2961 Search results for "life"

Uh oh.  It’s a code red (black and green).  The bat signal is out.  bell hooks has started spelling her name in all CAPS.  Call up your elders, pray to your ancestors; conjure up your inner fairies, spirits, and goddesses.  Tyler Perry is turning your favorite play, excuse me, choreopoem into a movie.

I am lucky, or at the least very fortunate that in my life I have been on both sides of the “fence” or in this case all three sides of the fence. I have lived in suburban, urban, and rural areas. I have lived in very nice areas of the country (Diamond Bar in LA […]

……………16……………. ………….black…………… ……….pregnant………… httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YFoDte6hh0 I got a chance to go back to one of my community high schools and perform poetry. One of the poems that I performed in the national poetry competition was about a women being barren. When performing this piece at the high school, one of the girls—no more than 16—started to […]

Any of you following the NFL might have been slightly shocked when the details of Plaxico Burress’ sentence became public.  Even I was surprised by the severity of his sentence, and I’ve been watching NFL players tango with the (in)justice system since well before, um, Ray Lewis?  For those of you who have not diligently […]

In honor of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday last year, Time Magazine published an article on Mandela’s Eight Lessons of Leadership I encourage you to read the article… But I thought I would share the lessons that I found most poignant No.1: Courage is Not the Absence of Fear, it’s Inspiring Others to Move Beyond It […]

In 1964 at the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer said, “All my life I’ve been sick and tired . . . Now, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Even though these words were distinctively about Southern racism, I find myself unconsciously gravitating to these words to talk about the […]

NERD ALERT! New obsession: Gender Tests. Yesterday, I read an article about South African runner Caster Semenya, who has been asked by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) to take tests in order to confirm that she is, in fact, a woman. Apparently she got really good, really fast, and that raised some estrogen […]

I like Mad Men. It’s a good show, well-written and -acted. All of that. I’m not turning myself into a Mad Men avatar like other fans, but I get the allure. (Besides, there’s no maid’s uniform.) The world of Mad Men is sleek, shiny, colorful; it totally messes up my “the only colors available in […]

  Lately I’ve been completely repulsed by the state of hip-hop. When hip hop was first recognized as a mainstream genre, rappers served as journalists by writing and broadcasting candid exposés on their plights and struggles.  Even the profanity-laden rap group, NWA, expressed the anger that young black men from the inner city had with […]

I know you’re damn near hyperventilating waiting for Tuesday blogging goodness from the kid.  But check it out: a dissertation cannot write itself, even if you keep telling it that you’re busy describing what’s going on in your life in 140 characters or fewer.  And since I’m totally not trying to have my dissertation chair […]

Born of Jamaican roots on August 17, 1887, Marcus Garvey is the grandfather of pan-Africanist cultural movements throughout the diaspora. His Universal Negro Improvement Association went onto inspire generations of movements, scholars and black people across the world. Today, I encourage all of you to take a moment out to remember this powerful ancestor, and […]

  In High School I went to a church that rallied students to stand in front of abortion clinics with red tape covering their mouth and black marker written on the tape displaying one simple word. “Life.” I never personally went on these escapades, but there was already a contradiction building between my personal life […]