One of the choir girls in my childhood church caught the Holy Spirit during service for the first time. "It was burning," she said surprised to be chosen and touched by hot fire stubbornly invisible and eternally curious. The Holy Spirit moves like a minister of smoke through the congregation, the church, touching people for …
Continue reading "BHM #4: BOB MARLEY MANIFESTS LIGHTNING AT THE ONE LOVE FESTIVAL, 1978"
Television was infected with TV Specials in the 70's. Any comic or singer worth a mic, who could fill a nightclub on a weekend night, would eventually be tossed an hour long TV Variety Show. Richard Pryor was becoming a huge presence on the standup circuit in the 70's and in May 1977, two years …
Continue reading "BHM #3: MAYA ANGELOU ON THE RICHARD PRYOR SPECIAL"
Ola having tea on set of Michael Jackson's Thriller Consider Ola Ray / cover girl, model, Playboy centerfold, actress, monument to Black History. The God commissioned creme of her delicate and dreamy skin / a full galaxy thrives in her miracle reflecting eyes Ola Ray (b. 1960) as Classy Curl Model Attaché to male singers …
“He was more concerned about his mustache than his haircut. He always liked his mustache to be up off the lip, like a butterfly. He would tell me, make it like a butterfly this time.” Nelson Malden, MLK Jr.’s former barber Deputy US Marshal Bass Reeves (July 1838 to January 1910) Frederick Douglass (Feb …
Continue reading "BLACK HISTORY MONTH (BHM) #1 GREAT MUSTACHES OF BLACK HISTORY"
What shall we do while Gayle King is in space? Cities bombed for ‘redevelopment’. Rubble raked for bones and bread. But keep ya head up; Gayle King is in space! Jupiter needs a COACH outlet. There’s no Sephora on the Crab Nebula. America’s mall looks too small to be great, so says Gayle King from …
Potrero Stage Theatre, first night sound check Prelude A friend calls monthly, like one would check in with a therapist. A mutual acquaintance has brought her to tears multiple nights. Who is open to just listening beyond me? Our years together, she's earned my patience. But one night she stopped and asked about me. How …
Unmade bed in a storm of white sheets beneath blinds Christmas this year feels mournful. Not just for the obvious headlines; but the air holds incense of discomforting flavor. Writing still needs to happen, though. Right? I haven't written in months, despite my longing and desire. Despite all the reading and thinking. I'm currently reading …
Congratulations! It’s a book!! Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive is now available from Black Lawrence Press. The bulk of poems in Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive represent attempts to finding myself as a poet, by training my eye to focus on and validate things I found beautiful or curious or odd or all of the …
Continue reading "Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive – Book Reveal"
Pre-orders are now available for Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive, my third poetry collection due this June from Black Lawrence Press. These poems are memories, meditations and monologues. Stories of witness gathered during my time living in West Oakland around 2007 -- before and after. Oddities and encounters formed into poems while; standing at bus …
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(For a matter of months I've drafted an entry intended for this blog and every approach to the keyboard was met with a cleansing sigh of defeat. Maybe I've lost it, I thought. But in those same months, I've also wondered about spending the month of November writing. its funny to consider: After NaNoWriMo nearly …
Continue reading "A MONTH OF MAGICAL THINKING: ENTERING ROOMS"
The Dirty Rat 