Wednesday, December 13, 2006

one long umbilical breath

i took one long umbilical breath and threaded the needle black thread sung through needle head like cat's lip. i never though the first morning one of my cylndrical scalp fingers would kiss her sisters and brothers and sisters goodbye and slip away like emancipated DNA a cardinal would fly back from the edge of florida and oracle the next ten months. i never thought a shower loosening effect would work a pores voodoo and lasso a surprise twinge at the nape of the neck loose hairs on fingers and a half smile half cry whirling exhale. like any undernurtured mother i wanted to hold closes and closer.

my mother would squeeze my nostrils shut and tell me to blow, girl blow. instinctively i would blow out my mouth and she should shred my ear drums. no girl out of your nose. couldn't couldn't could not just could not! but mucus lined nostrils remind me of the unhealth closeness i felt to this splinter of hair that decided to take an amistad leap.

so as water rushed from the peppermint crevices i took a lethargic sprint around the apartment leaving peppermint suds and microscopic shards of black thread in each room.

one long umbilical breath.

and perched before a sheer canary curtain and a cardinal slipping a note under my screened bathroom window i licked a thin piece of black thread and tried to reattach baby girl hair to the nape of my neck. i counted my belly eggs to see if she would fit gulped incensed air and blinked 1,2,3 and pushed the teeny twirl of black thread through the needle head, through the needle head to bring baby girl hair back to me.

the cardinal knows a bles and whitles desyncopated grunts through perched beak, i don't know if that cardinal ever left for orlandos balmy bosooms or if her nestled in the leaves composting inthe back yard and waited for a perrermint morning to spring and she would come to me tell me how it is time to coount by bell eggs and say farewell to one caritin offspring, even just one even for a moment.

a drop of shower fell right out of my eye corner and shimmied down a centimeter of thread and right onto the needle eye. solid. and i took one umbilical breath and watched the postmas gazing through canary curtain watching peppermint suds slide down unclothed backside and wondered if the cardinal was done with the bathroom message.

Artist Biography

Ebony began her journey as an artist, activist, and educator twenty-eight years ago in the Bayou City, Houston, TX. Born to Dr. Betty Sims and Harry Hicks, Ebony was encouraged to pursue a myriad of creative outlets including dance, theater, writing, and community activism. Organizations such as Girl Scouts, Girls in Action, and Young Professionals of Houston encouraged Ebony to join a cadre of activists and artists near and far and to dedicate her life to uplifting and empowering individuals and communities. Ebonys mission is to empower individuals to pursue creative expression, social change, and the divine spirit through the arts.


Ebony matriculated through the English department at Texas A & M University as an Undergraduate Research Fellow. As an undergrad, Ebony etched out a reputation as a choreographer, poet, and performer in plays such as Our Town and the Fade To Black Dance Ensemble.


Ebony worked with the world-famous Ensemble Theater as a choreographer where she choreographed The Not-So-Brave Prince, The Velveteen Rabbit, To Be Young Gifted and Black, and The Wiz. She also served as a writer-in-residence with Texas Southern Universitys Project Graduation and Project Row Houses Summer Arts Program in Houston's 3rd Ward.


Ebony earned a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from American University in Washington, DC. As a grad student Ebony performed in The Vagina Monologues, co-founded MoonSong Performance Ensemble, and directed For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She served as a writer-in-residence for DC Writers Corps, and Montgomery Community Colleges Young Writers Workshop. Ebonys graduate school experience culminated in the completion of a poetry thesis entitled, jigaboo princess.


Ebony has studied with Willie Perdomo, Saul Williams, Ruth Forman, Henry Taylor, Ishmael Reed, Myra Sklarew, Lenard Moore, and a host of dynamite artists, activist, and teachers. She has been awarded fellowships by Atlantic Center of the Arts, Voices of Our Nations, and Soul Mountain Retreat Center.


Ebony is a Visiting English Instructor at North Carolina Central University and an Adjunct English Instructor at Louisburg College. She continues to serve the community as a volunteer with SpiritHouse and UBUNTU and in the wake of recent events has joined a cadre of arts activists to educate and help to eradicate violence against women. Her first poetry chapbook, the sweet smell of juju funk, was published by her grassroots literary press, bettys daughter, April 2006.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

jazzy pump-your-fist women. wrap themselves in guaze and disappear behind philosophical hyperbolic musings of what if but rarely what it be when it be.

thinking women. materialize and dissect feathered fettered walls. soonah will be done with the whiteness of the world. and see with timbuktuu brain waves and digable planets and rootwork ligaments.

find with fallable tongue
the skin that archives
embryo sky
i mean
goddess could give to you, but what
you gone do with it

Monday, December 11, 2006

So it is better to Write, Artistic Response Team, Activate!

SO IT IS BETTER TO WRITE,

and love, and prevail, and dance, and commune, and insist on change!

Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Time: 7 PM-9 PMLocation: The Center for Doc. Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew Street,
Durham, North Carolina, 27705

Join UBUNTU as we engage in discussion and creative expression about the literal and metaphorical importance of midwifery and its relationship to "birthing" communities rid of sexual violence.

For more info email goldendharma@yahoo.com
Performance and say what, workshops!

I Be Who I Be: Media Poetry and Re-Imagining Identity

IBeWhoIBe: Media, Poetry, and Re-Imagining Identity
by Ebony Golden

(see brokenbeautifulpress.blogspot.com for copies of the love note journal "i be who i be")

Overview

This workshop is designed to debunk and recreate ideas and popular notions of identity that work to warp the minds and self-esteem of young brothas and sistas. This workshop is necessary because the constant barage of negative press, media, and art constructed to confuse and tear down our children is doing just that.

This workshop is necessary because it empowers young brothas and sistas to write and construct (a la Bearden, a la hip hop, a la Lucille Clifton, a la my aunties lemon pound cake) a self-portrait that builds them up and builds us up in the process.

Procedures
Read my poem entitled Self-Portrait: July, 2005
Discuss the self-image of the speaker in the poemShow several popular images from magazines
Have the participants create a cut-and-paste list poem based onthe responses
Have the students paste their poem on poster board
Have the students rip out/ and paste pictures that represent who they orwhat they want to be and what they want their communities to be
Have students write 8-word poems to describe who they be or who they want to be

Open Mic Arts Installation
Find a space where we can post our collages and do a impromptu poetry reading

Take Away Activity
Give each participant a journal (i can make these) and pen to continue writing a love letter to themselves and other stuff too.
Performances, say what!

So(u)ld Out

So(u)ld Out: Hip Hop, the Academe, and the Objectification of Black Identity(ies)Or/ my hip-hop ain’t no Petri dish for neo-millennium, high-tech, ultra-cool racists

What is So(u)ld Out ?So(u)ld Out is a freestyle flyer performance/installation conceived by poet, teacher and performance artist ebony noelle golden, that critiques the Academe’s current, fetishistic/voyeuristic, interest in hip-hop culture. This piece seeks to question the intentions, motivations, and zest for “majority” institutions to host panels, seminar courses, conferences, “hip-hop weeks”, interdisciplinary degree options and other suspect reductive measures as viable attempts at earnest engagement with hip-hop culture.

CONTEXT/ CRITICAL RACE THEORY/ OR JUST COMMOTION
So(u)ld Out argues that this new found interest in hip-hop culture is not-so-new but instead harkens to the days when African bodies “performed” (i. e. cooning, shucking and jiving, dancing the juba,) on auction blocks, in fields, side-shows, and circuses to prove their value. So(u)ld Out wonders how the western “university” model, which is inherently racist in structure and application, implemented throughout the academe and wonders how glimpses into certain performances of Blackness are used as a type of coding, objectification, and framework in which oppression, violence, and silence is honed and re-enacted on Black bodies and communities.Ten years ago white academia dismissed the social, cultural, political, and artistic significance of the hip-hop movement, why are they so interested now?

C.R. E. A. M (cash rules everything around me)White male money and white male hands currently pull hip-hop’s strings and slowly silence the revolutionary voices of future Real Roxannes, Queen Latifas, Bahamadias, and MC Lytes. The objectification of black identity(ies) and expressions must be reclaimed now. So(u)ld Out believes the neo-millennium auction block should not only be dismantled but should also be burned to dust!

What You Can Do!So what do I need to make some art?Bring a pen, paper, and some of your favorite revolutionary hip hop lyrics and let’s make a statement, for real for real! I should say, we have not been invited but just like hip-hop began on the streets and in spaces where black people were traditionally silenced we are staking claim and making noise where we need to.

p.s. see http://brokenbeautifulpress.blogspot.com/2006/07/stick-it-to-man.html to order some brown and tan SOLD SOUL stickers for free(dom).

Sunday, December 10, 2006

for mama haryette, one mo gin

fricaseed mumbo jumbo. hottentot galore. you screwing around a rabbit hole.
i'm sneeking around the back door. you can wade this quagmire if you choose,
but imma grow morrison- wings. blue newspaper shavings stuccoed to the heart chakra. someone call a police escort me to a hospital called mercy mercy me, things aint what they used to be no no. and imma fly, oh lord imma fly. screaming brand new, but "i" just sanitize the old shit.

freedom is a medicine bag
of ground ancestor-bone
palm wine soaked leaves
and a sand that soft-shoes
our back talk
our sankofa walk
yes, our sankofa walk
more haibun for harryette

polyrhythms tricked out. oops i tripped on your post-soul era train. keep on moving don't stop, no. will the real mix master please stand up? tip your cups to your live hommies. cause, it ain't only bout the benjamins babies. the poet craves a menajetua. all up in some libraries, and stacks of dusty coletrane lps. and searching the ghost tracks of the orisha. can the drummer get wicked?

and as she licks beneath disjointed hips. search her eyes' search and go. mediterranean lungs kick out curry, walk the boulevard home. walk the boulevard home. like skin that promenades towards oeuvre. boom, bap. boom bap.

water is a beginning
fire an intermediary
air an unkown variable
and we are all chosen to nose-dive in no particular order

Saturday, December 09, 2006

haibun for harryette #3

pop pop goes the weasel weasel. pop pop goes the weasel the weasel. pop pop goes the weasel weasel. pop goes the weasel cause the weasel goes pop. are we all so reactionary? hammered and jumping knees. ping! ping! ting. ting. ting aling aling. dance and then swing. like puckered lips and lemon nipples. i hope not. oh how i hope there are more reasons to piss than drinking too much water. bu ya kaa bu ya kaa.

i do not hunt the farmer's market's most brilliant garlic and stew poems becuase my mother stews. i do not stand on the jagged heels because my mother stands. i do not sleep in the hollow breath of a nightmare because my mother sleeps. bu ya kaa bu ya kaa. is it egotistical to believe we are planets, netted and atmosphered unto ourselves? unto ourselves? yea, that's a philosophical ballet the universe knows not to commission.

i am a bowl of stars minty appendages willow and wanton and birthing multiple babies with out spilling a teaspoon of
milky way

Friday, December 08, 2006

Haibun for Harryette

Recycle. Rework. Repeat. Remix. Rewind. Rethink. Wait. The dial tone is taking a bubble bath and the future air will come back to carpool the babies. When the pepper gals gone speak? Ain’t no twang like texas flipping off tendril tongues. Wait. Rebuff. Reform. Recollage. Rewrite. Rethink. Reconcile infinite newness. Wait, there is no more to see he(a)re.

recyclopedia scratch
encyclopedia snatch
decyclopedia catch
we all fall down
Haibun for Harryette: Upon Writing a REview of REcyclopedia

I wonder if she knows what they say about women like her. Who demand we read. And read like red sunshine. I wonder how many times she's dressed in her nakedness, like old woman wrinkles, and told an underexercised poet that poems are not communion wafers. Or grape juice makeshift bodylight. I am sure she knows, and has prayed through midnight fingertips for emmenient lexicon. For a holy whole(y) holistically our own, tongue.

or maybe not
i can't presume so
fireflies know the difference

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Possibility of Poetry Revealed in Evie Shockley’s a half-red sea
By: Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA


arriving, you staggered, no, tightroped
your way to the mic. your hollow apology
rang with the purity of a spoon tapped
against plastic. reading, your words poured
like oatmeal, clumped and milky, over your
red lips. what could (be) wrong (with) you?

why you wanna treat me so bad

from double bop for ntozake shange
-Evie Shockley

In a half-red sea, Cave Canem graduate and Rutgers University Professor Evie Shockley quilts a brave and unapologetic tapestry of poems that summon fortitude, light, and the resilience of human spirit. Shockley’s second collection, published by Carolina Wrenn Press, mirrors Haryette Mullen’s complexity, Nikki Giovanni’s wit and sarcasm, and the elegant attention to detail unearthed in Marilyn Nelson’s formalist compositions. Shockley’s collection gifts such gems as protect yourself, the last temptation: a 21st-century bop odyssey, and, you remind me that undoubtedly situate her within a dynamic and diverse sisterhood of Africana women poets who insistently redefine and erase the stoic boundaries of Euro-centered canonical tradition.
Readers enter a half-red sea with the gracefully crafted possibilities of poetry, upon her death for literary trailblazer and revolutionary sonneteer Gwendolyn Brooks. Shockley offers,
“i will brook no evil, for
thou art not gone, gwen,
and poems made of tears
evaporate. when the drops
dry, scrape gray lines of salt
and dreams from brown faces.”

This poem exhibits Shockley’s keen usage of enjambment, subtle manipulation of internal rhyme and music which leaps from each line like breath between lovers.
a half-red sea sends readers on a journey that spans three thematically-balanced sections titled passage, rafts, and pull. Together, these sections travel historical, musical, and mythological landscapes that nudge, urge and demand the readers’ to be enlivened by ethereal figures as Billie Holiday, Phillis Wheately, and Frederick Douglass. In you can say that again, billie Shockley writes,
“southern women serve strife keep lines of pride open
trees are not taller than these broad vessels femmes who
bear fully armored knights clinking from the womb but
a night in whining ardor means black woman compelled how
strange brown vassal on a bed of green needles ingests the
fruit of georgia let that gestate but be-gets no child of the south”

This excerpt best illustrates Shockley’s handling of punctuation(less) lines in the tradition of Lucille Clifton and Ntozake Shange, as well as others. This practice is quite daring because it often is accompanied by awkward line breaks, ineffective pauses, and unnatural stanzaic configurations. Shockley, however, handles this not-so-conventional convention with delicacy and poise.
While several poems in a half-red sea are a joy to read and re-read, the ballad of anita hill quickly surfaced as a daily mantra among poems located in the section titled rafts. Arranged in three sections, Shockley weaves a landscape where “winter fell/ heavy and wet, quiet out of season,”. Sections two and three of the ballad recall swooning images of sexual violence practiced on the bodies of Africana women. This poem serves as a call to action for women, regardless of ethnic and cultural heritage, to stand and fight sexual assault even when she may be accused of being a
“queen-bitch-jezebel-matriarch-whore,
destroyer of black manhood, and so much more.”

the ballad of anita hill features biting imagery, scathing critique minus the didactic lamentation, and an unobtrusive rhyme scheme that whispers the wisdom of Audre Lorde whose body of work reminds us that “our silence will not save us”.
Poems should have individual identities and poetry collections should function as living harmonious communities purposeful and intentioned. In a half-red sea Shockley conjures poems that perform these duties and so much more.

Author’s Biography
Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA, is a poet, performer, and educator currently teaching African American Literature, Composition and Creative Writing at North Carolina Central University and Louisburg College as a Visiting Instructor. She has self-published a chap book of poems titled the sweet smell of juju funk and is currently editing mama's hieroglyphics to be released next year. In the near future, Ebony plans to undergo doctoral studies in Performance and stage her multimedia choreopoem, What Aunt Sarah Says to Siffronia When Sweet Thing is Moon-Watching and Peaches is Dancing to the Wind. Ebony can be contacted via email at goldendharma@yahoo.com or www.goldendharma.blogspot.com.

GO DR! AHMAD!!!!


The Creative Writing Program is proud to announce that Dr. Anjail Rashida Ahmad, poet and

director of Creative Writing @ A&T is one of two North Carolina artists to win summer

residencies in the Headlands Center for the Arts 2007 Headlands Residency Program in

Sausalito, California. Headlands is a highly competitive arts program open to artist of various

disciplines from around the globe. This two month, expense paid residency, sponsored by the

North Carolina Arts Council, will allow Dr. Ahmad to develop new work for later publication and

exhibition."Headland's reputation for creative exploration is world renowned, influencing

communities from Bangkok to Berlin, Stockholm and New York. The cross-pollination of ideas

that is at the core of what we do attracts emerging talents and highly influential artists alike."

http://www.headlands.org

Saturday, November 18, 2006

you are a jazz funeral i stroll in blue bath water
or
when the saints come marching in, congo square is gonna be all-the-way live



i traipse your canals
the scent of 9th ward slumbers

bathes your second-lines a tin-like
tuba’s juice sweeps forehead

i seek your chicory coffee
it sets in cheeks and warms
the tonsils
beignet dust freckles breasts

daiquiris dance lips your
rum sweetens thighs swathed
in rues and remoulades

i skip your west bank make
mardi gras with indians and creoles
who take all night to say baby

and juju me good on mid
night river dates (a man who flicks
black like sunshine and speaks french
is a dangerous thing)

you are a city of walls and bridges
held together by dollar-plaster
and color-struck brick

i loiter your levees scratch my
name in their flesh like present tense breath
ebony is (always) here

you are a jazz funeral i stroll in blue bath water
or
when the saints come marching in, congo square is gonna be all-the-way live



i traipse your canals
the scent of 9th ward slumbers

bathes your second-lines a tin-like
tuba’s juice sweeps forehead

i seek your chicory coffee
it sets in cheeks and warms
the tonsils
beignet dust freckles breasts

daiquiris dance lips your
rum sweetens thighs swathed
in rues and remoulades

i skip your west bank make
mardi gras with indians and creoles
who take all night to say baby

and juju me good on mid
night river dates (a man who flicks
black like sunshine and speaks french
is a dangerous thing)

you are a city of walls and bridges
held together by dollar-plaster
and color-struck brick

i loiter your levees scratch my
name in their flesh like present tense breath
ebony is (always) here


Thursday, November 09, 2006

Come to the Co-op and see this documentary,
share some food beforehand or just your thoughts afterward - to read more about this film or watch a preview,

visit the American Blackout website www.americanblackout.com.

Spread the word, come and bring a friend!

Fri 11/17, Potluck 7.30pm & Movie 8.30pm

Whatever you think you know about our election systems or Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, this film will make you question further why the news media fails to accurately inform the public. Directed by GNN’s Ian Inaba, creator of Eminem’s “Mosh” music video, American Blackout critically examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence voices of political dissent.Many have heard of the alleged voting irregularities that occurred during the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Until now, these incidents have gone under- reported and are commonly written-off as insignificant rumors or unintentional mishaps resulting from an overburdened election system.AMERICAN BLACKOUT chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement from Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Mckinney not only took an active role investigating these election debacles, but has found herself in the middle of her own after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Featuring: Congressional members John Conyers, John Lewis, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Bernie Sanders and jounalists Greg Palast and Bob Fitrakis.

“…a muckraking indictment of … the systematic disenfranchisement of African American voters…” Kenneth Turan, LA Times

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Come out and support some fo sho artistic response!!!
email me for more info @ goldendharma@yahoo.com

Traveled Bodies: Policing Blackness and the Technology of State Violence (A HERstorical Improvisation)

We are not gravel roads. We are not target practice bull's eye. We are not husky muted flesh. We are living ligament and beating heart. We are not rope juice. We are not field seasoning. We are not sharpeners for dry molars. We are bright travelers, swollen moon and beauty that chants down our birth right.
-e. golden

Traveled Bodies: Policing Blackness and the Technology of State Violence (A HERstorical Improvisation) is a multimedia meditation on the pervasive tapestry of police brutality as it progresses from slavery to now. The artists pay homage to the revolutionary women arts movement, our resilient bodies who continue to create under this haunting violence, and our sisters and brothers locked up in modern day plantations here and abroad.

a luta continua!
Remembering the Victims
Silent Protest
&
Candlelight Vigil 2006
Thursday October 19, 2006
6:30p-8p

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Monica Daye, director of S.U.S.O and local spoken word artist, is leading the charge to bring attention to the impact of domestic abuse in the Durham and surrounding community. On Thursday, October 19, Daye and other advocates will meet at the Bivins Building on Duke East Campus in what will be the beginning of a peaceful reflection on the consequences of domestic violence and sexual assault. Daye and Tim Jackson, another spoken word artist, host the Shari’s Radio Show on WXDU. The vigil will begin across from WXDU (directions: going north on Broad Street, turn right on Markham. First driveway on the right). From the WXDU radio site, participants will march silently to 610 N. Buchanan Street, the site of the alleged Duke Lacrosse rape. The names of persons who lost their life due to domestic violence over the previous year will be called out at 610 N. Buchanan Street. 49 victims have lost their lives as a result of domestic abuse in North Carolina so far this year and a total of 70 last year.

Dasan Ahanu of Men Attacking Rape Culture (MARC) Kenya Fairly with the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Abuse, and many more will speak at the Bivins building tomorrow night. Along with Survivors of domestic abuse will be on hand to share their story. The vigil at Bivins will begin at 6:30 p.m. The silent march to 610 N. Buchanan Street will follow the vigil. The candlelight vigil is sponsored by a number of agencies that provide services to victims of domestic abuse.

F.M.I
Contact
919-672-1701
info@monicadaye.com
monica@standupspeakout-nc.org

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Intentions bring Light

Thank you Mona for hosting a beautiful and uplifting conversation tonight at Ideas Coffee House. The coffee flowed the poetry flowed. The loving transformative intentions flowed~~~~~

As we observe Domesitc Violence Awareness Month use this space to list and improvise what you intend to do to bring light and voice and creative resolutions to this community problem.

Here are some examples~~~
1. I intend to ask brothas to stand up and speak out about Domestic Violence. -M. Daye
2. I intend to talk to brothas about how they victimize women. -C. Kenney
3. I intend to create poems and engage in dance, and loving conversation about why women are beautiful and wonderful and absolutely brilliant stars. - E. Golden

Respond and Intend Everyday.

love and light and fruitfully passionate resistance.
e!
Intentions bring Light

Thank you Mona for hosting a beautiful and uplifting conversation tonight at Ideas Coffee House. The coffee flowed the poetry flowed. The loving transformative intentions flowed~~~~~

As we observe Domesitc Violence Awareness Month use this space to list and improvise what you intend to do to bring light and voice and creative resolutions to this community problem.

Here are some examples~~~
1. I intend to ask brothas to stand up and speak out about Domestic Violence. -M. Daye
2. I intend to talk to brothas about how they victimize women. -C. Kenney
3. I intend to create poems and engage in dance, and loving conversation about why women are beautiful and wonderful and absolutely brilliant stars. - E. Golden

Respond and Intend Everyday.

love and light and fruitfully passionate resistance.
e!
12 Artists...12 Shows

Holly Bass
Paulette Beete
Derrick Weston Brown
Tyehimba Jess
The Mcintyre Sisters
Tonya "Jahhipster" Matthews
PS24
D.C. Emancipation Day Celebration feat: DJ Renegade, Toni Asante Lightfoot
Papillion
Tara Betts
Bro. Yao
Regie Cabico

What a first year for The Nine On The Ninth Poetry Series!!!
Its been one full year of great performances, eclectic artists and standing room only crowds. So what can one do to top this great year? Celebrate!!!!

This coming MondayOctober 9th, will be the 1 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Nine On The Ninth. The theme for this installment is entitled "The Next Movement" meaning...its time to move ahead into this next cycle by sharing all new poetry!!!!!

That's right! We all have old favorites..but let's hear and see what you all have in store for the future. In doing so this month's feature is performance poet, teacher, and multifacited artist, Ebony Golden!!

Ebony Golden began her journey as an artist, activist, and educator twenty-eight years ago in the Bayou City, Houston, TX. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from American University in Washington, DC. She served as a writer-in-residence for DC Writers Corps, and Montgomery Community Colleges Young Writers Workshop. Ebony Golden has studied with Willie Perdomo, Saul Williams, Ruth Forman, Ishmael Reed and a host of other dynamite artists, activists, and teachers.
Currently she is a Visiting English Instructor at North Carolina Central University and Louisburg College where she is the director of the Louisburg College 4th Thursday Reading Series.

Her first poetry chapbook, the sweet smell of juju funk, was published by her grassroots literary press, bettys daughter, April 2006 and her full-length poetry and CD project mama's hieroglyphics will be released in February of 2007.
For more information about Ebony or to schedule a performance or workshop,please visit www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics, www.goldendharma.blogspot.com or email her at goldendharma@yahoo.com.


And did I mention that DJ Two-Tone Jones returns to once again set the mood with his special array of vinyl treats and musical accompaniment. If you missed him at the very first Nine On the Ninth then definitely get yourself in a seat early

Since touching down in the nation’s capitol in 2001 via Atlanta, GA, DJ 2-Tone Jones has slowly and steadily been carving out his own niche in the D.C. area hip-hop scene. A true fundamentals DJ, 2-Tone speaks with his hands as in the tradition of a Pete Rock or E-Swift, and through his bottomless crates has rocked parties from LA to NY on down to the A-Town and even out in Europe.
Currently 2-Tone can be found most nights of the week at a number of venues around the D.C. area and on the airwaves. On Tuesday nights from 11pm to midnight 2-Tone is the resident DJ for a progressive hip-radio show, “Blackademics,” part of the Decipher hip-hop strip on DC’s own WPFW 89.3 FM/Pacifica Radio. And every 1st Wednesday of the month at the Common Share in Northwest DC, 2-Tone and crew host Artz & Craftz, an intimate arts exhibition where artists exhibit and create work while the music spins.

So I hope you are ready for some serious celebrating in addition to a great feature and great music!!! Hope to see you there. So One more time:


WHAT: Nine On the Ninth Monthly Poetry Series

WHEN: Monday October 9th, 2006 / Show starts @ 9pm/ (Limited Seating/Get here early!!!!) 8pm is the best time to arrive.

WHERE: BusBoys And Poets in The Langston Room
2021 14th St NW ( at the corner of 14th and Vst N.W.)
Washington DC 20009

Metro Accessible: Green Line/ Ust Cardozo stop

COST: Free!! Free!! Free!!! But we do ask for generous donations. Thus, the box of gratitude will be passed around after the feature's performance.

HOSTED BY: Your friendly neighborhood poet-in-residence, Derrick Weston Brown!!!

FEATURED ARTIST: Ebony Golden and special guest DJ 2-Tone Jones

THEME: The Next Movement


Need More info? Log onto www.busboysandpoets.com or www.teachingforchange.org

or call: 202-387-7638 ( POET) for times and event information
See you there!!!


Derrick Weston Brown
Poet-In-Residence @ BusBoys and Poets

Saturday, August 12, 2006

a love note for
alexis

dear sista alexis,

you are a lion woman swril
of rainbow hurricane
a for real teacher subersive
thunderstorm insistent
itch on the belly of this world

i think your name must
mean "she who is a forest
of words and ancestor wisdom"
i think so

i wonder how you snag such
light in hunrgy tendrils i
wonder how you stew
such magic in your womb
i wonder how you speak
the oceans in your poems
i wonder how you bring a globe of
laughter in your eyes
i wonder

i think your name must
mean "she who paints
a new world with her
body" i see your
fingers fidget our minds
and the heart sketched impression
embedded in us all i see brandless
colors you pull from your purse
i see

sisterly,
e!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Baba Mumia Abu Jamaal drops science about Black August!!!!!!
Body:
Black August Black August has many markers throughout the long history of resistance in the Americas. There are more than we could ever recount here. But here are a few that are important and undeniable events that affected other events and indeed had global impact.It was a hot, humid morning in August 1619, when dark skinned Africans were unloaded from a ship in the English colony of Jamestown in Virginia. They were called indentured servants by the people who purchased their contracts. It is unknown what the Dutch sailors called them. Some thirty years later, they would be called something that millions of other Africans would be called on American shores for the next two hundred years, Slaves. They were in fact captives. Chained, stolen captives of a vicious race war against black life by the merchant princes of Europe. For those people who call themselves African Americans their unique history begins here.Another notable date in the struggle for liberty in the Americas happened on another shore among people who spoke no English and perhaps no European languages at all. Their freedom struggle, however, would change the course of world history. And before it ended transformed the face of at least two empires. I speak of the valiant people of Haiti, at the time called Saint-Domingue. In the northern reaches of that Caribbean island, in August 1791, Africans mostly from the Congo held religious services in the dark of the night. They prayed to their ancient gods of African memory and vowed to fight against every slave owner and overseer in the land. They vowed to not stop until free or dead. It was a sweaty time when the slaves rebelled against their tormentors. It would be thirteen long years, but by January 1804 a new and independent nation was born. Free of the monstrous transatlantic slave trade. The Haitian revolution, the first truly successful slave revolution in history has succeeded. The destruction of the French army by the black and mullato armies of Toussaint L'Ouverturemeant far more than a military or even a political victory. It meant the end of French dreams of an American empire and the loss of the richest colony in the world. It meant Napoleon could not hold the vast mid-American territories called Louisiana. The revolution therefore weakened French holds on the Americas and allowed the United States to purchase a prize that would double the new nations size overnight. All of this began in the dead of night in August 1791 when slaves planned a revolution.On August 21, 1831 the explosive rebellion of Nat Turner turned southern society inside out. Although he has been labeled by traditional, that is white, historians as a madman, Turner was in fact a deeply religious man who was moved by signs and (???) that he saw in the summer sky compelling him to fight for the freedom of his captive people. Only in a slaveocracy would the idea of freedom fighting and resistance seem mad. Some thirty years after Nat Turner's rebellion, the civil war would deal a death blow to American bondage.If there is a fasis of American history that does not go beyond the books in records of yesteryear, it has been the various Seminole American wars that were waged across Florida. There were at least three Seminole US wars and one of them ended on August 14, 1842. Though some will ask, what does an Indian American war have to do with Black August? Well that's because the nature of the Seminoles and the real reasons behind their raging wars with the Americans is hidden beneath the mists of history. The very name Seminole derives from the American Spanish term for escapee, refugee or runaway. It stems from the term Semeron (???), which was used by the Spanish to denote Indian or African runaways from slavery. The English in Jamaica and (???) islands called their runaways maroons from the same root word. The Seminoles The Creek Confederacy, but unlike many of their contemporaries they forge close and lasting relationships with runaway Africans and habitually refuse British and American demands for the return of slaves to white service. The American general who fought in the Seminole wars, Thomas Jessup, put the question squarely when he declared, this, you may be assured, is a Negro not an Indian war. General Jessup wrote those words because of the hundreds of black warriors fighting on the side of the Seminoles and because the Seminoles refused to sell men, women and children who had become their kinfolk. It is noteworthy that of all the Indian wars fought against the Americans the Seminole wars cost the most American casualties.August 30, 1856. When the name of John Brown is evoked the shadow of Harpers Ferry arises in the mind. Of the small group of rebels who tried, unsuccessfully, to seize an American armory and fullment rebellion among the slaves. But years before Harpers Ferry, John Brown had waged war against pro-slavery forces in Osawatomie, Kansas, after Missourians had sacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas some three months earlier. The fighting in Kansas led to excited reports about bleeding Kansas. What they were were tough, nasty border wars between anti and pro-slavery forces. Each trying to dominate the other. Indeed, Brown was called Osawatomie Brown before Harpers Ferry marked him as a martyr for the sacred cause of freedom.August 11-16, 1965. The fires of Watts, a black community in Los Angeles, CA were markers for rebellion for the generation of blacks in the 1960s. These rebellions, staged in response to brutal police attacks on people, cost the lives of 34 people and also almost 20 million dollars worth of property damaged or destroyed.August 5, 1970. The Black Panther party's minister of defense, Huey P. Newton, spent some four years in prison before winning his release on $50,000 bail on this date. It marked his physical return to the party at the time a period of great hope.August 8, 1978. One of the earlier MOVE confrontations. Some nine MOVE men and women were sent to prison for hundred of years stemming from a deeply flawed trial. MOVE members continue to fight for the release of their imprisoned comrades. MOVE veterans of the August 8 police assault have been in prison for 25 years in dungeons throughout Pennsylvania. They remain rebellious spirits who oppose a repressive status quo. The spirit of Black August moves through centuries of Black, Indian and ulti-cultural resistance. It is an emblem of the spirit of freedom. It is a long smoldering spark of the fire in the hearts of a people, hearts burning and yearning for freedom.by Mumia Abu Jamaal

Monday, August 07, 2006

congratulations haiku (for one serious brotha)

your poetry, light
sweeping away heart matter
renewing senses

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Poem selected for publication by the Museum of African Diaspora

Greetings beautiful bringers of love and light,

Here is an update on my literary life...

My poem Funeral Dirge, which was originally published by Black Arts Quarterly was just accepted by the I've Known Rivers Project at the Museum of African Diaspora. I have included it below!The poem will be available to view at: http://www.iveknownrivers.org/ by the end of the month. Thank you for your wonderful encouragement as I continue to make and share poems.

light,
e!

oh, I will add this poem to my blog as well, both of them.www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics


funeral dirge
(for new orleans)


theory one:
you boiled over and belched out
your gumbo children like a calabash
that knows not its tipping point saturated
ecosphere skin and spice isthmus pumped
dry walled off and craving the sanctity
of your irrigated origin

your mothers steep
in plutonic filings olive oil
henna themselves speechless
burn myrrh on
watery altars

in this case
even tears are a blasphemous
azurite deity cantos
chanted backward
seasonless

these crescent mamas
once babies of pretty
haired octoroons
float up desiccated
intonations of absolute waterlessness

bone bare barren dust

theory two:
who raids your citys eurhythmy

ripples your throat
inundates the praline encrusted mouth

was it the insatiable thirst
of a swamp demon
prowling to feed her babies
on your tabasco and bourbon
marinated pulp

or the sins stewing in your bacchanal bayous
that rattle loose the heavens and leave you
a bleak and vegetation void canvas
theory three:
atone atone atone
the day soon arrives
when flashlights and fresh
jugged water are useless clutch
tight your faith
sincerely kiss your mamas tobacco lips
pumice the scales from your eyes
and view the foreshadowed destruction
martyrs have a different face now
amen
Resistance is Fertile...Celebrate Black August

www.blackaugust.com

RESISTANCE: THE ORIGIN OF BLACK AUGUST
Black August originated in the concentration camps of California to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain and Khatari Gaulden. Jonathan Jackson was gunned down outside the Marin County California courthouse on August 7, 1970 as he attempted to liberate three imprisoned Black Liberation Fighters: James McClain, William Christmas and Ruchell Magee. Ruchell Magee is the sole survivor of that armed rebellion. He is the former co-defendant of Angela Davis and has been locked down for 40 years, most of it in solitary confinement. George Jackson was assassinated by prison guards during a Black prison rebellion at San Quentin on August 21, 1971. Three prison guards were also killed during that rebellion and prison officials charged six Black and Latino prisoners with the death of those guards. These six brothers became known as the San Quentin Six.
To honor these fallen soldiers the brothers who participated in the collective founding of Black August wore black armbands on their left arm and studied revolutionary works, focusing on the works of George Jackson. In the month of August the brothers did not listen to the radio or watch television. Additionally, they didn't eat or drink anything from sun-up to sundown; and loud and boastful behavior was not allowed. The brothers did not support the prison's canteen. The use of drugs and alcoholic beverages was prohibited and the brothers held daily exercises because during Black August emphasis is placed on sacrifice, fortitude and discipline. Black August is a time to embrace the principles of unity, self-sacrifice, political education, physical training and resistance.
The tradition of fasting during Black August teaches self-discipline. A conscious fast is in effect FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET (or suggested from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm), this includes refraining from drinking water or liquids and eating food of any kind during that period. Some other personal sacrifice can be made as well. The sundown meal is traditionally shared whenever possible among comrades. On August 31, a People's Feast is held and the fast is broken. Black August fasting should serve as a constant reminder of the conditions our people have faced and still confront. Fasting is uncomfortable at times, but it is helpful to remember all those who have come and gone before us, Ni Nkan Mase, if we stand tall, it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.
THE SPREAD AND GROWTH OF BLACK AUGUST
Black August is a time to STUDY AND PRACTICE EDUCATION AND OUTREACH ABOUT OUR HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONDITIONS OF OUR PEOPLE. In the late 1970’s Black August was moved from the yards of California’s concentration camps to New Afrikan communities throughout California and the united states empire. As the Black August practice and tradition spread, it grew to observe not only the sacrifices of the brothers in California’s concentration camps, but the sacrifices and struggles of our ancestors against white supremacy, colonialism, and imperialism.
In the late 1970's the observance and practice of Black August left the prisons of California and began being practiced by Black/New Afrikan revolutionaries throughout the country. Members of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) began practicing and spreading Black August during this period. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) inherited knowledge and practice of Black August from its parent organization, the New Afrikan People's Organization (NAPO). MXGM through the Black August Hip Hop Project began introducing the Hip-Hop community to Black August in the late 1990's after being inspired by New Afrikan political exile Nehanda Abiodun.
BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF “BLACK AUGUST”
A sampling of this month of “righteous rebellion” and “racist repression” includes: The first Afrikans were brought to Jamestown as slaves in August of 1619. In 1843, Henry Highland Garnett called a general slave strike on August 22. The Underground Railroad was started on August 2, 1850. The March on Washington occurred in August of 1963, Gabriel Prosser's slave rebellion occurred on August 30th, 1800. The “Prophet” Nat Turner planned and executed a slave rebellion that commenced on August 21, 1831. The Watts rebellions were in August of 1965. On August 18, 1971 the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was raided by Mississippi police and FBI agents. The MOVE family was bombed by Philadelphia police on August 8, 1978. Further, August is a time of birth. Dr. Mutulu Shakur (New Afrikan prisoner of war), Pan-Africanist Leader Marcus Garvey, Maroon Russell Shoatz (political prisoner) and Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton were born in August. August is also a time of transition and rebirth. The great scholar and educator W.E.B. Dubois died in Ghana on August 27, 1963. So, August is a month during which New Afrikans can reflect on our current situation and our struggle for self-determination and freedom.
The Struggle Continues!
“Recognizing that the Roots of Black August are founded in the Black August Organizing Committee (BAOC), we, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), are respectfully including this organization in the trademark of *Black August in solidarity with the history and actions that come from this movement.”
Related Information:MXGM Solidarity Statement Black August Organizing Committee (BAOC

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Every three minutes
Every five minutes
Every ten minutes
Every day or (collaged voices remix a world)
And (our fire breath is a mantra for the new day)

By: Them funky fresh and oh so fly….AR Sistas

Every day unconditional love
Three days ago mommy’s chicken soup
Every three min surprised by how the same love stays new
Every day ginger lemonade
30 yrs ago a black love like blow(ed) out afro
Today an altar with excess hope

30 yrs ago polyester pants afro puff standing up
On my cousins big wheel
Throwing mail getting spankings…good times
Today faith in my mother
2 wks ago mama’s first poem in 20 yrs
Later in the day I write because of you

Immediately there is cause for celebration
Every day ushering a girl child into wombynhood
Today my baby brother is 16
michaiah swallowed the pool
and survived bloated and beautiful

today free books
UNC embraced UBUNTU
every ten min Jurina comes home
every three min a ten minute orgasm

every five min laughter from the belly
every ten min a foot massage
every day a song to dance to
a poem to walk to

every five min an innocent giggle
every day free fresh fruit
every ten min falling in love
every five min I speak/ I listen
I shimmy

Every ten min we smile accidentally
Every three min Rachel sings
Every day we sing a song by michell
Every five min clean water for all
Everyday someone gives away a gift
that’s special to them
Talya speaks
Every ten min grandma whispers a secret

Every three min I grow hummingbird wings
Every ten min a phoenix rises
I share my heart
Every five min I hear my god children’s voices
A flirty laugh on the back of the neck

Every three min I retrieve my ancestors memory
A woman safe
Every ten min a woman screams with joy and hugs another woman
Every day a scalp massage from someone who loves you

Every day chamomile and deep breath
Every five min a walk in the rain
I get to cheer someone up
Every day lavender frankincense myrrh (I want that)
Bath salt

every three min brilliant blue stars and unhinged eyes
every ten min jurina’s special cream cheese
and spinach omelets
every three min just because I am
every day rock my baby to sleep

thirty yrs ago somebody had a great dream
Woken up by laughter
And it was me
thirty yrs ago I was swinging in trees
three days ago roller skating with my kids

every three min breathing with myself
every five minutes I would learn a lesson once and not
have to learn it again
whispered truths remind me of me

every day a warm place to lay my head
a home filled with love
a good heart
I get wiser

every five min I get wiser
a poem- traveling this way vintage
(for k. arrington)

funky
jazzy soulful
hot vocals
i would buy it

like warm licorice
lemon
and clean pores

what i mean is....is you be bringing
pure unadulterated dope
like right off the jet
from colombia

rock rock gurl
to the beat gurl
you supa sweet gurl

and you don't stop

Monday, July 31, 2006

Peace family,> > Monday July 30, 2006, 9 am 103.5> I will be featured on the Richard Brown Show (the only Black progressive radio show in NC). I will be reading poetry and engaging in a conversation about ideals of beauty and Black girls. Click on the link below to listen to the streaming audio or to find out about more information on Richard Brown.> > light,> e!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006


the storm’s eye

what to think of mortality
corner store flashes
glass bottle souls pebbled knees
baby spirits that never squeezed
warmth from mother’s breasts a vulnerable shaking leaf
scathing heat that brews and brews
charred aftershock remarkable destiny
life juice wrung from solitude’s pale pallet

her body begs the question
a fertile limb
slick jade leaf sprout earth slurps
ginger nectar affinity
purple glowing pirouettes
she does not digest such a passing

how lungs form goodbye
in asthmatic bursts
memory heaves that (re)collect
the blisters like erupting volcano
and homemade salve to cool the magma swallows

how lungs form goodbye
maybe in grown woman lullaby
like amazing grace snagged from aretha’s honey bosoms
or some throaty chaka khan utterance
(i rocked your skin and bone frame
as my funny valentine swooned
around us in a sage smoked bedroom)

how to forgive trips never taken
leave a path of postcards orbiting grave
and tiny cups of india’s spice next to lilies
hum swahili river songs when i cry of you
and teach your daughters to count to 50 in tagalog
leave split coconut at your dirt altar
instruct your son never to stir in pots with knives
we will fly
dig our heals in pyramid sand
dance in brazilian arms
even in our dreams

how to avoid goodbye
the words do not manifest
are weightless waterless phantom
like ether you are simply vapor now
coffee sweetener
warming quilts
perfect driving music
the tangerine breeze i love matterlessly
*poem to be published in an upcoming journal on hiv and aids

the storm’s eye

what to think of mortality
corner store flashes
glass bottle souls pebbled knees
baby spirits that never squeezed
warmth from mother’s breasts a vulnerable shaking leaf
scathing heat that brews and brews
charred aftershock remarkable destiny
life juice wrung from solitude’s pale pallet

her body begs the question
a fertile limb
slick jade leaf sprout earth slurps
ginger nectar affinity
purple glowing pirouettes
she does not digest such a passing

how lungs form goodbye
in asthmatic bursts
memory heaves that (re)collect
the blisters like erupting volcano
and homemade salve to cool the magma swallows

how lungs form goodbye
maybe in grown woman lullaby
like amazing grace snagged from aretha’s honey bosoms
or some throaty chaka khan utterance
(i rocked your skin and bone frame
as my funny valentine swooned
around us in a sage smoked bedroom)

how to forgive trips never taken
leave a path of postcards orbiting grave
and tiny cups of india’s spice next to lilies
hum swahili river songs when i cry of you
and teach your daughters to count to 50 in tagalog
leave split coconut at your dirt altar
instruct your son never to stir in pots with knives
we will fly
dig our heals in pyramid sand
dance in brazilian arms
even in our dreams



how to avoid goodbye
the words do not manifest
are weightless waterless phantom
like ether you are simply vapor now
coffee sweetener
warming quilts
perfect driving music
the tangerine breeze i love matterlessly
*poem t be published in an upcoming journal on hiv and aids

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Hey family, I am working with some dynamic sista activists to create a program to help Black mothers and daughters talk honestly and creatively about issues that really affect them. I need your help... if you know anyone that fits the following criteria foward this to them. Sistas in Greensboro, we will provide gas money. We are also providing food (veggie options available) and gift certificates as well.

Have them contact me at goldendharma@yahoo.com if they have questions.

peace, e!

Mothers and Daughters: I would like to invite you to participate in a study on health, well-being and mother daughter communication.The study is pilot effort involving approximately 30 pairs of African American mothers and their daughters (ages from 12-17) from around the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Mothers and daughters will each take part in separate conversations known as focus groups. The focus groups will last no longer than 2 hours.

If you are an African American woman who is a primary caretaker of an adolescent girl (age 12-17) but not related by blood you are still eligible.I would like to have a conversation with mothers about your health and how you communicate with your daughter about her health and transition into `young womanhood'. For daughters, I am interested in your views on your health and how you feel about growing up.All focus groups are confidential, and no identifying information will be shared.I hope that you will be interested in becoming a participant in this effort. If you are interested please call the number below and leave your first name, and a number by which I can reach you (indicating the best times to call). I will follow-up with a telephone call and during that time, I will tell you more about the focus group process.

A gift certificate will be provided to each mother and each

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The Personal is Political: Writing Your Manifesta!

WRITING A MANIFESTA WRITING A MANIFESTA

Yo! so I am using this writing activity to teach Social Resistance and Writing to some young writers here in Durham. Try writing your own manifesta and send them to me. I will be looking for manifestas written by women of color for an art project I'm working on here in dopealicious Durham.

Use the information below to help you!

peace and luv
e!

Why is your topic important to you? Why should it be important to your reader? Why did you decide to write on it? What is the title of your zine? Why did you choose this title? How do you locate yourself in relation to your topic? Where does it fit in subculture pop culture? How does is challenge hegemonic popular culture? One of the most important aspects of your manifesta/o is your voice. The manifesta/o is not a place where you outline your zine, but rather one where you engage with the (sub)cultural (and personal) importance, intervention and possibilities of your topic.

As we discussed in class, manifesta/os are infused with a sense of purpose and passionyou need to make your reader care about your topic, and provide her/him with enough information so that s/he can understand why you care about it. Be carefulthe manifesta/o is not a rant. A rant is a diatribe against something which frustrates or angers you. A manifesta/o is a mission statement that articulates your position and your passion for your topic. When you put your manifesto in your zine you will be altering its formatyou are welcome to handwrite it, to add artwork, to cut and paste. If you wish to hand in your manifesta/o already formatted to a zine page, you may. Format: Its your manifesta/oyou decide.

You must have a title, it can be a poem, play, short story or any mixture of literary forms.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

an improvised groove gumbo just the way romare would like it
or
for romare, the real inventor of the collage poem
or
when symmetry is the mistake
and
a poem after a jazz-filled bearden-themed documentary

haze vague clarity pastoral pastures
sleepy necks tiger tooth eye teething youngster

mystery bread scarfed braid flinching cheek
grapevine skin broom feet mossy elbows elbow dream

tambourine man banjo men joe-joe’s loose dog
burdock root boyish wart clay pond dives ironing finger

spittoon wind-swept porch ankle speak drowned ear
pictorial memory rip-snag “crisis” image


“ailey’s ancestral voices”
periodical alchemist bucolic brew

down right countrified stew corporeal art
cacophonous riffs lightening blade jazz juxtaposition

“wet on wet” bayou aesthetic

prose in woman form
spastic

i am a mix-master DJ or(re)discovery or writing is knowing

my hair is a knotty bath
black light strung over mountain tops
melon dew ropes the spirits
cling to in the salty times

my lips are tuned to ancestral beings
muscle crescent and perched ready
to sit and sing and pop spearmint gum
and recite poemand sing awhile like
lingering honey

my nose is pen pal for lemony teacakes
or the smear of my man across my top lip
my nose walks home
tends to the roses nestled around mamas porch

my hips are galactic angles
float into good places
ring me downlike southern sunlight

my feet are grandma feet
flat and well-shaped
to soft-shoe the earth
there is no night walk getting away from these feet

my skin
hmmmmmmmmmm my skin
color is alice coletrane's harp
on gritty repeat
a silent bronze glow
a serious shot of moonshine
a twinkle in the good place
the space girl-children run tipsy
skipping through jasmine

free
birth
born
bright

Calendar of Events

  • June 1- Official Launch of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative
  • May 10, 7 pm, Gumbo YaYa @ Roses and Bread Women's Poetry Reading, Performance/Body Insallation, Brecht Forum NYC
  • May 10, all day, Experimental Theatre Final Performances NYU
  • May 7-8, all day, Gumbo YaYa, MA Symposium NYU
  • April 23, 6 pm Gumbo YaYa, -ism Gala NYU
  • March 26, 7 pm, Gumbo Yaya/ or this is why we speak in tongues, Tisch School of the Arts, Forum Series
  • Feb. 7, Brecht Forum, 730, moderating NO! film screening
  • Jan. 4, Common Ground Theatre, 8 pm, performance art night---Holding Space (a love poem for Meghan Williams)
  • Dec. 12, Ripple in Brooklyn, 8 pm, sharing poetic vibes for a jazz/blues show
  • Oct 27, Duke University, 9:45 am, Women Engage Hip-Hop Panel
  • Sept 14, PS @ Tisch, How Much Can the Body Hold
  • Sept 19, Righetous AIM, NC A & T
  • August 31-Sept 2, 75TH Highlander Anniversary
  • Anti-prison Industrial complex performance, Durham, NC
  • April 30 Shout Out, Carrboro, NC
  • April 24 Fingernails Across Chalkboard Reading, Washington, DC
  • April 14 Poetry Month Reading, Durham, NC
  • 3/31 Ringing Ear Reading, Chapel Hill, NC
  • Wednesday 3/21 - 7 pm Miller Morgan Auditorium, Performative Healing and the Work of Ntozake Shange, Lecture
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