rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

the hoodoo way: as tribal shaman i bear ultimate responsiblity for my peoples quality of life

SUNDAY  9:27 am super 8 on the road

delta bound, family family family and my 40th highschool reunion
supposed to be doing a presentation, will post it at some point

working those last 20 pages of novel, got me scared to death

all these years i could tell folk 'im working on it' - now its damn near
done and i wont have any excuses anymore, either it works or it dont

its so strange, the narration, masterpiece or farce, i just dont know

my brooklyn workshop, the only ones who have seen it really, pretty much
accept whatever i do at this point, which is probably not a good thing

had a new member come in recently

and she said somewhat perplexed, is this a draft, or just an outline
that kinda rocked me as you can imagine, messed w/my head

i explained, no, this is my style im trying to make work
ohwell - just keep on pushing rick, keep on stepping

im like hillary, dont know when to quit
hopefully not as delusional

hillary has really begun to bore me, her spin is totally delusional
now, something new everyday, im ahead by the popular vote

im ahead by electoral votes, im ahead if we count by republican winner
take all rules, yadda yadda, its clear that hillary dont care nothing bout

no rules, unless they work in her favor, or can be twisted somehow
and now everybody has to tiptoe around her so she and her die hards

arent alienated, all she doing is building resentments/divisions in the
democratic base that we will be generations paying for

theres a whole lot i can say about hillary but ima restrain myself and
just wait for her to get off the stage - just like everybody else

so barack has been adopted in the crow, barack black eagle
i love it, i just love it

what the hell is going on in south africa, god help me now what
this is an assault on my people from both ends, both the folk

getting assaulted and the folk doing the assaulting
one physical abuse, the other spiritual selfabuse

and the conjureman got to just sit here and take it

i once made an effort to organize afrospiritual practitioners so we
have true power to influence social dynamics like this

if only i could get the sangomas to fix this

first i have to convince them its our job to fix it, that any tribal dysfunction
is our responsibility, our failure, then i have to organize them to the ability

the capability of power on the ground
instead of only in the spirit

in closure some blessings for the folk in china and myanmar
when i think about how much it hurt losing that 1000 or so

to katrina, the loss of 50,000, 100,000 boggles the spirit
make you wonder sometime what god has in mind

but the earth doesnt really care about us, when it shifts in
search of its equilibrium, sometime people die

when the cosmos shifts in search of its equilibrium, planets die
thats why we need to get off the planet, spread out, increase the odds

earthquakes, tsunamis, novas and rogue asteroids, all we
can do is be prepared

gods blessings on the folk still struggling
one world

in struggle

rdoc




FRIDAY 6:32  am

okay, quick commentary, what impress me is the way
the energized black vote has put the deep south back into play

apparently black resentment of attempt to use obama as swiftboat
material played a large part in recent miss win, i can only hope

this energized black vote remains high for the duration
that would be a wonderful thing

also im noticing something else, i notice i dont go to
black agenda report anymore, feel like i know what glen

is going to say, samesame krugman, i have to check myself
a voice that become predictably partisan is a boring voice

i got to walk the border better,
or something, maintain

ima call it the magical eye
that hoodoo comprehension

of the whole, speaking of which
the afro-blues tradition

new work by nana kwame, one of my regulators
who apparently is a bluesman working in a shaman mode

im not clear, ima try to get more clarity on his vision
get back to you, i work that blues hoodoo fusion myself

i consider them both afrospiritual traditions
making a way out of no way

im outta here, good day yesterday
got to keep that momentum

all my love

rdoc




THURSDAY  5:54 am

so im working this morning right and i have this scene this movement i been wanting to
work into the text, where a young senator from illinois back in 2005 gets in touch w/the conjureman

for a reading on whether he should make a run for the us senate
highjohn throw the roots and note that its a crossroads moment etc etc

you got the drift of it, right

but everywhere i tried it in the text it didnt work but this morning not only did i just luck up on
the perfect spot for it but it made a previously weak scene strong, man that felt good

i got some commentary for you but will have to give it later today
right now im in the groove

all my love

rdoc



WEDNESDAY MORNING 5:45 am

hello world - gop use of obama to swiftboat democrat in miss fails
hilllary probably as disappointed as the repubs - sorry, couldnt help that 1

lets move to a higher plane:

i was reasonin wid rod jackmon over in comments
and i articulated something i need to follow through on

need to add to my official speculation, we was reasonin together about
mbeki and mugabe and i said

"i cannot fully express how much it upset me, in tribal shaman manifestation, when my people, for whose quality of life i bear ultimate responsibility, forced to live under  authoritarian conditions like some b grade nazi movie, i hate that w/a passion"

when i realize i had just said something i need to play with some
the bit about tribal shaman having ultimate responsiblity for the tribes quality of life

if folk suffering its cause i aint done whatever it is i was suppose to have done
some way or the other my game was slack, some factor i didnt take into consideration

some orchestration that was inadequate
need to work this understanding in both lifegame and rest for the weary

also im feeling a need to put my finger on the pulse in the hoodoo world
i been out of that loop for about 6 months now, even more if you count from

demise of the hoodoo way list
but when i titled this post with my tribal shaman bit

it came to me to precede it with the hoodoo way and i think about that
african american way i want to articulate in my work and how that is

encapsulated in my take on the hoodoo way
plus that i just miss reasonin w/my fellow hoodoos

sometime you got to withdraw from the arena
reassess, regenerate, come back new and improved

i believe this ultimate responsibility thread gon be part of that
improvement - i feel power in greater understanding of that

in strategic articulation

one benefit of rootsblog is im always working out my
evolving cosmology here - my afromology

but for right now, right, you guessed it
i got to clock some pages

i have been totally immersed in palf crises mode
restructured those last 40 pages last week, havent done a

lick of work on them since, got to redpen them now

just sit down w/the redpen and force march my way through it,
this is when it becomes real manuscript, this is the brutal redpen

subsequent redpens just cleanup and poetry, making it better
lets say a week redpen mornings, palf evenings

then i got to head for memphis, homework

all my love
rdoc

springbreak woodsheds: clocking pages and the nature of endgames

SUNDAY MORNING

last day of miniwoodshed, got some work done, clocked some pages
but lord knows i wish i had done more - but aint that always the case

okay okay i know what you want, commentary - lets look at repubs voting
for hillary in order to weaken obama - she got 119,000 of them in texas and beat

obama by 101,000- the word among repub strategists is keep hillary in the race

"It's as simple as, I don't think McCain can beat Obama if Obama is the Democratic choice," says one in texas "I do believe Hillary can mobilize enough [anti-Clinton] people to keep her out of office."

so my question is are repubs allowed to vote in penn
what about the other states left, when does this farce end

obamas shot in penn seem to be rooted in the white male swing voter
read an article say he needs to emphasize his community organizing roots

show he understand their problems and has an idea of addressing
them beyond amorphous calls for change - speaking of which

i see obama had to reject and denounce pastor wright - brother wright
maybe a little too oldschool for the strategic moment

some blackfolk gon charge obama for this one but the players
UNDERSTAND THE GAME and gon give him room to play it

21st century stylee

this hnn article says there will be 3 issues facing new presidents - economy, healthcare and national security - then makes case obamas position on all 3 more viable, that on national security both clinton and mccain basically want to do more of the same and that obama is the only real democrat left running

article say we got a serious choice to make - and the long campaign has been good for
fleshing folk out and how on so many levels we cant afford to blow this

marching on the crossroads, where
the yellow cross the dog

the shape of the future lies in
the choice of the moment

WORD by
trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

FRIDAY 857 pm

a good day, not a great day but a good day

interesting newsweek article on race and gender in american politics
let me try to give you the gist of it, ill clean it up later

law review article: unconscious race and gender bias in the 2008 election
this columnist was interviewing the authors - this a synopsis of what it said:

they say even folk who profess egalitarian belief generally harbor instinctive bias
against blacks, say 80 - 90% of americans have mild bias against blacks - 30 to 40% more so

say credentials that help white job applicants dont necessarily help black applicants
and that the 2008 election is like an elaborate job interview

say with blacks folk have implicit animus, with women implicit stereotypes

say two kinds of judgments, the automatic unconscious system, the implicit
and the slower reason based deductive judgment, the explicit

to fight stereotype women arent leaders clinton has to carry herself as a strong leader
say she is able to fight that bias explicitly w/no cost to herself

obama has a tougher job because bias against blacks is more of an animus
black is considered negative without regard to specific, blacks bad whites good

so obama has to work against being perceived as black, folk have to interpret him with positive energy
imagery american tend to associate with whites, so his campaign has amorphous goals

like hope and aspiration because cant embrace black goals

say white voters have at the last moment a TENDENCY TO FLINCH when voting for obama
the bradley effect - just cant bring themselves to push the button

say in the general election clinton will be forced to appeal to more voters who want
women to be conventional helpmeets

that in the general election obama will face fewer whites who care about a post racial future
liberal democrats like the idea that race wont matter, republicans and independents not so much

say there is also a correlation between 'blacks' and 'foreign' which will attempt to tar
obama with his middlename and questioning his patriotism

which will be a problem in the general running against an authentic war hero
say winning a long tough primary will address concern about whether he is electable

say obama cannot play the victim card, anything that draw attention to race will hurt him

"Studies suggest that when you press people on their gender-stereotypical biases, they kind of laugh it off. Because it's not such a hot issue. They're like, "Whatever. I'm not sexist." But if you press them on their racial biases, particularly in regards to blacks, one of two things happens.  If they're low on explicit racial prejudice, they become contrite, apologetic, they want to know what they can do to overcome it. But if they are high on explicit racial bias, they become angry and antagonistic. When you accuse whites who harbor certain levels of racism of racist behavior, it actually makes them angry towards you. And that's why Obama can't afford to push back. He has to acknowledge and affirm that he's black so as not to alienate black voters, but he can't do it in such a way as to raise anxieties among white voters."

say clinton battling explicit assumptions, obama implicit ones:

"There's a real split here about implicit associations and explicit ones. The efforts to articulate concerns about racism in the way you described are explicit efforts. Look at yourself, think about it, examine the data--that's a deliberative process meant to get people to reason through the problem and confront themselves in a different way. But you can't fight implicit biases with reasoned argument. It's not how they work. They work on an intuitive, affective, emotional level. Pushing back just makes people angry. You don't see that working very well in the research. And it wouldn't work in this campaign either. Instead, the candidates should combat implicit bias implicitly--Hillary has to look like a leader all the time; Obama looks inspirational. You fight fire with fire. "

say the rnc and mccain will avoid race or gender baiting in the election
but depend on ancillary forces to make these attacks, obamas youthful drugs

his patriotism, his pastor, expect these ancillary attacks, expect them to be effective

say it doesnt cost mccain anything to disassociate himself from hussein attacks and
in denying it just further impresses it on the minds of is the dpopulace.

"The other question here is how Obama and Clinton may tear themselves apart heading into the convention and the general election by raising all these questions about each other. They're provoking these implicit biases among the general electorate as we speak--and the Republican Party may not have to do much next fall."

personally i think the superdelegates tod hillary to chill or else
she hant been throwing the kitchen sink lately, having to work thru

ancillary forces like ferraro

now ive pretty much just restated what it said in the article
i cut the excess and tried to cover the salient points

may clean it up, make it mine, may just leave it, acknowledge the steal and
keep on pushing, original article was a mighty fine read

a luta continua
rdoc

FRIDAY  1120am

didnt do a lick of work yesterday, and morning almost gone still nothing
once i realized im in my endgame i believe it scared me - just flat out scared me,

its like okay, when i finish this one i should have a real novel
after all these years im almost afraid to have no more excuses

so im sitting here at the SACRED DESK about to face the beast one more again
got to go into longhand now, word by word got to move these last 50 pages to higher ground

when you need good rich critical narrative, longhand seems to work best some primal connection w/the hand the mind and the pen, and the slower

pace gives your mind TIME TO PLAY W/THE WORDS as you create them

got some good commentary for you but wont be able
to focus until i see if i get a good days work in

if you hear from me this evening you will know im good to go - clocking pages
IF YOU DONT, MEAN IM STILL RUNNING SCARED

pray for me
rdoc



THURSDAY 330 AM

okay, i figured out why im dragging, its the endgame, last 40 pages or so
all these threads have to be tied up - the novel has to become transcendent

- so many novels fall down in the endgame, this where the rubber meets the road

WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING ONE OF MY COLLEAGUES PAT MOODY ONCE PUT ON MY MIND, I WAS DOING A CLASS FOR ONE OF HER PROJECT ADVANCE SEMINARS AND SAID MY WORK IS FEEL GOOD WORK AND FEEL GOOD DONT GET NO RESPECT IN LITERATURE AND SHE SAID ALMOST ANGRILY I DONT REMEMBER THE EXACT WORDS BUT BASICALLY THAT LITERATURE WAS SUPPOSE TO EXPLORE THE DEEP DARK UNFACEABLE IN THE HUMAN CONDITION AND IT WAS LIKE A REVELATION TO ME, I THINK OF IT WHEN IM WORKING THIS NOVEL NOW -  IM STILL WHO I AM, IM STILL A DELTA SOULDOCTOR AND THIS NOVEL STILL GON BE A HEALING SPELL BUT I GOT TO GET THERE DEEP . . . GOT TO GO DEEP . . . THANKS PAT . . . GOOD LOOKING OUT

just keep pushing rick, inch by inch, step by step, PARAGRAPH BY PARAGRAPH - 4 more days before i have to return to the planet,

been listening to country and western all week - does that
surprise you dear regulators - thats good working music

got to switch to bessie soon, me and terry adkins spose to do a bessie smith performance
collaboration as part of an exhibit he doing at the community folk art center next month

looking forward to that - more time out of my schedule but what can you do - some projects you dont say no to -

okay let me give you some commentary and get back to work
lets look at my beloved kenya:

i am not confident that this deal has solved the problem
the tangled issues of land reform and ethnic redistribution

ARE complicated in that leaders and their families BEEN beneficiaries
of a system that has rewarded government officials and assorted elites

with land taken from the dispossessed since independence, which just
aggravated a legacy of dispossession under british policy during colonialism

we got generations of resentment at play here

neither politician has shown the vision it will take to truly address this problem and
instead of demanding redress aggrieved kenyans have turned on their neighbors

tribalism, land reform and ethnic redistribution are entrenched issues that have not
been addressed by this agreement and as long as they have not kenya will smolder

may the GODS BE
GOOD to her

i find hope in the union of
mark and boke, here i find

BLESSINGS

ALL MY LOVE
rdoc




WEDNESDAY

hello world, been working all morning and coming up with TRASH i just got to accept
and move on - best i can do without stopping my forward motion

okay, todays commentary, lets do this quick:

geraldo say that since obama and deval used the samewords must be some sort of black genius camp where impressive blacks are given marching orders

i wish - mission control indeed

geraldo say it leave a sour note in his throat - sorry about that raldo, weve always had players , just more of them getting thru

what else - check out BOING BOING, interesting techie site, it . . . .
you know, i aint feeling this, maybe later . . .

need to see if i can get me a couple more paragraphs today
for every good page look like i got to clock 20 bad ones

BEST I GET BUSY

in struggle
rdoc

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

modernizing and empowering the african way - have a little faith - we can do this

MONDAY

hello world, that last post embarrassed me
sometime i get carried away and before you know it

im huffing and puffing and roaring like ec tell me to
that embarrass me, then i try to restrain myself and

lowprofile like im spose to

been slacking on my woodshed, last couple of days i
just been laying around, spent a day or so crunching
that last post, i thnk i burnt myself out maybe

looking back thru my last posts i see i been frothing
about living by the code,

that has potential, i might play with that some more

i got a lot to say about what it entail to be a great writer
hard to theorize about it though when you yourself considered 2nd string

let me see, some quick commentary and im outta here
lets start with the naked emperor:

hershe article in newyorkers on general taguba
the general did the abu graib report say he was fired because of it

says bush and rumsfield both knew about it before the photos made them fess up
said rumsfield lied on stand when he said he didnt

said he was ordered not to follow the leads any further than the enlisted men
said after he did real report instead of fake one brass told him it was time to retire

said it was wrong to only convict enlisted men and let the generals who conceived
the policy and ordered the behavior to slide

said the bush admin has violated the rules of warfare and civilization
made the us look bad and crippled in it international affairs

but that aint news is it, let me try again

gaza and the westbank:
let me see if i can lay the strategics out for you right quick

joining gaza and the westbank was a stretch in the 1st place

israel and the us will try to isolate hamas and gaza by supporting
abbas and fatah to show benefit of cooperation to westbank

but they wont stop settlements or fence or cantonization of the westbank, so forth
and so on, so that liittle policy will come to naught, w/israel is always too little too late

abbas will be encouraged by olmert, rice and bush to help starve gaza into submission
but he wont be able to do that and still call himself leader of the palestinians

but it will take him awhile to get over all those dead fatah, he will reject
hamas pious claim of wanting unity now that they have full control of gaza security

control theyve wanted since winning the election

but abbas will be under pressure from arab countries to cut a deal of some sort, then again
maybe not, secular egypt will like lock down borders of muslim brotherhood affiliated hamas

abbas will have trouble keeping westbank gunmen of both parties in check

and dont want to be too obviously the instrument of israeli/us policy
so clearly designed to maintain israeli dominance w/a thin candy shell of apparency

bush has made it hard for islamic moderates to be associated with us policies
who wants to be perceived as supporting bushs clumsy imperialism

big problem trying to support fatah and the westbank is that they
corrupt and incompetent, as you may have noticed in recent showdown

thats how they lost out to hamas in the 1st place

that and being perhaps a little too complacent with israeli/us moves
for being perhaps a little too thuggish

and if/when hamas sees they being squoze out expect them to attack israel
in order to stay in the equation

fatah lost that showdown also because their heart wasnt in it
defense dont get it

of course all this is just whats going on on the surface, the game
is always more complicated than it seems

some analysts claim fatah threw the fight because abbas wanted to be rid of fatah
but more likely both fatah and hamas were surprised at how easily fatah fell

its amazing how much islam has become a global competitor to the west in the last couple of years
my biggest problem with islam is its sometimes murderously coercive concept of dialogue

but wait you say, the west is equally murderous in its way - cant deny that
i can only call them both to account, try to get both of them to straighten up and fly right

the rightwing want to dump on islam and give the west a pass
the leftwing want to dump on the west and give islam a pass

i have to say that im envious that islam has made such a strong bid because

i consider african traditional and islam in major contention in the african world
and we arent competitve on any level whatsoever

islam walking all over us

christanity, folk have peeped christanity for the conqueror it is
and christanitys mode of conqueration is trickeration

i will go up with anybody trick to trick
tricking and countertricking, thats cool, may the best trick win

or to paraphrase ishmael, shake hands now and come out tricking,

but all this killing and assassinating and bombing and warring
and all that, i would like to take that out of the calculation

but thats probably very optimistic on my part, players been killing and coercing since day one
all you can do is try to establish a worldwide consensus about the rules of the game

in the same way that genocide is frowned upon even if it is committed (read darfur here)
got to keep insisting that killing folk by suicide belt or tomahawk missile is

not an appropriate way to make a political point

note salman rushdie of satanic verses fame recently nominated for british knighthood - pakistans religious affairs minister responds: 'if someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so'

well now, there is a certain satirical diminution for a writer of rushdies stature to be dubbed sir salman,
its a demotion, but suggesting a bomb be exploded on his body is taking critical disdain a bit far

mr i like to know whats going on didnt even realize that was still an issue

one of the big charges against bush is that he violated the rules of the global game
on torture, arbitrary wars, so forth and so on, thought the us was so strong we didnt need them

but those rules protect the strong as much as they protect the weak
now the whole world got a stake in turning the temperature down

a world of open societies versus a world of closed ones is at stake here
and the dynamic dont look good

the islamic folk got to take care of their renegades
we got to restrain ours

got to bring folks understanding into the 21st century
fundamentalists everywhere got to be put in check

a world with a lot of theological thou shalts and thou shalt nots
be it islamic, christian or jewish, is not a world i want to live in

the fundamental question here is one of open/closed societies
and it cross across borders

i consider african fundamentalism just as problematic
hoodoo fundamentalism dont move me either

what i would really like is a viable african world reality
a secular humanistic one

where folk can define themselves african without being forced
to choose between west/christian or east/islam reality modes

right now if you choose africa you still have to choose west/christanity or east/islam
because traditional africa is so weak its not in the game, we just barely holding on

and we cant offer our adherents the security they need
to grow and evolve

its like we been stuck in the past and made a virtue of it
calling it traditional africa is probably the giveaway

got to come up with a trick that modernizes and empowers the african way
makes it the 21st century force we need it to be

and its because we are so weak, so archaic, so desperately in need of redefinition
that we have a chance to forge a new way, an african way, one thats competent 1st and foremost

humanistic, evolved and illuminated - sound like an impossible dream right now
but i need you to have a little faith - we can do this

patience rick, when you this far behind you have to think in generations
anything else just fooling yourself

ever more tentative about obama, concerned he might be shallow
and not ready for primetime, might need some seasoning - i will keep an eye on him

my concern with hillary is that she so macho
got to prove how tough she is, might be as quick on

the trigger as bush

only reason she refraining now
is because the base has pushed her

im not excited about either of them truth be told
or edwards either, who is the most progressive of them all but doesnt feel

electable with that inane smile and that blowtop hair
boy dont feel real, feel like a clone or something

bummer about kid in georgia convicted of statutory rape for
consensual oral sex with 15 year old when he was 17

georgia authorities say he was unfairly convicted and want to let him out
but black attorney general refuse to let him go, aint that nothing

georgia authorities want to do right and a black elected official wont let them
im confused, the world has just gotten too complicated for me

im going back to the woodshed

im just going thru the motions here anyway
wandering around looking for a groove,

true words of power instead of just talking to be talking
some provocative insights maybe - but not really in it

cause i got to get back to novel, two days downtime
and starting to feel that desperation coming down on me

btw: listening to carmen mcrae today
in an oldschool state of mind i guess

in the name of the conqueror
im outta here

rdoc

(postscript; 11:02 & clocking pages - its all good)

mythwork, zoraneale, marieleveau and rickydoc trickmaster

hello world

been reading this book, like i got time for discretionary reading
bonnie was reading it and when she finished said i might be interested

i glance at it, the historical marie laveau
title:  a new orleans voudou priestess

i dont testify for it, ive just started it
but i found the intro chapter fascinating

chronicles the process by which marie laveau was mythologized
and is in process of being transformed into a historical ancestor

a voodoo lakwa

now this is interesting to me on a lot of level
for one mythmaker is one of my primary attribues,

(just thinking it would be nice to engage mythmaking in rest on the
level of literary sophistication wideman engaged prophecy in cattlekilling)

so anyway rest is all about mythwork
as is my life this blog and all my works

the mythworkers best myth is always themselves
which brings me to my girl zora, an unreliable narrator in all her works

zora wasnt looking for truth, zora was mythworking
you got the work she did with that WWII piece on highjohn the conqueror

which made a returning culture hero out of folkloric john tricking master tales
and a hoodoo root named after highjohn the conqueror,

she put the two together and came up with this myth of a returning hero
who helped get blackfolk out of slavery by tricking old massa and
whose soul returns to the root until called again by the cries of the people

this was some sophisticated mythwork, by making him a returning culture hero
who will come whenever the folk in need, the recurrent manifestation of the conqueror

will be shaped to the needs of that generation

(thinking about how to work all this into rest - you know i almost hate teaching that class, mumbojumbo, thehealing, corrigedora, beloved, mamaday, texaco and the cattlekilling - everytime i read/teach them the bar for rest seem to get higher - something in those 7 works i think represents the redemption of the african american soul and the salvation of our generations, i need to add one more, rest will make it 9)

so anyway, aint hardly nothing zora claim actually true
my girl was a serious mythworker and i claim mythwork as a hoodoo legacy

in the name of zora neale

her autobiographies are a joke, and quite a bit of the hoodoo/voudou stuff she account in mules and men etc is questionable or relatively easily traced to other sources

but she worked it, she shaped the nature of hoodoo on the cutting edge and took it to new ground,

highjohn the conqueror was givien afroam folkloric attributes instead of the european/christian john the conqueror attributes which i assume come from john the baptist

but zoras best myth was herself, thats why she will tell you this blend of truth, fiction and folklore cause good mythwork have to be historically possible, not necessarily true

but possible

in the same way im constantly tending the the mythwork of rickydoc trickmasterr
every word i say, every act i make is to build this historical enttity

wouldbe hoodoo prophet and returning culture hero as
horse of the conqueror -  i aspire to tribal ancestorship

thats why it dont really bother me not to get play in my lifetime
im playing for higher stakes

zora as mythworker is probably my closest historical model
hoodoo mythworker and novelist in the literary hoodoo tradition

zora neale Worked the cutting edge

so anyway this book on how the legend of marie leveau was mythologized
how the legends and the nature of her power and life were attributed to her over the years

i find this fascinating reading, this book i will take the time to read
and try to work whatever mythwork understandings i get into this draft of rest
(that justifies me taking the time out to acdtually do discretionary reading, now its research!)

im not going to be able to get into this too deeply right now
too many end of semester obligations, im still under the gun

ill work this one this week
what ive gotten so far, really off the cuff

attempt to find the historical marie leveau

1st lwp (lousiana writers project) part of wpa during depression did a lot of black folkloric work
one project was to find the true story of marie leavau, did bunch of interviews

transcribed civil and ecclesasical records relating to marie her family and associaties
translated french and spanish into english, copies 19th century newsappar aqrtices on voudou

interviewed 70 folk born between 1853 and 1878 who remembered her or her successor
interviewees old and remembering stuff far in the past and of varying % of reliability
and wpa fieldworkers take unrealiable notes - got to work w/what we got

1940 wpa employee catherin dillon uses material to write 700 page "voodoo" manuscript, with chapters
on marie  "marie the great" and "marie the mysterious"

this work (and obits when she dies) become core of legend

(now the question is how to shape the legends of today and into what relationship with afroam and human destiny - who are the players current, what role are they playing, who do i want to exalt and whose influence do i need to diminish destinically speaking)

another based on newspaper and printed sources was done by marcus christian, dir of lwps 'negro unit' at dillard university

this information is housed in various places, cammie henry research center at the watson memorial library at tulane university and other places she mentions in the work - most of this stuff im taking straight from the work, i will digest it later,  im just trying to get the fact straight right now, these are research notes

telling you what she says about the evolution of the marie leveau legend (and pondering its pertenance to my own contemporary mythwork in my attempts to shape the africanamerican soul and destiny (and that of all humanity, okay, enuf pontifcation, back to work)

god this is so fascinating to me, make the old mythmaker drool
this gon put me in a speculative mood about a subject thats dear to me

cause thats what i think of my works as, my attempts to create contemporary myths
that will shape the hoodoo future, shape the afroam future, shape the future of humanity

my Works and the model of my life that i am constructing and mythworking thru my works
i want to be the model of the hoodoo future - guide and guardian of the tribal soul and destiny

i believe indigenous traidtions have that responsiblity for their respective cultures
and the critieria of successful tradition is in the quality of the lives its adherents live

folk in the tradition always want to exol the african way of god but if we were so strong
our people wouldnt be suffering all over the world, no, whatever we doing it aint working

christanity and islam kicking our ass all over the board
all over the world african peoples are suffering, all over the world

this simply will not do and we cant keep on doing what we been doing and call it grace
no, we got to come up with some new licks, got to flip the script

move to higher ground
okay, where was i, i got to get through this little project, i got work to do

so anyway marie was illiiterate so she left behind no records of her voice
and its all thru accounts of others

she dies june 15, 1881, 1st acccounts are the obits, obits and articles in the local papers
most laduatory of her charity work, some sensationalist, basic journalist practices of the era prevail

many ways of spelling laveau
writer shooses to stay w/laveau

obits perpetuate truths, semitruths and fantasys, kinda like perceptions of hoodoo et al today
many of these mythwork by maries daugther marie philomene glapion legendre

mythwork is a basic hoodoo skill, mostly though its practiced on the communal level
you have to establish yourself as a competent worker of magic - establish yourself as a font of good advice

with glibzliation and the web that communal representation can now emcompass the world

i try to do this in my works, i remember the decision to acknowledge and play my hoodoo thing in mojo rising and consequently this blog, this was a major decision for me,

i had always kept my hoodoo thing occult, i work it in fiction but fiction is special, you can always claim its just art, just reserarch, but then i decided to acknowledge myself publicly as a hoodoo

my concern was that i would be perceived as a classic folkmagic hoodoo and that aint me at all, i practice what im calling high hoodoo, highmagic instead of folkmagic

but my brand of hoodoo is not considered valid hoodoo in hoodoo circles, literary hoodoo im asked, whats that, highmagic, you mean you dont do potions - well no, actually i dont, that dont interest me

so ive had to basically define myself into the mix, present my opinions here and in hoodoo forums and forums of traditional african religions knowing ima get buked and scorned, or even worse ignored

but i juust keep swinging, my goal is to leave a papertrail, a record of struggle that lays out my vision of tribal and human destiny, i want to shape the hoodoo future, and i want hoodoo to take responsibilty for human destiny, oh i got big ambitions

im trying to move reality
like a conjure should

and reality dont move easy
but thats what make me a magician

if it was easy everybody would walk down the street and get some

ima do what i can do
ive had some success , i understand the dynamic
i live and breath it

ive had to establish myself culturally as a viable magician and wouldbe prophet
a manifestation of magic and prophecy that make sense to the 21st century sensibility

people think folk like me are only historical, that we dont show up no more i guess
but thats cause destinywork is only recognized in the historical

okay rick, chill w/the huffing and puffing
where was i

this post will cover a lot of ground obviously
believe im going to have to close shop for moment

i will come back to it
finish transcribing raw notes and speculations

clean it up for roostblog
incorporate speuclations into rest

and my mythwork

but for right now ive tired myself out
and i got so much work to do

forgive spelling, typos and all that
aint time time to work that just now

also i got to call papa gede nibo bey
and interview him about how he made this chain

the 1st ever hoodoo divination chain
surely i can mythwork that

in the name of the conqueror

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

baobab society presentation: destinywork and the longgame: oneworld

hello world, did my esf baobab society presentation
it didnt go over that well, i mean it was okay, im always okay

but i didnt dazzle them, you can always tell

knew the speech wasnt right for them when i walked in
i cut out most of the black oriented stuff because it was truly multiculti
and the black stuff would have bored them, i kept some but most i cut

that didnt leave much

then the political components didnt go over well i could tell
they wanted motivational rah rah and i call myself raising issues

that would make them think but they werent in the mood for political

i could tell immediately upon walking in
tried to give it a different flavor while doing it but that just made it raggedy

i would edit it down here to reflect final speech but im not feeling it
not one more moment of worktime ont his piece, im moving on

also i preached at them when it was a more initimate environment
i should have adopted a more conversational tone, ohwell live and learn

my trouble dont last storywork would have blown them away
but i was too eager to reprise the convocation victory

flops are part of being a mack, sometime the magic dont show
you got through the motions but the magic aint there

ever more resolved to say no mas
wasnt worth the anxiety, the sense of failure

i disappointed them - why go out of my way to chase the blues

got the community service flag waved at me again today and i reluctantly said yes
but ima call back and pull out - i got to focus - its so hard to tell folk no - no mas

that will be my mantra henceforth - no mas

ohwell, moving on
two of my endgame obligations out of the way

last hoodoo lit class today (good discussion on the cattlekilling)
and the baobab society presentation - check

one good thing - got my hoodoo divination chain from papa gede nibo bey lakwa

got it a couple of days ago actually but was hesitant about opening it
i carried it around in the mailer for a couple of days, waiting until the right moment

i figured this was it, give me some fortitude for this presentation
so i did and it did, its a wonderful work, just wonderful,

i threw and i threw and i threw
it will encourage me to throw

it will encourage me to get
the hoodoo book of flowers done

this chain gon be a tribal legacy
the 1st hoodoo divination chain

good looking out papa gede nibo bey lakwa
i owe you (a rdoc legbawork, got to get to the studio)

in the name of the conqueror
rdoc

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

i am flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens.  I am mganga muau.  high hoodoo and babagriot of the hoodoo way

(conch - lord legba, its is i rickydoc rootdoctor ask that the gate be opened - that the work be done  - this is an invocation to struggle – for these are trying times)

well well esf and the baobob society, finally made it, missed it a couple of times
thanks for asking me, repeatedly - my apologies for standing you up before

because i am really touched and honored that you asked me, oh i remember esf in the house, this the wildbunch – and having that kind of tribal relationship with students of color means a lot to me - esf in the house

so then the question, what to say, I already gave you my best lines at convocation
im thinking what is the moment, about to go out into the world and seek your fortune

find your destiny

only thing certain is that life will knock you around some
best thing I can say is never give up, that’s the only thing fatal, giving up

when times get hard, just keep on keeping on

this is an interesting moment in your life, the whole world yours to shape and mold
and these are particularly interesting times for people of color

between the imperial presidency, the rightwing ascendancy and iraq we seem
to be in a couldn’t happen in america moment

emperor say he dont need no clothes
say who you gon believe, me or your lying eyes

o these been some real interesting
historical times

and one of the forces shaping america is its evolving multicultural reality: its your world
globalization putting pressure on everybody to step up to the plate

there are many issues of the 21^st century that are particular to people of color

saw an interview where this korean american was talking about how she felt when she heard the v tech guy was asian and how she hoped this wouldnt further stereotype asians as asocial and I

could relate cause the 1^st thing I think when I hear stuff like this is hope he wasnt black
as you know whatever one black do reflect on all blacks

I suspect the arabs get it whenever there is a terrorist on the loose

seem like everytime one do something wrong we all get the whats wrong w/you people look

representing, whether you want to or not – representing, all for one and one for all
representing sometime work against you, sometime it work for you

a certain pride when one of ours achieve
its not he or she, its we did that

folk be trying to do the individual thing but on a certain level we always representing
in particular you achievers, you counterelites, what dubios called the talented 10th

achievers - you who would be leaders of your people –heros and sheros all

achievers -carryiong the hopes and dreams of all the folk whove come before you
the dreams of your family, your tribe and all humanity

achievers got responsibilities other folk dont

for you and i, we have been blessed
and there are certain responsibilities
that come with blessings of this sort

we talking leadership now

now in order to represent well, to be good at heroing, at leadership
it behoove you to be a force in the world,

to practice what I call destinywork,
what I call the longgame – shaping generations

longgame strategies are ideological orchestrations designed to shape generations, to train us into the kind of people we want most to be - this is the essence of conjuration - conduct yourself as you aspire to be and you shall.

for instance aids - stopping the scourge is the quickgame, using the magnitude of this hammer to make good health practices a cultural trait is the long , then we will have turned adversity into strength and turned the trick – otherwise its just a tragedy

winning seats for progressive politicians in 2008 is the quickgame,
de legitimizing the rightwing impulse in american politics is the long

using the 2008 effort to institutionalize our power and make us better more sophisticated players in the electoral system is the long – training ourselves in power is the long

illuminating the american soul is the long, calling on it to live up to the dream of what america could be, that’s the longgame, shaping souls

i aspire to be a man of power
I wanna be a hero, a leader of my people

wanna to walk w/harriet tubman, with martin and malcolm
and zora neale and ida b, I want to walk w/those who did what they could
\wanna hit a straight lick with a crooked stick

as a wouldbe leader and man of power
i am systematically concerned w/the ethics of power

got to be exemplary, I cant be no leader out for himself
out to make a buck, power for powers sake

leadership mean more than that

mean commitment and sacrifice, mean taking care of the people
with everything you got – guide and guardian

i wanna be a hero, i wanna represent

it like to broke my heart when I missed that baobob commitment
cause that aint representing, that aint being the model of struggle

that I want to be to you
my word is bond, my word is iron

I tell you ima do something ima do it
i wanna be a hero and heroing dont come easy

so just what is effective activism in the 21st century
just what constitutes effective change in this world

in ideological competition its not the strongest force that wins but the most innovative ones, fighting todays battles with tomorrows strategies

folk still think of mobilization as 60s style mobilization - antiwar marches, online petitions, letters to the editor, etc - the makedo strategies of the weak and powerless - but more info based approaches possibly more appropriate to the historical moment

the most effective mobilization of late has been that of the rightwing ascendancy. which forged new infobased techniques of shaping public opinion and mobilizing their forces (wasnt for bush and iraq they would still be going strong).

wehavent even mastered that model yetmuch less come up with something new, something aint been seen before, thats your job, I got your back, something that evolves and trains us as we struggle into the people we want our generations to be

what do i get instead. - reparations – begging by any other name is still begging.

how did begging, waiting for the powers that be to give us something get to be the primary strategy of the 21^st century, whatever happened to self determination - reparations fails the test of effective longgame,. longgame should train us to be the people we need to be

reparations will train us only to be better beggars. is this the best post-most-favorite-minority strategy we can come up with. is this the best strategy we got for the 21^st century – begging - give me a break blackpeople, work with me

everywhere in the world you got blackpeople they are on the bottom of their respective societies, everywhere, that aint nobodys fault but ours, somehow someway we must transform into strengths the weaknesses that have crippled us in global competition

an ongoing cultural process, deciding which cultural traits are functional and worth nurturing
which are counterproductive and must be left behind

never thought theyd fire imus but lo and behold they did
i felt sorry for the young sisters he dissed but hopefully they dismiss the ravings of a fool

but you know o regulators the only reason folk like this think they can call us any old thing
is cause we do it ourselves, bitches niggers and hos - all the time

all cultures are simultaneously dynamic and entropic, a constantly fluctuating blend of strengths and weaknesses. – everyday we shape our culture

through its cultural products, manifesting into it what it needs to transcend its challenges and finesse its weaknesses - the wars over gangster rap and mercenary, escuse me urban literature, are wars over our cultural traits, our destiny, our fate, our fa

imus aint the problem, imus is sidegame - so we got imus out - now if we can just get those knucklehead gangstas to straighten up and fly right we be good to go, got to keep insisting its just as wrong for blacks to perpetuate this as it is for whites

and racisim?

crying about racism is like a sailor cursing the sea because its wet – surely by now we have factored racism into our strategic posture - no, we got to be on it, we have to take responsibility for our own condition and quit blaming other folk for it, that dont get us nowhere fast

whats really critical is that we have to define our challenges well, they really have to address the stresses of 21^st century engagement or our energies will be diverted into sidegame that doesnt move us on the board

health education and welfare is pretty consistent, as is economic security and the various empowerments - economic, political, social, cultural and my personal favorite, community empowerment  – globalization and political polarization, etc etc, but the fundamental issue of the 21^st century will be racial identity in a multicultural reality

racial identity - as you well know its a ticklish question
too much is a problem, as is too little

folk want to jack up obama, claim he aint black enough and lord know politicians are heartbreakers by definition, boy want to be president he probably gon have to make compromises I wont approve of

but obama could easily have claimed to be multicultural, or cablinasian or whatever passing is called these days – and blackfolk always been a mixed breed, cant have folk turning their back on the blackness, on the blessed onedrop rule,

obama came down on the blackhand side and he doing it with the dignity, boy seem to be looking for a new groove, ima slide him some slack, give him room to be a politician, and see how he dance - show me what you got son

but that multiculti background of his is so 21^st century, and just what we need to get right with the world, obama would be really interesting after bush, globalization constantly shrinking this world of ours into a oneworld multiculti reality

remain exclusively tribal you putting yourself outside of the historical flow
but you cant turn your back on your people either cause they suffering

everywhere in the world you got blackpeople they are on the bottom of their respective societies
everywhere - cant blame everywhere on nobody but ourselves, somehow someway we must
transform the weaknesses that have crippled us in global competition

and if the leaders and the achievers abandon the people, the people going down
stranded on somebodys rooftop with the water rising

babagriot david walkers words as good today as when he said them during the great gitting up morning, "our greatest happiness shall consist of working for the salvation of our whole body. when this is accomplished a burst of glory will shine upon you which will indeed astonish you and the world."

how do we as overachievers maintain allegiance to both our two families,
both tribe and all humanity,

by equating our struggles with the struggle for human dignity

by taking responsibility not only for our own struggle and our own destiny, but for the destiny of all peoples and all creation great and small- by positioning ourselves as guide and guardian of humanitys destiny – of humanitys eternal struggle to evolve, to be better.to be, greater than it is

by showing america there is a better way
the world and fundamentalists everywhere

there is a better way

for in the final analysis the battle will be one of grace
which is the better way

when you come to the crossroads always take the highroad
always strive to be better than you are.

your thoughts, your actions, your institutions, your world
it is clear to the old rootdoctor that our struggle must be as much spiritual as it is political

got to be a better way

we remain forever vigilant, we maintain an ever evolving, multifaceted strategic posture - some moves bold and strong, some hidden in shadows, some waiting silently in the wings.

masters of strategy: the key that opens all locks

how does one live a life rich in grace and comfort that is still yet one of absolute and lifelong commitment to struggle - what babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn, called being a longdistance runner. what i call the longgame

never give up children, that’s the only thing fatal
you take your punches you keep on pushing

yes weve come such a long such a long long way – but we still got so very far to go

and when the hardtimes come, they always do, I want you to hold on, you must be strong
you fight the battle nobody else could win

(conch) nobody else could win

listen o traveler to the geas of rickydoc and
i will give you a mission greater than your adversity

masters of the longgame
i will give you a destiny

awaken the sleeper, protect the weak, guide the strong
and when you need me you call me i will come

i am rickydoc

that is all
this spell is done

 

hoodoo divination as a science of moral analysis: a system of tribal guidance and life initiation

hello world
and all my generations

on a hoodoo listserve the other day, missnippy raised the question of hoodoo divination systems as 'a science of moral analysis"

i had to ask for clarity
what pray tell is 'a science of moral analysis . . . '

wish i could tell you exactly what she said but i wouldnt feel
comfortable directly quoting listserve folk

but basically she said a system for building good character/ire,
a system for providing a path to your destiny

this of course sent me into a spasm of me me me

cause the hoodoo divination system im trying to build tries to
do just that . . . .my edited reply to her as follows:

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

bout what i figured, just wanted some clarity before i jumped into this discussion
as folk know this question of a hoodoo divination system is one thats dear to my heart

since i dont do initiation i have not had access to the ifa system and that irk me

hoodoo has many homegrown systems, folk use cards, water, tealeaves, ball in jack, etc, the
magical classics from a magical hodgepodge, kinda like hoodoo the system

but ive wanted a more structured system for my own use for some time now
one based on africanamerican culture, history and destiny

personally i prefer the head over the hand
the head just know, the hand use instruments

i feel like that conjuror in hyatt who say my constant study is to know
you when you walk in my door better than you know yourself

personally i think its stronger when you dont need instruments, you just Know
but the hand has its uses too, hoodoo theatre mostly

and as the beating heart of a system of moral analysis
tribal guidance and life initiation - the hand is wthout peer

for passing the knowledge on

as you know the word/concept 'hand' is a
hoodoo workhorse anyway

so i been working on a system, and i do so with all humility
the basic structure ive put online, just the outline, im working on the text offline

and will put it up when its clean enuf not to embarrass me
http://www.rootwork.com/hoodoobookofflowers.htm

then im just gon keep refining it for the rest of my life

i use 9 small highjohn roots and 9 cowries
and i throw twice because 9 just didnt give me enough progressions

the cowries i use for mathematical progressions, the science shall we say
the highjohn roots for totality

i use very small highjohn roots so it will all fit in my hand

i have tried to figure out how to chain them all but ive had
trouble making the cowries flexible enuf for a true toss

i will probably figure that out one day when i got time to really focus
ive found that tosses often fall too often toward the middle for my taste
but i will work that kink out also eventually -what im looking at now is putting
the more  daily questions of life into that busy zone - and those extreme moments of
life challenge and opportunity towards the rarer margins

bunch of kinks i got to work out
but hey i got a lifetime to do it

dont really need the highjohn roots but i like a little highjohn in whatever i do

as you will see, im trying to do a hoodoo holywork
in tandem with it, like the ifa corpus or the iching

im still trying to refine the 'system of moral analysis' as lifetime initiation

once i get that done i plan to translate the kinda generic initiation concepts
into more fully afroam folkloric concepts

ive had folk in the initiatory traditions tell me i cant do this, i dont have permission

but you can imagine what i think about that, ima do a divination system based on
afroam/hoodoo culture history and destiny, thats part of my ministry on this planet

in the name of the conqueror

i just cant really focus on it strong until i finish my current novel
which i consider just another type of sacred text

in my last literary hoodoo class we were discussing the nature of hoodoo sacred texts as explored in ishmaels mumbo jumbo, the variances between written and unwritten hoodoo sacred texts

i consider this my lifetime projects

and appreciate all suggestions, speculations and advisements
in this matter  - as always my appreciation: papa gedenibo bey lakwa

for your epigramic provocations - i be trying to laylow in the lurk
but yall keep talking bout things dear to my hoodoo heart

a hoodoo divination system/holybook is my thing
and i approach it with all humility  - as something thats just got to be done

i believe its our hoodoo generation got to step up
in the name of the conqueror

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
 
-------------------------------

to which papa gede nibo bey replied with encouragement
suggestions about how to make a hoodoo divination chain . . .

and an offer to try to try and make one . . .

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

god pop, that would be wonderful

i would really appreciate it, i will try to
do one using your advice but one made
by your hand would mean so much to me

that crabclaw gullahjack hand you once made
me is still one of my primary instruments

should i send you highjohn roots
do you plan to work the roots in

would that mess with the flexibility of a chain toss
(btw: found a new source of bulk highjohn, will tell you if it pans out)

not necessary to have the roots but i love
having the conqueror in the house and that

give me the space for perception of the totality
beyond the 'scientific' given of the progressions

i use flattened cowries in the throw and i try to find
ones that are relatively uniform shaped so as to help
with that tendency to fall asymetrical

i will look at your advice for constructing a chain
but whatever you come up with will be divinely appreciated    

forgive me for macking on but yall got me going now, thinking about how much
i appreciate that crabclaw hand papa gede nibo bey made me sometime back

as some of you know i do hoodoo performance work - on the college circuit mostly
but also in downhome and various sacred environments,

on the college circuit i think more in terms of exposing them to hoodoo as transcendental
communal healing experience, exposing them to the tradition and giving a good show (and getting paid)

but downhome i pull out the stops and do my hoodoo prophecy thing,
depending on how deeply in the tradition the audience is thats how deep i go

when i throw divination for clients or private at home i use a bowl

but when im doing it in public performance i put down a siete potentia eleke
to make a sacred circle, i put my gullahjack crabclaw in the middle of it to sanctify it

then i throw

i got into public hoodoo performance as prophecy thing
cause of reading a book on the prophet diviners of east africa

recently did a string of performancework in kenya back in december
got called mganga maua -  witchdoctor flowers in swahili - god i loved that

specially since i once read a book on the prophetic traditions of east africa
that said the difference between the diviner and the diviner prophet in the traditions of east africa

is that the diviner only throws for clients and self
in private

while the diviner prophet throws publicly to provide guidance for the entire tribe
and since i personally aspire to the prophetic

and since i am trying to position hoodoo as the prophetic tradition in the afrospiritual pantheon
since i am trying to flip hoodoos outsider role into a position of power

make us a more integral part of the afrospiritual traditional family
and still maintain the independence and freedom from subjugation to
other folks dogmas and theologies

that i feel is an integral part of hoodoos magical unique power

the prophet is in it but not of it - the prophet is part of the system
but not subject to it - specifically designated by the culture w/the dispensation
to provide new paths - beyond dogma - in it but not of it

thats why i dont initiate - i serve the conqueror
and the conqueror do not bow

but in order to position hoodoo as the prophetic tradition of the afrospiritual family
i almost have to develop a divination system with the potential of ifa

but based on afroam culture, history and destiny
one designed for a 21st century and beyond mentality

thats why that odu 2007 spoke to me so hugely sometime back

i got a lot of good ideas from that work
bout how to make this work right

one of my biggest problems been maintaining afrospiritual centricity
ive come to learn that i think western, the western part of me has primacy

i struggle with that, i use it and i struggle with it
nurturing my africansoul howsomeever i can

sorry, feel like im hogging the conversation
but this thing of hoodoo divination and prophecy

as 'a science of moral analysis"

a system of tribal guidance and individual life initiation
is one that is truly dear to me

pop i would so much appreciate that chain
to go with my gullahjack crabclaw

in the name of the conqueror
and gullahjack too

rdoc

in the woodshed: babajohn killens and doris jean austin, clocking pages and the power of narrative

SUNDAY

hello world

ima news junkie, i spend a lot of time netwandering
i enjoy commentary

i note congressional hearings of prosecuters claim they were fired because they wouldnt do political dirtywork- well what about the ones who did - what do it take to be a loyal bushie, thats the story i want to see

i note how walter reed scandal exemplify enduring incompetency of post katrina bush admin -

they too used to getting away w/murder, havent figured out yet
they cant operate like they used to

but calling bush out seem redundant
if he fool you, shame on you::

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."    President G.W.Bush

i dont have time for bush, its springbreak and i plan to zone that novel this week

this weblog takes a godawful amount of my noveltime but
it came along just when i needed it - like it was just made for me

no editors no industry no establishment gatekeepers on rickydoc
i am the master here

any other age i would have had to push a pamphlet on the streetcorner -
or sew them into the lining of old clothes

here im on the cutting edge and i know it
i aint got a lot of readership but i got good readership

and the struggle for literary respect dont really bother me
enuf historical/literary precedent that i can rationalize it

want to say/do something new got to be willing to pay dues
and pathmaker will be one of the attributes i give the conqueror

but feeling a little anxious right along in here
got a week springbreak and anxious to clock some pages

woodshed time
o wouldbe novelist of historical stature and significance

you gon flitch the time off with this and that
or are you gon clock some pages

woodshed is when you got to withdraw from the world and focus, according to
the way i heard it when john coltrane 1st came out to play they blew him off the stage

boy had this woodshed out back and he went into that woodshed and he practiced and practiced until he was the john coltrane and he come back and took the stage and said now play this

in the conquerors name (ida b and davidwalker too)
word by trickmaster - a desperate man

THURSDAY

the hope he aint black syndrome
hello world, so im reading on google news

about this former sailor paul hall who was just arrested for passing info about his ship 2001 to a jihadi website and im thinking i hope hes not black when i read:

"i corresponded with an e-mail site. It wasn't nothin' top secret like these people are saying, you know what I mean? I was just talking about, like the Cole . . . whatever."

might be black, interesting how the reporter dropped the g  - know what im saying - still hoping hes not cause

i am concerned that young black islamics and such like those haitian americans in florida last year will get caught up in this jihadi thing playing at being revolutionaries

like many of the black militants of my day, just caught up in revolutionary romance - make me cringe everytime one get brought up on charges

aint even our war - one of those confusion of allegiance issues
boy call hisself abujihaad

folk need to grow up real quick - apparently he did it before september 11th
- i suspect abujihaad didnt realize just how hot it was gon get

if he is black and i still hope he aint - its unfortunate
the allegiance of black islamics will be an issue eventually

thats gon be a difficult row to hoe

been re reading texaco for my hoodoo lit class
it amaze me how much of my own lick is in these works

everytime i  re read them i am again enlightened
this texaco a work of wonder - of course im taking notes

"in what i tell you, there's the almost-true, the sometimes-true, and the half-true.  That's what telling a life is like, braiding all of that like one plaits the white Indies currant's hair to make a hut.  And the true-true comes out of that braid. . . .you can't be scared of lying if you want to know everything." (pg 122)

damn right im taking notes
i dont steal, i intertext

true that
rdoc

WEDNESDAY

i was just thinking about a comment i made in previous post about
writers belief in the power of narrative and i might play w/that some this week

right now im dragging, got some personals dogging me

squeezing a little work in, strictly defense
do my daily 3 no matter what or i will really feel bad

but that iraq a bummer - 9 americans and 100+ iraqis yesterday - rootdoctor dont see no good options there for nobody - darfur etc still under and its just statusquo all over the world

also i been trying to set up the palf website, its glitched to high heaven and its rickydoc thats slack - again

im tired, im the kind of tired mean shutdown coming
 when the mind and body just quit on me and
i collapse in place

if you fight it you dont get nothing done and no rest either
adequate rest is an critrical component of the high achievement llifestyle

so when shutdown come i accept it:

a lotta sleep, a little tv (nothing heavy), space opera
scifi (dont have to parse it as i read it - escape to the stars)

2, 3 days i be good to go

still more fumes than fuel but beggars cant be
choosy can they

rdoc
hanging in there

and what you might ask does south memphis have to do with this
nothing, i just like the picture, it makes me smile

MONDAY

hello world, rootdoctor a little depressed today

online initiative for new ren writers guild doesnt seem to be working and was wandering about the net when i landed on the harlem writers guild site 

and there is a list of hwg writers there and it never cease to amaze me that i have been excommunicated - in spite of the fact that i was once executive director of the guild - amazing

true i left under pressure, thats when new ren was founded, but still - its actually kinda funny how they have just rewritten guild history to exclude me - writers tend to believe narrative trumps reality any day

interesting they still got doris jean and terry mac, my cronies in crime and co founders of new ren

i really miss doris jean austin, i have her last manuscript, wish i had her papers - need to think about getting that manuscript knocked together and published, maybe hunt down her sister and see if i can get ahold of her papers -but all that just contributed,what really gave me the blues was

i pulled out rest for the weary yesterday and finally got back
in the groove but looking at it was a bummer,

sections i thought were good to go were all of a sudden looking lame

will this damned thing never be done
will i never live up to my responsibility as custodian of john killens legacy

ohwell - all you can do is keep pushing rick, im sure there were times when
babajohn felt weary, buked and scorned, but he kept on pushing and i will too

i remember this dojo sign on nostrand that says:
i will not quit a fight nor die a loser

3 hours a day rick, get you to the promiseland
3 measely hours a day

in the conquerors name (and doris jean and imogunla and safiya too)
rickydoc flowers - hanging in there

.

mganga maua: wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

hello world
and all its generations

im grooving eric wainaina twende twende, a downtown
nairobi find

i ask the clerk who would appeal to a man what like the blues
she came thru

worked on the prophetic thread in rest for the weary on the
way home - the planetime, airport layovers, etc

got to figure out how to dramatize his prophetic mode
how lack of facetime w/god cause him to wonder about his prophetic credibily

want to run some riffs on god the universe/gods of humanity

on god the universes neutrality - i believe we on our own
you align yourself as much as possible w/the natural laws

you hope for the best you prepare for the worst

the universes equilibrium sometimes require
that planets die and shit happens

riff conjuration as finessing reality: bending it to your will
magic as making real that which was not - conjuration as godwork

okay, thats what i want the prophetic thread to manifest

also needs to manifest his cultural strategies of empowerment
of taking care of the tribal soul in the 21st century - his longgame

what i got to work with is an aspirant hoodoo prophet who
calls himself using magical mythwork to shape future realities

operates spiritworld as hoodoo prophet but afraid to publicaly declare himself so
does not want to be buked and scorned and prefers shadow to the spotlight

meets a woman he tries to impress by stepping up and going for the gold
getting old and feeling if not now when - gets buked and scorned

got a metaphysic attitude towards god: interesting phenomena
but lets not get carried away

adjust yourself to current understanding of god/the natural laws
and hope for the best - but that blind faith thing, that dont move him

the high magicians question: whats in it for me

my boy jubilation tucept highjohn, highmagician and wouldbe
prophet of the hoodoo way

is concerned that he has to his knowledge never actually
heard from god - which strike him as problematic for a wouldbe prophet

everything else he got - he got the vision, he got the strategy
he got the skilzs, the charisma, the fire in the belly, he got the power

but he aint got god

what kind of prophet is this
that aint a prophet thats a hustler

now if you think, as a good metaphysician should

that everything in existence is a manifestation of god the universe
well then you always getting messages from god

but actually communicate with god?

well surely thats an experience of a different and
recognizable magnitude

and how does one know if its actually god or
just your magical imagination running away w/you

again

youve studied the formative dynamics of various religions
you know how this god thing works in the human condition

blind faith and understanding dont mix well

you see what im saying - this might be esoteric to you
but for a wouldbe prophet & novelist thereof this is critical speculation

so in rest i got legba and oshun vying for his prophetic services
(love and power/trickeration)

i got him in contention w/traditionalists in hoodoo and various african systems
dancing on the cutting edge craftwise he loses professional standing and perplexes fanbase

basically he in contention w/everybody as he tries to bend reality to his will
most fundamentally a high magician: a hoodoo sorceror aspiring to prophecy

sorcerors and prophets use the same skilz
just one works for self and clients, the other for god

tribe and all humanity
folk think prophecy about foretelling the future

when its more about connecting social behavior w/destinic consequence
suggesting cultural strategies to finesse generational challenges

based on the deceptively simply claim god told me to

once prophetic authority is attributed by a population
the prophet is exempted from tribal constraint and given sayso

it is expected that you will forge new ground
build new paths of empowerment and illumination

you are allowed and expected to speak truths
folk beholding to various systems cannot

you are given the
propehtic dispensation

it takes awhile to establish prophetic authority, you got
to have the vision, the prophetic voice/skilzs, the charisma

got to have the power  (cant fake the power)
then you operate in the prophetic mode no matter what reality say

(conduct yourself as you aspire to be and you shall - this is
the essence of conjuration)

you create sacred texts designed to evolve with time, the prophets
true instrument - texts that will speak to all the generations

(cast your vision young hoodoo, as far as you can see - determine
the challenges the tribe will face - prepare the tribal soul to meet them)

you try in your life to exemplify the value of your practice -
you give good, timely strategic and spiritual advice

no matter what you are
consistent in this

over the years the few folk that do listen to you prosper
they are empowered, illuminated, healthy wealthy and wise

aligned with god the universe/god within
effective in the world/at peace within

you have provided a way

hopefully your contribution feeds the tribal soul
and enhances the human condition

hopefully at some point before you die
(or after if necessary - if its gotta be that way)

you are given prophetic dispensation by the culture
to say the unsayable - your voice/your words valued

to future generations unto eternity
visions they live by - dream by

mythmaker
master of the longgame

so the question is how do i dramatize that in rest for the weary
ive been focused on other components of storyline

prophetic thread just narrative placeholders now

but while trying to figure how best to use all the forced time of
intercontinental travel - planetime, airport layovers, etc
i decided to work prophetic thread and make it viable narration

have to have his failures as a wouldbe prophet break him, this failure
to have a more personal relationship with god has some potential

to move toward some subtle godsoul moment
for both highjohn and reader

without dying of literary corn
so this what i got to work with:

i got legba and oshun in contention for his services
i got him in contention with various cultural, spiritual and political traditionalists
i got him leaving his fanbase perplexed when he moves into prophetic mode
i got him feeling frustrated, buked, scorned and ignored
i got his conjurations of future realities through hoodoo mythwork
sorceric and prophetic mode actions and stories as storyteller

directed ponderings like current effort
(some of these others might strike you as familiar)

all within context of futurescenarios of an academic couple on an academic planet in far future
studying influence of old earth deltamyth on various stellar civilizations and ideologies

got to weave all that into a dynamic narrative mix
that provides reader w/subtle godmoment (among other things)

what i did was go through manuscript adding raw passages of the
prophetic dynamic wherever i saw a spot the manuscript could take one
- a worse mess of narrative porridge you never saw

but its the first step, just carve out raw narrative real estate
then go through trying to make them work - work it work it work it

ima spend this strange just got off the plane day in that zone,
squeeze monday too maybe, maybe one more week before i start
focusing on schoolhouse - cursed schoolhouse calling me

tick tock tick tock

working that would be a good end of year closeout
a sense of victory i didnt getting slogging thru passage on lamu

that was narrative/scene slogwork,.detailwork - this would be concept work
adding structural/literary/metaphorical layers - highwire stuff - this what i call fun

work that into a dynamic mix viable enough to be a true and rich narrative thread
and i will feel good about the year

i suspect this post too self referntial, too esoteric to be a viable post - i lose readers
when i get self referential and/or esoteric but this whats gon be on my head this week
- trying to work this god thing

god is difficult to do well in fiction,
the corn factor is fearsome and almost inevitable

anxious about this one, important i get this one right
what if i work it hard as i can and it still comes up short

anxieties like this pretty consistent and would be crippling if i let them but i dont,
i just accept them for what they are and keep on pushing no matter what

take an act of god to stop this show

i remember one time im crunching an end of year deadline
and i had it in my sights and i was deep in the zone and i knew wasnt
nothing stopping me from making that deadline

as part of that zonepush, i was working out heavy

then boom my gut popped and i had a hernia and the doctors told me
i had to get cut right away or it would pinch and there went my deadline

thats when i realized that sheer determination wasnt always sufficient
that there are forces out there greater than my will

as a young lion/sorceror this was a revelation to me
i thought i was exempt from the rules govern regular humans

as a prophetic lion in winter it no longer is
id like to get right with the god thing

bummer is that this adds months (if not years) to an already indeterminable project
but it is so integral to the novels vision i can not deny it time/attention

but i will be so glad when i get to point where this novel stops growing
where im just dotting Is and croossing Ts

i will never finish this novel if it keeps evolving
at some point its got to stabilize

god help me it does

when you gon give me a break partner

a service pin or something, im
really tired, im weary in my soul tired

bout 20 more years of this
and ima be ready to quit

hanging tough
rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet
of the hoodoo way

Destinywork: The Longgame and 21st Century Paradigms of Struggle

hello world

it is i, rickydoc rootdoctor
de horse of de conqueroo

was thinking about this anthology id like to do
think i will work the concept out online this week

been feeling need to spend this rootblog time more significantly
working out antho idea here will meet my criteria for the strategic use of my time

i do this kind of thing all the time, this what i call game
a baldfaced attempt to define the nature of struggle in the 21st century

gettting my conjure on
just generally i do it in private,
this weblog is killing me w/the disclosures

but if i cant be real i aint got nothing to say, nothing strong and significant, nothing magical

if i speak i got to speak my truth - thats my geas, thats where i get my magic

so sometimes i have to tell you things i dont
really want to tell you, say things i dont really want to say

and it will be somewhat embarrassing for you to see
the 1st sweaty speculations but by working it out online

i justify the time spent on this blog thing and do something real

and this strategy dont call for no investment of my novel time
i just use the time i been giving rootsblog - that'll work

but can i justify moving this one in front of the hoodoo book of flowers, my wouldbe holybook (but man that holybook is a lifework - cant put projects off for that one - that one you work when you can)

this project is good game
and good game demands a move

i often publicly declare project intent so as to put pressure on myself
i got a million good ideas and absolutely no time for follow thru

but once i tell my public, the few folk who actually do believe in me, that
ima do something, then im honor bound to follow thru

i got that flaky leo pride
and i want to be a hero

if its been one guiding principle to my life as wouldbe artist, activist
thinker and conjureman, it is that i will not disappoint the few folk who do

believe in me

by god and all thats holy i will not
if limp i must then limp i will

i talk big game cause ima visionary, thats my job
thats what i do

just got to follow thru and make it happen, stumbling fumbling hook
or crook, make it happen - then i look good for my adoring public -

all 50 of them (and all the generations to come)

and i like looking good - to those who see
(and being a mystery to those who dont)

and if you dont follow thru on good game, well i guess you
just a delusional fool after all

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

Destinywork: The Longame and 21st Century Paradigms of Struggle.
(for babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn)

i propose an anthology exploring african american liberation strategies in the 21st century.

premise is that we need new paradigms of struggle to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

that too much of african american struggle is caught up in the past rather than looking toward the future. 

that the old paradigms of struggle, the old definitions and strategies, have played themselves out.  that the only way to get ahead of the game is to come up with new paradigms of struggle

and new strategies for dispersing them into the community.

most recent strategies of struggle

- racial uplift
- postblack achievement
- reparations
- working the system
- a millionblackmarches
- the covenant initiative
- the resurgent right
-community empowerment
so on and so forth ......

the need for
new paradigms of struggle

by new paradigms i mean what happened when i read mumbo jumbo
way back when

trying to understand what ismael was saying i moved from a western
worldview to an afrospiritual one

saw differently, different approach to reality, interacted differently with the
world, political (and spiritual) strategies matured -different person

how do we effect political/social/cultural evolution, existential shifts
into a more engaged mode of life

how do we effect a willingness to conceptand embrace
new paradigms of struggle/life/being

both individual and tribe

a willingness to think proactively instead of in the same old groove/rut
a willingness and an ability to finesse cultural challenges w/the quickness

instead of being subject to the winds of circumstance
and the whims of others

how do we move an entire people into new paradigms of struggle
so new and innovative they are truly effective in causing fundamental change

in our people, in our world, our destiny

this question is based on a personal assumption that the only
way we will ever get out of this historical trickbag we have found
ourselves in is by

cutting the trickster loose

playing the 21st century like champions
new game, game aint been seen before

weve done it before
we will do it again

at this point all i got is questions
what about historical strategies: lessons and legacies

- slavery and abolition:
- reconstruction:
- the new negro:
- the civilrights movement:
- black power
- postblackness
- 21st century empowerment (according to rdoc)

which strategies have been consistent through
all phases of struggle

- the various empowerments
- integration and segregation
- radicalism
- racial uplift
so on and so forth......

what were the strategic questions addressed in the age of struggle (60s - 80s)

- political empowerment (phase1)
- economic empowerment (phase1)
- cultural empowerment (phase1)
- blackness as a distinct culture and destiny

so on and so forth............

what strategic questions addressed in postblack age (90s - 2000s)

- achievement, class and identity
- economic stability and capital formation
- community empowerment and dysfunction
- postblackness and the strategic imperative
so on and so forth..........

what questions are being asked now, 21st century, the age of empowerment

- our role in the multiculti future (serving two families)
- how do we empower our people,
- how do we empower our generations
- how do we finesse loss of most favored minority status
- how do we manifest domestic and foreign policy
- racial identity and unity in a postblack world
- global black identity and empowerment (the black federnation)
so on and so forth.........

so, what have been the conventional strategies of empowerment

- integration
- radicalism
- segregation
- economic empowerment
- political empowerment
- community empowerment
- cultural empowerment
so on and so forth..........

fighting tomorrows battles with
last years strategies

getting on the good foot:
tomorrows strategies

what is the current strategic context of african american empowerment
what is the appropriate strategic posture for the 21st century

what are the likely scenarios of the 21st century
what are the optimal scenarios of the 21st century

what would effective 21st century strategies entail
what are the challenges of an effective 21st century strategy

- political empowerment  (phase2)
- economic empowerment (phase2)
- cultural empowerment  (phase2)
- personal empowerment (phase2)
- social empowerment (phase2)
- destinywork (phase1)
so on and so forth.......

destinywork and the longgame

longgame strategies and shaping
future generations

what exactly is destinywork
and the dynamic thereof

- ideological orchestrations
of all sorts

- attempts to shape the tribal soul
and culture

- in particular hoodoo based attempts
to nurture the tribal soul

- highspells designed to shape
the destiny of our generations

and all humanity

evolution of destinywork
and its instruments
- literature
- magic
- ideology
- education
- culture
- religion
- prophecy
- activism
- media
- vision
so on and so forth ......

how does all this come together in destinywork
as hoodoo skill

as hoodoo custodianship

what are the contemporary factors and
dynamics shaping destinywork

- sophistication of interface w/media and the internet
- social competence in a multiculti reality

so on and so forth
but 1st there must be vision

vision and the longgame
just what is the vision(s)

just what is the destiny of blackfolk
and all humanity  (these two families we serve)

in ideological orchestration, the test of ideas
it is the longest and most comprehensive vision

that swallows all others

just what is that vision, just what do we see
are we or are we not masters of human destiny

what kind of future do we want
what kind of future is it likely to be

likely scenarios
optimal scenarios

how do you influence destiny
what instruments, process, dynamics

what does human transcendence entail
and why

and if we talking true longgame

thousands and thousands of generations
eventually we have to ask

just what does it mean to be a cosmic people
a star traveling people

seeding cultures amongst the stars
and transcending as necessary

leading humanity
to its ever greater self

demoja

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

okay, dont have time to do more than start this project
try to lay out an outline of sorts, listings and categories
embarrassingly embryonic

so on and so forth
mean i will work this out later

it would be easier to just do this project as a book
could use this outline to generate a book worth of material easy

but i tried that with mojo rising and it didnt get no play to speak of
this time i will bring in other voices, make it a dialogue

if that dont work i will try something else

i will shape the nature of struggle in the 21st century
or die trying
pull this off be another seed planted

i plant my little seeds, who knows which will take
if any, who knows which will nurture generations

all i can do is plant them
in hallowed ground

im acutely embarrassed to let you see it at this stage
sweat dripping all off my forehead

its all process

will also have to do plan of execution

what has to be done
to make this happen

- draft contributor inquiry (9/10)  text inquiry (9/17)
- refine text, build initial database of contributors (9/24)
- send inquiry to contributors/appropriate forums (9/24)
- push and beg contributors, build database (2006-2007)
- draft text manuscript and online component  (newyears 2007)

book it

(newyears 2008 would be nice, but the one thing i have learned is that
projects always cost you more years than scheduled - a luta continua)

the big question of course is will i actually do it

or will i in a moment of panic decide that i just cant take the diversion of
novel focus, just cant take it

i always say it wont take novel time
but they always do, these ideological projects

i may have to put it on minimal maintenance
just like all the other ones

but im feeling the creative fire and ive learned that you cant fight the fire
no matter what you got scheduled, you try to fight the fire and nothing gets done

beelieve ima have to do this one, but i got to pace it
cause i got to maintain novel momentum

it always comes down to that novel
stuff like this, it comes easy, i put the hours in i get the product

that novel, i put the hours in i get trash

sometime i curse the day i met john killens
wasnt for john killens id be some other kind of writer
some easier kind of writer

but god help me i want to make
my historical bones as a novelist

thats what i want
with all my heart and soul thats what i want

i coulda done most anything with my life
but its like that novel the only thing in this world
i might fail at, never fully express what

i see in my literary soul

must be i love the challenge of that
cause being a novelist is where my heart is

i believe in this novel of mine
this instrument of god

i believe it can do all i need it to do
i believe it can be all i need it to be

i really should not take today (monday) for my novel
it will put me in a catchup mode the whole schoolweek

got manuscripts and paperwork calling my name
yo flowers, class at 330 tomorrow man
hope you aint gon embarrass us w/no subpar performance

but today its me and that novel
its me and you today i hope i pray

- hangingtough
rdoc