George Washington Carver (b Jan 1864 - Jan 1943) Black men have long had to see the world through metaphor— Convert what is observed into something different- easier, better This is the science of othering –making a way out of no way – To be given nothing and still expected to finish to breathe life …
BHM #8: SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD
Jazz Vocalist Par Excellence Jimmy Scott (b. July 1925-June 2014) Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child has always been with us. When I looked up its origin, there was none. One day, it stood up on his hind legs in the distance and wailed. Its origin is America itself. Its an old, traditional spiritual …
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BHM #5: AN EKPHRASTIC POEM AFTER ARTIST AMY SHERALD
Planes, Rockets and the Spaces In Between (2018) by Amy Sherald There is a blue sky across the street from the end of the world a sky without center or capitol even the birds have deserted the horizon birds know better only a rocket dares reach toward the eternal without consideration of heaven. On the …
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BHM #3: MAYA ANGELOU ON THE RICHARD PRYOR SPECIAL
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 …
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH (BHM) #1 GREAT MUSTACHES OF BLACK HISTORY
“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 …
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GAYLE KING IS IN SPACE
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 …
Year End Review: How To Do A Reading
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 …
Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive – Book Reveal
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 …
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Pre-Order Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive
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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VOICES
The first cassette recorder I ever bought was the first adult machine I'd ever owned and it felt so thrilling it made me nervous. I immediately did two things with my recorder: At once, I began collecting theme songs to tv shows and sit-coms I watched (Not that anyone cared ) and second, I snuck …
The Dirty Rat 