rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

working at the crossroads: sekou sundiata memorial aug 22nd and african voices memorial issue

SATURDAY

hello world, to get the full value of this post,
put some nancy wilson on

started a blog on myspace yesterday
under rickydoc flowers - may change to arthur rickydoc flowers

awkward but since im in there for promotion i need to use both names,.
both faces - arthur flowers the writer, rickydoc the conjureman

its all about raising your web presence, establishing yourself as an literary (or magical) entity
on the web the same way you do in realife promotion - its a literary skill, 21st century stylee

but truth be known dont know if im gon follow thru w/myspace
still got this idea myspace is for kids

joined about a year ago just to see whats happening
but never filled out profile or anything - in fact never went back

then bonnie told me i had been mentioned on it a couple of time and im always
monitoring my web real estate - so i went in to check it out

and lo and behold - both hoodoo and literary colleagues there
must be some power laying around, perhaps i should establish a position

but once i did it, i thought am i now suppose to go around trolling for 'friends'
i dont think so - and who got time for another web commitment

gon give myspace minimum maintenance, just blog post occasionally for awhile and
see what happens - im there to spread my hoodoo gospel - promote my works,

promote my literary name
will have to see how best to do that there

the web literate players seem to have established myspace positions
web presence = 21st century real estate, gotta get me some

but in spite of my rootsblog numbers having doubled in last couple of months
(quadrupled fri, big spike for some reason????)

im feeling conflicted lately about the time/energy i spend on rootsblog
much less opening up another front - feeling desperate about getting

these projects done, im 57 this year, too old to be
trolling for friends on myspace

too old to be doing anything but being laserfocused
on novel and holybook, laser focused rick

also getting a little tired of putting my business in the street
though as a writer thats what i do for a living -still, it gets tired

and the old organizer tired of begging and cajoling folk, and only thing got a chance of making a real
contribution/difference in the human condition is to finish this novel, get this holybook done, etc etc

reason i havent been doing much commentary lately is i just dont see anything important enough
to invest my time & dwindling energy, nothing where my commentary will effect real change

i think im just too damned esoteric, too damned literary, too damned something
my words just dont seem to resonate in the culture (or literature)

darfur - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
haiti - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
islam and the west - my commentary hasnt changed a thing

african world crises - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
african american malaise - my commentary hasnt changed a thing

bushs degradation of america - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
humanitys struggle to be greater than we are - jury still out

i just dont have time to do nothing that aint working at the crossroads -
where every word, every act, every thought, changes things

and some things you just dont feel like wasting your time on

for instance this sept report on iraq by general patreas, is there anybody
out there who doesnt know what this report is going to say

"things are rough but getting better - the surge is working"
bush admin been playing folk for months now, prepping them for that 'report'

running various scenarios up the flagpole to see who salute -  o its just a snapshot,
what about a december report, or maybe a 2008 report, 2009, give the surge a chance

and folk likely to fall for the bush okeydoke, been doing so 6 years now
pointing out the imperial nakedness just a waste of my time

old conjureman got to be focused
got to be laserfocused

been working on my class reader last couple of days, been interesting, this class gon make me a stronger writer and its inspirational to see how disregarded i am canonically - that inspire me, that focus me

but i got to figure out a way that the schoolhouse doesnt take it all  this semester - and
my millions of projects, got to get them done - got to be ruthless and focused rick, laserfocused

im 57 this year and i aint got time to play - or socialize 
cant fuck around in any shape form or fashion

rickydoc working at the crossroads this year
rickydoc on a sungun: 360%

im outta here

FRIDAY

hello world - rickydoc has got the blues

i can feel a major breakthru coming but right now all im
conscious of is the weakness - breakthrus can rough you up

aint got a chance in hell of finishing draft in next
couple of weeks, ohwell, one marches on

if i can just get a roughdraft of the new endgame i will be satisfied
louis reyes sent out a notice about 2 sekou memorials

1) aug 22nd at tishman auditorium,
new school university, 66 west 12th st

6 to 8 pm, w/testimony and performances by
poets, musicians, family, friends et al

2) special african voices magazine sundiata issue
(kudos: carolyn butts and layding kaliba)

looking for poems and commentary from
sekous friends, artists and fellow travelers

special issue  dedicated solely to sekou sundiata
the mighty mack master - should be nice

they plan to have a lot of folk in it so keep it tight
strict 500 word limit

layding also looking for photos and graphics
to go with dedications - should be nice

send submissions to africanvoices@aol.com
by aug 20th - no exceptions on the deadline

so dont wait until last minute
call if you got questions 212 865 2982

right time of day and sekou
might answer the phone

wouldnt put it past him

im outta here
rdoc

if i stay focused, gon be a magic carpet ride

THURSDAY

hello world, this aint exactly what i call crunching
when you doing more sitting there thinking than writing

trying to figure out how to bring my endgame to life
good dramatic endgame fiction rather than the rhetoric it is now

and i think im getting a feel for it, think one thread ima play w/is animal sacrifice
in african traditional systems, use his objection to that to bring his prophetic thing to life

that animal sacrifice might work if we were a culture that still killed our own food

but in 20th century afroamerica, animal sacrifice is an anachronism and representative of what has kept african peoples & cultures noncompetitive in global competition

use this w/secretsociety and mythwork theads to dramatize
his attempt to bring african traditional into the 21st century

a sacrifice thread
which is basically what he considers himself (best kept secret in afroam lit)

right now my endgame more rhetoric than good fiction but i
once had an ocha priest, covered in the blood of goats and roosters

tell me we needed to do human sacrifice to get out of this historical trickbag
we have found ourselves in, start talking about how the orisha told him this

i was appalled, dismissed it as an individual aberration, not cultural
upon reflection i might be able to use that as part of my prophetic endgame

wish i could use that but i think its a tad too sensationalist for my purposes
somthing about animal sacrific maybe but i dont believe that other will fly

right along in here when hoodoo trying to determine how much of atr religious
flavor to adopt - stay magical or become a more religious system

id say the majority of black hoodoos these days initiated into
one or more of the atr traditions

for a magical tradition based on the premise of anymethod anytime
a tradition that dont even necessarily follow the rules of magic, folk been trying to

subject hoodoo to religious dogma, the orisha/loa/etc
say do this, dont do that

or else

that dont necessarily fly w/me, dont fit w/my 21st century understanding of divinity, we know
too much about the formative dynamics of religion to be subject to archaic rules of ritual

wanna refine the transcendent, leave the dogma behind

i vote magical - or rather should i say the prophetic
humanitys relationship w/god too complex to leave to the religious

got an email from miriam de costa willis today
sent out to her memphis list, seems one of the old guard of memphis

d army bailey, has an article on black agenda report in which he
takes credit for the civil rights museum in memphis

in it it accuses much of memphis old guard, incl ben hooks
and maxine smith, as mercenaries and compradors

now you got to be part of  the radical wing of bougie black memphis to know how much
this hurt - and miriam, mentor of the young politicals of my generration, our 1st model

of intellectual activism, is on the warpath - this is an unfortunate battle, d army
has declared war on my earliest mentors in the game

maxine, vasco, jesse, aw and them, if i got to choose sides i got to side w/miram and
maxine - got to go w/the oldschool - the racemen and racewomen

of my youth, the hooks, smiths, willises, turners and sugarmons
the delta clan flowers

kinda funny for somebody spose to be a class outlaw
to feel the call of allegiance for memphis oldschool

even more funny is that civil rights museum dont mean much to my generation, it
surprise me it mean so much to them, i mean its not like it does anything

my attittude on this one is who cares

ima stay out of this one, unfortunate d army took the lowroad
probably still bitter about being voted out as chair back in the day

i once got deposed as director of the harlem writers guild, still hurts
and theyve since tried to write me out of the hwg history, that hurt too

but i would never put hwg down
or my old comrades in struggle

i just give my heart to new ren now
and the folk who broke off to form it

supporting me, so i wouldnt be left out on a limb, now theyve
been written out of hwg history too (cept for dorisjean and tmac)

and its on me to make sure folk get their propers
and dont have to pay historically for backing me up

gotta make new ren real, gotta keep babajohn killens legacy alive
dont nobody carry that quite like i do

so instead of being director of 60 year old institution w/generations of struggle behind it
im director of a stumbling start up in constant danger of failure - ohwell - thats life

you take the blows, you make your adjustments
you keep on pushing - limping and lame, still game

but you dont turn on your old comrades
the struggle is bigger than that

a luta continua
in the name of the conqueror

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, really wanted to do some more work on last post
have to dig out my 101 talismans list, just dont feel like i have the time right now

did my outline yesterday and the problems were right there in my face, im back on
manuscript today and feel like i got a slim chance of finishing this draft after all

but man i got to be on it
i got to be focused

some quick commentary and im out of here
been a little conflicted about rootblogs tone lately

cause i been in a woodshed mode everything
been My World and not much commentary

not comfortable when i get too self referential like that
but my numbers have doubled in the last couple of months

whatever im doing yall must like it
ima stay with it awhile, see what happen

one thing i want to do is start giving some props to my syracuse mfa students
been here long enuf now that students starting to publish and manifest

interesting development, i got to start giving props
(and ride they formidable coattails)

thought about this cause phil lamarche just gave me copy of his new novel
american youth, and its reading good, im real proud of him

me and phil go back to when he was a undergrad and now here he is
a colleague with a strong new book out - just as tickled as i can be

and then i think about cherly strayeds novel, and salvador
and the legendary nina shope
and becky curtis book of shorts got nice nyt book review this sunday
and ellen litmans shorts coming out
and my boy parkers novel -ovenman - coming out in fall
and ockerts shorts out and christians pandas
and don pablol and god knows who im leaving out

syracuse been strong in the literary house lately and
getting good strong reviews too - serious position - and i need to

start giving some props

and strive to be ever more useful, a better reader of manuscripts
w/enhanced publishing networks and other such service

been turning out young writers a long time now, long enuf to know
most folk dont make the cut, never become real writers

and w/all these mfa programs turning out 100s and 1000s of wannabes
it become ever more difficult to break out of the pack

over the years most young writers give up
so you try to deduce what factors at play

what determine that optimal blend of craft and discipline
that pigheaded determination to be a good writer

and whatever it is you hope they got it when you send them out into the world, hope
they stay focused stay productive, hope they manifest - and when they do

when they beat the odds and do it, it warm the literary heart
been mostly george saunders work, this is the house that george built yall

i will put you some titles and links in here later
will also do up my 101 talismans later too

and got some commentary on conflict brewing between
ethiopia and eriteria, if that breaks thats going to be ugly - again

what with somalia and the ogaden
ethiopia biting off some mighty big chunks

personally i think that wont settle until
ethiopia has a seacoast - again

also i was reading on abebooks blog that a 5 vol set of hyatts
hoodoo rootwork conjuration and witchcraft  just sold for $5000,

was just thinking i need to re read my own set, extract the historical
hoodoos in there for the 101 talismans, guess i will handle w/care

patience dear regulators, ima put you some links and all in later
but right now im feeling the need to clock pages

worked outline yesterday and back on manuscript today, now just plow
thru it rick, march thru these pages like sherman thru georgia

hopefully i will hit the zone and put this puppy to bed
richen it up later

started putting together reader for my literary blues class yesterday
couldnt help myself, starting to get nervous about class prep

supposed to be a theory class, like i know theory, but thats why i chose to
teach it, be interesting working out a theory of literary blues

and whats the point of
teaching if not to learn

the oral trad in african american lit (and you know i dont do nothing
aint designed to make rest for the weary a better novel)

so just as im reconcepting rests endgame, im being driven to focus on a theory of literary blues
and immersed in all these articles and books as i try to put together a reader

and already i can feel myself growing as a writer, already my craftmind
is perculating, this gon work itself into the re concept of rest for the wearys closure

how it handle its tropes
its literary vision

i wish it wasnt so,
id rather this novel not grow anymore and just be finished

i cannot afford distraction, not even growth, not at this point in
the game, i got to keep moving towards closure -  do it rick, you can do this

if i stay focused, i expect at some point to fall into the zone, where real Work get done
and this novel will start speaking to me and make

itself known to me - showtime
if i stay focused

next 20 days gon be
a magic carpet ride

post got kinda lengthy didnt it, just wandering all over 
the page, feeling spooky yall, feel a zone coming on

im outta here

rdoc

revus grevus: sundiata on a sungun: 360%: obit by louis reyes rivera

hello world
my boy sekou sundiata just graduated

i left memphis trying to make it back but he got away
while i was on the road - aint that somehow fitting

graduating ceremony on 21st and a retro of his life and work
aug 22nd at the brooklyn academy of music

heart attack apparently - man, all my folk checking out
sekou cuts it mighty mighty close though, sekou was my boy

that phrase, sundiata on a sungun: 360%, is only one of the many ive
stolen from sekou over the years, we were a political crew of artists

started doing plays as part of the black new york action committee's cultural wing
the first one was a collabrative called bloodflower, based on a poem by bj ashanti

that was when sekou got into doing his aural performances and i met the
folk who became my politico artist crew - sekou, ashanti, safiya, pat, sandy, etc

writers, dancers, visual artists, etcetc, all meeting in sekous loft over
on 124th street, which was also party central - some serious le bon ton roulet

me and sekou was like brothers till we fell out over a woman didnt
choose either of us  - that didnt stop us from locking horns over her

we made up eventually but never was as close as we once was
both of us alpha leos and tending to hold grudges

me and sekou use to celebrate the whole leo month as our birthday
used to meet at panchitas down in the village for a ritual veggie salad

but with literary companeros, the rituals of respect are important
one misstep and you fueding for years

got a long shitlist now of folk who have dissed me the last 10 years or so
treat me like i dont rate - i will show you what time it is, you gon regret dissing me

when it becomes literary is when poison works flourish, me and louis reyes been
on the outs bout two three years now, and bj ashanti mad at everybody, g p

i took a punch at louis reyes in rest for the weary, gon have to extract that
or even better take it to where i am now - the high ground

i didnt even realize sekou was mad at me but he was acting funny and when i finally
figured out why i said man you have jacked a misdemeanor up to a felony

sekou say he get to decide the charge
looking back bring a smile to my face

during the time me and sekou was fueding
i would think we too old to be fueding like this

cause we at that point in life we could check out anytime
and now he has - and im in denial - not sekou, sekou was indestructible  -

more lives than a cat

cancer survivor (testicular no less)
broke his neck driving that old volvo over a cliff
kidney failure and transplant drama

sekou was larger than life
sekou was legend

and the leader of our literary pack
a story yet to be told

got to work harder rick, got to tell the story before its
time for me to check out too - so many projects, so little time

also need to check current fueds w/my literary companeros of old
what with everybody checking out i cant afford fueds

(wonder how  ashanti doing these days, ive tried contacting him, he off the grid - i miss ashanti and wow, that make me think of akua lezli, she been going thru some fire lately, i need to get in touch with her, see how she doing. . .and on and on. . and on on and on)

speaking of legacies and checking out

had a good time with my nephews, the hoodoo posse flowers indeed
wanted to be calm dali lama unca ricky but i had to pull out the inner drill sgt on them

they wore out the weary

was laying around in memphis trying to get my energy back for the trek up 81
when i heard sekou was in a coma and headed on back to the city

as always when im home i did maintenance on my bottletrees over in riverside park

most of my bottletrees in the park are hidden deep in it but some are public and sometime
neighborhood kids have used my bottles for target practice so i always come prepared to replace

broken ones, but this time none were broken, thank the conqueror, so i had all these extra bottles and instead of starting a new tree as i have done in the past, i started hanging them all thru the park

decided to make the whole park one big bottle tree
one big delta holyground

for those who dont know the story, i consider the delta an afroam holyground
and this wooded area i grew up alongside the mississippi as sacred ground

riverside park its called - working it as sacred ground in my novel
working it as sacred ground in real life -been sanctifying it w/mythwork and bottletrees

protecting memphis, the mississippi and the delta
dont no evil get past rickydocs ring of glass

so i figure making it a parkwide bottletree not only protect memphis and the delta
but the whole wide world and all our generations - gon do that in sekous name

sanctuary

this obit was sent out by louis reyes
w/whom i really need to bury the hammer

maybe when i see him on the 21st
in sekous name

revus grevus  (some nonsensical parting phrase
sekou was partial to)

my love to you all
rdoc

 

 

Obituary:

Gifted Poet Sekou Sundiata

(August 22, 1948 -- July 18, 2007)

by Louis Reyes Rivera

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 5:47a.m. (ET), poet Sekou Sundiata passed away. A highly esteemed performing poet, Mr. Sundiata wrote for print, performance, music and theater. Born Robert Franklin Feaster in Harlem, on August 22, 1948, Sundiata came of age as an artist during the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

 

While attending the City College of New York (CCNY), where he began reciting poetry publicly, Sundiata converged with several other student activists, including once-mayoral candidate of Pittsburgh and longtime friend, Leroy Hodge, to form the basis for what soon became known as the Black and Puerto Rican Student Community of City College (BPRSC). This phalanx of 400 students soon made their own history, closing the 21,000-student campus during the Spring of 1969, to demand, among other things, that CCNY be renamed Harlem University. The net effect of the student takeover culminated in both an Open Admissions Policy that took effect in September 1970, the full legitimization of ethnic studies departments throughout the nation, as well as the requirement that all education majors within the City University take courses in African American History and to have Spanish as a Second Language.

 

Among his acknowledged mentors at City were Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and fellow student Louis Reyes Rivera, with whom Sundiata helped to establish the first Black student newspaper in the City University, CCNY's The Paper. Their association would span close to forty years of mutual respect and admiration.

 

Upon completing his Bachelor's Degree (circa 1974), Sundiata enrolled and completed his Master's in Creative Writing while regularly producing community-based poetry readings that were known to draw SRO crowds. In 1976, his creative sensibilities, his innate organizing skills, and his associations with a convergent generation of excellent poets, musicians and dancers immediately led to a collaborative project he directed that would commemorate 100 years of Black struggle for freedom and Human Rights. Titled The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People (1863-1876/ 1963-1976) , this production, which included upcoming novelist Arthur Flowers and such poets as Safiya Henderson-Holmes, BJ Ashanti, Tom Mitchelson, Louis Reyes Rivera, et al, was staged in Harlem over a period of two days, signaling much of what was to come from Sekou's sense of vision, steadily breaking ground for what was then a new literary genre,

Performance Poetry, fully anticipating elements of both Hip Hop Culture and Spoken Word Art.

 

In 1977, the aforementioned poets, along with Zizwe Ngafua, Rashidah Ismaili, Fatisha (Hutson), Sandra Maria Esteves, Akua Lezli Hope, Mervyn Taylor, and Sekou, among others, formed the Calabash Poets Workshop, which group signaled the arrival of a new literary heat in New York, regularly producing soirees and fori (1977-1983) that included all of the arts and culminated in a three-year attempt (1979-1982) to establish an independent Black Writers Union.

 

Upon the release of his first vinyl album (circa 1980), Are & Be, Sekou Sundiata was dubbed by Amiri Baraka as "the State of the Art." Since then, Mr. Sundiata established a longtime relationship with  CCNY's Aaron Davis Performing Arts Center, through which venue he intermittently produced new material for the stage, consistently collaborating with musicians, dancers and actors. He was eventually selected for a number of earned fellowships, including a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida), and as the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York, in which university's Eugene Lang College he remained a professor.

 

He was, as well, among those featured in the Bill Moyers' PBS series on poetry, The Language of Life, and in Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO.

Among several highly acclaimed performance theater works in which he served as both author and performer are: The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, which toured nationally and received three AUDELCO Awards and a BESSIE Award; The Mystery of Love, commissioned and produced by New Voices/ New Visions at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City and the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia; and Udu, a music theater work produced by 651 ARTS in Brooklyn and presented by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, the Walker Art Center and Penumbra Theater in Minneapolis, Flynn Center in Burlington, VT, the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and Miami-Dade Community College in Florida. Throughout this period and since 1985, he developed a close association with co-collaborator and legendary trombonist Craig S. Harris.

blessing the boats, Sundiata's first solo theater piece, an exploration into his own personal battles with kidney failure, opened in November 2002 at Aaron Davis Hall, NYC. It has since been presented in more than 30 cities and continued to tour nationally. In March 2005, Sundiata produced The Gift of Life Concert, an organ donation public awareness event at the Apollo Theater that kicked off a three-week run of blessing the boats at the Apollo's SoundStage. in partnership with the Apollo Theater Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation and the New York Organ Donor Network with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Since 2006, his the 51st (dream) state has been presented throughout the U.S. and in Australia. Both blessing the boats and the 51st (dream) state were produced in collaboration with MultiArts Projects and Productions (MAPP). In addition to working within community engagement activities at Harlem Stages/Aaron Davis Hall, the University of Michigan and University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI), the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), the University of Texas Austin (Austin, TX), in Miami Dade College (Miami, FL), and the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Sundiata has appeared as a featured speaker and artist at the Imagining America Conference (Ann Arbor, MI), at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), and at the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Conference (Minneapolis, MN), among others. Prior to his demise, he was engaged in producing a DVD documenting the America Project for use by universities and presenters as a model for art and civic engagement.

In addition to the 1979 Are & Be album, Sundiata's other releases include a second album, The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People, and two CDs, The Blue Oneness of Dreams, nominated for a Grammy Award, and longstoryshort. Each of these works are rich with the sounds of blues, funk, jazz and African and Afro-Caribbean percussion, with the latter two featuring Craig Harris.

 

He is survived by his mother, Virginia Myrtle Feaster, his wife, Maurine Knighton, daughter Myisha Gomez, stepdaughter Aida Riddle, grandson Aman, brothers William Walter Feaster and Ronald Eugene Feaster, as well as a host of relatives, admirers, students and friends.

 

A private funeral service of family and friends is scheduled for Saturday, July 21, and a commemorative celebration of his life and work is scheduled to take place on August 22, his birthday, at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Opera House. Details to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in the name of Sekou Sundiata to the New York Organ Donor Network or to the National Kidney Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

(l. Craig Harris; r. Sekou Sundiata)

hoodoo haints: in the name of the king, toni cade bambara and cultural workers, rickydoc flowers and ideological orchestration

SUNDAY

hello world, this turned into an interesting post (for this post you
need to put on some cassandra wilson cause this a magic carpet ride)

in the course of it i hainted martin luther king

getting very comfortable calling hoodoo ancestors haints and enjoyiing the process of gradually discovering them like im doing

think ima work it into rest (sorry ec)

im been using this riff where jubilation highjohn drape himself in 101 talismans when he is about to do performancework in the novel,

its become a trope but its 101 just because i liked the poetry of it - one hundred and one talismans

but what i should do is call on 101 hoodoo haints in the lyrical riffs - the hoodoo pantheon of rickydoc - drop an invocation into the text whenever i see narrative opp to do so

do it raw now, clean it up later -  narrative opps that reflect whatever attributes i want to give the haint
was thinking about it cause i hainted martin luther king while writing this post

im getting very comfortable calling my hoodoo ancestors haints
hainting them as the process of transforming them into tribal deities/guides/etc

how would i define that loafication process, that orishafication process,the sanctification process, in which tribal ancestors are annointed, want something very hoodoo, haintifying, haintification maybe

am i deifying them, that dont quite work for a highmagician to construct a process of deification
its beneath me - in the holy narrative im attempting to create, how do i want these tribal haints to function

deities
or something more

gotta be something more

why then do i feel the need to make it a holy narrative
because its more culturally binding, more effective mythwork

but i dont ever want to encourage subjecting humanity to the rule of deities
i think i see deities as instruments of humanity being greater than it is, as guides not masters

at the same time i acknowledge that most folk need deities

or someting along this line, i will have to figure it out later
this dont sound like one i will be able to answer off the cuff

what happen was i working on this presentation for the
educational opportunties center syracuse

cultivating success

my 1st straight up motivational speaker gig
hate to charge them but i aint doing it for free no more

they teach folk struggling, working folk trying to get back in school, immigrants, refugees
im talking to the teachers, consultants, administrators at their annual thingee

talking about teaching as a sacred calling
about teaching folk whove been left behind to catch up
about the challenges of that in the 21st century -

talking about teaching as handling fragile souls and how you get
weary in those social work jobs but you know you doing what

nobody else can . . . (blah de blah de - o you know the routine
my basic riffs shaped to the moment

ima rock the house and get paid, not a lot,
just enuf to feel good about it

that mean i got to shine

conch, anklebells, bluesharp and kalimba
they gon get the throw down - the full monty

trying to think of a performance haint to call on
somebody who know how to put on a hoodoo show

maybe marie leveau
apparently she knew how to put on a show, w/the snake and all

or maybe martin, because thats the kind of show
i really want to put on, on the realside, thats who i emulate

as a performance speaker

i want the martin luther king effect
21st century stylee, hoodoo stylee

im the name of martin luther
thats who im going to call on for performance work henceforth

shame about his daughter dying recently
shame about the family not holding up the torch

but i guess it bes that way sometime
folk got the right to walk their own path

have to remember that w/my nephews, my crew
my daddy didnt push me, he let me make my own decisions

take the consequences of faulty ones
one decision ive never regretted was to hold the torch up high

imogunla alakoye once ask me, who most changed the african american condition
martin or malcom, and imogunla was a malcolm acolyte, even looked like him

but we both agreed it was martin

that say a lot to folk who lived thru the pre civilrights south
i was trying to explain it to a ghanian partner of mine the other evening

who was shall we say not appreciating nonviolence as a strategy and talking a lot of i woulda this and i woulda that and i tried to explain the pre civilrights south situation and why it was the strategic posture appropriate to the moment and the courage it took

and i tried to explain the difference the struggle made in our lives
how the struggle caused us to say we just wasnt gon take this kinda treatment no more

and i was so inarticulate but he felt what i was trying to say

you folk who went through that with me you know what im talking about
i know you feel me

and you folk wasnt there
you feeling it too - i know you do

recently picked up a book walking down jericho road about the memphis garbargeworkers strike that
brought martin to mason temple that rainy night in 68, when he say he been to the mountain top

say he aint fearing no man - may not get there with you
but we as a people will get to the promised land - i seen it he say

thats the hoodoo haint im calling on for performance work henceforth
in the name of the king do i do this

in struggle
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world
trying to post but not really feeling it

bush giving up a lot of material but truth be told
bushs antics have begun to bore me

his recent comment about the deadlines causing more casualties
same old bush trying to blame otherfolk for the consequences of his policies

we all know why we taking casualties in iraq

bush de classifying years old report on al quaeda in iraq
samo samo - amazing that he thinks we will still fall for this selective intell trick

even folk used to believe him tired of it, he keeps trying the same old techs
the same old slogans

goodling immunized testimony blaming everybody but herself
samo samo - the republican rightwing has just tired me out

darfur  samo samo   haiti  samo samo, im tired
im weary in my bones im weary

this morning i followed a google inquiry to rootsblog posts from 3 years ago
and it was kinda depressing - most of it does not stand the test of time

and i have written a lot of wordage for this thing and still average 50 hits a day
i read about folk w/100s and 1000s of hits a day and there is arthur, still chugging along -

the little engine that could

ive tried being more topical, but topical often bores me
you want straight news best to get it elsewhere

if im going to be putting the time in i have to deal with whats important to me
which often im sure becomes repetitive because it reflects my obsessions

its like im thinking out loud, working thru concepts impo to me as a thinker
a visionary and ideological orchestrator

im fond of that concept you notice, ideological orchestration - got it from toni cade bambara basically
she once at a writers conference john o did at howard referred to writers as cultural workers

the term spoke to me - she called them cultural workers because of her left marxist thing
but ive always been comfortable with the great man/woman theory of history - if you get my drift

so i translated that as cultural orchestrators, befitting a players sensibility who considers everybody, including the powerful to be played - to be placed on the board of destiny - the visionary artist is a manifestation of the individual as historical force - the left i come out of isnt comfortable with that

this comes out of the aesthetic of the griotic literary school of which i am a member - we consider ourselves cultural custodians, shaping the culture through our works

over the years this strategic posture evolved into ideological orchestrators - ideological players like myself
in contention trying to shape the way the world thinks - thereby shaping the future, the destiny of humanity

- the longest most comprehensive game, the one that swallows all others, is the one that wins
that is most influential in the shape of things to come

i think ideological orchestration but often use cultural orchestration because its more digestible to folk

but other writers get deals and make money off thoughts not nearly as pertinent or profound
(at least i think they pertinent and profound, sometimes i wonder if im just delusional)

they get listened to and get respect, me im just out here wailing away for my 50 a day
i console myself w/awareness that visionaries often dont get play during their lifetime

but i do often wonder about this blog and the time investiture, wonder if its worth it
i got to assume it is, i have over the years come to trust my creative obsessions

like when i became obsessed with learning bluesharp
and blew and blew and blew and it felt like a diversion then but i couldnt help myself

and now it (and kalimba) have become integral parts of my identity as a literary bluesman
a performance poet and ritual prophet/sorceror

these obsessions feel like they a waste of time when you caught up in them
but i assume that all this blog wordage will be historically significant somehow someway

one hopes one prays
because i dont seem to have a choice in this, every couple of days i sit down no

matter what and just write about something anything, whatever come to my head
while im sitting there

these blogs dont work unless you get obsessive about it and i tend to
the obsessive, its my artistic temperament, my big projects - novels and holybooks

wouldnt get done if i wasnt obsessive about it
but sometimes it works against me and i hit the wall - repeatedly

just bam bam bam bam bam

ohwell, i got to assume that when the roll is called my name will be there
got to assume it will all work out and the generations will appreciate what ive done

got a little taste of the blues i believe
sorry ec, just dont feel like roaring today

lets do a couple of comments flowers and get outta here
maybe reflect on some ticklish situations in which im not quite following the progressive partyline

lebanon: what can they do, cant enter the camps and cant let fatah a islam keep growing, got to ignore palestinian complaints but i hope they work hard at minimizing collateral damage (dead civilians)

dustup between congressional black congress and fox news in one corner - obama, clinton, edwards
et al in the other - theyve all have refused to participate in a presidential debate cbc set up w/fox in september

im with the candidates, cant support fox news efforts to fake folk out when they use their power so blatantly against our interests as a people - somehow they will context this to their agenda of discrediting us

i hear the fox been giving the cbc various sorts of bribes and other pr moves, but their substance is poison - far as im concerned them cbc folk need to straighen up and fly right - or left as the case may be

immigration: conflicted about being supplanted by hispanics but have to come out in favor of compassionate immigration policies because of our historical alliance and because it also affects folk from africa and the caribbean - just hate that blackfolk falling further into the cracks but that aint the fault of hispanics is it

we basically got to do it like the jews did it - small numbers, big game, global backup
got to turn the whole race into players

advice to barack and hillary under attack from republicans for recent vote against funding: ignore them
dont let them get you all defensive about what you know is right - shaping the dialogue is an old repub trick

samesame ex president carter, i admire that man, he speak his mind when he know he right - did it with israel (that took courage), did it with bush (just speak the truth)

hated they forced him to backup w/that silly tradition of presidential courtesy, his allegiance should be to america, to a world afflicted with bushitis - speak truth to the people man and let the chips fall

something i have to constantly remind myself
in the name of jimmy carter

and toni cade bambara

im outta here, taking my blues to

the sacred desk and clock some pages
thats always good for what ails me

my love to you all

rickydoc flowers
hanging in there

laying paths and raising up the sun: the me i see

SUNDAY NIGHT

hello world

i would like to edit down that last post
i was reeling and just talking away -yakkety yakkety

but im too tired to read thru it, another 24 hour shift
and this project is closing down w/a whimper

im just throwing any old thing together now
cause today the last day im doing this

probably have to crash most of tomorrow, still got two criticals
fbs manuscript and rests prophetic thread (and palf)

i think ima do that thread next cause fbs manuscript
will take me out of my head, ima give thread 2 days max

which puts me up to the 9th, 2 days on felixs manuscript
makes it the 11th, (who am i kidding, lets say 3 to do a
good job of it, cannot give it 4)

3 puts me in about the 12th, thats 5 days prep for schoolhouse
thats cutting it thin rick, thats cutting it real thin

best i get back to work, closing down rootwork rebuild tonight
what i got is what i got, what i dont have is time . . .

later
rdoc

NO FOOL, ITS SATURDAY

hello world, its me, braindead flowers, doing his zombie thing
worked full 24 hour shift yesterday, havent done that in years

been bogged down w/rootwork rebuild, have reached point where im rewriting
its major texts, worked STRUGGLE segment all day yesterday

deep how much its my basic political philosophy ive done over and over
a million times, you could probably give it verbatim fearless supporter of rootsblog

and im thinking here i am investing critical time in this thing one more time
that the public has repeatedly ignored as not pertinent

why are you doing this
again

how many times are you going to hammer your head against this wall

it makes such good sense to me i just do not understand why people
keep ignoring it, i keep thinking maybe i just havent quite said it
convincingly enough maybe, this time for sure it will fire up the tribe

and feed the tribal soul, this time for sure

(one thing make it more digestable would be to cut out all that mythwork
all that destinywork you be putting in there flowers - start talking about
the stars and the destiny of the generations and all that and folks eyes
glaze over - would help if you just kept to conventional politics instead of
trying to claim the prophets mantle - but if i got to cut my vision out of the
equation whats the point, thats what makes me me   . .  .)

well this time im not going to just put it out there and hope folk get it
this been the most extensive rewrite to date of my political vision

ive gone into old versions and presentations and im putting it all together
and coming up with the most polished and comprehensive presentation of my vision to date
(not counting rest for the weary of course)

almost 40 pages im trying to whittle down to the bone for web purposes

then ima look at that as the nucleus of a book, a compilation of articles
about 21st century paradigms of struggle, start really pushing folk for those

trying to position rebuild of rootwork as a strategic repository
along the lines of chickenbones to place these works until they book quality

turn this into a dialogue if i can (which mean i got to be open to growing
and not assume i got the answers - keep reminding myself there are many
roads to timbuktu)

other thing ima do is use my oraltrad skilz to learn this as a presentation
and turn this into a stumpwinding sermon of a presentation
then start selling myself cheap on the college circuit - will work for souls

also maybe send it out in one big mailing on my old rootsletter list
i would get a lot of dead addresses and please take me off this list returns

but i would get my presentation out to my market win or lose

and also that would wean that list (5000 or so) down to something manageable (1000?)
of folk who really interested in what i got to say instead of think im little better than spam

im going to put it up on the nationalist lists too
and wherever else i can think of

or what i might do is just send announcement of the link
that would be more neighborly than sending whole thing unasked for
but i wouldnt get as many eyeballs

or do stripped down submissions letter for the mailing, decisions decisions

but its the presentation thats going to make that puppy
once ive learned it and start putting the hoodoo preaching on it it should rock your world

that way i dont feel so bad about the time its taking

ima give it today and whatever i dont get of it by the end of the day
dont get got, got two or three others to do

literary hoodoo, literary blues and contemporary hoodoo segments
i will schedule a day, hopefully not two, for them

got basic graphic work to do, keeping it as simple as possible, timetimetime
keep thinking simple elegance flowers, keep thinking grace

got to do fbs manuscript then and still would like to weave that enhanced prophetic thread
in rest for the weary before i have to switch to schoolhouse focus, i need to get some novelwork
done out of this kind of zombiepush to justify the wear and tear on my body

and i havent done any pan african literary forum work either

jeff caught up w/some weeklong gig in england, he been moving the ball solo, which does
not feel good to the old team player, need to start pulling my freight on that

and the schoolhouse on my trail, tick tock tick tock, 10 days and counting

i got to start shaping that course right now, not a days slack, im already behind

okay, enuf whining, a couple of commentaries and im out of here
spoke to katrina omogun the other day, she always so interesting to talk to

she has more unconventional reads on hoodoo than i do, she sending me an
unpublished manuscript she currently shopping around, ima make time for that too

okay, thats not a real commentary flowers, thats basically still me me me
what about this one, the army recently sent out re enlistment letters

to officers who had either died in iraq or been grievously wounded
i cant even put my customary ironic sneer on that one, i tried

but it felt like a cheap shot, im going back to work
tick tock tick tock

hangtough
rdoc

IS IT FRIDAY ALREADY

hello world, im reeling zonedrunk
but im really pleased w/rootwork rebuild

when i built that site in 98 it was cutting edge
but almost 10 years is a longtime between rebuilds

its coming along well, a couple of days and i
can put paid on that one - for the moment

couple of quick observations
and im outta here

somalia: hopefully interim government will become real government
in short window of ethiopian military support

somalia will have to decide its geopolitical identification at some point
will they be africanist or islamic - the interim government strikes me as more
africanist than the other guys

not saying has to be either/or
saying the question of primary identification is pertinent here

for folk who arent clear on it i got a beef w/the coercive nature of islam
in africa - weve already lost the northern crescent, must we all submit

islam must be made to understand it is a guest in africa
and not a conqueror

my somalia commentary will reflect that perspective
probably be more strategic than progressive

my apologies beforehand

i also notice some noise about bushes latest 'signing statement'
in which he disavowed recent congressional proscriptions on reading americans mail w/o warrants

he continues to push the signing statements to historical levels of executive privilege
he continues to be a problem child

what else, there was something else i wanted to comment on
oh, the latptops microsoft gave to selected bloggers

so i got passed over again

im willing to sell
aint nobody made no offers

im outta here

couple more days and i will put
paid on rootwork.com rebuild

aint that good news
another project down

looking good

WEDNESDAY
hello world

old rootdoctor feeling apologetic on you
im so deep in the zone its just me me me

lot of stuff happening in somalia worth commentary
but its just me me me - no wonder i dont got no readership

schoolhouse crunch coming, challenging forms course
that ive explicitly designed as novel workshop

in spite of fact its almost impossible to workshop novels
in a semester format, got to figure that one out

while studying what i consider the great works of african american lit
the magical works, literature as magic, narrative as magic, spellwork

mumbo jumbo
corrigedora
the healing
texaco
mamaday
beloved
the cattlekilling

ive taught these before but everytime teach them i have to reread them
everytime i get more insight into what they do

been systematically working on my reading skilz for a couple of years now
since thats what i do for both living and avocation - and it is a skill im proud of

one i need to get better at every year

im finally seeing benefit of this effort in my critiquing and reading skilz and
looking forward to bringing new eye to these works

also looking forward to  figuring out how to help people write novels
in a workshop/semester format

thats going to be an interesting challenge
apparently students thought so to, didnt get but 5

lowest forms course enrollment ive ever had but it just might
work out for the best in a novel workshop where folk have

to trust each other enuf to expose nascent dreams

but that course will take a lot out of me
im invested in doing it well

will have to hit the ground gunning
cause im squeezing this last week for leftover 2006 projects

got to lay that prophet thread in rest
got to read fbs manuscript  (this weekend flowers)
got to finish rebuild of rootwork.com (check out new look, but dont try to navigate yet)
got to make panafrican lit forum contributions to remain viable member of team
got to do new ren maintenance, newren always gets priority, my slice of johns legacy

i would like to do that griotic report for 2007
and i got to strip and stain stairs, an overdue honeydo i been promising

apologies to folk i owe calls emails etc
im deep in the zone and there i plan to stay

not to worry though, old rootdoctor keeping his eye on things
bringing the sun up every morning

right on time - like the conjureman should

aint nobody had no complaints, right
sun looking good, right

im outta here
rdoc

TUESDAY
hello world (and all its generations)

musical accompaniment to this posting
still eric wainaina

it is a chastised conjureman before you today
finally started rebuilding rootwork.com

found an rootsblog archive page oct 2003
been doing this since 2003 and i get about 50 hits a day

i must be doing something wrong

too much me me me most likely
but i just talk about whatever is in my head

because im a literary man i just assume its of interest to the world
what i think and see, what i speculate, what i create - the paths i lay

apparently it isnt  (hopefully future generations wont agree)
my readership so low i have to question my assumptions

wonder if i should flip the script and try to be more mainstream
but i have always loved the cutting edge

(i choose to assume low readership is because im ahead of my times -
there is of course the possibility that i have no talent but i do not
choose to go there, if that is the case id rather not know . . ,)

artist have to decide early if they going for the cutting edge
and be willing to pay the cost

so be it
i love the cutting edge

dont care if nobody reads me
i just want to exist

be the me that i am in my literary heart
the literary force i know myself to be

what i like about rootsblog is that i do what i damn well please
thats the only thing justify the time and wordage - doing what

i damn well please - and trusting my literary instinct
trusting my obsessions to pay off in the end

true wordage is literary/historical presence

so anyway i decided to finally rebuild rootwork.com and
its traumatic to see how dated my webspace is

my poor little cyber holyground

gon give this week to rootwork
been putting it off for years

rest for the weary got serious time last week/month
gon backburner it now and take care of rootwork.com

so i start moving through it,.right, to see what i got and
i am so embarrassed - that got to be done right away

man, how could i have put that off so long

hope to give rebuild some kind of online magazine effect
21st century empowerment strategies and such
im not quite sure yet but i will be by the end of the week

here we go again
another major project under impossible time constraints

gotta move on pan african lit forum too, looks like
a donedeal - jeff moving the ball, i got to pull my freight

gotta start prepping my literary hoodoo class too
gotta get on that real soon, im real invested in doing that well

tick tock tick tock

im outta here
rdoc

singing in the choir

hello world

back in nairobi and can do a real posting

wrote the bulk of this a couple of days ago

redid it this morning on the roof of the stonehouse

and just now posting it

oh ive been seriously out of the loop

lamu is like going back in time about 200 years

been reading day old kenyan dailys; standard, nation, whatever i

can get my hands on, so i have a rough idea of whats going on in the world

i know ethiopia and the somilian interim government routed islamists but between
somalian distrust of ethiopia, keeping the warlords in  check and a budding
islamic insurgency the interim government gon have to get serious w/the quickness

(hint: 1st step of magnanimous victor: coopt moderates) - else pray for somalia

i know that the palestinians fighting each other – bummer

and a tickled israel been offering abbas guns (instead of land)

i know folk still dying in darfur while islamic and african

countries coddle sudans bashir – bummer

i know that bushs new idea in iraq consists of sending

in more troops against the advice of the generals (when

has he ever listened to the generals) - bummer

i see they bout to hang saddam - and add kangeroo trials
to torture and other degredations of us policy in iraq

those black masked executioners look like they came
straight from the beheading videos - whose idea was that

somebody explain to me again how we came to be dying in support
of an extremist shiite neotheocracy and why we cant leave

hate to see kofi go (bummer) but i suspect he needs a rest and maybe he

can be less circumspect now – i suspect he got a lot to say (redemption)

and i heard the godfather of soul closed down his act

(i can see him throwing off his cape and coming back for one more show)

thats about all i know of blackworld global significance while i been gone

which is very frustrating for an internet junkie like me

who generally checks google.news every 20 minutes or so

to make sure i know whats going on - when its going on

the old rootdoctor like to see, old rootdoctor like to know

keep my finger on the hoodoo pulse

but lamu is a magical place, very otherworldly

which for a magical realism writer is a good space

and i been working hard, moving slow working hard

thats all i ask of the literary gods, give me the hours and i will accept what i get

many of the faculty went off on a 2 day dhow adventure among the islands

but mr literary workaholic could not see 24 hours of woodshed time unspent

they came back w/all these tales of adventure and i hate i missed it

but i think i would explode if i couldnt work on my novel for 24 woodshed hours –

just fucking explode – im way too desperate for that

went on the boatrides last year and after about 30 minutes of exhilaration

i file them under more of the same

there was a faculty reading last night, jeff allen read the prologue

to his new book, song of the shank, powerful stuff

reminded me of something aishah rahman once told me when as a young cub

i once mentioned to her that i wanted to be the greatest novelist ever lived

she said no art, thats not what you want

she said what you want to do is sing your song the best you can sing it

that way she said, you can appreciate other folk singing theirs

one of the most important insights ive ever been given as a writer

right up there with john o killens once telling me ‘art, you a brilliant writer

but with a little compassion you could be profound’

singing my own song has kept me from being jealous of my

friends works and styles and successes like georges recent mcarthur

its kept me from trying to write like folk i admire (marquez, wideman, chamoiseau)

and concentrate on making my own style sing (flowers)

and its going to keep me from gnawing off a leg cause i dont write

like jeff (allen) does, cause that was some powerful stuff he read last night

a passage that covers some of the same historical ground rest covering

also we talked about his pan african literary forum idea – he is really fired up about it

dont know if jeff fully aware of the work it will entail
or just so fired up probably doesnt care

while the old gray organizer shuddering at the
commitment and op cost

and if im contemplating helping jeff do his thing, i can no longer justify

not putting the time in it will take to take new ren to higher ground

the pan african lit forum is a great idea thats going to eat prodigious noveltime

i been approaching new ren writers guild the way john o approached his workshop

john killens concentrated on helping folk write good novels

(which can entail up to 10 years of guidance)

may not get the play the literary rah rah folk get

but johns o killens as literary visionary is a story yet to be told

oh well, one does what one must - when one must

which reminds me i need to do my end of the year griotic report fairly soon,

got that why bother sense of frustration on me though

its not like anybody actually cares if i do it or not, except maybe me

maybe one or two others - we talking a whole weekend of hard work

pretty much for naught – like so many of my weekends – all work no glory

i had such potential when i started out

where did it all go – now my future seems to be all past

cant really cry about it cause on the real side

i been blessed – beyond my wildest dreams i been blessed

but this particular novel continues to abuse me, just read it thru and so

much of it still unacceptably weak - i wonder sometime if it will ever work

got to ignore all the doubts and just plow on, no matter how i feel about it

just dig in everyday i can and slog thru – soon as the suns up

last day in lamu and im composing this on the roof of the stone house

waiting for enuf sunlight to get some work done

lights go out every night, been coming back on about 3

(ive been told rich expats on other end of island suck it up at will)

been an aggravation workwise but i have learned to live with it

i use the laptop till the battery go, go to bed early, wake up when

lights come on at 3 and commence to crunching it

but no lights this morning at all and waiting on the sun to write by is a bummer

cant work when i want to work wont work

everybody else having fun, i dont do fun, aint interested in fun,

i just want to work, world aint real unless ive done my days novelwork –

and waiting on the sun to rise to be able to work just do not get it

not by a longgame it dont

might as well gone on the boatride i cant work

and thinking i might have to pass on jeffs initiative

aint got time to be signing on to somebodys else vision

got visions of my own need tending

but i really like what jeff has in mind

the potential is limitless, a pan african literary infrastructure

only reason i been considering it is because its jeff that asked me

one of the few folk in the establishment i consider friend

also tempting literary in crowd and gatekeeper points
which appeal to the once upon a time  power freak in me

but my response to lack of respect in literary circles is to pretty much

ignore them - concentrate on getting my work done and bet on historys judgement

ive gotten this far without pandering, why start now

best to stay focused - rest for the weary - the longgame

jeff can afford to do this, jeff has already made his bones w/rails
if he dies tomorrow his historical rep is assured, mine is not

still got to make my bones w/rest - before its checkout time

else aint gon be no rest for the weary

been back and forth w/it but im liable to go ahead and sign up
a running buddy has asked me to participate in good game

what can i do

fortunately me and jeff good w/the mutual respect rituals

you the man   no no, you the man   no i insist, you the man

cause two weeks in somebodys elses world

is two weeks enough for me

suns up
and im outta here

my love to you all

rickydoc flowers

mganga maua

wouldbe prophet

of the hoodoo way

one more lap for the long distance runner: in the name of o killens

WEDNESDAY

hello world
on lamu and kickng back

working hard on rest for the weary
moving frustratingly slow but moving

had resolved to disavow last post
was going to stock that idea w/all
the other good ones

cause i just cant afford the loss of noveltime

its rest for the weary, do or die
strictly the longgame
maintain new ren; everything else can wait

jeff got the bug about doing a pan african literary forum thing
this congregation of african writers has fired him up

and hes got all these ideas blubbling up
i can either sign up or pass and i hate to pass on an
idea whose time has come

i fear it wont set well w/sls
hate to lose that connection

have really enjoyed myself on lamu
its like ive gone back 200 years

and again theyve set me off by myself
they know i like my privacy, i like my room enuf
that i enjoy holing up writing  /  when we got power that is

ive passed on all the social activity and just holed up w/rest for the weary
other than conferences w/folk its just been me and this novel

which is the way it should be

im outta here, computer time is tight
will check back in when i get back to nairobi

hangtough
rdoc

hello world
heading for lamu today

sitting here in nairobi listening to some bobby blue bland

and reading this helluva story the last trip by sefi atta

(debut novel: everything good will come – have to hunt it down)

in chirumenga 8 - a literary magazine published out of south africa

by ntone, south african brother i been hanging with

i have met so many strong african writers this trip, its been an experience

this kwani movement never ceases to amaze me

reading chirumenga and the boldness of the work in it

make me humble, i mean bold, make me think of all that huffty puffty