hello world, did 3 presentations recently
did a bessie smith collaboration with artist terry adkin
this is detail from altar he did libation in
also did intros for my two thesis students, chelsea and ashwin - ima start keeping track of syracuse students
recently did an essay class w/fiction and poets and it was a revelation what real poets go thru, folk often accuse me of
poetry cause i use these couplets but i know better
i use couplets to help readers and regulators digest my words,
not in some poetic delusion
am in a pretty good space, last week of schoolhouse
and already in the woodshed, struggling with the page
im good, its all good
all my love
rdoc
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a praise song for saint bessie
lord legba, open this gate, we have gathered here this evening
in the name of the song, - we have gathered here this evening
to sing a praisesong for saint bessie
august wilson recounts what he considers his moment of artistic revelation, when in the fall of 1965 he put on an old 78 rpm, nobody in town can bake a sweet jellyroll like mine by bessie smith and says it was a "resurrection and a redemption",
say the "universe stuttered and everything fell into a new place,"
says it was "the beginning of my consciousness that i was representative of a culture and the carrier of some very valuable antecedents . . . i saw the blues as a cultural response …to a world that did not recognize their gods, their manners, their mores. it despised their ethos and refused to even recognize (their) humanity. in such an environment the blues was a flag bearer of definition…a spiritual conduit that gave spontaneous expression to the spirit that was locked in combat and devising new strategies for engaging life and enlarging itself. it was a true and articulate literature that was in the forefront of the development of both character and consciousness. i turned my ear, my heart and whatever analytical tools i possessed to embrace this world. i elevated it, rightly or wrongly, to biblical status."
and so have we come here this evening to anoint bessie smith as an honored ancestor
queenmother bessie, orisha bessie, loa bessie, saint bessie
oshun frieda corinna bessie, bring down your blessings bessie sing bessie sing
billie diana carmen cassandra and randy bessie - sing bessie sing bessie sing
have you heard bessie sing, like august wilson heard her sing
have you heard her do her thing
where you there, did you see her, harlem, misssissippi, the orpheum
great burly bessie, big crimson wearing bessie, big pretty shiny bessie, swaying all that woman to the piano bessie, where your snake bessie, where your tom tom bessie, how you gon bring the spirit down, yes bessie, shake the devil out your soul bessie, yes besie, shake him bessie, yes bessie yes, shake the devil bessie, we believe, we believe
tell us about the hurting bessie, sing the blues that tear our the soul bessie, blues bessie brown bessie shiny bessie, bless me bessie, take me deep bessie, rip my soul bessie, take me to
the other side bessie – sing bessie sing bessie
wrap us in those big arms of yours bessie, smoother me in all that downhome
funky flesh bessie, smother my soul bessie
bath me in the river bessie blessme, take me to the holyground
slow drag me bessie, slow drag me, put me in a slow groove, take me somewhere deep,
make me forget my troubles bessie, spell me baby, thrown it on me bessie
water getting deep bessie,
sing with the courage of new mothers and the newly dead bessie
sing bessie sing, blues bessie blue
they cant keep you down bessie, cant stop the magic woman bessie,
sing bessie sing bessie dream bessie dream bessie, wash me in the blood bessie,
bath me in the blues bath me in the blues ….
voodoo hoodoo you do bessie, obeah bessie, condomble santeria bessie
harriet sojourner zora and ida b bessie
big black woman w/riverwide shoulders bessie, big rivermud bessie
bessie i bow before you bessie, delta bessie, harlem bessie, bless me bessie
feeder of my soul bessie, raise the sun with your song bessie
sing bessie sing bessie - sweet bessie, soulmother bessie
soul snatch bessie hoodoo queen queen mother bessie,
heavy load, crooked stick nappyhead bessie - sing
please bessie, sing blues sing
promiseland blessie, spelllady blessie, fellow traveling blessie
dont take no shit bessie, off no man black white or indifferent bessie
when she say she aint gon play no second fiddle, you believe her
she use to playing lead bessie i understand bessie your world bessie
and when our need is greatest you there for us mama bessie
singing them destinysongs bessie, healing souls only real blues women can
thats why this evening we honor your legacy
thats why this evening we praise your name - that why we sing your song
may have took your arm and your life at the crossroads bessie
but they cant take away your name, may your legacy feed many generations
we have gathered here this evening in your name sweet bessie
this evening we thank you for the gift you gave
the dues you paid, for the paths you laid
we thank you for the love my love
gods blessings on us all
this spell is done
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chelsea fetzer: thats my girl
chelsea my girl. everybody know chelsea my girl. let me tell you how i met chelsea, friend of mine in the industry call me one day. arthur she tell me i think you need to look at this writers work. it aint working right now but once she get the hang of it she gon be special, she gon be deadly arthur, 1st thing i thought of i thought of you. but ima busy man right, i tell ms fetzer send me a couple of pages, let me see what you got. chelsea send me about 10 pages that i was not impressed with, i told her to check back with me when she get her chops together.
chelsea sent me a blistering email accuse me of not recognizing talent. call me an idiot, told me i was blind, said she would show me what time it was. idiot. i was very impressed. i wrote back, said perhaps i missed something, send me the manuscript please. i read the whole manuscript, and i saw i understood why chelsea fetzer was sent my way. the gods of literature were looking out for me.
cause me and chelsea we family, we come from the same root and chelsea like the cutting edge of my tradition, what wideman gaylejones morrison struggling with thats gon find fruition in the work of chelsea fetzer, mark my word chelsea fetzer the future, working we call the speakerly text, a master storyteller, got voice on voice in voice, chelsea be signifying, be interweaving intertexting historical with coming of age into a narrative fierceness thats gon bust the border, thats gon bust the page, thats gon move the tradition we both love, this a storytelling woman here
heart so big im surprised the earth dont crumble under her feet. chelsea fetzer is the point of it all. the cutting edge. like some kind of literary destiny and i love her fiercely. thats my girl. my ace boon. thats my peeps.
may the gods of literature be good to her
may the gods of literature be good to us all
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ashwin parulkar: international man of mystery
i once heard ashwins workshop folk call him an international man of mystery and i thought that was so cool, thats what i want to be when i grow up, i want to be ashwin, cause you know aswhin deep, ashwin on his own little planet somewhere deep, rushdie morrison at they best deep but whatever deep ashwin got its all ashwin deep and its big and its primetime and its full of heart, some kind of cosmic man of mystery deep thats what he is, and the easiest thesis ive ever done, my role been yeah man thats good thats good, whatever you doing you just keep on doing it
ive learned so much working with ashwin, probably more than hes learned from me, which is one of the advantages of working with so many young guns who potentially better than you are, it keep you on your toes, and i thank our students for that blessing, for bringing it strong like you do
i admire ashwin cause hes figured it out, work that tackle the big issues of the human condition and be seriously craftful about it, craft heart vision the whole bit wrapped into a densely layered narration that never forgets what makes literature important, ashwin got heart, sarah told us to keep it tight you know so im trying to avoid unearned hyperbole here but i have to say in all seriousness that i consider ashwin to be a writer of historical stature and i consider him true voice and now that hes graduated i can officially acknowledge him the teacher and colleague hes been to me. im proud to call him my fellow traveler, this literary man of mystery, im proud to call him my friend
u not recognizing talent - lol
Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | April 28, 2008 at 10:27 AM
The Afro-Blues Tradition and Iya Bessie Smith - Ase'
Posted by: nanakwame | April 28, 2008 at 08:03 PM