rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

rootworking: hoodoo roots and ludacris obama song: with friends like this

FRIDAY

hello world, bogged down on structurals, moving passages around to reflect new consciousness
its as good as clocking page, had written myself past my understanding, now moving

having to fill in holes w/raw manuscript, nothing i hate
worse than raw manuscript (except weak game)

now i know dont do for no analyst to take on the israel/palestine question - cant win

jews dont appreciate it
palestinians dont appreciate it
west dont appreciate it
arabs dont appreciate it
blackfolk dont appreciate it

dont nobody appreciate it

dont matter what you say, you gon offend somebody
but it is a world problem of blibical proportion and

every once in awhile i wade on into it
was impressed w/this newsweek hirsch article on it

laying out obamas options on israel - not many
dont no democratic contender dis the jewish vote

article say israel gon make a move on iran, just a matter of timing
say a nuclear iran is not acceptable to israel, say obama gon have to deal w/that

say him and netanyahu danced around that during their meeting

i guess its a little premature for me to start worrying about obamas foreign policies
got to turn around mccains latest salvo, and would you believe i signed

up to make a monthly donation to obamas campaign, 1st time ever i put
my money where my words are electoral politics wise

but you know it feel right to a old veteran of the civil rights movement, i remember
picket lines in memphis and mississippi before i was old enuf to know what

the picket sign said, cause my momma was a race woman, my daddy was a race man
i remember colored only signs and voting rights campaigns, being run out of mississiippi,

blackpower and i was there the night king say he have a dream, i have been through it all and feel like
this just a continuance of struggle, blackfolk been looking for direction and the old rootdoctor

approve of this one, unlike say reparations, which was a joke from day onei had to just lay low until blackfolk got over that foolishness

but this phase feel good, this phase feel very 21st century
we standing at the crossroads on this one

and i got to work whatever little power i have tried to gather in my life
as a writer and strategic analyst - yeah right, maybe a 100 readers a day

and half of them folk google sent
they dont hardly count

but what i got is what i got, the hoodoo premise is whatever you want to be
you conduct yourself as if you already were and eventually you will be

i consider myself this strategic mastermind, (just want to rule the world, pinky) constantly asesssing the strategic dynamics and moving to position blackfolk, and all humanity, advantageously

trying to establish a strategic posture constantly alert to shifting mix of tribulation,
challenge and opportunity. constantly maximizing my strategic positioning

trying to save/empower the black race and all its generations
trying to shape humanitys destiny and enhance the human condition

this is my vision of the hoodoo prophet
of what the hoodoo prophet do

hoodoo dont have a lot of narrative space for that role right now
i have had to spend my life defining that role and forcing hoodoo to make space

for me

for a highmagic hoodoo instead of being restricted to that folk magic definition of what hoodoo is
cause thats the role im determined to play, tribal shaman, guide and guardian of the tribal

soul and destiny

both blackfolk and all humanity
ima make it work for everybody

this been a tough reality to manifest
but i am confident in my magical ability to

make this so

and so i have to conduct myself as if i were in truth the tribal shaman of all things
responsible for the destiny of blackfolk and all humanity, the entire world

responsible for the fate of the cosmos and all its generations unto eternity
knowing that im lving a fantasy and the world/destiny probably snickering at me

but the longer i maintain my magical fantasy the more my magic become reality
the more the rickydoc trickmaster i see become real in the world

thats the way magic work, (art too for that matter) it is a
reality i dont mind devoting my life to

thats what the conjureman do
shape reality     (artist too actually)

the trick is to conjure a worthy reality, a reality worth sacrificing your little allotted time on
the planet for - the trick is making it work not only for yourself but all the world too

to manifest your magical reality into the world
this is the essence of conjure

im gon bring the hoodoo tradition into the 21st century
or die trying  (or both)

the iching says the superior personality has two ways of manifesting influence
guiding players at the court and withdrawal to work on self as a model of what is to be

iching say it is a cycle, a pendulum

i miss the hodoo arena, the online community where
21st century hoodoo being forged - 

i have withdrawn into the woodshed, i got to get this Work done, just gotta
and when i return to the arena it will be with added power and confidence

of a work that will explore my vision

of human destiny and my perceived role in that destiny
so forgive the hubris dear regulators

it distress me to expose my delusions of granduer like this
but i simply must manifest

and i got to conduct myself on this my personal forum as if i were in truth the
player i perceive myself to be, the greatest conjureman that ever was

and a strategic analyst of destinic significance

the way the world ignore me i got to assume that im fooling myself
but that dont mean nothing to the conjureman, my world, my reality

that novelists training
metafictional leakage

and the old rootdoctor kinda excited about the potential of strategic analysis of an obama
administration - it will bring my analysis that much closer to the center of true power

im constanty trying to determine true power from the illusion of it
always trying to determine the deepest strategic reality, which is always elusive

any situation you want to influence you try to find the hoodoo root
minimum effort, maximum influence

question now is what can i do to help obama become president - answer is not much
got to be a root somewhere, till i find it just keep commenting

try to make my words somehow more significant,  there is no greater struggle
when you assume the significant players are not  listening,  according to your

readership nobody is, but in the reality im trying to bring about my analysis is
considered essential reading by those in the know, so i got to attempt

essential analysis even if it makes me look foolish and delusional
such is the life of a sacrifice, got to assume over the years i will get better at it

so what i got to do is start looking for the root, the point of maximal impact at this
point and time in my own development as instrument

is there anything i can do to help obama become president

ima do the basic stuff that anybody can do, monthly donations et al
but what can i do as a hoodoo player looking for the root - as true force

destinywork

the root is everything, everything/anybody can be affected, you study it, you determine the strategic dynamics, you determine what aspect of the dynamic is susceptible to influence on your part

w/full understanding that you are a weak and marginal player, but the only way you
will ever become a stronger player is to play

everything is connected and you can always find the hoodoo root if
you willing to invest like im willing to invest

and you study the target dynamic strategically till you find the hoodoo root
that very point of balance with the most minimal effort you can effect

true change
working the root

so you aint expending a lot of effort
hell you aint got a lot of effort

but whatever effort you expending is designed to effect true change
to shape reality and influence human destiny

thats what we 21st century hoodoos call rootwork
destinywork

i was about to attempt a little rootwork when i determine its premature to start
analyzing obamas foreign policy options, defeating mccain is sufficient unto the moment

but the old power analyst in me is salivating at the power potential of
influential analysis of an obama administration

i got to go, right now the rootwork require for me
to finish this cursed novel

all my love

rdoc




THURSDAY

okay the ludicris obama bit



not as bad as i feared, i kinda liked it
being a blogger, i guess i can admit that

but good campaign material it is not
its the line about hillary that make it problematic

make it work for mccain as much as it do obama
cause it irritate whitefolk and thats not good for what obama trying to do

yeah i know i know, the folk uneasy w/him uneasy w/him anyway
well the game require that those folk be made less uneasy not more

thats what the game require
and the game is my god

it need to be yours

for i would you all be masters of strategy
the key that opens all locks

it is the geas of rickydoc

this good art, but it aint good strategy, could have done so much
more with it, made it a more effective instrument of his artistic will

instead he let his personal impulses make the instrument weaker
and dont nothing distress the old rootdoctor more than weak game

now im always gon support an artists right to do what he or she please
art is in the final analysis a personal act, and i like the product

mobsouth did too, obama busting his moves move me
everytime i watch it - thats good work

but the lyrics indicate the artist call himself supporting obama
and even get prophetic, use one of my favorite words, destiny

i like that

but the Work itself work against that support/intent
w/an unfortunate aesthetic choice that cost more

than it brought to the table and undercut
the reality the artist trying to bring about

thats immature work, an immature artist

more interested in expressing himself
than in harnessing the power of art

to affect the world
to shape reality

bad mojo

under the tactical demands of the moment the choice he
made to call hillary names was a kiddiework decision

song would have been just as powerful without it
and more useful to obama and the reality of a blackman as president

as it is, it still might affect reality, just not in the manner
the artist intended

good work, weak game - dont
nothing distress the old rootdoctor

like weak game that could
have been strong

word by trickmaster

wouldbe prophet
of the hoodoo way

obamas world tour: doing what he can - within the parameters of the game

MONDAY 7:46 am

got a little work done yesterday, fool that i am ive decided to hang tough

 okay some quick commentary: viral email going around supposed to chastize obama for dissing troops

some utah national guard captain sent an email to his family dissing obama and they put it on the web

and now its gon viral

only problem is that idiot put his name rank and serial number on it - capt jeffrey porter, battle captain,

turns out he is no quote unquote battle captain but actually quote unquote an intelligence officer
and now has had to back up off his partisan lies

now hes sent this retraction out to various sources that have published the viral one, trying to backtrack:

“I am writing this to ask that you delete my email and not forward it. After checking my sources, information that was put out in my email was wrong. This email was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the email and if there are any blogs you have my email portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too. Thanks for your understanding.”

checked your sources huh, wrote that 1st one like you were there didnt you
now its gon viral and hes embarrassed and afraid the army will discipline him

for politicking in uniform, too late now, even the retraction went viral too
o the perils of the send key

mccain has already put out a tacky ad trying to swiftboat off it before it was called out as a lie
good, this the kind of desperation i want to see from him, you going down mccain

other news is that brother snow here is 1 of 2 survivors of the 27 black soldiers punished after 1944 fort lawton riots between black soldiers and italian prisoners of war after which black soldiers were,

surprise surprise

done wrong by the government - after pushing many years for pardons gov apologized yesterday for
a miscarriage of justice and brother snow died the day after - mission accomplished

love, life and lit

rdoc

SATURDAY

hllo world, got to work out a new thread, might as well get a post out of it
those who know me know i aspire to write a hoodoo holybook

got two options, write my own or compile one w/my hoodoo colleagues, a collaboration
because i fear that a holybook without a body of holyworks does not a sacred tradition make

but trying to get my hoodoo colleagues to sign on is a big effort so im inclined to just push on with my own and maybe be able to convince them to join it as a project when it reaches a certain critical mass

over the years ive tried various formats, biblic, koranic, iching, nothing has workd much less been luminous, now im trying a divination format along with a chain ive developed

(what divination chain you say, hoodoo doesnt have a systemized divination tradition - well it does now- compliments of ricky anymethod anytime doc)

so anyway with that background i ran up on a barnes and noble remainder yesterday called
misquoting jesus and its all about how various scribes (mis)translated the bible over the centuries of

its evolution, and it immediately put me in mind of my own holybook effort and i start thinking how
to work that into the novel and i think about how ishmael worked with the question of text/sacred text in mumbo jumbo, how he questions the nature of hoodoo as an oral holy text vs the value of a written text

and positions mumbo jumbo itself as that text
literature/the novel as sacred text

and i think of texaco by cham where he deals with the evolution of the storytelling tradition into the written literary tradition

a concern of my own as a griotic performance artist/novelist working w/both hands
and so i start trying to work that thread more consciously into the work,

its already there but not as a conscious thread so this morning i start concepting it for my storyteller character and im thinking how do i depict that tension in good fictional fashion and why he feels like he has to write his vision down because the storytelling mode is not permanent enough for him in the 21st century,

then i think how media/digital has supplanted the written text

then im thinking i got to take into consideration that the oral has
evolved past the written into media and digital

media has in many ways supplanted the written, what does this
mean for the written text in the 21st century post digital world

this is kind of a critical question for writers who want to ensure the continued viability of literature - what
role does literature to play in a media driven world, what does literature do that media cant,

and im thinking how im trying to develop this sacred/literary language and now im just all twisted up

so i got to sit down and figure out how to roughly work this thread into the text, put in some raw
passages that will embed it, clean it up as i go thru it (over and over)

because im in a woodshed closure mode i cant afford to get bogged down in new threads,

folk be implicitly accusing me of stalling or something - why dont you just stop, why dont you stop letting that novel grow and just finish it - like im fiddling around or something,

dont nobody be more distressed than me that these threads keep evolving but
but i gon let this novel be what it want/need to be

one of the things john o killens used to hammer into his students is that future generations wont
care that you were pressed for time, all they will have is your novel, pateince puppy, give them

the best you got to give

but since i cant afford to be diverted from closure i have to be disciplined about this, i will give this mornings session to it, write up some raw passages that reflect it and stick them in the text somewhere it roughly works and keep on pushing with my draft

part of the reason i been halfstepping is that im burnt out on this novel
should take a week off, work on some other projects, holybook, palf website, keiths manuscript

i got good energy for that, couple of days finish draft of holybook, day or so for keiths manuscript, day for palf website, 4 days break might be whats called for, i got a lot of energy backed up that would zoom me right thru that

but i just dont thnk i can put rest down, wont have a chance

in hell for making my deadline then, gotta stay in the groove
ima give it a couple more days, if i dont pick up steam i will switch over

for a couple of days, see if taking a breath help

sorry, i suspect this dont interest you, but my life is just an ongoing negotiation
with lifes demands to try and get some work done, its a daily struggle

i got buddies who want to write but dont, who should be writers but arent and they
are like cant do it, just dont have time, life too demanding on me right along in here

and i look at them perplexed - cause its hard for
everybody - but daily production is the most important part

of being a writer, either you do it or you dont - if you want to be a
writer you do it, no matter what is happening in your life, you do it

and whatever that cost you pay it
without whining please

love, life and lit
im outta here

rdoc

FRIDAY MORNING 4:35 am

hello world

dont have time to do more than hit at this one - clocking pages but
dont have a good grip on it yet so i cant stay long

obamas world tour a big success,

the europeans just desperate for anything other than bush, or his standin mccain

iraqis rather have obamas  intent to pull the troops

over bush/mccain determination to est bases that will allow america to project regional power

assured the israelis and the palestinians he would 1st do no harm, bout all you can do with that

cant help hoping he will be more engaged than bush
status quo aint working

little world tour big success for obama
might help him in this move to the middle

that has so appalled his left/progressive support
left gon have to come to the same zen blackfolk have come to

we understand the game and gon give him room to play it

black activists have never been able to run purely black agendas
wont get the support you need in the multiethnic arena

black activists have always had to champion policies that help everybody
barack aint running to be the black president, he running to be president

gon take positions that will break our hearts
we know that, we braced for it

cause thats what the game call for, obama the most sophisticated player
we have yet sent forth into battle and we trust his instinct for the game

we know in our hearts he trying to make a difference but he got to pick and
choose his battles and we have given him our trust in this matter

wont ever be able to satisfy the hard black left, exemplified in rev wright and black agenda report
i think glen & the bar folk wrong on this one but they coming from principled analysis & essential voice

when wright went after obama the black community disciplined him
w/the quickness - declared it neither principled nor smart

jessie, tavis et al, do not fuck with the game
keep your little ego issues to yourself

cause o joy the game is in play and the movement has somehow moved into
the 21st century in a manner we got to understand and leverage

obama done somehow turned the page, do what you gotta do son
show me what you got

we know he got to move to the center, got to if he want to be elected, get to where he can actually make
a difference, and we also know once elected, he will make policy decisions that will break our hearts,

just break our little collective heart, and you will hear a cry so full of hurt
go up - we stood by you when nobody else would

but you dont get to be president of the united states if you not capable of hard game
dont even want to be president of the united states if you not capable of hard game

as a writer i have the space to be principled in analysis the person in the arena does not
always have and the higher the aspiration the more damning the compromise

those of us who have moved into the system do the dance it require while
doing everything we can to use the system more effectively than it is using us

when the game is who playing who, when you play the powers that be, most of the
time you expect to lose - then again sometime every once in awhile you win 1

make sure that win is worth the cost

i expect a different presidency from barack, in its essence, its heart, its soul, i expect, old community
organizer that he is, for him to actually try to be what he say he is - a new way

moving the great american middle, that require some powerful game
and in my soul i believe barack can do it, in part because he is a politician born

always gon be calling him to what i consider his greater self
as hoodoo advisor to the tribe thats my job - spiritual custodian

awaken the sleeper, protect the weak and guide the strong is what i do
do your thing strongbrother but when the crossroads come and it always do, i expect the highroad of you

thats what the hoodooman say

otherwise ima give him room to run his game, doing what he can in a rough field of play
and at the end of the day i expect the blessings to outweigh the pain

but it dont do to ever forget that he a politician, damn good one too, and
truth be told i take delight in his moves - always nice to see a master at work

got to go, had a so so work day yesterday, better than its been but not good enuf
jury still out - but if i get some strong work done today its safe to say im back in the game

pray for me

rdoc

back in the world, back in the saddle

THURSDAY MORNING: 7:58 am

clocking pages...

WEDNESDAY MORNING

hello all

 been back a couple of days, feeling backed up, need to clock
pages, got a lot of reportage on palf to get thru so i can do some

more substantive analysis, some speculation, some longgame on palf mission

then things been happening back in the world i need to comment on:

obamas move to the center - classic electoral strategy and predictable, no news, sobering but predictable
recent developments in zimbabwe - talks most likely a stall, mugabes team afraid to let him leave, have pullled a virtual coup

but im feeling pressed, got a month before schoolhouse takes it all
got about a 4th of my draft done, got to find another gear

and i got to find it quick, woodshed time for rickydoc
so let me hit my criticals, get this reportage/catchup out the way

palf: basically a success, fulfilled the mission, just a longlist of compromises, missteps
and logistical nightmares, but we fulfilled the mission, felt like a play from my theater days

everything goes wrong
but the show do go on

big problems turned out to be lodging and transportation
problems with all the places we stayed, got to find a home

nyu ghana seriously came thru for us, couldnt have done it w/o them
but we need more space, toting folk from spot to spot became prohibitive

didnt have enuf room at the afia beach and folk lodged at the niagra plus had
serious grievance, services just collapsed and some of them bailed

we switched readings from niagra to tonis jazz club at the chelsea hotel in labone
sweet african american sister doing a jazz singer thing in accra - living her dream

daily readings/panels by faculty, guests and students became a critical mass happening
interesting works, words and visions, i didnt make them all, by this time im buried

in an overflow workshop, if you conscientious it take an investment of a couple
of hours or so to break a story down for workshop purposes, it can take an investment

of many many hours if its a complex work, these workshop gigs you doing daily prep
because it was an unscheduled workshop i didnt get works beforehand so im crunching

novelwork falls by the wayside that week, bummer
still workshops are my thing, thats what i do

picked up a couple of new students in the tradition
im always in the market for new regulators

1st, the students who got in the workshop chose me to work with

some knew me, some got stuck with me, but anytime somebody choose me, i make sure
they get their moneys worth, i make sure they never regret they bet on arthur flowers

thats just part of who i am
thats how i roll

2nd, the bulk of my workshop were polished wouldbe professionals, thats the kind of folk
i like working with, folk who got a shot, who committed to the game, got a shot

us travelers always looking for students
comes with the territory

but its a scripted dance, its not like you got discretionary time to give new students
got too many as it is, but if they make the effort, if they climb the mountain and

kinda demand to work with you, insist you the one they need to reach the promiseland, get
them to the next step in their development, that always works

if you see the potential in them and detect that willingness to make the commitment
so you know you not wasting your  time/investment on this one

well then you tickled to be passing it on like it was passed on to you
that becomes part of your literary legacy

thats the way we roll
in the line of o killens

so ghana 08 i added 4, 5 maybe 10, new regulators to
my little destinic army, to the line of o killens - thats cool

out of that 2 maybe 3 will hang, maybe even 4
(i assume i get better at this as i...mature)

between workshop and lonewolf ways i missed a lot, missed
readings and panels, missed davidmills book donation runs

would liked to have made some of those

okay, move on rick, is this essential enough to justify time spent
lets hit those highnotes and get on out of here

what do i need to deal with when i do have the time (joke)

the camaraderie developed among participants, which was deep
evolving working dynamics of palf principals
gender, cultural and personal dynamics among participants
stroking sensitive ghanian literary egos
bonnie and the beadwork
kofi, helen and the afia village beach hotel
trad dinner at home of bonnies archeologist friend ben and his wife, justine
meeting folk from ghanian literary community, martina, kobina and them
hope and the nigerians and the bus from lagos
big willie and the south african contingent and experience with south african commissioners
some of the more entertaining personalities among the participants (have to be delicate there)
hanging out with new ren running buddies malaika adero and jacqui johnson
did performance with tyehimba jess on bluesharp: how brer rabbit introduce brer alligator to trouble
daily taxi expenses & oxford streets black africa, a young painter w/parables (i bought 3 of his works)

okay, i know there a lot more but let me run thru kokrobiety institute right quick

interesting place, sustainability is its thing, renee nesbitt its resident visionary, conversation w/her
exposed a performance poet and oldschool radical (panthers, algeria, et al) in a new groove

living her sustainability institute dream (ghana seem to be fertile ground for africanamericans w/a dream)
but too many palf, we overloaded it, they spread us out, folk didnt care for the outside accommodations

main compound cramped folk in little cabanas that would have held 1 easy but held 2 sometime 3, some had communal toilets/shower and the hot water was spotty, damn near campground conditions and a little more regimented than a bunch of writers wanted (for instance that 730 am drumroll for breakfast)

but it was a very engaging little place, right on the ocean, on a rocky mini promenade, good food
very laidback kind of place with meditative nooks, wi fi and interesting sustainability projects

bonnie found herself a little slice of heaven in a homegrown beadmaking factory out back
did a little week apprenticeship with a master that she would have paid good money for

because of overflow, some of us got moved into an isolated house further on down the road but folk
really objected to that house, a big soulless vacation home with in one case 6 people to a room, and the women didnt feel secure isolated from everybody like that

after a lot of drama ended up with me, niq mhlongo and ron grovender in the whole house and me w/a 2nd floor oceanfront balcony

literary heaven

woke up w/the sun and wrote sitting on that balcony
to oceanfront accompaniment

other than student conferences (they had to catch me 1st), lunch and dinner, i disappeared into the far house for the rest of the retreat and it was good,

clocking pages under under ocean front conditions -
thats when im at my best

okay, speaking of pages, only got a 4th of my new draft done and about 30 days before
schoolhouse takes it all, i got to focus and this might be all the reportage i got to give

much less more substantive commentary/
speculation on the mission of palf

martina kept asking why the pan african writers association (pawa) wasnt in the house, told her i didnt
know, wasnt privy to those negotiations, probably turf issues, been running up on those w/established

african/africanamerican literary organizations, got to show more political grace, got to establish working
relationships w/them all, allliance is after all power and pawas mission similar to our own

fellow travelers who believe in the power of literature and consider
each and every writer unto self an army

cultural nationalists trying to empower/save the blackworld
through its literary voices and visionaries - way john o taught me

empower, organize, institutionalize, provide infrastructural space for their development
help them be the cultural forces they capable of being - the forces we need them to be

if you believe in the potential of literature/writers to be historic/cultural/destinic force
then you will understand our commitment to this mission

literary influence is a very nuanced power, but with the proper
nurturance it can be one of the most powerful on the

hoodoo board of destiny

organizing writers (and hoodoos) only
thing im willing to give up writing time for

cause thats the way john killens rolled

got john o on my mind it seems, my boy keith gilyard just sent me his john killens manuscript, keith been working that book long as i been working mine and he moving into closure too, 500 pages of john killens scholarship, the story of babajohn killens, the great griot master of brooklyn, a story that has yet to be told, it was john o installed that commitment to building literary infrastructures in me, im gon read that text this weekend, im honored keith ask me to and hopefully it will inspire me for this last sprint, if keith let me ima do a post on it

when i get some time (joke) i will do a better
and more graceful job of expressing all this

but as for right now
got to get back in my groove

one point before i go, we sat down with the folk from kwani
about a joint palf/kwani conference to timbuktu in 2010

not only timbuktu but kwani too

kwani was and is the inspiration for what we do
kwani is what we want to be when we grow up

to go to timbuktu w/kwani would be a dream come true

stay tuned, if we pull that one off thats gon
be special, be there or be square

im outta here

all my love
rdoc

walking thru the door of no return: elmina and cape coast slave castles

okay, went to the slave castles yesterday, not quite sure what i should say about them
feel like if you cant come strong on the slave castles shouldnt say nothing at all

 i can honestly say they were sobering, made your flesh crawl
when you went down into the dungeons where the slaves

were kept, and through the doors of no return
elmina we went to 1st, and it was this huge maze of an edifice

steps leading nowhere and cul de sacs abound, that door with the skull over it
where they punished recalcitrant slaves by entombing them basically

the governors balcony where he would have women slaves paraded
for his nightly bed choice and the ladder from the slave pens to his bedroom

the diff between the slave dungeons and the airy church right over them
where they would be able to smell and hear them during services

and the even more airy governors bedroom over the church

the door of no return, from which the sea has retreated
and folk, incl myself, took pictures standing in front of it

god knows why

bonnie refused, considered it a sacrilege i believe, she said the castle should be
allowed to rot away, to declare its impermanence, i thought it should stay, a

never again never forget kind of thing
and then there were the hustlers

not so bad at elmina cause the town, a vibrant sprawl i would like to walk thru
was somewhat separate, i did get a new conchhorn from a guy outside

guy knocked out the end right there while i was watching and
now i know how its done, i will show you how he said

i use the conchhorn to open all my performances, like the jews w/the
shofar, i call myself purifying the air and preparing it for my words

call myself calling down the ancestors and whatever
spirits appropriate to the moment, most often the conqueror

thru legba cause in the voodoo tradition whenever you doing spiritwork you ask legba
trickster of the crossroads to open the gate between this world and the spiritworld

for a longtime legba was the only god that made the middle passage to the united states
plenty elsewhere in the americas but in the united states it was the trickster

for many years i called on legba, then i added the conqueror cause this a hoodoo thing
and thats who i serve personally, the african american trickster god, the mighty conqueroo

lord legba, open this gate, it is i rickydoc rootdoctor ask that this gate be
opened this work be done - in the name of the conqueror

sometime i name myself rickydoc trickmaster in that opening but when i do that you
best step back cause that mean im in a take no prisoners state of mind

and most likely Working w/my left hand

i use the conch cause it was used to call the slaves to work in the Caribbean
and was also used by the slaves to call each other to rebellion

and when i blow it i feel like a maroon in the mountains of jamaica or brazil calling on
the slaves to join me in palmares - for those who are enslaved there is always palmares

so i figured a conchhorn from elmina would mean something
its got a good sound too, i thanked the conch who provided it for me

then we went to cape coast, not as impressive an edifice as elmina
but somehow more chilling because the dungeons were even more

depressing holes in the ground

jeff said he read that the floors were found out to be compacted feces
from the slaves who were kept there

it was a brutal experience on many levels, at cape coast i ditched
the tourguide and the group experience and went on my own

the better to feel the moment and it was a stone cold never again downer
and the hucksterism that surrounded it was a downer too

the beggars and the aggressive vendors, calling out rastaman rastaman, respect respect
buy this from me, because you are a blackman, because you have come home

and bonnie got hustled by this guy at the restaurant next to the cape coast
who swore he made his own jewelry and a couple of days later we saw the same pieces

at the local art mart in accra for much less, and when we were in the mens dungeon at capecoast
there was this shrine built there and this guy sitting there on it and some bills on it

and when we went by it all solemn he said you must  leave money in the shrine, which i balked at
as kinda transparent but after bonnie and i left i went back because i wanted a picture of him and the

shrine and told him i would give him a dollar if i could take a picture and he said fine, kinda like
thats why he was there and i figured it was a fair deal and i try to be understanding about folk

needing to make a living and doing what they gotta do but i have since been very dismissive of the hustle

always to the call of rasta rasta, my fellow black man, do this for me because we are brothers
everywhere i go in the blackworld, my dreads are a passport and folk call out to me rasta rasta

respect respect, burning spear

often it is this pan african solidarity thing that really move me, but its just as often a hustle
somebody trying to sell me something, get something out of me, trying to make me feel obligated

i always give love back cause it move me but kinda warily until i determine the motivation
but after being huckstered at the slave castles my patience for the hucksterism short

and sometime i think these the folk that defeated us, sold us into slavery
part of what forged us into a new people, a new tribe, of which i am very proud

i love being african american and wherever i go in the world im proud of being an african american
it is a pride of place that has been accented here in ghana and walking thru the door of no return

peaking at the grave of dubois, he who lived a pan african vision
there is, corny though it be, a sense of having coming home here

and it is still fucking w/my head being in those slave dungeons and wondering what they must
have felt like entombed in those communal graveyards

and i think of all the folk who suffered there, who died there, the folk who died on
thje ships and it make me want to cry even as i sit here writing this

last thing bonnie saw was the suffocation cell, another entombment cell

for recalcitrant slaves, just a concrete box in the ground where they were entombed
and left to suffocate and it left her down

by then she had rejoined the tour and it was the last stop on the tour
but i didnt do the tour, last thing i saw was the door of no return

it was open so i stepped thru and outside there was this vibrant

scene of fishermen coming in at the end of the day
and it was somekind of market thing happening

and there were all these blackfolk and their boats and each boat had a flag flapping in the wind
and stacked high with colorful green fishing nets and it was so vibrant

and full of life and blackfolk taking care of business the beggars and hucksters out front dismissed and it was a kind of still i rise moment

and i think that scene is what im going to try to take away from the slave castles
still i rise

that and my new conchhorn, my call to the ancestors
who didnt make it out of those dungeons

on the opposite side of the door of no return was a sign
saying the door of return, a guesture i appreciated

as i reentered the castle thru it

i thought this i can live with
this i can live with

all my love

rdoc

mission in accra

hello world, let me do a quickie here while i got a computer on hand
forgive the typos, just trying to get in down, clean it up later

been fascinating on so many levels, had way more students than planned
so i took on an overflow fiction workshop

major experience teaching african american and african mix workshop, in 30 years
of workshopping it was a unique experience

had 4 big contingents, ghanians, kenyans, south africans, african americans
had a multiethnic mix of american writers from one world contest

and because conf free to any writer from continent (incl lodging) we had indi writers from
as far as uganda, benin and zimbabwe

but these were the 4 big contingents numberwise and became cultural blocks

many of the ghanians that showed up, the kenyans and the south africans were experienced professionals
but hope brought a busload of earnest beginners from nigeria, some of whom wrote their 1st stories here

so the literary sophistication range among the african contingent was quite wide
with a pretty good contingent of folk whose intiial efforts were very traditionally based

which was so very illuminating in context of the more cosmopolitan african works

it was interesting the tensions between the traditional and the cosmopolitan african works
it was interesting the tensions between the approaches of the different cultural contingents
it was interesting the tensions between the african and african american aesthetics

it was an illuminating experience on a lot of levels
most pertinent to me personally the mix of african and african american

1st off it felt good having a class full of well trained young african american writers

already thats a heady feeling, they had come from various mfa programs and were highly motivated
to have gotten to ghana for this in the 1st place

then we had these african writers coming on strong, some very cosmopolitan, very polished, some very traditional, very earnest and sincere, it was a stimulating mix and all these cultural assumptions came to light and dialogue

african characters in african american works were challened
african american characters in american works were challenged

literary aesthetics were illiminated, different approaches to endgames, use of texture, moral vs emotional resonances - o what a twisty little maze of cross cultural pollination

but i found it to be a very rewarding experience, a workshop when done well
can be a thing of wonder and beauty and illumination and subtle victories

a major literary project is a spiritual journey the writer undertakes
and at the other end of that journey is a new person a new sensibility

and a product one hopes will be a spiritual cultural literary beacon throbbing with vitality
a gift for generations upon generations of folk, something that will serve humanity forever

and if you do a workshop right, if you get that harmony going where everybody growing
aas writers and artists and human beings and yuou get that groove and put

those Works on the right track for literary transcendence and you turn them out
as stronger writers than they were when they came to you a week a semester ago

thjen its a really wonderful feeling a good workshop
is sacred ground

at one point folk were not being quite frank with a beginner, this young sister from benin, cause she was so cool folk didnt want to discourage her and i said no, we cant not say that this consciousness by syntax (dont ask) technique doesnt work when it so clearly and obvioulsy doesnt, thats not fair to her, a workshop is a sacred pact, trhat i will give you the most useful truth/read that i am capable of, got to give young writers the truth as you see it, i dont allow folk to wiggle around the truth

but that truth got to be delivered with absolute love and respect and a sincere desire to help folk get to the next level of their development - workshop you exposing your deepest fears and fantasies, your literary dreams and aspirations, your literary soul, often in an early unformed and vulnerable state

asking folk well what do you think
workshops can exalt, workshops can cripple

i dont allow egotripping, putdowns, showoffs in my workshops
got to ge strictly workshop love and im good at shaping that

got to be absolute desire to help each other be the best writers we can be, cant just tell somebody
something aint working, got to give suggestions how it can work, got to be the best you got to give

thats what i orchestrate to extract from them, i try to get a feel for where folk are as artist and what each one of them needs in terms of content, vision and production skilz and extract from them the best they got to give each other

you orchestrating it all unto growth and illumination and if you get that harmony going where everybody feeding off everybody and you the conductor making the music happen and making it sweet, there is nothing like it

and once again i have committed to helping a bunch of folk get thru cause you cant do nothning in no week, that aint no guidance, not on the real side

but you do these week two week workshop gigs and you commit to help folk get the Projects thru and they be sending you manuscripts but you under the gun like always

you got your students at the schoolhouse and you got the folk you working with in the tradition, yuou got buddys novels you have agreed to read for them, you always got a stack of manuscripts yea high to be read for folk and you kinda blow folk off when they try to stay in touch, send manuscripts, you dont mean to, you just overwhelmed with reading commitments cause you a novelist, you work with novels, big manuscripts, often bad and alwqays big, and you whimpering day and night but i dont have time to get my own work done (o but to be a poet with little bitty works little bitty manuscripts)

but when you doing a workshop and you in the i will help you get thru moment you commiting to read manuscripts left and right knowingt you not going to follow thru on all of them you just cant but once agaqin i have commited to read a bunch of manuscripts

and i told them i said if you email me and i dont get back to you just email me again cause the commitment is there and i will schedule you into the pile i swear

told them i would help them all get thru to the promiseland, which entails if you kinda conscientious about it, reading multiple drafts over the next 4 or 5 uyears, struggling to get them to understand organic paths of growth as writers and artists, helping them mature as craftsfolk, and most important, get them to the point where their novels really say somethjing important enough to break them thru the pack to the literary promiseland

thats such a struggle, you just dont know
that eternal search for significance

its a strange and delicate little commitment where you fiddling with their literary souls and you have to be very careful you dont send them off in a direction that looks right but is actually wrong for them and their best growth as writers, artists and perhaps literary visionaries, you have to step very lightly when you dealing with yuoung lityerary souls

i probably need to tell this student she is more interested in writing political thrillers than she is literary cause i keep giving her advice that leads her toward literary while she keep writing political thriller but thats a major life decision to tell a young writer susceptible to your authority and opinion and im reluctant to get that deep into her destiny

reason she susceptible to my authority, my suggestions, in the 1st place, is because she trust me to give her my best, thats a heavy responsibility

this dynamic is rough on both you and your students and if there is no true commitment there on both ends why put yourself thru it

but whent he commitment is there and the years are fruitful and you break one thru to the promiseland, there is nothing like it

at this stage in the game that means asmuch to me as getting my own Work done

then you got to help them get published, teach them promotional skilz, and hopefully point them onto the path of literary professionalism and even more serendipitous, cultural and literary forces

the ones that hung tough that is, most of them dont, over the years they just drop off by the wayside
i dont blame them, the literary life aint for the faint hearted, and even the ones you do get thru, they dont stay

by then they have grown away from you and they no longer your students and they dont bring their works to you no more and you kinda miss that cause they dont feel like they need you no more and you fear they disrespecting you like the rest of the literary world but you know thats just literary anxiety and insecurity talking and you always got to ignore that, always, and at least its fewer manuscripts to read and thats a good thing thats a very good thing and you are so pleased with them and the tracks they making in the literary world, they no longer students, they peers, forces you have helped unleash on destiny, its all good

well look at the time, where did all this come from
tomorrow elmina castle and cape coast, more magic

this has been an incredible experience,and next year will be better
i suspect jeff is feeling pretty good about it all

suffice it to say that it was a good workshop, it was a good crew and the magic was there and caught up in the magic the moment i told them i would get them all thru to the promiseland and thats what im gon do

im tired already, just thinking
about it im tired

all my love

rdoc