To watch Eugene Redmond teach is to fall in love with writing, with words, and with the world. Here are some gems from a workshop I attended. Eugene talked about connection and continuum…how our identity is rippling out in circles: woman/womanhood; story; village/community; power; race and class; visionary source and lineage. Eugene has a big…
The Kwansaba came into being as a praise song. Drumvoices Revue has used the Kwansaba form to praise Richar Wright (2008), Maya Angelou and Quincy Troupe (2007), Jayne Cortex (2006), Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez (2005), Katherine Dunham (2004), Miles Davis (2003). Outside of haiku and the blues, the Kwansaba is one of the most…
The current issue of DRUMVOICES REVUE commemorates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” I taught his novel as a Peace Corps teacher in Ghana and Botswana. I meant a lot to me then and I still consider it one of the world’s masterpieces. Eugene Redmond, Poet Laureate of East…
My niece Janean Baird is a tigress reader in Illinois. She writes today about the summer reading program at their library. –JGR _____________________ I’m participating in the Adult’s Reading Kid’s Stuff at the library again. I love that I can get prizes for reading this summer too! Also, with children’s literature I can read it…
Hey! Dick Gregory, internationally known comic and social activist, is coming home to St. Louis. How cool is that? The New Millennium Group invites you to welcome Gregory on June 19, 2008. Doors open at 5 p.m. at the Starlight Room on 8350 N. Broadway. Dick Gregory Dick Gregory recently stole the stage at Tavis…
The economy has now connected what comes naturally to us folk in the heartland plains with what appears in the most urbane of our nation’s heralds. Times are tough? Garden! Make hash! Here’s some downhome wisdom from the Big Apple. Check out today’s bits of village wisdom in the NY Times. Breaking news: country goes…
Ready to get rid of all that “stuff”? A guy named Dave Bruno has some great ideas for you on how to “reduce, refuse, rejigger” at his blog & and a cause “Stuck in Stuff”. He regularly runs a 100 Things Challenge. This way of living—“quieting the noise of consumerism”—is the way I was raised….taken…
Sign in to the NY Times online to read this stories….or, what the heck….go out and buy paper off the rack and read it over a cuppa coffee. Report Takes Aim at ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype of Asian-American Students By TAMAR LEWIN The image of Asian-Americans as a homogeneous group of high achievers taking over the…
My father woke up in the night last week with part of this poem in his mind and walked into his dining room office to write it down on a construction clipboard on blue-lined paper….which is where I found it when I came to visit. As we chatted about it, I suggested it might be…
Just one side of Mara Purl! Mara Purl is one of the ultimate hyphenates/slashers: author/actress/producer/artist/musician/playwrite. Talk about creating connections through the arts and across cultures! Head on over to Mara Purl’s guest blog post on Type M for Murder where she tells the story about a life of multi-talents coming into focus and fruition. Also,…