Noctuary: a record of what passes in the night

The Real Conventioneers of Orange County

2008-06-28T18:17:00.004-04:00

Greetings from Anaheim. Here 'Behind the Orange Curtain' for the Library Association Annual Convention. The bag given away to all registrants this year is orange (what a surprise, right?) Not just any orange, a bright 'We can see you from a mile away' orange. "You look like a crossing guard," the friend who picked me up from the airport said after I came back from registering at the convention center. Perhaps I've been watching too much Law & Order (or Baltimore's own "The Wire") but the color reminds me more of prison uniforms than anything else....

Beautiful day coming in yesterday, and except for some morning hazyness, a great day today. The relative flatness, wide streets, palm trees, and stips of restaurants, hotels, and motels reminds me of the Other 'OC', Ocean City, Maryland, or Rebhoboth Beach, Delwaware. I keep expecting to be told the ocean is only a few blocks away, while actually it is miles and miles from here (I have zero California geography other than knowing that I'm quite far from the Bay Area and Wine Country, the only other part of California I've ever been to).

Star gazing: The VERY cool Young Adult author Jacqueline Woodson (photo at left), who seems to be appearing at the booths of half the publishers this year; producer turned author Steven J Cannell, looking like a parody of a Hollywood Player with his deep tan and tinted sunglasses as he autographed books; and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who was also at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia (amazing to see someone who, sitting down, is almost as tall as most of the women who approach him for autographs). There was a long line for author John "An Abundance of Katherines" Greene, who my friend who is knowledgeable in the subject proclaims is "The Hearttrob of Young Adult Librarians" (who knew?). Lambda Literary Foundation Executive Director (and a heartthrob in his own right) Charles Flowers is here too, he and his partner recent transplants to Los Angles after over a decade in New York City. Sometime over the weekend I'm hoping to catch Mark Savaras, novelist known for his excellent lit-blog The Elegant Variation, and some of the poets around, like Mark Doty and Francisco X Alarcon.

My partner got a kick out of the fact that the not-too-Disneyfied area where I'm staying is a mix of Vietnamese and Mexican (us East Coasters think that's 'odd', and something we don't see outside of the kitchens of Asian restaurants). Other than having truly horrific wireless, the place is fine, and I feel somewhat 'at home' amongst la gente.

And although I tried, I couldn't hide this morning: Leaving for the convention with my then-empty bag stuck obviously not far enough down in my pocket, one of the hotel staff greeted me with, "Hello -- You're here for ALA!" Dang.....Outed by Orange!

Mas, mas tarde........

Shame!

2008-06-20T16:28:00.003-04:00

Okay everyone, get out your copies of the US Constitution, and a red pen, and draw a line through Amendement 4:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

While I was very pleased with the Supreme Court's recent decision to reinstate Habeus Corpus by allowing the detainees at Guantanamo Bay the right to appear in federal court, * I am extremly displeased at the House for sending President Bush's FISA bill through by a vote of 293-129.

This so called 'compromise' is in fact a capitulation to the President and the major telecomunications companies. It retains the provisions that would, (*retroactively* mind you!) protect telecomm companies from privacy lawsuits for cooperating with the Bush administration's patently illegal and gob-smackingly unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping. I am personally ashamed of both Steny Hoyer (D- MD) and Nancy D'Allesandro Pellosi (D-CA, born in Baltimore) for caving in to the administration. (Ms. Pellosi appears to be trying to get her photo in the dictionary next to the phrase 'flip-flop' when she talks about this issue)

UPDATE:(Future President) Obama has come out with a statement of mixed support: Yes to the idea of FISA, but no to telecom immunity. He says, as President, he'll seek repeal of that provision.

Salon's Glenn Greenwald has covered this extensively today.

Are we that filled with fear? Have the terrorists truly 'won' so badly that we need to give up our freedoms so blithely? What exactly are we trying to protect if such basics as freedom from government intrusion and the ability to seek redress for illegality and wrongs are being tossed aside? What kind of country are we living in -- and what tattered pieces of the Consitution will be left for future generations?

A sad day. Sad, just sad....

* FYI: Check out the independent and increasingly irreplaceable McClatchy newspapers group's 8-month long investigation into the goings-on at Guantanamo Bay. The report shows that the REAL threat to our security is how we've decided who to detain, and how they've been treated once incarcerated ("For some detainees who went home far more militant than when they arrived, Guantanamo became a school for jihad, or Islamic holy war.") For the strong of stomach only.....

Out of the [Black] Closet

2008-06-13T16:18:00.008-04:00

Two recent events in LGBT world have caught my eye because they involve us African-Americans, the often 'forgotten color' in the Rainbow Flag.

First New York Governor David Patterson announced a directive recognizing gay marriage in the state. He did it while revealing that he and his siblings were often watched by a gay couple, "Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald."

Then, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (our NEXT Black President?:) announces that his 18 year old daughter is a lesbian, and she'll be joining him at Boston's Pride Parade. "I think when Katherine started to memorize all the episodes of 'The L Word,' there was some hint that maybe she was sending us."

Although in New York reaction has been mixed, Ladies and Gentlemen, all I have to say is: get over it. The future is here.

Being Black and Gay has often been like living in a velvet closet. Growing up, 'everybody knew' (or suspected) someone who was gay or lesbian. We all had 'spinster aunts' living in "Boston Marriages" or single older uncles. Or married uncles with amazing taste in fashion and style (as a story my sister tells about one of my mother's brothers with a penchant for silk dressing gowns with matching slippers attests). Drag Balls in Harlem were legendary all the way back in the '20's, and a number of Blues Women (Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith) were as open as one could be about their preferences for women. One of my heroes, Billy Strayhorn, lived a life just as described by Richard Bruce Nugent, "You just did what you wanted to do. Nobody was in the closet. There wasn't any closet."

No one ever talked about this. You were 'safe' if you kept things to yourself. The idea of being "Out Loud and Proud" was unheard of. Figures deemed too controversial (Bayard Rustin) were threatened with exposure -- by other black people. There was, and remains, a policing of sexual orientation.

Bravo to the younger generations for 'just not having it,' standing up and being out. Bravo especially to Governors Patterson and Patrick for breaking 'the family silence.' I recognized myself and the Other Half in Gov. Patrick's "Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald." It was our house that all the younger nieces, nephews and cousins wanted to come to for cookouts (we had the biggest yard and I'd put them to work making their own kebobs to grill). Our nephews come over to play on our computer. And when The Other Half and I couldn't make his family reunion (he wasn't feeling well and didn't go), all the reports we got back were of people asking "Where are they?" "Why didn't they come?" "We miss them!"

Just like family.

Long Time No Blog....

2008-06-06T11:47:00.011-04:00

Sorry for the long hiatus! In addition to general 'busy-ness' we're having some problems with phone/DSL service at home, limiting the amount of on-line time to what I can squeeze in at work. I miss my nightly blog rolling! Oh well...while it may be debatable that 'You can't fight City Hall', it is VERY true that fighting the phone company is pretty much a no-win situation.....

A quick tour 'd horizon of some recent items that have caught my eye:

"'Fist-Bump'-O- Mania" hits the media. And it's called 'Dap' un-down-with-it (white) people! A 'Fist bump'? Plu-eeze....At least the hometown paper got it right!

Two articles (from AP via Yahoo and closer to home, the Baltimore Sun) on how younger people view Obama's rise (Oh! to be 16 again, and be able to say, "If he becomes the president, I can't imagine that there'll be racism...." The Optimism of Youth! )

While I'm pretty sure that my support for Obama, and the increasing-as-the-campain-went-on distaste for Senator Clinton was not related to her being a woman...just as, here in America, "everything is about race" so too many things/everything can be about gender as well. Joan Walsh of Salon and Judith Warner of the NYTimes do their best to keep me honest.

And a quick aside on this: I'm not sure how much of the venom others have directed at Hillary is based on her gender, and how much is based on her being Hillary Clinton, and the eight years she and Bill spent in the White House. I am unclear as to whether or not voting against THIS woman necessarily translates into voting against ANOTHER woman for President. In my own dream world I can concieve of a real "Amazing Race" pitting Elizabeth (Dole) vs Elizabeth (Edwards) for example. I find myself agreeing with the Christian Science Monitor: The "A Woman can't be President" Glass Cieling has been broken, and we are all greatful to 'Hill' for doing it.

In book news:
Although Amazon.com seems to be Kindle-ing along quite well, the brick & mortar Amazon in Minneapolis closes

And has it really been only 10 years since Harry Potter debuted and Random House first stepped onto the World Wide Web? Departing Guardian UK book reviewer Robert McCrum looks back on his term in office and rings some of the changes in BookWorld since 1997.

Finally, RFK remembered

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Double barreled reading series

2008-05-17T13:59:00.003-04:00

This Sunday kicks off the "Two Heads: Collaborating with Ourselves" reading series at downtown Baltimore's Clayton Books. Co-host Rosemary Klein and myself will be featuring writers with 'day jobs' that seem to be in opposition to their literary lives. How do they reconcile their work life with the creative life? Does one influence the other? These are questions all of us who have to 'make the bacon' doing something that has little to nothing to do with who we are as artists (like Insurance Men Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens, or the numerous Doctor/Writers from William Carlos Williams and Ethan Canin to Rafael Campo, Peter Pereira and C Dale Young)

The readings will be held on the third Sunday of the month at 3 pm from May (5/19) to October (10/19) at Clayton Fine Books, 317 N. Charles Street, Baltimore.

We kick the series off this week with Christopher T. George, editor at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and poet.

Quote of the week (and not just for writers, either....)

2008-04-28T17:24:00.002-04:00

If I were allowed to say only one thing to other writers in 2008, speaking both as editor and writer, I think it would be this: If you are truly serious about doing distinctive work that will make its mark, slow down.

A great poem or story or essay is not a line on a vita, a selling point in a job interview, or a ticket to tenure. Any person who writes one great poem or story or essay per year for twenty years will take his or her place on the short list of the finest writers of all time. Slow down. Read voluminously, year after year, both for pleasure and to be reminded of all that you must not do, all that you must exceed, in order to make your special, indelible mark.

-- Stephen Corey, editor of The Georgia Review
in Poets & Writers Magazine (May/June 2008)

Poem: "Where" by Mary Jo Bang

2008-04-22T10:04:00.004-04:00

I was reading Mary Jo Bang's extraordinary book, Elegy, over the weekend, and had wanted to post a poem from it...yesterday's news about Toni Brown makes me feel it even more imperative that I put something up. This is also a slight tip of the hat to John, who'd asked me about Elegy earlier this month, and has done an amazing job of posting a poem a day this April.

WHERE

In this cicada city, we are dead,
We are quiet, we are home.
Here, you belong

To me. I, to you. The trees lurch
Toward later summer, reach
Toward the window

Where glass makes mirror
Of the sitting. Lightning forks.
All directions lead to my empty head

Bent over a box of cicatrix ash.
My mothering lips are stitched
Shut by sorrow.

What was once a mind
Is pried open.
Look, doctor, at the tangle

Of synapse
Where the pearl should be.
And then, distraction --

The pink Mobius strip dips down
And begins its torturous twist.
The current catches

The tree and drags me forward.
Toward the missing beginning.

Elegy
(Graywolf Press, 2007)

Toni Brown (November 2, 1952 – April 19, 2008)

2008-04-21T16:44:00.006-04:00

UPDATE:
Toni Brown Memorials

Friday, April 25, 2008
Trinity Episcopal Church
3 Goddard Avenue
Rockland, Massachusetts
7-9pm
(781-871-0096)

Sunday, April 27, 2008
Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA
2 - 4 pm

Condolences may be sent:
In Memory of Toni Brown
c/o Ian Yancey
161 West Abbottsford Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144

Another day, another loss...what a shock to lose a gentle and hilarious sister-poet. We always had a great time together, and hers was one of the warm and welcoming presences I'll always remember that greeted me in Esopus New York my first year at the Cave Canem retreat. I'm still working on a poem that riffs off one of hers that she read the last time I saw her a couple of years ago. I'm sorry I won't be able to surprise her with the gift of it.

The news from Cave Canem:

Dear Poets,
I am sorry to write that Toni Brown (1997, 1998 and 2002) passed away on Saturday, April 19 from respiratory complications.

There will be two memorial services in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rockland, Massachusetts. If any friends of Toni would like to read a poem in one of the services, contact Toni’s sister, Gina Brown, at browngmd@gmail.com (please put CAVE CANEM in the subject line). There will be more information on the services at a later date.

Sincerely,
Dante Micheaux

Two poems including an audiorecording with percussionist Barbara McPherson

Toni in Prairie Schooner

Her more steamy work can also be found in Bed: New Lesbian Erotica (Haworth Press, 2007)

Salvation
The woman w/maggots in her legs
dozes in an over-stuffed chair
Flies orbit her head, blacken the walls,
make love to the soft holes in her body.

She whispers to the pipers who call her Granny,
bring her potato chips or warm ginger ale then
curl into the room's dark corners.
Their match flames reflect in her dull eyes
Sulfur mixes with the smell of garbage.

The women w/maggots in her legs
never changes her clothes.
Her socks writhe against her ankles
Her shoes appear to be full of rice.

She dreams of sheets boiled white,
sunshine through clear window panes.
The tickling in her body is the touch of God,
the buzzing, the wings of angels.

Dreadlocks

See
these ropes of hair
This is how
it would have grown
on my head
in the bowels of a ship
long ago

Understand
we dark still living
who crawled or
were dragged
hair matted flat
into this New World
would have been
dreadful

from Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade (University of Michigan Press, 2006)

from Postcards from Cave Canem

Naked against the moon’s fingers
rolling on the floor in the sheets
licking the sweat off my upper lip the cool rain
off the window sill Twisting my hair into knots
eating only sunshine and the songs of birds
Who heard my cries through the heavy oak door
while 15 poems had their way with me?

▪

Sweetie,
won’t be home this week
will call soon
Love, Toni

Love to you as well, Dear Toni!

Au Revoir, Césaire

2008-04-17T16:36:00.004-04:00

One of the greats, a giant of diasporan Surrealism, author of one of the masterpiece Cahier D'Un Retour Au Pays Natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land), staunch critic of colonialism and a founder of the "Negritude" movement, the poet (and politician) from Martinique, Aimé Césaire passed away today at the age of 94.

Aimé Césaire website (in French)

His page on the Academy of American Poets website

New York Times Review of "The Collected Poetry" translated by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith

New York Times and International Herald Tribune obituaries

A poem from his 1948 collection (translated as either Beheaded or Decapitated Sun) from The Negritude Poets

Mississippi

Man too bad you don't notice that my eyes
remember
slings and black flags
that murder every time I blink

Man too bad you don't see that you see nothing
not even that beautiful signal-system of the railroad that
under my eyelids makes the red and black disks of the coral-
snake which my munificence coils in my tears

Man too bad you don't see that in the depths of the reticle
where chance has deposited our eyes
there waits a buffalo drowned to the guard of his eyes
of the marsh

Man too bad you don't see that you can't
prevent me from building for his sufficiency
islands to the egg head of flagrant sky
under the calm ferocity of the immense geranium our sun

-- translated by Clayton Eshleman and Denis Kelly

Monday Night Live: By the way, meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage

2008-04-16T17:27:00.007-04:00

It will be my honor to join
Kimberly R. Moffitt, Ph.D. (Mass Communications, Howard University), and Dr. Sheri Parks, (Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland), for a discussion of gender, passing, race and film "From Hattie to Halle" after the staged reading this Monday night.

Center Stage's First Look Series:
By the way, meet Vera Stark, by Lynn Nottage

Just announced – Tracie Thoms, of CBS’s “Cold Case” and the movie “Rent,” returns to CENTERSTAGE (A Raisin in the Sun) to participate in the reading of Lynn Nottage’s latest play, By the way, meet Vera Stark on April 21st at 7pm. Ticket price is $5. Please call the box office at 410-332-0033 to reserve your seat!

Poem for Your Pocket: Bishop's "The Map"

2008-04-16T16:10:00.006-04:00

(@Left: Young people from Upton -- my old neighborhood -- participating in the Maps on Purpose project)

In honor of April 17th's "Poem in Your Pocket Day" and of the current delicious blockbuster exhibit "Maps: Finding Our Place
in the World / Mapping the Cosmos" at the Walters Art Museum, and other locations around town as part of the Baltimore Festival of Maps -- including us --, a poem from the great Elizabeth Bishop, from her amazing first book, North and South.

The Map

Land lies in water; it is shadowed green.
Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edges
showing the line of long sea-weeded ledges
where weeds hang to the simple blue from green.
Or does the land lean down to lift the sea from under,
drawing it unperturbed around itself?
Along the fine tan sandy shelf
is the land tugging at the sea from under?

The shadow of Newfoundland lies flat and still.
Labrador's yellow, where the moony Eskimo
has oiled it. We can stroke these lovely bays,
under a glass as if they were expected to blossom,
or as if to provide a clean cage for invisible fish.
The names of seashore towns run out to sea,
the names of cities cross the neighboring mountains
-the printer here experiencing the same excitement
as when emotion too far exceeds its cause.
These peninsulas take the water between thumb and finger
like women feeling for the smoothness of yard-goods.

Mapped waters are more quiet than the land is,
lending the land their waves' own conformation:
and Norway's hare runs south in agitation,
profiles investigate the sea, where land is.
Are they assigned, or can the countries pick their colors?
-What suits the character or the native waters best.
Topography displays no favorites; North's as near as West.
More delicate than the historians' are the map-makers' colors.

Lit Up

2008-04-11T13:18:00.005-04:00

As a teaser for next Saturday's City Lit Festival (Central Pratt Library Saturday April 19th), a poem by Baltimore's own Wei Yafeng -- aka 'Afaa' Michael Weaver ("Perhaps the only established African American poet who speaks, writes, and reads Chinese" according to Poets & Writers magazine, which featured him on its cover at the end of 2007). Baltimore City is proclaiming April 19th "Afaa Michael Weaver Day" in honor of him and his new book, The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005.

My Father's Geography

I was parading the Côte d'Azur,
hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,
following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo
to the hill that overlooks the ville.
A woman fed me pâté in the afternoon,
calling from her stall to offer me more.
At breakfast I talked in French with an old man
about what he loved about America--the Kennedys.

On the beaches I walked and watched
topless women sunbathe and swim,
loving both home and being so far from it.

At a phone looking to Africa over the Mediterranean,
I called my father, and, missing me, he said,
"You almost home boy. Go on cross that sea!"

From My Father's Geography (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992)

Weaver's personal story is amazing, and I admire both his work, and how he is a walking, breathing 'symbol of growth' -- not many black men who start in East Baltimore end up as professors and students of Chinese.

Weaver on Black Male Poetics

Listen to an audio clip of him reading "Theme For Intermediate Chinese", from the Academy of American Poets website

Even in the short time I've known him, his constant desire to learn and improve has been truly inspirational. I am not ashamed to say he's someone I look up to (figuratively and literally:). I'm looking forward to seeing him again, and to all the other writers -- Dr. Ben Carson, Dan Fesperman, Laura Lippman, Manil Suri, and children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford among them -- literary journals and just plain olf fans of reading who will be joining us on the 19th. Hope to see you there!

Happy National Poetry & Jazz Appreciation Month!

2008-04-02T16:07:00.009-04:00

April, April....a very dreary beginning to the month yesterday morning here suddenly blossomed into a glorious and warm afternoon and evening. Considering all the flowering trees (..and my blooming sinuses) Spring (or something like it) has arrived.

In honor of the 12th National Poetry Month -- an excerpt from a poem by the great Jay Wright on this year's poster(viewed at right: download the pdf here) -- and also of the 8th Jazz Appreciation Month ([El]La Fitzgerald from the Verve Songbook series seen at left: pdf here), the librarian in me recommends:

Sascha Feinstein and Yusuf Komunyakaa's Jazz Poetry Anthology and The Second Set (The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Volume 2)

Sascha Feinstein's journal Brilliant Corners

Art Lange and Nathaniel Mackey's Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry and Prose

and the Kevin Young edited Jazz Poems

My own small contribution to the party and the joys of the month appears below, from 10 Tongues. Enjoy!

Dad on Tenor

Paint me a dream of the late
1950's: men in somber suits
and skinny ties. Everyone
wears hats. The South exploding
with the new thing -- "Civil Rights"
The North feeling bewildered,
superior again.

My father plays his horn 'Round
Midnight and beyond, dances notes
into Eisenhower's straightlaced sky
higher than a Sputnik, is the Negro
giving wet dreams to beatniks
across the tops of cities contemplating jazz...

The universe fits onto a 10" record,
and every blue note is a gem,
filled with epic rhythms
rolling louder than a drum.

Rock and Roll is Chuck Berry,
a painted Little Richard, white boys
stealing The Blues, imitating Louis Jordan
badly, a kid from Mississippi your mother
swears has some cullud in him somewhere

My mother's hands snake around him
sweet and sad as a bass line, her body
just as bowed with child. White girls wink
from the corners bright
high notes trilled from the piano.
The discords of the '60's wait to mug him
at the far end of the street. For now

the world is his, whispers like a lover
All the Things You Are into his ear
as he steps up to the mike, wets the reed,
wraps a smile around the mouthpiece.
Far off a voice calls out

Blow,
Daddy,
Blow!

Playing Ketchup

2008-03-26T17:14:00.007-04:00

A long time away (problems on the home PC! I have NO IDEA what's going on in the world without my usual, semi-obsessive, nightly blogrolling!:) In any case, a couple of quick things I wanted to say....

Got caught in downtown Baltimore on the Sunday of our annual St Patrick's Day Parade. I usually miss this, the 2nd largest parade in the city, after the Preakness Parade, simply because I'm not particularly a fan of being in a crowd of people drunk on green beer (did enough of that in college, thank you very much....) However, as superpacked as it was, and as tied up traffic was, it wasn't too bad. Being Baltimore, it was probably one of the more 'multicultural' St Pats events. Family rumor has it that WE'RE part Irish, on my mother's side ( "Black Irish" ? AfroCelts?), but who knows...

One thing that struck me, however (more on the Friday before the St Pats weekend, when some co-workers and I just happened to stop into a downtown Irish Pub for lunch. Over the bar they have a sign saying "Help Wanted: Irish Need Not Apply" (click on the link to their website to see it). I was reminded that, a little over 100 years ago, discrimination against the Irish was almost as strong as it was against blacks, and their wave of Potato Famine-related immigration to this country was strongly condemmed. In the words of author Noel Ignatiev, the Irish "Became White", and now annually celebrate their heritage.

Hmmm.....Does this mean that, 100 years from now, folks will be wearing "Besa me soy mejicano/Kiss me I'm Mexican" t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo?

*************************************************************************************
Like many, I was also thrilled and astonished by Barack Obama's "Race Speech". If you have not read it or seen him deliver it, PLEASE do so now. IMHO it is an 'instant classic' and one that (I hope) people will read and youngsters will recite portions of for years to come. He said many things a lot of us have always wanted to say, but could not completley articulate.

And as for Rev Wright: Many of my friends and family agree -- he said nothing that many of us have not either said, or heard people say in churches, living rooms, barbershops and beauty salons across black America. Only they have not been snipped and cut, YouTubed and replayed ad nauseam by the media, and used as a club to beat down an uncommonly decent man. As Mr Obama said: Not this time! A national conversation on race is long (LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGGGG!) overdue. The problem is there are going to be a lot of truths told, and pain dug up that our fake-nostalgia loving but otherwise historically antithetic country would rather not deal with. But if not now, when? If not Obama, who?

*************************************************************************************

Finally, as a follow up to a previous post: I saw this young man again recently, not writing, but sitting on the bus, listening to his I-Pod. However, just the other day I saw ANOTHER young black man, journaling away while in transit. He caught me looking and gave me a half smile and the 'Universal Black Man "Wazzup brotha" Head Nod' (patent pending). I did the same to him, and he went back to writing. TODAY I saw a woman pull out a spiral notebook and begin reading a section of a journal (her own? Someone else's?)

Hmm...Baltimore: The City That Journals......

O Albany! O Mores!

2008-03-12T17:26:00.004-04:00

More on this later...although Salon's Glenn Greenwald captures a lot of my thinking very well... but for now (and to be positive)....Welcome Governor David Paterson!

And why, when thinking of Spitzer, did I think of this?

ANGELO
Well; come to me to-morrow.

LUCIO
[Aside to ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away!

ISABELLA
Heaven keep your honour safe!

ANGELO
[Aside] Amen:
For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.

ISABELLA
At what hour to-morrow
Shall I attend your lordship?

ANGELO
At any time 'fore noon.

ISABELLA
'Save your honour!

Exeunt ISABELLA, LUCIO, and Provost

ANGELO
From thee, even from thy virtue!
What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Ha!
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live!
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Even till now,
When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (Act 2, scene 2)

It Was 20 Years Ago Today......

2008-03-05T18:33:00.010-05:00

Relationships and trust do not remain constant. They are maintained and deepened only as you actively nurture and build on them with regular acts of kindness, consideration, appreciation and service. I learned that both the quality of our marriage and my own happiness had very little to do with what she was doing for me, and everything to do with whatIwas trying to do everyday to foster her happiness, share her burdens, and partner with her in the things we care most about. I've learned that unity in my relationship with my wife is one of the greatest, enabling sources of power in my life -- not only in our most significant work in the family and community together, but in every area of my life, including professionally. It creates a well of strength, peace, joy, belonging and energy that fuels my best work, creativity and drive to contribute.*

March 1998:I'm sure I was out that night, at some bar or club somewhere, otherwise I doubt that I would have wound up at the after hours club, The Last Stop. A (barely) converted warehouse (someone told me they they made and stored coffins there sometime during the building's history), it was one of the centers of House Music in Baltimore. It was also a place some friends of mine warned me about: dark, smoke-filled (both cigarettes and weed), illegally selling alcohol after hours....'dangerous.' I went anyway. I liked the music, and felt comfortable with the crowd.

Mark was probably in the club that night, and we probably saw each other, but didn't speak. Didn't really meet until after we'd left the club. We talked. We connected. We 'hooked up.' We exchanged phone numbers. And, being 'typical men' we didn't call each other.

A week or so later, I got a phone call from someone I didn't know, who was one of Mark's friends. Apparently he had been talking about me so much his friend, Butch, couldn't take it anymore: If Mark wasn't going to call, he would. Butch invited me over to his place to meet Mark again. (By one of those 'Baltimore is an Overgrown Small Town' coincidences, the home is within walking distance of where we live now). Amazingly, I went over to visit this person who I didn't know, to meet someone I'd only met once. He was lying on the floor in the club basement, watching TV when I arrived. I lay myself down beside him.

We've been together ever since. (Thank you Butch...we miss you and Jayson!)

It has not been easy. I am not the easiest person to get along with. However you feel about astrology, it is unfortunately true that I embody many of the negative features of Cancer the Crab: Moody, mercurial, silent, slow to change. And (to tell tales on myself here)....well, let's just say that over the years there have been occasional flare ups of my family's (apparently genetic) inability to keep our pants on. He's no angel either (although you didn't hear that from me!). Through it all, however, we've managed to hang in there with each other.

Time is a very odd thing, and memory plays tricks. There are things that I remember from before we met that I think he experienced as well. There are also events that we both attended that I sometimes don't remember him being there. Whenever I have to go someplace without him, even though we may not call each other every day, I usually find myself thinking, "Mark should be here to see this," or "We have to come back here together" (at which point I'll call 3 or 4 times, with a step by step description of where I am!:) Our being together just *is* some times, like the air is always there, allowing you to breathe without even thinking about it. He really is my 'Other Half,' my solid foundation, and I'm not entirely sure I'd even be here if it weren't for him to help hold things together.

For various reasons, we didn't do a big blow-out celebration. I took the day off. We sat in the front row for a performance of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Center Stage (Mark had seen the film version on cable, and wondered about a possible 'gay subtext'. The local production, using two African American actors, Michael Jean Dozier and Howard W. Overshown, as the title characters (and the only black people on stage; photo above) did little to disabuse him of the notion that R & G were involved in some kind of long-term relationship. The production also starred one of our favorite local actors/characters, Laurence O'Dwyer (photo below), as The Player). We also ran into (the cute) Mr. Dozier outside after the play and congratulated him on his performance. Then it was on to one of our favorite 'hangs' for something to eat between glances at election returns from Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, and then home. "Special," yes, but also 'just another day' in what has felt to us for quite some time as our 'married life' together (even though we took a pass on actually tying the knot on our last visit to Toronto. This year, the Maryland Legislature looks like it's moving toward something vaguely like civil unions even as we speak.)

Just like Charles Barkley, we do not consider ourselves Role Models. We are too imperfect and there have been too many bumps in the road for us to comfortably pass ourselves off as people others should emulate. And we're not unique: another black gay male couple we know (but don't see anywhere nearly enough) will celebrate twenty years together later this year. Don't believe the hype: It happens. But it happens with a lot of communication and a lot of work, day by day, week in, week out. And it's worth it.

(The Other Half points the way to the next 20 years...I love you, boo!:)

Finally, I'm learning that strong relationships require real effort and sacrifice. They require putting someone else's well-being, growth and happiness before your own. And oh, how it's worth it! For such effort is the door to our own happiness. What would we do without the pull of such relationships that help us get outside ourselves and become equal to our potential? -- *Quoted in The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen R. Covey

Baltimore: The City that Writes

2008-03-02T15:26:00.001-05:00

One of the many futures of (African) American Literature, hard at (and on the way to) work in Baltimore today

Potomac Pounding

2008-02-13T17:11:00.005-05:00

Quite an amazing showing by Senator Obama here in the Mid-Atlantic and the "Potomac Primary" yesterday. Turn out was heavy, in spite of the bad weather here (roads and traffic was horrible in Maryland, sadly forcing the cancellation of a program here at the library with author Nathan McCall....he'll reschedule...), which led to an 1 1/2 hour voting time extension. My poll-working brother-in-law and his wife were none too happy about that, but most everyone else was fine with it (their two sons seemed okay with their parents being out later, as their somewhat more lenient uncles allowed them to watch cartoons and play video and computer games longer than their parents would have done!)

More amazingly, Maryland delivered an extremely rare 'here's your hat, what's your hurry' upset to two incumbent House members: Republican Wayne Gilchrest was defeated by state legislator Dr. Andy Harris (..no relation...:). It was NOT a pretty campaign as Gilchrest was painted as 'too liberal' for working with members on the other side of the aisle: he was one of the only two Republicans to vote with House Democrats for a timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq, for example. What can I say? It's the Maryland 1st. Covering the entire Eastern Shore and parts of long-time Republican strongholds in Anne Arundel and other counties on the Western Shore, "Liberal = Communist" in much of that district.

The other surprise was the defeat of Al Wynn in the Maryland 4th by Donna Edwards, who just barely lost in her previous attempt to unseat him. Feeling was generally positive toward Wynn for much of his term, but he's turned increasingly to the right on a number of issues, and has become too comfortable with donations from the oil and banking industries for those of us over here on the left side of the spectrum. It also didn't hurt that Edwards attempted to embrace Senator Obama's mantra of "Change" (literally in some cases, as seen in this photo of her at Barack's University of Maryland rally)

A graphic from the Baltimore Sun on Maryland's Political Landscape (Hey, we really are "America in Miniature"!:)

Many thanks, however, to JohnK, for pointing out that, while we were voting, so was the Senate, on the FISA bill, moving to expand presidential powers to snoop on US citizens and give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who listen in on phone calls in the 'hunt for terrorists.' Shame on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for collapsing like a house of cards before this travesty.

Deep in the Heart of....

2008-02-10T12:39:00.000-05:00

Yet another reason my Other Half has no desire to visit Texas (despite my raves about Austin) -- Bolaño banned from the prison system (many thanks to the great Maude Newton for the heads up).

I'm impressed that someone behind bars was attempting to improve themselves by reading Roberto, but did the system think the offending passage was going to give the inmates ideas -- "Hey let's try this too!" -- although the description is of a heterosexual encounter (as if sexual activity doesn't happen behind bars anyway, sans literary influence).

I agree with Maude, Bolaño himself would have been amused this turn of events (and probably included it in his next fiction). I am so tempted right now to buy some copies and ship them to Texas (and/or give a call to our local jail librarian and see if they have the book here in Baltimore)!

Safe Journeys, Dearest Vincent

2008-02-04T16:00:00.002-05:00

What does it mean to heal, from betrayal by those who have often stood closest to us, to heal from the burdens of the past, to heal our insulted humanity, to heal from the belief that we are not holy and imbued with sacred function? And at what cost do we ignore our fatigue, deeply repressed angers, the bleeding absence of love, our silenced stories? We can and should talk and share and support one another, but the first order of business is relearning how to love and care for our individual selves/our souls. This is our primary sacred task and, as well, our road to liberation.

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Cave Canem Remembers Vincent Woodard (1971-2008) (PDF)

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UPDATE
Sunday, Feb 24 @ 1230 - 130pm
A Celebration of Vincent Woodard (d. 2008)
Brownstone Books
409 Lewis Avenue
Between Macdonough and Decatur Streets in Bed- Stuy, Brooklyn, New York
(A/C to Utica Avenue)

There will be small bites and juice. There will be time and space for readings, reflections, and creations to share. Please direct all questions to Andre Lancaster (andre@freedomtrainproductions.org).

**********************************************************************************

I received the sad news today of the passing of Vincent Woodard, a fellow Cave Canem Fellow, University of Colorado faculty member, and one of the gentlest -- yet fiercest -- men I've ever met.

Vincent's critical/academic work explored issues of sexuality and gender in African American studies. But to me his real work was Spiritual. His readings and performances were more like revivals, visitations of the spirits, than what we usually think of as 'readings.' Relatively straightforward recitations would suddenly turn into incantations, sermons, divinations. His body and voice would shake as if possessed by the words, or the spirit of the words, he was the vessel for. "Moving" doesn't even come close to the experience of hearing him perform. The man could shake you to your foundations without seeming to break a sweat. Many of us remember him as someone who seemed made more of Light than of Flesh, radiating peace, wisdom, and a great deal of strength and courage.

And, yes, I think I fell a little in love with him when we first met. How could anyone resist such an Angel? I will miss his dear, beautiful soul.

The quotes above and belwo are from Vincent's essay in AIDS Project LA's Think Again. In typical Woodard style (The complete journal here in PDF format) the article 'transgresses' with style, discussing things some in our community would rather not talk about, and mixes critique with memory, fiction with non fiction, poetry with essay.

A powerful tradition of witnessing exists within black traditional religious practices dating back to slavery. In the context of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era, witnessing was the way that black people affirmed the enspirited, boundless humanity that gave them the courage and power to overcome. Somebody stood up, in a church, in a field, down by a riverside, and told a story, their story, or perhaps a story that had been passed on to them, and the onlookers sat there, stood there, taking it, making it more real, through the act of witnessing. Too often, black gay lives exist between the chasm of wanting to be witnessed for and a silence that chokes down the voice. I know this silence is real. I battle it, hunt after it every day. I search for names for this silence so that I can call it out, march it to the stand, turn to the jury and make them acknowledge that too many black gays die from longing, invisibility, slow calculated suicides, addiction and numerous other forms of soul murder.

The power and legacy of the witnessing tradition demands, though, that we look through and beyond these deaths to the glory and the lessons they have left, like a pyre of ceremonial ashes painting our naked bodies in circles and blood. If I reach inside my stomach and pull out a story to tell you, it would be the springtime, dragonfly tears, a ripening of pines, oak trees and lost souls wanting to return, wanting to be witnessed.

UPDATE

Many thanks to Professor E. Patrick Johnson for this note on Vincent's papers and publishing projects

Dear All:

I know that there was a lot of discussion about Vincent's papers. I can tell you that his book manuscript was under contract at NYU Press and the press is still committed to publishing it. Vincent provided instructions before he passed with regard to getting the manuscript revised. The good thing is that NYU has the rights to the manuscript because of the signed contract, so the family has no say in that. He did not have a will and it is still unclear what the family will do with his other papers and his poetry, but Vincent did ask one of his colleagues at the University of Colorado to make sure that they were preserved.

This is all I have been able to find out, but I'll provide news as it becomes available.

E. Patrick Johnson
Chair & Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Performance Studies
Professor, African American Studies
Northwestern University

Passing the Torch

2008-01-28T17:51:00.001-05:00

(Part of) The Kennedy Clan endorses Obama.

We, too, want a president who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American dream and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal and who can lift our spirits and make us believe again. I’ve found that candidate and I think you have, too.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander on Toni Morrison's "Clinton as First Black President" comment

And La Morrison herself endorses Obama

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

....There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.
(Full Text Here)

Meme-of-the-Month Club

2008-01-22T16:56:00.001-05:00

ONLY because I love Ms Jones am I doing this! I'm not a chain mail/meme kind of person. But She Asked, and so I Answer....

January 2007
'007 News, Good and Bad
Positive spin:
Quranic Brothers: Keith Ellison and Thomas Jefferson

February 2007
Black Gay History Month for the NBA
Too much has been happening here in the past month for me to do much blogging, but I did want to sneak in a brief post to say....

April 2007
National Poetry Month: Theme and Variations
I know
I know...
long time -
no Blog

sorry
the weather has been
so warm and clear.

I will try
to do better
soon

May 2007
You call yourself ...what?

I recently had the pleasure of teaching a workshop at Coppin State University, and one of the students in the class asked me a question.

June 2007
Dancin' Dancin' Dancin'!

I purposefully took a copy of writer Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Dancing in the Streets, along when The Other Half and I went on a recent visit to Chicago, because I knew I would see its subject in action.

July 2007
Carrying On
I am very pleased to be part of this project.

August 2007
(Still) Brutal Imagination

I was going to blog about other things (like this week's buzz word 'infrastructure'), but then:

September 2007
Ciao Luciano!

A fond farewell to the Great Tenor (and hero to 'men of size' everywhere).

October 2007
Quote: Michael Palmer
As Octavio Paz notes, the poem is alive only when the reader opens the book; until then it is nothing, it is waiting in the dark.

November 2007
The Great Not-so-white North

Back from a whirlwind trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I guess if Garrison Keillor can come to Baltimore, I can go to Lake Woebegon!

December 2007
Poem: "Self-Portrait at Twenty Years" by Roberto Bolaño

It's been a while since I've posted a poem, and thought I'd put this up, since the subject of translation has been one some friends and I have been discussing recently

"Irrational Exuberance"?

2008-01-08T17:37:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! Happy New Century?

Since the Iowa Caucuses, I've been trying avoid Mr. Greenspan's "Irrational Exuberance". It's early, there's a long way to go, he's still a Black Man in America, and to be honest, before those returns came in, the Other Half and I were discussing why a state that really is pretty unrepresentative of the rest of the nation in many ways got to be so darned Important.

Ask me about the issues, and I really should be voting for Dennis.

And if there's a lesson to be learned by the results in New Hampshire, it's that sometimes polls don't mean a thing...

But still, I'm sorry, I can't contain myself. In point of fact, even with Hillary's win in New Hampshire, I remain, well....kinda giddy! I've already had the dream of loading all our nieces and nephews into the car and heading to DC on January 20, 2009, to be there in person when History is made...

Obviously I need a cold compress and a little lie down.

(And I'm ignoring the fact that, if Hillary wins, History will STILL be made)

The old Political Science Major in me is making a comeback. This is turning out to be the most exciting primary season I can remember. The Republicans might go into their convention without a clear winner (a smoke-filled room alert will soon be issued for Minneapolis). Hill & Bill could be trading primary's with Barack up to Super Tuesday (I've heard pundits start to call it Tsunami Tuesday, which strikes me as really insensitive)

It's also amazing, in this age of sound-bites, that people are responding to Obama's speeches. Eloquence on the campaign trail? Unheard of (Rev. Mike Huckabee has a bit of this as well, I think, as well as an ability to engage people on both a personal and intellectual level, which is another reason why Iowa was so interesting). I've often said on a local level that one of the things missing here is someone able to give Baltimore residents a vision of our future, someone that could make us dream of something better, and make us long to achieve it. Obama is doing this on a national level. Everyone else seems bogged down in detail, while he soars above it all.

A bit disconcerting -- man and woman do not govern on "The Vision Thing" alone -- but it is essential. And the correct kind of a vision, and embracing one, is important as well.

Plus, the man can write pretty well also.

Yeah, I'm late for the bandwagon. Yes, I am "one of THOSE Negroes who waited to see if white people would vote for a black candidate." Sue me.

See you in DC, Barack!

Kathleen Hall Jamison on Iowa -- and against the Zero-Sum Game analogy in politics. Moyers/Jamison will be a weekly must in our household for the rest of the campain.

A note to those who were went all 'Hillary is Dead' after Iowa

Obama's New Hampshire concession: "Yes We Can"

Oscar Peterson

2007-12-26T14:20:00.000-05:00

Sad to report the loss of the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson on Christmas Eve. A National Hero in Canada (the only living person, other than Queen Elizabeth, to have a stamp issued in his honor back in 2005), his dazzling speed on the keyboards -- the man could sound like two pianists sometimes -- sometimes obscured his improvisational inventiveness, and his ability to swing/funkiness as well. A great loss.

(Personal aside: the first Peterson album I purchased was 1979's live "Digital at Montreaux" (pressed on red vinyl!) with Oscar and the similarly named bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. His whip-fast, finger breaking '(Back Home Again In) Indiana' knocked my teenaged butt on the floor....)

A sample of his work.....

Some links:

A message from the Official OP website

Boston Globe

Toronto Star

A 2003 NPR Interview

Washington Post