A famous Harlem transplant once said, “I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.” Almost a century ago, Langston Hughes moved to the uptown New York City neighborhood from the Midwest to spread his creative wings in an era that… Continue reading Connecting Through the Canvas: Donnie Rogers, Harlem Artist
Tag: Art
Two from the Road: Wilmington, Delaware
Black Cicada That Change Can not a life expectancy Not revolution Here I am Down I am hunkering Feelers as nails So world wills me Though this Die I will not Black bird From white ant to My make up Who will hear my song? I will tell you the heat In the crease of… Continue reading Two from the Road: Wilmington, Delaware
Love Gaps
We are only heard from our graves / Depicted as the help or 40 million dollar slave / To whip work or catch a similar case / Of mathematics is problematic because this tragic habit is not in our fave / Or…institutionalize our lifestyle as a crime / like black military women with natural hairstyles… Continue reading Love Gaps
Uncle Shadow and the Crescent City
There is something mesmerizing, yet indescribable about New Orleans. For as many times as I have been, I still don’t understand it. Yet, it’s one of the American cities I enjoy most. Whether it’s folks calling me “baby” or the ever-present Bounce remix thumping from sound systems worth more than the vehicles they’re in, ain’t nothing like… Continue reading Uncle Shadow and the Crescent City
Spinach
This being her second visit to the grocery store, with its blinding fluorescent light and constant A/C, she came prepared. The wool sweater, a gift from her best friend back in Nairobi, smells of incense and coal, the scent of safe secrets, closeness, and familiarity. Its fabric caresses her chin as she exhales a memory… Continue reading Spinach
So Join Her Truth
I’m just a child of the wisdom unseen and the last moment in time The first words in free verse and last moment in rhyme The first vowel rehearsed when consonants are inclined Travel towards reverse when forward is the design Legitimized under the starlight and glass clouds Emitting the stars rays from the roots… Continue reading So Join Her Truth
The Quiet Revolution
The quiet Revolution of being Black in America Where our bodies are always on auction blocks We are bought and sold for fragile egos Where our defiance is listed under justifiable homicide Justice is a word we don’t know and we are told to just go along Even when the police are hell-bent on violating… Continue reading The Quiet Revolution
One Photo, One City
Philadelphia was everything that Boston could never be. After two miserable years of living in Massachusetts and desperately seeking an out, a weekend visit to Philly during the Odunde Festival did me in. The streets were crowded with black people. Their beauty was an overwhelming barrage to the senses. Booths burst with vibrant African prints.… Continue reading One Photo, One City
Sentence—for James Baldwin
The sentence, you said, must be pared to the bare bone. This was years after you left New York for Paris, $40 in your pocket, with ragged duffel bag of few clothing and early novel manuscripts you would lose crossing the Atlantic. You had to leave, you said, after your best friend jumped from the… Continue reading Sentence—for James Baldwin
Of Gods and Men
“As an artist, you have to get outside of the concern with what other people think of what you do. I don’t do what I do to appease people. I do the opposite. I do stuff that makes you uncomfortable, that makes you get up and say ‘What are you saying? James, did you read… Continue reading Of Gods and Men