarre, uncomfortable read — in the best way possible
• Feds say he masterminded an epic California water heist. Some farmers say he’s their Robin Hood

A mix of curiosity and desperation leads her to a “plantation-style” house that is half funeral parlor, half family home. Cotton—the man who told her she looks like Josephine Baker even though she doesn’t—lives and works there with his Aunt Eden. And this is where Magnolia lives once she accepts Cotton’s offer to impersonate the dead for people who are willing to pay for the chance to connect. Eventually, she will lie still in a coffin for mourners who never had a chance to bury their loved one and masquerade as a lost—certainly dead—woman at a party for her family and friends. While Magnolia is posing as a series of dead women, Mama Brown haunts her and begs Magnolia to see the baby she’s aborted so that both Mama Brown and the baby can rest.

"House of Cotton," by Monica Brashears

While dealing with the aftermath of her abortion and trying to hide from her landlord, the ghost of Magnolia's late grandmother — herself haunted by a different ghost — starts visiting her and Magnolia soon understands that more than her rent hangs in the balance. House of Cotton is a bizarre, uncomfortable read in the best way possible. Brashears delves deep into what it means to be a young, broke woman of color in a world in which predatory men are at your doorstep, in the streets, and even at church. California, which had a thriving cotton industry, has been at the heart of the modern global flux of cotton valuation and commodification. Though cotton has been farmed in its valleys through much of the 20th century, cotton reached its heyday in the ‘50s. In 1951, cotton alone fetched more than $350 million for California growers.

Cotton in California: The Sustainable Cotton Tour

For Jamison, spinning the thread is simply one of many steps that begins with the cotton boll. She also grows woad, the prehistoric Old World blue dye that some say Celtic warriors wore to frighten invaders. Just as indigo influenced the blues of Asia, woad helped to define the blues of Europe.

A stunning, contemporary Black southern gothic novel about what it means to be a poor woman in the God-fearing south.

In 2018, over 14 million of 18 million bales were exported. That said, the US continues to be a producer of the crop — and one that could be grown with responsible farming practices, beginning right here in our fibershed. We meet House of Cotton protagonist Magnolia Brown at the funeral of her grandmother, her last living relative. In times of deep stress like this, Magnolia turns to fairy tales. She can never quite imagine herself as a character but rather as one of the objects, like a broom or a beanstalk. Your granny got peace, now.” The dusk-colored woman next to me must have mistaken my laughter for sobbing.

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Democrats put up a big vote — 174 — in favor of this bill, which was intended to sweeten the overall package for conservatives. The average cotton boll contains about 500,000 fibers of cotton, and each plant may grow up to 100 bolls. However, over the years, cotton acreage has been replaced by other crops, such as tree crops, grapevines, and alfalfa. Cotton acreage fell to near-record lows in 2009, but has rebounded recently due to increasing world demand and rising commodity prices. Cotton is easy to grow, but here, as in other states, home plants are regulated because if allowed to grow continually (and often organically), they may become vectors for disease or pests that can threaten agricultural crops. While to reap the benefits of cosmolocal production strong political initiative and institutional innovations are needed, the momentum behind these post-capitalist pathways signifies a growing potential for meaningful change in our approach to production.

A LITTLE LIFE

Every Sunday, he starts his routine by hobbling up to the altar with his cane. When he catches the Spirit, Pastor Wooly throws his arms up. The sound of the cane smacking against the hardwood floor always results in a resounding Hallelujah. The individual voices of the congregation—the throaty, old women; the young men with fire under their toes that make them jump, jump; the sinners that find bits of glory in their mouths—become a uniform voice, strong and deep. When I was little, I thought in these moments he was conjuring up the voice of God. Located in the heart of historic downtown Monroe in Louisiana, Restaurant Cotton takes pride in offering some of the Southern Delta’s finest comfort food this side of the Mississippi.

'House of Cotton' is a bizarre, uncomfortable read — in the best way possible

The House passed a long-stalled foreign aid package on Saturday that gives funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a majority of lawmakers backing money for American allies across the globe. The package, which now goes to the Senate, is almost certain to become law. They will first go through dryers to reduce moisture, and then through cleaning equipment to remove dirt, leaves and other impurities. Then machines will remove the seeds and compress the fibers into bales. The cotton in the modules is called ‘seeded cotton’; the modules will be trucked to a gin where the seed and fiber are separated.

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent. Echoing one of the many grievances shared by hard-right Republicans who opposed all of the aid measures, Mr. Good said his support for “Israel’s right to defend itself remains unshakeable” but that he disagreed with a measure that would add to the nation’s debt. California cotton has the reputation for being among the finest quality in the world. The San Joaquin Valley’s warm springs, hot summers and dry falls are well-suited for  growing cotton, producing extra long, strong, and silky fibers. In California, cotton is grown mostly in the San Joaquin Valley, primarily Fresno, Kings and Kern County. A member of the Southern California Handweavers’ Guild, she already knew how to dye her own fabric for weaving.

Feds say he masterminded an epic California water heist. Some farmers say he’s their Robin Hood

In her roller-coaster ride of a gothic debut novel, “House of Cotton,” Monica Brashears upends expectations at every turn.

The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.

Brashears’ novel follows Magnolia Brown, who is offered a strange job by Cotton that will change the course of her life. I follow the shuffling crowd out to the dirt, this tiny fenced in graveyard. Wetting the earth with tears ain’t ever made anybody sprout. Below, find out more about “House of Cotton” from the author herself, and read an excerpt from the start of the book. House of Cotton is peculiar and slightly surreal, but also dazzling, full of surprises, and told with a voice that's unpredictable and, more importantly, that lingers. Darkness can have slices of beauty at its core, and Brashears has a talent for pointing out that beauty, while its submerged in grit and grief.

Over the following decades, those numbers began to decline. In 1997, the state’s cotton production dropped from 31,000 bales to 14,000, making it less than one percent of the nation’s cotton crop. The focus shifted to Texas where favorable weather conditions enabled cotton growers to proliferate and today, it’s where the bulk of America’s organic cotton is found. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling.

The logical next step was to plant some cotton seeds near the clothesline in her West L.A. She tried brown and green varieties but had her best luck with the white. This is a novel that refuses to obey the rules of any one genre, and that, complicated as it might be for some, is one of the best things about it.

Most use furrow irrigation, although drip irrigation is becoming used more frequently. In October, I had the pleasure of joining the Sustainable Cotton Project on a farm tour to see how this non-profit that is dedicated to the production and promotion of of sustainably grown domestic cotton fiber is working to change cotton production in California. And yet, American-made cotton garments are increasingly hard to find today. We still grow cotton in America; in fact, the US is the third-largest producer after China and India. It’s the manufacturing of textiles that has moved overseas since the 1990s.

Espirit used a lot of cotton for their designs, emphasizing the light, breezy appeal of California fashion. So she concentrated her efforts on understanding the nuances of cotton in this growing global supply chain. To encourage California farmers to grow a less toxic product, she started Cleaner Cotton, an initiative that stripped down the list of pesticides permitted on cotton farms, advocated for soil health, and eliminated the use of genetically modified seeds. “We have to manage the carbon in our soils,” he says, arguing that agriculture, if practiced with soil health at the forefront, could be a part of the solution to climate change. But to do that, cotton farmers and livestock farmers have to come together.

Cleaner Cotton banned the use of the 13 most toxic pesticides. They partnered with UC Berkeley to help farmers manage pests without the use of pesticides. As a result, Cleaner Cotton was cutting down chemical usage by fifty to seventy-five percent in California. Given that the state monitors pesticide usage, it was possible to see progress, Grose explains. In fact, California is the only cotton-growing region in the world where this data is monitored and tracked; indeed, California’s program of pesticide use reporting is recognized as the most comprehensive in the world. On the surface, it's a Black southern gothic novel about a young woman learning to navigate life alone.