Some of my other interests include sports, photography, videography, calligraphy, poetry and song.

Book of sacred music and songs, published by my great-great-great-great-grandfather John McVity of Belturbet, Ireland, Professor of Sacred Music, 1787.

You can find my sports coverage of squash on Squashsite.co.uk.

You can find my sports videos on my YouTube channel.

Winners at the 2014 US Jr Open at Yale's Brady Squash Center

Karim Ibrahim, Cairo, Egypt, #1 seed, BU19, at the US Jr Open 2014 at Yale

Laura Pomportes, Nouran el Torky, 2017 Netsuite Open

Sports

• Cycling: some favorite routes:
  • Bay Trail, circumnavigating San Francisco Bay & San Pablo Bay
  • Boston-Provincetown in a day, annual century
  • American Youth Hostels x-continent European trip
• Hiking: some favorite hikes:
  • Mt Edith Cavell, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
  • Cirque Peak, Dolomite Pass, Banff, Alberta, Canada
  • Lassen Volcano Peak, Pacific Crest Trail, California
  • Yosemite Falls in Yosemite Park, California
  • Snæfellsjökull Volcano, Iceland
  • Artipelag, Sweden
  • Mont Canisy, France
  • Sintra, Portugal
  • أهرامات الجيزة, Egypt
  •  قصر توبكابي, Turkey
  • Taman Perdana, Kuala Lumpur
  • 豫园; Shanghai, China
  • Whitecap Mountain, Appalachian Trail, Maine
  • Mt. Monadnock, New Hampshire
  • Wachusett Mountain, Massachusetts

• Squash Journalism
  • US Hardball Squash championships 2011, squashsite.co.uk
  • New England Open- Women's Final 2010
  • New England Open - Men's Final 2010
• Squash videos- YouTube

• Girls and Women In Sports
  • Community Service
    • University Club of Boston, US Open Professional Squash Tournament Liaison Committee 2001-2004
    • US Squash Open at Harvard University, Host Committee 2001- 2004
    • Tournament of Champions Squash at Grand Central Station, NYC, pro Host Committee 2002-2009
    • Players’ Cup Pro Tennis Tournament, Agganis Arena, Boston University, Pro player logistics 2007-2013
    • Tennis & Racquet Club, Membership Committee 2006-2012

Journalism

You can read more at:

CCTV
Security Watch
Squashsite.co.uk
TechTarget Media  
The Boston Globe (stringer)
Harvard Crimson

Interviewing Carl Bildt at the Stockholm Internet Forum

Youssef Ibrahim from Cairo, Egypt wins the 2014 US Jr Open at Yale's Brady squash courts

Photography​

You can view my photography here.

Waves on the Riviera

Videography

• You can see some of my videos on my YouTube Channel, (https://www.youtube.com/user/sarahcortes1​)​

Calligraphy

• ​Medieval Home Journal lol
• Kalligraphia XVI Art Exhibition, San Francisco Public Library, Skylight Gallery, Marjorie J and Karl G. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center, 100 Larkin St. May 14-August 28, 2022. 
• Calligrapher's exception: Library of Congress legislative excerpt, p. 9, Circular 21: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.

Some of my recent work

Some work of others I admire

 Poetry/Songs
Some poetry/songs I enjoy:
Classical Antiquity to the "Dark" Ages: 2100 BCE- AD 900

• Epic of Gligamesh, Foster 2001 English verse translation (Cunieform Akkadian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, transliteration, Ahurbanipal Library and Uruk), ~2100 BCE. World's earliest known surviving notable literature.
• The Exaltation of Inanna (Ishtar) (Hymn 42), Enheduanna, (Cunieform Akkadian, Sumerian) (Åke W. Sjöberg English translation) ~1790 BCE. The first known poet is a woman.
• 𓇋 𓏠 𓈖 𓎸 𓄂 𓀱 𓀼 Cartouches, Hatshepsut (hieratic hieroglyphs, unicode, also English translation) ~1507 BCE, (also Book of the Dead; Hymn to the Sun, Amenhotep IV). Studied this queen pharaoh since I was little.
• My Love Philtre (Drinking song), Harris Papyrus 500 (p.82), English verse translation from the Egyptian hieratic hieroglyphs ~1291 BCE. When did philters go off the menu?
• מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה 'Mizmor l'Todah' (Latin- Jubilate Deo omnis terra- Song 100 (​ψαλμοί Psalm 100), (Hebrew ~800 BCE,  Latin Vulgate translation doxology, AD 382, King James Bible English (Make a joyful noise, all ye lands; Serve with gladness and come with singing) AD 1611. Drummed into our heads by my first choirmaster.
• Ὀδύσσεια, Homer, (The Odyssey, Lattimore verse translation from the Greek, also English prose translation) ~725 BCE (dactylic hexameter- Homeric hexameter, no rhyme scheme). ​My first bedtime story.
• Brothers Poem, Sappho (English translations and Willis Barnstone translation) ~610 BCE (dactylic hexameter, no rhyme scheme). 
• Aeneid, Virgil (John Dryden English rhymed verse translation from Latin and here), ~19 BCE (unrhymed dactylic hexameter). Builds on Homer's Iliad. Reference for Dante's La Divina Commedia.
• ​Metamorphoses, Ovid (Riley English translation from the Latin) ~AD 8​. Basis of Bocaccio's Decameron.
• Ad Gognem cum me rogaret ad cenam, Venantius Fortunatus (tr. Helen Waddell 1948 and The Wandering Scholar) ~AD 546 (unrhymed dactylic hexameter).

Middle Ages: AD 900 - 1390

• ​La Chanson de Roland, Anonymous, (scribe: Turoldus) (Rabillon English verse translation from the old French) ~1045 (decasyllabic laisses). Theme of betrayal.
• Les Dous Amanz, Les Lais de Marie de France (​The Two Lovers, Patricia Terry English verse translation from the old French, Original: folio 138 v-a 140 r-b in MS H, London, British Library, Harley 978 and here), Marie de France, ~1180 (regnus Henri II and Aliénor d'Aquitaine) (iambic tetrameter couplets). Visited Pîtres; memorized and reenacted the lai.
• The Origin of Poetry, Snorra Edda, Snorri Sturluson, ~1220 (Icelandic). Links Virgil's Aeneas to the Norse god Vidarr of the Æsir. Basis of Norse mythology.
• ​Laxdæla saga, Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, (Möðruvallabók​, original Icelandic, and here, and here, and translated from the Icelandic by Muriel A. C. Press), ~1230. Visited Laxdaela and the saga's original locations.​​
• La Divina Commedia, Dante Alighieri, (Norton English verse translation from the Italian, Ciardi; Longfellow), 1320 (terza rima, hendecasyllabic). Build  on Virgil 's Aeneid. Learned Italian by memorizing Dante.
• Emilia cantasse una canzone da' leuto di Dioneo aiutata: Day 1 (terza rima), Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, 1353 (and Payne English translation from the Italian). Also La caccia di Diana, Canto XVIII, vv. 8-12, 1334 (terza rima). and De Mulieribus Claris, 1362, Based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Source for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Christine de Pizan's Livre de la Cité des Dames.

Renaissance to Enlightenment 1400-1736

• Ci Dit Semiramis, Livre de la mutation de fortune, 1403 (Natalie Margolis translation); Le Livre de la Cité des Dames, 1405 (Here begynneth the boke of the cyte of ladyes, Anslay, Brian, translation, London: Henry Pepwell, 1521); Le Tresor de la cité des dames de degré en degré, 1405; L'Epistre Des Dieu D'Amours, 1399;  Le Dit de la Rose, 1401, Ci Dit de Semiramis, (works- Harley MS 4431 also here; and here and here, also Project Gutenberg) Christine de Pizan. So beautiful I had to hand letter it. 
• À sa maîtresse, Ode XVII (Ode À Cassandre, Mignonne, allons voir si la rose) Pierre de Ronsard, July 1545 (iambic octameter quatrains). Remains with me daily since first memorized in grade school.
  • Song by Guillaume Costeley ~1570
  • Song by Jehan Chardavoine, Recueil de chansons en forme de voix de ville, 1576
• Kinmont Willie, Bard of the Border Reivers, Debatable Lands, after 1596, Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1806, based on Scott of Satchells' History of the Name of Scott 1688 (quatrains of iambic tetrameter). Song by Fyre & Sword and ​Song. When the nightly news was sung, and in style.​​
• Le Cid, Pierre Corneille (The Cid), December 1636 (alexandrine- iambic hexameter couplets)
• L'École des femmes, (and English verse translation), Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), 1662 (alexandrine)
• Tartuffe ou I'imposteur, (and English verse translation) Molière, 1664 (alexandrine)
• ​​Phèdre, Jean-Baptiste Racine, 1677 (alexandrine)
• ÉpÎtre LI. À Madame La Marquise Du Châtelet, Sur la Philosophie de Newton (and original and here), François-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire, to Émilie Du Châtelet, 1736 (alexandrine). Who actually first translated Newton, published scientific experiments, and explained the scientific world to Voltaire. 

Enlightenment and Colonialism: 1778-1897

• Eulogy to General David Wooster, Phyllis Wheatley, July, 1778. Buried in Copps Hill Burying Ground.
• ​Märk hur vår skugga, (score) (Swedish), Fredman's Epistlar No. 81, Carl Michael Bellman, 1780
• Vaggvisa för min son Carl, Carl Michael Bellman, and here (Swedish), August 18, 1781. Song (arr. Beethoven)
• The Kingdom of Ðằng, Hồ Xuân Hương, (Vietnamese and English translation, Spring Essence) ~1792
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1834 (quatrains of iambic octameter/hexameter)
• The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe, 1845 (sestets of trochaic octameter). Recited on Ryder Beach, Truro on countless fourths of July ghost story nights.
• Kalevala, (Crawford English verse translation, from Finnish) 1849 (trochaic tetrameter: Kalevala meter)
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs, 1861. Survived in hiding 7 years. If she can do it...
• 808 (So Sets 1ts Sun..., what Day be dark to me), 818 (Though cooler than the Water - was The Thoughtfulness) Emily Dickinson, ~1864 (six quatrains of iambic tetrameter, trimeter)
• A Woman I Know, Edith Wharton, 1878. 
• Buried Love (The Unnamed Lake, English translation from the Canadian), 1897; Knighthood, to H.T.O., In the Battle Silences: Poems Written at the Front, 1916, Colonel the Venerable Archdeacon Frederick George Scott

Modernism: 1916-1939

• У меня зазвонил телефон (Крокодил), Korney Chukovsky (Nikolay Vasilyevich Korneychukov), 1916. First Russian poem I memorized.
• Social Notes I, 1932, and Villanelle for our Time, 1944 (music & performance by Leonard Cohen, 1999), Frederick Reginald (F. R.) Scott
• Cahier d'un retour au pays natal, Aimé Césaire (English translation and here) 1939 (suj. Harvard undergraduate honors thesis)​

Post-Modernism and In my Lifetime: 1970-Present

• Kamouraska, Anne Hé​bert, (analysis here and here), 1970
• Ponca War Dancers, (and Osage) Carter Revard, 1980
• Lady Polyester, (and Tagalog) Ophelia Dimalanta, 1993
• February (He shoots, he scores!) Margaret Atwood, 1995
• Parable of the Trellis, Meadowlands, Louise Glück, 1996
• Crane Dance, Rosemary Kelley Collie and Kate Collie, 1999
• The Changing Light (of San Francisco), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 2001
• Fine Lines, Carol Burnes, 2003
• روحي مرتحالك , and song (Arabic), Amr Diab, 2007
• ​Youthful Spring (Lilacs), Ada Jo Mann, 2017​ ​

Some other people admitting to being poets, authors, musicians or artists in my family:

• Whit Smith, (1964- ) Hot Club of Cowtown​
• Jonathan George Kelley McVity (1959- ) Chorister, composer, pianist, organist, author, editor, translator
  • Kraus, K. Dicta and Contradicta (Sprüche und Widersprüche), Aphorisms of Karl Kraus. Translated and with an introduction by McVity, Jonathan George Kelley. Urbana & Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 2001. Print
  • My Father's House: A Childhood in Wartime Bavaria. By Beatrix Ost, translated from the German by Jonathan McVity with the author. Helen Marx Books / Books & Co, 2007. 
  • ​Vauvenargues, Oeuvres, and Maxims and Reflections. [manuscript]
• Kate Collie (1954- ) artist, poet
• Carol Paine Ganson Burnes (1941- ) - poet
• Peter Dale Scott, (1929- )
• Robert Lowell Walters, (1921- ) Professor of French Literature, author, editor, Collected Works of Voltaire
  • Eléments de la philosophie de Newton, Vol. 17, Essai sur la nature du feu, 1954.
• Dr. Richard McVity (1933-1998) Chorister, Legal drafter of Title IX of the US Education Amendments Act of 1972 
• Rosemary Kelley Collie Walters, 1931-1999 - artist and poet
• Rev. Canon Brian Scott Kelley (1928-2021)- Canadian-born priest, poet, civil rights advocate. The Larcom Eclogues: Poems from the Foot of Her Mountains, 2009
• Professor Frank Reginald (F.R.) Scott (1899-1985)- Canadian poet, statesman, law professor
• James Henry Seymour Moynahan (1898-1972), Original Hot Five Dixieland Jazz Band. Clarinetist, sax, piano. Novelist, pulp fiction writer (e. g. Black Mask magazine)
• Colonel the Venerable Archdeacon Frederick George Scott (1861 – 1944) Canadian poet and author, known as the Poet of the Laurentians​​
• Prof. John McVity 1740-1844, composer, professor of sacred music, author, sacred music arrangements

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