I love your Africa
Licorice coarseness springs from your pavement
I enjoy it remember it then frame it
write about it live it and name it
I call it your Africa
Your calling card of African Descent
Your brown tan is my homeland
I love your Africa
--------------------------------------
Inside dwelled a stone
Inside dwelled a stone
u carved it
(My pride usually starves my nature/your smile de-petrified me/invaded the borders/ reversed the order/ massaged the shoulders/ u r lovely/my nature
You fed it/ teased/ then wet it/ electric shocked and set it back down/transformed/ my writers block/now I'm on fire like)
Igneous rock
magma cools solidifize (the moment eye connects with eye)
U made me prettier
u
crystallized me
May I return the favor/ search the inner u and/be blessed by your treasures?
It would be my pleasure (mouth waters... mmm your treasure) I digress.
Temperature increases
Magma evolution releases
Nature reveals
animal like love delusions (to be continued)
In due time(sighs)
Im patient yet eager to read the conclusion
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
SO lets talk about the 70's.
There seems to be an image of the 70's as revolutionary , care free and liberating.
That is not how I view the 70's mostly because a lot of my family members destroyed or began some self destructive patterns in the 70's like crack cocaine & heroine..just drugs galore and alcoholism and all sorts of stuff.
My Aunts and Uncles wore their bodies down HARD in the 70's and early 80's and the ones who lived through it all jnow have miserable exsistences.....all kinds of disorders, cancers, heart problems,nerve disorders, diabetes, bad livers, brain damage, most of which could've been avoided with better lifestyle choices.
I remember growing up and our basement was a club.. and every weekend it was on.. Music, Sex, drugs and alcohol and partying all weekend. When I was small It looked like they were having so much fun. They used to dress me up and let me come down stairs and dance with them..... or have a sip of whatever they were drinking.... They would let me and Zylette ( some one's daughter who was around my age .... she btw is an alcoholic now at 26 with a couple of kids) sip on the ice cubes from their frozen drinks and dance on the bar as the party lights bounced around......SIGHS
..They had these big ole Cadillaacs.. that would pull up to the house blasting with music and packed with people.
My Aunt had a Purple Cadilaac How Cold is that ? They dressed nice .... Gold was in so they had jewelry.. FOR DAYS..... They would slip me a dollar every now and then... To me it was so Hollywood. Now My aunt has congestive heart failure bcuz of all the drugs and poor diet choices She just had a triple bypass.... She isnt so glamorous to me any more
I look at them all now and they are all falling apart. My God Aunt Maria passed away yesterday after a long crack addiction that she just couldn't let go of. It really held her tight for the last 20 years or so.
All my life I watched her struggle with it. When your small You just think its like a cold and It'll go away ..... But it the last 5 years or so I began to see just how bad it was. I think she could see the reality in my eyes when I looked at her one adult to another adult. So For a while she wouldn't see me on purpose.
She tried to turn it around so many times... all failed attempts..... She tried to be a Jehovah's Witness.. she went to therapy,,,detox.,, counseling... moved to Florida for a while... but it was just too strong by that point.
What makes me sad is that they are al like that the whole crew of them My aunt Maria, Hillary, Claude, AAron.... all these adults that I have known for all my life are falling apart... They just didn't make very good decisions..... and there is no time to go back and change any of it... it just it... and they just will fade away one by one
That is not how I view the 70's mostly because a lot of my family members destroyed or began some self destructive patterns in the 70's like crack cocaine & heroine..just drugs galore and alcoholism and all sorts of stuff.
My Aunts and Uncles wore their bodies down HARD in the 70's and early 80's and the ones who lived through it all jnow have miserable exsistences.....all kinds of disorders, cancers, heart problems,nerve disorders, diabetes, bad livers, brain damage, most of which could've been avoided with better lifestyle choices.
I remember growing up and our basement was a club.. and every weekend it was on.. Music, Sex, drugs and alcohol and partying all weekend. When I was small It looked like they were having so much fun. They used to dress me up and let me come down stairs and dance with them..... or have a sip of whatever they were drinking.... They would let me and Zylette ( some one's daughter who was around my age .... she btw is an alcoholic now at 26 with a couple of kids) sip on the ice cubes from their frozen drinks and dance on the bar as the party lights bounced around......SIGHS
..They had these big ole Cadillaacs.. that would pull up to the house blasting with music and packed with people.
My Aunt had a Purple Cadilaac How Cold is that ? They dressed nice .... Gold was in so they had jewelry.. FOR DAYS..... They would slip me a dollar every now and then... To me it was so Hollywood. Now My aunt has congestive heart failure bcuz of all the drugs and poor diet choices She just had a triple bypass.... She isnt so glamorous to me any more
I look at them all now and they are all falling apart. My God Aunt Maria passed away yesterday after a long crack addiction that she just couldn't let go of. It really held her tight for the last 20 years or so.
All my life I watched her struggle with it. When your small You just think its like a cold and It'll go away ..... But it the last 5 years or so I began to see just how bad it was. I think she could see the reality in my eyes when I looked at her one adult to another adult. So For a while she wouldn't see me on purpose.
She tried to turn it around so many times... all failed attempts..... She tried to be a Jehovah's Witness.. she went to therapy,,,detox.,, counseling... moved to Florida for a while... but it was just too strong by that point.
What makes me sad is that they are al like that the whole crew of them My aunt Maria, Hillary, Claude, AAron.... all these adults that I have known for all my life are falling apart... They just didn't make very good decisions..... and there is no time to go back and change any of it... it just it... and they just will fade away one by one
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Excerpt Cross posted from my other Journal
Im hot cuz I am You HATE cuz your not ROFL. One of my kids from work has that on their myspace page as the quote. It caught me off guard and I burst into laughter when I read it for some reason.
I went to a really good AIDS awareness session this evening. I wish I could have stayed for the entire discussion. Here is the link to the website BLACK AIDS DAY http://www.blackaidsday.org
A moment of sarcasm: There are so many parties in the name of Black History Month... I came across one flyer that said "Wear Black Cuz your Black and get discounted admission" & "
FADE TO BLACK...DISCOUNT ADMISSION W/ BLACK ATTIRE!"
Of course wearing black is how we commemorate our blackness... DUH...lol... my people...my people
I have a lot on my platter right now which always brings me to a place of prayer. like not kneeling on my bedside prayer like Direct connecting like hear me...Im talking to you.. hope your listening prayer..lol..im not very orthodox in my praying but it gets the job done so its all good.
My skin allergies have been kicking my butt today...I cant afford to be guzzlin any more Benadryl,,,I got Ish to do ad Bennie will put me to sleep with the quickness....
There is no such thing as over night success....as you become more successful you find that out
I miss.... a lot of things and nothing at all....I need alot of things and nothing at all.... its just where I am at right now
I went to a really good AIDS awareness session this evening. I wish I could have stayed for the entire discussion. Here is the link to the website BLACK AIDS DAY http://www.blackaidsday.org
A moment of sarcasm: There are so many parties in the name of Black History Month... I came across one flyer that said "Wear Black Cuz your Black and get discounted admission" & "
FADE TO BLACK...DISCOUNT ADMISSION W/ BLACK ATTIRE!"
Of course wearing black is how we commemorate our blackness... DUH...lol... my people...my people
I have a lot on my platter right now which always brings me to a place of prayer. like not kneeling on my bedside prayer like Direct connecting like hear me...Im talking to you.. hope your listening prayer..lol..im not very orthodox in my praying but it gets the job done so its all good.
My skin allergies have been kicking my butt today...I cant afford to be guzzlin any more Benadryl,,,I got Ish to do ad Bennie will put me to sleep with the quickness....
There is no such thing as over night success....as you become more successful you find that out
I miss.... a lot of things and nothing at all....I need alot of things and nothing at all.... its just where I am at right now
Sunday, February 4, 2007
White, Gloves, Tea & Me ?
I had an academic turning point tonight.
It seems only fitting to share it here in my academic journal. MY Livejournal.com journal is different, I feel as if my friends who read that part of me wouldnt understand this part of me so here I am. I attended the "Sista Sunday" high tea this afternoon. It was a gathering of women of color, including the Simmons COmmunity and several city wide sororities. I was hesitant about going for reasons I couldn't articulate until now. I didnt know what to wear but I figured what I wore was important. I didn't know who would be there but I knew that the people I might meet would be important. I didnt know if I really had the time to attend but I knew I had to be there. There was a ceremony prayer tea panel speakers al that but for me it was also the first women of color fellowship I have attended. I transfered to Simmons last semester from Roosevelt University in Chicago. I wanted a more intense education than I was receiving. The problem is that Roosevelt was a community I felt apart of. The student demographics were made up of first generation, working class and working poor people like me. There were white who attended Roosevelt but in a classroom of 25 only 5 students would be non black. I felt at home and at ease and at my best socially. Simmons has been a different experience for me. Roosevelt was filled with students who were over 24. There were working adults with families, singe parents, as well as straight out of high school students. The title Dix Scholar sounds fancy but it feels lonely. So I have been making sure I get off of campus to hang with people of my own age, going to school, working, and running myself raged in the midst of it all. Tonight at the tea it felt good to be in a place where I could meet talk to and hug other women of color. I felt at home. As a first generation college student it is easy to feel out of place in the academy. So you hold on to all your non college attending friends and family but inside of you, you know you need to be apart of the Academy no matter how uncomfortable it feels. I felt like I was apart of the academy tonight and I didn't need to hold onto my "I just go here but this isnt me" safety jacket. I felt like its okay to be an educated woman of color and its okay to belong to this thing.
This is the first time I have ever felt this way here in this city in an educational environment.
I find that when I am inspired I work harder.
There are alot of things that could and do marginalize me. My age as an older student sets me apart. I am a woman of color at a school with a lot of non women of color. lol
I am poor. I am a first generation college student. The list could go on but I think I want to find ways to not let those things be mu achilles heal. Maybe I am starting to believe I deserve to be where I am.. studying what I want to be studying and becoming the person I dream about being. With that I want to make more of an effort to no marginalize myself any more than I need to and speak up about my experiences when allowed to and when not allowed to.
I know I am not the traditional anything .......I probably fall into all the categories of people who don't make it but I dont want that to be my calling card.
I think for the first time I felt worthy of wanting more and that is pretty spectacular.
It seems only fitting to share it here in my academic journal. MY Livejournal.com journal is different, I feel as if my friends who read that part of me wouldnt understand this part of me so here I am. I attended the "Sista Sunday" high tea this afternoon. It was a gathering of women of color, including the Simmons COmmunity and several city wide sororities. I was hesitant about going for reasons I couldn't articulate until now. I didnt know what to wear but I figured what I wore was important. I didn't know who would be there but I knew that the people I might meet would be important. I didnt know if I really had the time to attend but I knew I had to be there. There was a ceremony prayer tea panel speakers al that but for me it was also the first women of color fellowship I have attended. I transfered to Simmons last semester from Roosevelt University in Chicago. I wanted a more intense education than I was receiving. The problem is that Roosevelt was a community I felt apart of. The student demographics were made up of first generation, working class and working poor people like me. There were white who attended Roosevelt but in a classroom of 25 only 5 students would be non black. I felt at home and at ease and at my best socially. Simmons has been a different experience for me. Roosevelt was filled with students who were over 24. There were working adults with families, singe parents, as well as straight out of high school students. The title Dix Scholar sounds fancy but it feels lonely. So I have been making sure I get off of campus to hang with people of my own age, going to school, working, and running myself raged in the midst of it all. Tonight at the tea it felt good to be in a place where I could meet talk to and hug other women of color. I felt at home. As a first generation college student it is easy to feel out of place in the academy. So you hold on to all your non college attending friends and family but inside of you, you know you need to be apart of the Academy no matter how uncomfortable it feels. I felt like I was apart of the academy tonight and I didn't need to hold onto my "I just go here but this isnt me" safety jacket. I felt like its okay to be an educated woman of color and its okay to belong to this thing.
This is the first time I have ever felt this way here in this city in an educational environment.
I find that when I am inspired I work harder.
There are alot of things that could and do marginalize me. My age as an older student sets me apart. I am a woman of color at a school with a lot of non women of color. lol
I am poor. I am a first generation college student. The list could go on but I think I want to find ways to not let those things be mu achilles heal. Maybe I am starting to believe I deserve to be where I am.. studying what I want to be studying and becoming the person I dream about being. With that I want to make more of an effort to no marginalize myself any more than I need to and speak up about my experiences when allowed to and when not allowed to.
I know I am not the traditional anything .......I probably fall into all the categories of people who don't make it but I dont want that to be my calling card.
I think for the first time I felt worthy of wanting more and that is pretty spectacular.
Friday, February 2, 2007
The Ball Is Burning
So this video clip is about BALLS.... the fashion talent competitions that happen in the GLBT community... a few of my friends compete in balls I usually just go for fun.. plus Im not fabulous enough to compete but i do consider myself supportive and its always a good time
I think its funny that within my group of friends we have our own HOUSE like set ups even of they arent officially houses.. like my brother his friends have become my brothers and sisters....and the same with my friends... most of us are friends but it has become a family and I think that is pretty amazing
excerpt from other journal & notes on Black History Month
So I am an avid Blogger this ENgl 105 Journal is one of 3 online journals I frequent.
Here is an excerpt from my more personal journal about February & Black History Month.
I feel like February, to be such a short month has become overloaded with themes & Holidays.
Black History Month, Valentines day, & Heart Disease MOnth.....I like DANG there are only so many weekends and days to celebrate each one... I think Black History Month should be MOved to ...*thinking of a month w/ no holidays* August or May ...why we gotta get a cold month any way lets celebrate Great African Americans at a BBQ or family reunion... I would prefer that any way Oh yeah and Ground Hogs day and here Public schools systems have a week off of school for vacation to celebrate the Presidents Birthdays... Feb is sooo OVERLOADED
Speaking of Black History Month I am performing at Northeaster for their show "Souls of Black Folks" I do alot of Open Mic Spoken word performances....
www.myspace.com/londonbridgez
I wish I could say I am already prepared for this up coming performance
the talent coordinator didnt give me any parameters she said "Write about Black conciousness & the souls of Black Folks" That COULD BE ANYTHING... WTH.... I need to call raquel she goes to Wellesley and she in one of the other poets being featured..... she and I were gonna collaborate but I wonder if we ran out of time to do that. It will go well.. my mom always told me whatever opp they give you on stage make the most of it and I always try and do that
I wish Black History month was a month focused on Service..community service... I feel like it is so cliche..(I have similar thoughts on MLK day).. breakfasts,, open mics, dinners, Gala's, Balls, club nights but how does any of that celebrate Black History..seems to celebrate contemporary ways to have fun in the name of Black History...dance while some red green and black flags hang on the wall...and malcolm or Martin look down on use from the posters hung
Maybe Im just a grinch.....
I am looking forward to the V day performances... though I will admit
My friend Dashelle is organizing one at Roosevelt University..(in chicago). she was having some trouble casting for it.... but if not Im hoping to be in town to see it...
Jonah & I are going out for Vday...hopefully she stays so busy with law school that is hard to plan but I l keep my fingers crossed
Here is an excerpt from my more personal journal about February & Black History Month.
I feel like February, to be such a short month has become overloaded with themes & Holidays.
Black History Month, Valentines day, & Heart Disease MOnth.....I like DANG there are only so many weekends and days to celebrate each one... I think Black History Month should be MOved to ...*thinking of a month w/ no holidays* August or May ...why we gotta get a cold month any way lets celebrate Great African Americans at a BBQ or family reunion... I would prefer that any way Oh yeah and Ground Hogs day and here Public schools systems have a week off of school for vacation to celebrate the Presidents Birthdays... Feb is sooo OVERLOADED
Speaking of Black History Month I am performing at Northeaster for their show "Souls of Black Folks" I do alot of Open Mic Spoken word performances....
www.myspace.com/londonbridgez
I wish I could say I am already prepared for this up coming performance
the talent coordinator didnt give me any parameters she said "Write about Black conciousness & the souls of Black Folks" That COULD BE ANYTHING... WTH.... I need to call raquel she goes to Wellesley and she in one of the other poets being featured..... she and I were gonna collaborate but I wonder if we ran out of time to do that. It will go well.. my mom always told me whatever opp they give you on stage make the most of it and I always try and do that
I wish Black History month was a month focused on Service..community service... I feel like it is so cliche..(I have similar thoughts on MLK day).. breakfasts,, open mics, dinners, Gala's, Balls, club nights but how does any of that celebrate Black History..seems to celebrate contemporary ways to have fun in the name of Black History...dance while some red green and black flags hang on the wall...and malcolm or Martin look down on use from the posters hung
Maybe Im just a grinch.....
I am looking forward to the V day performances... though I will admit
My friend Dashelle is organizing one at Roosevelt University..(in chicago). she was having some trouble casting for it.... but if not Im hoping to be in town to see it...
Jonah & I are going out for Vday...hopefully she stays so busy with law school that is hard to plan but I l keep my fingers crossed
Happy Belated Birthday to Me !
So a week ago I turned 25. YAY ! My birthday party was AMAZING ! The turn out was maybe 30 people or so give or take afew black people. I stopped counting after a while. But It was great to see people I havent seen in a while.
Pics from the Party
Group Shot after cake cutting !
The ladies of Boston Latin 2000
My brother and I
My friend Meredith from Maryland sent me this Book... I have yet to read it but I will try and digg in this weekend.
Over all a good week/ Bday ! Funny a week later I am sick as a hound dog with a fever RUFF RUFF.. I called out of work today so I could rest....I left a mesage with the scretary I hope they dont give me a hard time I almost wish they do so I have areason to quit but I better check myself acting like I dont need to work lol... now thats funny.
Pics from the Party
Group Shot after cake cutting !
The ladies of Boston Latin 2000
My brother and I
My friend Meredith from Maryland sent me this Book... I have yet to read it but I will try and digg in this weekend.
Over all a good week/ Bday ! Funny a week later I am sick as a hound dog with a fever RUFF RUFF.. I called out of work today so I could rest....I left a mesage with the scretary I hope they dont give me a hard time I almost wish they do so I have areason to quit but I better check myself acting like I dont need to work lol... now thats funny.
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