Carter Woodson (b Dec 1875-Apr 1950) Journalist, historian, author and father of Black History Month I've maintained a blog for years, despite not always having something to say. When Black History Month approaches, I feel a responsibility to write-- for sentence exercise, if nothing else. As I've gotten older and more comfortable with being a …
BHM #16: FIRST TIME WITH ROBERTA FLACK
ROBERTA FLACK b. Feb 1937 - Feb 2025 Roberta legendarily could play anything on piano and finally she played me. I knew her, heard her, but had not sat and really listened to her. She was a musical auntie I'd rarely visit; ubiquitous on radio and tv throughout my childhood, hers was music that sounded …
BHM #14 : RASHID JOHNSON
Rashid Johnson, Self Portrait as the Professor of Astronomy, Miscegenation and Critical Theory at the New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club Center for Graduate Studies, 2008. I am strongly attracted to visual art. I'm a poet with visual art dreams who can take an okay photo but can't draw or paint any better than …
BHM #9: AMBROSIA WYSINGER JONES of CHARM BEAUTY COLLEGE
Ambrosia Wysinger Jones (b Aug 1905 - Sep 1999) Business owner who established Charm Beauty College in Oakland My mother's currency was hair. Juanita Cagney remodeled elder's naps and sweat flattened loops into bread, milk, cigarettes. On weekends, our kitchen was a revolving door of women getting press and curls, perms, cuts. Sparrows couldn't match …
Continue reading "BHM #9: AMBROSIA WYSINGER JONES of CHARM BEAUTY COLLEGE"
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 …
Continue reading "BHM #8: SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD"
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 …
Continue reading "BHM #5: AN EKPHRASTIC POEM AFTER ARTIST AMY SHERALD"
BHM #4: BOB MARLEY MANIFESTS LIGHTNING AT THE ONE LOVE FESTIVAL, 1978
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"
BHM #2: OLA RAY (*WHEREIN THE WRITER REWATCHES MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER BUT ONLY FOR OLA RAY)
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 …
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 …
Continue reading "BLACK HISTORY MONTH (BHM) #1 GREAT MUSTACHES OF BLACK HISTORY"
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 …
The Dirty Rat 