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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