Selma, The Film

I saw the movie and love it and I’m thrilled that a black woman, Ava DuVernay, directed. This is the story of  a seminal moment in American history: the 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches for the rights of blacks to vote. It was a horrific time in the story of our nation. This film gets… Continue reading Selma, The Film

The Book of Negroes ~ February Miniseries on BET

  Good news! The compelling 2007 novel, Someone Knows My Name by Canadian author Lawrence Hill—released in Canada under the title, The Book of Negroes—has been adapted for American TV and will air next month as a miniseries on BET. I read the book two years ago. I’m still enthralled by the story Hill wove around his character… Continue reading The Book of Negroes ~ February Miniseries on BET

Post Card from THE BIG EASY!

Landed in New Orleans today! Standing in line, in the rain at Café Du Monde. One word: beignets…SOOOO GOOOD!!

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Solstice Offering ~ In light of homelessness

Wherever you dwell on the planet, just as we share the same inscrutable sun, we share a dire universal problem ~ homelessness. Ray Charles sang: “None of us are free if one of us is chained ~ none of us are free”.   I live in Marin County, California—just across the Golden Gate from San Francisco—where the divide… Continue reading Solstice Offering ~ In light of homelessness

So long NYC

When you have four hours to kill at Kennedy airport there are many things designed to part you from your money. After a stellar trip, my 11:30 flight left at 10 AM and I gave in to a $15 gin and tonic.

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12~13~14 A New Era begins…

We rocked the night away here in Washington DC at The Henley Park hotel! AJ Verdelle’s party was a grand cross generational celebration of friends, family, food and MUSIC by a skillful DJ with a playlist spanning the decades represented in the room.

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Post card from Park Slope: Brooklyn, NY

Musings… Tuesday evening I landed at Kennedy Airport in New York City to begin my journey toward 12~ 13~14: that will be the date this coming Saturday —the last sequential date for this century. </a

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Evoking His Name ~ Michael Brown: A Son of Ferguson, Missouri

Thanks Charina Nadura of Bill Moyers for bringing artist/activist Molly Crabapple’s video to my inbox. Nikky Finney says her responsibility as a poet, an artist is not to look away.  We all have that responsibility as humans sharing this planet. It is devastatingly hard. Molly Crabapple did an astounding job using animation to depict the story… Continue reading Evoking His Name ~ Michael Brown: A Son of Ferguson, Missouri

Nikki and Nikky @ ASU in Albany, GA

This was very cool: How could the 1000 people who recently attended Albany State University’s 8th Annual Poetry Festival possibly process the enormity of the event: being in the same room with Nikki Giovanni and Nikky Finney? With Frank X Walker, Hoke Glover and Lita Hooper. Kudos to my mother, Irene Jones‘ alma mater and HBCUs everywhere.