i dare not call this your anniversary (for new orleans)
for the city that rests at the bottom of a wellworn boot
for the city that was home before shreveport
for the city that swallows sunshine and sings out sunshine
for the city that taught me to "wobble" and "catch a wall"
for the city that made me reappreciate my southnern songified speech
for the city that is a welcomed hurricane
for the city that gave me a "westbank boo"
for the city that is my favorite phase of the moon
for the city that crawls into your skin like sweat
for the city that makes me wish i grew up second lining
for the city that makes me dance with an umbrella everytime i can
for the city that is a distant home my tongue and fingertips remember
i dare not call this your anniversary i call this a time to reflect on you new orleans i call this a time to think about how you created this world i call this a time to lift your name in song in poem in dance in prayer
cause you are indeed a holy place new orleans a portal where many ancestors entered this realm you are indeed a holy place and no amount of water or ignorance or the invisibility of your children can wash away your legacy
i dare not call this your anniversary cause i have celebrated with your daughters and have whispered to my departed relatives on the shores of your rivers and lakes
if you happen to catch me new orleans on some corner in the french quarter with the hem of my skirt between two fingers know i am dancing for you new orleans and every coin i catch is in your honor
if you happen to catch me new orleans cookin a gumbo outside in the 9th ward know i am feeding your babies new orleans bowl by bowl serving you up like fresh air
i dare not call this your anniversary cause i know how you party how you mourn and how you sit silent and wait for new day to shine
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
high)ku~~~a blog about my peru trip
"I Am Wary of Need That Tastes Like Destruction": The Politics of Visibility in Afro-Peruvian Performance and Culture
Audre Lorde reminds us in her poem "Need: A Chorale for Black Women's Voices" of the danger associated with unhealthy, violent relationships and the need for love and connection. I should note, that Lorde's chorale piece was in response to a series of violent acts, specifically murders, against black women. If anyone is interested in reading the piece shoot me a message and I will email it to you. rde is an important entrance to this conversation on the politics of visibility in afro-peruvian performance and culture becuase her work helps us think about sustained performances of oppression and how such performances effect the actualization of individual agency and the politics of this actualization.
These issues have been heavy rotation for the past few weeks. I have been engaging in workshops, lecutres, performances that leave me asking quite plainly where are the black people? I see our artistic practices, which is a type of visibility. I see African features on the bodies of people who do not identify as afro-peruana. I see representations of traditional African religions and spiritual practices, but I don't see many black people. So this is of course a serious problem.
In my conversations, I am learning about the intense and intricately woven history of black people in Peru. Of course there is a legacy of slavery, but I is different from the practices of slavery in the United States. Of course there is a marginilazation of of african people, as most of us live on the outskirts of the large cities, mainly Lima. And do to the history of slavery and geography you will not find many or any black people in Cuzco (due to the altitude) or the Amazon (due to slavery). So most black people are relegated to the outskirts of lima and the coastal areas (where we could thrive on plantation and survive because of similar living conditions that exist in w. africa).
So there is an absence of black bodies, black thought, and black social and artistic movements in peru. Peru has never had a civil rights movement, an uprising or revolution by the black communities. Very few Afro-peruanas attend college in the country and according to a afro-peruana scholar almost no afro-peruanas have attained economic advancement. So literally as I walk (or hobble due to a serious dance accident) or ride around Lima I do not see any black faces.
Peruana scholars speak about the large amount of mixing and passing that happens in the country because of the oppression. so those afro-peruanas who can pass do pass. i must say this is a generalization and i have not spoken directly to someone of afro-peruana descent so all of this is arguable, but i think we could look at the legacy of passing in the united states to draw parallels and analysis based on the politics of skin color that pollutes our own history.
Whether any or all of this is arguable there is an absence.
How do you analyze a disappeared body? The chalk outline is just the frontier. the boundary. The edge. I cannot say it is a beginning? But it does open a question. How does one craft a poem for the imagined presence? Can a poem speak to this truth? Can a poem color in a history? a body? a face that looks like home and tomorrow? How do I search out of absence? How do I search out of absence? How do I search out absence? and find warmth and sunshine and a skin that nods yes to this quest for legacy. An opening is not a beginning. maybe it is the moment before that calls us to take our places at the mark, get set, ready, go.....
So i am looking for blackness in lima with a crew of radical performers and theorists. we are keeping blackness a focus in all of these lectures and performances. two brothas from brazil and a sista from dc and myself are making our desire to see black bodies loud and present. we have chosen not to continue the absence our afro-peruana sisters and brothers are experiencing daily. there are with us and we are thinking and talking about them/us at every turn, every moment of this experience.
so because performance and politics are really one thing, we can look to performance as a way of complicating this already complicated issue. Kimba Fa, a lunch at Rustica, a viewing of Los Musicos Ambulantes, and a mask making workshop all inform my ideas about how performance create both visibility and invisibility for black people.
(to be continued)
ebony
"I Am Wary of Need That Tastes Like Destruction": The Politics of Visibility in Afro-Peruvian Performance and Culture
Audre Lorde reminds us in her poem "Need: A Chorale for Black Women's Voices" of the danger associated with unhealthy, violent relationships and the need for love and connection. I should note, that Lorde's chorale piece was in response to a series of violent acts, specifically murders, against black women. If anyone is interested in reading the piece shoot me a message and I will email it to you. rde is an important entrance to this conversation on the politics of visibility in afro-peruvian performance and culture becuase her work helps us think about sustained performances of oppression and how such performances effect the actualization of individual agency and the politics of this actualization.
These issues have been heavy rotation for the past few weeks. I have been engaging in workshops, lecutres, performances that leave me asking quite plainly where are the black people? I see our artistic practices, which is a type of visibility. I see African features on the bodies of people who do not identify as afro-peruana. I see representations of traditional African religions and spiritual practices, but I don't see many black people. So this is of course a serious problem.
In my conversations, I am learning about the intense and intricately woven history of black people in Peru. Of course there is a legacy of slavery, but I is different from the practices of slavery in the United States. Of course there is a marginilazation of of african people, as most of us live on the outskirts of the large cities, mainly Lima. And do to the history of slavery and geography you will not find many or any black people in Cuzco (due to the altitude) or the Amazon (due to slavery). So most black people are relegated to the outskirts of lima and the coastal areas (where we could thrive on plantation and survive because of similar living conditions that exist in w. africa).
So there is an absence of black bodies, black thought, and black social and artistic movements in peru. Peru has never had a civil rights movement, an uprising or revolution by the black communities. Very few Afro-peruanas attend college in the country and according to a afro-peruana scholar almost no afro-peruanas have attained economic advancement. So literally as I walk (or hobble due to a serious dance accident) or ride around Lima I do not see any black faces.
Peruana scholars speak about the large amount of mixing and passing that happens in the country because of the oppression. so those afro-peruanas who can pass do pass. i must say this is a generalization and i have not spoken directly to someone of afro-peruana descent so all of this is arguable, but i think we could look at the legacy of passing in the united states to draw parallels and analysis based on the politics of skin color that pollutes our own history.
Whether any or all of this is arguable there is an absence.
How do you analyze a disappeared body? The chalk outline is just the frontier. the boundary. The edge. I cannot say it is a beginning? But it does open a question. How does one craft a poem for the imagined presence? Can a poem speak to this truth? Can a poem color in a history? a body? a face that looks like home and tomorrow? How do I search out of absence? How do I search out of absence? How do I search out absence? and find warmth and sunshine and a skin that nods yes to this quest for legacy. An opening is not a beginning. maybe it is the moment before that calls us to take our places at the mark, get set, ready, go.....
So i am looking for blackness in lima with a crew of radical performers and theorists. we are keeping blackness a focus in all of these lectures and performances. two brothas from brazil and a sista from dc and myself are making our desire to see black bodies loud and present. we have chosen not to continue the absence our afro-peruana sisters and brothers are experiencing daily. there are with us and we are thinking and talking about them/us at every turn, every moment of this experience.
so because performance and politics are really one thing, we can look to performance as a way of complicating this already complicated issue. Kimba Fa, a lunch at Rustica, a viewing of Los Musicos Ambulantes, and a mask making workshop all inform my ideas about how performance create both visibility and invisibility for black people.
(to be continued)
ebony
working my rainbows~~entering performance studies installment
So it is Better to Speak:
Audre Lorde and the Perlocutionary Speech Act
Austin teaches that the perlocutionary act is a method for employing speech for the sole purpose of affecting change. He writes, "Saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons: and it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them" (101). This explanation speaks to how perlocutionary speech is methodically implored to incite a cerebral and visceral change in the audience who partakes in the performance of such an act. One should consider experiencing the radical speeches of the Womanist liberation movement, such and the Combahee River Collective Statement or the writings of Elaine Brown, as examples of such texts. Influential writers, such as Audre Lorde, cast her "words as weapons" as invocations for a sensibility shift, but moreover, a call to direct action to "do" something to alter and dismantle the systematic oppression of Black women during the 1970's.
Austin provides an example of the perlocutionary act in his eighth lecture. He writes, "He persuaded me to shoot her" (102). This example illustrates the two key elements of the perlocutionary act: the statement and the presence of a desired effect. In this basic case one
views the statement and performance through the inclusion of the act of persuading the listening party. One should also notice the desired effect of the speech act as the shooting and possible death of the victim of this violent act.
This explanation provides the much needed backdrop for understanding how Audre Lorde wields the perlocutionary speech act, in her poem "Litany for Survival". In the poem she incites Black women to speak against sexual violence, homophobia, oppression and the culture of silence that encapsulates these issues. The first three stanzas of this poem present a multitude of situations that have historically silenced Black women. She writes, "for those of us who love in doorways/ coming and going…who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice". It is important to note that this silencing is not just a silencing of voice, but also the silencing of action. Perhaps Lorde provides this litany to remind women of their shared trauma. It is possible that this litany serves as a galvanizing tool to agitate the audience and stir the emotions so that when she exclaims, "So it is better to speak…," the audience is prepared to thoroughly absorb these words for the purpose of acting against oppression in their communities.
In Lorde's successful recitation of this poem she leaps beyond the intent to write and share a poem. She performs the act she incites in her audience and by doing so provides a template for how women can use speech to resist oppression. In short, Lorde's speech act, "…successfully achieves or consummates or brings off" (106), the desired effect she encourages her audience members to practice. Austin encourages his readers to consider the successful completion and consequences of perlocutionary speech acts. The trajectory of the Womanist movement and the prevalence of Lorde's oeuvre in contemporary social justice work shows and proves the successful completion and far reaching consequences of her speech act.
So it is Better to Speak:
Audre Lorde and the Perlocutionary Speech Act
Austin teaches that the perlocutionary act is a method for employing speech for the sole purpose of affecting change. He writes, "Saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons: and it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them" (101). This explanation speaks to how perlocutionary speech is methodically implored to incite a cerebral and visceral change in the audience who partakes in the performance of such an act. One should consider experiencing the radical speeches of the Womanist liberation movement, such and the Combahee River Collective Statement or the writings of Elaine Brown, as examples of such texts. Influential writers, such as Audre Lorde, cast her "words as weapons" as invocations for a sensibility shift, but moreover, a call to direct action to "do" something to alter and dismantle the systematic oppression of Black women during the 1970's.
Austin provides an example of the perlocutionary act in his eighth lecture. He writes, "He persuaded me to shoot her" (102). This example illustrates the two key elements of the perlocutionary act: the statement and the presence of a desired effect. In this basic case one
views the statement and performance through the inclusion of the act of persuading the listening party. One should also notice the desired effect of the speech act as the shooting and possible death of the victim of this violent act.
This explanation provides the much needed backdrop for understanding how Audre Lorde wields the perlocutionary speech act, in her poem "Litany for Survival". In the poem she incites Black women to speak against sexual violence, homophobia, oppression and the culture of silence that encapsulates these issues. The first three stanzas of this poem present a multitude of situations that have historically silenced Black women. She writes, "for those of us who love in doorways/ coming and going…who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice". It is important to note that this silencing is not just a silencing of voice, but also the silencing of action. Perhaps Lorde provides this litany to remind women of their shared trauma. It is possible that this litany serves as a galvanizing tool to agitate the audience and stir the emotions so that when she exclaims, "So it is better to speak…," the audience is prepared to thoroughly absorb these words for the purpose of acting against oppression in their communities.
In Lorde's successful recitation of this poem she leaps beyond the intent to write and share a poem. She performs the act she incites in her audience and by doing so provides a template for how women can use speech to resist oppression. In short, Lorde's speech act, "…successfully achieves or consummates or brings off" (106), the desired effect she encourages her audience members to practice. Austin encourages his readers to consider the successful completion and consequences of perlocutionary speech acts. The trajectory of the Womanist movement and the prevalence of Lorde's oeuvre in contemporary social justice work shows and proves the successful completion and far reaching consequences of her speech act.
(high)ku a blog about peru
Current mood: anxious
tomorrow there will be sun
your sunless skies are gray
like a traveled beard like confederate slacks
like jazz wrung spiritless your skies are indeed sunless
one of your daughters tells me you own two seasons
the sun season and the sunless season my skin is hungry
for a teaspoon of light for a glimpse of sun against my neck
tomorrow there will be sun even for a moment
the ball of fire will force through the shadows and
greet us like the militant being he is arching our direction
south home now tickling our scalps from heaven
there is no apperance today or yesterday or tomorrow
you have collapsed time and space with your absence
and lima a city kissing the coast is left to sweep the dust and ash
Current mood: anxious
tomorrow there will be sun
your sunless skies are gray
like a traveled beard like confederate slacks
like jazz wrung spiritless your skies are indeed sunless
one of your daughters tells me you own two seasons
the sun season and the sunless season my skin is hungry
for a teaspoon of light for a glimpse of sun against my neck
tomorrow there will be sun even for a moment
the ball of fire will force through the shadows and
greet us like the militant being he is arching our direction
south home now tickling our scalps from heaven
there is no apperance today or yesterday or tomorrow
you have collapsed time and space with your absence
and lima a city kissing the coast is left to sweep the dust and ash
Friday, August 03, 2007
how a crack becomes a riff
for nina,
1.
in the hollow of your moan
there is blackness there is blackness
and a grunt that sparks genuis in your daughters
in the reach of your eyes
there is god there is god
and redemption for all your daughters
in the bend of your fingers
there are ripples there are ripples
that trouble the earth and the spirit
you complicate emptiness with your blackness
you complicate song with your rasp
you complicate sound like a stereophonic volcano
and bring light and bring light
2.
your mama called you eunice
your mama called you eunice kathleen waymon
your daughters call you
3.
salvation
a lover called you little girl a lover called you little girl
your daughters call you salvation
4.
your voice is an offering like palm oil like "hard candy" like ripe coconut
like white flowers like river water and sweet bread
5.
those who know your song know religion is resistance
know a crack is a potential riff and moan is a moan
for nina,
1.
in the hollow of your moan
there is blackness there is blackness
and a grunt that sparks genuis in your daughters
in the reach of your eyes
there is god there is god
and redemption for all your daughters
in the bend of your fingers
there are ripples there are ripples
that trouble the earth and the spirit
you complicate emptiness with your blackness
you complicate song with your rasp
you complicate sound like a stereophonic volcano
and bring light and bring light
2.
your mama called you eunice
your mama called you eunice kathleen waymon
your daughters call you
3.
salvation
a lover called you little girl a lover called you little girl
your daughters call you salvation
4.
your voice is an offering like palm oil like "hard candy" like ripe coconut
like white flowers like river water and sweet bread
5.
those who know your song know religion is resistance
know a crack is a potential riff and moan is a moan
alright yall,
so imma try not to kirk out as i blog about me'shell ndegeocello visiting my class today. imma try. but just in case you been living under a rock and don't know who she is, you need to get hip and google and buy and worship at the altar that is her dope ass music.
in true ebony fashion, i gotta poem. i gotta poem. i don't believe in qualifiers but i must say the poem just shares a tanch of what she so freely taught us in our 2 and half hour lecture.
in the midst~~~~for fly ass me'shell ndegeocello
1.
the grain of your voice rubbed against vinyl is prayer
is a ridge (like a ridge in your bottom lip) where i oil up and tan
cause blackness is just a beginning and the edge is where i jump to life
2.
you say i am the offspring of an obsolete machine
so i guess me'shell i ain't got nothing to prove me standing here in all my black woman self all dripping with spirit and legacy and rips that healed and ripped and healed and warm hands say i aint got nothing to prove
3.
you say capitalism is the new religion of the masses
so i guess me'shell jesus gotta come back and set this shit straight cause we need a shift to let our people go we need a movement we can breathe through
4.
you say perchance blindness is but dark thought overcome by the light
and the light is a burgeoning entity that sends eyelashes to the tops of cheeks it shocks the back of the throat as it rolls up the spine it doubletimes doubletimed breath my sweet jesus my jesus i heard that you could save me light travels the blood to the ankles and freezes freezes the walk the thought and the pulse
5.
the star beneath your eye is a mantra is an unforgotten sutra an all night orgasm
like this audible memoir speaking all voices but just yours an evangalestic waltz in the higher chakras metronomic sonic swosh the star beneath your eye is a space where marriage can be savior and a whore a whore a whoreawhoreawhoreawhore
never got to open her p*s(y
6.
post script
a black girl soon to swirl around in her mamas belly writes me'shell a love note and places it in her mamas dreams she does not know other girl babies are writing too together the me'shell love notes make a b.i.b.l.e. read it as a sonogram of your destiny
7.
post script script
dear me'shell
thank you for teaching me that obama and hillary aint as fly as shirley (chilsom that is) and that my skin is written in a rich musical register and that tears open a space for self-construction and that a bass guitar can ask a question as loud as a protest and that thewomanistheonlyavenueofdeliverance and that harriet (tubman that is) was wise to walk her children to canada
truly delivered,
ebony
8.
in your silence you ask how can i be a guided missile meticulous in my craft a reserve of seeping energy a seducer of liberation a bringer of light a choir of hearts clapping hallelujahs in warm air
so imma try not to kirk out as i blog about me'shell ndegeocello visiting my class today. imma try. but just in case you been living under a rock and don't know who she is, you need to get hip and google and buy and worship at the altar that is her dope ass music.
in true ebony fashion, i gotta poem. i gotta poem. i don't believe in qualifiers but i must say the poem just shares a tanch of what she so freely taught us in our 2 and half hour lecture.
in the midst~~~~for fly ass me'shell ndegeocello
1.
the grain of your voice rubbed against vinyl is prayer
is a ridge (like a ridge in your bottom lip) where i oil up and tan
cause blackness is just a beginning and the edge is where i jump to life
2.
you say i am the offspring of an obsolete machine
so i guess me'shell i ain't got nothing to prove me standing here in all my black woman self all dripping with spirit and legacy and rips that healed and ripped and healed and warm hands say i aint got nothing to prove
3.
you say capitalism is the new religion of the masses
so i guess me'shell jesus gotta come back and set this shit straight cause we need a shift to let our people go we need a movement we can breathe through
4.
you say perchance blindness is but dark thought overcome by the light
and the light is a burgeoning entity that sends eyelashes to the tops of cheeks it shocks the back of the throat as it rolls up the spine it doubletimes doubletimed breath my sweet jesus my jesus i heard that you could save me light travels the blood to the ankles and freezes freezes the walk the thought and the pulse
5.
the star beneath your eye is a mantra is an unforgotten sutra an all night orgasm
like this audible memoir speaking all voices but just yours an evangalestic waltz in the higher chakras metronomic sonic swosh the star beneath your eye is a space where marriage can be savior and a whore a whore a whoreawhoreawhoreawhore
never got to open her p*s(y
6.
post script
a black girl soon to swirl around in her mamas belly writes me'shell a love note and places it in her mamas dreams she does not know other girl babies are writing too together the me'shell love notes make a b.i.b.l.e. read it as a sonogram of your destiny
7.
post script script
dear me'shell
thank you for teaching me that obama and hillary aint as fly as shirley (chilsom that is) and that my skin is written in a rich musical register and that tears open a space for self-construction and that a bass guitar can ask a question as loud as a protest and that thewomanistheonlyavenueofdeliverance and that harriet (tubman that is) was wise to walk her children to canada
truly delivered,
ebony
8.
in your silence you ask how can i be a guided missile meticulous in my craft a reserve of seeping energy a seducer of liberation a bringer of light a choir of hearts clapping hallelujahs in warm air
a poem for abbey lincoln
speak/ easy
for abbey lincoln
you know a horn reaches past the body past the ache past the secret past the silence like the guitar reaches past the scream past the flat line past the flourish like a name reaches
past the ancestors past the ovary past the egg and the water past the light like a remix reaches past its originary entrance
your voice reaches back it is a sankofa neck nodding the ancestors through folding me into myself like the ripples of a deep and wide ocean folding me into myself like flour enveloping sugar in an orange ceramic bowl
your voice reaches back it is a skin-so-soft hand with perfectly polished red nails it reaches
back it is a recipe recorded on tear stained tissue it reaches back it is a small curdled note
worn honey thin it reaches back like a turtle's dream
you remind me what muh deah said about being fast what my mama showed me bout being fast what india arie sung about being fast you remind me and i am thankful that I carry a
little bit of a swing on a sunday porch with me you remind me to reach past the creak past the crack past the slow heart beat and the fading eyes
you remind me to meditate on purple petals and tangerine dusks and that
moving slowly is not really bad/ moving slowly you see/ the wonders of the deep/ just waiting there for me
speak/ easy
for abbey lincoln
you know a horn reaches past the body past the ache past the secret past the silence like the guitar reaches past the scream past the flat line past the flourish like a name reaches
past the ancestors past the ovary past the egg and the water past the light like a remix reaches past its originary entrance
your voice reaches back it is a sankofa neck nodding the ancestors through folding me into myself like the ripples of a deep and wide ocean folding me into myself like flour enveloping sugar in an orange ceramic bowl
your voice reaches back it is a skin-so-soft hand with perfectly polished red nails it reaches
back it is a recipe recorded on tear stained tissue it reaches back it is a small curdled note
worn honey thin it reaches back like a turtle's dream
you remind me what muh deah said about being fast what my mama showed me bout being fast what india arie sung about being fast you remind me and i am thankful that I carry a
little bit of a swing on a sunday porch with me you remind me to reach past the creak past the crack past the slow heart beat and the fading eyes
you remind me to meditate on purple petals and tangerine dusks and that
moving slowly is not really bad/ moving slowly you see/ the wonders of the deep/ just waiting there for me
peace family,
last night i was blessed to learn of an new orleans ancestor called sista gertrude. i was introduced to her through a multimedia presentation which included a sound set by King Brit (holla) a band from Philly/New Orleans and a projectionist (anonymous, but dope). Not only did i enjoy the visuals but i enjoyed learning about the revolutionary-spiritualist sista gertrude.
this is all so important as i am writing about spiritual resistance and in the work of nina simone right now, specificially how traditional african spirituality in jazz is a performance of womanist resistance models.
take a look at www.summerstage.com for free concerts in the Central Park they got stuff going onn all the time. take a look at http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa94.htm for more information about sista gertrude. take a look below for a poem about her.
peace and love, e-bone
Here is a picture of Sister Gertrude Morgan found at NPR's website
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4864538
packing list/ the recipe for soulsaving
~~~for sista gertrude morgan
polished cackling cymbals
tambourine
nurses cap white and washed with the holy ghost
packet of oils (sexy reds popping oranges deep purples) and brushes
mason jar of holy water
the holy book
the living bread and the sweet wine
a pinch of alabama clay
a voice like a holiness steel guitar
a map of the city
running shoes white laces
21st chapter of revelations
bride's veil
saving hands saving grace handsandgrace
keys to the holy city
a milk crate
eyes in the bodies of searching spirits
a bowl of mustard greens
a slow stroll to the battle field
the smell of old liquor and flat grins
an unrhymed rhythm when jesus comes
a home for the children and the delivered
two train tickets west
the teachings of our mothers and fathers never put on the shelf
last night i was blessed to learn of an new orleans ancestor called sista gertrude. i was introduced to her through a multimedia presentation which included a sound set by King Brit (holla) a band from Philly/New Orleans and a projectionist (anonymous, but dope). Not only did i enjoy the visuals but i enjoyed learning about the revolutionary-spiritualist sista gertrude.
this is all so important as i am writing about spiritual resistance and in the work of nina simone right now, specificially how traditional african spirituality in jazz is a performance of womanist resistance models.
take a look at www.summerstage.com for free concerts in the Central Park they got stuff going onn all the time. take a look at http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa94.htm for more information about sista gertrude. take a look below for a poem about her.
peace and love, e-bone
Here is a picture of Sister Gertrude Morgan found at NPR's website
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4864538
packing list/ the recipe for soulsaving
~~~for sista gertrude morgan
polished cackling cymbals
tambourine
nurses cap white and washed with the holy ghost
packet of oils (sexy reds popping oranges deep purples) and brushes
mason jar of holy water
the holy book
the living bread and the sweet wine
a pinch of alabama clay
a voice like a holiness steel guitar
a map of the city
running shoes white laces
21st chapter of revelations
bride's veil
saving hands saving grace handsandgrace
keys to the holy city
a milk crate
eyes in the bodies of searching spirits
a bowl of mustard greens
a slow stroll to the battle field
the smell of old liquor and flat grins
an unrhymed rhythm when jesus comes
a home for the children and the delivered
two train tickets west
the teachings of our mothers and fathers never put on the shelf
nina simone in barbados, 1974. all hail the priestess!!!
this was during the time she recorded "it is finished" and more specifically "obeah woman". obeah a traditional congo spirituality is practiced throughout the caribbean. obeah is particulary important to understanding one of the key approaches to resistance in ninas work as a musician and civil rights leader. through her practice of obeah, and her deep pentacostal upbringing nina was able to move in the world as a conjure woman, a creator, an artist, and a revolutionary. all hail the high priestess!!!
here is a another poem in honor of studying and hopefully continuing her legacy~~~~
conjure woman, soul woman
for nina
nina
they say you have stolen shadows
say you have cast the babyspirits out in nocturnal limbo
that you make them wander
in search of womb
in search of milk
in search of the space between heaven and hell where each step is a breathsqueeze
they say you keep a sachet of boneshavings crescent city spit
and motherlanddust under your slip
and you blew
the eyebrows clean off a man's forehead
for cutting his eyes at you
they say you could have been a street preacher
but you couldn't keep your legs closed
or pray just to our lord jesus
but i know a woman who carries your face
and she aint nothing but sanctified
and she speak sweet like i heard you speak
and her fingers too are wands that stir heaven
and she too can hold night in her skin and sing it to her children at the break of dawn
nina
they really don't know how you got the blood and the lightening in your tone
they really don't know how you swung back this lifetime without wings
they really don't know how you birthed us with out light so
they call you witch when obeah woman is your name
they call you mystery when you are everywhere like dew
they call you magician when magician you are
they call you alien when you are mama
they call you alien when you are tuned to their hearts
obeah is your name
i do know you can bend time
and siphon your way through space
i have heard you do it
stretching through speakers at me
stretching through speakers at me
just when i get tired of shouting freedom
writing freedom birthing freedom
i have heard you do it
and have been redeemed
www.high-priestess.com
this was during the time she recorded "it is finished" and more specifically "obeah woman". obeah a traditional congo spirituality is practiced throughout the caribbean. obeah is particulary important to understanding one of the key approaches to resistance in ninas work as a musician and civil rights leader. through her practice of obeah, and her deep pentacostal upbringing nina was able to move in the world as a conjure woman, a creator, an artist, and a revolutionary. all hail the high priestess!!!
here is a another poem in honor of studying and hopefully continuing her legacy~~~~
conjure woman, soul woman
for nina
nina
they say you have stolen shadows
say you have cast the babyspirits out in nocturnal limbo
that you make them wander
in search of womb
in search of milk
in search of the space between heaven and hell where each step is a breathsqueeze
they say you keep a sachet of boneshavings crescent city spit
and motherlanddust under your slip
and you blew
the eyebrows clean off a man's forehead
for cutting his eyes at you
they say you could have been a street preacher
but you couldn't keep your legs closed
or pray just to our lord jesus
but i know a woman who carries your face
and she aint nothing but sanctified
and she speak sweet like i heard you speak
and her fingers too are wands that stir heaven
and she too can hold night in her skin and sing it to her children at the break of dawn
nina
they really don't know how you got the blood and the lightening in your tone
they really don't know how you swung back this lifetime without wings
they really don't know how you birthed us with out light so
they call you witch when obeah woman is your name
they call you mystery when you are everywhere like dew
they call you magician when magician you are
they call you alien when you are mama
they call you alien when you are tuned to their hearts
obeah is your name
i do know you can bend time
and siphon your way through space
i have heard you do it
stretching through speakers at me
stretching through speakers at me
just when i get tired of shouting freedom
writing freedom birthing freedom
i have heard you do it
and have been redeemed
www.high-priestess.com
another poem for nina Current mood: calm
nina simone in barbados, 1974. all hail the priestess!!!
this was during the time she recorded "it is finished" and more specifically "obeah woman". obeah a traditional congo spirituality is practiced throughout the caribbean. obeah is particulary important to understanding one of the key approaches to resistance in ninas work as a musician and civil rights leader. through her practice of obeah, and her deep pentacostal upbringing nina was able to move in the world as a conjure woman, a creator, an artist, and a revolutionary. all hail the high priestess!!!
here is a another poem in honor of studying and hopefully continuing her legacy~~~~
conjure woman, soul woman
for nina
nina
they say you have stolen shadows
say you have cast the babyspirits out in nocturnal limbo
that you make them wander
in search of womb
in search of milk
in search of the space between heaven and hell where each step is a breathsqueeze
they say you keep a sachet of boneshavings crescent city spit
and motherlanddust under your slip
and you blew
the eyebrows clean off a man's forehead
for cutting his eyes at you
they say you could have been a street preacher
but you couldn't keep your legs closed
or pray just to our lord jesus
but i know a woman who carries your face
and she aint nothing but sanctified
and she speak sweet like i heard you speak
and her fingers too are wands that stir heaven
and she too can hold night in her skin and sing it to her children at the break of dawn
nina
they really don't know how you got the blood and the lightening in your tone
they really don't know how you swung back this lifetime without wings
they really don't know how you birthed us with out light so
they call you witch when obeah woman is your name
they call you mystery when you are everywhere like dew
they call you magician when magician you are
they call you alien when you are mama
they call you alien when you are tuned to their hearts
obeah is your name
i do know you can bend time
and siphon your way through space
i have heard you do it
stretching through speakers at me
stretching through speakers at me
just when i get tired of shouting freedom
writing freedom birthing freedom
i have heard you do it
and have been redeemed
www.high-priestess.com
nina simone in barbados, 1974. all hail the priestess!!!
this was during the time she recorded "it is finished" and more specifically "obeah woman". obeah a traditional congo spirituality is practiced throughout the caribbean. obeah is particulary important to understanding one of the key approaches to resistance in ninas work as a musician and civil rights leader. through her practice of obeah, and her deep pentacostal upbringing nina was able to move in the world as a conjure woman, a creator, an artist, and a revolutionary. all hail the high priestess!!!
here is a another poem in honor of studying and hopefully continuing her legacy~~~~
conjure woman, soul woman
for nina
nina
they say you have stolen shadows
say you have cast the babyspirits out in nocturnal limbo
that you make them wander
in search of womb
in search of milk
in search of the space between heaven and hell where each step is a breathsqueeze
they say you keep a sachet of boneshavings crescent city spit
and motherlanddust under your slip
and you blew
the eyebrows clean off a man's forehead
for cutting his eyes at you
they say you could have been a street preacher
but you couldn't keep your legs closed
or pray just to our lord jesus
but i know a woman who carries your face
and she aint nothing but sanctified
and she speak sweet like i heard you speak
and her fingers too are wands that stir heaven
and she too can hold night in her skin and sing it to her children at the break of dawn
nina
they really don't know how you got the blood and the lightening in your tone
they really don't know how you swung back this lifetime without wings
they really don't know how you birthed us with out light so
they call you witch when obeah woman is your name
they call you mystery when you are everywhere like dew
they call you magician when magician you are
they call you alien when you are mama
they call you alien when you are tuned to their hearts
obeah is your name
i do know you can bend time
and siphon your way through space
i have heard you do it
stretching through speakers at me
stretching through speakers at me
just when i get tired of shouting freedom
writing freedom birthing freedom
i have heard you do it
and have been redeemed
www.high-priestess.com
full moon blood ~~~~~july 29, 2007, a poem
full moon blood, july, 29, 2007
my blood has caught the full moon again
the juju has set in my skin
i am ready to shake away this month's offspring
into the world like electrified fruit
there is a voodoo remix happening
in my tubes and box for me to leave at the crossroads
power
the spinach and basil bath power
the rosemary and the florida water power
the metal and the dirt power the slow stream to life
power the slow red stream to life power the pouting definition
and the reservoir of flesh power the scaled harmony
and the sloughed fear power the small bead of expectancy power
the legacy and the rampage power power resting on the rim of tomorrow
full moon blood, july, 29, 2007
my blood has caught the full moon again
the juju has set in my skin
i am ready to shake away this month's offspring
into the world like electrified fruit
there is a voodoo remix happening
in my tubes and box for me to leave at the crossroads
power
the spinach and basil bath power
the rosemary and the florida water power
the metal and the dirt power the slow stream to life
power the slow red stream to life power the pouting definition
and the reservoir of flesh power the scaled harmony
and the sloughed fear power the small bead of expectancy power
the legacy and the rampage power power resting on the rim of tomorrow
a poem in praise of remembering~~~~~
In Womanist Spirituality and Popular Music we watched a film called "The Language you Cry In" which chronicles reunited family through the story of a Mende funeral dirge. Interestingly, the song was sung before the slave trade and through the middle passage was transplanted to plantations and passed down by some enslaved African. The film documents a family who through keeping this song alive today is able to trace thier lineage back to Sierra Leon, where the song is still sung though rarely. Please view the film and share your thoughts about it with me here. take a look at the poem which unpacks some of my feelings and physical responses to the work.
a poem in praise of remembering~~~for the mende and the power of song
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am home
mendegeechemendegeeche
no longer spirit roams
more generations of mende than i can count
carry the same song in their mouths
carry the same sticky red rice in their mouths
fan and smash rice as children
dig out irrigations with the same dark hands
more generations of mende women than i can count
spread white clay on dry skin
keep an eye on rivergraves
swing in the new spirits
and carry the departed across the water
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am homemendegeechemende
no longer spirit roams
more generations of mende than i can count
go back with their tongues
their songs like a bread trail to the village
go back with their cries
their tears streaming clay away from skin
washing up ancestors
go back with their eyes
eyes that surge forth spirit as only eyes can
more generations of mende than i can count
know an offering eaten by the babies is an offering well spent
these strong lean bodies fed by the ancestors
to take the story into tomorrow
more generations of mende than i can count
know their legacy is carried in their cells
in knees that worship ancestors
know their legacy is carried in the heads humbly bowed
know their legacy is carried in working the spirit
like mending the threads of a fishing net
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am home
mendegeechemende
no longer spirit roams
In Womanist Spirituality and Popular Music we watched a film called "The Language you Cry In" which chronicles reunited family through the story of a Mende funeral dirge. Interestingly, the song was sung before the slave trade and through the middle passage was transplanted to plantations and passed down by some enslaved African. The film documents a family who through keeping this song alive today is able to trace thier lineage back to Sierra Leon, where the song is still sung though rarely. Please view the film and share your thoughts about it with me here. take a look at the poem which unpacks some of my feelings and physical responses to the work.
a poem in praise of remembering~~~for the mende and the power of song
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am home
mendegeechemendegeeche
no longer spirit roams
more generations of mende than i can count
carry the same song in their mouths
carry the same sticky red rice in their mouths
fan and smash rice as children
dig out irrigations with the same dark hands
more generations of mende women than i can count
spread white clay on dry skin
keep an eye on rivergraves
swing in the new spirits
and carry the departed across the water
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am homemendegeechemende
no longer spirit roams
more generations of mende than i can count
go back with their tongues
their songs like a bread trail to the village
go back with their cries
their tears streaming clay away from skin
washing up ancestors
go back with their eyes
eyes that surge forth spirit as only eyes can
more generations of mende than i can count
know an offering eaten by the babies is an offering well spent
these strong lean bodies fed by the ancestors
to take the story into tomorrow
more generations of mende than i can count
know their legacy is carried in their cells
in knees that worship ancestors
know their legacy is carried in the heads humbly bowed
know their legacy is carried in working the spirit
like mending the threads of a fishing net
mendegeechemendegeeche
i know i am home
mendegeechemende
no longer spirit roams
Friday, July 20, 2007
working my rainbows: an introduction to performance studies
installment 1
Here is my first installment in my Introduction to Performance Studies portfolio, titled working my rainbows. You can also view this project at goldendharma.blogspot.com.
Happy reading!
ebony
for the orisha who order my stepsfor the ancestors who whisper in my ear
for the elders who light my path
for the contemporaries who quicken my breath with brilliance
for the unborn who inspire me to be ever true and ever vigilant
ashe!
Introduction
"Gotta Take My Time, Getting This One Together"
"…I'm the Obeah woman from beneath the seaTo get to satan you gotta pass through me'Cause I know the angels name by nameI can eat thunder and drink the rainBeen through enoughYeah they call me Nita and Pices tooThere ain't nothing that I can't doIf I choose to, if you let me…"
-from Obeah Woman by Nina Simone
Folks living in the south meditate on slowness like Miles Davis meditates on a sustained note. Mustard Greens, a delicacy in African diasporic communities, are simmered slowly with garlic, bay leaf, cayenne, onion, and ham hock hours before dinner. Sun tea is brewed in backyards full of hot sun that pierces glass containers pregnant with split lemons, sugar and Lipton tea bags. Gumbo, a Cajun stew, is conjured in coal black cast iron cauldrons nights before festive family gatherings in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />New Orleans.
Being raised in the southern Texas, usually pronounced as three syllables, taught me how to appreciate the sensuality of unhurried happenings. The humidity rests in the bones and slows the breath to a crawl. A southern Baptist spiritual, wrestled from a sinner's throat, takes what seems like hours to sing. I have known southern lovers who studied every sinew of my body at a snail's pace, leisurely like a sunset, seriously like calculus.
I start here, with a meditation on southernity, space, sensuality and the lyrics of Nina Simone to illustrate how I enter this discipline: as a conjurer, a southern woman, a poet, and an observer and taster of the various flavors of this world. Nina Simone teaches us in her song "Obeah Woman" the power of transcending and transforming one's surroundings to accomplish mystical feats Africana women engage in daily.
Nina sings through a gravel and honey voice the importance of taking time to get things together. In her case, she is getting together God's divine work: controlling the rain, lightning, naming the angels, and fighting Satan on mankind's behalf. I fortunately, have another charge in this life, one no less difficult but different nonetheless. The essays in this portfolio begin to articulate my understanding of how and why people act the way the do in a myriad of situations. Whether in the midst of trauma or ecstasy, intention, motivation, and effect are extremely important to the manner in which behavior is perceived and metabolized.
working my rainbows represents a sustained meditation. This project seeks to critique, analyze, question performances of resistance by means of spiritual activism, intra/intercultural exchange, and social justice work. Further more, the project seeks to think about how performances of resistance inform and impact local communities striving to dismantle systemic institutions that perpetuate a culture of state violence and social oppression.
In writing these essays, several texts anchored my burgeoning understanding of this field. Namely, "Points of Contact between Anthropological and Theatrical Thought," "Stages," "Resistance of the Object," Exhausting Bodies (excerpt), "You are here the DNA of Performance," "Contact Improvisation and Anthropological Analysis," "Docile Bodies," and "Performing Citizenship". These works provide historical and cultural background, map the origins of Performance Studies, and provide differing philosophies and writing approaches employed in the discipline. I am drawn to these essays and excerpts because of how body is implicated as a central to agent of movement. Most importantly, the articles grant the novice a plethora of information in which to analyze how the body is a tool of social resistance. In essence, the articles continue my love affair with the body and the multitude of performances it stages in shifting temporal and spatial paradigms. The scholars' works bring home for me how individuals or whole communities can access the power of the Obeah women as they move to transform, transition, and transcend oppressive situations. Whether literally in dance, or ethereally, in unearthing the past to remix the present in framing a transformative narrative and politic for the future, the articles situate the body in a multitude of happenings which spark a uniquely necessary transformative response.
In compiling working my rainbows, I confronted several obstacles. Some of those obstacles included: difficulty incorporating how particular analysis relates to my larger year-long project, difficulty writing responses to articles with limited knowledge of the field, difficulty employing Womanist tradition of analysis and writing to essays distant from the lyrical and poetic nature of the aforementioned tradition. I experience these obstacles as points of possible access and growth as I work toward a longer project on Nina's Simone's oeuvre and the role of spirituality in social justice movements. I also view these stoppages as areas where I may be able to join Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, and Performing Arts discourses with a much needed voice of the Womanist scholarly tradition. Alice Walker, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Jayne Cortez, bell hooks, Angela Davis, and Hortense Spillers are a few of voices who serve as my mentors; I am eager to continue in our tradition.
While wrought with difficulties, several successes took place as I compiled this collection. Similarly to writing poetry, I sharpened my abilities to respond to complex, gripping concepts in concise two or three page responses. Additionally, I found that I particularly appreciate the process of responding to film and dance. I could definitely foresee further research of these art forms. I was also reaffirmed in my belief of the importance of the community in the education process. Participating in class lectures assisted the development of clear thoughts about a topic or concept.
All in all, it is incumbent upon me to root my analysis of performance and creation of performance in deciphering its impact on local communities. The papers in working my rainbows assist me in creating everyday scholarship and performance that people can sink their teeth into. After composing these twelve essays I am clearer about how I will position my body in the ongoing conversations comprising this discipline. I am clearer about how I will engage in this Program, as a year long meditation on spirituality, resistance, bodies, movement, and sustained transformation of the present in the creation of a world without sexual violence in the now and ever after.
installment 1
Here is my first installment in my Introduction to Performance Studies portfolio, titled working my rainbows. You can also view this project at goldendharma.blogspot.com.
Happy reading!
ebony
for the orisha who order my stepsfor the ancestors who whisper in my ear
for the elders who light my path
for the contemporaries who quicken my breath with brilliance
for the unborn who inspire me to be ever true and ever vigilant
ashe!
Introduction
"Gotta Take My Time, Getting This One Together"
"…I'm the Obeah woman from beneath the seaTo get to satan you gotta pass through me'Cause I know the angels name by nameI can eat thunder and drink the rainBeen through enoughYeah they call me Nita and Pices tooThere ain't nothing that I can't doIf I choose to, if you let me…"
-from Obeah Woman by Nina Simone
Folks living in the south meditate on slowness like Miles Davis meditates on a sustained note. Mustard Greens, a delicacy in African diasporic communities, are simmered slowly with garlic, bay leaf, cayenne, onion, and ham hock hours before dinner. Sun tea is brewed in backyards full of hot sun that pierces glass containers pregnant with split lemons, sugar and Lipton tea bags. Gumbo, a Cajun stew, is conjured in coal black cast iron cauldrons nights before festive family gatherings in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />New Orleans.
Being raised in the southern Texas, usually pronounced as three syllables, taught me how to appreciate the sensuality of unhurried happenings. The humidity rests in the bones and slows the breath to a crawl. A southern Baptist spiritual, wrestled from a sinner's throat, takes what seems like hours to sing. I have known southern lovers who studied every sinew of my body at a snail's pace, leisurely like a sunset, seriously like calculus.
I start here, with a meditation on southernity, space, sensuality and the lyrics of Nina Simone to illustrate how I enter this discipline: as a conjurer, a southern woman, a poet, and an observer and taster of the various flavors of this world. Nina Simone teaches us in her song "Obeah Woman" the power of transcending and transforming one's surroundings to accomplish mystical feats Africana women engage in daily.
Nina sings through a gravel and honey voice the importance of taking time to get things together. In her case, she is getting together God's divine work: controlling the rain, lightning, naming the angels, and fighting Satan on mankind's behalf. I fortunately, have another charge in this life, one no less difficult but different nonetheless. The essays in this portfolio begin to articulate my understanding of how and why people act the way the do in a myriad of situations. Whether in the midst of trauma or ecstasy, intention, motivation, and effect are extremely important to the manner in which behavior is perceived and metabolized.
working my rainbows represents a sustained meditation. This project seeks to critique, analyze, question performances of resistance by means of spiritual activism, intra/intercultural exchange, and social justice work. Further more, the project seeks to think about how performances of resistance inform and impact local communities striving to dismantle systemic institutions that perpetuate a culture of state violence and social oppression.
In writing these essays, several texts anchored my burgeoning understanding of this field. Namely, "Points of Contact between Anthropological and Theatrical Thought," "Stages," "Resistance of the Object," Exhausting Bodies (excerpt), "You are here the DNA of Performance," "Contact Improvisation and Anthropological Analysis," "Docile Bodies," and "Performing Citizenship". These works provide historical and cultural background, map the origins of Performance Studies, and provide differing philosophies and writing approaches employed in the discipline. I am drawn to these essays and excerpts because of how body is implicated as a central to agent of movement. Most importantly, the articles grant the novice a plethora of information in which to analyze how the body is a tool of social resistance. In essence, the articles continue my love affair with the body and the multitude of performances it stages in shifting temporal and spatial paradigms. The scholars' works bring home for me how individuals or whole communities can access the power of the Obeah women as they move to transform, transition, and transcend oppressive situations. Whether literally in dance, or ethereally, in unearthing the past to remix the present in framing a transformative narrative and politic for the future, the articles situate the body in a multitude of happenings which spark a uniquely necessary transformative response.
In compiling working my rainbows, I confronted several obstacles. Some of those obstacles included: difficulty incorporating how particular analysis relates to my larger year-long project, difficulty writing responses to articles with limited knowledge of the field, difficulty employing Womanist tradition of analysis and writing to essays distant from the lyrical and poetic nature of the aforementioned tradition. I experience these obstacles as points of possible access and growth as I work toward a longer project on Nina's Simone's oeuvre and the role of spirituality in social justice movements. I also view these stoppages as areas where I may be able to join Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, and Performing Arts discourses with a much needed voice of the Womanist scholarly tradition. Alice Walker, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Jayne Cortez, bell hooks, Angela Davis, and Hortense Spillers are a few of voices who serve as my mentors; I am eager to continue in our tradition.
While wrought with difficulties, several successes took place as I compiled this collection. Similarly to writing poetry, I sharpened my abilities to respond to complex, gripping concepts in concise two or three page responses. Additionally, I found that I particularly appreciate the process of responding to film and dance. I could definitely foresee further research of these art forms. I was also reaffirmed in my belief of the importance of the community in the education process. Participating in class lectures assisted the development of clear thoughts about a topic or concept.
All in all, it is incumbent upon me to root my analysis of performance and creation of performance in deciphering its impact on local communities. The papers in working my rainbows assist me in creating everyday scholarship and performance that people can sink their teeth into. After composing these twelve essays I am clearer about how I will position my body in the ongoing conversations comprising this discipline. I am clearer about how I will engage in this Program, as a year long meditation on spirituality, resistance, bodies, movement, and sustained transformation of the present in the creation of a world without sexual violence in the now and ever after.
for sekou:
raised by jack-o-lanterns and parking tickets
dandelion eyelashes part the onyx birthstone
in weary times
our soupy mouths form easy o’s like lake huron
lumbering towards the universal sound
the land of rocking chairs
when poets die
let their henna circle my body seven times and become a new mole
crimson neither stopwatch
nor discount metronome
when poets die
let them be carried through the streets on the lips of harmonics and
earlobes.
Kim Arrington is a singer/song writer/playwrite/poet and all around fly sista. google her and be inspired. www.kimarrington.complease send your sekou poems to me and i will post them where ever i can.ebony
raised by jack-o-lanterns and parking tickets
dandelion eyelashes part the onyx birthstone
in weary times
our soupy mouths form easy o’s like lake huron
lumbering towards the universal sound
the land of rocking chairs
when poets die
let their henna circle my body seven times and become a new mole
crimson neither stopwatch
nor discount metronome
when poets die
let them be carried through the streets on the lips of harmonics and
earlobes.
Kim Arrington is a singer/song writer/playwrite/poet and all around fly sista. google her and be inspired. www.kimarrington.complease send your sekou poems to me and i will post them where ever i can.ebony
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Now!
for sekou sundiata
i know what is means to have miles davis in your skin
to speak like a weeping willow
to resist citizenship
to chew gum like a gourmet meal
now
i know how to harness a dream
right behind my belly button
and hold it there til it sprouts wings
bears fruit
blows across an ocean like a liberated spore
you asked me the question
is the american dream a dream or a program
and at that moment i knew you were a blessing in my wounds
a libretto for the revolution epic
a hinge for me to hold onto in times of extended prayer
now
i know why i love my daddy's black taffy laugh
and his eyes like an anthology of sunsets
and his one purple nail that speaks slow around his chin
a chin that drinks the moonlight
i know now sekou you drink the moonlight
let it fill your vaselined cheeks articulate your tongue reawaken your tonsils
you asked me
what is a dream with out education
you asked me what is a dream with out education
youaskedmewhatisadreamwithouteducation liberation resistance love light
youasked me me me mmeeeeeee
whatisadreamwithouteducation
maybe its gospel without mahalia
or hip hop without rakim
or jazz without john
or new orleans without the mississippi
or my grandma without the love of her life
or me without poetry
orororoororororor
you asked me
what is a dream without education
i say it aint it aint it aint a dream with out the technology of technicolor
may the spirits walk you gently down
and raise a song in your honor
may elegba grant you safe passage
asheooooo asheooooooooo ashe
for sekou sundiata
i know what is means to have miles davis in your skin
to speak like a weeping willow
to resist citizenship
to chew gum like a gourmet meal
now
i know how to harness a dream
right behind my belly button
and hold it there til it sprouts wings
bears fruit
blows across an ocean like a liberated spore
you asked me the question
is the american dream a dream or a program
and at that moment i knew you were a blessing in my wounds
a libretto for the revolution epic
a hinge for me to hold onto in times of extended prayer
now
i know why i love my daddy's black taffy laugh
and his eyes like an anthology of sunsets
and his one purple nail that speaks slow around his chin
a chin that drinks the moonlight
i know now sekou you drink the moonlight
let it fill your vaselined cheeks articulate your tongue reawaken your tonsils
you asked me
what is a dream with out education
you asked me what is a dream with out education
youaskedmewhatisadreamwithouteducation liberation resistance love light
youasked me me me mmeeeeeee
whatisadreamwithouteducation
maybe its gospel without mahalia
or hip hop without rakim
or jazz without john
or new orleans without the mississippi
or my grandma without the love of her life
or me without poetry
orororoororororor
you asked me
what is a dream without education
i say it aint it aint it aint a dream with out the technology of technicolor
may the spirits walk you gently down
and raise a song in your honor
may elegba grant you safe passage
asheooooo asheooooooooo ashe
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
After Denko by Sweet Honey in the Rock
So I am currently going through a birthing process as I complete my first major project for my Performance Studies degree.
As I should, I turned to song a poetry by the women to fortify my body and voice. I spent this weekend writing, and listening to Nina, Sweet Honey, Alice Coltrane and meditating on words actions movement voice history and next steps.
Denko is a Bambara song offered to and by women traveling through the birthing process. I am birthing right now and call on this song for light, wisdom, and strength, and clarity.
Because my professor, Judith Casselberry, is brilliant she played the song today in my class. She didn't know I needed it, but she so knew I did.
I wrote this in class
After Denko/ a meditation on birthing words, light, wisdom
1.
i am here because the rattle of the blues brings down the spirits because gravel in nina's throat loosens teh music in mine
because i don't know my mother's mother's mother's name but she has a song to sing through me
because when i speak i want audre to wink and alice to clap three times
because my body is not a toy or a toilet or a laboratory or an existential dilemma
2.
the spirit quivers in the space where dreams are fertilized and nurtured
move the mountains spirits rattle the webs lose loosen the breath
let the blood warm the skin
there is a riff the sun bakes only this body translates
let us be born
let us be born
let us be born
sweep me up in a ring-shout
i am healed by the rattle fed by the drum
ashe
-love and light,
ebony
So I am currently going through a birthing process as I complete my first major project for my Performance Studies degree.
As I should, I turned to song a poetry by the women to fortify my body and voice. I spent this weekend writing, and listening to Nina, Sweet Honey, Alice Coltrane and meditating on words actions movement voice history and next steps.
Denko is a Bambara song offered to and by women traveling through the birthing process. I am birthing right now and call on this song for light, wisdom, and strength, and clarity.
Because my professor, Judith Casselberry, is brilliant she played the song today in my class. She didn't know I needed it, but she so knew I did.
I wrote this in class
After Denko/ a meditation on birthing words, light, wisdom
1.
i am here because the rattle of the blues brings down the spirits because gravel in nina's throat loosens teh music in mine
because i don't know my mother's mother's mother's name but she has a song to sing through me
because when i speak i want audre to wink and alice to clap three times
because my body is not a toy or a toilet or a laboratory or an existential dilemma
2.
the spirit quivers in the space where dreams are fertilized and nurtured
move the mountains spirits rattle the webs lose loosen the breath
let the blood warm the skin
there is a riff the sun bakes only this body translates
let us be born
let us be born
let us be born
sweep me up in a ring-shout
i am healed by the rattle fed by the drum
ashe
-love and light,
ebony
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Got Poetry! We do. Check us out!
Check Durham's Community Writing Intensive online chapbook.
View us at http://www.ohsointense.wordpress.com/.
We will be adding to the chapbook in the next few days to keep coming back,and leave a comment as well.
peace,
ebony noelle golden
furiousflower@gmail.com
View us at http://www.ohsointense.wordpress.com/.
We will be adding to the chapbook in the next few days to keep coming back,and leave a comment as well.
peace,
ebony noelle golden
furiousflower@gmail.com
See hear
grab the dirt
rotate the skull
spit light lighten the step step light
rest in the right then write
like this
1. fight
2. remember
3. resistresistresist
4. rest
5. rise and chop
6. splay and shed
7. bring leave burn
8. repeat
turn slow bring palm to cheek check pulse then repeat
resist repeat resist
where does the body begin
itch
swing
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Poetry By The People~~ Community Writing INtensive
POETRY BY THE PEOPLE
Community Writing Intensive
Durham, NC
May 8-10, 2007
Dear Lovers of the Word,
You are cordially invited to write and discuss poetry in and with the Durham community. You will be surrounded by people who love poetry and believe in its transformative power. Here’s what you can expect:
Daily Schedule
1:00 ~ 3:00 Silent Writing/ Manuscript Conferences
3:00 ~ 4:00 Late Lunch/ Early Dinner
4:15 ~ 5:15 Community Sharing/ Open Mic
5:30 ~ 6:30 Poetry Exercises
6:30 ~ 8:30 Workshop/ Critique
8:30 ~ 9:00 Wrap – Up
Sponsors
This year betty’s daughter arts collaborative, broken beautiful press, and SpiritHouse-NC have graciously decided to sponsor Poetry By the People, so you don’t have to. There is no charge for attendance, just come with poems, an open heart, and a love for community art.
Funding
For poets who are not in the Durham-Raleigh-Chapel-Hill area, two very modest travel scholarships are available.
The Betty Ann Sims, Ed.D. Artist/Scholar Travel Scholarship is available to any poet who can demonstrate how expressive art will impact future or current scholarly projects.
The Talya Pierce Travel Scholarship for Emerging Poets is awarded to a woman of color who is beginning to explore the field of poetry. The recipient of this award must not hold any publications or academic degrees in creative writing.
Application
Please submit a five-page manuscript, a cover letter that explains the role of poetry in creating community, and your contact information to inthepeopleshands@gmail.com by May 6.
Contact Person
Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA
Director of betty’s daughter arts collaborative
furiousflower@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics
Community Writing Intensive
Durham, NC
May 8-10, 2007
Dear Lovers of the Word,
You are cordially invited to write and discuss poetry in and with the Durham community. You will be surrounded by people who love poetry and believe in its transformative power. Here’s what you can expect:
Daily Schedule
1:00 ~ 3:00 Silent Writing/ Manuscript Conferences
3:00 ~ 4:00 Late Lunch/ Early Dinner
4:15 ~ 5:15 Community Sharing/ Open Mic
5:30 ~ 6:30 Poetry Exercises
6:30 ~ 8:30 Workshop/ Critique
8:30 ~ 9:00 Wrap – Up
Sponsors
This year betty’s daughter arts collaborative, broken beautiful press, and SpiritHouse-NC have graciously decided to sponsor Poetry By the People, so you don’t have to. There is no charge for attendance, just come with poems, an open heart, and a love for community art.
Funding
For poets who are not in the Durham-Raleigh-Chapel-Hill area, two very modest travel scholarships are available.
The Betty Ann Sims, Ed.D. Artist/Scholar Travel Scholarship is available to any poet who can demonstrate how expressive art will impact future or current scholarly projects.
The Talya Pierce Travel Scholarship for Emerging Poets is awarded to a woman of color who is beginning to explore the field of poetry. The recipient of this award must not hold any publications or academic degrees in creative writing.
Application
Please submit a five-page manuscript, a cover letter that explains the role of poetry in creating community, and your contact information to inthepeopleshands@gmail.com by May 6.
Contact Person
Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA
Director of betty’s daughter arts collaborative
furiousflower@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
processing process / a circular experience
Current mood: contemplative
more (quest)ioning!
so a sista friend asked me about my writing process and i invited her to lunch (you know talking about process takes time). in my ever present quest to develop a workable applicable (to everything and specifc things in my world) poetics (in which to enrich myself and the beings around me)
i think alot about the manipulation of words, sounds, spirit, images, and bodies. here is what we came up with.
processing process/ a work in progress/ a collaboration between/among the universe (especially kriti and i)
process is was use to be tangible etheral consistent full of light and absence
process will not accept a bottle or magnitude
process must (not) be or always is touch
process is (or isn't) always lack of urgency
process is presence yet anticipating reincarnation everyday
process is fullness wholeness holistic
process is looking for or waiting with language
process is the struggle for aunthenticity
process is living
process is a medium
process is patience
process is energy
and emerging
and making language
and creating
and telepathy
process is how
peace and pieces of peace slivers and wholes and splayed light
love,
e
Current mood: contemplative
more (quest)ioning!
so a sista friend asked me about my writing process and i invited her to lunch (you know talking about process takes time). in my ever present quest to develop a workable applicable (to everything and specifc things in my world) poetics (in which to enrich myself and the beings around me)
i think alot about the manipulation of words, sounds, spirit, images, and bodies. here is what we came up with.
processing process/ a work in progress/ a collaboration between/among the universe (especially kriti and i)
process is was use to be tangible etheral consistent full of light and absence
process will not accept a bottle or magnitude
process must (not) be or always is touch
process is (or isn't) always lack of urgency
process is presence yet anticipating reincarnation everyday
process is fullness wholeness holistic
process is looking for or waiting with language
process is the struggle for aunthenticity
process is living
process is a medium
process is patience
process is energy
and emerging
and making language
and creating
and telepathy
process is how
peace and pieces of peace slivers and wholes and splayed light
love,
e
The art of (quest)ioning
so on my consistent journey for art poetry relationship and a spiritfilled love affair with myself, i attempt to practice silence, even in a room of people. here is one installment of one of my listening sessions. look for more soon!
ebonybeinglight
always and forever,
the art of (quest)ioning / or vibing to alice coletranes harp everyday
where is the real? who is a "micro"community? when is a sista?
when is a performance? which is a trinity? where is a body?
where is the hurt? which is a critique? how is a vulva? how is the trust?
which is a soul? who is a response? where is the tear? where is the blood?
where is the power? when is a color? where is the desire? when is a voice?
so, family~~~~sometimes the answer is the (quest)ion? word! word!
take some time and get lost or found in your questions about this world and the beings on it
love and life
e
so on my consistent journey for art poetry relationship and a spiritfilled love affair with myself, i attempt to practice silence, even in a room of people. here is one installment of one of my listening sessions. look for more soon!
ebonybeinglight
always and forever,
the art of (quest)ioning / or vibing to alice coletranes harp everyday
where is the real? who is a "micro"community? when is a sista?
when is a performance? which is a trinity? where is a body?
where is the hurt? which is a critique? how is a vulva? how is the trust?
which is a soul? who is a response? where is the tear? where is the blood?
where is the power? when is a color? where is the desire? when is a voice?
so, family~~~~sometimes the answer is the (quest)ion? word! word!
take some time and get lost or found in your questions about this world and the beings on it
love and life
e
Friday, March 23, 2007
Shange and Moving Toward Healing Poetics!!!
Hey people,
Here are the notes and activities that I shared with the audience during my talk on Shange and performative healing poetics.
Sharing in love and light,
e
PERFORMATIVE HEALING IN NTOZAKE SHANGE’SFOR COLORED GIRLS WHO CONSIDEREDSUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
Working the Chakras-
Green: Love, acceptance allowance
Each character in For Colored Girls’ personifies an energy field or chakra in the body. In traditional healing arts, the color green is associated with the heart chakra thus; “Alla My Stuff” is an imperative thrust toward the Lady in Green’s reclamation of self and self love. Lady in Green reminds the audience of the universal sound/expression of love, self acceptance, and allowance. The Green lady reclaims her own “tacky skirts”, her aired out vagina, “callused feet”, her “arm wit the hot iron scar” as her story, her walk, and her meditation on freedom, awareness, and wholeness.
This reclamation and proclamation illustrates specifically black womyn reclaiming ourselves; interestingly, the pieces, bodies, desires communities have harvested, historically and recently, for consumption. Lady in Green’s monologue is indeed a celebration of the reclamation of voice and herstory; and serves as an insightful glimpse into the importance of vocalization as expressive healing.
My stuff exercise: List all of the stuff that makes you the fabulous person you are. You can list descriptions of your personality, wonderful things you have gifted this world, or something special about you that don’t mind sharing with this group. Create a list of at least five items!
Dance this Fever Away!
In “No More Love Poems # 1” Lady in Orange deconstructs her individual experience as a “colored girl”. We enter the monologue as the Lady in Orange gains of awareness of what it means to be “her colored self” against a landscape of trauma and voicelessness. Thankfully, Shange does not leave the Orange lady rambling in a disorienting space of helplessness. By the end of the piece this character opens up to the joy of tears, rebirth, and the self-realization that comes as the character exfoliates feelings and despair and sorrow.
One more point of importance in this monologue concerns the development of a body narrative through the medium of dance. Shange, a trained dancer, peppers choreography throughout the performance of this play. Dance is what I like to call the unrestrained voice of the soul. Dance similar to vocal expressiveness allows the body to make strides toward healing by quickening the breath, warming the body, and securing the space where womyn can walk whole in their own bodies.
If your body to talk: Awakening to dance is a beautiful way in engage with your own body. Choose three body parts and allow them to have a free dialogue on the page. If possible allow the parts of your body to communicate with each other. Share your body conversations with someone next to you.
Here are the notes and activities that I shared with the audience during my talk on Shange and performative healing poetics.
Sharing in love and light,
e
PERFORMATIVE HEALING IN NTOZAKE SHANGE’SFOR COLORED GIRLS WHO CONSIDEREDSUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
Working the Chakras-
Green: Love, acceptance allowance
Each character in For Colored Girls’ personifies an energy field or chakra in the body. In traditional healing arts, the color green is associated with the heart chakra thus; “Alla My Stuff” is an imperative thrust toward the Lady in Green’s reclamation of self and self love. Lady in Green reminds the audience of the universal sound/expression of love, self acceptance, and allowance. The Green lady reclaims her own “tacky skirts”, her aired out vagina, “callused feet”, her “arm wit the hot iron scar” as her story, her walk, and her meditation on freedom, awareness, and wholeness.
This reclamation and proclamation illustrates specifically black womyn reclaiming ourselves; interestingly, the pieces, bodies, desires communities have harvested, historically and recently, for consumption. Lady in Green’s monologue is indeed a celebration of the reclamation of voice and herstory; and serves as an insightful glimpse into the importance of vocalization as expressive healing.
My stuff exercise: List all of the stuff that makes you the fabulous person you are. You can list descriptions of your personality, wonderful things you have gifted this world, or something special about you that don’t mind sharing with this group. Create a list of at least five items!
Dance this Fever Away!
In “No More Love Poems # 1” Lady in Orange deconstructs her individual experience as a “colored girl”. We enter the monologue as the Lady in Orange gains of awareness of what it means to be “her colored self” against a landscape of trauma and voicelessness. Thankfully, Shange does not leave the Orange lady rambling in a disorienting space of helplessness. By the end of the piece this character opens up to the joy of tears, rebirth, and the self-realization that comes as the character exfoliates feelings and despair and sorrow.
One more point of importance in this monologue concerns the development of a body narrative through the medium of dance. Shange, a trained dancer, peppers choreography throughout the performance of this play. Dance is what I like to call the unrestrained voice of the soul. Dance similar to vocal expressiveness allows the body to make strides toward healing by quickening the breath, warming the body, and securing the space where womyn can walk whole in their own bodies.
If your body to talk: Awakening to dance is a beautiful way in engage with your own body. Choose three body parts and allow them to have a free dialogue on the page. If possible allow the parts of your body to communicate with each other. Share your body conversations with someone next to you.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Ebony Presents Lecture on Performative Healing in the Work of Ntozake Shange
Greetings folks,
In observance of Women's History Month and every month, I will present an interactive lecture based on Performative Healing in the work of Ntozake Shange.
Please attend if you can!!!
Date: 3/21/2007
Time: 7 pm
Place: Miller Morgan Auditorum on the Campus of North Carolina Central University
for more information email
furiousflower@gmail.com
peace and love,e
In observance of Women's History Month and every month, I will present an interactive lecture based on Performative Healing in the work of Ntozake Shange.
Please attend if you can!!!
Date: 3/21/2007
Time: 7 pm
Place: Miller Morgan Auditorum on the Campus of North Carolina Central University
for more information email
furiousflower@gmail.com
peace and love,e
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Yo Grits and Good as Ours: Support SpiritHouse and NCCU 2/17!!!
Yo Grits Aint Good as Mine: Support SpiritHouse and NCCU February 17!!!
Three artists, three fantastic visions, one night…
January, 08 2007
For Immediate Release
Durham, N.C. - Harry Davis, Derrick Mayo and Rodney Edwards: three artists from completely different worlds, drawn to canvas for different reasons. Harry Davis, an Army veteran and Wilmington, North Carolina native, was re-birthed through paints and canvases after an accidental shooting left him wheelchair bound. His subjects vary from tribal, to Americana to spiritual, but his masterful use of bold colors remain the same. His work is in the private collections of Halle Berry and Denzel Washington. His showings range from venues as varied as the CIA to our very own Artsplosion in Raleigh, North Carolina
Derrick Mayo looks more like an Indy rock star than the talented painter he is; sultry, brooding eyes and long dreadlocks complete the impression. His instruments are paintbrushes and his fans are the many canvases which welcome him with open arms when he begins to stroke their surfaces with a rhythm and cadence that produces such works as Expressions of Melody or Bird Lives or Lady Day. He pays homage to late, great jazz artists and angels of dance. If passion were a song it would be his alone, the words written across the surface of his canvases. His talent has been recognized and appreciated by the Durham Regional Hospital and Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon.
In each family there is a wild, errant child, but we love him nonetheless. This triumvirate is no different. Rodney Davis, foster child, in and out of prison since he was a teenager, was convicted of murder by the time he was nineteen. But did that kill the spirit in this man? Never. He twisted and manipulated his anger into an art form which through its sheer power made its way outside the prison walls into banks, corporations and art aficionados' personal coffers. His pain ripples across the surface of his canvases in broad strokes of darkness and light, transferring itself to the viewer. Inspirational, aching and revelatory all at once, his work will leave you emotionally dazzled.
On February 17, 2007 from 7-10pm these artists will have their work on display at a reception being held at North Carolina Central University's Law School. Hosted by the Grits and Gravy Filmmakers and Writers Festival as its first annual Artists in Motion fundraiser event, all work purchased is tax deductible for up to twenty five percent of the purchase price.
Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
For more information contact Aisha Hicks at (919) 636-1751 or at gritsandgravy08@nc.rr.com.
Three artists, three fantastic visions, one night…
January, 08 2007
For Immediate Release
Durham, N.C. - Harry Davis, Derrick Mayo and Rodney Edwards: three artists from completely different worlds, drawn to canvas for different reasons. Harry Davis, an Army veteran and Wilmington, North Carolina native, was re-birthed through paints and canvases after an accidental shooting left him wheelchair bound. His subjects vary from tribal, to Americana to spiritual, but his masterful use of bold colors remain the same. His work is in the private collections of Halle Berry and Denzel Washington. His showings range from venues as varied as the CIA to our very own Artsplosion in Raleigh, North Carolina
Derrick Mayo looks more like an Indy rock star than the talented painter he is; sultry, brooding eyes and long dreadlocks complete the impression. His instruments are paintbrushes and his fans are the many canvases which welcome him with open arms when he begins to stroke their surfaces with a rhythm and cadence that produces such works as Expressions of Melody or Bird Lives or Lady Day. He pays homage to late, great jazz artists and angels of dance. If passion were a song it would be his alone, the words written across the surface of his canvases. His talent has been recognized and appreciated by the Durham Regional Hospital and Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon.
In each family there is a wild, errant child, but we love him nonetheless. This triumvirate is no different. Rodney Davis, foster child, in and out of prison since he was a teenager, was convicted of murder by the time he was nineteen. But did that kill the spirit in this man? Never. He twisted and manipulated his anger into an art form which through its sheer power made its way outside the prison walls into banks, corporations and art aficionados' personal coffers. His pain ripples across the surface of his canvases in broad strokes of darkness and light, transferring itself to the viewer. Inspirational, aching and revelatory all at once, his work will leave you emotionally dazzled.
On February 17, 2007 from 7-10pm these artists will have their work on display at a reception being held at North Carolina Central University's Law School. Hosted by the Grits and Gravy Filmmakers and Writers Festival as its first annual Artists in Motion fundraiser event, all work purchased is tax deductible for up to twenty five percent of the purchase price.
Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
For more information contact Aisha Hicks at (919) 636-1751 or at gritsandgravy08@nc.rr.com.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Call For Submissions
In The People’s Hands
(a grassroots literary zine)
Theme: Africana Women and Violence
Submission Deadline: March 5, 2007
Introduction
Africana (women of African heritage) share an interesting and distinct relationship with violence. Throughout h(er)story, and contemporary times Africana women have interfaced with police brutality, sexual assault, verbal attack, cultural brutality, academic dehumanization, reproductive injustice, political, and social disenfranchisement. Thank goddess, this is not the story of Africana women in total. We also experience and create love, joy, spirit, resilience, and fortitude that make our individual and collective journeys worth traveling. The complex relationship Africana women share with violence is reflected in our relationships with other women, men, ourselves; and is wonderfully and heartfully highlighted in the songs we sing, the stories we share, the love we make, the poems we recite, the food we cook, etc. etc.
In The People’s Hands, a SpiritHouse publication, was created to hear the voices of diverse communities. Submit work that explores your personal relationship with violence as an Africana woman or work in which explores this theme. Submit a literary creation that fits one or a combination of categories. Please note: We will not use your submission for any other purposes than creating In The People’s Hands literary zine. We will not reproduce in total or in part your submission for any other purpose than the paper-based, and online publication of this project. After publication author retains all implicit and explicit publication rights.
Criteria
Poetry
Two poems (maximum of two pages)
Short Fiction
1 story (maximum of four pages)
Essay
1 Essay (maximum of three pages)
Visual Art
2 pieces (please note one maybe chosen as the cover of collection)
Along with your creative work send:
-Two sentence biography
-picture (optional)
-contact information (phone, email address)
All submissions must be sent to:
InThePeoplesHands@gmail.com
In the subject line please type: Africana Women and Violence Issue
About the Sponsoring Organization
SpiritHouse- www.spirithouse-nc.org
SpiritHouse is a nonprofit grassroots community-based organization. We are part of a movement of progressive movements and organizations that endeavor to connect people to each other for the purpose of liberation, enlightenment, and fulfillment. We are independent. We are not supervised by any corporate, religious, or state bureaucracy. Our freedom allows us the flexibility to work and develop the partnerships of our choice. This gives us clarity and direction.
About the Editor-In-Chief www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics
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 furiousflower@gmail.com.
In The People’s Hands
(a grassroots literary zine)
Theme: Africana Women and Violence
Submission Deadline: March 5, 2007
Introduction
Africana (women of African heritage) share an interesting and distinct relationship with violence. Throughout h(er)story, and contemporary times Africana women have interfaced with police brutality, sexual assault, verbal attack, cultural brutality, academic dehumanization, reproductive injustice, political, and social disenfranchisement. Thank goddess, this is not the story of Africana women in total. We also experience and create love, joy, spirit, resilience, and fortitude that make our individual and collective journeys worth traveling. The complex relationship Africana women share with violence is reflected in our relationships with other women, men, ourselves; and is wonderfully and heartfully highlighted in the songs we sing, the stories we share, the love we make, the poems we recite, the food we cook, etc. etc.
In The People’s Hands, a SpiritHouse publication, was created to hear the voices of diverse communities. Submit work that explores your personal relationship with violence as an Africana woman or work in which explores this theme. Submit a literary creation that fits one or a combination of categories. Please note: We will not use your submission for any other purposes than creating In The People’s Hands literary zine. We will not reproduce in total or in part your submission for any other purpose than the paper-based, and online publication of this project. After publication author retains all implicit and explicit publication rights.
Criteria
Poetry
Two poems (maximum of two pages)
Short Fiction
1 story (maximum of four pages)
Essay
1 Essay (maximum of three pages)
Visual Art
2 pieces (please note one maybe chosen as the cover of collection)
Along with your creative work send:
-Two sentence biography
-picture (optional)
-contact information (phone, email address)
All submissions must be sent to:
InThePeoplesHands@gmail.com
In the subject line please type: Africana Women and Violence Issue
About the Sponsoring Organization
SpiritHouse- www.spirithouse-nc.org
SpiritHouse is a nonprofit grassroots community-based organization. We are part of a movement of progressive movements and organizations that endeavor to connect people to each other for the purpose of liberation, enlightenment, and fulfillment. We are independent. We are not supervised by any corporate, religious, or state bureaucracy. Our freedom allows us the flexibility to work and develop the partnerships of our choice. This gives us clarity and direction.
About the Editor-In-Chief www.myspace.com/mamashieroglyphics
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 furiousflower@gmail.com.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Midwives Exhibit in Durham!!!
Friends,
A traveling exhibition curated by Linda Janet Holmes, and on view at the Center for Documentary Studies, Reclaiming Midwives features photographs by Robert Galbraith that explore the lives and experiences of black midwives in Georgia in the early 1950s. Galbraith was a cameraman for George C. Stoney's 1953 film All My Babies, produced by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Georgia Department of Public Health, and intended as an instructional tool for the midwives still delivering most of the babies in rural Georgia at the time. The film, featuring Albany, Georgia, midwife Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900-66), has traveled to train midwives around the world.
Please spread the word that we will be screening the film All My Babies, this Sunday, February 4, at 2 p.m. at Richard White Auditorium on Duke's East Campus. The director of the film, George Stoney, will be there for a question and answer discussion session after the screening. There is a $5 donation requested for admission. I hope to see you there!
Peace,
Courtney
--
Courtney Reid-EatonExhibitions DirectorCenter for Documentary Studiesat Duke University1317 W. Pettigrew Street Durham, NC 27705919.660.3664919.681.7600 (fax)http://cds.aas.duke.edu
A traveling exhibition curated by Linda Janet Holmes, and on view at the Center for Documentary Studies, Reclaiming Midwives features photographs by Robert Galbraith that explore the lives and experiences of black midwives in Georgia in the early 1950s. Galbraith was a cameraman for George C. Stoney's 1953 film All My Babies, produced by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Georgia Department of Public Health, and intended as an instructional tool for the midwives still delivering most of the babies in rural Georgia at the time. The film, featuring Albany, Georgia, midwife Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900-66), has traveled to train midwives around the world.
Please spread the word that we will be screening the film All My Babies, this Sunday, February 4, at 2 p.m. at Richard White Auditorium on Duke's East Campus. The director of the film, George Stoney, will be there for a question and answer discussion session after the screening. There is a $5 donation requested for admission. I hope to see you there!
Peace,
Courtney
--
Courtney Reid-EatonExhibitions DirectorCenter for Documentary Studiesat Duke University1317 W. Pettigrew Street Durham, NC 27705919.660.3664919.681.7600 (fax)http://cds.aas.duke.edu
Friday, January 12, 2007
altar installation and silent protest in durham sunday
Because direct and immediate action is love, and revolution, and beauty, and resistance, and ....
Because art is action all over this globe Because we are we are we are we are we are agentsloversalliessurvivorsstriversresisterssistersfightersradicalsfamily
Because nifong is not the glue that holds this case or this community togetherBecause we will not be silenced or confused in the face of white racist patriarchy and sexual violence...
beacause we need....Movement now...
If you want to sit and meditate silently in front of the Court House Sunday meet us there!Bring a flower, a poem, a candle, a stick of incense, a piece of art work and... let's collectively focus positive energy on healing our ourselves and our community.
This is not an overly choreographed event, just show up at the court house around 12 noon Sunday 1/14.
Because art is action all over this globe Because we are we are we are we are we are agentsloversalliessurvivorsstriversresisterssistersfightersradicalsfamily
Because nifong is not the glue that holds this case or this community togetherBecause we will not be silenced or confused in the face of white racist patriarchy and sexual violence...
beacause we need....Movement now...
If you want to sit and meditate silently in front of the Court House Sunday meet us there!Bring a flower, a poem, a candle, a stick of incense, a piece of art work and... let's collectively focus positive energy on healing our ourselves and our community.
This is not an overly choreographed event, just show up at the court house around 12 noon Sunday 1/14.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
in my mother's likeness
the slack hip and urban cheek
the kitchen that slicks neck easily
not her tree limb legs
twig like fingers
piano ear or cato skin
(because my daddy is the color of ocean's edge)
but eyes
oh the seeking eyes identical shimmering
glass in both our skulls
the kitchen that slicks neck easily
not her tree limb legs
twig like fingers
piano ear or cato skin
(because my daddy is the color of ocean's edge)
but eyes
oh the seeking eyes identical shimmering
glass in both our skulls
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Hocking a Wedding Ring Published at www.wombpoetry.com
Yo,
check out my moving and grooving lit life at www.wombpoetry.com.
Hocking a Wedding Ring Published in online journal for women poets!
love and light,
ebony golden,
betty's daughter literary press
check out my moving and grooving lit life at www.wombpoetry.com.
Hocking a Wedding Ring Published in online journal for women poets!
love and light,
ebony golden,
betty's daughter literary press
for harryette~~~~~ again!
for harryette~~~~
We collect things that matter. Trinkets. Love letters. Ideas that set earth's orbit. Sunrises and warm remembrances to smooth forehead-wrinkles and soften the grimace into a smile. We collect things like malleable dirt and fresh fruit beauty. A call. A call. To the new school poetics of fresh birth. A call. A call. To what once was and was never trash. Recycled gold I say. We answer recycled gold. Old wor(l)ds. New gold.
We collect things that matter. Trinkets. Love letters. Ideas that set earth's orbit. Sunrises and warm remembrances to smooth forehead-wrinkles and soften the grimace into a smile. We collect things like malleable dirt and fresh fruit beauty. A call. A call. To the new school poetics of fresh birth. A call. A call. To what once was and was never trash. Recycled gold I say. We answer recycled gold. Old wor(l)ds. New gold.
Ebony to Publishes Review of Recyclopedia in BIBR
Renewed Treasure: Recyclopedia in Review
By: Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA
Recyclopedia. Harryette Mullen.
St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2006.
178 pp.
Price: 15.00 USA
18.95 Canada
Thinking thought to be a body wearing language as cloth-
ing or language a body of thought which is a soul or body
the clothing of a soul, she is veiled in silence. A veiled, un-
available body makes an available space.
-from trimmings
For hip readers who were, are, and will be in love with Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse &
Drudge. For the hydrating drink that is Harryette Mullen’s quintessential riff on gender,
language, geography, and legacy. For the poems re-gifted as lagniappes of light to enliven our
collective intellect; Harryette Mullen, Professor of English and African American Studies and
finalist for the National Book Award offers her new collection of previously published works in
Recyclopedia published by Gray Wolf Press. Mullen, dubbed “The Queen of Hip Hyperbole” by
Sandra Cisneros, reveals an intensely intricate and bitingly fresh approach to literary craft
which politicizes diction, exfoliates imagery, and reflects the brilliant glow which situates her in a
category poets, and writers alike, work ever so vigilantly to achieve. Mullen’s poems
deconstruct archetypal ideals of consumption, value, and economic class structure. She
writes,
“Pyramids are eroding monuments. Embalmed soup stocks
the recyclable soul adrift in its newspaper boat of double
coupons. Seconds decline in descent from number one, top
of the heap. So this is generic life, feeding from a dented
cant. Devoid of colored labels, the discounted irregulars.”
Long time Mullen enthusiasts and new readers can look forward to poems that spark critical
thought and conversation about local and global issues without heavily ladled didactic
overtures. Recyclopedia is elegantly spiced with imagistically rich verse, written in
short-lined stanzas, and concerned with historical, spiritual, and body narratives.
For example,
“bring money bring love
lucky floorwash seven
powers of Africa la mano
poderosa ayudame numeros suenos
…sister mystery listens
helps souls in misery
get to the square root
of evil and render in moot…”
This excerpt examines Yoruba spirituality and the cultural significance of the
conjure woman; but moreover, illustrates Mullen’s masterful and singular
approach to exploring Africana motif and symbology without clichéd
language and skin-deep imagery.
Harryette Mullen’s body of work, in general, and Recyclopedia, in
specific, demands readers to re-imagine and re-envision the possibilities of poetry. Additionally,
this collection urges readers to retire static assumptions about what creates readable, relevant,
and resonant poems. I highly recommend Mullen’s newest addition to the overpopulated
literary landscape for its quick wit, sharp intellect, and colorful approach to literary craft. Read
Recyclopedia and experience or re-acquaint yourself with one of contemporary poetry’s most
important treasures.
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 in 2007. 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.
By: Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA
Recyclopedia. Harryette Mullen.
St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2006.
178 pp.
Price: 15.00 USA
18.95 Canada
Thinking thought to be a body wearing language as cloth-
ing or language a body of thought which is a soul or body
the clothing of a soul, she is veiled in silence. A veiled, un-
available body makes an available space.
-from trimmings
For hip readers who were, are, and will be in love with Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse &
Drudge. For the hydrating drink that is Harryette Mullen’s quintessential riff on gender,
language, geography, and legacy. For the poems re-gifted as lagniappes of light to enliven our
collective intellect; Harryette Mullen, Professor of English and African American Studies and
finalist for the National Book Award offers her new collection of previously published works in
Recyclopedia published by Gray Wolf Press. Mullen, dubbed “The Queen of Hip Hyperbole” by
Sandra Cisneros, reveals an intensely intricate and bitingly fresh approach to literary craft
which politicizes diction, exfoliates imagery, and reflects the brilliant glow which situates her in a
category poets, and writers alike, work ever so vigilantly to achieve. Mullen’s poems
deconstruct archetypal ideals of consumption, value, and economic class structure. She
writes,
“Pyramids are eroding monuments. Embalmed soup stocks
the recyclable soul adrift in its newspaper boat of double
coupons. Seconds decline in descent from number one, top
of the heap. So this is generic life, feeding from a dented
cant. Devoid of colored labels, the discounted irregulars.”
Long time Mullen enthusiasts and new readers can look forward to poems that spark critical
thought and conversation about local and global issues without heavily ladled didactic
overtures. Recyclopedia is elegantly spiced with imagistically rich verse, written in
short-lined stanzas, and concerned with historical, spiritual, and body narratives.
For example,
“bring money bring love
lucky floorwash seven
powers of Africa la mano
poderosa ayudame numeros suenos
…sister mystery listens
helps souls in misery
get to the square root
of evil and render in moot…”
This excerpt examines Yoruba spirituality and the cultural significance of the
conjure woman; but moreover, illustrates Mullen’s masterful and singular
approach to exploring Africana motif and symbology without clichéd
language and skin-deep imagery.
Harryette Mullen’s body of work, in general, and Recyclopedia, in
specific, demands readers to re-imagine and re-envision the possibilities of poetry. Additionally,
this collection urges readers to retire static assumptions about what creates readable, relevant,
and resonant poems. I highly recommend Mullen’s newest addition to the overpopulated
literary landscape for its quick wit, sharp intellect, and colorful approach to literary craft. Read
Recyclopedia and experience or re-acquaint yourself with one of contemporary poetry’s most
important treasures.
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 in 2007. 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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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).
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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.
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.
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”.
“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
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
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
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
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
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!
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
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!
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!
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
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
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