MONDAY
i works the soul
hello world
just got back from brooklyn
had a good newren workshop
its really growing well
workshops are such a longgame thing
that sometimes you wonder
but we got some good strong writers in there
and we been working lately on preparing the next generation,
most of us now are in our 50s, oldschool warriors still hitting that lick
and we didnt have but a couple of youngsters
so we been concentrating on young talent
we 50 odds figure we got about 10 good productive years left before
we start getting shall we say tired
(hopefully 20, 30 or more, but 10 we can count on)
and im real pleased with the young folk we been
gathering, some good and true talent
got to work on structuring a strong institution to
leave them
those of you who know the history know that i was once
exec dir of the harlem writers guild, a 50 year old institution
ran into some problems with my youthful enthusiasms
and got tossed,
when they tossed me, my whole generation of writers left with me
the real writers, the ones that really cared
they bet on flowers
just couldnt leave me hanging in the wind by myself
the harlem writers guild put out an anthology recently
and didnt include me or my generation, they excommunicated us - that hurt
so me maintaining and taking newren to higher ground
this an act of redemption for me
plus that john o killens, my mentor, was a founder of the guild
i remember a delegation of us going to john and asking him if it was okay if we broke off and started a new guild and him saying okay
just maintain
i was trained to approach this workshopping thing as part of building black institutions
john tried to build into african american literature an infrastructure
that facilitates the nurturing of committed black writers and thinkers
literary visionaries
you train a strong artist/visionary and no telling what they will contribute
(samesame hoodooman, my specialty is unleashing artists - then they produce a healthy body of work and its just grows and grows)
a lot of that is passing on what each generation in the tradition learns to the next generation
i would not be who i am today if i had not been the beneficiary of john o killens life
of struggle and service - and he of the ones who passed it on to him
ive reached that point in my artistic and hoodoo life where passing it on to the next generation
is as important as getting my own work done
i cant let john o, the newren crew, or my literary tradition down
every month i trek on down to the city
finances, weather or weariness, dont nothing stop that show (unless the crick rise)
ima do whatever i got to do to take
that operation to higher ground
whenever you get hammered
when you regroup you got to regroup on higherground
then its all progress, all part of the growing process
that way adversity is transformed into strength
thats what the blues is about
i got to go, got to get todays work done
just wanted to get a post started
my hit numbers been growing since katrina
i got to maintain that
gon be interesting to see what my next phase gon be
i can feel a new level of engagement coming down
i think cause i been in the woodshed and the things i work out in
my novels i generally try to manifest in the 'realworld'
the effort of which feeds back into the authenticity of the novel
prophecy for instance
its a difficult process to explain, maybe later
today im feeling fey today like i sometimes get
dont know where this post will go this week
reason i started this post is i was back there ripping these two tapes
i found at the library: one - violin, sing the blues for me: african american fiddlers 1926 - 1949
oldschool violin blues, im really enjoying it too
seems the violin was the instrument of choice for african american
musicians until the 1930s or so when the guitar took over
the other - clasic blues: recordings of the smithsonian collection
and im reading the liner notes, right - its been such a music education reading the liner notes
of the 1000s of cds ive listened to since i discovered the public librarys stash
and there was this quote of roosevelt sykes that spoke to me
both as a bluesman and a hoodooman (for me thats always been a paired set)
"now some people dont understand. they think a blues player has to be worried, troubled to sing the blues. thats wrong. ill put it this way: theres a doctor, he has medicine. he aint sick but he has stuff for the sick people. so the blues player, he aint worried and bothered, but hes got something for the worried people. doctor you can see his medicine you can see his patient. blues you cant see the music, you cant see the patient cause its soul. so i works the soul, and the doctor works on the body"
thats me
i works the soul
as some of you know my daddy was a prominent medical doctor in old memphis
back when being a black doctor was a big struggle and achievement
believe me, i know
id love to tell his story but im shamed to say
i just dont know it that well
does any man ever really know his father
but i do know he had this abiding sense of responsibility for the health
of the colored folk of south memphis
one of my favorite lines, i use it every chance i get
was one i heard as a child:
doctor flowers still own half the kids on the southside
cause they havent been paid for
ive always wanted to walk in his footsteps
thats what i call myself doing as a hoodoo doctor
he worked the body, i works the soul
rickydoc flowers
spiritdoctor
awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong
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