Writing in Real Life

HA! Love this!

2012-01-27T16:27:16.859-08:00

HA! Love this!

A graphic novel? Love the drawings... Ava's pr...

2011-12-10T08:03:37.758-08:00

A graphic novel? Love the drawings... Ava's precious, and yes, you captured the intensity that Amir has had since he was a very young child...

Love the emergent visual artist expressing the con...

2011-12-09T20:14:42.558-08:00

Love the emergent visual artist expressing the continued emergence of mothering:) Keep going.

I just found your blog and this was wonderful to r...

2011-11-23T00:22:17.139-08:00

I just found your blog and this was wonderful to read. I feel like I know Aunt Velma. What an amazing woman. Thank you for sharing that.

Go on Aunt Velma! What an inspiration. I'm sor...

2011-09-14T13:29:52.293-07:00

Go on Aunt Velma! What an inspiration. I'm sorry for your loss, but how fortunate you were to have had her in your life.

And by the way, as a Capricorn, she is so right about that joint thing...
Tammee (Leimert Park)

Thanks Steph. Look for an email from me

2011-09-12T09:30:53.391-07:00

Thanks Steph. Look for an email from me

I feel like I met her. This is a great way to reme...

2011-09-12T08:40:37.706-07:00

I feel like I met her. This is a great way to remember her and to introduce what was obviously an incredible person to those who did not know her. RIP.

WOW beautiful place.

2011-09-12T08:37:19.030-07:00

WOW beautiful place.

Have a good time. Happy Poetry Month!

2011-04-04T18:05:08.371-07:00

Have a good time. Happy Poetry Month!

Just saw that you posted my videos. Thanks for the...

2011-03-22T07:03:03.843-07:00

Just saw that you posted my videos. Thanks for the share, glad you enjoyed them!

Love the photo!

2011-02-23T01:16:04.074-08:00

Love the photo!

It was a pleasure to attend the event at Changing ...

2011-01-18T13:38:55.987-08:00

It was a pleasure to attend the event at Changing Hands Bookstore yesterday evening. I enjoyed seeing a speckled glimpse of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s dream. The words read had me my spirit jumping out of my seat. The seat no longer could hold me down and I found it necessary to dance around the store listening to the beautiful voices that sang for justice. But, for some reason two poems that came to mind were Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" and "Minstrel Man" by Langston Hughes. Why?

I am a immigrant to Phoenix, AZ from the great state of North Dakota. I came here on a jetplane that held Air Force Airmen destined to work for the "man" at Luke AFB. When I got off the plane I expected to be welcomed by a multicultural community. I was surprisingly disappointed on how unwelcoming people of color are here in Phoenix. If, you are a person of color that fails to fit the mold of what society has generously constructed for everyone to lie in you end up outcast. I suppose that is what James Baldwin was referring to when he frequently spoke of the artistic process of the "So-Called Negro" writer.

I understand SB1070 and HB2013 are the most media visible and driven due to we live in a Arizona where the brown covers our desert. But, there are a number of other issues that impede the justic of people of color and the terms, "underdeveloped, underemployed, and mass incarceration" come to mind. The Black Male is in crisis and slowly dying. It is not only in South Phoenix. It is happening everywhere. America has no problem with tagging the black man "Dead Beats" and "Whodini," (no not the hip-hop group of the 80s) dissapearing when they have a responsibility to nuture the seed that grows from the womb to the streets. But, no one ever mentions where and why they have disappeared. Most black and brown males have been caught up in the "so-called justice system." They have been imprisoned due to many reasons, but the media fails to let community that their white brother was charged with the same crime and sentenced for less time. And the problem is black males are being incarcerated at a high rate and due the "underdevelopment" of the young black and brown brothers our community.

"The Dream" can only come true when we confront the issues that the media feels unnecessary to spew on the television. How many times have you heard when a crime is a committed person of color being described as "black or mexican" versus a "white" person? I will answer the question, none because they, the media, don't mention the color of skin when its a "white" person.

Girl we miss you

2011-01-17T08:55:13.203-08:00

Girl we miss you

Wish I could be there tonight, Renee. Enjoy! Send...

2011-01-17T08:42:39.782-08:00

Wish I could be there tonight, Renee. Enjoy! Send my love to Changing Hands, my best to Venita and Rae, a smile for Ryan (who I suspect remembers me not at all), and a "Wassup" to Fernando.

Miss you!

Beautiful poem

2010-11-20T18:58:00.593-08:00

Beautiful poem

Writing Gods come to a house with an intense Writi...

2010-11-11T04:43:10.792-08:00

Writing Gods come to a house with an intense Writing Goddess like yourself:)
Glad that Amir has a great teacher, he was always an intense kid and he had to have someone tap into that! I sort of wonder if I was one of those science/math discouraged girls...like if I had an interesting female science or math teacher, maybe I'd have turned in another direction...great news about AWP and everything else. Just got the STrange CArgo book and am about to read your piece!xosteph talk soon...

Of course! I identify with the student more than t...

2010-11-06T14:35:33.219-07:00

Of course! I identify with the student more than the writer-in-residence. I feel like I'm always begging for a break and I have certainly begged while clueless like this character.

Funny stuff. Has anything similar ever happened to...

2010-11-06T14:05:08.742-07:00

Funny stuff. Has anything similar ever happened to you?

Hi, Evelyn! I have to write. I think you call that...

2010-10-06T09:48:50.270-07:00

Hi, Evelyn! I have to write. I think you call that OCD...

Wow you sound super busy. It's amazing you fin...

2010-10-06T09:14:06.350-07:00

Wow you sound super busy. It's amazing you find time to write.

Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't read this be...

2010-09-09T07:06:59.463-07:00

Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't read this before.

Great poem--very powerful. Love the texture!

2010-08-29T04:31:04.464-07:00

Great poem--very powerful. Love the texture!

Thanks JayTee!

2010-08-25T11:42:59.775-07:00

Thanks JayTee!

Oooh, I love the way this builds. It's a great...

2010-08-25T11:19:14.786-07:00

Oooh, I love the way this builds. It's a great read!

Thank you, Renee! This is precisely what I thought...

2010-08-11T12:09:38.374-07:00

Thank you, Renee! This is precisely what I thought. There's always an eye towards diversity when folks want to suggest that some people are not deserving of the praise they have received. Not only had Shivani's underrated list better be as diverse, it should include other than the "usual suspects" i.e. the same people of color that White elites like to give "it" status. Let these names truly be people that we have not heard of yet who deserve our attention.