rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

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

SUNDAY

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

in the course of it i hainted martin luther king

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

think ima work it into rest (sorry ec)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

deities
or something more

gotta be something more

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

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

at the same time i acknowledge that most folk need deities

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

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

cultivating success

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

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

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

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

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

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

that mean i got to shine

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

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

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

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

as a performance speaker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

but we both agreed it was martin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

in struggle
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world
trying to post but not really feeling it

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

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

we all know why we taking casualties in iraq

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

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

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

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

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

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

the little engine that could

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

just bam bam bam bam bam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and toni cade bambara

im outta here, taking my blues to

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

my love to you all

rickydoc flowers
hanging in there

katrina commentary: rudy lewis and the black net work: a luta continua

 

Rudy and Arthur, you and others like you who have web sites have been and will continue to be vital in the effort of distributing information and raising awareness.  Miriam 

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

miriam sent this to me and rudy and some other folk
i thanked her, means a lot coming from somebody
i respect when it comes to commitment as i do miriam willis

thats one of my hometown elders
in the struggle

been interesting too how the black net came into its own
with katrina, networks that we had for the kind of personal
academic and artistic uses were suddenly turned into
instrument and we arent quite sure how the best use
of those instruments plays out because this is all
brand new territory for us, but what was wonderful
was that we had them in existence and under pressure
they just morphed on their own into insturments by
which we could forge alternative newsources and
alternative realities.

my numbers have been going up every day since
katrina so i know im doing something right though
lord knows im not quite sure what it is
or how its going to play out

i only know that im going to stay on it
im going to try to be creative and consistent
and sincere with it, try to live up to the responsibility
of it, of being a voice and a forum of our struggle

okay, ima let rudy speak on it, hes far more eloquent
than i am when it comes to self analysis of the web as instrument

i would like to say that i have been very proud of being
part of this network including rudy and miriam and kalamu
and such webworkers,

we have really missed the black commentator and look
forward to when glen and the commentary crew come back
online

somebody suggested us becoming a more formal network
and im all down for that, folk like black commentator, chickenbones
promotheus 6 and even sincere conservative black networks like
the bookeristas, if we were all able to coordinate our diverse activities
it would manifest a power like nothing we can at this point imagine

wish i had time to follow thru, maybe one day
im out of here, i got to get some novelwork done

all my love to you all
rickydoc flowers

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

During the evacuation drams, if you recall several of us set up a kind of clearinghouse -- Joyce King, Herbert Rogers, Arthur Flowers and others -- we all made use of our email address books in passing along and filtering information and finding out the health of people we knew and how they could be assisted. So we all discovered that this tool -- email system -- was not just for personal and business uses, but also a means of responding to community needs and acting as a community.

Most of these individuals we only know through cyberspace. Most of us have never touched flesh. Then, there were also academic listservs and more commercial websites, as well as bloggers who all came together in relating Katrina information, and relating to each other. This whole episode in the coming together of these diverse groups and individuals needs some reflection and thought on this special phenomenon.

One thing I learned is that I had to better organize information I was receiving for there was a ton of it. Of course, I had a couple people who asked be taken off my list. But they were a tiny few. To manage the material I started using folders and sub-folders. I also have an email system that can hold 2000mb of information (extra cost) and here I also use folders and I have a security system that assures me. I have also started using more links on ChickenBones: A Journal (www.nathanielturner.com), which is also a way of organizing information, that is, where websites and blogs are. I also had to make decisions on what to publish and what to link, what will have lasting value.

One of the peculiar things about ChickenBones in relation to other websites is that we have always behaved in a dynamic manner, unlike the behavior of "journals" and "magazines" with weekly, monthly routines. If information is sent us, it might be up an hour later. One well-known black journal was on vacation during most of the Katrina coverage. So with its  flexibility and dynamism and collaborative spirit ChickenBones was probably able to play a greater role than some other independent black websites.

Of course, our non-commercial, non-institutional character kept us at a distance from "media objectivity" and "Katrina donation" efforts as the more commercial and institution connected websites. Of course, I think that cultural consciousness and social  and personal commitment played a role, also, in these matters. Of course, there were black organizations with websites who did nothing in regard to the Katrina efforts. Yet some of them worry about where they appear in google.

As I have stated Kalamu ya Salaam is my model for black commitment in cyberspace. He has hosted the listserv e-drum 365 days for seven years. No charge. He used his new website Breath of Life (www.kalamu.com/bol, another of his non-commercial efforts, significantly and strategically with music to soothe and inspire our efforts. And he has been planning another site to deal with video and sound and New Orleans cultural life. He has been theorizing for years on the use of the internet by writers, artists, and other cultural workers. So he is the central example for me and others should pay attention to the genius of the man Digital Technology & Telling Our Story .

I think we all need to become more conscious of the tools and the potential of the tools we have in our possession. We need to be more conscious and aware of each other, and patient and tolerant with each other, and willing to learn from each other, and adopt a spirit of collaboration. We need to tabulate those listservs, websites, blogs, whether black white, Asian or, Hispanic, that we are able to work with and use in our efforts.

The Katrina experience should be viewed as a wake-up call for blacks in cyberspace. It can be used for more than just selling our wares and other business enticements, tea room talk, and institutional transmission of institutional information. I'm an infant, four years in cyberspace, I know I'm still learning, reflecting, figuring how I can make best use of our efforts and make it relevant to black and progressive struggle across the globe.

We know that it's possible to make the internet a much fuller experience. As TV surpassed radio, the internet can have the same kind of impact. We are far away from a text-based internet, we got images and sound now (which can be experienced in combination), and Kalamu is working on own website of image and sound together. With Windows we can listen to Breath of Life while at the same time browse ChickenBones. Or listen to Bob Marley while we read an article on ChickenBones.

And there is internet radio, which I doubt played any significant role at all during this crisis, because people still ain't hip to it. Times-Picayune discovered it had more influence online than with its paper copy. People are learning that there is no conflict between paper publishing and internet publishing. Academics are also discovering this fact. Because they publish an article on ChickenBones that does not stop that same article being published in paper. So all of us got to regear our thoughts with regard to the vitality and necessity of creating community in cyberspace.

As ever and always, Rudy

Hello Dear Reader

Introducing Rootsblog: Timely Observations on Politics, Literature, Culture, Struggle and the Hoodoo Way.

In case you are a New Reader and wondering why Im so prolific today, I am in process of moving the Posts that I want to keep from my old Blogspot. blog.

Blogspot started me off a couple of months ago and I hate leaving but I want that comment and feedback function. Really want MT but my host doesnt support it and I just dont feel like the hassle right now of changing hosts, I will see how this Typepad thing works and if feedback justifies it (assuming I get some).

Got to move my Lists over (which is going to be a hassle). Be putting up a New Post every couple of days.

Still a baby and finding my stride, seem to be leaning toward longer 'essay' posts over the shorter ones I started with. I will try to restrain myself, shorter works better on the Internet Ive found but I do like to cover the ground.

Old Readers Please Bookmark new site. New Readers, hope you hang around. Cause this is gon be Rickydocs Place: Willing To Go Where Other Folk Fear To Tread.

I will try to entertain you, make you frown, make you smile, and never waste your time with anything less than the significant.

be well &
a luta continua

Arthur Rickydoc Flowers