rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

i take what i can get

WEDNESDAY

okay, almost showtime, this panel has become the beast that ate my time
and i will be glad when its over, already though this dialogue has caused

me to raise my game, came up with this course because i had noted that so many MFA alums dont actually
become writers and i wanted to see if dialoguing it would enhance the odds of our students making the cut

so i decided to use the published works of our alums as the texts, been real interesting reading 1st novels
and 1st collections of short stories, some of which i had not read, the students have responded positively

so anyway i got this idea 1st to bring the students we studied on campus to talk to class but when i started
inviting them many could only come during their spring break so i decided to invite them all together

figured we would have a ball, a function at the junction, then started putting a panel together to have them
speak to the whole student body, this proved popular and just got totally out of hand, got 15 folk coming

herding writers is what im talking about, id rather do cats anyday

so they are all showing up for thursday and then i got the idea, cause i dont like to do stuff like this w/o
producing product from it, i got the idea of having them write out their presentation, which means i put

them to work, the presentation is supposed to be on literary success, significance and authenticity
was originally success and significance, because i wanted to focus on a definition of literary success

that was beyond just getting your work published, had to add authenticity because so many of them
had reservations about significance as a matrix, their position is that the focus has to be strictly on the

work and not about its 'significance' - significance is kinda my catchall term for literary ambition
but those pieces and dialogues in class and such caused me to raise my game

one thing, i step out with these big ideas and then i get embarrassed ive violated my think big but
maintain a personal low profile mode, when you aspire to be a prophet and a visionary you dont

want to go around tooting your horn, you egotripping bad enuf by definition, ive found my orchestrations
to be more effective when i maintain a personal low profile and let the Work do the talking

okay, i got to go, just got off the road yesterday and hit the ground running for thursday
assigned everybody in that class responsibilties and they are really stepping up

between all the alums and my current students i am just surrounded with love

i owe apologies to all the prosers who werent invited, with books yet to be, and to all the poets who arent in
the lineup, but i recently convinced sarah harwell to be on the panel and 1 poet is worth 15 prosers anyday

hey what about this youtube of the army corp of enginners doing a
furlough video, its dope (does that still mean cool)

 

arf

 

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY

okay dear regulators, you saw this weeks posts in play, wordage and all
but now im going thru here and tighten it up, cut out the slush, refine it

make it more cryptic, less revealing, lowprofile it

also twitch it to the prophetic

im like the bible, i dont mind making previous posts
sound more prescient than they actually were/are:

21st century stylee

SUNDAY

feeling self conscious about that last post, sometime i get to macking and exposing more than intended
of just how i really think, exposing what i truly think of myself and my aspiration to be historical, destinical

then i feel like im out on a limb and want to draw back into the low profile, but its my nature to play hard
then its a matter of am i willing to endure the embarrassment of letting folk see what i really think

my aspiration to the prophetic
21st century stylee

i do know that if i do not manifest publicly
im letting timidity hamper the game

rickydoc dont play that

rootwork where i let my flag fly

i am a master of the longgame

shaping generations only way you can transform a people - ennoble
a culture - specially a people so deep into the trickbag as we

i got to play hard or i dont even get on the board, its a
vicious circle of seeded realities, easy to get lost but

im the conjureman and im here to play, and i will
with my life determine what it is de high hoodoo do

consider a piece on the longgame, rick

was reading wikipedia on evolution of robinhood mythwork
much more diff to do contemporary mythwork

cause everything a matter of record but de
mythworkers greatest myth always self

all writers are in this life constructing a historical/literary persona
thru their works and the record of their lives

some writers do this very consciously, every word a brick in the wall
every action judged by historical import

o life, said the druidic joyce, i come to experience for the millionth time the immensity of life
and forged in the smithy of my soul the uncreated consciousness of my race"

i bungled that, and dont have time to look up the actual quote but you get the idea, writers shape their myth, mostly
thru their works, to that extent that writers works are significant to that culture to that extent is the writer immortal

i believe in consciously constructing your immortal persona

you know this is going to be an interesting thread but i just dont have time for this: ive said it all before
and lord knows i just dont have time for discretionary speculation today, i do not have it

im underwater

FRIDAY

finally fucking thru those applications, can join the real world again
still got the finalist phase but its the slushwork wear you down

i am so far behind, and next three weeks full court press, AWP, Memphis trek

gathering of the cohorts week after, then end of semester closeout, maymester, chinarun
for which i have to prep for teaching history courses, thats right, you heard me, history

i got to have those lessons plans laid out 1, 2, 3 or i wont be able to experience china for all the prepwork

i dont see any serious noveltime in there
what kind of summer woodshed is that

also trying to mount rootwork press, and
transform my one man act into a production

im talking, dancers, drummers, singers, musicians, video
& multimedia production - de whole shebang

work the kinks out in syracuse, take it on the road
brooklyn academy of music take it full crew

little while back i was on the NYFA folk art panel,exposed to all these
performance groups from panafrican world, all based in NYC

cuban drumgroups, brazilian dancers, haitian this and garafula that
it was a most amazing experience, each one led by some master artist

trying to function as a cultural custodian, my kind of people, and im thinking
if i can organize all those masters into a panafrican performance troup it would

be like nothing else ever before, and it would contribute to my ambition as wouldbe
prophet of the hoodoo way to organize afroam spiritual traditions, but not thru religious

orgs, which is not really my world, but through my fellow afrospiritual artistes, my fellow cultural custodians
and ideological orchestrators, they were all hougans and mambos and the like but they are all artistic

versions, straight religious folk id have to come out of a fundamentalist bag and they would not respect my outlaw ways, but my fellow artistes and cultural custodians, thats my natural consituency, fellow travelers

but to pull it off i got to come full force charismatic on them, cause they each and every players
in their own right and use to being bosses of their own troupes, most likely prima donnas, ima

have to come straight up high hoodoo on them,

same way i was able to position myself as the high hoodoo in the hoodoo world,
i might not be the strongest player on the board - but im the one with the vision

they will understand what im trying to do, they will see

my position is the test of a spiritual tradition is in the condition of its believers, its cultures
by that test afrospiritual traditions have failed, whereever in the world you got blackfolk they

are on the bottom of their respective societies, i believe its because afrospiritual traditions
are archaic and lacking in illumination that they have been so vulnerable to the agggressor

religions of the desert and that they have to be illuminated, empowered and brought up to speed
they will understand what im trying to do, and those that dont i dont need to help me anyway

god, i have so many initiatives in play, and when i get weary i remind myself
that i choose to be a player, aint no sense in me whining about de dues

i suspect for folk like me even death is not restful, i suspect,
title of my novel to the contrary, there is no rest for the weary

truth be told i wouldnt have it any other way, long as im capable ima be kicking it, big
dreams leading the way, long as they big worthy dreams im willing to pay the freight

all my love

rdoc

 

 

THURSDAY  2/19

 

hello world

so when we wrote this book we were very explicit that it was not for the children or young adult market
but ive gotten a lot of play from that market with this book and i will take what i can get

specially when i get reviews like this one from new groundwood edition: i just love that its

with the house of anansi press: anything to do w/anansi is cool w/me:

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

*FLOWERS, Arthur. I See the Promised Land: A Life of Martin Luther King Jr. illus. by Manu Chitrakar. 156p. notes. Groundwood/House of Anansi. 2012. Tr $18.95. ISBN 978-1-55498-328-5.

Gr 7 Up–Who better to give Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life story the full mythopoeic treatment than the renowned African American novelist and performance poet. Flowers’s hyper-vernacular language, swinging rhythms, and conspiratorial first-person tone lend his words a vivacity that is nearly audible. He weaves the entire history of the enslavement of black Americans into King’s story, refers to unspecified gods taking an interest in affairs, and comments on King’s speeches with impressive insight. Brilliant and engaging, Flowers’s composition should be added to the MLK canon. The art is by a scroll painter from a small village in Bengal, India, who had never heard of Dr. King prior to this project. In some ways, this is a successful pairing. The vivid colors and bold forms of Patua are appropriately emphatic, and the naive style matches Flowers’s references to “hoodoo” and his chosen narrative persona, Rickydoc Trickmaster. However, the images are repetitive, and it can be difficult to distinguish individuals. People often appear to be wearing inappropriately peaceful expressions; this, readers are informed in the back matter, is a characteristic of Patua style but might be puzzling for young people. Design also plays an important role. Images are cut into pieces for emphasis, text is artfully placed in blocks that not only enhance readability but also reinforce the counterpoint between narrative and commentary. A colorful and passionate addition to the Martin Luther King, Jr., bookshelf, perhaps best suited to classroom use.–Paula Willey, Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, MD

 

 

i swear fore god and all thats holy i am

FRIDAY 2/15

this is for folk who buy into the romantic of the tuareg fighting for independence
and it speaks to a post i made a week or so ago about islam in africa

could have just as easily said arabs in africa but i decided not to go there

a fortunate decision when noting the more nuanced assessment of tribal dynamics reflected here:

The Sons of the Land”: Tribal Challenges to the Tuareg Conquest of Northern Mali

Timbuktu's Arabs Flee as as Mali Faces Challenge to Create L asting Peace

Why Mali's Tuaregs Are Laying Low

but it was this one in USA today that piss me off:

Mali slavery problem persists after French invasion
Clare Morgana Gillis, Special for USA TODAY February 15, 2013

TOYA, Mali — The insurgents who have fled from invading French troops in Mali have been taking with them some of their most important possessions — slaves.

The Tuareg tribes that overran Mali's military with the help of Arab extremist groups aligned with al-Qaeda have long held slaves and many of the captives are from families that have been enslaved for generations.

"It's no way to live, without your freedom," said Mohammed Yattara, a former slave who ran away from his Tuareg masters years ago.

"You depend on them for everything. If they tell you to do something, you have to do it, or they will beat you," he said as he sat with the chief of the village of Toya and among men and women who were descendants of slaves or former slaves.

"You can marry, but if the master wants to have sex with your wife, he will. Everything that's yours is theirs," Yattara said.

Tuaregs are a semi-nomadic people of North Africa's Sahara desert whose traditional land was divided into several nations, the borders of which were drawn by European colonialist powers.

They predate the Arab tribes that moved into the region centuries ago and in Mali, a former French colony, Tuaregs lived primarily in the north part of the country.

But in March, armed Tuaregs took control of the north from the Mali government and marched south with Islamists aligned with al-Qaeda. They took over the city of Timbuktu and threatened the capital of Bamako. The Islamists imposed strict shariah, or Islamic law, on inhabitants it controlled.

Some Tuaregs took advantage of their newly won control to reclaim freed or runaway slaves, mostly black Africans.

The French military arrived in January and retook Timbuktu from the Tuaregs, who fled into the desert or refugee camps in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mauritania, some taking slaves with them. Tuaregs and Arabs who failed to escape have been summarily killed, activist groups have said.

Human Rights Watch said the Malian army and black African civilians are holding all Tuaregs and Arabs responsible for the recent months of terror and human rights abuses, whether or not they participated in the crimes.

Yattara is one of the few accessible witnesses who was willing to discuss slavery under the Tuaregs.

Like many other residents of his village, Yattara is a farmer in the rice and hay fields in the river's surrounding wetlands.

Each of Mali's dozens of ethnic groups has a traditional occupation, and Yattara is one of the Bella ("slave" in the Tuareg language), the black Africans who have inherited their slave status.

Though slavery was outlawed in 1960, Mali is one of the countries in the world where the practice of human servitude flourishes, with as many as 200,000 Bella living a life of hereditary enslavement.

Not all Tuaregs own slaves, and not all slave owners are Tuareg. There are also black Malian ethnic groups who own Bella slaves.

But in the Timbuktu region, only Tuaregs own slaves. Not only were the Tuareg seen as supporters for the Islamist rebels' harsh rule over the last 10 months, but their slave-owning ways fanned racial animosity in northern Mali.

Like all other slave children, Yattara never went to school, and to this day he is unable to read and write. "But my son is in school now," he said proudly.

Yattara said he believes he is in his early 40s but is not certain of his exact age because Tuareg masters do not file birth certificates. He fled his masters as a young man and during his travels to Senegal and Ivory Coast he discovered that slave-owning was in fact illegal.

"In my father's generation, slaves weren't thinking to be free," Yattara said. "But now there are many slaves who want to be free, and they try to find a way, but they are afraid."

In the Timbuktu region, slaves work on farms or as household servants or shepherds. Deeper in the vast desert of the north, inhabited by Tuaregs and Arabs, the slaves mine salt, a back-breaking task done under the Saharan sun.

Salt is the north's main economic product and black slaves deliver the giant grayish slabs by boat or truck to the black Africans, who then take it to markets in the south.

Yattara and his companions agreed that Tuaregs were the worst slave-masters in Mali.

Yakuba Mohammed Touré, the white-robed village chief of Toya, said the village had always been mixed between Tuareg and other ethnic groups and before the rebels took over Timbuktu they lived and did business together in peace.

"But when the rebels came, we didn't get along with them. They made the women cover their faces and did many things we don't agree with," he said.

"They destroyed everything, even the electricity which brings water to the farms, and the Tuareg worked with the rebels because they are the same ethnic group," Touré said. "If they didn't agree with (the rebels), they would have left."

Yattara lives with his wife Fatimata, herself a descendant of former slaves, and their four children near the Niger River on the outskirts of Timbuktu. His feelings about the Tuareg Malians show that the fighting unleashed last year may have a way to go once the French depart.

"In my life I will never forget what it feels like to be a slave," Yattara said. "Whenever I see Tuaregs I will be angry."

 

 

MONDAY 2/11

 

hello world, old boy feeling a little subdued, struggling w/the page when i can
strange space w/the novel, feeling today like im not going to get any play in my lifetime

maybe never, this whole rickydoc historical figure thing might just be delusional afterall
this novel and my holybook, i pull that off and its all justified, its all real  -  the novel, im satisfied

w/it  -  long as i got it ima keep working on it, making it better, making it dance, but if i was to die tomorrow i
would be okay with it as is -  the holybook, its not real yet, its raw notes - feeling today like okay, what if this

is it, what if this is all the play i get for the rest of my life, what if i am never acknowledged a contender
do i let that fuck with my bedrock confidence in who i am and the role that i play - no, not in the least

the essence of conjuration - conduct yourself as
you aspire to be and you are

in order for me to manifest in the slightest, i have to believe that i am what i say i am, then i conduct myself as if
i were in truth what i say i am - i write as if i were, on projects that manifest the headset - which is the only way i can

remotely ever be the force i claim to be

its a vicious cycle -  but the bottomline is i got to believe with all my heart that i am what i say i am
rickydoc flowers, novelist of historical stature & signiificance, practitioner of literary hoodoo and

wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way - de high hoodoo

thats all

looks a little ambitious when you write it flat out like that

so far reality has denied me

but thats what reality do

ima win this little bout with reality, i swear fore god & all thats holy i am
if i dont win ima die surprised

onliest thing in any doubt is the novelist bit, that to which i have most
devoted my life and only thing i truely fear failing

industry recalcitrance jug at my deepest fear
not that thats gon stop the show, take an act of

god to stop this show

i gotta go, i got so much work to do
& many many wolves howling at de door

thats sara tavares on top, been listening to her, joy
denalane & donald byrd all day, might be why im fey

all my love

rdoc

 

Related articles

The Crisis in Mali: A Historical Background

holywar, 21st century stylee

 

SATURDAY  2/13

hello world, i was recently asked, by an ex afroam muslim what did i
think about the role of christanity, islam and judaism in afroam culture

this was my reply:   ima hoodooman

i see hoodoo as the prophetic tradition of the afrospiritual
family of vodou, santeria, macumba, yoruba, obeah, etc,

i see hoodoo as the indigenous tradition of afroam culture
bastard tradition of a bastard race

the one truely shaped to our souls care & jazzlike way

im attempting to position hoodoo, already outlaw, as
the prophetic tradition in the afrospiritual family

I am not a fan of the aggressor religions of the desert
christanity, islam, judaism - christanity and islam in

particular, have been theives of black souls & bodies &
commit us to worldview often hostile to our well being

islam has particularly aggressive when it come to reaping black souls

a 2000 year jihad has conquered north africa and made it a place hostile to black africans
so recently abused in libya, sudan, mauretania, et al - often by wouldbe arabs black as i am

a reaping of black souls so effective

you have afroam blackfolk adopting the name of mohammed ali - one of the
most prolific slavers and killers of blacks to ever depopulate the sudan

this is an inadequate & unfortunate reading of history

islam must be made to understand that it is a guest in africa and not a conqueror - the states
of the wall, darfur, sudan, et al - must be militarized & able to defend themselves

but even more important afrospiritual traditions and political cultures like that of south sudan must be a
better way (than islam or any other) -  the true battle is always one of grace, which is the better way

I believe the reason that one reason the african way of god has been so vulnerable to
aggressors is because its archaic and out of date, because it is not illuminated

i believe that the test of a spiritual traditions power is in the lifecondition of its adherents, in
the wellbeing of its cultures & communities - the african way of god has failed this test

all thru africa, islam and christanity rule - they are stronger & more institutionalized,
and they are more illuminated - they are a better way

it appear that whereever in the world you got blackpeople they are on the bottom of their respective society - everywhere
cant blame everywhere in the world on nobody but ourselves, somehow someway me must transform into strengths

the weaknesses that have crippled us in global competition - when you talking transforming a people
you talking longgame, you talking generations, you working souls, you working cultures - rootworking

i got to transform the souls of black people - through the illumination and empowerment of their spiritual traditions

de old conjureman gon to be conjurating

i dont believe that soulwork doable by conceding their allegiances to conquering ways
in particular ones that have so often been hostile to our well being and empowerment

much as i like hinduism, im conscious of the caste systems oppression of da dravidians
instead of contributing black souls to the empowerment & illumination of other systems

i want to empower and illuminate the african way of god, make it competitive in the
great destinical game of ideological orchestrations - the hoodoo board of destiny

which is why im trying to position hoodoo as the prophetic tradition in the afrospiritual family
which is why I'm trying to do a hoodoo holybook based on afroam history, culture and destiny

one hopefully that will inspire & call upon generations of humanity to always strive to

be greater than they are

it must be a better way

it is my mission as a contemporary hoodooman and wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way to take the african
way of god (and hoodoo) to the next level, to make it pertinent to a 21st century sensibility, something we can

Really use in our mission to transform ourselves and our generations into a people of illumination & power

healthy, wealthy and wise

i firmly believe in folk believing what they want to believe and when the plane dip i still call on jesus

but far am  im concerned its holywar - 21 century stylee