rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

on the nature of chops and ellen levine: literary gunslinger

FRIDAY

hello world, lost an old buddy today, ihsan bracy checked out, moved on
ishan been carrying the hammer for awhile now, strokes, diabetic crises

a couple of comas, he was in bad shape, ihsan was a poet and novelist
shorstories, plays, ishan was a renaissance man, had this novel that was

potentially seminal but he felt pushed by that ticking clock and he put it out
last year over my objections, i said hit it one more time man, but he wanted it out

i said give the year to the novel, let it come out strong, after you gone
but ihsan wasnt feeling that, he closed it down before it was ready, it was

published last year, paths of sanctuary, and it was good enuf but good enuf dont get it

and i cant begrudge him the choice, he knew he was checking out
and its a good novel its just not the great novel it

could have been but lord knows art just a gamble and he made his choices and he won

by his judgment - this is what aalbc said about it

-----------------------

ihsan bracy s new novel, paths of sanctuary, is an intricate story of love, lust, envy and filled to the brim with examples of how each can lead to the destruction of one s soul. Readers interested in family dynamics and the interworkings of African-American communities, will most enjoy being taken across decades of time to witness the creation of a three-generational family living in a town just south of the first gates of heaven. The town, called sanctuary, holds in it children born of both angel and man, living side by side with human beings. The forbidden man/angel relationship is at the core of the central conflict, although it is difficult to discern even if you are three-quarter s of the way through the book. This information is clearly given only in the last few pages, at which point you suddenly realize the tie-in and purpose of the prologue.

This is not to say that bracy s book is without merit. At times his writing is so lyrical you are easily swept away by the beauty of his words. The world he has created is full of magical-realism, colorful, interesting characters worth rooting for, and a litany of sub-plots that often commands more attention than the main plot. And, the third-person, exposition-heavy narrative allows readers to observe characters from various points of view. These same strengths also cause quite a conundrum for bracy. He gives us such strong, empathetic major and minor characters that their voices demand to be heard. Rarely are they and this makes it oftentimes difficult to distinguish between them. It also robs readers of a look at the characters interior and a chance to fully experience the heightened intensity of emotions that is pervasive throughout the book. Some will argue that bracy s writing is more in line with fable telling or the style of J. California Cooper and thus not required to do more showing than telling.

But in order to believe the motivations that drive bracy s characters to make life-altering, cataclysmic decisions, more insight into his characters interior is needed. Take for instance the story of passage, the son of main characters dance and time. He is depicted as a kind-hearted, well-liked boy who is on the cusp of becoming the kind of man all parents hope their sons will grow up to be. In an instant he is turned into an immoral, evil and depraved individual. Why is this? And why did bracy choose passage, the most benign of the family members, to be the catalyst for the family s destruction?

Other strengths pose similar challenges for bracy, like the use of three separate boy- girl relationships to symbolize the union of spirit and man. Each is beautifully crafted and depicts a pure, soulful, everlasting bond. But their true significance is unclear and so then is their link to the overall story muddling the genius of bracy s distinct storytelling and well-woven prose of rhythms and sensory. But bracy ends up coming out on top, leaving us with a story that needs to be told, one worthy enough to pass down to the generations. --aalbc.com, by Jill Robinson

-----------------------------

i told him, hit it one more time ihsan, 1 more time, it could have been a masterpiece

but he heard that ticking clock and he he stepped back, lost his literary stare down w/the gods

novels, specially at this stage in the game, are a big gamble with time, you know you got an investment

of x years and the big question is always, will i finish before i check out, will i have time to make it right

you know my position on this dear regulators, if i have to work on my novel till the day i die i will do so

if thats what it take for it to be the masterpiece i see in my head so be it,

i would desperately like for it to come out while im still here and able to enjoy the fruits of my labor

but ive gotten this far being dissed by the literary world, much as i hate it there is a part of me that just dont care,

im determined to prove the haters wrong, ima make this novel work if its the last thing i do -

gon show them all, arthur rickydoc flowers is, was and always been, a contender

if that dont happen in my lifetime ive accepted that - im writing for the generations

my mentor, babajohn killens used to tell us all the time, all the generations will have is your novel, they
wont care that you were being pressed by time, bills, tenure, pride, so forth - all they will have is the novel,

make it the best it can be

i got to go, got schoolhouse conferences lined up back to back

another friend to mourn/honor, time is winnowing my crew, got to be about my legacy, got to be about theirs

me and the gods of literarure got an understanding, i got to do my part

all my love

rdoc

Celebration of a Life in Words

Memorial Readings and Performance of THE WORKS of Ihsan  Bracy Abdul-Rahiim < 7.13.1953 - 3.14.2009 > Please join our friends and family in this celebration of Ihsan's life's work Saturday April 4, 2009,   from 12:30- 2:30 PM at The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center 270 W. 96th Street N.Y., N.Y. 10025 Between Broadway and West End Ave. (1, 2 or 3 Trains to 96th St.) We apologize if you received this email more than once

Ihsan Bracy Abdul-Rahiim Sadly, following a long and unforgiving struggle with complications due to an advanced condition of diabetes, at an early hour on March 14th, 2009, our dear author and friend departed from this plane of existence. He is survived by his wife Islah, daughter Zakiyyah, and sons Mustapha and Jihad. A graduate of Bennington College, Ihsan Bracy was a former member of the New York State Council on the Arts and former chair of the Theatre Department of Talent Unlimited High School, NYC's second largest performing arts high school.  Ihsan's major educational credits include directing five Manhattan, three NYC and a third place National Shakespeare Championship as well as an ARTS National Finalist in Theatre.  A spoken word and Brooklyn based artist, Ihsan had performed all across the city including a long running appearance at The Triad as part of composer Michael Raye's Soul Gathering.  Author of two volumes of poetry, cadre and the ubangi files, Ihsan had twice been a CAPS Finalist and had been elected to the New Renaissance Writer's Guild. Paths of Sanctuary was his second work of fiction with Cool Grove Press (Feb. 2008).  His first book was Ibo Landing: an offering of short stories, (CGP 1998).  As artistic Director and Founder of The Tribe Ensemble, a multi-ethnic theater repertory company based out of the Jamaica Arts Center for thirteen years, Ihsan authored and directed Against the Sun, the Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831.  A former member of The Family (La Familia) Inc., his credits included prolonged theatre workshops at Bayview Correctional Facility for Women, the Spofford Home for Juveniles and Riker's Island, which culminated in a forty prison inner city tour.  Ihsan directed Juan Shamsul Alam's Benpires which received a Pulitzer Prize nomination in theatre. Ihsan also served as the Arts and Education Coordinator of The Mirror Repertory Company.

Paths of Sanctuary 2008 "Bracy's prose is both mystical and muscular and therefore utterly appropriate.  Highly recommended for public and academic libraries but not for 'gentle readers'."        - Library Journal "An exquisite post modern folkology, the novel every writer wants to write and every reader wants to read."   -Arthur Flowers, "ihsan bracy is a visionary wordsmith." - Sheree Renée Thomas "Bracy is a writer unafraid to enter the deepest night to find the brighter light within." - Terence Taylor "At times his writing is so lyrical you are easily swept away by the beauty of his words."   -African American Literary Book Club

Ibo Landing, an offering of short stories 1998

"Family and friendship are bracy's forte... in this ensemble of 22 short pieces based on the history of his ancestors, half South Carolina Gullahs and half Blue Ridge Virginians...stories of childhood loom large."

 -Publishers Weekly-Oct.12, 1998

"With painstaking detail, bracy retells his family's epic, inviting readers into his family with pride that will be felt almost immediately."

 -Multicultural Review -Sept.,1999

"There is myth and magic in this book and readers will find themselves nodding their heads in wonder, appreciation and approval as they savor each story. " -American Library Association (Black Caucus, NOV.,1998 )

THURSDAY

hello dear regulators, as you know i been trying to get back in my novel groove, had a conversation
w/ellen levine yesterday, my agent of some 20 years, had sent alex yates manuscript to her and

and in the cover letter told her i was finally moving into closure on rest and hoped she
hadnt lost faith in me and so we talking about it and she said, 'youre one of my favorites arthur"

man that meant so much to me, that ellen still believes in me,

when i came out w/de mojo blues the literary world swooned but now the literary world treats me like ima could have been,

but ellen has always treated me like a contender and a valued member of her stable

her faith means a lot to me and i needed to hear that, that was right on time, i feel like the punch drunk fighter getting up off the canvas for the last round, i feel like one for the gipper

showtime rick, rest for the weary, last lap, do or die,you can do this

im still underwater at schoolhouse and every morning im scrambling to stay float but by god and all thats holy im knocking off my morning 3s no matter what,

many times in my literary career ellen levine has come through the saloon doors both guns blazing

hold on arthur, im coming to get you

thats my girl, since she took me on as a callow cub 20 years ago she has kept the faith

got to finish this novel if for no other reason than to justify that faith she has shown in me
a faith that has not wavered in 20 years of literary obscurity

the painting is of yemaya by yasmin hernandez, the great mother and one of the seven african powers, called on her recently for a very important consultation and she came thru for me, i appreciate that,

(yeah, im kinda making a connection here with ellen and yemaya, arent you the close reader)

at the job there is this friendly rivalry between the poets and what brooks haxton calls 'the prosers'
he makes it sound pejorative somehow and i take every opp to poke fun at the poets as true believers

but i love poets and poetry, and want both forms to thrive, not so according to recent newsweek article:

In January, the National Endowment of the Arts released a report titled "Reading on the Rise," announcing that the number of American adults reading fiction had increased for the first time since the NEA began tracking reading habits in 1982. According to the report, 50.2 percent of adults had read a work of fiction in the previous year, compared with just 46.7 percent in 2002. The results were greeted with a mixture of excitement and caution by education experts. Some saw them as the long-awaited reversal of the trend toward a dumber, TV-obsessed United States; others, more wary, called them a statistical blip. Almost as an afterthought, the report also noted that the number of adults reading had continued to decline, bringing poetry's readership to its lowest point in at least 16 years.....

full article here

could have been worse right, could have been the other way around, and im willing to bet
they are counting shall we say, fiction i wouldnt call literary fiction, does that count or am i

(who loves scifi and fantasy) showing my prejudices against forms like urban fiction
which generally glorify aspect of afroam culture id rather leave behind as we evolve

i guess i will take reading fiction, no matter what the genre, as a good thing i guess

im out, see if i can clock at least an hour maybe three

for ellen

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY AGAIN

i believe this is the longest i have gone w/o posting

and the world do not appear to be any worse for my absence,

thats unfortunate but it is what it is - couple of quickies and im still gone:

call to arms: obama has attempted to mobilize his network in support of his budget iniatives, threatened by moderate democrats he needs to pull off that filibuster proof 60, so far its been ineffective, they sent me the email, i havent even looked at it, bad sign

must be some way to use those believers, myself included, when i get a moment to breathe ima put some thought on that

realpolitic: south africa at chinas bidding, refuses to invite dalai lama to peace conference

realpolitic vs romanticism - smart money always on realpolitic - organizers cancel conference in protest - china say so what

criminal: bashir, in response to being called a war criminal, proves it by banning aid orgs in darfur - bashir apparently backed by african union - whats up w/that- what kind of real politic logic is that

perplexing: obama vs financial institutions - who in charge here

found this piano player, eric reed, been listening to him and betty carter

oxford american piece is out, unfortunately its not online

its a damn good piece, eventually i will post it, but in honor of their check i will leave it offline for awhile

real politic by rickydoc

what else, guess thats it, just trying to loosen up my posting hand here
still underwater at the schoolhouse, and not getting any novelwork done

no novelwork, no nothing else discretionary, including posting

im out of here

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, or whats left of it, im not even going to look at my numbers

whenever im offline for awhile my numbers drop precipitously, i hate that

but im going int the woodshed early this season so im just going to be spotty and insular for

the next 6 months or so, which means i have to ignore my drive to keep my numbers up

with regular posts cause i really dont care right along in here and best not to look cause then i will

im trying to think if there is anything i really need to say and to tell you the truth im not feeling it

maybe use the week to give my homeboy george hunt some play, put up some new pieces ive found online

red love is one of my old favs, that other is called holy ghost

i got to close the semester strong and focus on getting that novel done, the manuscript is cold right now

been off so long it will take some time to get momentum up, get a little groove on, but come summer i

expect to be serious woodshed mode, i want that novel done, by god and all thats holy i want it done

in the name of the conqueror i want it done

rdoc

QUIEN SABE

hello world

ive been out of the loop, down in the delta and taking care of family business
finally finished the app process and got energy freed up,

not much to say, havent been keeping up with current events like i like
going to the delta is like being in another world for me

i go deeper into my spiritual thing, roots and the world of my novel
i dont keep up with consensus reality like i like to do

i did hear they found some post death novels by bolano, 3 or 4 it seems

also i ran across this article by frum on newsweek, big battle lately for soul
of repbulican party, reasonable positions like this are both good and bad

bad because we dont want the republicans to get their act together for awhile
good because for the good of the people and the nation it would be good for them to

grow up

ah complexity, what would life be without it

im gone

schooload will be reasonable for rest of the year, forget waiting for

summer, im going into the woodshed now, ima desperate man

all my love

rdoc

players, victims and going for the gold: playing to win

WEDNESDAY

 hello world, weak workday yesterday: bummer

while searching for my quickie links i went by chickenbones and black agenda report
old comrades who have basically excommunicated me for not following the party line

that kinda hurt but i was glad to see they still kicking it - chickenbones an unprecedented repository  (it was rudy of chickenbones once told me i should include images with online work)

and glen ford over at black agenda report be dropping serious knowledge - unfortunately glen dont much respect what i do  - both of them kinda rigid

i still think we got to move past the old verities of struggle in the 21st century
and i think transafricas global positioning is reflective of that

it do distress me im so often out of step with old comrades in struggle
but ima artist, spose to be a pathmaker, forge new ways of seeing

and willing to take punches for what i consider the truth of it all, for
consideration of strategic nuance over radical rote -

as a hoodoo and would be tribal shaman, i got 3 warrior clans i have to monitor and guide
got my community activists, my bougie activists, my radical activists

cant afford to dis or dismiss either one of them
all three of them have roles to play and its my job to understand

those roles and coordinate them, harmonize them, and im actually pretty
good at what i do, dont nobody do it like the hoodooman do

but i got to finish my novel, do my holybook, so the generations
understand the destinic nuance of what im trying to say/do

got to make my contribution
build facilitating institutions

otherwise both politics and the literary
i been buked and scorned for naught

in struggle
rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

TUESDAY

hello world, working hard, which means rootsblog get time for some quickies

holyground: wooded area back of my sisters house, somebody cut a tree and left a shrine for me
when im home in the delta, i go out there and raise the sun up every morning:

darfur: status quo: not good: tensions between southern sudan and north growing: also not good

somalia: humanitarian crises in wake of fighting between transitional gov/ethiops and islamists/assorted opportunists breeding internal refugees fleeing mogadishu

transitional government must reach out to disaffected if it is to survive: prospects weak

south africa: tension between mbeki and zuma threatening to split anc: neither option appealing, both of them have baggage

the us election: obama pulling even with hillary in iowa:
im ambivalent about possibility of black president

i suppose its a good thing, but its such a morally ambiguous job i just dont know
just to be competitive obama gon have to get down and dirty: jury still out on this one

katrina/neworleans: for the first time in generations, neworleans recently elected white majority city
council, probably majority republican too to go along w/new republican governor, hard to believe bush/fema

policies werent designed first to abandon blackfolk to storm, then disperse them (and democrats) since
thats whats happened, but i wont go there, dont want to be called a conspiracy theorist: bummer

could have used a black president then i guess, but i cant help but think a black president would
be as useful as the black general being used to front africom:

adjuncts: was reading where some universities are up to 70% adjunct, as an ex adjunct
at medger evers (a position me and elizabeth nunez boldly dubbed the killens chair)

i can testify that adjunct labor is slave labor, thats a rough way to make a living, and hard
on students - when you getting paid by classroom hour you just cant justify too much facetime

with students, got to trek to your other institutions, class prep time suffers too, according to
this report so does graduation rates - adjuncts organizing into unions, schools being pressured to

add more tenure tracks - free the adjunct 1000s

us middle east conference joke and a farce, more anti iran conference than pro palestinian: israel
insincere, bush/rice insincere, abbas desperate to even consider it and the saudis et al reluctant

to play the fool even to check iran/hamas/hezbollah 'shiite' axis: this is a joke: a farce

haiti: progress under preval: but we still got so very far to go: crossing our fingers
(btw: kudos to wyclef jean while im at it: boy been doing what he can: warriorkind)

the struggle: while searching for cosby  links, found lot of dialogue on self determination/responsibility for
our own empowerment - glen ford on bar makes some points on not being sidegamed, not a problem when
you working w/both hands -

at least reparations seem to be off the table - thats a blessing
its the great gitting up morning and its: looking good

and on that note, back to work

rest for the weary: been working my futurescenario scene for about a month now
takes place on a university planet far into the future: university de sankore of palmares

finish it today, i can get started on the redpen tomorrow: 1st redpen always the roughest
because so many sections have to be extensively rewritten, subsequent redpens are

easier because all you doing then is cleaning up the text and putting the poetry on it
thats when it becomes fun, when one word/one phrase can add layers of meaning to the text,

that i can do during the spring semester, then a whole summer of polish/refinement and
i will have a moneydraft for sure: im so excited: its all on this 2 month redpen

new plan gives me a new 2 months end of year woodshed instead of customary 1
an indication of just how desperate i am, squeezing noveltime howsomever i can

best i get busy: my love to you all
rickydoc flowers: in it to win it

MONDAY EVENING

hello world, i have recovered from that little manic bout of confidence
still going to go for the draft but no longer consider it a given

spent whole day struggling with the same page, this gon be rough
but i have never missed a deadline, except one time an act of god

and that dont count

and even if i, heaven forbid,  miss it, i will get some serious
production just from the effort - this a win win

pray for me
rdoc

MONDAY AFTERNOON

hello world, threw the shells today, my little homemade
divination chain, the mojo told me go for it

thanksgiving break and i been clocking pages
got another 7 days and im feeling strong

you know what ive decide, im going for the draft
got a week here, then 2 more school weeks, lets say i

get ruthless about those two weeks, which mean
schoolhouse get backburnered, thats gon cost me

but then i hit the ground running 2nd week in december

2 more weeks before i head for the delta, talking crunch city,
im talking zone - im talking 9 & 12 hour days - talking about separating the writers from the dilettantes

then a week or so in the delta and im generally disciplined in the delta
i generally get my work done in the delta, im strong in the delta

another two weeks in january before i simply have to focus on schoolhouse
thats like almost two months of woodshed, on a redpen, with a little

superhuman effort i can do a full redpen in 2 months by god, even a hardcore
redpen, im going for the gold yall, gon do me a end of the year draft

touch it up over the spring semester, full woodshed summer and im good to go
rickydoc on a sungun, 360% - in the line of o killens

rickydoc flowers
babagriot of the hoodoo way

                                          

MONDAY

hello world, i like to think of myself as a fearless artist, when i find myself asking
am i afraid to say that, i say it if for no other reason than i dont play that

and im always whining about no respect and no readership
but thats all the penalty you pay here in the united states,

you dont get no play and have to scuffle some
then i read about really fearless artists,

when the penalty for offense is jail, matters of life and death -
like these two zimbabwean theater brothers

anthony tongani and silvanos mudzvova,
arrested after their mugabe satire, the final push,

ran in zimbabwe - first night takedown, didnt stop no show though, soon as they were released
they back on stage -brother mudzvova say since media been silenced its all on the artists now:

"Artists, like everybody else, fear for their lives". say Mudzvova,  "But the moment you have that fear, you won't
get anywhere. People are saying, 'If you guys have that fear, where are we going to get the correct information?'

i tell my fledglings all the time

want to be a true artist, got to be fearless, willing to speak truth to power
truth to the people, even when they dont want to hear it, truth to yourself

like the lyrics from the artists prayer -  this profession aint no hiding place -
artists like this do me proud, reinforce my own courage, my own determination

to be true voice

a luta continua
rdoc

SATURDAY

going to continue working on last post: or maybe not

maybe start working on the second movement: each movement has to
be broken down into 9 internal movements

but wanted to address comment by bill cosby addressing black educators in nashville

"You're so quiet," he said to them at one point. "I bet I could get all
of you to stand up and clench your fist if I blamed the white man."

i got issues with some of what bill be putting down
but at the same time i got respect for what he trying to do

and that he willing to get out there and take his licks
for his position, he could have just chilled with the dollars like

most of those celebrities doing, but he in the arena, thats all i ask
him and danny glover two sides of the same coin

cause you got to work w/both hands and
there is more than enuf struggle to go around

glovers brand of activism gon speak to some folk, cos to others, only way we gon be a whole race of
activists is w/respect for folks whose programs might be different but still viable

caue we got to be on it, all of us, all classes, on every level of the game, and
everybody aint gon struggle the same -

cos aint figured out yet that the black middleclass been just as complicit as
the black poor, and the black elite aint even in the game

but he dead on about wasting our time crying about how bad folk treat us

that march folk had this weekend at the justice department, walking
around it biblic 7 times, thats so oldschool, thats so tired

trying to get the justice department to prosecute hate crimes

well thats a good cause and all but its pretty much a waste of time and energy w/this
admnistration, we got to get more strategic about our game in the 21st century

marches and protests and all that, those are loser strategies, folk who aint
got no strategic options, all they can do is whine and beg, that aint longgame,

newsflash: the powers that be figured out how to counter/neutralize that move 30 years ago
that tactic aint hardly a nuisance to power, and the justice department is in much worse shape

than that limited agenda address, and also coming at it that way make it
just a black issue, we have to bring more pressure down on folk by broadening

our agenda so that we gain allies in pressure and bring pressure where it will
make a real difference, the politicization of the justice dept would have been

a better agenda, one they more vulnerable to at this strategic/tactical point and time
got to step up our game

got to be serious about getting our work done, about our organizing
about taking care of business, the only way our condition will change

is when we, by our behavior and actions, make the reality of
black inferiority a false one

and i aint talking about no individualism, im saying struggle is both individual
and collective, im saying we got to work with both hands

in the words of this brothers article on it all:   "Never has it been clearer - despite the legitimate social
justice claims blacks continue to have - that black progress going forward will have to be made almost
exclusively through the efforts of black Americans alone."

i say this so much better in rest for the weary
so much got to be said, so much work to be done

the hoodooman do not accept the continuation of this condition
i will train my people to the game if its the last thing i do

swear fore god and on the sweat and blood of our ancestors
by all their hopes and dreams that live on in me i will

on that note let me work on the 2nd movement
i need 9 internal movements for the longgame

the longgame

game and the longgame  (on the nature of game and longgame as destinywork: shaping generations)
game and countergame  (countering game being run on you)
game and sidegame (avoiding being distracted by sidegame and diversionary game)
the hoodoo board of destiny  (on the nature of the hoodoo board of destiny)
mounting the board  (how to become a true player)
playing the board  (strategies and tactics: how to play the board)

okay these categories not working, and im feeling
pressure to get todays novelwork done

you know what im thinking is that i cant spend time on this limited project
i need to give that time to the hoodoo book of flowers, aka the great

black book of generations - need to give whatever discretionary time i can beg borrow or find
to my holybook, maybe make instructions to the cadre one of the movements in it

im outta here

my love to you all
whatever i got i will give to you

my positions aint always correct, or viable, i know that
but ima keep swinging, win or lose, right or wrong ima try

to do my part
god, i love you so

rdoc

clocking pages, spiritual guides and black on black crime

SATURDAY

clocking pages

FRIDAY

one thing in this world scare me more than president bush
thats president giuliani  -   can you imagine

hope obama and edwards dont cripple hillary
to point where giuliani slide

also i see where the head of the new africom command
is only 4 star black general, rather blatant dont you think

got to assume he aint been chose
cause he down

best i get some work done
giuliani scare me

rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world, hard to believe i havent posted in a week
no wonder my stats falling, but i kinda dont care

iching say superior personality has two ways of being influential in the world
influencing players at court or withdrawing to work on self as model of future

i translate this as a spiral of engagement in the arena
and withdrawal to assess, refresh, reconsider and get Work done

rest for the weary taking it all
rickydoc is out of the game

all my love
rdoc

THURSDAY

numbers falling, cause im posting so irregular
and w/iffy commentary i suspect

what can i do, life got me by the throat
novel aint happening, commentary dont interest me

im drifting,
blues got me or i got the blues

got to get ruthless
life and myself

couple of victories lately

young talent homegirl katori hall ask if she could use lyrics from
another good loving blues in her play, hoodoo love,

playing down in the city, interesting reviews - thats good
she say aglb inspired her, say she gon give me some props,

thats good too

blues foundation in memphis say ima be a recipient of their keeping blues alive award in feb
i was all excited till they told me i had to pay my own freight, still a little hometown rec always good 

inspiration to hang in there, straighten up.
what you whining about. man up. fly right

backburner schoolhouse and clock some
pages today, today i need some pages

in struggle
rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, one of my hoodoo colleagues, snake 2g, give me
some names for my haints list in the commentary for haints post

open up another front
attribute him pathfinder

like spiritual guides category

got marcus
did not know of rasta shepherd athlyi rogrs

spiritual guides tentative
assess practice

for ethical spiritual leadership
i will not abide a thief of souls

make sure inhouse practice not cultic and
abusive

determine whats spiritual guidance and whats soul stealing

spiritual guides opens questions
for instance farrakhan

i still got beef about malcolm and lack of a sincere apology
i still got a beef about supporting sudans wars against blacks

dont know what kind of inhouse practice he got
trying to reward folk who have resisted the temptation

to take advantage of believers
to abuse the power

and what about atr houses, orisha list has
a listing of significant orisha elders in americas

take 9 of what seem to be the best flowers
glad this just 101, this list is out of control

that piece is called yellow dog - where the yellow railroad cross
the dog down near tutwiler miss where wc handy say he first

heard the blues

talking about holyground now
talking about the delta

and instead of memphis and neworleans by themselves

might do a 7 sisters of the south thing - memphis, neworleans
atlanta, birmingham, st louis, jacksonville, one more

okay, some commentary and im outta here

mukaseys real crime is supporting the bush/cheney imperial presidency, thats
whats really scary but demos dont feel like they can challenge him on it,

so they riding this frail waterboarding reed
thats scary too

meanwhile back at the ranch:

sudans rebels have displayed africas traditional response to
arab/islamic agression - infighting and lack of focus

i need to come up with a term for that historical condition
blackfolk fighting each other instead of the enemy

course in this case the 'arabs' are black too and
slaughter and rapine in the congo continue unabated,

more black on black crime

and dont know im going to see denzel in american gangster
dont know im down for glorifying gangsters and more

black on black crime

i refuse to participate if for no other
reason than respect for lucky dube

been listening to a group fertile ground
song called an artists prayer

say im proud to be part of the underground railroad
say this profession aint no hiding place on the battlefield

in struggle
long live dube

rdoc

baba ernest withers moved on, just when we need him most

SUNDAY

hello world, i look back on the weeks posts and
except for the one on baba withers they bore me

they dont strike me as words of power
words that might make a difference

withers post neither but baba been true force and
deserve whtever recognition i can give

the other stuff my heart aint really in it
dont feel like it justified the time spent, didnt move

the board

i think maybe next week im going to ignore you dear regulators
only reason i do commentary is because i think i should

i justify it by saying it shows the value of the hoodoo perspective in the realworld, the power in seeing well,

in the orchestrative approach to empowerment
sensitize you to the game, make players of you

then again maybe im not pertinent enough, you try to give
insights that are essential to viable function in 21st century society

so that your readers are informed and empowered, your insights considered . well . . essential
but these insights do not strike me as essential

more like i got to write something every couple of days to keep my readership up
(doubled over the last year by the way, not difficult from where i started but stil . . .)

i think next week im going to work on the 101 talismans of rickydoc
the 101 haints of my wouldbe hoodoo pantheon

kinda esoteric for general readership but something that move the board of destiny
if rootsblog investiture dont move the board i cant justify the spent noveltime

just trying to make the
journey worth your while

and mine
and so, quick riff on recent news and im out of here

misguided scientist says blacks got inferior genes, has confused culture with genetics, dont
worry about it, hes in check

huffing and puffing dont prove nobody wrong, just calm down and
be about our business, let our generations tell the tale

painting by george hunt, babagriot my generation
oldschool memphis artists in the tradition

custodians of baba withers line
wc and lt. lee

fellow practitioners and
keepers of the faith

all my love
rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, i recently received the following
on two of my email accounts

an email from elaine brown regardiing a post i did some time ago
a post i took from another site (w/attribution & links) regarding

controversy other whether she was a cointelpro agent during the 60s
the post gave both sides so i dont feel bad about it or at least i didnt

before i got this email, but i can imagine how it must feel to have
folk claiming you were a race traitor all over the net - not cool

----------------------
You are presently posting lies about me on various websites with which
you are affiliated, that I was a "government agent," meaning a traitor
to the Black Panther Party--of which I was a leading and dedicated
member--to Black People and to the cause of our freedom.  I ask that
you remove this defamatory material from all websites on which you
have posted it or have had it posted.

-----------------------

i will think about it

i think though that i would have been more amenable to taking it down
if she had been a little more personable in her request,

this legalistic bombastic approach dont move me enuf to take down a post
various websites with which i am affiliated?  she got the wrong guy

this mass mailing approach dont get it

im rather proud of that post because it did give both sides, the accusation and
her response to it, thats about the best i can do about a valid controversy:

the charges have been so widely dispersed on the net
that i dont know that even a well written book would flip that script

id hate to be on the wrong side of the net like that

but the way the net work, impersonal email like this
just becomes part of the mix -  not an effective move

fresh red meat to a blogger, fresh broccoli in my case

that said i feel her pain, i will consider it, and apologize for causing her grief if this is a bogus charge
but bogus charge or not, it is a viable topic of debate, that it would be nice to get clarity on

i am unlikely to take that post down but i did find this site that gives more
perspective on the issue (and further muddies the water)

which mostly consists of all those old pantherites accusing each other of
compradorship, it was a twisty little period and many of the panthers were flawed

folk strutting the stage, and a caution against hero worship

one guy says you got to trust the message, not the messenger
but how can you trust the message if you cant trust the messenger

guess all we can do is accept the period for what it was, try to get as much
understanding as possible for future referene and keep on struggling

a luta continua
rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world, baba ernest withers graduated

legendary memphis photographer and
chronicler of the civil rights movement

irascible elder in his legendary kufi
everytime i see him he ask about my mama

they were about the same age same era,
racemen and racewomen from the oldschool

baba withers did a lot of legendary photos
but i think the one that mean the most to me

was one of the garbage workers strike in 68
my first real campaign in the struggle

my mama had me and my sisters out there on
picketlines, sitins and such since we was old enuf

to wear a sign

but it was the garbage workers strike and the
subsequent death of martin luther king that

turn me out
made me a conscious warrior

the iconic sign of that struggle
was the garbagemens 'i am a man' picketsigns

and baba withers he got this shot of the garbage workers
with their i am a man signs straddling the street

move me to this day

baba ernest withers
1922 - 2007 - well done

in struggle
rdoc

MONDAY

hello world, room being made at gitmo
for a new batch of unlawful combatants

which the bush admin define as combatants outside the military chain
and subject to no international law that they can think of

justice and state have argued that blackwater employees should
not be interned at gitmo for fear they will be radicalized by jihadis

and have suggested they be given their own facilities
the bahamas maybe, honolulu, but the defense dept

concerned about being charged with warcrimes after bush/cheney leave
have insisted that all unlawful combatants must be sent to gitmo

thats what its there for say the joint chief, who then suggest putting
guard uniforms on them to distinguish them from the other guys

see what im saying
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world

article on foreign policy in focus:
the religion of divide and conquer

how imperial powers have historically used religion
to divide and conquer various populations

article ask what role christian evangelicals play in the
'most religious administration in us history"

ask has that pressure contributed to this 'crusade'
in iraq and the pressure to strike iran

talk about britain in ireland and india
france in africa and indochina

the us in the middleast,

clumsily working sunnis and shiites
in a quest for energy security

fascinating read about
imperial use of religion

and just how much trouble can be bred
in the name of religion and conquest

these matters are of
interest to me

trying to run a chosen people scenario
and avoid the chosen people syndrome

but aint clocked no pages lately
ticktock ticktock, no time to lose

rickydoc has got
the blues

that noose at columbia and cultural dysfunction, high hoodoo and the high hoodoo

FRIDAY DAY

ahem, i look at that last post and im kinda shellshocked
really wandered off the reservation with that one didnt i

trying to decide if should i leave it up or take it down
ima probably leave it up, what the hell, i wrote it didnt i

got to have the courage of my scribblings
but ive embarassed myself, ima chill for awhile

try to clock some pages

thats what i like about being a novelist
if i win i win, if i lose i write about it

all my love
rdoc

WEDNESDAY MAYBE

hello world, sorry i been out of the loop

schoolhouse got me humping, desperately trying to maintain
momentum on novel and trekking to the delta, just dont have no
discretionary nothing

got to make less do more these days
wait till something i think worthy of my time

first off a noose was hung on a black teachers door at columbia
universitys teachers college, 

might be a jena copycat, might be sister enjoy the spotlight

forgive the cynic in me but hard for me
to tremble in my boots on this one

if somebody was to put a noose on my door at syracuse id probably
leave there, great post race conversation piece

okay.rick, enuf frivolity, two more
comments and some closure

one that barack obama, who seems to be losing steam against hillary, is being
chastised by blackfolk for not taking a higher profile with that

but i empathize with his situation, doesnt want to follow the model
of two previous black contenders, jessie jackson and al sharpton

that would not be viable, and i believe folk have to give him room
to make a credible run, kind of a old martin malcom two step

we are diverse enough a people to have all kinds of blackfolk on the field
in spite of the rev jackson and ms dickersons position that he isnt black enuf

of course that diversity doesnt include race traitors like clarence thomas, not in the
book of flowers or the great black book of generations - him i have excommunicated

and truth be told, to run for and actually be president is so compromising that id
rather obama found another role to play, one that will allow him to be more righteous

than being president of the united states will allow

the other recent news i want to point out is that hispanic poverty has fallen
by some 20% or so in america, not sure of the exact numbers offhand

but this includes the poverty pressures of a constant
stream of new immigrants, legal and illegal

what this says is that, like most other immigrant populations, the hispanics
are getting their act together, and you can see it in their willingness to work hard

to provide for their families, etc etc

in the article it talked about how they are moving into entry level good jobs
that white folk are leaving, like construction, service, etc

said hispanics instead of blackfolk getting those jobs and leaving blackfolk in the dust
which is why we a little leary sometime of immigration reform

but it hurt me to see hispanics (and west indians) getting rousted
families being broken and all, just for wanting a better life

and rickydoc gon tell you the reason blackfolk arent getting those jobs
is because they arent going for them with the kind of determination you need to win

what rickydoc gon tell you is that blackfolkare about to get left behind again, once again
slotted to be americas bottomfeeders in a period of acute economic change

a period of opportunity for script flipping

rickydoc the one gon tell you this is a cultural failing, we are just a weak people
ive said it over and over, wherever you got blackpeople anywhere in the world

they are on the bottom of their respective society
africa, south america, asia, united states, everywhere

this is a cultural failing on our part and we cant get around that
reparations? give me a break, give blackfolks money and they will buy $100 sneakers

spend their money on clothes and cars instead of capital formation

and when you say thats inappropriate you are accused of being a self hater
unlike bill cosby i dont just blame the poor, if anything i blame the bougie class

i represent for not taking care of business, for not looking out for the rest of the race
folk who swear we live in a post black world and they dont have to identify anymore

this noose is for you

okay, so the situation is cultural, and all those little sidegame initiatives on the board wont change that

i have got to change my people souldeep, the old rootdoctor got to turn them into a different kind of people

a mighty and illuminated people
a wondrous and powerful people

(there are some issues in a truly longgame program about how humanity will identify once it reaches for the stars and blackfolk become a star faring people but i wont go there right now, it will just confuse you)

so i look at the board and i wonder how can i transform my peoples souls

ive chosen to lean on my hoodoo identity
which is of course tightly wrapped with my artistic identity

both of them workers on the hoodoo board of destiny
soul workers, destinyworkers

those of you know me know how i feel about the responsibility of indigenous spiritual traditions
for the care and feeding of the tribal soul and destiny, both for individuals and the collective

i look at the influence of buddhism, christanity, hinduism, ifa, islam, judaism, etc and i see
what a viable spiritual tradition can do for a culture, for a peoples destiny

i look at the influence of the bible, the koran, the iching, and so forth and i see what a viable
sacred literature, a good holybook, can do for a culture, for a peoples destiny

and its like hoodoo, a tradition thats only been used for folk magic
is a blank slate to do with as i please, to transform it into the kind of instrument i need

to transform a people
to illuminate a culture

the task too daunting for me to do it in my lifetime so
what i got to do is forge a tradition that will do it for the next thousand years

or so

so i commence to conjuring
now a destinywork spell of this magnitude is a lifetime work

basically im operating in my mythworker mode - Mythmaker
im using this novel to construct the destinywork and explore the concept of mythwork

be nice to explore prophecy, destinywork and this particular spell
with the kind of complexity wideman brought to prophecy w/the cattlekilling

but the novel is a rarefied instrument, it only speaks to longgame thinkers
novels, to be viable, must be an indirect influence

you have to understand the power of ideas
the power of art, and how it work, powerful but indirect

my Works i considers seed of the future
my Ideological Orchestrations, preparation of the ground

so i got three other initiatives that support the destinywork in novel
this weblog, the hoodoo book of flowers and the hoodoo hands

(and new ren writers guild too but thats another post)

so basically i need to insure the viability of my mythwork by working w/both hands
mythwork by itself dont work, have to also build institutions that facilitate it

inthis case i have to transform the hoodoo tradition
into an instrument of redemption, a role that it has traditionally played in

the mode of gullah jack, zora neale and ishmael
there is a history of hoodoo as an instrument of cultural redemption,

most particular in literary hoodoo
this is not as far fetched as it might initially seem

so i have been trying to reform, regenerate, revise, rewhatever the hoodoo tradition
i have gotten a lot of resistance from folk who want hoodoo to stay a piddling little

folk magic tradition

and have had to make it clear, i dont object to folk being little folk magic hoodoos
spells, hells and black cat bones, if thats what they want its fine with me

its just not for me, im interested in bigger game than that
so folk accuse me of not being true hoodoo

and ive had to define my brand of hoodoo into the hoodoo world
because i will not let hoodoo be defined by mercenaries and folk magic

times are too dear and my tradition too powerful to be allowed to lay fallow
since what i am trying to manifest is more highmagic than folkmagic

and trying to leave room for folk to be folkmagic hoodoos if
thats they want to do

ive made the distinction of calling the hoodoo i practice 'high hoodoo'
and in my more private moments i call myself 'the high hoodoo'

i dont go around trying to claim this title
but in my heart thats what i believe, thats how i conduct myself

the first law of conjure:
conduct yourself as you aspire to be and you are

as a trained organizer i know mythwork on its own is not viable
you have to also build facilitating institutions

i have been trying to build a hoodoo institution that will faciliate this myth,
basically a hoodoo secret society - the hoodoo hands

i was whupped on so bad for this effort that i had to draw back and lick my wounds
basically i lost my confidence, who am i to try to found a new way - be a Waymaker

im constantly having to convince myself that i am not just a deluded fool
out here tripping hard, but it comes with the conjuric territory that you often

a reailty of one

and i dont never give up no destinywork, once you on the board you on the board
accept your insecurities, take your punches, make your adjustments, keep on trucking

till the day i die
and then some

so basically ive got 5 audience, 5 narratives ive got to forge:

the hoodoo world: got to convince them there is more to life than folkmagic, that hoodoo is a serious historical force and potential instrument of cultural redemption

blackpeople: got to convince black people they have a destiny, a mission greater than their adversity, to be an illuminated people, guide and guardian of humanitys destiny, and that hoodoo is the instrument of that destiny

the atr world: got to set up hoodoo as the prophetic tradition of the atr world, convince them that atr needs to be brought into the 21st century and the archaic practices left behind

the worldspirit: got to convince other spiritual traditions that hoodoo and atr are contenders for a better way in the 21st century

the world: got to convince the whole world that hoodoo is a prophetic tradition instead of the joke they think it is now, that hoodoo is a better way for the 21st century and beyond, a star faring tradition

so basically thats my goal as an ideological orchestrator, 5 dialogs ive got to engage in
and i figure i got about 10, 20 more years (god willing) to do it in

got to illuminate the hoodoo tradition and make it a powerful tradition instead of the folkmagic curiosity it is now, which means i have to make it a strong tradition, so when the spotlight hits it folk find it worthy

got to use rest for the weary to build a mythwork of blackfolk as a powerful people with a destiny

give them a vision greater than their adversity
a vision they can believe in

for this to work have to give all humanity a myth they can believe in
a myth in which an illuminated blackculture is guide and guardian of

humanitys destiny
magical negro indeed

and of course a major component of this mythwork is my own life
the mythmakers greatest work - myself as a model of the hoodoo future

thats what Mythmakers do

two other components of that myth designed to have more immediate impact
is this weblog, in which i forge ground for me to stand on, for my vision to be manifest

(may not have a lot of readership but i got some, say 4 years ago nobody thought like me, or understood my position, now a select few do, by definition the sharpest folk on the planet, may not always agree with me but they understand what im trying to do - 10 years from now, who knows - step by step and inch by inch, slooowly we manifest)

and my wouldbe holybook, the hoodoo book of flowers
also known as the great black book of generations

there are times when i doubt myself and my vision and i wonder
if i should stop trying to speak for blackfolk and just speak for all humanity

that is a standing tension of my work
i get a lot of flack from well meaning folk who think i should be post black

and speak for all
most particularly flack from myself

cause speaking for all would be the stronger and more illuminated position
but as long as blackfolk suffering i will be the voice of my peoples

greatest dreams
for i am rickydoc

wouldbe prophet
of the hoodoo way

when you need me you
call me, i will come

downhome in the delta 2007: nathan bedford forrest and fort pillow: racism and self determination

whats going on, i take a couple of days off
and folk start acting out

terror attack on britain
bush commutes libby sentence
the supreme court shows its rightwing derrière

lord knows what else i dont know about
whatever it is, im sure its bad news

haven’t been posting regular since im on the road
still cant shake the concern that rootsblog is worktime

that could be more constructively used on various projects, rest for the weary, hoodoo book of flowers, book of bones, beale street tales, etc etc -

(knowing the fickle finger of literary fate to be quirky, this will probably be the project (if any) that does become historically significant)

oh well, ours is not to concern ourselves, ours is just to do

okay, i got a bunch of backed up commentary, apologies for long & chaotic quality
1) was reading about scams taking advantage of folks in mortgage trouble

where they sign over their houses with complex offers of being able to get it back
in a year or so of affordable payments - or none whatsoever

but what happens is that the new owner borrows on the equity, next thing you know the poor deluded homeowner is in foreclosure with no equity, this is called equity stripping

now i know my sophisticated readership aint falling for this scam, but if you know of somebody stressed who might be susceptible, pull their collective coats, please

tell them to avoid bootleg mortgage deals so complicated they dont understand them
get legal advice, hook or crook - and if it sounds too good to be true it generally is

dont take chances w/your home - mostly this poor black folk being took advantage of - again
just reminds me of the unique challenges of representing a peasant people

sometimes i despair of it, cause i cant just change conditions, laws and all that
i got to change souldeep behavior, got to work the tribal soul, empower the culture

i got to deepdown transform blackfolk into a powerful and sophisticated peoples,
there are times when i myself cant imagine blackfolk as a powerful and competent race

its so counter to the reality even the conjureman falter
and forcing reality to respond to my will is what i do

then i look at historical examples of once weak and despised peoples being transformed over generations into powerful and sophisticated peoples, the germanic peoples, once slaves of rome for instance, the classic rebuild of the jews, etc etc - it can be done, its just difficult

2) that supreme court judgment on school diversity doesnt surprise me
if anything the surprise is how tenacious diversity et al has hung on

but the american people have turned against it and its a rearguard action at best
we got to finesse this dynamic and get ahead of it instead of holding onto the past

and the truth be told we cant continue to be coddled by society, that dont make for the cultural strength that we will need to get out of this historical trickbag we have found ourselves in

that dont help me in my quest to transform african american people
culture and destiny

the welfare state was good when it was good but its been counterproductive for some time now
it dont breed strength, it breed weakness and dependency

which dont negate the influence of racism, and we still got to fight racism whenever however
we can, but racism is just not my major concern these days,

the true legacy of the civilrights/blackpower era is the understanding that working/begging/cajoling
whitefolk does not constitute a viable strategy – it will not save us

its our own souls we got to work, its our own behavior we got to change
the reparations folk seem to have forgotten that, or never learned it

i claim self determination as the first step in transformation

and yes, yes i agree, got to stay on structural racism but thats just defense,
that wont win no wars, that wont win no prize

feel like i can say this over and over and it just wont take w/the black consciousness, cause its been said many times before and it aint took - im hoping i can say it emphatically and artistically enuf in my novel

that it will make a difference

o flowers, you are such a dreamer
such a believer in the power of art, in the power of the word

my sister and i were talking other day about our first consciousness of racism
how it sap the soul

my sister say her 1st consciousness that she can remember is as a little girl at a dept store and the salesmen didnt want to put his hands on her feet

1st time i was aware of racism that i can recall, we were traveling through north carolina and there was a beach and the beach was full of whitefolk enjoying themselves and i wanted to go to the beach and my parents explained as best they could that blackfolk werent allowed on beaches

ive had much more searing incidents since but that was the one that made me realize that being black was a problem

this came about cause we were talking about recent supreme court decision and elise say they have pushed us back 2 generations and i objected to the supreme court (the rightwing ascendancy) being the arbiter of our lives  - or our destiny

i said if we been pushed back its because we have allowed it, cause we just weak and i am so tired of sitting around crying about it - im so tired of crying about racism i dont know what to do –

surely by now we have factored racism into our strategic posture

we spending too much time/strategic energy defending set asides, affirmative action, etc etc – (for all practical purposes, reparations in action)

one of the imani folk the other day was a teacher in atlanta and she was bemoaning that black kids have fallen behind hispanic immigrant kids in atlanta schools

she was all upset and i was like - that aint news, and i was not surprised, not at all, what are we going to do now, blame the hispanics for that

no, thats cause of weakness in our culture, not americas
you look at the immigrants, hispanic, indian, asians – even caribbean

and they coming in here and they working hard and moving up past blackfolk been here for generations  (and it dont take them long for them to start dissing american blacks like natives)

other day i was having a conversation with an oldschool companera and she was talking about how america is going down and how much she was looking forward to it

and i said i am not
and ima do what i can to forestall that scenario

and that was difficult for me to say cause folk start
looking at you like you a comprador or something

like you dont know what time it is
we were talking about how the rightwing has inflamed the rest of the world

we were talking about the conflict between the west and islam and how precarious
the world has become

blackfolk be talking about letting the evil west fall but the problem with that if they fall they gon fall on us, blackfolk gon be at the bottom of that pile, thats just more suffering

im not with that, im not with nothing that cause blackfolk more suffering
i want to fix america, im not interested in dancing on its grave

the rightwing has learned to push the buttons that froth the american people
and it will take generations to try to get america healthy again,

some folk say its never been healthy that it was born on slavery and injustice
but you can say that about any society, im looking at the potential of what it can be

and our role in it

in this conflict between the open societies of the west, problematic though they be
and the closed societies of political islam i choose the west, its not even a question

theological submission is not i man thing
western or islamic (or african for that matter)

okay, obviously im just wandering, i got to get back to work
and this a ticklish subject matter

i think im going to leave this post inconclusive for the moment
coupla quick commentaries and im outta here:

3) bush and the libby: im not surprised, he had to do it, the folk who hate it are folk who dont like bush anyway and it sooth his restless base – it wont cost him:  no gain

4) israel and palestine: israel still offering little piecemeal gestures that wont change the dynamic:  no gain 

(kinda ironic hamas forcing release of journalist in attempt to show moderation to world by disciplining even more radical Palestinians: gain?)

5) darfur: as long as darfur ‘cooperates’ with bush admin on terror in north africa, americas fuluminations on darfur will remain just that, fulmination:  no gain

okay, im gone, you will be glad to hear that i been working very hard dear regulators
i been clocking strong pages, strong pages i might add, pages that satisfy me

first time ive not spent my memphis time at the librarys memphis room
deeply buried in research of historical black memphis

had planned to do so like always but didnt, its like okay, enough research, its showtime
i did pick up a new novel i saw at the bookstore - fort pillow by turtledove

i dont think anybody not from black memphis will ever understand the antipathy
black memphis has for nathan bedford forrest,

me who always talking about getting over it hates forrest like he still riding and i want to hurt him, i want to hurt his reputation, i want to crush the southern apologists who come up with all these excuses for him - he tried to stop his soldiers, he didnt know they were killing the poor blacks, so forth and so on,

im bringing him down if i can, i want to destroy his mythwork, which mean i got to build a really good character to withstand the inevitable counterattacks of the forrest partisans (i do it by telling a part of his life the historians have left alone, apparently he died on his convict plantation (renting black chaingang “vagrants”, 10 cents a day) after drinking mississippi river water – ie the mississippi river killed him – now thats rich material to work with, you see what im sayin, i got demons hainting him in his last days and a convict survivor of pillow playing a part in poisoning him - im taking you down forrest, ima whup the devil)

so i saw a new novel on fort pillow by harry turtledove but its just a recap of the research thats out there, not very well done, didnt learn anything new, no useful new details

but one interesting variation is that he has the black soldiers fighting hard and getting respect from the southern soldiers before they go down - in my account the blacks panic early and dont put up much of a fight,

needless to say, i prefer turtledoves version, but i dont think its historical, and i cant be ahistorical just cause i like the mythology of it, rickydoc dont play that,

im already what the industy would call a sentimentalist, when folk start breaking rest for the wearys historicals down they will see that whatever i wrote could have happened

and the historical record doesnt seem to support an account of the black soldiers putting up a good fight, the rebs were attacking a fortified position of 600 men and 6 canons,

they killed hundreds of defenders and only lost 20 men, that does not sound like a hardfought fight to me, that sound like a massacre of soldiers that wasnt quite soldiers

the fort itself was indefensible without enuf men to cover the outer lines, it wasn’t a fort, it was a deathtrap

a lot of the historical record, written by southern apologists, claim the blacks were drunken capering clowns incapable of fighting their masters, and forrests men didnt mean to kill them all, just couldnt help themselves in the heat of battle – we shall see

7)  on the more personal side, read an interesting nyt article called the shelf life of bliss, say forget the 7 year itch bit - that with relationships, the initial thrill dies out pretty much 3 to 5 years

and hopefully by that time you buddies, life buddies
which is what maintains longterm relationships when the thrill dies

and the thrill do die, or rather is transformed into a more steady thing
and mature folk dont be out here looking for new thrills, tempting though it be

this dynamic is a big part of what im exploring in rest for the weary
keeping long term relationships viable  (also in personal life)

and its always good to know to know what science has to say
about the dynamics of love and relationships

so that when those dynamics show up in your own life/love/relationship

you are able to finesse them cause you understand them instead of being
tossed around by what you dont understand about men and women

so you got the demon instead of the demon got you

thats one of my magical mantras about understanding forces that work on you
so you can control them – whereas if you dont understand them, they control you

for high magicians, demons are powers that you struggle with and if you win you in control of that power and you are that much more powerful a magician - but if you lose, that power is in control of you and you just a soulslave tossed about by forces beyond your understanding

okay, obviously im wandering, talking about any old thing
thats what happens when you off line for awhile

lets move into closure rick

pan african literary forum just got commitments from kofi awooner and ama ata aidoo
we got commitments from some powerful voices in african world lit

its going to be a phenomenal experience, we got highhopes, but we got no money to speak of
might have to fall back on plan b, maybe even plan c (d, e, or f)

impo thing is to have the conference no matter what
weak, limping, lame, we have to establish a record for doing what we say,

a record of consistency

picking up my boys and getting on the road soon as i post
taking four of them to the city for a week

arthur, cleveland, james, and evan – (fred is in iraq and asa
didnt feel comfortable leaving work for 2 weeks)

4 out of 6 & a week in the city - the hoodoo posse flowers

tires me out just thinking about it
i might take a moment, rest my head on the table

im tired im weary im gone

all my love
rdoc

blacks and indians: loss of innocence and rickydocs surefire secret of good melon pickings

SUNDAY

hello world, in the delta and clocking pages everyday
always nice hanging out with family

met with imani book club from atlanta yesterday
their 15th annniversary, special meeting in memphis

another good loving blues w/commentary from author
2nd floor of the king palace cafe on beale street

as you can imagine a wonderful time was had by all
i pulled out the stops and gave them the downhome special

i had a wonderful time and been getting up every morning
crunching pages, old conjureman in the groove

all my love
rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello dear regulators, rickydoc clocking pages,
getting on road early in the a.m. and trying

to get ahead of my count so i dont lose ground with the
scheduling chaos of being on the road

probably have to cut back to minimal 3s instead of my customary
6 to 9 hour woodshed work days -  daily 3s will be victories

on the road

caught up with my scheduled pagecount yesterday whereas i been
couple days behind all summer - trying to get coupla days ahead now

cause rough keeping pagecount on the road
taking my nephews to the city, hangout w/

the hoodoo posse flowers

gon be a struggle getting 6 big fellows into my car
but i remember a roadtrip once w/5 other soldiers in a vw bug

it was hell but it was memorable, and thats what count right
mermoable experiences, tripvalue

been listening to mingus today, probably cause i remember when me and my daddy went to see him in the city - right now listening to 'a colloquial dream' where mingus talk about his dreams while he play

mingus rules

have you ever read his autobio - beneath the underdog - his spirit
tells the story, refers to mingus as 'my boy', its deep yall

im outta here, gotta clock some pages
gotta get ahead of the game

rdoc

TUESDAY

hello world, i am so tired
of everymorning getting up and having to face

spending the whole day at the sacred desk struggling
with the page, i am really tired of this drudge

be nice to get on the road to the delta for a
change in pace (that dont mean im not struggling to write
but at least its under different circumstances)

okay, lets get busy w/the commentary,

too little too late: israel needs to get serious:

israel has offered to free 250 palestinians in bid to discredit hamas
this their idea of a breaththrough offer

israel, please, work with me, give them something substantial

this is a joke that will just make them look bad to other palestinians
and make hamas look good and justified, work w/me isreal, work

with a desperate and warweary world on this one, the travel/roadblock restrictions
or something, the b movie fence, something substantial,.

its hard to chastize folks when their security at stake, you understand the
need for caution, but the world needs more than this from you

the imperial presidency & the 4th branch of government: dick cheney:

cheney say he he not part of the executive branch to get out from under a presidential directive
but whenever folk try to get him to follow rules otherwise he always claim executive privlege

go figure

read an article this morning say if we let him, bush will fight to exhaustion in iraq but the rest of us cant afford to fight to exhaustion - beg pardon but far as we concerned, we already have

54 million dollar pants:

when me and bonnie 1st heard the news about a newly appointed administrative judge in dc suing a korean tailor for $54 million dollars over missing pants 1st

thing bonnie say is i hope isnt black

since then i been hoping and praying this idiot wasnt black - well he just lost his case and the whole world is laughing at him, so today i went looking for a pic, bad news gang - the idiot is black, oh my god

why has thou forsaken us, charles taylor, robert mugabe, judge thomas and roy pearson - when does the embarrassment end lord

apparently dc powers that be are considering not reappointing him as judge
considering?  considering?

any idiot brought a case asking $54 million for a pair of pants missing from the cleaners
(turned down an offer of $12,000) should not be deciding cases for other folk, okay,

while tesifying in case he started crying over his pants????

this idiot has embarrassed us enuf
let him go with the quickness please

before the bush administration decide this just the
kind of colored judge he like to appoint

we got problems enuf w/o roy pearson
representing

im outta here
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello dear regulators
been doom and gloom lately aint i

lets lighten it up some w/some commentary on the food
of the gods - watermelon - tennessee hams

im classic colored when it come to watermelon
oh boy oh joy -summertime i can live off watermelon

my nazi doctor told me i couldnt have but a cup of watermelon at a serving

diabetes or not, you know thats a joke
take a foot doc, give me another slice of that watermelon please

put some salt on it while you at it

got my 1st watermelon of the season yesterday, oh boy
i been looking but pickings been slim here in syracuse

cant wait to go home to the delta where they got real melon
best melon in the world come right off the truck

so anyway, as you know, my stock in trade
are souls and secrets

just for you dear regulators, rickydocs surefire delta secret of picking good watermelon
first you want that stem to be dry, that mean the melon is ripe

second you want some sugar dripping out the end of it,
that brown sludge, that mean its sweet

dont waste your time thumping it, nobody knows what they listening for
thats a rural myth (as opposed to an urban one, get it?)

just for you dear and loyal regulators
rickydocs surefire secret of good melon picking

okay, so much for the levity, lets get busy
this been a weak woodshed yall

i work a couple of days, i kick back a couple
that wont get it, i got to get busy and stay busy

aint found the zone

its all in the desperation, and apparently im not quite desperate enough yet
just ordered me one of those write hard die free pins, ima see if that help

interesting article in time magazine on latest developments on
expulsion of the black cherokee freedman

seems congress, pushed by congressional black congress
is preparing to withhold federal monies and such until freedmen reinstated

article talks about the romantic attachment blacks have had to their indian ties
and says this represents a 'loss of innocence' - deep phrase that

loss of innocence is a good thing, kinda like disillusioned
which means you had illusions in the 1st place

talks about how blacks and the black congressional congress in particular been
champion of indian causes caiuse of that romantic attachment and how they feel betrayed

talks about irony of using the dawes list created to cheat nativeamericans out of their land
being used now by nativeamericans to discriminate against blacks

says this move legitimizes one drop rule, which you know dear regulators
rickydoc believes in - we got to one drop the world

but just cause you identify black with the one drop dont mean you dont identify
with the other 99 - o this racial identity thing is a tricky beast

ima probably go into this deeper later this week
what else before i try to clock some pages

i had a couple of commentaries to make but all i can think
about now is two days of no work, bummer

i really shouldnt be whining about those days off

i actually schedule 2 days off a week when im working hard
because if i dont schedule them i take them anyway and feel bad

like im doing now

i got sundays scheduled, might have to add saturdays
since im taking 2 a week, need to scheduling them -

adequate rest is an essential part of a good hard work schedule
- remember that rick

you too dear hard working regulators (overachievers  by definition)
aint nothing wrong with a little rest for the weary

fact that im whining about it tells me
im not really in the groove

i need a couple of weeks straight woodshed to find the zone
but im going to the delta in a couple of days

no zone for rick
do what you can

im outta here, go get me a couple
slices of that good melon in the fridge

rdoc

postscript: rootsblog numbers been climbing, hits have doubled over the last month or so
yall must like the way im coming at you - do it rick, do it good

write hard, die free

ousmane sembene as global ancestor: celebrity justice and speaking truth to the people: forcing folk to see anew

THURSDAY MORNING 6:05 am

okay flowers, 3 solid days of novelwork, its all good
but today is a new day - what have you done for me lately

lets do it again my brother, one more day my brother
god help me, lets meet the beast

rdoc

WEDNESDAY NOON

im clocking pages
its all good

a moment of silence please for ousmane sembene
sengealese novelist and filmmaker who graduated recently into tribal ancestorship

african world ancestorship
global ancestorship

most ancestors they personal icons, family forces - some become tribal, icons of the tribe
and some become global ancestors, the whole world respect them, learn from them, model them

thats what i aspire to
global ancestorship

saw his movie moondlat(?) just a couple of weeks ago and was
once again impressed with what he do

ive always found his movies longwinded and heavyhanded myself
powerful and impressive but hard to sit thru  -

but i was reading an account yesterday
of why he went into film from fiction

and he say a film he can take it to the most remote village and they can relate,
he say in film he speak to them all in a language they understand

and i could see how moodlat would speak poewrfully to villagers on its genital cutting issue
in a way fiction could not, fiction has a rarified audience

whereas film the way sembene practice is like
stories around the tribal fire

contemporary fiction been trying to finesse primacy of film in culture today
and this was one of the most provocative cases ive heard made for films utility

and i understood what struck me as problematic about his films a was not only 1) a western aeshetic on my part which was not news to me, but also that 2) one of his primary goals was to talk to the people

and his films did that for him, heavyhanded and didactic as they are - and i am even
more impressed with him and how he took care of his business - his ideological orchestration

my brother in struggle

good looking out brother sembene
good looking out

rdoc

TUESDAY NIGHT

hello world, good day today, id say i clocked a 9 hour day today
caught up some of that backlog, i feel good today

started this woodshed phase w/a 4 page a day count but wasnt getting but 2 average - so thats the count now, 2 a day still get me to the promiseland by early august sometime, w/a couple weeks cleanup before schoolhouse

4 a day would have got me to the promiseland by late june and
given me a month for a good redpen draft but i will take what i can get

you see how ive tricked myself here, same 4 pages but before
when i was trying for 4 a day and failing i was discouraging myself

now that im only going for 2 a day if i get 4 i feel good, im ahead
and its easier to meet the page, easier to sit down and struggle with it

cause im confident of getting 2 measely pages, even crawling i can get 2, i can fuck off half the day and still get 2, just sit there and stare at the page i can get 2

then by the time i get 2 im in the groove and going for 4

today i clocked 4 pages, that mean i did some catchup
must have been those prayers, good looking out

found this site on african divination arts
from a met musuem exhibit, so cool i hunted down a used copy of the catalog

i been throwing my new divination chain daily but im kinda discouraged
i would like the kinda complexity tarot has but w/these

mathematically based systems all the complexity is
in the text, just throwing w/o textual reference becomes boring - lacking in nuance

and you know i like nuance, what i like about ifa and iching is that they are spiritual systems manifested thru the act of divination - thats more my goal than a divination system per se

will have to work on hoodoo book of flowers on days im caught up (days i got my 4 excuse me i mean 2) rest for the weary pages and got a little downtime - nice to get a draft of that done this summer too, money draft of rest, working draft of the hoodoo book of flowers, that be a good strong woodshed

couple of quick comments and im out of here
1) bushadmin, giving up on surge, talking about a south korean model now

ie, the permanent occupation of iraq - if he had come up with this before the surge he
would have had a shot but american people wont stand for it now - they just want out now

2) will you look at that, palestinians doing exactly what israel and the us wanted them to
fight each other, like puppets on a string  - what if fatah lose, what then

hamas in control of gaza, fatah in control of the west bank, al qaida in the wings - what now

3) pressure by hollywood types threatening to pull out of olympics 2008
seems to be effective pressure on chinese support of the sudan

dont think much of new un deal, been too many come to naught, and the sudans insistence on african union troops is insult added to injury, they figure the african union just window dressing they can walk over

will put my finger on that pulse, see whats happening, let you know

look here, im not feeling this, i got to go
if i can clock 4 pages today i will be caught up on rest

keep those prayers coming
my love to you all

rdoc

MONDAY

hello world, im sitting here at the sacred desk so afraid i can barely breathe
i have had 3 days in which i did no work, had the time, just didnt work, tried, just didnt

now im sitting here and i got the whole day to use or throw away- got to work, or judge myself not serious
had all kind of reminders this week of how little valued i am in literary circles

decided this morning to do me a wikipedia entry, since nobody else wil
but you know i cant do that straight, gon be very irreverent, very tongue in cheek

about a minor literary footnote, arthur flowers - probably work it out here
on rootsblog - i think ima enjoy it but its actually kinda sad i got to do this

i tell you i am so tired of this phase, i just cant stand it no more
i really cant, i just cant

dont think about all you got to do rick, just do today, 6 hour day today, minimum
saw a student of mine yesterday, asked her how her novel was coming

i got about 8 folk supposed to be summer woodshedding their novels
i see now i got to check up on them

she say she put it down, said it was making her feel bad - im just shocked
you what? i say a good novel supposed to cost you emotionally, thats what give it power

she say she didnt feel like writing when she felt bad, say she got writers block
im appalled, i say what does how you feel got to do with getting your work done

she say its hard and that was it for me, im spluttering now
you think you the only one its hard for - its hard for me, its hard for everybody

o i fussed and i fussed and i fussed, cause its the one thing
that separate the writers from the pretenders

real writers learn you got to get your work done, hook or crook, no matter what
feel good feel bad, dont matter, you sit down and you struggle to write - everyday

you sit there and you struggle with the page and you expect it to cost you
and you expect to crawl along at a frustrating snailspace

and you expect it to wear you out, to wear you down, but you sit there anyway, everyday
you can beg borrow or steal and you struggle with that page no matter what

and its a real struggle when you young but by the time you my age its a habit
just hang in there & it will become a habit (i got to remember how hard it was back then)

and you dont get it everyday, life constantly taking its pound of flesh, time and focus
but you try, with all your heart and soul you try, you steal those hours, you chain yourself

to your dreams and you sit there and you try and you know you supposed to do that
everyday and days you dont do it you feel like you wasted that day -

i dont know that i got through to her
i dont think i did

wanted to tell her to read my blog cause thats what i call myself doing with this ongoing account
of my struggle to get my work done, modeling for young writers to understand its a struggle

an ongoing struggle, a struggle you got to win

you want to write a novel, cool, i will walk you thru it
just note what i say and do what i do

sitting here right now struggling to write

struggling not to get up and do something else
(or sit here and do something else like im doing now)

and i think of her saying its hard - like thats a reason not to do it
and i just dont know what to say to that

no shit sherlock
im outta here

i really really got to meet the beast today
else im just gon die, just lay down and die

rdoc

SUNDAY

hello world, some new and old images from my lodgebrother bob gates this week

went to an opening of his saturday and he was talking about how he really likes the people in relationship to unortho environment pieces that force us to see differently, that force us into other dimensions

but he say a show of only that wouldnt sell - other folk like the nature ones, which they consider pretty and he consider exploration in abstraction

including me i have to say, fell in love with this one, it bring me peace, anything that sooth my restless soul i like

anything that keep me from frothing at the mouth as i sometime do

folk frothing lately about paris hilton as an example of celebrity justice
but there is a quality of pettiness about cutting paris down to size

i dont get no satisfaction from it

and it dont affect the State - ie sidegame - the true case of celebrity justice is on
the other side of the continent - let me reprise the case

black judge hard on street thugs is appointed by bush to be federal judge
because of his harsh reputation as a law and order judge -this appeals to bush

one of his vaunted black neocons (but perhaps a little more complex than bush ready for)
same judge convicts libby, says sees no value in appeal, let him start his sentence right away

first irony: bushs partisan abuse of the judiciary returns to bite him you know where

i hope the judge makes scooter start his prison sentence right away so
bush will be faced with this clamor from the right to pardon him

thats the kinda no win situation i like to see bush in - dont give him the option
of waiting till he ready to leave, make him do it now when it will hurt

now we have testimonials by all these highpowered legal types
saying that the judge ought to slide they boy libby some slack

now aint this nothing

we really talking celebrity justice now, forget traffic violations by the young and empty - what about functionaries protecting constitutional violations by the old & venal

libby decided to fall on his sword to protect cheney
dont be whimpering cause it hurt

seems harvards dershowitz is one of the defenders, boy kinda busy these days, defending poor libby
and denying folk tenure it appears, reading about recent conflict between him and this guy finkelstein

end up with finkelstein being denied tenure at de paul
that was fighting kinda dirty, deny him livelihood

i dont know anything about the particulars so i cant testify
but it feels oily

was telling a friend of mine just the other day
telling her i had positions neither the left nor the right care for

but it was cool because i got tenure and a living wage
so i say what i damn well please in my work (and this blog)

its so liberating to know i dont have to worry about the marketplace
when im working on my novel, i dont care if it sells, i just want it to exist

aint got no support to lose no way - and the few folk who do love me (& my work)
love me precisely because i am out there on a limb - for them

(course dean newton did send me to this seminar for select su employees on dealing with the media - make sure arthur dont wander too far off the reservation i suppose -  they like me maintaining a highprofile, its in my contract - but im aware when theyd rather i not dance - i may dance anyway but i pride myself on my sophistication, i know when im dancing on the line)

so anyway this article was taking a position in favor of finkelstein
and i thought this boy jensen made some good points on the responsibilities

of intellectuals and academics to show some courage sometime
there are times when i am afraid to say something i know to be true

because i know the powers that be will frown upon me, maybe vote against me
for that guggenheim or something - that mcarthur i been waiting for

blacks and jews and the militant left only opinions i really care about, whose sacred cows i sometime sunder because i care, they the ones be trying to constrain me in my analysis, make me say what i dont believe

let me run right quick what my 3 constituencies dont want to hear:

blackfolk; our problems mostly our own doing, we got cultural weakness keep us from being competitive in the world, got to change our ways, got to work the tribal soul -  still got to fight racism and all that but its secondary and i surely aint got time to be sitting around crying about it - got things to do

jews: israel is an occupying power that seems to believe it can keep its jackboots on the necks of the palestinians forever: lotta nuance here, both sides gon stark raving mad but israel got the power, israel committed the original sin - its on israel to make it right - or go down - o israel where are your prophets when you need them

hard left: often just as daffy as the hard right, democrats be as big a fool to tack to the hard left as republicans were to tack to the hard right - i count myself among the hard left and in my heart still a true believer, but im a more sophisticated player now and i deal with whats real and whats possible and i keep my utopian inclinations where they belong - in my fiction (and this blog)

blacks and the hardleft okay, but the jews, i should stay out of that one, its a no win situation - but ive always admired the jews and their continuing influence on human destiny, the black struggle is built on a diasporic jewish model and the jews were our mentors in the game,

it hurt me to see them violate their own mythwork so,

to watch the world suffer from the adverse and almost biblical impact of their policies as an occupying power, for a destinyplayer its been an object lesson in what not to do

black islamics - lately been concerned about alienating them with my adversity to radical islam and the islamic conquest of africa - i try to be openminded here but i got serious open/closed society issues with global islam and islam will have to understand that it is a guest in africa and not a conqueror - i got issues and black islamics got decisions to make - but i do acknowledge here i probably got growing to do

hispanics: primary allies and competitors: thats a ticklish dynamic in itself, no beefs just now but we got issues we got to work out as they supplant us as most favored minority, a dynamic i hope to finesse by claiming the allegiance of afro hispanics as we move into global shadowplay - got to make being black a positive thing that everybody want to do

i worry about crossing hispanics, nativeamerican, asians, arabs, whitefolk, jews, everybody w/my determination to be a black voice, a black strategist

i worry about disappointing progressives and my academic colleagues relentless and often constrictive liberalism w/my realpolitik - my destinywork

representing is infinitely more nuanced than it was when it was just black and white

and in order to really move the dialogue and affect reality i cant keep following the party lines
i got to be real and speak truth to the people - and anybody else ask me my opinion

got a reputation for fearlessness to uphold

i thought 1st 3 paragraphs of this article were pertinent to an issue thats dear to me
course now my aforementioned militantly liberal colleagues did vote me tenure

makes all the difference in the world

between you and me i wouldnt have gotten tenure if my affirmative action points hadnt kicked in - my big projects take forever and only time i publish shorts is when somebody ask me for something

dont get no play in the prestigious publications they like cause i dont follow nobodys partyline and im too inclined to do my own thing, always been artiste w/an e and i aint no supplicant, ima conjureman and i aint

gon come to the world, the world got to come to me - i am rickydoc

and i work on things that are important to me, not on things that are important to you  /  or the schoolhouse
joyce dukes once call me an outlaw

i was offended, i aint no outlaw i told her, she say i didnt say you were a criminal, i said you were an outlaw, long as ive known you youve operated by your own rules

always gon feel a certain allegiance to su and the dept (and toby wolff for bringing me in out of the cold) for showing a little faith

outlaws often dont get hired/tenure and i feel an empathy with this guy finkelstein - dont know the particulars of his positions so i cant testify, boy might be a stalking horse for folk w/agendas

but i do know what its like to go against the ideological grain and entrenched power circles knowing its going to cost you  -  willing to pay your dues - willing to go where other folk fear to tread

cause you know its the honorable thing to do
the professional thing to do

in the name of john o killens
i live by the code

cause being an true artist and intellectual of historical stature is a blessing of a high order
and you have a geas to speak truth to the people if you want to keep your power

somefolk dont seem to realize that - thats cool, but i
was trained by john o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn

and i live by the code

line in article about 'faculty who pursue esoteric, self indulgent, and/or irrelevant research generally will not be bothered'  was kinda sobering, i often fear im too esoteric to be a factor - hoodoo prophet indeed

only thing worse than pissing people off
is being ignored by them

----------------------------

The Commonplace Cowardice of Responsible Professors
By Robert Jensen

What the Finkelstein Tenure Fight Tells Us About the State of Academia

For two years I have served at the University of Texas at Austin on the faculty committee on "academic freedom and responsibility," a pairing of concepts that is common in higher education. While there is a fairly broad consensus on what "freedom" means, competing conceptions of "responsibility" lead to two very different ideas about the appropriate role for professors in public life.

On one side is the conventional (which tends to be cowardly), and on the other is the principled (which tends to be progressive). Norman Finkelstein, the controversial DePaul University political scientist, is in trouble because he not only believes in, but puts into practice, this principled interpretation. The conventional view is that professors should be free to investigate any question and go in any direction the truth, as they see it, takes them. But in speaking and writing publicly about their conclusions, faculty should be responsible -- which in practice usually means not upsetting people with real power. Faculty who pursue esoteric, self-indulgent, and/or irrelevant research generally will not be bothered (because no one really cares what they are doing), nor will those whose conclusions about relevant subjects are in line with views of the powerful (because their work helps reinforce the structures of power).

The principled view is that faculty members -- who have an extraordinarily privileged position in society, being paid to learn and convey that learning to others, with considerable autonomy that is rare in this corporate-capitalist economy, at a more-than-livable wage -- have a responsibility to pursue research addressing relevant questions that are meaningful in the lives of real people, especially the most vulnerable struggling for justice. That kind of research is likely to lead to trouble (because it challenges the prerogatives of the powerful to rule as they please).

In other words, academics pursuing their work in responsible fashion (in the principled sense) are the most likely to be labeled irresponsible (in the conventional sense).

-------------------------------------

and on that note im outta here, i havent done any work today
its been one of those days, 2 of them to be exact

i got to go meet the beast
pray for me will you, my love to you all

rdoc

rickydoc dreammaker: a dangerous man w/dangerous ideas: the art of flying under the radar

WEDNESDAY

hello world, working hard, getting nowhere

struggling w/same passage 2, 3 days now, going deeper but not moving forward - my summer woodshed just leaking away, god help me this novel is taking forever

been listening to my 1st audio book and enjoying it, ulysses by joyce im almost shamed to say, feels kinda pretentious doesnt it but im enjoying it, 22 cds, a summer project maybe

thinking i will listen to it during my drive to memphis this month, or just give it a weekend maybe and be done with it, a joycean weekend, question is will it help or hinder my narrative flow

usually i dont do real reading during a woodshed, dont want no other heads in my head but i seem to enjoy listening to it, which i must say surprises me

id love rest for the weary to have the sense of literary significance ulysses has, in its own way of course, in it own way just as fresh and seminal

ran across this interesting article the other day that called the idea of a clash of civilizations dangerously wrong

the article wasnt very good, mostly a shoutout to a book by an islamic scholar the writer likes and thinks pertinent to the times, Akbar Ahmeds Journey Into Islam - sound like a book worth scanning, but it was the reader commentary that caught my interest

including one guy questioned writers assertion that an idea
is dangerous because its wrong and misleading

he say plenty dangerous ideas were dangerous precisely because
they were right, or true, or viable

"Let me also add that just because an idea is "dangerous" doesn't make it "wrong"; it merely makes it dangerous. Darwinism was (and to some still is) a dangerous idea. Overthrowing kings in favor of democratically elected leaders was (and apparently still is) a dangerous idea in 1776. Notions by people like Copernicus and Gallileo that the earth wasn't the center of the universe was a certainly a very dangerous idea in it's day. Guy named Jesus had some dangerous ideas in his day, too. As did Mohammed and another guy named Moses (not the delusional one above, although he sounds dangerous, too)."

this lead me to some interesting speculation
on the nature and dynamic of dangerous ideas

because i would like to be a dangerous man
i would like to shake up the destinic status quo w/my ideas

but at the sametime you dont want to appear dangerous
not on the level of game i want to play

true influence instead of reformist sidegame most folk play
the powers that be dont care if you spend your energies in ameliorative sidegame

truly perceptive powers encourage dissipation of social frustration thru reformist activity
fund for you for it, acclaim you for it, encourage other folk to emulate you

the level of the game id like to play is dangerous game

i want some sayso, i want to knuckle up with the big dogs who really run things
and have no compunctions about removing dangerous contenders

depriving them of life liberty or the pursuit of happiness

most serious players they got backup
they got governments, they got networks, they got supporters, they got money

i got nothing, if i was to seriously threaten somebodys powerbase
thats it for arthur and nobody would be the wiser - or care

when your team as weak as mine
might be best your ideas dont take fruition until you gone

no backup, thats why so many black players choose to play on opposing teams

black islamics, marxists, neocons and cablinasians, et al, all these folk looking for backup
blackfolk cannot supply, cast their lots anywhere but with weak blackfolk

samesame with the folk go yoruba, fon or congo
looking for backup afroamerica cannot give - they got no faith

but ima change all that, i got some dangerous ideas for you
let me run some of my best by you:

most succinctly stated: destinywork

- hoodoo as destinywork shaping human evolution
- responsibility for humanitys eternal march into its ever greater self

- hoodoo as guide and guardian of the tribal soul and destiny
- black culture as custodian of human destiny

- ideological orchestration and cultural dominance
- empowerment strategies designed to shape generations

okay okay, stated out of context like that, they dont sound very dangerous do they
destinic instead of scientific earth is round caliber challenges to prevailing understanding

godwork

well thats cool, i dont want them to be too clear

art & fiction are good ways of making dangerous ideas seem less so
or blogging maybe, the way i get dissed and disregarded

but my only true security is that folk dont take me seriously - hoodoo prophet? 
boy what are you talking about?  you some kinda delusional dreamer aint you?

powerful negroes and a resurgent africa? you must be kidding
a what?  a starfaring people?  what kinda space ranger are you?

but if blackfolk ever do decide to listen to my advice

its gon change things
and the future wont be anything like it is now

listen to me and our generations
wont be the bottomfeeders of the world anymore

world gon have to find another whippingboy cause it wont be blackfolk
my most dangerous idea is that we must take control of our own destiny

doesnt sound that new does it but it changes everything
yall listen to the old rootdoctor now, forget reparations

listen to me o ye firstborn and i will give you a destiny
i will give you the stars

for i am rickydoc dreammaker
a dangerous man

(just kidding, dont pay me no mind)
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

MONDAY

i just dont have a lot of sympathy
for blackfolk get caught up in this jihadi thing

aint our war

that bassist a little while back, the haitians in florida
so far and fortunately they all just been big talkers

buncha losers caught up in revolutionary romance,

not much you can do about losers dreams, about foolish big talkers
and a government eager to clock victories no matter how weak

now its the trinidadians going to get scruntinized
by police, homeland security, citizens, immigration, etc,

gon get harder on trinis trying to live beneath the radar
also the guyanese and caribbeans in general, like times aint hard enuf

like immigration policies aint already hard enuf on folk
on blackfolk in particular, the policy on haitians at sea for instance

listen to the old rootdoctor now, i man speaking w/the prophetic tongue
this gon be a growing and problematic issue, i man feel the need to nip it in the bud

folk think prophecy is about foretelling the future - au contrary
its about pointing out the connection between current social behavior and destinic consequence

its about casting your vision as far as you can see, determining te challenges the tribe will face and
preparing the tribal soul to meet them  - before it becomes a problem

in this case i man speak with de prophetic tongue
this gon be a problem

we dont need no grief behind no jihadi bullshit, aint our war and i do not want
afroams dragged into it, i will not defend these fools, i will cut them loose w/o a whimper

black islam need to discourage the malcontents
isolate them, dispower them, put them in check

folk want to accuse me of being politically incorrect on this one, a booster of american policies, i dont care
my criteria of concern is always how does this affect afroamerica, how does this affect the blackworld

black america is going to have to deal with the islamic issue at some point
because so many blackfolk have gone islamic, domestically and internationally

the question here is one of primary allegiance, islam or the blackworld
im not saying either or, im asking where is the primary allegiance

and if you chose wrong i got no sympathy for you, let the saudis bail you out
radical islam, got no sympathy for it - jihad, what exactly is the point

other than making it harder on blackfolk
than necessary, got no sympathy, none

terrorism in islams name - i wash my hands
try to ensure proper legal treatment but thats about it

the old rootdoctors patience here is thin, i consider this a blackworld issue
the situation in the sudan is instructive

blacks who are muslims and have decided islam is paramount in their lives
waging genocidal war against

blacks who are muslims and have decided their blackness is paramount
their africanness

this is a problem
this is the crux of the issue, which way do you identify, your blackness or islam

i remember how hurt i was when farrakhan defended the sudans
war against the south some years back

this is a problem

i appeal to the afroislamics, handle your business now, 21st century stylee
fundamentalism a problem whereever it raise its head, handle your business

i remember back in the 60s me my cousin and a friend tried to make a bomb
young black militants in love with the very idea of revolution -  it was the thing to do

young turks without a clue - i cant have jihad become the thing to do in afroislamic circles
least we had a cause and the people were with us- jihad aint our war, the people aint w/you

and i can only hope folk smart enuf to be effective
smart enuf to stay home

i had a good work day yesterday, i had a very good day
but that was yesterday, lets do it again rick

in the name of the conqueror

trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hooodo way

SUNDAY

hello world, the old rootdoctor in a rough space

didnt do no novelwork this week basically,
which means that nothing else got done either

mostly its those pesky palf obligations thats messing with my woodshed time, we in a critical moment and i cant pull  back from that like i have done with everything else

and im about to invest an obligatory 3 weeks in family/memphis time -  i can feel my summer woodshed leaking away, i got to focus

i guess im feeling like george bush on this one, its now or never, do or die - so he been coming up with all these attempts lately to stay relevant

immigration, darfur, greenhouse, all things he thinks he can pass bipartisan maybe - but even then its never what it seems with bush

greenhouse: like he really cares - hes just trying to play out the clock and diffuse real efforts at addressing that

darfur, hopefully he can move the ball on darfur but im not holding my breath

darfur and immigration policies are the two cases where he might get some progressive traction

the immigration bill has really divided his base, which i have to say
tickles me, though i know i shouldnt let partisan glee overwhelm humanitarian policy concerns

i have myself not been a strong voice on immigration because im conflicted
god help me i hate to see blackfolk fall further and further behind

been racking my brain to figure out how i can make it work strategically
finesse this hammer and use the pressure to make blackfolk and black culture stronger

our alliance w/the hispanics is important to me, i consider them family of a sort
i suspect im going to have to speak more forthrightly on this issue, (as you may have noted lately)

but for now ima let bruh bush do the heavy lifting

i have to say it tickle me to see him alienating his base
subjecting them to the same techs he been subjecting us to for 6 years

other day he said something like those who oppose him on this
dont want whats right for america

his opponents on the right howled, said its not fair to call them unpatriotic
the other day he tried to slogan them like he do, one congressman said, 'we arent all stupid'

thats the way progressives have felt for 6 years now
bush say/do things that astound us - either he stupid or he think we stupid

way him and his boy rove treat the body politic i fear its the second

also im noting this thing with the exgoverner of alabama i think
about to be sent to jail for what seems on the surface to be more of those

politicized justice department cases, i dont know enuf of the nuance to
know if its legit or not, but based on precedent it smells really bad

republican operative just claimed in court papers that the husband
of the alabama ag boasted that 'his girls' were going to take care of the governer

to keep him from contesting questionable election practices that lost an election
(shades of 2000 nd 2004 ohio) and eventually crippled his re run

not only did they cause his defeat but now they trying to send him to jail for it

thats the bad part about the banana repubs criminalization of political opposition
their imperial dictatorship model of governing,

like that sister in minnesota(?) who got jailed
for registering to vote while on probation for writing a bad check

folk get sent to jail for basic political participation
thats really uncool and if thats the case here hopefully it will trip them

because the rove/bush/cheney attempts to establish one party rule
should be fully exposed

i will get you some links and play with this post some more later
but right now got to clock me some pages, get back into my groove

clock a 6 hour work day and i will feel good again
be able to take care of other business

novel dont get done all i do is spin my wheels trying
and dont nothing else get done - and im way too desperate for that

im near the end of a career in which my work is not respected
and i believe this is my big novel, i believe this one will make my bones

summer woodshed is the only time i clock real pages, do real drafts
so i asked jeff and mohammad for their indulgence

schoolhouse takes it all during the semester

3 months out of the year i give to my novel, 24/7
thats kinda non negotiable

since i cant pull back from palf fully i will have to
make it a weekend thing during the woodshed months

i got to get this novel done
before i die, or lose my power

in the name of o killens
all my love

rdoc

dr kioni and the hoodoo way, barack obama and the blackier than thou bandwagon at black commentator

THURSDAY

hello world, even getting paid its not worth it
took me about 3 work days to prepare for this presentation

w/ a full days work averaging 2 - 3 novelpages a day
thats potentially 9 novel pages that i missed out on, thats no good

also was reading this morning (surfing when i should have been working)
where the attorney general in minnesota was put on the justice 8 list

because he resisted bush administration attempts to disenfranchise
nativeamericans in minnesota

apparently the repub secretary of state decided that amerinds in minn
could not use their tribal ids to vote, many dont have any other

and nativeamerican support had made the difference
in a recent close election won by a democrat

when the ag in minn resisted that slick little move as unamerican
he was replaced with a republican talking head known for such

another arrow in the bush admins ruthless attempt to use control
of the government to throw elections and perpetuate their reign

like they did  florida 2000 and ohio 2004 and no telling where else
they came in slicking and slicking is all they know to do

they certainly dont waste their time governing

they were basically setting up a banana republic dictatorship - and you
said it couldnt happen here

its apalling how overt their policy of disenfranchising democratic
voters has been - makes a mockery of this democracy they been
trying to forcibly export to middle east, no wonder theyve blown it

they wouldnt know democracy if they stepped on it

surfing along i checked out dr kionis yard as i sometimes do
just to see what he doing, see if he come up w/new licks i need to adapt (steal)

i like that boys 21st century hoodoo stylee

found this interesting post - interesting because kioni is one of the most
sophisticated and conscious hoodoos trying to nurture the tradition and

works well w/folk of all persuasion but he got his beefs:

-------------------------------------

Dear readers,

What I am about to say will be controversial and you may feel alienated or offended. I do not apologize for the tone of this brief diatribe because the message begs to be heard. To my White colleagues, clients, students and friends who embrace and reverence the African Diaspora without bastardizing it, I salute and embrace you as Brothers and Sisters grafted into the great African Ancestral Tree. ~ Dr. Christos Kioni

Ok, quite a few months back NBC Productions in NY interviewed me for a possible segment on SCI-FI Investigates which is now on the Sci-Fi Channel. I was very adamant that if they came to my home-temple to film me that the context of the segment must show reverence for the African Diaspora. I told the producer I was not a tourist attraction nor was my home-temple open for the curious and sensation seekers. Well suffice it to say I did not hear back from NBC Productions, FOX News, or Art Bell's people to name a few of those that have contacted me. Anyway, last week I saw the segment on Voodoo and was appalled. The segment filmed in New Orleans featured an ALL CAUCASIAN Voodoo ceremony. The Mambo of the group was a blond white woman who supposedly was mounted by Marie Laveau. I could hardly contain my dismay and had to restrain myself from changing the channel.

Do you mean to tell me that NBC Productions could not find any Black voodoosants in New Orleans; NONE? Again, this is a white washing of the African Diaspora that has been going on for centuries. I find it ironic and hypocritical that white Americans denounce and prohibited our ancestors legitimate claim and practice of the African Diaspora; but the slave captors and their 21st Century heirs have taken the practice of Hoodoo, Voodoo, Palo, etc., and even the Blues as their own. Just how whack is that? 

I guess this is why I do not embrace the effort of Newagers and Neo-Pagans who seek to bastardize hoodoo. ENOUGH ALREADY! Go channel some so called alien and invent your own system of spirituality and stop stealing from the African Diaspora."

------------------------------------

if you know kioni you know it must have bothered him cause
he a very even tempered man

this question of contemporary hoodoos multiculti nature is a major one
i am in favor of the whole world going hoodoo so i am comfortable with the dynamic

but the question is how do we keep the cultural heart of hoodoo beating strong
that part of hoodoo thats always been guide and guardian of the tribal destiny

and not let hoodoo be turned into a warmed over wicca, cute little folkmagic witchery
and commercial sensationalism

what do we say to all these folk who druid for a couple of years, wicca a couple, so forth
and so on, and then work their way to hoodoo, practice a couple of years then start telling
us what is and what aint allowed

wonder if they call him racist when he raise these questions like they do me

it hurts me when folk accuse me of racism but i have no intention of giving hoodoo
away as a cultural instrument, if anything i plan to make it an ever stronger one

but the folk who passing thru they aint interested in all of that
in hoodoo role as guide and guardian, as protector of the community

most folk practice a brand of slaverytime hoodoo
about a 100 years out of date - spells, hells and blackcat bones

thats cool, enjoy yourself

all you travelers you welcome to stop by and get what you can
but you cannot have this tradition and remove its higher calling

windwalker say that the problem come when we sit down for interviews with
folk and tell all our secrets, of which she believes i tell too many

or when we train them then they go off and build their own version

stripped of true power but because they good marketers and making good money
they become the acknowledged face of hoodoo, or voodoo, whatever,

she say weve given up old hoodoo and it cant be recalled but we need to
keep the cutting edge of what she calls new hoodoo to ourselves -

which speaks to me cause the cutting edge of hoodoo is being constantly generated by the contemporary stresses of the culture trying to adapt to the cultural challenges of the 21st century

then again, hoodoo always been a bastardized tradition w/a little some of everything in the pot
and practitioners of all persuasion 

hoodoo as cultural custodian thats ours -
but hoodoo has always made room for a variety of approaches

and ive been thinking of ways to generalize that community custodianship component so
everybody can use it  (keeping windwalkers admonition in mind about telling too many secrets)

if you simply must practice
try to keep up

i think kionis beef here is more the sensationalism than it is the multiculti aspect
i know he is very serious about not being sensationalized himself by media/etc

kioni very serious about maintaining control of his personal mythwork
and that of the tradition

kinda like when i took mojo rising to the folk at ballantine, they said arthur we
love your new book but we are going to take out everything uncomfortable, we
are going to make it a giftbook

a giftbook?  you mean the kind that sit by the cashregister
another ten little secrets, or whatever that recent sensation is

and they made me a very good offer, nice money and a 3 book deal

let me say now, these were friends of mine, stone cold literary companeros trying to look out for me, cheryl woodruff and them, trying their best to figure out a way to get my most challenging work published and how it could make them and me a lot of money, they were planning to position me as big hoodoo guru, a darker shade of depak chopra  - i was tempted, i had visions of 7 digit checks floating in my head

but here i was trying to define hoodoo as a true and powerful tradition
and the industry was trying to define me, and hoodoo, as spiritual pop

that wasnt gon fly

some of the same questions of personal mythwork and racial identity in
a multiculti reality come up in next commentary

let me context this one by saying im a big fan of black commentator
nothing like it anywhere else on the net, bc is one of the special ones

so i was reading this article on black consciousness this morning
and it was suprisingly weak

i liked the basic statement that we needed black consciousness but it didnt say anything else much worth reading, slogans ive heard many times before basically so i started scanning it -

until i read a condemnation of barack obama in which the article scathingly claims
obama said "there is no black america".

since i been tentatively and cautiously supporting obama, i followed the link supplied
to a cnn transcript and found out what he said was a tad more nuanced than implied

----------------------------------------

OBAMA: There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America. There's the United States of America.

KING: Frankly though, Senator, isn't it hard for a black American to say that there is only one America, with the history of the way blacks have been treated, to say there is no black America or Asian America with what you've faced?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I have a chapter in the book on race. And my basic premise is that we have, obviously, a powerful history of racial injustice in the country. It's only been a generation since we broke the back of Jim Crow.

What's remarkable to me is the amount of progress that we've made since I was born. I'm 45 years old now. I was born in 1961. The Civil Rights Act was passed in '64. The Voting Rights Act was passed in '65. And here I sit before you as a United States Senator. And you showed a clip of Oprah Winfrey, who may be the most influential woman in the country. (not a great criteria of progress, always been black exemps - rdoc)

And so obviously, we've made progress. What I always say is, we have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough.

And one of the messages, I think, in that speech is that our aspiration, our goal is to have a country that's not divided by race. And my impression, as I travel around the country, is that that's the kind of country that most people want, as well, and that we all have prejudice, we all have certain suspicions or stereotypes about people who are different from us, whether it's religious or racial or ethnic, but what I think I found in the American people, I think there's a core decency there, where if they take the time, if they get the time to know individuals, then they want to judge those individuals by their character.

Now, the question is, are we having enough interaction? Are we having enough discussion between various groups to ensure that people have that time to get to know each other?

---------------------------------------

okay, okay, i can live with that

black politician running for president, trying to parse it both ways
i can work with that, he doesnt have a lot of wiggle room w/this one

he in a funny space, got to maintain his black allegiance
and not scare whitefolk with it - hes actually doing pretty good walking that line

and i expect more out of the black commentator
than to de nuance the important questions of the day for black folk

specially on a question as critical as black consciousness
in the multiculti 21st century

and the more specific question of barack obamas black consciousness
in context of an historical run for the presidency

these are impo if not critical issues full of nuance and we are done
a disservice to have that dialogue reduced to demogoguery

as you may have noted, my own black consciousness is absolute
and the question of racial identity in a multiculti reality a critical one

but im not going to get on the blackier than thou bandwagon

and i suggest that black commentator strive to
maintain the highground and truly insightful analysis

its too important an institution to bottomfeed
we need sophisticated strategic analysis of our issues

and i look to black commentator to provide it

a luta continua
rdoc