let loose on the world: amiris 75th birthday party, a gathering of the elders

MONDAY

that last post distressed many of my friends and colleagues, had folk emailing me telling me to hang in there, reassuring me that a luta continua

major thanks to buffalo soldier and parker and mikael and other folk who tried to buck me up

im okay, those little up and downs i accept them as part of the deal, cause there days i feel like one of gods literary chosen, i ignore those too, i just keep writing, thats what i do

i just got back from amiris birthday party at the schomberg, it was the most wonderful experience
evan, my budding poet, said it was the best day of his life, then he corrected himself, except being born he said,

mildred barya went down too, i enjoyed introducing them to my crew,

mikael awake came through but he didnt stay, had to leave so he missed the party in the basement, bummer

we had a blast

first it was just the fact that amiri was there, and amina, two of the most wonderful folk on the planet

im going to do the piece i did for his book here, maybe as my next post,

what book you say, let me relate things in their proper order, what happen was that ted wilson
amiris buddy since way back, and some other folk, including adero, sam anderson, marie brown (where was marie, aint no party w/o marie) etc

got together to do a celebration of amiris 75th, they got a bunch of folk to provide pieces for a commemorative book, then they got donations for the book and im ashamed now i sent so little

but hey i did send and im glad im down as one of the donors, cause its a beautiful book, some 400 something pages (im on page 418) so anyway, they said get there early and bring the invite, so we trek on down

as behind as i am you know i dont feel like trekking to the city but missing amiris 75th was not an option

you will see why when i post my piece, the barakas i have known, ive already posted it here but it seem called for again, so anyway down i go, and apparently missing amiris 75th is not an option for my literary comrades in arms either

everybody was there, everybody, folk i havent seen in 20 years, folks i assaulted the literary barricades with as a cub, we all bigger, grayer, carrying that gravitas, it was a gathering of the literary elders of african american literature - the progressive wing, the activist wing, my fellow travelers and keepers of the faith

it was just wonderful, just what the old rootdoctor ordered for that case of literary blues i was carrying

and everytime you approached somebody and they remembered you and still loved you from 20 years ago it just fed the soul

so anyway, after greeting and hugging folk and being surprised at all the folk that was there
we filed into the auditorium, standing room only, and the show commence, alternating bouts of poetry

and jazz, amiris favorites, there was a panel discussion, with of all people aishah rahman, god me and aishah go all the way back, there were young poets and elder warriors like sonya sanchez and everybody giving amiri and amina their props

the highpoint for me was craig harris and the didgeridoo ensemble he call the hoo doo hoo, you know i like that title, about 5 folk w/didgeridoos, ohman it was amazing what they made those didgeridoos do

then there was this youngsister whose name i dont remember did some poetry brought down the house

then at the end when everybody was on stage and somebody came up with the idea of picking amiri up on their shoulders and he was totally uncomfortable with the idea, we could see it in the audience but they couldnt see his expression or they woulda put him back him down cause he was not comfortable up there

no no, the highpoint was when amiri and amina started dancing in the audience to some jazz singer and ended up on stage slowdancing, god it was moving

the program went on a little longer than i cared for and i was considering ways to slip out the back when they said there was going to be a little after program dinner thing downstairs for the donors, which convince me to stay, even when mikael slipped on out the back - i didnt blame him but i wish he had stayed, we had a blast

i was sitting with my old literary crew, the new ren folk, adero, brenda, jacqui, lading, tom, (where was barbara, and new folk like judy and stacey and penda) but we had a full contingent, and oldschool folk like s. pearl and mervyn and esther louise and lamont and gary and louis reyes and redmond and rashidah and dawson (coverphoto), literary soldiers too many to mention

so then the party downstairs, it was restricted to donors w/rsvp invites, they were stopping folk at the head of the stairs who didnt have invites, which included evan and mildred, so we took the elevator down and slipped in the back, jack

this when the party started, folk eating good food, drinking good wine (cider for evan) catching up, getting emails and numbers etc and there was a frenzy of having folk sign copies of the book that they passed out to folk there

o another highpoint, when ted wilson at the end of the program gave amiri a copy of the book, another highpoint when we all got copies, it is such a wonderful thing, everybody is in it, i mean everybody, everybody stepped to the plate and sent some of their best work,

it is not only a wonderful gift to amir for that wall of books about him (see my entry) but its like a document of our literary generation and we had a run that rivals that of the harlem renaissance, just the story aint been told yet

evan was saying that he didnt know of amiri before now and we are all trying to make it clear to him the role that amiri has played in our literary generation, from his up against the wall days of the black arts 60s, when he shaped one of the most influential literary movements in african american literature and all the phases (and names) of amiri on up to his current days of eldership

i dont think there is anybody more respected in african american literature than amiri baraka, cept maybe toni morrison and thats a maybe, one of those apple and oranges things

so anyway we left about 8 oclock cause i had to make that trek back to syracuse, i ended up with 4 or 5 books from folk who had books come out recently and owed me trades, and my copy of let loose on the world

oh, wait, another highpoint, there was a let loose on the world documentary of amiri and it had extensive footage of sekou sundiata throwing down and i mean throwning down, i had already turned evan onto sekou

cause as yall know sekou was my running buddy, and when he came on the film folk in the audience start cheering and calling him out, se kou se kou se kou, im yelling se kou se kou at the top of my lungs, god it was wonderful

it was inspiring and touching and reaffirming,

so the 3 of us went and got some roti at that west indian joint on 124th and 5th and got on the road,

sunday the old roadwarrior just kind of crashed, its monday now and im determined to clock some pages,  which mean another week of falling behind schoolhouse and novelmanuscripts to be read but what the hell

cant do a whole weekend without no pages

ony bummer is didnt get a chance to get through and see ms grace in the hospital, by the time we woulda trekked to brooklyn it would have been seriously late and i was concerned about staying awake long enuf to get back to syracuse safely, basically was trekking a 24 hour shift, im surprised i still had it in me

ima have to go back down in a week or so, i got to see ms grace

okay, im out, still kinda tired and trying to get some work done, i figure this posting got to be refined, maybe work on it some today, after clocking some pages

im out

all my love

rdoc

Comments

[Buffalo Soldier 9]

How do you keep a people down? You 'never' let them 'know' their history.

The 7th Cavalry got their butts in a sling again after the Little Big Horn Massacre, fourteen years later, the day after the Wounded Knee Massacre. If it wasn't for the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, there would of been a second massacre of the 7th Cavalry. Read, and visit site/great history, http://www.rescueatpineridge.com

[micthapoet]

very glad to see your spirits up!!! I was reading your most recent post and couldn't stop till I got through with this one as well...I look forward to gaining more and more knowledge here, from yourself and the many terrific colleagues you speak of...

thank you...

michael gaut
aka mic tha poet

[arthur flowers]

thanks for the props, missed your comment earlier, keep on poeting