The entire extended family is traveling in a van to a family reunion. It’s sort of a womb zoom.
“What kind of fabric are the shoes made of?” I asked my great niece as she drew a picture of a princess.
In creating a world we need to imagine the specifics.
What is your world? What are your specifics that make that world come alive in your writing?
Marcel Toussaint and I met through the St. Louis Writers Guild. Art, lyrics, novels, poetry–Marcel Toussaint does it all and has learned how to get his work out into the world. How did these gifts and skills develop throughout his life? How did he learn to overcome rejections, get published, win awards, and gain a…
The Saint Louis Art Museum African American Abstraction: St. Louis Connections, an installation of thought-provoking abstract works from both the Museum’s collection and local private collections features artists Oliver Jackson (born 1935), John Rozelle (born 1944), Phillip J. Hampton (born 1922) and Michael Marshall (born 1953). John Rozelle’s abstract mixed media works communicate profound emotional…
Womens Memoirs published my story “Passage into Elderhood: Happy 60th birthday” on my 2011 birthday December 29th exactly two years after I celebrated my 60th birthday by returning to Ghana. Long ago a Ghanaian friend asked me, “Janet, what kind of old woman do you want to be?” This story is the answer to his…
Today and tomorrow on Riehlife, I’m honored to feature one of the fine artists (very fine) I’ve encountered here in St. Louis. Edna J. Patterson-Petty has a show opening this week, so we’ll start there. Tomorrow you’ll get a closer and broader look at a warm woman just filled with wisdom for the village of…
Our most vital repetition is the breath and the heart beat. All art practice is based on repetition as we attain mastery. It’s practice, right? Music, dance, theater, visual art, and writing. These are called “disciplines” of course, because they require discipline. Repetition is how we get there. As musicians we practice scales. As artists…
This conversation with Joseph LaMarque is the seventh in my series of profiles on African-American fine artists and leaders of cultural organizations in St. Louis which now include (in alphabetical order): Rene Dimanche Jr., Ron Himes, Joseph La Marque, Edna J. Patterson Petty, Robert Powell, Freida L. Wheaton, and Rochleigh Z. Wholfe. You can go…