Talkin' television, this was one of the best descriptions of THE SOPRANOS:
"The drama of Tony, the great post-9/11 drama of him, is that he is trying to hold on in a world he thinks is breaking to pieces. He has a sense, even though he's only in his 40s, that the best times have passed, not only for the Italian mob but for everyone, for the country - that he'd missed out on something, and that even though he lives in a mansion, even though he is rich and comfortable and always has food in the refrigerator and Carm can go to Paris and the kids go to private school- for all of that, he fears he's part of some long downhill slide, a slide that he can't stop, that no one can, that no one will. Out there, he told his son and daughter, it is the year 2000, but in here it's 1950. His bluster, his desperate desire to re-create order with the rough tools of his disordered heart and brain, are comic, poignant, ridiculous, human."
-Peggy Noonan/The Wall St. Journal June 9-10, 2007
Now if I can just place much of this into my second memoir - I'm done.
E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Friday, June 15, 2007
Important information if you want to know what's going on in the world:
Askariya Mosque in Samarra:
Main structure was built in the 10th century.
The famous golden dome was completed in 1905.
The site contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali Al-Hadi and his son Hassan Al-Askari.
Askari was the father of the 12th imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, the "hidden iman."
Are you waiting for the 12th Iman to restore justice to the world?
Askariya Mosque in Samarra:
Main structure was built in the 10th century.
The famous golden dome was completed in 1905.
The site contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali Al-Hadi and his son Hassan Al-Askari.
Askari was the father of the 12th imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, the "hidden iman."
Are you waiting for the 12th Iman to restore justice to the world?
Dumb stuff on the OP-ED page. I'm so happy we have E-Notes. Owen West and Bing West made this silly comment in the NY Times today. Here is the comment they made about Iraq:
"The war in Iraq would be over in a week if the insurgents wore uniforms. Instead, they hide in plain sight, and Iraqi and American soldiers have no means of checking the true identity and history of anyone they stop."
If a student included this statement in a high school report I would give them a D or F. This statement provides no respect or understanding of the people in Iraq. Yes - if they wore uniforms, spoke English and were NY Mets fans, everything would be easy to control in Baghdad. Right? How crazy can that be?
"The war in Iraq would be over in a week if the insurgents wore uniforms. Instead, they hide in plain sight, and Iraqi and American soldiers have no means of checking the true identity and history of anyone they stop."
If a student included this statement in a high school report I would give them a D or F. This statement provides no respect or understanding of the people in Iraq. Yes - if they wore uniforms, spoke English and were NY Mets fans, everything would be easy to control in Baghdad. Right? How crazy can that be?
I think the Obama Girl might have a hit on her hands. Her song"I GOT A CRUSH ON OBAMA" is clever - not bad lyrics. The issue of race and sex is one that sticks out. Hmmm. How much will be the issue. Too much discussion might just take the fun away. After a couple of listens...I did prefer Obama Girl over some of the music I've heard lately. Hey - Obama, pick-up it's E.
No more burgers? I received this information in today's email:
Farm workers who pick tomatoes for Burger King's sandwiches earn 40 to 50 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has not risen significantly in nearly 30 years. Workers who toil from dawn to dusk must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50 in one day.
Worse yet, modern-day slavery has reemerged in Florida's fields; since 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted five slavery rings, freeing more than 1,000 workers. As a major buyer of Florida tomatoes, Burger King's purchasing practices place downward pressure on farm worker wages and put corporate profits before human dignity.
Click here to send a message to Burger King: "Farm workers deserve fair wages!"
Last year, Sojourners supporters like you sent over 25,000 letters in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' (CIW) campaign to urge McDonald's to do right by Florida farm workers.
Together, we helped to win an important victory, as McDonald's recently committed to work with the CIW to improve wages and enforce a code of conduct for conditions in the fields. And YUM! Brands, corporate parent to such chains as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, has made the same commitment.
Farm workers who pick tomatoes for Burger King's sandwiches earn 40 to 50 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has not risen significantly in nearly 30 years. Workers who toil from dawn to dusk must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50 in one day.
Worse yet, modern-day slavery has reemerged in Florida's fields; since 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted five slavery rings, freeing more than 1,000 workers. As a major buyer of Florida tomatoes, Burger King's purchasing practices place downward pressure on farm worker wages and put corporate profits before human dignity.
Click here to send a message to Burger King: "Farm workers deserve fair wages!"
Last year, Sojourners supporters like you sent over 25,000 letters in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' (CIW) campaign to urge McDonald's to do right by Florida farm workers.
Together, we helped to win an important victory, as McDonald's recently committed to work with the CIW to improve wages and enforce a code of conduct for conditions in the fields. And YUM! Brands, corporate parent to such chains as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, has made the same commitment.
Worth making a trip to Knoxville for:
Bernice Reagon and her daughter Toshi Reagon will be performing on September 1st.
It's all part of the Benefit Concert for the Highlander Research and Education Center.
8 PM
Bijou Box Office
Tennessee Theater
604 South Gay Street
Knoxville, TN
www.knoxbijou.com
Bernice Reagon and her daughter Toshi Reagon will be performing on September 1st.
It's all part of the Benefit Concert for the Highlander Research and Education Center.
8 PM
Bijou Box Office
Tennessee Theater
604 South Gay Street
Knoxville, TN
www.knoxbijou.com
Ms. Hugo? So I'm reading in today's NY Times that banks in Venezuela are doing very well. So well that they are giving out "mucho" loans in these boom times. One person who has taken advantage of the "expansion" in credit is Betzaida Guerra. She secured $5000 in order to pay for surgery to enlarge her breasts. She was so excited. She recently finished paying off her 12-month loan. "The way out has arrived" she was quoted as saying. How should we interpret this?
JOY TO THE WORLD: Wonderful News to tell:
Sandra Beasley just won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize. Her book THEORIES OF FALLING will be published next year.
Additional info: You can see the announcement here:
http://www.wmich.edu/newissues/
(Click on "Contests," at the top, for details.)
www.sandrabeasley.com
Sandra Beasley just won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize. Her book THEORIES OF FALLING will be published next year.
Additional info: You can see the announcement here:
http://www.wmich.edu/newissues/
(Click on "Contests," at the top, for details.)
www.sandrabeasley.com
Sports:
So I called my son - 3 minutes into the first Spurs/Cav game and told him it was over - give the MVP award to Tony Parker. Geez - if the broom was in the closet - the door was never closed.
How many times did Parker slice through the defense of the Cavs? Look for folks to be wearing his jersey this fall. Move over D-Wade? Nah...Parker is good but he needs commercials.
Oh...and how about does Nationals. Only 8 games out of first place in their division. If they can sweep the next group of birdies (BlueJays) they will be out of the cellar and ready to do damage to the league. This team could make folks forget about a new president coming to town. Can you imagine going to the playoffs in 2007 and a new stadium coming soon too? Look for Nationals shirts and caps to be selling big time late August and early September.
So you don't believe me? Look at what Ichiro is hitting - .340.
Go back and look at my old E-Notes. Bert knows baseball. Ichiro is moving at a pace where he might flirt with .400 later this season. You don't believe it's possible?
So I called my son - 3 minutes into the first Spurs/Cav game and told him it was over - give the MVP award to Tony Parker. Geez - if the broom was in the closet - the door was never closed.
How many times did Parker slice through the defense of the Cavs? Look for folks to be wearing his jersey this fall. Move over D-Wade? Nah...Parker is good but he needs commercials.
Oh...and how about does Nationals. Only 8 games out of first place in their division. If they can sweep the next group of birdies (BlueJays) they will be out of the cellar and ready to do damage to the league. This team could make folks forget about a new president coming to town. Can you imagine going to the playoffs in 2007 and a new stadium coming soon too? Look for Nationals shirts and caps to be selling big time late August and early September.
So you don't believe me? Look at what Ichiro is hitting - .340.
Go back and look at my old E-Notes. Bert knows baseball. Ichiro is moving at a pace where he might flirt with .400 later this season. You don't believe it's possible?
Movie to see: A Mighty Heart. I want to see how this story of Daniel Pearl is presented. I'm not a big fan of Angelina Jolie but the jury is still out on a number of trials.
Congrats to Per Petterson of Norway. He won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award
($133,000). Petterson is the author of OUT STEALING HORSES. I was given this book by his editor when I was is Oslo last year. Petterson's success should open the door for more writers living in Norway.
Congrats to Per Petterson of Norway. He won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award
($133,000). Petterson is the author of OUT STEALING HORSES. I was given this book by his editor when I was is Oslo last year. Petterson's success should open the door for more writers living in Norway.
New memoir from poet Naomi Shihab Nye's father:
DOES THE LAND REMEMBER ME? A MEMOIR OF PALESTINE by Aziz Shihab(Syracuse University Press, 2007)
So sad to see the news coming out of Gaza.
Yesterday's New York Times front page had a picture of 7 armed Fatah gunmen. If you looked at the photo closely it was amazing to see all seven guns pointing in a different direction. This is symbolic of the problem in so many societies. Chaos is worst than Civil War.
DOES THE LAND REMEMBER ME? A MEMOIR OF PALESTINE by Aziz Shihab(Syracuse University Press, 2007)
So sad to see the news coming out of Gaza.
Yesterday's New York Times front page had a picture of 7 armed Fatah gunmen. If you looked at the photo closely it was amazing to see all seven guns pointing in a different direction. This is symbolic of the problem in so many societies. Chaos is worst than Civil War.
THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (ALA)IS MEETING IN DC NEXT WEEK. HERE IS A PROGRAM YOU MIGHT WANT TO ATTEND:
Many Voices, One Nation: Washington D.C.
Friday, June 22nd, 7:00 pm - 10:00pm
JW Marriott, Salon I & II
Free, no registration required.
Don't miss this annual celebration of the literary diversity and creativity that enriches our world.
This inspiring event will showcase the talent and imagination of writers from across the land as they weave a tapestry of spoken word, expressing the myriad of experiences from our varied ethnic, cultural, and lifestyle traditions, and our fundamental unity within the global human family.
If you've experienced a MVON, you know that this is an unforgettable conference kick-off. Book-signing reception included.
Featuring: Nancy Garden, renowned YA author of Endgame and Annie on My Mind; Patrice Gaines, journalist, author, and prison reform activist; Reginald Harris, poet and Head of the Information Technology Support Department for the Enoch Pratt Free Library; Anosh Irani, Bombay-born novelist and playwright residing in Canada; C. M. Mayo, Texan author and award-winning travel writer; E. Ethelbert Miller, author, literary activist and director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University; Mary Kay Ricks, Washington D.C. journalist, author and student of D.C. history and abolitionism; students from the D.C. Writers Corps, a community non-profit that fosters the literary and creative talents of local youth; Tim Tingle, Choctaw storyteller and award-winning author of Native American fiction and folklore; and performances by the Ishangi Family African Dance and Drum Group, a world renown cultural performance group; and go-go band Lissen Da Grew^p. Go-go is a subgenre of funk, which originated in the Washington, D.C. area during the mid- to late-1970s.
Photos from past Many Voices, One Nation can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaofd --
Many Voices, One Nation: Washington D.C.
Friday, June 22nd, 7:00 pm - 10:00pm
JW Marriott, Salon I & II
Free, no registration required.
Don't miss this annual celebration of the literary diversity and creativity that enriches our world.
This inspiring event will showcase the talent and imagination of writers from across the land as they weave a tapestry of spoken word, expressing the myriad of experiences from our varied ethnic, cultural, and lifestyle traditions, and our fundamental unity within the global human family.
If you've experienced a MVON, you know that this is an unforgettable conference kick-off. Book-signing reception included.
Featuring: Nancy Garden, renowned YA author of Endgame and Annie on My Mind; Patrice Gaines, journalist, author, and prison reform activist; Reginald Harris, poet and Head of the Information Technology Support Department for the Enoch Pratt Free Library; Anosh Irani, Bombay-born novelist and playwright residing in Canada; C. M. Mayo, Texan author and award-winning travel writer; E. Ethelbert Miller, author, literary activist and director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University; Mary Kay Ricks, Washington D.C. journalist, author and student of D.C. history and abolitionism; students from the D.C. Writers Corps, a community non-profit that fosters the literary and creative talents of local youth; Tim Tingle, Choctaw storyteller and award-winning author of Native American fiction and folklore; and performances by the Ishangi Family African Dance and Drum Group, a world renown cultural performance group; and go-go band Lissen Da Grew^p. Go-go is a subgenre of funk, which originated in the Washington, D.C. area during the mid- to late-1970s.
Photos from past Many Voices, One Nation can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaofd --
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Another Link: Click and read.
My Forebears, Whitman, Brown & CoxBy Dan Vera There are a lot of amazing pieces there including a remembrance by Richard McCann, and an old interview of Ed Cox by E. Ethelbert Miller which was originally in the old Washington Review (where the above Cox photo by Jesse Winch comes ...GayWisdom - http://whitecrane.typepad.com/gaywisdom/
My Forebears, Whitman, Brown & CoxBy Dan Vera There are a lot of amazing pieces there including a remembrance by Richard McCann, and an old interview of Ed Cox by E. Ethelbert Miller which was originally in the old Washington Review (where the above Cox photo by Jesse Winch comes ...GayWisdom - http://whitecrane.typepad.com/gaywisdom/
Sunday is not just Father's Day but it's the big day for -THE SECOND MILLER CLASSIC SOFTBALL GAME at Bennington. The game will be played at 2:30 PM. Poets against Fiction writers on the Commons Lawn (Bennington College).
The winners will be able to purchase books of poetry at the Bennington Bookstore.
Go Poets!
The winners will be able to purchase books of poetry at the Bennington Bookstore.
Go Poets!
OK who wrote Nouri- al-Maliki's OP-ED in The Wall Street Journal (June 12th)? Maliki is our guy in Iraq right. He is the prime minister. I couldn't buy him comparing the situation in Iraq to the US Civil War. This guy isn't Lincoln. First I found it funny that the PM of Iraq would even associate himself with the word Civil War. Is this guy also trying to compare a religious conflict to a battle around slavery and state rights? Whew..that's not in the Koran.
Someone around Maliki must have a business degree and not a history one. The Opinion speech in the WSJ was what one might call "reaching" to put pieces together with scotch tape and paste.
It just won't work. The attack against holy shrines means that one is looking at peace coming to the Iraq maybe in 30-50 years. The Middle East is burning right now. Our failure to understand history only fans the flames. Oh, if one could just free the slaves. Right? Maliki might be our Robert E. Lee, a nice guy on a losing team.
Someone around Maliki must have a business degree and not a history one. The Opinion speech in the WSJ was what one might call "reaching" to put pieces together with scotch tape and paste.
It just won't work. The attack against holy shrines means that one is looking at peace coming to the Iraq maybe in 30-50 years. The Middle East is burning right now. Our failure to understand history only fans the flames. Oh, if one could just free the slaves. Right? Maliki might be our Robert E. Lee, a nice guy on a losing team.
Places to watch:
Kenya, Turkey and Lebanon.
The increase of bombing in these countries is not a good sign for peace in the world. Another Iraq in the world and we might be looking at WWIII without borders.
Sad to see the world not moving forward. The absence of great leaders? Where are our men and women of peace and ideas?
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen might be one. He has created the $3 - Life Straw. The nine-inch-long straw filters up to 185 gallons of water...
See Newsweek (June 18, 2007) page 20.
More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. This can correct things.
Congrats to Chinua Achebe. He is the winner of the Man Booker International Prize.
$118,500. Can a Nobel Prize be next?
Achebe is the author of the classic THINGS FALL APART (1958).
Kenya, Turkey and Lebanon.
The increase of bombing in these countries is not a good sign for peace in the world. Another Iraq in the world and we might be looking at WWIII without borders.
Sad to see the world not moving forward. The absence of great leaders? Where are our men and women of peace and ideas?
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen might be one. He has created the $3 - Life Straw. The nine-inch-long straw filters up to 185 gallons of water...
See Newsweek (June 18, 2007) page 20.
More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. This can correct things.
Congrats to Chinua Achebe. He is the winner of the Man Booker International Prize.
$118,500. Can a Nobel Prize be next?
Achebe is the author of the classic THINGS FALL APART (1958).
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
TransForm/Nation
Contemporary Art of Iran And Its Diaspora
Friday June 22- Saturday August 4, 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday June 21 6-9 PM
Ellipse Arts Center
4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 125
Arlington, Virginia 22203
www.arlingtonarts.org/ellipseartscenter.htm
Contemporary Art of Iran And Its Diaspora
Friday June 22- Saturday August 4, 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday June 21 6-9 PM
Ellipse Arts Center
4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 125
Arlington, Virginia 22203
www.arlingtonarts.org/ellipseartscenter.htm
Sports:
So Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander is throwing a no-hitter...
But what are all those birds doing in the outfield? Gulls and not angels?
The game had a softball look to it.
LeBron looking for a foul call at the end of theNBA game yesterday - so much like Kwame Brown looking for help. Give the kid a broom for the summer.
Be sure to read the nice profile of Nolan Richardson in the USA Today (6/13/07). He is the coach for Mexico's national team. Richardson won the NCAA tournament in 1994 with Arkansas.
So Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander is throwing a no-hitter...
But what are all those birds doing in the outfield? Gulls and not angels?
The game had a softball look to it.
LeBron looking for a foul call at the end of theNBA game yesterday - so much like Kwame Brown looking for help. Give the kid a broom for the summer.
Be sure to read the nice profile of Nolan Richardson in the USA Today (6/13/07). He is the coach for Mexico's national team. Richardson won the NCAA tournament in 1994 with Arkansas.
Congrats to 1st Wife Mikki G who is retiring this month after 34 years of working at the Navy Federal Credit Union. Wasn't it just yesterday that I saw her walking on 4th street near the Women's Quad at Howard? Mikki always listening to those Smokey Robinson songs. Her love made me believe in miracles. What becomes of such glitter? What endures? Is it the type of love old folks told me about?
Dancer Liz Lerman is mailing out her "Seven Ways To Be Creative." I like two of them:
Embarce paradox. Hold two ideas in your head at once. Find something to respect at both ends of the spectrum.
Turn discomfort into inquiry.
www.danceexchange.org
Embarce paradox. Hold two ideas in your head at once. Find something to respect at both ends of the spectrum.
Turn discomfort into inquiry.
www.danceexchange.org
So you leave town for a few days and the future flirts with the past but keeps walking. The DC Arts Commission is moving to a new location: 2901 14th Street, NW. The new chair is Anne Ashmore-Hudson.
Fenty selected a chancellor for eduction. So glad he got away from career superintendents who move from one city to another like old NBA coaches. Michelle Rhee might be some fresh air.But check the Washington Post editorial yesterday for a hanging slip onfnonsense - "That she is a Korean American woman seeking to head a system serving mostly African American children will disappoint some." The "some" must be the pockets of nationalists and Washingtonians who number more than the pandas in this city. DC is beginning to have a multicultural face in terms of new power and decision making. I like how Fenty is making tough decisions and not involving too many chefs. What he is doing is making a power statement. It's important that he be his own man in his first year. Looks like the fun is just getting started. Yes to Rhee. The world is not just white and black. How African Americans work with Koreans and other people of
color is the challenge of the 21st Century.
Fenty selected a chancellor for eduction. So glad he got away from career superintendents who move from one city to another like old NBA coaches. Michelle Rhee might be some fresh air.But check the Washington Post editorial yesterday for a hanging slip onfnonsense - "That she is a Korean American woman seeking to head a system serving mostly African American children will disappoint some." The "some" must be the pockets of nationalists and Washingtonians who number more than the pandas in this city. DC is beginning to have a multicultural face in terms of new power and decision making. I like how Fenty is making tough decisions and not involving too many chefs. What he is doing is making a power statement. It's important that he be his own man in his first year. Looks like the fun is just getting started. Yes to Rhee. The world is not just white and black. How African Americans work with Koreans and other people of
color is the challenge of the 21st Century.
Credit?
Monitor your credit reports regularly for errors. You can order your credit reports at:
www.annualcreditreport.com
Monitor your credit reports regularly for errors. You can order your credit reports at:
www.annualcreditreport.com
I'm back from Jacksonville. The birthplace of James Weldon Johnson. I gave a talk on Langston Hughes at the Main Library. A nice short trip. A chance to have dinner on Monday with my cousin Ken. His mom was my favorite aunt and Godmother. All our New York years reduced to memories and photographs. We sat at Benny's Steak & Seafood looking at the river by The Landing, eating Mahi-Mahi and Salmon. The clock watched our laughter disappear into the night.
Being away from DC gave me a good opportunity to work on my second memoir. I wrote a key passsage that I think will define everything I've been feeling the last few years.
Being away from DC gave me a good opportunity to work on my second memoir. I wrote a key passsage that I think will define everything I've been feeling the last few years.
Monday, June 11, 2007
New York Times: June 11th.
"The country, one of the poorest in the region, has just issued three postage stamps bearing Mr. Bush's likeness, and a street in front of the Parliament building has been renamed for him. At the mosque in the center of town, Uncle Sam hats were stacked in a window seat in the prayer room."
But what about Uncle Sam's shoes?
"The country, one of the poorest in the region, has just issued three postage stamps bearing Mr. Bush's likeness, and a street in front of the Parliament building has been renamed for him. At the mosque in the center of town, Uncle Sam hats were stacked in a window seat in the prayer room."
But what about Uncle Sam's shoes?
OK who gave the OK for Bush to get so close to the crowd in Albania? If you check the picture on the front page of The New York Times you can tell it was the White House. Notice the flag in the crowd. It's the type you give out to schools and folks at the Republican Convention. Wave. Wave. Cheer and smile.
I'm certain the crowd consisted of some type of Albanian club or government agency that was treated to some eats afterwards. Bush is low in his ratings. Somewhere you need someone to show you a little love. I saw footage of this Albanian parade and thought it was good therapy for the Prez.
It's hard to smile when you are fighting an unpopular war. Don't you just love being in Fusche Kruje?
I'm certain the crowd consisted of some type of Albanian club or government agency that was treated to some eats afterwards. Bush is low in his ratings. Somewhere you need someone to show you a little love. I saw footage of this Albanian parade and thought it was good therapy for the Prez.
It's hard to smile when you are fighting an unpopular war. Don't you just love being in Fusche Kruje?
Sports:
Tony, Tony, Tony.
Give Parker the MVP award if the Spurs win the next 2 games in Cleveland. This guy set the tone in the first game. Yesterday he just placed his sneaker on the pedal and kept it there. James looks like a kid out of high school and in his first NBA Finals. He will need 40 points in a game for the Cavaliers to win something.
Who knows - Cleveland could win the next 2 games and the NBA leadership and television folks will be happy. What's a country without drama?
HYpe?
Matsuzaka is 7-5. Let's see what this guy doe slate in the season.
Tony, Tony, Tony.
Give Parker the MVP award if the Spurs win the next 2 games in Cleveland. This guy set the tone in the first game. Yesterday he just placed his sneaker on the pedal and kept it there. James looks like a kid out of high school and in his first NBA Finals. He will need 40 points in a game for the Cavaliers to win something.
Who knows - Cleveland could win the next 2 games and the NBA leadership and television folks will be happy. What's a country without drama?
HYpe?
Matsuzaka is 7-5. Let's see what this guy doe slate in the season.
THE GREATEST?
Ousmane Sembene is dead at 84. The Senegalese filmmaker and writer was a key figure in Africa's postcolonial cultural awakening. He was seen as the father of African cinema. Be sure to see BLACK GIRL which he made in 1965.
Sembene knew how to explore tradition and modernity. Some of his films were also wonderful for their humor.
I have an old copy of his movie MANDABI in my African American Resource Center at Howard.
Many years ago I remember working in my office and he walked in. Wow...
Ousmane Sembene is dead at 84. The Senegalese filmmaker and writer was a key figure in Africa's postcolonial cultural awakening. He was seen as the father of African cinema. Be sure to see BLACK GIRL which he made in 1965.
Sembene knew how to explore tradition and modernity. Some of his films were also wonderful for their humor.
I have an old copy of his movie MANDABI in my African American Resource Center at Howard.
Many years ago I remember working in my office and he walked in. Wow...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
What's missing from our lives? It might be songs by Gamble & Huff. We need a steady dose of their music - play their songs wherever there is a crib or a woman expecting a child. Love music before a child leaves the womb. Don't you miss the lyrics? I don't know about you but that's "Where I Wanna Be."
Why are we letting our music kill us today?
Where are the new spirituals? What song can I sing that will lead me out of this bondage?
We need someone to blow the trumpet (again?). Our ears need to be free. Don't you want to be free?
We download when we need to UPload. Reach! Don't let the music you listen to - kill you.
----and then John Coltrane wrote Meditations.
Why are we letting our music kill us today?
Where are the new spirituals? What song can I sing that will lead me out of this bondage?
We need someone to blow the trumpet (again?). Our ears need to be free. Don't you want to be free?
We download when we need to UPload. Reach! Don't let the music you listen to - kill you.
----and then John Coltrane wrote Meditations.
Paris Hilton Unplugged? Maybe this is the real story here. If young people have become addicted to a way of life - what happens when they have to go cold turkey without a cellphone or silly conversations. It's just you and the walls. Who are you? What is life really about? During a time of celebrity culture, what happens when someone gives you a number and a cell?
Who will get the first Paris Hilton interview? Will she become a spokesperson for people behind bars? Bono has Africa. Might Paris speaks for "political" prisoners?
Or maybe this is the ultimate reality show. The crying and the calling for one's Mom is the OJ Bronco chase - it's something we will remember - and isn't that what this is all about? Fame for the moment. More fame for the next moment. Pushing oneself until you're just Paris- and people don't even think of the city, when they say your name.
Who will get the first Paris Hilton interview? Will she become a spokesperson for people behind bars? Bono has Africa. Might Paris speaks for "political" prisoners?
Or maybe this is the ultimate reality show. The crying and the calling for one's Mom is the OJ Bronco chase - it's something we will remember - and isn't that what this is all about? Fame for the moment. More fame for the next moment. Pushing oneself until you're just Paris- and people don't even think of the city, when they say your name.
Don't move from Sunday into Monday without reading Matt Bai's story on John Edward's plan to end poverty. Bai has written the cover story for The New York Times Magazine (June 10th).
This is the type of journalism we need to read more of before slipping into a voting booth.
As you know I've been a supporter of Edward's from day one. You won't mistake me for an O-bama. Read Bai's take on poverty and Edwards. I don't think we can eradicate poverty in America but I know we can dminish it. Bai defines poverty in his article and I found it to be helpful in gaining a better understanding of what's going on:
1. Being poor means, quite literally, that you don't have money.
2. Bai also talks about human capital. This is the "less visible resources, aside from money, that many poor people lack: education, marketable skills, contacts, self-discipline."
What are you lacking?
This is the type of journalism we need to read more of before slipping into a voting booth.
As you know I've been a supporter of Edward's from day one. You won't mistake me for an O-bama. Read Bai's take on poverty and Edwards. I don't think we can eradicate poverty in America but I know we can dminish it. Bai defines poverty in his article and I found it to be helpful in gaining a better understanding of what's going on:
1. Being poor means, quite literally, that you don't have money.
2. Bai also talks about human capital. This is the "less visible resources, aside from money, that many poor people lack: education, marketable skills, contacts, self-discipline."
What are you lacking?
Are you thinking Post-black? I might be entering my Post-Bert period. Does that sound like nonsense to you? Well read Jori Finkel's "A Reluctant Fraternity, Thinking Post-Black" in the Art section of The New York Times (6/10/07). Finkel is trying to help us understand the work of Edgar Arceneaux, Rodney McMillian, Mark Bradford and Kori Newkirk. OK...so they are all black. Is that why they are all in the same article? I knew as soon as I started reading this newspaper article it was going to be similar to something I stuck in a cat box back in the 1970s.
Why do we keep thinking all black artists have to be doing the same thing? People are individuals and they also belong to a group. No one has a monopoly on blackness - nor can you define it one way. Still I don't need someone to tell me which way the river bends. Too often we let someone else define our geography and give us terms and say call yourself - post-black. Or maybe we get some black intellectual to explain what the drums are saying. Thank you Adolph Reed for bringing this to our attention years ago. So what is Christine Kim at the Studio talking about? Are there different - or new possibilities (today) for discussing race or is it just the changing same? ---Right now I'm listening to Patti Labelle singing "If You Don't Know Me By Now." Nuff said. All I can say is that I'm an African American writer - if you don't know me by now - you will never know me. Don't call me Post-Black. I thought you knew me by now...but I guess you don't. Thanks LaBelle. Thanks Finkel? Artists will continue to create without limitations...race is not a prison or barrier...it's the essence or the universal blackness that we come out of...if you think you're not black OR SOMETHING ELSE - remember what Langston said - "ASK, YOUR MAMA."
Why do we keep thinking all black artists have to be doing the same thing? People are individuals and they also belong to a group. No one has a monopoly on blackness - nor can you define it one way. Still I don't need someone to tell me which way the river bends. Too often we let someone else define our geography and give us terms and say call yourself - post-black. Or maybe we get some black intellectual to explain what the drums are saying. Thank you Adolph Reed for bringing this to our attention years ago. So what is Christine Kim at the Studio talking about? Are there different - or new possibilities (today) for discussing race or is it just the changing same? ---Right now I'm listening to Patti Labelle singing "If You Don't Know Me By Now." Nuff said. All I can say is that I'm an African American writer - if you don't know me by now - you will never know me. Don't call me Post-Black. I thought you knew me by now...but I guess you don't. Thanks LaBelle. Thanks Finkel? Artists will continue to create without limitations...race is not a prison or barrier...it's the essence or the universal blackness that we come out of...if you think you're not black OR SOMETHING ELSE - remember what Langston said - "ASK, YOUR MAMA."
So who is doing some of the best artistic work in the city right now? The prize would have to go to the Superduo: Visual artist Michael Platt and poet Carol Beane. The two art books they have produced will give all eyes a new standard for beauty. The personal weds history in much of their work. So why do so many of us suffer from divorce these days? Here is a link to Platt's work:
www.plattstudio.com
www.plattstudio.com
MUSIC? Well I didn't say it but I heard it. Just go back to one of my recent E-Notes Remember what I said about Rihanna?
Here is Sarah Godfrey reviewing Rihanna's GOOD GIRL GONE BAD in the Washington Post:
"Rihanna is the most recent urban songstress to spit out her bubble-gum sound..."
"Rihanna just doesn't have a strong voice like the Brit singer(Amy Winehouse). And when she tries to sing as if she does, it seems she hasn't just "gone bad," she rotten."
Well I agree. I also thought Winehouse was a cold brew too. Mercy and Merci.
Here is Sarah Godfrey reviewing Rihanna's GOOD GIRL GONE BAD in the Washington Post:
"Rihanna is the most recent urban songstress to spit out her bubble-gum sound..."
"Rihanna just doesn't have a strong voice like the Brit singer(Amy Winehouse). And when she tries to sing as if she does, it seems she hasn't just "gone bad," she rotten."
Well I agree. I also thought Winehouse was a cold brew too. Mercy and Merci.
The focus is on crime in Columbia Heights this week. See Washington Post( today). With the rapid transition of DC look for this to "end "by next year. Development will push the crime further North into other residential neighborhoods. This isn't rocket science.
It's very difficult to stop crime without getting at the economic problems. You also can't stop domestic fights, and the simple rage folks walk around with. Get me Fanon on the phone. Hello- Wretched of the Earth? You can't fight gangs unless you deal with racism and target groups.
When you hear terms like cease-fire in the vocabulary of the police, then you know they are losing the "hot" war and just want to make it "cold." Cold Wars are the ones that "protect" the new residents. Touch them and they will drop the BOMB on you. Meanwhile, in the "Third World" the violence continues. The increase of more visible police in Columbia Heights looks like NATO on the move. Save Europe and the Condos?
It's very difficult to stop crime without getting at the economic problems. You also can't stop domestic fights, and the simple rage folks walk around with. Get me Fanon on the phone. Hello- Wretched of the Earth? You can't fight gangs unless you deal with racism and target groups.
When you hear terms like cease-fire in the vocabulary of the police, then you know they are losing the "hot" war and just want to make it "cold." Cold Wars are the ones that "protect" the new residents. Touch them and they will drop the BOMB on you. Meanwhile, in the "Third World" the violence continues. The increase of more visible police in Columbia Heights looks like NATO on the move. Save Europe and the Condos?
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Not a bad day. I spent much of it over at the Savory in Takoma Park (MD). I met a nice fiction writer by the name of Brooke. We talked for a long time about her fiction and writing. She was in the John Hopkins program. She also took some classes at The Writer's Center in Maryland. Brooke began the conversation because she saw my Poets& Writer's bag and I was sitting at a table reading submissions for Poet Lore. Do I look like an editor?
I completed 2 Poet Lore packets. I have 2 more to do. I came back home and took a nap before watching the Nationals play the Twins. Washington has a good team. Great to see Guzman hitting. If this team can make it to .500 right after the All-Star game - lookout! Wildcard run? It would be good for the city. With all the talk from the mayor and some "cultural" types about this being a World Class Cultural city - it won't be nothing but rhetoric without some champs on the field and court. Where would New York be without the Yankees? Ruth could have built Broadway too.
The Nationals need to make some of the pilgrims put away those Red Sox caps. I don't see the Redskins going anywhere unless Campbell is the next Joe Montana. The Wizards need a center and a dynamic point guard. Mystics - nuff said. Zimmerman is a star. LEgit. Maybe this is will be the summer of 2007 - a time when Washington is a place known for wins and not just war.
Right now I'm listening to Janis Joplin singing - "I Need A Man to Love" and "Summertime."
Hush...baby,baby, no no no - don't you cry.
I need to take to the sky....
No
No
No
Don't you cry.
I completed 2 Poet Lore packets. I have 2 more to do. I came back home and took a nap before watching the Nationals play the Twins. Washington has a good team. Great to see Guzman hitting. If this team can make it to .500 right after the All-Star game - lookout! Wildcard run? It would be good for the city. With all the talk from the mayor and some "cultural" types about this being a World Class Cultural city - it won't be nothing but rhetoric without some champs on the field and court. Where would New York be without the Yankees? Ruth could have built Broadway too.
The Nationals need to make some of the pilgrims put away those Red Sox caps. I don't see the Redskins going anywhere unless Campbell is the next Joe Montana. The Wizards need a center and a dynamic point guard. Mystics - nuff said. Zimmerman is a star. LEgit. Maybe this is will be the summer of 2007 - a time when Washington is a place known for wins and not just war.
Right now I'm listening to Janis Joplin singing - "I Need A Man to Love" and "Summertime."
Hush...baby,baby, no no no - don't you cry.
I need to take to the sky....
No
No
No
Don't you cry.
You never want anyone's child to go to jail - but there are laws. It's what you tell your kids everyday.
Don't get in trouble. I sat a few weeks ago in a court room. There in front of me was another sad case of a young black boy caught in the system. The crime was one of those joy night types. What was this young kid looking at? Several years. No family was in the room. The kid was as naked as the day he was born. Helpless too and probably not a bad kid. I could tell he was not a multimillionaire and was not going to be fitted with a bracelet and sent home. All this brings me to why Paris is crying. PH is calling for her Mom because reality is real and not a show. Do the privilege go to jail? Not if they can help it. Crime may not pay but you can get a discount if you have money and connections. Many of us may not live the beautiful lives but we are not ugly and it's sad that we are invisible and no one cares. Yesterday, I was coming home on the bus and a young girl who looked like Paris didn't want to sit down next to me. Another day on the DC Metro. I didn't care. I thought about how no one was sitting next to Rosa Parks either. This is the price of the ticket and maybe I don't care if Paris has to stand or go to jail. Maybe there is just a little less love in my heart or maybe I'm just angry about how the scales of justice never seems to tip the way it should. Maybe if I could host a reality show - things would be different. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find my way in this world of living color. We will always have Paris.
Don't get in trouble. I sat a few weeks ago in a court room. There in front of me was another sad case of a young black boy caught in the system. The crime was one of those joy night types. What was this young kid looking at? Several years. No family was in the room. The kid was as naked as the day he was born. Helpless too and probably not a bad kid. I could tell he was not a multimillionaire and was not going to be fitted with a bracelet and sent home. All this brings me to why Paris is crying. PH is calling for her Mom because reality is real and not a show. Do the privilege go to jail? Not if they can help it. Crime may not pay but you can get a discount if you have money and connections. Many of us may not live the beautiful lives but we are not ugly and it's sad that we are invisible and no one cares. Yesterday, I was coming home on the bus and a young girl who looked like Paris didn't want to sit down next to me. Another day on the DC Metro. I didn't care. I thought about how no one was sitting next to Rosa Parks either. This is the price of the ticket and maybe I don't care if Paris has to stand or go to jail. Maybe there is just a little less love in my heart or maybe I'm just angry about how the scales of justice never seems to tip the way it should. Maybe if I could host a reality show - things would be different. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find my way in this world of living color. We will always have Paris.
Quotes of the Day:
Prejudice and bigotry are brought down...by the sheer force of determination of individuals to succeed and the refusal of a human being to let prejudice define the parameters of the possible.
- Condoleezza Rice
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequalities in the world - the appalling disaparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemn milllions of people to lives of poverty, disease and despair.
- Bill Gates (Dropped out of Harvard in 1975. Excerpt from Commencement speech at Harvard in 2007)
I started reading Fast Company magazine for the first time this week. It's a good journal edited by Robert Safian. Website link: www.FastCompany.com
So I was on U Street yesterday afternoon and saw where a new sushi bar is opening next to the Mocha Hut. I started eating more sushi after trips to New York to see my Mom. A good place can be found across the street from her apartment near Chambers Street. Sushi on U...wait until Ginger G hears about this. It might make her long for DC the way Zora did for Eatonville. Anyway, we all might want to purchase copies of THE SUSHI ECONOMY: Globalization and the making of a modern delicacy by Sasha Issenberg.
With all these new places opening around town...the "old" spots will have to find ways to keep their patrons. What makes the Mocha nice is that you can always find new art
work on the walls. This place could be the happening for young artists with visual wares. A couple of guest curators and a few splash spash openings and folks might be talking about the Mocha "Color" School. I bet the poet Freddy J. knows how to paint strips. We had fun sitting outside the Hut yesterday - like two black men in Lagos or Dakar. Nothing like a Friday to rest one's Negritude.
Earlier in the day I had a long talk on the phone with Ginger G. One of those conversations that makes one hug your cellphone - the range of topics - that makes a good friendship - priceless. Later in the evening I also laughed and talked on the phone with poet buddy Naomi Ayala. She has a new book coming out in a few months from Curbstone Press.
Oh, and fiction writer Hank Lewis is now in town. He will be teaching at the U in College Park this fall..
Sweet Lew was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner prize last year. I love this guy...
Well, I have a new refrigerator. It came yesterday and my water is nice and cold. I looked in my freezer and didn't see my $90,000. Does anyone know where it is? Yo -Jefferson. Check the old frig the folks took. See ya - I'm heading to Jacksonville next week.
Prejudice and bigotry are brought down...by the sheer force of determination of individuals to succeed and the refusal of a human being to let prejudice define the parameters of the possible.
- Condoleezza Rice
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequalities in the world - the appalling disaparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemn milllions of people to lives of poverty, disease and despair.
- Bill Gates (Dropped out of Harvard in 1975. Excerpt from Commencement speech at Harvard in 2007)
I started reading Fast Company magazine for the first time this week. It's a good journal edited by Robert Safian. Website link: www.FastCompany.com
So I was on U Street yesterday afternoon and saw where a new sushi bar is opening next to the Mocha Hut. I started eating more sushi after trips to New York to see my Mom. A good place can be found across the street from her apartment near Chambers Street. Sushi on U...wait until Ginger G hears about this. It might make her long for DC the way Zora did for Eatonville. Anyway, we all might want to purchase copies of THE SUSHI ECONOMY: Globalization and the making of a modern delicacy by Sasha Issenberg.
With all these new places opening around town...the "old" spots will have to find ways to keep their patrons. What makes the Mocha nice is that you can always find new art
work on the walls. This place could be the happening for young artists with visual wares. A couple of guest curators and a few splash spash openings and folks might be talking about the Mocha "Color" School. I bet the poet Freddy J. knows how to paint strips. We had fun sitting outside the Hut yesterday - like two black men in Lagos or Dakar. Nothing like a Friday to rest one's Negritude.
Earlier in the day I had a long talk on the phone with Ginger G. One of those conversations that makes one hug your cellphone - the range of topics - that makes a good friendship - priceless. Later in the evening I also laughed and talked on the phone with poet buddy Naomi Ayala. She has a new book coming out in a few months from Curbstone Press.
Oh, and fiction writer Hank Lewis is now in town. He will be teaching at the U in College Park this fall..
Sweet Lew was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner prize last year. I love this guy...
Well, I have a new refrigerator. It came yesterday and my water is nice and cold. I looked in my freezer and didn't see my $90,000. Does anyone know where it is? Yo -Jefferson. Check the old frig the folks took. See ya - I'm heading to Jacksonville next week.
Friday, June 08, 2007
So which Vanity Fair magazine (July issue) did you purchase? I got the one with Brad Pitt and Bishop Tutu. I love the Bishop...once ran into him coming out of the DuPont Circle Metro station.
The Vanity Cover with Condoleezza Rice and President Bush is interesting. Condi has a badd girl expression. Even the cover with her and Bono seems to capture a spicy Rice. Maya Angelou looks very wise in her pixs. Bill Gates looks as if he wanted to pay someone so he could escape the photo session. Is Oprah really that beautiful? Iman didn't need Alicia Keys in her frame. It's obvious after looking at all these covers why Iman is a supermodel. Other people just have their pictures taken. Iman invented the pose.
OK...now let me read about AFRICA. That's what this is all about right? Remind me...
This looks like a good issue. Can you name all the African filmmakers on page 184-185?
The Vanity Cover with Condoleezza Rice and President Bush is interesting. Condi has a badd girl expression. Even the cover with her and Bono seems to capture a spicy Rice. Maya Angelou looks very wise in her pixs. Bill Gates looks as if he wanted to pay someone so he could escape the photo session. Is Oprah really that beautiful? Iman didn't need Alicia Keys in her frame. It's obvious after looking at all these covers why Iman is a supermodel. Other people just have their pictures taken. Iman invented the pose.
OK...now let me read about AFRICA. That's what this is all about right? Remind me...
This looks like a good issue. Can you name all the African filmmakers on page 184-185?
Quote of the Day:
His writing was shaped by the legitimate worry that human beings were merging with the technology that was supposed to be serving them and becoming less human (which is to say, more machine-like) in the bargain.
Brent Staples writing about the novelist Philip K. Dick in The New York Times (6/8/07).
His writing was shaped by the legitimate worry that human beings were merging with the technology that was supposed to be serving them and becoming less human (which is to say, more machine-like) in the bargain.
Brent Staples writing about the novelist Philip K. Dick in The New York Times (6/8/07).
7th & T - another place where people vanish. Now there is a Wachovia Bank on the corner.
Wachovia ranks 5th in private wealth management in the US. Its clients are typically executives, doctors and lawyers.
Wachovia goes where the money is. Look for this bank to be like Starbucks. A Wachovia next to every Condo?
So where did the people go who for years were just hanging around the pool hall? Everyday I see homeless black men, standing and sitting on the shores of Africa - the others long gone with the ships.
Is A New World Coming or is the Old One just fading away?
Wachovia ranks 5th in private wealth management in the US. Its clients are typically executives, doctors and lawyers.
Wachovia goes where the money is. Look for this bank to be like Starbucks. A Wachovia next to every Condo?
So where did the people go who for years were just hanging around the pool hall? Everyday I see homeless black men, standing and sitting on the shores of Africa - the others long gone with the ships.
Is A New World Coming or is the Old One just fading away?
Don't Miss:
The Division of United States Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs invite you to a discussion of the findings of a
Task Force on Muslim Americans in the U.S. Foreign Policy Discourse
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
6th floor Flom Auditorium
Continental breakfast is available at 8:30 a.m.
With speakers:
Lee H. Hamilton
President and Director, Woodrow Wilson Center
Farooq Kathwari
Co-chair of the Task Force, and Chairman, President and CEO, Ethan Allen, Inc.
Lynn Martin
Co-chair of the Task Force, and former U.S. congresswoman and U.S. Secretary of Labor
Peter Skerry
Professor of Political Science, Boston College
Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr.
Adjunct Scholar, Middle East Institute
Daniel Benjamin
Director, Center on the United States and Europe, The Brookings Institution
The Task Force, convened by The Chicago Council to examine opportunities for engaging Muslim Americans more fully in the U.S. foreign policy discourse, will report on its recommendations for:
strengthening relations between Muslim Americans and government agencies
increasing Muslim American civic and political participation
educating the American public about Islam and the American Muslim community
strengthening the structure and capacity of existing Muslim American organizations
developing new institutions for serving these ends.
Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20004–3027
Directions are available at our web site at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions
This is a free public event; but RSVPs are required. Please respond with acceptances only tohttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1427&fuseaction=topics.event_rsvp&event_id=217566
The Division of United States Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs invite you to a discussion of the findings of a
Task Force on Muslim Americans in the U.S. Foreign Policy Discourse
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
6th floor Flom Auditorium
Continental breakfast is available at 8:30 a.m.
With speakers:
Lee H. Hamilton
President and Director, Woodrow Wilson Center
Farooq Kathwari
Co-chair of the Task Force, and Chairman, President and CEO, Ethan Allen, Inc.
Lynn Martin
Co-chair of the Task Force, and former U.S. congresswoman and U.S. Secretary of Labor
Peter Skerry
Professor of Political Science, Boston College
Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr.
Adjunct Scholar, Middle East Institute
Daniel Benjamin
Director, Center on the United States and Europe, The Brookings Institution
The Task Force, convened by The Chicago Council to examine opportunities for engaging Muslim Americans more fully in the U.S. foreign policy discourse, will report on its recommendations for:
strengthening relations between Muslim Americans and government agencies
increasing Muslim American civic and political participation
educating the American public about Islam and the American Muslim community
strengthening the structure and capacity of existing Muslim American organizations
developing new institutions for serving these ends.
Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20004–3027
Directions are available at our web site at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions
This is a free public event; but RSVPs are required. Please respond with acceptances only tohttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1427&fuseaction=topics.event_rsvp&event_id=217566
News about the In-Laws. Congrats to Pa & Ma King:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706060402
For some of us the idea of freedom is still a rumor.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706060402
For some of us the idea of freedom is still a rumor.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
IPS Long Range Planning meeting today. It went well...
www.ips-dc.org
Myra MacPherson left me a copy of her new book at the IPS office. It's a biography of I.F.Stone - ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE! THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REBEL JOURNALIST I.F.STONE.
Whew...I haven't seen Myra in years and I missed her the other week. :-(
You have to love the woman - she is the author of the classic LONG TIME PASSING, a book about the Vietnam War.
So - I have the Ellison biography to finish, along with the new bio on Condi and now I.F. Stone.
This must be the good life. Summer reading.
Where is the love?
Back at HU...tried to print out someone's thesis and now nothing is working. Not a happy Bert.
Should I blame Mugabe? If governments lie, do colleges tell the truth? Hmmm.
www.ips-dc.org
Myra MacPherson left me a copy of her new book at the IPS office. It's a biography of I.F.Stone - ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE! THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REBEL JOURNALIST I.F.STONE.
Whew...I haven't seen Myra in years and I missed her the other week. :-(
You have to love the woman - she is the author of the classic LONG TIME PASSING, a book about the Vietnam War.
So - I have the Ellison biography to finish, along with the new bio on Condi and now I.F. Stone.
This must be the good life. Summer reading.
Where is the love?
Back at HU...tried to print out someone's thesis and now nothing is working. Not a happy Bert.
Should I blame Mugabe? If governments lie, do colleges tell the truth? Hmmm.
The Division of United States Studies and the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars are pleased to invite you to a discussion of:
Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans
with author Jean Pfaelzer
Professor of American Studies and English, University of Delaware
Commentators:
Janelle Wong
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Southern California
Franklin Odo
Director, Asian Pacific American Program, Smithsonian Institution
In 1885, the Chinese residents of Tacoma, Washington were dragged from their homes and forced out of the city. Two days later Tacoma’s Chinatown was burned to the ground. It was only one of dozens of incidents in the second half of the 19th century during which Chinese immigrants living in the western United States were attacked, banished, and murdered.
The Chinese thought of themselves as building new lives in the this country. Many whites, however, viewed them as sojourners, uninterested in conforming to American values and focused only on taking jobs from white citizens so they could send money back to China. Local lawmakers responded by passing anti-Chinese legislation. From the vantage point of the first half of the twenty-first century, the tale resonates with uncanny echoes.
Jean Pfaelzer will recount the largely unknown story of how the Chinese fought back: suing for reparations, repeatedly rebuilding their vandalized homes, claiming their children’s right to public education.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Fifth floor conference room
Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20004 –3027
Directions are available at our web site at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions
This is a free public event; but RSVPs are required.
International Center for Scholars are pleased to invite you to a discussion of:
Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans
with author Jean Pfaelzer
Professor of American Studies and English, University of Delaware
Commentators:
Janelle Wong
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Southern California
Franklin Odo
Director, Asian Pacific American Program, Smithsonian Institution
In 1885, the Chinese residents of Tacoma, Washington were dragged from their homes and forced out of the city. Two days later Tacoma’s Chinatown was burned to the ground. It was only one of dozens of incidents in the second half of the 19th century during which Chinese immigrants living in the western United States were attacked, banished, and murdered.
The Chinese thought of themselves as building new lives in the this country. Many whites, however, viewed them as sojourners, uninterested in conforming to American values and focused only on taking jobs from white citizens so they could send money back to China. Local lawmakers responded by passing anti-Chinese legislation. From the vantage point of the first half of the twenty-first century, the tale resonates with uncanny echoes.
Jean Pfaelzer will recount the largely unknown story of how the Chinese fought back: suing for reparations, repeatedly rebuilding their vandalized homes, claiming their children’s right to public education.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Fifth floor conference room
Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20004 –3027
Directions are available at our web site at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions
This is a free public event; but RSVPs are required.
Maybe this explains everything:
As you know I've been talking quite a bit about how people of color seem to be disappearing from DC. You walk down a street - and suddenly a building is being renovated and everyone from the old neighborhood is gone. Large apartment buildings vacant. But did you ever see the moving trucks?? Where did the people go? Well, in the New York Times (see page A33) there is an article about how the metropolitan area phone book is shrinking. Check this -
"But the fat phone book, a fixture of the urban American household in the last century, is losing some of its girth as more people give up their land lines for cellphones. When they do, their names disappear from the phone book."
Maybe our names disappear first - then our legs and arms - finally our heads. Only our smiles left - to grin back at da folks. Heh Heh!
As you know I've been talking quite a bit about how people of color seem to be disappearing from DC. You walk down a street - and suddenly a building is being renovated and everyone from the old neighborhood is gone. Large apartment buildings vacant. But did you ever see the moving trucks?? Where did the people go? Well, in the New York Times (see page A33) there is an article about how the metropolitan area phone book is shrinking. Check this -
"But the fat phone book, a fixture of the urban American household in the last century, is losing some of its girth as more people give up their land lines for cellphones. When they do, their names disappear from the phone book."
Maybe our names disappear first - then our legs and arms - finally our heads. Only our smiles left - to grin back at da folks. Heh Heh!
Roll Call? Craig's List.
I find it amazing where all those ex-Chicago Bull players are these days. How many are calling games or working in an NBA front office? But what about Craig Hodges? Where is that guy?
Is he still the shooting coach for the Lakers?
Hey - Cleveland Cavaliers - let Craig Ehlo throw out the game ball.
I find it amazing where all those ex-Chicago Bull players are these days. How many are calling games or working in an NBA front office? But what about Craig Hodges? Where is that guy?
Is he still the shooting coach for the Lakers?
Hey - Cleveland Cavaliers - let Craig Ehlo throw out the game ball.
On my summer reading list will be the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She recently won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. The award was announced in London. Adichie is the author of HALF OF A YELLOW SUN.
Last week I exchanged a few emails with E# 1. That's Edwidge Danticat. She told me she has a memoir coming out in the fall. An excerpt can be found in the new issue of The New Yorker magazine (June 11 & 18). See "Marie Micheline" on page 96. I plan to read it this afternoon.
Last week I exchanged a few emails with E# 1. That's Edwidge Danticat. She told me she has a memoir coming out in the fall. An excerpt can be found in the new issue of The New Yorker magazine (June 11 & 18). See "Marie Micheline" on page 96. I plan to read it this afternoon.
Possible?
The advance in cell biology is the big news today.
This is what was reported in the NY Times by Nicholas Wade:
"In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient's cells into specialized tissues that might replaace those lost to disease."
Scientists have been working on reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. "Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body's major tissues."
Everyday seems like Sci-Fi. Look for future conflicts between science and religion. How will religious groups explain ET contact?
The advance in cell biology is the big news today.
This is what was reported in the NY Times by Nicholas Wade:
"In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient's cells into specialized tissues that might replaace those lost to disease."
Scientists have been working on reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. "Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body's major tissues."
Everyday seems like Sci-Fi. Look for future conflicts between science and religion. How will religious groups explain ET contact?
There is a good article in The Wall Street Journal (today) about parents too often paying their "adult" children's cellular bills. Suggested ways to ease your children off the digital dole:
- Make them start paying for overages.
- Pay for only one year after graduation.
- Require them to manage the family bill.
- Cut them loose once they get a job. (I like this one).
- Make them start paying for overages.
- Pay for only one year after graduation.
- Require them to manage the family bill.
- Cut them loose once they get a job. (I like this one).
Good to see the Humane Society Planning to open a 'State-of the Art Facility' by 2009.
With an increase of dogs in the DC (Dog City?) area, look for lost and abandon pets to be on the rise. The push for more dog parks is another sign of the changing Washington. I remain a cat person. Please don't bark at me when I'm in the streets trying to get around. I'm also trying to turn purrs into love poems.
www.washhumane.org
With an increase of dogs in the DC (Dog City?) area, look for lost and abandon pets to be on the rise. The push for more dog parks is another sign of the changing Washington. I remain a cat person. Please don't bark at me when I'm in the streets trying to get around. I'm also trying to turn purrs into love poems.
www.washhumane.org
Excerpt from my Commencement Address to the Booker T. Washington Public Charter School on June 5, 2007:
How does one continue to navigate the ocean of life? A good education will help you chart the waters. A good education will help you reach the shores of success.
But we seem to be living during a time of terrible storms.
We live during a time of war and violence in our streets.
We live during a time of poverty and unemployment.
We live during a time of dark clouds and heavy rain.
So the challenge at hand is how do you guide your ship- your body- your mind?
How do you learn to look at the raging waters surrounding you and say "Peace Be Still."
How does one continue to navigate the ocean of life? A good education will help you chart the waters. A good education will help you reach the shores of success.
But we seem to be living during a time of terrible storms.
We live during a time of war and violence in our streets.
We live during a time of poverty and unemployment.
We live during a time of dark clouds and heavy rain.
So the challenge at hand is how do you guide your ship- your body- your mind?
How do you learn to look at the raging waters surrounding you and say "Peace Be Still."
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
We Are the World:
The Network of Spiritual Progressives
A Project of the Tikkun Community
Dear Tikkun Ally,
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War, in which Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip, initiating the occupation of those territories and furthering a cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Knowing this history, it is easy to feel helpless about the ongoing suffering in the Middle East.
Yet we believe that simply passing along a message that there is hope for peace in Israel and Palestine is important work towards justice and reconciliation. We hope you'll join us in sharing this hopeful message by watching our new video about healing Israel and Palestine and sharing it with people in your network.
You can learn more about our vision for peace in the Middle East by reading Rabbi Lerner’s book Healing Israel/Palestine or giving it to a friend.
In peace,
Nichola TorbettDirector of National Programs
The Network of Spiritual Progressives
A Project of the Tikkun Community
Dear Tikkun Ally,
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War, in which Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip, initiating the occupation of those territories and furthering a cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Knowing this history, it is easy to feel helpless about the ongoing suffering in the Middle East.
Yet we believe that simply passing along a message that there is hope for peace in Israel and Palestine is important work towards justice and reconciliation. We hope you'll join us in sharing this hopeful message by watching our new video about healing Israel and Palestine and sharing it with people in your network.
You can learn more about our vision for peace in the Middle East by reading Rabbi Lerner’s book Healing Israel/Palestine or giving it to a friend.
In peace,
Nichola TorbettDirector of National Programs
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?
A very important statement in today's news:
"The N.F.L. scene has become the puppy mill for pit-bull lore. As the trendiest of bad-boy acessories, the pit bull is the new gun for some players. As a replacement for tired soldier analogies, players are turning to the most mythologized of muscle dogs to define their masculinity."
- Selena Robert, N.Y. Times (6/6-07)
A very important statement in today's news:
"The N.F.L. scene has become the puppy mill for pit-bull lore. As the trendiest of bad-boy acessories, the pit bull is the new gun for some players. As a replacement for tired soldier analogies, players are turning to the most mythologized of muscle dogs to define their masculinity."
- Selena Robert, N.Y. Times (6/6-07)
Save the date:
November 1-4, 2007
Association For Black Culture Centers
17th ABCC National Conference
"Culture Centers and The Shaping of Diversity on Predominantly White Campuses"
University of Missouri- Columbia
For more information: www.ABCC.Net
or WWW.Missouri.EDu/~BCCenter
November 1-4, 2007
Association For Black Culture Centers
17th ABCC National Conference
"Culture Centers and The Shaping of Diversity on Predominantly White Campuses"
University of Missouri- Columbia
For more information: www.ABCC.Net
or WWW.Missouri.EDu/~BCCenter
What would DuBois say about the New Double Consciousness?
This is what confronts Kobe and LeBron. Shoot-first or Pass Later?
Notice how one should be all for the team and not the individual - or so says the media. Is this socialism on the court? Hugo Chavez against the Harlem Globetrotters?
Television viewership of the NBA finals is down 55 percent (see NY Times today). I'm happy for a city like Cleveland. Still I wish folks wouldn't talk about whether LeBron is the next Jordan. Why do we keep going back to Jordan as if he was Ronald Reagan? We can't move forward in sports and we refuse to do the same when it comes to politics. Let's have new images. I like Wade on Miami very much. Wasn't that just last year when we said - wow- Wade? How quickly we forget.
This is what confronts Kobe and LeBron. Shoot-first or Pass Later?
Notice how one should be all for the team and not the individual - or so says the media. Is this socialism on the court? Hugo Chavez against the Harlem Globetrotters?
Television viewership of the NBA finals is down 55 percent (see NY Times today). I'm happy for a city like Cleveland. Still I wish folks wouldn't talk about whether LeBron is the next Jordan. Why do we keep going back to Jordan as if he was Ronald Reagan? We can't move forward in sports and we refuse to do the same when it comes to politics. Let's have new images. I like Wade on Miami very much. Wasn't that just last year when we said - wow- Wade? How quickly we forget.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
I gave the Commencement Address this morning for the Booker T. Washington Charter School.
The celebration was held at the Lincoln Theater on U Street. Graduations are always fun-crazy. A good turnout of family and friends.
Later in the day - I rested over at Bardia's New Orleans Cafe on 18th Street. This is probably one of my favorite places in DC. When I lived in Adams Morgan I could just walk a few blocks and have a good meal. Bardia's is one of those places that hasn't change. It still feels like home.
It's small and conversations will mix like gumbo and jambalaya. I sat at a table talking to a beautiful woman who is going to open a New Orleans style restaurant in DC in the near future. I met her the last time I was in Bardia's and so her smile greeted me at the door. I no longer felt like a Po'Boy.
After food and a beer I went down to Provisions Library. I need to empty my bag - meet a few deadlines. I wonder what Paris Hilton is doing?
The celebration was held at the Lincoln Theater on U Street. Graduations are always fun-crazy. A good turnout of family and friends.
Later in the day - I rested over at Bardia's New Orleans Cafe on 18th Street. This is probably one of my favorite places in DC. When I lived in Adams Morgan I could just walk a few blocks and have a good meal. Bardia's is one of those places that hasn't change. It still feels like home.
It's small and conversations will mix like gumbo and jambalaya. I sat at a table talking to a beautiful woman who is going to open a New Orleans style restaurant in DC in the near future. I met her the last time I was in Bardia's and so her smile greeted me at the door. I no longer felt like a Po'Boy.
After food and a beer I went down to Provisions Library. I need to empty my bag - meet a few deadlines. I wonder what Paris Hilton is doing?
Clete Boyer dead. Geez. During those days when I pulled the covers over my head so that I didn't have to be dragged to church on Sundays - before I knew how to get down on my knees to pray - I was throwing runners out from my knees at third base - just like Clete. The dive. The stop. The throwing the runner out at first - from YOUR KNEES. Oh...one of the most beautiful plays in baseball. Now - the third baseman - has to jump up and throw. Not Clete. Oh...and when folks asked me back when I was young what I wanted to do in life - it was a quick- easy- response. I wanted to take Boyer's place at third. Oh - the joy of it. Baltimore had Brooks but Boyer was the best in the Bronx.
More news from the Google Search:
Special Collections builds its local area authors collectionBy steven The majority of these books are hard to find chapbooks and other local press publications and include works by local authors Ann Knox, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, E. Ethelbert Miller, and DC Poet Laureate Dolores Kendrick. ...Special Collections & Archives News - http://blogs.gelman.gwu.edu/blogs/spec
Special Collections builds its local area authors collectionBy steven The majority of these books are hard to find chapbooks and other local press publications and include works by local authors Ann Knox, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, E. Ethelbert Miller, and DC Poet Laureate Dolores Kendrick. ...Special Collections & Archives News - http://blogs.gelman.gwu.edu/blogs/spec
Update on Ethelbert:
Dupont Metro Gets PoetryBy Sommer Mathis Another poem, "We Embrace" by Howard University Professor E. Ethelbert Miller, is also being installed at the station on a large round bench near the entrance of the station. It will read:. We fought against the invisible ...DCist - http://www.dcist.com/
Dupont Metro Gets PoetryBy Sommer Mathis Another poem, "We Embrace" by Howard University Professor E. Ethelbert Miller, is also being installed at the station on a large round bench near the entrance of the station. It will read:. We fought against the invisible ...DCist - http://www.dcist.com/
Monday, June 04, 2007
Sports:
My son's summer league started. He is playing in the Williamson Trade 2007 Summer Basketball League. Widener lost their opening game. Since it's summer - my son is also serving as coach of his squad. A good experience. I called him Bill Russell and laughed during our phone conversation. I think he had 15 pts yesterday. He talked about working at creating his own shot. Next game is Sunday.
My son's summer league started. He is playing in the Williamson Trade 2007 Summer Basketball League. Widener lost their opening game. Since it's summer - my son is also serving as coach of his squad. A good experience. I called him Bill Russell and laughed during our phone conversation. I think he had 15 pts yesterday. He talked about working at creating his own shot. Next game is Sunday.
The ADL ran a number of Ads in today's NY Times in response to the National Union of Journalists and the University and College Teachers Union (in England) support of a boycott against Israel. I was surprise to see the boycott by journalists and teachers. One would hope that scholars and artists would always keep ties and doors open between nations. Cultural ties can often continue even when you disgree with a government's actions. I don't think the boycott is a sign of anti-semitism. We need to be careful how we label dissent. We also need to realize the plight of the Palestinians is not going to disappear.
Another newspaper AD (NY Times) for the Duke Men's Lacrosse Team. It's obvious that when you have money you don't need the courts. Notice how we quickly overlook how often members of this same team had drinking problems, or used the N word. Hmmm. Is this how we define outstanding and upstanding? Well, I wish everyone well.
I wonder why OJ never took out Ads in major newspaper saying he was innocent - no money?
Another newspaper AD (NY Times) for the Duke Men's Lacrosse Team. It's obvious that when you have money you don't need the courts. Notice how we quickly overlook how often members of this same team had drinking problems, or used the N word. Hmmm. Is this how we define outstanding and upstanding? Well, I wish everyone well.
I wonder why OJ never took out Ads in major newspaper saying he was innocent - no money?
Important information to think about:
Ethiopia now ranks 5th among countries for adoption of Ethiopian children by Americans. In 2000 they were listed as being 16th.
In 1997 82 children were adopted from Ethiopia by Americans.
In 2006 the number was 732.
Many African nations have outlawed or impeded the adoption of children by foreigners.
Ethiopia now ranks 5th among countries for adoption of Ethiopian children by Americans. In 2000 they were listed as being 16th.
In 1997 82 children were adopted from Ethiopia by Americans.
In 2006 the number was 732.
Many African nations have outlawed or impeded the adoption of children by foreigners.
Music in the air:
TAKOMA PARK JAZZFEST SOLOISTS TO MAKE MUSIC WITH THEIR BODIES
The theme for the last Takoma Park JazzFest to be produced by Dave Lorentz before his move to Pennsylvania later this year will be “Body Music - Soloists Without Instruments.” It will be realized by yodelers, a whistler, tap dancers and a scat singer.
The free eight-set festival will run from 11 am. till 7 pm. on Saturday, June 9, at Jequie Park, Fenton St. and Takoma Ave., Takoma Park, MD, rain or shine. Future JazzFests will continue, produced by Bruce Krohmer.
Of the four “body musicians” supporting the JazzFest theme, the most prominent are this year's headliners, double Grammy winners and Takoma Park’s best-known performers Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, yodeling in front of a Western Swing band. They will close the festival starting at 6:10 pm. Four-time international champion whistler Chris Ullman and his quartet will begin their set at 1:10 pm. Tap dancer/teacher Baakari Wilder of Silver Spring’s Tappers with Attitude will share the stage with his band and a dancing colleague of similar accomplishments commencing at 4 pm. And scat singer Mike Nicholas will be backed by the quartet of JazzFest board member/drummer Ian Dylan, opening the JazzFest at 11 am.
The other best-known musicians at the festival will be vibist/drummer Chuck Redd and the Statesmen of Jazz, featuring clarinetist/tenorman Ken Peplowski at 2:15 pm. Redd was one of famed guitarist Charlie Byrd’s sidemen during the last part of Byrd’s life, and Peplowski is one of the finest modern jazz clarinetists in the world.
“Perfessor” Bill Edwards will start his solo piano set of ragtime, Harlem stride and boogie-woogie at 12:05 pm.
The winner of the JazzFest’s annual winter Jazz Band Brawl, the Oscillators, will fill the air with unusual meters beginning at 5:05 pm. And the jam session will commence at 3:20 pm. Bring your instrument!
Sponsors are RCN, Takoma Foundation, WPFW-FM, and City of Takoma Park. For more information, please call (301) 439-4902 or visit www.tpjazzfest.org.
TAKOMA PARK JAZZFEST SOLOISTS TO MAKE MUSIC WITH THEIR BODIES
The theme for the last Takoma Park JazzFest to be produced by Dave Lorentz before his move to Pennsylvania later this year will be “Body Music - Soloists Without Instruments.” It will be realized by yodelers, a whistler, tap dancers and a scat singer.
The free eight-set festival will run from 11 am. till 7 pm. on Saturday, June 9, at Jequie Park, Fenton St. and Takoma Ave., Takoma Park, MD, rain or shine. Future JazzFests will continue, produced by Bruce Krohmer.
Of the four “body musicians” supporting the JazzFest theme, the most prominent are this year's headliners, double Grammy winners and Takoma Park’s best-known performers Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, yodeling in front of a Western Swing band. They will close the festival starting at 6:10 pm. Four-time international champion whistler Chris Ullman and his quartet will begin their set at 1:10 pm. Tap dancer/teacher Baakari Wilder of Silver Spring’s Tappers with Attitude will share the stage with his band and a dancing colleague of similar accomplishments commencing at 4 pm. And scat singer Mike Nicholas will be backed by the quartet of JazzFest board member/drummer Ian Dylan, opening the JazzFest at 11 am.
The other best-known musicians at the festival will be vibist/drummer Chuck Redd and the Statesmen of Jazz, featuring clarinetist/tenorman Ken Peplowski at 2:15 pm. Redd was one of famed guitarist Charlie Byrd’s sidemen during the last part of Byrd’s life, and Peplowski is one of the finest modern jazz clarinetists in the world.
“Perfessor” Bill Edwards will start his solo piano set of ragtime, Harlem stride and boogie-woogie at 12:05 pm.
The winner of the JazzFest’s annual winter Jazz Band Brawl, the Oscillators, will fill the air with unusual meters beginning at 5:05 pm. And the jam session will commence at 3:20 pm. Bring your instrument!
Sponsors are RCN, Takoma Foundation, WPFW-FM, and City of Takoma Park. For more information, please call (301) 439-4902 or visit www.tpjazzfest.org.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Difficult to put 2 good days back to back. How does Ichiro hit in 20 plus straight games for the 6th time in his career? I'm struggling to to keep the ball in play. Terry Callier playing in the background.
I saw where William Meredith died a few days ago. He was a very nice man and poet. One of the poetry consultants to the Library of Congress who could find comfort in the city among the locals. Meredith won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his book PARTIAL ACCOUNTS: New and Selected poems. On my desk for many years his words:
Poems are hard to read
Pictures are hard to see
Music is hard to hear
And people are hard to love
I must remember to place these words in my funeral program.
I saw where William Meredith died a few days ago. He was a very nice man and poet. One of the poetry consultants to the Library of Congress who could find comfort in the city among the locals. Meredith won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his book PARTIAL ACCOUNTS: New and Selected poems. On my desk for many years his words:
Poems are hard to read
Pictures are hard to see
Music is hard to hear
And people are hard to love
I must remember to place these words in my funeral program.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Morning at Mayorga on 14th Street (near Monroe). I had a sausage/egg on an English Muffin. Not too bad. It tasted like an airport meal or maybe something I could find at Union Station. I had some juice too. The place was empty. I sat and worked on my graduation speech for the Booker T. Washington Charter School. I'll give it on Tuesday. I also read The New York Times and Wall Street Journal - some poems by Darwish. His new book is THE BUTTERFLY'S BURDEN. It's one of the books I purchased from Vertigo on Friday (along with COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER by Michael Ondaatje).
Afternoon at Busboys. Ginger G comes in at 4. We talk for 2 hours - the personal and political.
I come home around 7 PM and catch the Nationals giving up 6 runs in the first inning. Why?
Because the Nook in centerfield is a youngster and can't judge a simple fly ball.
The door opens and I'm back to reading COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER. Buddy Bolden should be playing for the Nats.
Evening and I decide to play some Pharoah Sanders. I've not listened to him in years. I pull ELEVATION and WISDOM THROUGH MUSIC- oh and - VILLAGE OF THE PHAROAHS.
Afternoon at Busboys. Ginger G comes in at 4. We talk for 2 hours - the personal and political.
I come home around 7 PM and catch the Nationals giving up 6 runs in the first inning. Why?
Because the Nook in centerfield is a youngster and can't judge a simple fly ball.
The door opens and I'm back to reading COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER. Buddy Bolden should be playing for the Nats.
Evening and I decide to play some Pharoah Sanders. I've not listened to him in years. I pull ELEVATION and WISDOM THROUGH MUSIC- oh and - VILLAGE OF THE PHAROAHS.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Mucho Info:
The June 2007 Poetry News is now posted on Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Lots happening this month! New publications, calls for entries, workshops, special events, and readings.
http://washingtonart.com/beltway/ponews.html
The June 2007 Poetry News is now posted on Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Lots happening this month! New publications, calls for entries, workshops, special events, and readings.
http://washingtonart.com/beltway/ponews.html
This morning I had a wonderful visit with Sylvia Robinson. She is the director of THE EMERGENCE COMMUNITY ARTS COLLECTIVE located at 733 Euclid Street, NW. This is an historic landmark building. In the early 1900s (and many years after) it was owned by the National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children. The building is right across from Banneker High School.
www.ecacollective.org
If you want to write to Sylvia about doing programs, here is her contact information:
sylvia@ecacollective.org
Sylvia is one of those women who should be profiled in Oprah's magazine.
www.ecacollective.org
If you want to write to Sylvia about doing programs, here is her contact information:
sylvia@ecacollective.org
Sylvia is one of those women who should be profiled in Oprah's magazine.
PREPARE FOR WAR OR DIE?
Since war is popular these days we might as well look at where the next one will be. The next one will be right here in Washington DC. It will be a silent war. A culture war. Do you remember the old ones?
During these days of "economic" cleansing and a changing city; during these day of homeless black men wilting beneath the downtown sun; during these days of building dust and glitter - what does it mean to be a World Class Cultural City?
Will it be the culture of Ellington and Brown? The building of a "World Class Cultural City" has a pilgrim tone to it. It makes me feel very Native American. Maybe we should just rename this city- New Columbia.
At a time when the new mayor is talking about education being the number one issue in our city - we might begin to inquire if it's going to be "Colonial" education. What might that mean in terms of culture and school curriculum? What might the restoration of arts education look like?
Well, let me guess. I would expect more of a focus on opera, ballet and classical music. Call it High culture or what might be taking place in contemporary China. The transformation of political DC will also mean a transformation of it's culture.
No more Go Go in a few years - it will vanish with the clubs. Ellington will simply be a name on a condo.
Look for DC to become Ground Zero for more Republican cultural interests. More black-tie events and less black people? If this city - this year was doing a Big Read around Their Eyes Were Watching God - look to next year and it will be THE GREAT GATSBY. And why not? They will be dancing down at Chapter's Bookstore.
The pace of this city is changing as fast as anything Parker could play. The only problem is that some people are getting - jazz in the ass.
There is a culture war about to begin and the new mayor hasn't a clue to what is the equivalent to a Missile Crisis. A war of race and class?
What can one do? Arm Yourself or (H)arm yourself. I recall Papa Baraka saying that once.
That was back in the days of the NewArk. Hmmm - didn't someone just construct an ark (ARC) in SE?
I fear it must be starting to rain. Is a DC flood coming? Beware of the Doves?
Just yesterday I picked up the City Paper and someone was talking about the basketball games changing on the city courts. No more 33?
Keep an eye on the changing DC Arts Commission. Who will be responsible for painting the new city pictures? Pay more attention to the nominations of commissioners. Who are the cultural keepers of the culture fence around the Fenty?
Soon I'll vanish like Jean Toomer after he wrote CANE. One more year on the DC Arts Commission for me. Who will replace me?
Since war is popular these days we might as well look at where the next one will be. The next one will be right here in Washington DC. It will be a silent war. A culture war. Do you remember the old ones?
During these days of "economic" cleansing and a changing city; during these day of homeless black men wilting beneath the downtown sun; during these days of building dust and glitter - what does it mean to be a World Class Cultural City?
Will it be the culture of Ellington and Brown? The building of a "World Class Cultural City" has a pilgrim tone to it. It makes me feel very Native American. Maybe we should just rename this city- New Columbia.
At a time when the new mayor is talking about education being the number one issue in our city - we might begin to inquire if it's going to be "Colonial" education. What might that mean in terms of culture and school curriculum? What might the restoration of arts education look like?
Well, let me guess. I would expect more of a focus on opera, ballet and classical music. Call it High culture or what might be taking place in contemporary China. The transformation of political DC will also mean a transformation of it's culture.
No more Go Go in a few years - it will vanish with the clubs. Ellington will simply be a name on a condo.
Look for DC to become Ground Zero for more Republican cultural interests. More black-tie events and less black people? If this city - this year was doing a Big Read around Their Eyes Were Watching God - look to next year and it will be THE GREAT GATSBY. And why not? They will be dancing down at Chapter's Bookstore.
The pace of this city is changing as fast as anything Parker could play. The only problem is that some people are getting - jazz in the ass.
There is a culture war about to begin and the new mayor hasn't a clue to what is the equivalent to a Missile Crisis. A war of race and class?
What can one do? Arm Yourself or (H)arm yourself. I recall Papa Baraka saying that once.
That was back in the days of the NewArk. Hmmm - didn't someone just construct an ark (ARC) in SE?
I fear it must be starting to rain. Is a DC flood coming? Beware of the Doves?
Just yesterday I picked up the City Paper and someone was talking about the basketball games changing on the city courts. No more 33?
Keep an eye on the changing DC Arts Commission. Who will be responsible for painting the new city pictures? Pay more attention to the nominations of commissioners. Who are the cultural keepers of the culture fence around the Fenty?
Soon I'll vanish like Jean Toomer after he wrote CANE. One more year on the DC Arts Commission for me. Who will replace me?