rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

divinations: 2013: cast your vision, young hoodoo, as far as you can see

SATURDAY 2/2

in ohio to do a BHM performance, blues and the struggle again, just did same thing last week
and blew them away, but once again im sitting here just as nervous as i can be, when i get

on stage it will all go away and i will stumble through, youd think id get over the nervous bit but ive
been going over the act over and over and over, at some point i will put it away and just go for it

my lit success class went very well thursday, i came up w/this in part to give my students appreciation
of their legacy, of the folk who have come through and done well out in the world, but its forced me to

read and ponder on their works and im the one coming to appreciate them more, done larmarche, litman
parker and unferth so far, got shope and osondu scheduled

im really looking forward to bringing them all on campus together, ive got to get on the logistics
of that, march 21st be here before i know it, im thinking to invite everybody, make it a party

i got to go, i got to focus, the problem is that there is a whole slew of speakers and performances so i wont

be able to pull off and just kinda settle myself, put myself in a meditative state of mind, ima have to go primadonna on them, im the headliner so ima pull the old dont bother me, im getting in my groove bit

this post is not focused, im distracted - i got to go

it amuse me when folk ask me to do it for free, community folk mostly
i dont do this for the fun of it anymore, its business, community service i will

do it but i dont enjoy it like i did when i was a kid, im good at it so i do it, ive traveled all over the
world on my act, it pays well - and when im in the act itself i am transported and its all good

much as i enjoy climbing into the zone i will be glad when this is over, just aint
the roaddog i used to be  - been on the road this week sun, mon, tue - class thurs -

back on road fri, sat, sun - im stuptified tired, basically on automatic pilot,
but when the bell ring ima do my thing

showtime

 

SUNDAY 1/28

in lewisburg for a BHM MLK dinner presentation on the blues and struggle
been working on my act, i feel pretty good about it, gon be a good show

some guy name peng did this comment for a time mag article on how the repubs
are changing their tune but they arent changing policies that americans reject

ive noted before how they have to lie because if they were honest about what they want
to do to for instance social security and medicare amercians would reject them outright

now we hear they are rigging the VA electoral college, that Jindal the Reformer is
advocating replacing Louisianas income tax with an even more regressive sales tax

and you know they still practicing voter suppression in places where they have full control
i thought this comment summed it up nicely: 

"What's amazing is how many previous news stories failed to point out your basic insights here - that the GOP doesn't plan on reinventing itself at all. It figures that if it can say a few nice things about Hispanics, it can go on ignoring other minorities, other issues, and simply layer on its tactical menu of voter suppression, electoral vote rigging, gerrymandering, and extremism, it can effectively win elections with a minority agenda. It doesn't for a second seem to have a problem with that. And that's the most damning part - that they've simply given up on persuading voters to vote for them based on their policies and are happy to win by any means necessary"

WEDNESDAY

2013 divination, right, like i got time for discretionary anything

tickle me to hear obama step up in his inauguration speech, obama unchained is a hit
w/me - where the barack & michelle action figures at, thats what i want to know

 

 

MONDAY

ive decided to spend a couple of weeks doing a divination for 2013
just what do i see

i hate to let you see me make the ideological sausage, but for you dear regulators, ima keep it real
once its done then ima throw the bones and make it official, but i am more a metaphysician than a psychic

i have to figure stuff out, then we do the magic

so basically what i have to do is develop a divination system
what will be the subject of my throws

lets start with the chapters of the hoodoo book of flowers
initiation
tribulation
lifeworks
the changes
service
empowerment
destinywork
illumination
irie grace

but what about current events, or would that permeate the readings
because im trying to give folk a heads up on what i think 2013 will do

only thing certain is that im going to fuck it up, legba and the random factors ensure surpises
but i want to be a diviner, i want to be a prophet, lets do a little prophesizing, do some divinating

prophesizing always works best when you give yourself a good time span, couple of centuries
one measely year is tricky

so what do i have to take into consideration, the read has to work for the individual
and society at the sametime

okay, i see this is going to get complicated and i dont have time for complicated right now
i got to get thru these applications, get my daily REST 3 in, talk to nina about her manuscript

lets take your 9 movements and just write whatever is in my head about it as a divination
just blowout, see what i come up with, no, not ready for that yet, play w/it some 1st

now you dear regulators will see the process, its not going to be pretty, its going to be shallow and corny
raw and embarassing, but ive decided to work it out here on rootsblog,

as always dear regulators, you see the real deal
the world will only see the final product, clean and sweet

first let me determine what are the most significant trends of the moment
and how do i want to affect them:

obama and the republicans: whats happening, what needs to happen, what will likely happen
the economy and blackfolk, how can we finesse this condition to empower our generations
peace on earth and wars without end: what to do what to do
economic inequality and tempering the rule of the oligarchs: as if that were possible
what about world hunger while you at it rick, why dont you fix that too

ok, this is daunting, the deal is how do you effect real change in the human condition
my primary game is my work, but how will this move play into enhancing the human condition

and enpower the readee

one i got to make folk feel good about themselves, like they have agency in their lives
that this will be a good year for them, no matter what level of the game they are on

i have to give them the ability to finesse the system, a certain understanding, a certain posture
to flourish in the 21st century uniworld culture you have to be able to play the system

or you will be played, but most blackfolk most poorfolk dont understand the system and how to finesse it
oh hell, thinking about how do i do this, i just remembered i got two black history month performances

in about two weeks, both of them theming the blues in struggle, i could do it in my sleep, but that dont
mean im not going to be 200% prepared, when i get on stage i dont want to have to think, i just let myself

go and climb into the moment and ride off the congregation, so that mean i got to be 200% prepared because im going to lose 50% stumbling flumbling and forgetting stuff, let me add that to the pile of to be done

let me just lay out a quick outline of that for myself:

start with how brer rabbit introduce brer alligator to trouble story
seque into trouble dont last always w/a lot of blueswork/baptistpreacher work
seque into folks misconception of the blues as feeling bad, blues about getting thru the blues
seque into the history of the oral tradition carrying the culture and empowering the generations
some civilrights chants, obama, the reelection (one gig is in ohio, yall came thru ohio) and 2013
struggle has come to us, it is our constant companion, we are a people of struggle
then invoke the ancestors: rise up zora neale, rise up martin luther, rise up my people rise up stuff  ebayo
do a little gathering of the 1stborn prophecywork -

closing it down with when the hardtimes come . . . keep on keeping on
weve climbed some difficult mountains you and i but our struggles have always been epic and
we have always overcome - when you need you you call me, i will come
that is all, this spell is done, gods blessing on us all

cool, thats a damn good show, now i just have to rehearse it everyday until it flow w/o friction
and whatever i actually do will be okay, i will forget stuff, misplace sequences, but it

will be okay, the congregation will never know that i actually blew it, they will be amazed
i believe 40 minutes is my timeframe, i will have to check that

okay, back to work, where was i, what factors have to be taken into consideration to do
this yearly divination thing, ima do this everyyear, ive done it a couple of times before

but now ima institutionalize it, maybe set it up over on rootwork.com, i have got to figure
out what to do with that website, ok, gotta gotta gotta - but what i got to do now is my daily REST 3

where was i, helping the dispossed understand how to finesse the system, i know it was the
frustration of trying to change things one by one that lead obama the community organizer to the

presidency, i just was asked to join organizing for america new nonprofit evolution and 1st thing they did was ask me for money, but i saw him setting up his post presidency game some time ago, boy still organizing and i think the best is yet to come

he doing his thing ima do mine, but all i got are words, he got the presidency, i got words
and i wouldnt trade w/him or nobody else, im doing what i was born to do and i feel like

obama must feel, cant nobody else do this like i do it

i have really got to go

i got so much work to do
this post has been a gotta gotta gotta me

but my DAILY 3 is calling me

all my love

rdoc

may the gods of literature be good to us all

SATURDAY 1/19

i dont even remember when that wed i last posted was
schoolhouse got me rolling, already behind, mercy lord

tara books sent me an email saying they were ready to go into production
did i want to make any final changes in the text, i hadnt seen it in months

of course i wanted to make changes, i read thru hoping to dot Is and cross Ts
ended up with a real rewrite,looking at the clock, tick tock, but you know my 1st

novel i remember the last chance i had to make changes i was tired of it and let it
roll but then when it came out i was like damn i shoulda this and shoulda that

i will never make that mistake again, every chance i get to clean
it up i take it full court press - i love making works stronger,

been keeping a steady roll on REST so thats good too, got the following forward from my
agent -she received from editor at a major house and sent it to me, i had told her i didnt

want to see them, they all say the samething - good work but we dont know what to do w/it -

way i deal w/this is to put it out of my head, just keep working
but i guess she thought i needed to see this one:

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

This manuscript has been burning a hole in my bag for several months now. I’ve been carrying it around, reading a few pages at a time, knowing there is something here, but not knowing what to make of it. Most days it demands more than I can give to it at any given hour of this crazy life. I’ve now finished reading—set aside the time, and committed to it at long last. There are flashes of brilliance, a musicality to the language, an emotional truth that cannot be argued with. It’s like a dispatch from another world—a unique lens on the world, lending it depth and sophistication. It is its own thing, has its own internal grammar. I suspect you know this and do not need me to tell it to you.
 
My problem is that I don’t know who the readership is—I don’t know who there is out there to receive this. It is hard to get a foothold in the story, and readers do not have the patience they may have had at some other time. I think that’s one of the themes of the book—the art of patience, of invisible truths. I wonder if there is a way to foreground the story, draw out the narrative spine more, so that the language and themes and all that incantatory wisdom weren’t asked to do so much of the work. I wonder if there is a way to respect the needs of the reader without impinging on the intent of the writer.
 
---------------

another person saying not enough story

interesting i been, among other goals, using this draft to further dramatize the prophetic sequences, which
is partly what i think shes asking about - makes you wish you could go back and say what do you think now,

but thats not how the game is played, you move on

in the rest of the response she asked about this book she heard i was working on, the hoodoo book of
flowers, said she would like to see it when its available, i cant even be mad at her, she got good instincts

she tickle me when she say what reader is going to want to work this hard, i feel like marquez, work hard?
"i gave them a road map" he once said about 100 YEARS, i feel like its crystal clear in its accessibility

but i have been getting that feedback consistently, i recall my 1st novel i just wrote what i had to say
my 2nd i had my readership in mind, i wanted to write something that would move & delight them

something accesible

but i didnt get no literary respect for AGLB, so this one i was like, i will show you, i will show you all, then i been
teaching 16 years now in this MFA program, which i approach as a learning regimen, i know what im doing now

and this one has always been what i thought of as my masterpiece, i tell folk 14 years, but i actually wrote
1st draft in 1990, but i put it down because it was clear i didnt have the chops, or the sensibility i might add

but i always knew that this one was going to be cutting edge readership only, this one im writing for the generations

the big challenge when you got work difficult to wade thru is to make it worth the readers while
i have tried in this work dropping wisdom that aint been dropped, game changing the human condition

and making it an emotionally satisfying journey into the readers own soul
a Work so strong it cannot be denied -

apparently i have not yet succeeded

so we hit it again

i suspect my agent does not agree but its been a blessing to me, being rejected like this, because each time
i hit the novel again, determined to make it that Work it cannot be denied, and its a much better novel now

than it was when i first turned it in, i know ive told you before dear regulators about what babajohn had to
say about leaving the strongest work you can possibly leave behind so i wont go into detail

but like the brer rabbit tales it warms my heart to make a manuscript stronger, its what i live for
not the publishing, thats just part of the process, its producing good work that float my boat

that it will get published eventually is a given
if its good work

and in my deepest literary heart i got absolute faith

every once in awhile i get to feeling buked, bused and scorned, its like i cant even
get the basic respect every other writer get, its like i dont exist sometime far as the

literary world is concerned, but one day, bam, ima hit them with REST FOR THE WEARY
then bam, THE HOODOO BOOK OF FLOWERS - whether im alive or dead dont matter
(except for promotional purposes)

its all good

i gotta go, i got so much work to do

all my love

rdoc

 

 

WEDNESDAY

been enjoying being off the grid, but schoolhouse starts next week, 2013 is officially in play
what ive done is establish a 3 hour morning schedule, which is my basic schoolhouse sch

ive been working hard this last week to get my 3 hour groove on, when you starting it youre cold
and its difficult, then you get the groove, the challenge is to keep it rolling, make it a habit

3 hours my stuff in the morning, rest of the day schoolhouse, and right now my stuff is RFTW
and once again its a good rewrite, a better novel - not that the industry cares, but i do

i know ive told you this before, but i feel kinda blessed they put me on hold, forced me to make it
a better novel, and babajohn used to tell us - leave the best you got to give for future generations

and truth be told i dont really care what happens in my lifetime, i just want to make product, good product

the problem is holding my sch once schoolhouse gets brutal and it will get brutal, it always does
where im backed up reading manuscripts and critiquing them and hitting it day & night

and i got this new forms course im working out, literary success and the art of significance
i want to explore the dynamics of literary success, and using the works of SU MFA alums

came up w/this idea of using my research fund to invite all the folk we will study to speak
to the class, in part to encourage a little cross cohort fertilization, to Work the cuse mob

then i thought to invite them all at once, damn near 15 years of cross cohorting
the only problem is that this sets up a published/nonpublished axis that is not cool

i think i will make this an annual thing, or maybe bi annual, so it doesnt become worn out
maybe every 3 years so everybody gets to experience it once

and invite everybody, all the ALUMs, to the Cuse Mob Gathering, ah flowers, always longgaming
i think maybe you need to chill out and just get thru the semester - so, 3 hours a day from about

3 am to 6 am, then full court press on schoolhouse obligations, its all good long as i get my daily 3
if i dont get my daily 3 the rest of the day falls apart because im thinking Work Rick all day

problem is that when you hit and miss you have to get back into the groove everytime, hit it regular
and the groove is always on, 3 a day keeps the blues away, in the past ive always been knocked off

my game by schoolhouse obligations, but im feeling more desperate, more on, this year, tick tock tick tock

lets do it rick, make it happen - 2012 was a good productive year,

may 2013 be off the chart

may the gods of literature be good to us all