rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

friends, grad intros and the wayward children of saraswati

MONDAY

well, i think i saved the friendship, touch and go

i like mary g - she so different, so intense - lesson learned
about blogging w/o restraint

i do so love to comment on literary matters and literary folk but .....
its is too often a betrayal of confidence - once read somewhere that writers

betray family/friends as a professional obligation
but friends dont come easy to me at this age

went to bob gates retirement party yesterday, we got to musing on friendship

time the only judge i guess

alex yates introduced me to his parents as a recluse, arthur a recluse,

once this novel done i will have more discretionary time - i swear

caught up in the spirit, i went to the grad grad party, there i
was way past my bedtime, trying a jello shot (awful)

enjoyed myself but didnt stay but about an hour, it was past my bedtime

these grad intros are supposed to intro our thesis students but i always use the op to fortify them

for the road ahead, literary world a rough row to hoe - you got to believe

stuck that wayward child of saraswati on vins at the last moment, i figured her parents would appreciate
that one, made a big hit when her mothers name turned out to be lakshi (sp)

okay rick, lets get busy, im kinda scared but i always am at the start of a woodshed
its like okay, this time we will prove once and for all that i just dont have a novel in me

but who cares, im going to write thru that, aint nothing stopping this dog and pony show

all my love

rdoc

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

ALEX INTRO

I did a post recently on my blog about students making the cut. Some folk interpreted it as a lack of faith on facultys part and that was not the case.  Want to clarify that.

Some students responded to my post with dismay and crises of confidence, some responded with the proper literary response – which is forget you sucker, i will show you, i will show you all,  this is the proper literary response to everything, victories, defeats and setbacks - renewed commitment, work harder, work smarter. If you cant do it for yourself do it for us.  Because you are our legacy and at this stage in the game your success is as important to us as our own.

This question of who will make the cut is a preoccupation if not an obsession with mfa faculty cause day and night we pondering how to get as many of you through as possible.  The brutal truth is that most mfa students dont become writers.  And if we haven’t made that clear to you weve been remiss.

most folk just give up at some point, a couple of years out the program, some rejection, life constantly
saying you dont have time for that dream, folk start falling by the wayside -  oh they still calling themselves writers, they still working more or less, but that ruthless focus, that ruthless determination, that daily grind of production, they gradually let that fall away.

Point of that post was do not go out there half stepping.  The literary world will eat you alive.  If the odds scare you you dont need to be in this business.  Got to be a bulldog you want to make it in this world.

Buddy of mine once told me every dog has its day but its the bulldog get the weekend.

Alex Yates is a bulldog.  Alex Yates so serious about this he scare me. Alex Yates is a professional, got the vision, got the craft, got the commitment, a writer so powerful he makes it look easy and we know its not.  Alex like to work out there on the cutting edge, thats where he find his groove, not many writers could pull of wise cracking fighting roosters and earthquake prone diplomats with such a fine tuned sense of whats real, Alex Yates is fearless,  Alex Yates is not afraid to take chances with his work, but they are chances that are precisely calibrated and done so with an impeccable authority, I have grown in my interaction with Alex Yates and I can give no greater compliment. More than a student I consider him a colleague, I consider him a friend.  I hate to see him go, I really really do.

I got mad love in my heart for Alex Yates and what he does.  Feel almost guilty unleashing him on an unsuspecting world.  But not on you.  Show some love.  Cause.  Bulldog Yates is in the house.

 

VINI INTRO

Let me give a quick out shout out to Mary Cap.  It means so much to us to have Mary come through.  Mary Cap’s nurturement of this cohort remind us why this program so special. 

Every year we get about 300 fiction applicants from which we choose 6, me and george we always looking for that little extra something that say this one special, this one got something to say, got a unique way of saying it

That little extra something something that is in many ways indefinable.  That little extra something something that makes literature literature.  When you choosing 6 out of 300, all our folk special, all of them contenders.  But Vin.  Vin something else.  Vin like some kind of archtypic storyteller.  Vini is in the most sacred sense of the word, a storyteller born.

From gathering the tribe around the sacred fire to the nobel prize, in our mythic heart of hearts, writers are storytellers.  Masters of the narrative, custodians of the human condition. Stories are one of humanitys most fundamental way of making life mean something.

There is an art to telling stories that stories that matter, stories that count.  They dont come easy.  They cost you.  So many mfa writers come out talented technicians but they got no heart.  They write      exercises.

Other day Vin tells me she has had a creative breakthrough,  Im not going to be so eloquent she tells me.  Yeah right.  Not gon happen.  I know where she coming from, sometimes her words run away with the story.  Vin love words and language as only a master craftswoman can.  They are her servants, her lovers, her children, her creations, magical confabulatory edifices that will exalt your soul and break your heart in the space of a sentence.   In the space of that precisely chosen word at that precisely chosen moment.   Not be eloquent?   ask the sun not to shine, ask the rain not to fall, but dont ask Vin not to be eloquent.

Vin like to play.  Play with words, play with the border between whats real and whats fiction.  But Vins curse, Vins blessing, is she like to play with souls.  Vin not happy unless she in the danger zone.

Vins work got heart.  Vins characters reek of heart, often broken with loss, often losing body parts piece by piece, disappearing on the page, but as they lose their bodies their essence appears.  Vins stories engage the human condition at its most essential.  Vin tell stories like they meant to be told. 

Not easy being a writer.  Ive been taught that literature is a sacred calling, that writers are Gods assistants on the planet.  That this power we wield is a major responsibility.  That in many ways the human race the human condition, depends on us.

o life say the druidic james joyce, I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul, the uncreated conscious of my race.

Thats what Vin do.  Storyteller.  Capital S.  Forging visions from the raw matter of her soul.  This wayward child of Saraswati

Ive never read anything by Vin that wasnt unique, that wasnt special.  Vins stories are always a revelation.  Vins work reminds us that its a rough world out there and humanity will always need stories.  To help them make sense of this thing life.  This     immensity.  Humanity will always depend on stories that come out of the sacred responsibility real writers bear.

And as long as we got storytellers like Vini coming out of this program, we will always be something special. Its been an honor working with her.  Been a revelation.  Thats my girl, love her fiercely. 

This is always a bittersweet day.  But introducing Vin make me feel so good I feel love in my heart for everybody today.

May the Gods of Literature be good to her.  May the Gods of Literature.  Be good to us all.

soul doctor or soul taker, making the cut vs sending them to the slaughter

WEDNESDAY

is it wednesday already

cartoon from new yorker, it was a dark and silly night, gahan wilson meets neil gaimon:

SATURDAY

im not supposed to take whole pages of websites but im taking this one
this is some place selling saraswati icons so maybe they wont mind the free publicity

i fell in love with saraswati while i was in india recently, was in calcutta during her day
and got invited to a saraswati puja and did my performance thing on her day and folk

kept telling me you one of saraswatis folk, that fusion of word, knowledge, music and spirit you try to do,

that shabby but sincere attempt at wisdom, had

a really magical day wandering about new market that day and folk were devoting her all day
and she came to mean something to me, ive added her to my personal pantheon, let me see

my personal pantheon, a hoodoo nine, would be (this changes according to my mood)

highjohn the conqueror
olodummare
legba
oshun
yemeya
gullah jack
marie leveau
shango
babajohn killens
saraswati

okay okay, so math is not my thing, that might have been 10

i dont know if that holds, i had to leave a lot out
ima have to work on this concept some more

my true pantheon is 81 hoodoo haints (9 x 9)
but this im thinking as my primary personal pantheon

but what about john henry and ogun and my father and david walker
i really should have davidwalker instead of gullah jack, cause he the one

i model in terms of my service, my appeal to the colored peoples of the world
his attempt to set up an underground distribution system among the slaves

thats my boy

but saraswati my girl, too, i put her up there with oshun and yemaya

i tell you being a citizen of the world can be confusing sometime

all my love

rdoc

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

Hindu Goddess Saraswati the Goddess of Wisdom

Saraswati the goddess of knowledge, who is praised by the wise, who is the wife of the creator, may she reside on the tip of my tongue.

Saraswati, goddess of knowledge and the arts, embodies the wisdom of Devi.  She is the river of consciousness that enlivens creation; she is the dawn-goddess whose rays dispel the darkness of ignorance.  Without her there is only chaos and confusion.  To realize her one must go beyond the pleasures of the senses and rejoice in the serenity of the spirit.  Saraswati wears neither jewels or paints herself with bright colors.  The white sari she adorns reflects her essential purity, her rejection of all that is base and materialistic. She transcends the cravings of the flesh and rejoices in the powers of the mind as the patron of pure wisdom.  She embodies all that is pure and sublime in Nature.

The four Vedas, books of universal knowledge, were her offspring.  Her mount, the swan, personifies pure knowledge and her herald, the peacock, is a symbol of the arts.   Schools and libraries are her temples; books, pens, all tools of the artist and musical instruments are the items used in puja to the enlightening goddess of wisdom.

The Birth of Saraswati In the beginning there was chaos.  Everything existed in a formless, fluid state.  “How do I bring order to this disorder?” wondered Brahma, the creator.  “With Knowledge”, said Devi.  Heralded by a peacock, sacred books in one hand and a veena in the other dressed in white Devi emerged from Brahma’s mouth riding a swan as the goddess Saraswati. “Knowledge helps man find possibilities where once he saw problems.”  Said the goddess.  Under her tutelage Brahma acquired the ability to sense, think, comprehend and communicate.  He began looking upon chaos with eyes of wisdom and thus saw the beautiful potential that lay therein. Brahma discovered the melody of mantras in the cacophony of chaos.  In his joy he named Saraswati, Vagdevi, goddess of speech and sound. The sound of mantras filled the universe with vital energy, or prana.  Things began to take shape and the cosmos acquired a structure: the sky dotted with stars rose to form the heavens; the sea sank into the abyss below, the earth stood in between. Gods became lords of the celestial spheres; demons ruled the nether regions, humans walked on earth.  The sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned, the tide flowed and ebbed.  Seasons changed, seeds germinated, plants bloomed and withered, animals migrated and reproduced as randomness gave way to the rhythm of life.

Brahma thus became the creator of the world with Saraswati as his wisdom.

Saraswati was the first being to come into Brahma’s world.  Brahma began to look upon her with eyes of desire.  She turned away saying, “All I offer must be used to elevate the spirit, not indulge the senses.”

Brahma could not control his amorous thoughts and his infatuation for the lovely goddess grew.  He continued to stare at Saraswati.  He gave himself four heads facing every direction so that he could always be able to feast his eyes on Saraswati’s beauty. 

Saraswati moved away from Brahma, first taking the form of a cow.  Brahma then followed her as a bull.  Saraswati then changed into a mare; Brahma gave chase as a horse.  Every time Saraswati turned into a bird or a beast he followed her as the corresponding male equivalent.  No matter how hard Brahma tried he could not catch Saraswati in any of her forms.

The goddess with multiple forms came to be known as Shatarupa.  She personified material reality, alluring yet fleeting.

Saraswati Curses Brahma   Angered by his display of unbridled passion Saraswati cursed Brahma, “You have filled the world with longing that is the seed of unhappiness.  You have fettered the soul in the flesh.  You are not worthy of reverence.  May there be hardly any temple or festival in your name.”   So it came to pass that there are only two temples of Brahma in India; one at Pushkar, Rajistan and the other in Kumbhakonam, Tamil Nadu.   Undaunted by the curse, Brahma continued to cast his lustful looks upon Saraswati.  He gave himself a fifth head to enhance his gaze.    Bhairava, Shiva, Confronts Brahma Brahma’s action motivated by desire confined consciousness and excited the ego.  It disturbed the serenity of the cosmos and roused Shiva, the supreme ascetic from his meditation.

Shiva opened his eyes, sensed Saraswati’s discomfort and in a fit of rage turned into Bhairava, lord of terror.  His eyes were red, his growl menacing.  He lunged towards Brahma and with his sharp claws, wretched off Brahma’s fifth head.  The violence subdued Brahma’s passion.

Brahma’s cut head seared through Bhairava’s flesh and clung to his hand sapping him of all his strength and driving him mad.  The lord of terror ranted and raved losing control of his senses. Saraswati, pleased with Bhairava’s timely action, rushed to his rescue.  With her gentle touch she nursed him like a child, restoring his sanity. Brahma, sobered by his encounter with the Lord of terror sought an escape from the maze of his own desire.  Saraswati revealed to him the doctrine for his own liberation.  Brahma sought to conduct a yagna, fire sacrifice, to cleanse himself and start anew.  In order to conduct a yagna ritual the assistance of a wife is needed.  Brahma chose Saraswati to be his wife and thus they were reconciled.

Saraswati, her Veena and the song of the Gandharva The Gandharvas were demigods who sprang from the fragrance of flowers.  Once they stole the Soma plant whose inebriating and invigorating sap was much sought after by the devas.  The theft of the Soma infuriated all the gods. Saraswati promised to recover the soma plant.  She went to the garden of the gandharvas and with her veena created enchanting tunes: the ragas and the raginis. “Give us this music,” begged the gandharvas. “Only if you give back the Soma plant to the devas,” said the goddess. The gandharvas returned the Soma plant and learned how to play music from Saraswati.  In time they became celestial musicians whose melodies had more power to rouse the mind than any intoxicant.

Saraswati Outwits a Demon

A demon practiced many austerities to appease Brahma.  The demon sought to conquer the three worlds and the gods feared that he may ask a boon that would make him invincible; the gods sought the help of the goddess Saraswati.  The goddess sat on the tongue of the demon so that when it was time to ask for a boon all he could say was, “I would like to never stay awake.”

“So be it,” said Brahma.

As a result, the demon wanted to conquer the three worlds ended up going to sleep forever.

Saraswati, Lakshmi and Brahma Brahma created the universe with the help of Saraswati. Brahma was the guardian of the cosmos.  He too needed Saraswati’s support to sustain the cosmos.  Using her knowledge he instituted and maintained dharma, sacred laws that ensure stability and growth in society. Brahma also needed the help of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, who gave him the wherewithal to ensure cosmic order. The question arose: who did Brahma need more?  Lakshmi or Saraswati?  Wealth or knowledge?  The goddesses argued, “Knowledge does not fill an empty stomach.” Said Saraswati.  “Wealth keeps man alive but gives no meaning to life.” Said Saraswati. “I need both knowledge and wealth to sustain the cosmos. Without knowledge I cannot plan.  Without wealth I cannot implement a plan.  Wealth sustains life; the arts give value to life.  Thus both Lakshmi and Saraswati are needed to live a full life. Saraswati Saves the World from Shiva’s Third Eye and the Beast of Doom Shiva was woken from his meditations and looked around to discover a world on the brink of corruption and being unsalvageable.  Shiva decided it was time to wipe the slate clean.  Shiva, the destroyer, opened his world destroying third eye attempting to destroy the three worlds..  Out came a terrible fire that threatened all existence. There was panic everywhere.  Only Saraswati remained calm.  “Shiva’s fire burns only that which is impure and corrupt.” She took the form of a river and with her pure waters picked up the dreaded fire from Shiva’s third eye.  Within the folds of her water she carried the fire far away from the earth to the bottom of the sea where it transformed into a fire breathing mare called Badavagni – the beast of doom. “So long as the world is pure and man wise, this terrible creature will remain on the bottom of the sea.  When wisdom is abandoned and man corrupts the world, Badavagni will emerge and destroy the universe,” foretold the wise goddess.

FRIDAY

okay, basically killing this post, it caused a friend of mine a lot of unnecarray grief
behind my own preoccupation with who will make the literary cut among my students

this is an ongoing obsession of mine but speculating about it online caused unnecssary grief

for which i apologize - way i told it and it was received made it sound like my colleague
was dismissive of their chances, which is not the case, and speaking about the odds dismayed some

i should have been more discrete in my blogging, this question of who will make the cut is

its something mfa faculty struggle with daily, how to get as many thru as possible - what do this one need

so much of the literary life is sheer endurance, an almost psychotic unwillingness to take a no

a bind faith in the value of good work, no matter what the industry or the literary world says

ive worked with folk that no matter how hard you work with them they just never get past shallow work

they are just incapable, and even folk doing good work fall by the wayside cause the industry is ruthless

is it better encouraging them knowing that most of them wont make the cut, or should i disencourage somebody who just might have it in them down the line

this is something that comes up often as a hoodoo practitioner, as a soul doctor, as a teacher

you tell a young writer, oh you not a realistic writer, you need to write surrealism, thats your strength
you tell a young writer, o, invest the next 5 years of your life on a novel, knowing that most of them wont follow thru

as a hoodoo you tell somebody come to you w/an abusive spouse, oh this is no good, leave that person - or stay with them, whatever -
whatever advice you give affects their lives, specially if they really trust you, and the tradition, to help them, to care

i try to avoid taking control of folks lives, i try to lay out the options and let them decide but the role (teacher, hoodoo) is fundamentally one of guidance

the question i have to constantly ask myself is - are you a soul doctor or a soul taker
cause thats what i do, i handle souls, and im good at it - i shape souls

i strive with all my power to avoid taking souls, i consider it an abomination of the power to take souls
but thats what i do on a regular basis - deciding what i think people need to best evolve on their chosen life path

as a hoodoo im constantly giving folk life advice,

as a teacher im constantly giving folk life advice - and grading them on how well they take it,

its a daunting responsibility sometimes, taking care of folks souls

thats why rickydoc believe souls should always be handled with a very light hand

okay, ive just twisted myself up into a no win hole here, will have to refine this post when i get a moment

i will continue to encourage young writers, its what i do, but i will constantly make it clear, the odds are against you

your call

all my love

rdoc

babajohn killens and the garden of literature: a space where writers grow

THURSDAY

hello world, my apologies to all the folk ive made feel bad lately
cause i been complaining so about reading other folks manuscripts

 not really your fault, im just feeling kinda frustrated right now
and fear that ive blown my end of the year woodshed

i think im going to take a hiatus from blogging for awhile

im in a funky state of mind and probably not nice to be near

heading for the delta soon to do the family thing, stalling now trying

to get a couple of days work in before getting caught up in family drama

old boy in a really funky state of mind, aint gon be of much use to nobody if i dont clock me some pages

the 20th, god help me - at about 5 pages a day i could be 100 pages deep into novel

well i got about 20 days left, if i overdrive maybe i can make those up

not likely not when i got to get on the road to memphis

not very damn likely but i got to try, lord knows i got to try

its kinda interesting how very little i care about obama these days

after all that immersement during the campaign,

im gone

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

i dont have a chance in hell - not a chance in hell

i m redpenning finally but there is no way i will have this whole draft done by jan 7th or so

just no way - the rule is no manuscripts after dec 1st, that gives me a whole month

for the year end woodshed - but this year i kept making exceptions and just now starting
on my push and already its the 20th - what happened to my woodshed

there is no way in hell ima do this, im still going to try and hope for a woodshed miracle, where
i find the zone and just clock pages like a madman but i dont have a lot of hope for this

ima do what i can, but i see im going to have to pull back from discretionary manuscripts

and from any ancillary activity, like that publishing initiative, what was i thinking

if i want to finish this novel ima have to get more ruthless with my time

ohwell, inch by inch and step by step

i believe this call for my boy george hunts bluesworks, cause thats what i got

old boy has got the frustration blues

im outta here

rdoc

TUESDAY

been almost a week, did you miss me, that tina lee seem to be able to wrap
me around her literary finger, tina told me to get back on it w/my posts

and so here i am, i will try tina but im not really feeling it
finally got thru those manuscripts, still got a couple left

but anything i havent done will have to wait until next year
time to get back in the saddle w/novel, i got about 4 weeks i can focus

oops, not counting family holiday time (take a week, that leaves 3)

went to brooklyn for new ren this weekend, took my manuscript, had a few waits
got busy with the redpen, a section i thought needed longhand but redpen got me thru

trying to longghand when i should have been redpenning is part of why i didnt get any work done last week, that and manuscripts

sorry, went jargon on you, redpen, longhand, let me explain some literary tech according to rick

redpen is when you are going thru revising the manuscript with pen in hand, pen on paper,

early stages i can do online but as a passage start really taking shape only hardcopy will do,

its like you got a more intimate relationship with it or something
(dont ask me, its the creative process, it has its own rules)

this draft im doing now mi supposed to be redpenning but sometime you reach a section so bad its got to be rewrote, the dreaded raw manuscript, thats the worst, raw manuscript

so you go either into keyboard or longhand - there are it seems
three modes of production, keyboard, redpen and longhand

trying to do one when you should be doing another is one of the reasons for the dreaded writers block

a week when life is really pressing me is about the most time i will allow myself to not be productive

and its rare that i allow more than a couple of days go by unwrote

now raw manuscript is best done keyboard, when you need bulk words and not worried about the quality
thats when you just need building material, you just looking for something to work with

longhand is generating raw manuscript when you really need the words to work, you doing bulk but it needs the attention longhand gives, longhand is when you want the brain to play while you write

keyboard you moving so fast you not thinking, longhand you moving so slow your brain has time to play

but the drawback is its slow, its very slow, and you often have to do it over and over, longhand, redpen, longhand redpen, until a passage actually works - at least for the moneydraft

redpen is when you have manuscript and its good enuf that you just making changes
(lately ive been using rollerballs of various colors because i dont know i just like to play i guess)

then one day you have all the sections done and its time to redpen the whole novel, (its taken me something like 8 years to get to this point, sometimes that fact just astounds me)

so then you start brutalizing thru, the goal is to do the whole thing, do not get stuck, do not allow it

the 1st redpen (2nd too) is brutal, what we call bleeding all over the page, but this is the one that makes the draft real because you dont move forward until what you have works

its brutally slow but you see the real novel taking place then (you keep on redpenning drafts until you can read it without cringing, then you got a novel)

so im in the 1st brutal redpen of what i hope is the moneydraft, get thru this one and i got a novel, finally

still weak, but real - a novel

take about 4 redpens before you really got a smooth novel but each one get easier

and easier until you just working the poetry, where one word one phrase will add layers of meaning,

god its sweet then, thats when you enjoy being a novelist, cause then after all these years the novel finally works and you just making it better, thats when you relax finally cause if i die tomorrow this novel is good enuf that  i can live with it,

or die with it as the case may be

and arthur flowers will have finally lived up to his literary potential

thats where i will be if i get thru this redpen draft in next 4 weeks

o its showtime

i had a pretty productive semester actually, cause redpen you can do it in snatches
but these last couple of weeks been semester closure and wading thru manuscripts

im burnt out on other folks manuscripts, folk dont want to hear their manuscript dont work

old days i sugarcoated my critiques more, these days i find myself more ruthless in the telling,

feel like im burning up my own writing time helping other folk and i just dont have time to play

ima tell you whats real and if you not interested, thats cool w/me

lets both of us go on about our business

cause ima desperate man, dont know about you but ima desperate man

and this is desperately real to me

literature is a sacred thing

babajohn taught me that helping other folk make books is a sacred calling too

but none so sacred as making my own

closing down rickydocs manuscript advisory shop

showtime for a desperate man

really wandered about on this post didnt i, sorry but this all thats in my head now, how to get some

work done, how to most efficiently use this window of production opportunity, thats all life is for a writer

but i feel like these posts cant all be me pondering process, feel like i owe you some quick commentary:

so the guy who threw his shoe at bush has become a hero all across the east - feels kinda fitting
somehow, sad but fitting, the absolute contempt lionizing him reflects is sobering

obama need to be inaugurated w/the quickness -

okay, this is obviously rote, im just not feeling it, i got to clock me
some pages, god im feeling so desperate you just dont know

ima try to give you a little something every day, my number fell over the last week damn near
by half -  its like being a shark in the water, post or die, but i can handle number drops, so what

what i cant handle it seems is tina jacking me up, i will try harder to maintain o loyal regulators

but truth be told, old boy going into the woodshed now

and im not reallly that into you

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

so i been reading where the industry going thru contractions

so ive always wanted as part of the new ren movement to have a publishing

capability for literature the industry say no to that deserve to live

so i run some things by new ren, ask if we should consider the possibility

so i ask malaika adero for advice, told her im thinking quality book

every once in awhile - high production quality, high literary quality

works that deserve to live, nonprofit i say

she say we dont need no more beggars, we need businesses

that make sense to me but when she start running down the necessities i realize

thats not gon happen, dont have time for all that, aint got time to run no publishing business

i see what haki has done with third world and im thinking haki did it, i see it can be done,

maybe when i was younger maybe not - i know i am not willing to invest any of my dwindling

years into running no publishing business, thats a joke

but i am willing to invest in extraordinary works of literature that deserve to live

im willing to give that a little attention you see what im saying as little as humanly possible

ima see what new ren got to say, if they aint feeling it i aint feeling it

id like to just keep getting my own work done thank you, i aint got time for diddly

let somebody else do the organizing, im retired, im just responsible for vision these days

but god knows i like being a leader, and leadership has certain responsibilities

certain calls for initiative and sometime sacrifice

for a literary crew to have publishing capability is a sweet move no matter how you look at it

cause im also looking at this in terms of new rens work

of taking the literary destiny of our tradition into our own hands

and not being totally subject to the whims of the industry and the

gateskeepers

man that thought feels mighty fine

that feels mighty fine

this newsletter just got sent out by qbr for harlem book fair - lot of good literary intell

i see they moving on the publishing thing too, different orientation same game

african american lit seem to be making some moves

got me sniffing the air, i hear warhorns blowing

rdoc

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

QBR/Harlem Book Fair Newsletter - December 2008

 

QWIRED  

Contents:

1.  What's Inside (HBF 2009 Vendor Application; Ready to Publish; Seminars)

2.  Bookmark This! (Upcoming Events)

3.  EDGE: View & Reviewed (George James; Toni Morrison)

4.  Notable (Walter Mosley - The Tempest Tales)

5.  Resources, Writing Grants & Awards

 

SPREAD YOUR WORD!
To see your announcement in an upcoming issue of Q-WIRED send a detailed
e-mail to [email protected]

 

1. What's Inside

n  A Try-It-For-Free Picture Book. Our mission is to keep you apprised of some of everything that is going on in the black book world. If we can't provide it, we'll direct you to it. We always frame o! ur editorial content with opportunities that we uplift, entertain, and inform. From writer's resources to reader getaways, there will always be something there to get your attention...like this: Feeling sentimental? Grab your favorite photos, add a story or two, bind it in a book, and share those stories forever.

http://inkubook.com/harlembookfair/Default.aspx

 

n  Are you ready to publish? QBR presents the perfect solution for talented and dedicated writers like you who are just waiting to publish: HBF Publishers. Within our supportive community, you can publish books that ! reflect your life in your own voice. Whether you're a first time or prolific author, you're invited to stand up as one of many who share a unique, diverse but united experience. See how it works. http://www.hbfpublishers.com

 

n  The 2009 Harlem Book Fair Exhibitor Application is now online! Our early registration prices are a steal and space will be limited this year. We will look to focus more closely on including every segment of the reader market next year. This means there will be spaces allocated for each genre (so we can include a wider ran! ge of books!) Absolutely first come, first served. Register early!!!

http://qbr.com/page14123.asp

 

n  For The Writer in You. HBF Publishers is now offering writers professional advice on how to successfully and profitably bring their work to publication. Lead by noted writing and publishing professionals, our seminars provide detailed, step-by-step instruction and support. All seminar participants receive manuscript review, have the opportunity to publish with HBF Books or HBF/WORD, our poetry imprint, and receive individualized promotional and marketing support for th! eir title upon publication with HBF Publishers.

http://www.qbr.com/page13805.asp

 

 

2.  Bookmark This! (Upcoming Events)

The Dallas African American Read-In celebrates family reading and learning, particularly books written and illustrated for younger readers, said Carla Ranger, executive director of DCCCD's office of educational partnerships and founder of the Dallas African American Read-In. "Through the read-in, we share the joys of literature and the legacy of African-American writers with members of the community, creating a celebration of families and friends, based on books, stories, poetry and essays."

http://www.readin.dcccd.edu

 

The National Black Book Festival (NBBF) is an annual event, sponsored jointly by Cushcity.com, the world's largest African-American retailer online, and the Houston Black Expo, the largest African-American tradeshow in the state of Texas.  The event is held in conjunction with the Houston Black Expo and attracts a wide array of authors, publishers, book clubs, libraries and individual readers from the Southwest U.S. and nationwide.  NBBF 2009 will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Texas.

http://www.nationalblackbookfestival.com

 

 

3. EDGE: View & Reviewed

Interview: Author George James on Surviving Abuse; Finding Love
Feature: Dr.Ononye Tess Onwueme, recipient of the Harlem Book Fair Flora Nwapa Literary Award on The Dream-Weavers and Quilters 

Featured reviews:    

Fiction: A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Nonfiction: Before the Legend: The Rise of New Kids on the Block and a Guy Named Maurice Starr: The Early Years: An Unauthorized Biography by Tony Rose

Poetry: Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems by Cornelius Eady

Children/YA: 12 Brown Boys by Omar Tyree

http://www.qbr.com/default.asp

 

 

4. NOTABLE
The Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley  

Mistaken for another man, wily Tempest is "accidentally" shot by police. Sent to receive the judgment of heaven he discovers his sins, according to St. Peter, condemn him to hell. Tempest takes exception to the saint's definition of sin; he refuses to go to hell and explains that he, a poor Black man living in Harlem, did what he did for family, friends, and love.

 

Should Tempest continue his refusal, Heaven will collapse thereby allowing hell and its keeper, the fallen angel Satan, to reign supreme. The only solution: send this recalcitrant mortal back to earth with an accounting angel, whose all-important mission is to persuade Tempest to accept his sins and St. Peter's judgment.

 

In this episodic battle with heaven and hell for his ultimate destiny, Tempest also takes the reader on a philosophic and humorous journey where free will is pitted against class and race--and the music of heaven is pitted against the blues.

http://www.blackclassicbooks.com/servlet/Detail?no=95

 

 

5. Resources, Writing Grants & Awards

 

YOUR GUIDE TO WRITING CONTESTS: The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year.

http://www.pw.org/grants?apage=*&

 

 

n n n n n n

NEA TRANSLATION FELLOWSHIPS
Deadline: January 9
The National Endowment for the Arts grants $12,500 to $25,000 to
translators of poetry and prose. For more information, visit
http://www.nea.gov/grants/APPLY/LitTranslation/index.html

n n n n n n

POETRY RESIDENCY
Deadline: January 15
The University of Mississippi gives $1500 and a one-month residency to
a poet working on a manuscript. For more information, visit
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/mfa/SPiR.html

n n n n n n

AWARD FOR STUDENTS
Deadline: January 15
The Hurston/Wright Foundation gives $1000 to recognize excellence in
fiction writing by a student of African descent enrolled full-time in a U.S.
college or graduate school. For more information, visit
http://www.hurston-wright.org/

n n n n n n

SHORT STORY COLLECTION PRIZE
Deadline: January 15
$1000 and publication by BkMk Press is given for a short story collection.
For more information, visit http://www.umkc.edu/bkmk/

n n n n n n

EMERGENCY GRANTS
Human Rights Watch/Hellman-Hammett Grants give up to $3000 to
writers who have an urgent need to leave their country, are facing a
medical emergency, or are otherwise in dire financial circumstances.
For more information, visit http://www.hrw.org/en/node/75288

n n n n n n

SEEKING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN WRITING
The New School invites applications from accomplished fiction writers
with a strong academic or belle-lettristic orientation for a full-time,
tenure-track assistant professor position. For more information, visit
https://careers.newschool.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?
time=1228010673345

n n n n n n

SPREAD YOUR WORD
To see your announcement in an upcoming issue of Q-WIRED send a detailed
e-mail to [email protected]

MONDAY

okay apparently i bloggerized clarence and ascribed a more active role
to that nusiance suit than was warranted, apparently it was filed before him

but it got placed up for hearing on procedure and is likely to be rejected (not news) if for no other
reason than the supreme court got burned last time they stepped into presidential politics

i got 4 areas of interest, politics, literature, hoodoo and struggle, i suspect when im focused on
one i bore the readers interested in the others, dont know how to get around that, i suspect only

other practitioners of literary hoodoo will be interested in all 4

i been checking out that world without borders site, its going to take me forever to get thru that
they got tons of international stories on it, essays and lit crit too, i feel like i should read them all

got this interesting category graphic novels, this one i enjoyed, life of pahe by pahe, i might hunt
it down - im going to put a panel up for you, check out the whole chapter here

FRIDAY

apparently the supreme court is holding a hearing of some sort

today to determine if they will take a case on if obama is a citizen or not

apparently this nuisance suit was dismissed once already but guess who

put it back on the calendar, thats right, clarence thomas, are you surprised

hes like that affirmative action guy, connorly, an active traitor to the cause, like black achievement offend him personally

bad news on the literary front, apparently publishing is tanking along with the rest of the economy

with some major publishers putting down a moratorium on new aquisitions, firing folk, etc

like publishing wasnt already hard hit, i got some ideas about that, ima get back to you on that

im doing my international literature course next semester so im about to focus
on international lit so i guess some of that about to show in rootsblog

ran across some interesting translation websites the other day
worlds without borders got some new stuff in translation

apparently three percent website publishes an annual best translated

i suspect i havent read any of them but i will be selling myself as an expert in international lit
in this class next semester and my students quick to see thru pedagogical  bullshit

next semester is going to be a heavy reading semester, forms courses always are but i will come
out of the other side an improved more informed mfa teacher, which is impo to me it seems

and hopefully i will come out of the other end with my own work more firmly grounded in international lit
thats the reason i chose to do this class to make myself an expert in international literature

cause i want to understand the global narrative, and how to get

a piece of it

only thing about an intense reading period is that it messes with your own narration
you start lurching about trying new things and adding months to your own draft

its best not to get immersed in other folks works when you hard pressing
but i just dont have a choice, i got to work for a living and this what i do

and ive reached that point in life where my pride my ego is involved now, its important to me to be a
good at mfa level teacher, to impress my students in this case with my mastery of international literature

to take us all to higher ground and understanding in international literture and the global narrative
depicted by it -  its like the global story of human condition, the global soul or something

we study it, try to understand it in such a way that we are masters of it, masters
of shaping it, contributing works that interact with it

in effect global shamans

with our fingers on the pulse

creating works that operate in some spectural zone that enhances their compatibility with human destiny
their relevance to the human condition and enhancing their literary significance/success

obviously im floundering here, when i end up rephrasing the same thing over and over like this
it means that im not confident that i have expressed what im trying to say

i will work it out later

i got tons of manuscripts to get thru, most of them committed to in the last couple of weeks
3 novels 8 short stories 1 book of short stories, o flowers, it never ends, it never ends

but you know i was trained by john o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn, john o gave so much
of himself to the young writers who followed him from school to school, he made himself a space

where writers could grow, like some kind of literary garden (i like that, ima use that in rest)

thats the way i honor john o killens, by being a space where writers can grow

look im gone

im feeling funny, im feeling love for everybody, im feeling love for the whole world

i need to get some work done

all my love

rdoc

working at the crossroads: sekou sundiata memorial aug 22nd and african voices memorial issue

SATURDAY

hello world, to get the full value of this post,
put some nancy wilson on

started a blog on myspace yesterday
under rickydoc flowers - may change to arthur rickydoc flowers

awkward but since im in there for promotion i need to use both names,.
both faces - arthur flowers the writer, rickydoc the conjureman

its all about raising your web presence, establishing yourself as an literary (or magical) entity
on the web the same way you do in realife promotion - its a literary skill, 21st century stylee

but truth be known dont know if im gon follow thru w/myspace
still got this idea myspace is for kids

joined about a year ago just to see whats happening
but never filled out profile or anything - in fact never went back

then bonnie told me i had been mentioned on it a couple of time and im always
monitoring my web real estate - so i went in to check it out

and lo and behold - both hoodoo and literary colleagues there
must be some power laying around, perhaps i should establish a position

but once i did it, i thought am i now suppose to go around trolling for 'friends'
i dont think so - and who got time for another web commitment

gon give myspace minimum maintenance, just blog post occasionally for awhile and
see what happens - im there to spread my hoodoo gospel - promote my works,

promote my literary name
will have to see how best to do that there

the web literate players seem to have established myspace positions
web presence = 21st century real estate, gotta get me some

but in spite of my rootsblog numbers having doubled in last couple of months
(quadrupled fri, big spike for some reason????)

im feeling conflicted lately about the time/energy i spend on rootsblog
much less opening up another front - feeling desperate about getting

these projects done, im 57 this year, too old to be
trolling for friends on myspace

too old to be doing anything but being laserfocused
on novel and holybook, laser focused rick

also getting a little tired of putting my business in the street
though as a writer thats what i do for a living -still, it gets tired

and the old organizer tired of begging and cajoling folk, and only thing got a chance of making a real
contribution/difference in the human condition is to finish this novel, get this holybook done, etc etc

reason i havent been doing much commentary lately is i just dont see anything important enough
to invest my time & dwindling energy, nothing where my commentary will effect real change

i think im just too damned esoteric, too damned literary, too damned something
my words just dont seem to resonate in the culture (or literature)

darfur - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
haiti - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
islam and the west - my commentary hasnt changed a thing

african world crises - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
african american malaise - my commentary hasnt changed a thing

bushs degradation of america - my commentary hasnt changed a thing
humanitys struggle to be greater than we are - jury still out

i just dont have time to do nothing that aint working at the crossroads -
where every word, every act, every thought, changes things

and some things you just dont feel like wasting your time on

for instance this sept report on iraq by general patreas, is there anybody
out there who doesnt know what this report is going to say

"things are rough but getting better - the surge is working"
bush admin been playing folk for months now, prepping them for that 'report'

running various scenarios up the flagpole to see who salute -  o its just a snapshot,
what about a december report, or maybe a 2008 report, 2009, give the surge a chance

and folk likely to fall for the bush okeydoke, been doing so 6 years now
pointing out the imperial nakedness just a waste of my time

old conjureman got to be focused
got to be laserfocused

been working on my class reader last couple of days, been interesting, this class gon make me a stronger writer and its inspirational to see how disregarded i am canonically - that inspire me, that focus me

but i got to figure out a way that the schoolhouse doesnt take it all  this semester - and
my millions of projects, got to get them done - got to be ruthless and focused rick, laserfocused

im 57 this year and i aint got time to play - or socialize 
cant fuck around in any shape form or fashion

rickydoc working at the crossroads this year
rickydoc on a sungun: 360%

im outta here

FRIDAY

hello world - rickydoc has got the blues

i can feel a major breakthru coming but right now all im
conscious of is the weakness - breakthrus can rough you up

aint got a chance in hell of finishing draft in next
couple of weeks, ohwell, one marches on

if i can just get a roughdraft of the new endgame i will be satisfied
louis reyes sent out a notice about 2 sekou memorials

1) aug 22nd at tishman auditorium,
new school university, 66 west 12th st

6 to 8 pm, w/testimony and performances by
poets, musicians, family, friends et al

2) special african voices magazine sundiata issue
(kudos: carolyn butts and layding kaliba)

looking for poems and commentary from
sekous friends, artists and fellow travelers

special issue  dedicated solely to sekou sundiata
the mighty mack master - should be nice

they plan to have a lot of folk in it so keep it tight
strict 500 word limit

layding also looking for photos and graphics
to go with dedications - should be nice

send submissions to [email protected]
by aug 20th - no exceptions on the deadline

so dont wait until last minute
call if you got questions 212 865 2982

right time of day and sekou
might answer the phone

wouldnt put it past him

im outta here
rdoc

if i stay focused, gon be a magic carpet ride

THURSDAY

hello world, this aint exactly what i call crunching
when you doing more sitting there thinking than writing

trying to figure out how to bring my endgame to life
good dramatic endgame fiction rather than the rhetoric it is now

and i think im getting a feel for it, think one thread ima play w/is animal sacrifice
in african traditional systems, use his objection to that to bring his prophetic thing to life

that animal sacrifice might work if we were a culture that still killed our own food

but in 20th century afroamerica, animal sacrifice is an anachronism and representative of what has kept african peoples & cultures noncompetitive in global competition

use this w/secretsociety and mythwork theads to dramatize
his attempt to bring african traditional into the 21st century

a sacrifice thread
which is basically what he considers himself (best kept secret in afroam lit)

right now my endgame more rhetoric than good fiction but i
once had an ocha priest, covered in the blood of goats and roosters

tell me we needed to do human sacrifice to get out of this historical trickbag
we have found ourselves in, start talking about how the orisha told him this

i was appalled, dismissed it as an individual aberration, not cultural
upon reflection i might be able to use that as part of my prophetic endgame

wish i could use that but i think its a tad too sensationalist for my purposes
somthing about animal sacrific maybe but i dont believe that other will fly

right along in here when hoodoo trying to determine how much of atr religious
flavor to adopt - stay magical or become a more religious system

id say the majority of black hoodoos these days initiated into
one or more of the atr traditions

for a magical tradition based on the premise of anymethod anytime
a tradition that dont even necessarily follow the rules of magic, folk been trying to

subject hoodoo to religious dogma, the orisha/loa/etc
say do this, dont do that

or else

that dont necessarily fly w/me, dont fit w/my 21st century understanding of divinity, we know
too much about the formative dynamics of religion to be subject to archaic rules of ritual

wanna refine the transcendent, leave the dogma behind

i vote magical - or rather should i say the prophetic
humanitys relationship w/god too complex to leave to the religious

got an email from miriam de costa willis today
sent out to her memphis list, seems one of the old guard of memphis

d army bailey, has an article on black agenda report in which he
takes credit for the civil rights museum in memphis

in it it accuses much of memphis old guard, incl ben hooks
and maxine smith, as mercenaries and compradors

now you got to be part of  the radical wing of bougie black memphis to know how much
this hurt - and miriam, mentor of the young politicals of my generration, our 1st model

of intellectual activism, is on the warpath - this is an unfortunate battle, d army
has declared war on my earliest mentors in the game

maxine, vasco, jesse, aw and them, if i got to choose sides i got to side w/miram and
maxine - got to go w/the oldschool - the racemen and racewomen

of my youth, the hooks, smiths, willises, turners and sugarmons
the delta clan flowers

kinda funny for somebody spose to be a class outlaw
to feel the call of allegiance for memphis oldschool

even more funny is that civil rights museum dont mean much to my generation, it
surprise me it mean so much to them, i mean its not like it does anything

my attittude on this one is who cares

ima stay out of this one, unfortunate d army took the lowroad
probably still bitter about being voted out as chair back in the day

i once got deposed as director of the harlem writers guild, still hurts
and theyve since tried to write me out of the hwg history, that hurt too

but i would never put hwg down
or my old comrades in struggle

i just give my heart to new ren now
and the folk who broke off to form it

supporting me, so i wouldnt be left out on a limb, now theyve
been written out of hwg history too (cept for dorisjean and tmac)

and its on me to make sure folk get their propers
and dont have to pay historically for backing me up

gotta make new ren real, gotta keep babajohn killens legacy alive
dont nobody carry that quite like i do

so instead of being director of 60 year old institution w/generations of struggle behind it
im director of a stumbling start up in constant danger of failure - ohwell - thats life

you take the blows, you make your adjustments
you keep on pushing - limping and lame, still game

but you dont turn on your old comrades
the struggle is bigger than that

a luta continua
in the name of the conqueror

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, really wanted to do some more work on last post
have to dig out my 101 talismans list, just dont feel like i have the time right now

did my outline yesterday and the problems were right there in my face, im back on
manuscript today and feel like i got a slim chance of finishing this draft after all

but man i got to be on it
i got to be focused

some quick commentary and im out of here
been a little conflicted about rootblogs tone lately

cause i been in a woodshed mode everything
been My World and not much commentary

not comfortable when i get too self referential like that
but my numbers have doubled in the last couple of months

whatever im doing yall must like it
ima stay with it awhile, see what happen

one thing i want to do is start giving some props to my syracuse mfa students
been here long enuf now that students starting to publish and manifest

interesting development, i got to start giving props
(and ride they formidable coattails)

thought about this cause phil lamarche just gave me copy of his new novel
american youth, and its reading good, im real proud of him

me and phil go back to when he was a undergrad and now here he is
a colleague with a strong new book out - just as tickled as i can be

and then i think about cherly strayeds novel, and salvador
and the legendary nina shope
and becky curtis book of shorts got nice nyt book review this sunday
and ellen litmans shorts coming out
and my boy parkers novel -ovenman - coming out in fall
and ockerts shorts out and christians pandas
and don pablol and god knows who im leaving out

syracuse been strong in the literary house lately and
getting good strong reviews too - serious position - and i need to

start giving some props

and strive to be ever more useful, a better reader of manuscripts
w/enhanced publishing networks and other such service

been turning out young writers a long time now, long enuf to know
most folk dont make the cut, never become real writers

and w/all these mfa programs turning out 100s and 1000s of wannabes
it become ever more difficult to break out of the pack

over the years most young writers give up
so you try to deduce what factors at play

what determine that optimal blend of craft and discipline
that pigheaded determination to be a good writer

and whatever it is you hope they got it when you send them out into the world, hope
they stay focused stay productive, hope they manifest - and when they do

when they beat the odds and do it, it warm the literary heart
been mostly george saunders work, this is the house that george built yall

i will put you some titles and links in here later
will also do up my 101 talismans later too

and got some commentary on conflict brewing between
ethiopia and eriteria, if that breaks thats going to be ugly - again

what with somalia and the ogaden
ethiopia biting off some mighty big chunks

personally i think that wont settle until
ethiopia has a seacoast - again

also i was reading on abebooks blog that a 5 vol set of hyatts
hoodoo rootwork conjuration and witchcraft  just sold for $5000,

was just thinking i need to re read my own set, extract the historical
hoodoos in there for the 101 talismans, guess i will handle w/care

patience dear regulators, ima put you some links and all in later
but right now im feeling the need to clock pages

worked outline yesterday and back on manuscript today, now just plow
thru it rick, march thru these pages like sherman thru georgia

hopefully i will hit the zone and put this puppy to bed
richen it up later

started putting together reader for my literary blues class yesterday
couldnt help myself, starting to get nervous about class prep

supposed to be a theory class, like i know theory, but thats why i chose to
teach it, be interesting working out a theory of literary blues

and whats the point of
teaching if not to learn

the oral trad in african american lit (and you know i dont do nothing
aint designed to make rest for the weary a better novel)

so just as im reconcepting rests endgame, im being driven to focus on a theory of literary blues
and immersed in all these articles and books as i try to put together a reader

and already i can feel myself growing as a writer, already my craftmind
is perculating, this gon work itself into the re concept of rest for the wearys closure

how it handle its tropes
its literary vision

i wish it wasnt so,
id rather this novel not grow anymore and just be finished

i cannot afford distraction, not even growth, not at this point in
the game, i got to keep moving towards closure -  do it rick, you can do this

if i stay focused, i expect at some point to fall into the zone, where real Work get done
and this novel will start speaking to me and make

itself known to me - showtime
if i stay focused

next 20 days gon be
a magic carpet ride

post got kinda lengthy didnt it, just wandering all over 
the page, feeling spooky yall, feel a zone coming on

im outta here

rdoc

revus grevus: sundiata on a sungun: 360%: obit by louis reyes rivera

hello world
my boy sekou sundiata just graduated

i left memphis trying to make it back but he got away
while i was on the road - aint that somehow fitting

graduating ceremony on 21st and a retro of his life and work
aug 22nd at the brooklyn academy of music

heart attack apparently - man, all my folk checking out
sekou cuts it mighty mighty close though, sekou was my boy

that phrase, sundiata on a sungun: 360%, is only one of the many ive
stolen from sekou over the years, we were a political crew of artists

started doing plays as part of the black new york action committee's cultural wing
the first one was a collabrative called bloodflower, based on a poem by bj ashanti

that was when sekou got into doing his aural performances and i met the
folk who became my politico artist crew - sekou, ashanti, safiya, pat, sandy, etc

writers, dancers, visual artists, etcetc, all meeting in sekous loft over
on 124th street, which was also party central - some serious le bon ton roulet

me and sekou was like brothers till we fell out over a woman didnt
choose either of us  - that didnt stop us from locking horns over her

we made up eventually but never was as close as we once was
both of us alpha leos and tending to hold grudges

me and sekou use to celebrate the whole leo month as our birthday
used to meet at panchitas down in the village for a ritual veggie salad

but with literary companeros, the rituals of respect are important
one misstep and you fueding for years

got a long shitlist now of folk who have dissed me the last 10 years or so
treat me like i dont rate - i will show you what time it is, you gon regret dissing me

when it becomes literary is when poison works flourish, me and louis reyes been
on the outs bout two three years now, and bj ashanti mad at everybody, g p

i took a punch at louis reyes in rest for the weary, gon have to extract that
or even better take it to where i am now - the high ground

i didnt even realize sekou was mad at me but he was acting funny and when i finally
figured out why i said man you have jacked a misdemeanor up to a felony

sekou say he get to decide the charge
looking back bring a smile to my face

during the time me and sekou was fueding
i would think we too old to be fueding like this

cause we at that point in life we could check out anytime
and now he has - and im in denial - not sekou, sekou was indestructible  -

more lives than a cat

cancer survivor (testicular no less)
broke his neck driving that old volvo over a cliff
kidney failure and transplant drama

sekou was larger than life
sekou was legend

and the leader of our literary pack
a story yet to be told

got to work harder rick, got to tell the story before its
time for me to check out too - so many projects, so little time

also need to check current fueds w/my literary companeros of old
what with everybody checking out i cant afford fueds

(wonder how  ashanti doing these days, ive tried contacting him, he off the grid - i miss ashanti and wow, that make me think of akua lezli, she been going thru some fire lately, i need to get in touch with her, see how she doing. . .and on and on. . and on on and on)

speaking of legacies and checking out

had a good time with my nephews, the hoodoo posse flowers indeed
wanted to be calm dali lama unca ricky but i had to pull out the inner drill sgt on them

they wore out the weary

was laying around in memphis trying to get my energy back for the trek up 81
when i heard sekou was in a coma and headed on back to the city

as always when im home i did maintenance on my bottletrees over in riverside park

most of my bottletrees in the park are hidden deep in it but some are public and sometime
neighborhood kids have used my bottles for target practice so i always come prepared to replace

broken ones, but this time none were broken, thank the conqueror, so i had all these extra bottles and instead of starting a new tree as i have done in the past, i started hanging them all thru the park

decided to make the whole park one big bottle tree
one big delta holyground

for those who dont know the story, i consider the delta an afroam holyground
and this wooded area i grew up alongside the mississippi as sacred ground

riverside park its called - working it as sacred ground in my novel
working it as sacred ground in real life -been sanctifying it w/mythwork and bottletrees

protecting memphis, the mississippi and the delta
dont no evil get past rickydocs ring of glass

so i figure making it a parkwide bottletree not only protect memphis and the delta
but the whole wide world and all our generations - gon do that in sekous name

sanctuary

this obit was sent out by louis reyes
w/whom i really need to bury the hammer

maybe when i see him on the 21st
in sekous name

revus grevus  (some nonsensical parting phrase
sekou was partial to)

my love to you all
rdoc

 

 

Obituary:

Gifted Poet Sekou Sundiata

(August 22, 1948 -- July 18, 2007)

by Louis Reyes Rivera

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 5:47a.m. (ET), poet Sekou Sundiata passed away. A highly esteemed performing poet, Mr. Sundiata wrote for print, performance, music and theater. Born Robert Franklin Feaster in Harlem, on August 22, 1948, Sundiata came of age as an artist during the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

 

While attending the City College of New York (CCNY), where he began reciting poetry publicly, Sundiata converged with several other student activists, including once-mayoral candidate of Pittsburgh and longtime friend, Leroy Hodge, to form the basis for what soon became known as the Black and Puerto Rican Student Community of City College (BPRSC). This phalanx of 400 students soon made their own history, closing the 21,000-student campus during the Spring of 1969, to demand, among other things, that CCNY be renamed Harlem University. The net effect of the student takeover culminated in both an Open Admissions Policy that took effect in September 1970, the full legitimization of ethnic studies departments throughout the nation, as well as the requirement that all education majors within the City University take courses in African American History and to have Spanish as a Second Language.

 

Among his acknowledged mentors at City were Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and fellow student Louis Reyes Rivera, with whom Sundiata helped to establish the first Black student newspaper in the City University, CCNY's The Paper. Their association would span close to forty years of mutual respect and admiration.

 

Upon completing his Bachelor's Degree (circa 1974), Sundiata enrolled and completed his Master's in Creative Writing while regularly producing community-based poetry readings that were known to draw SRO crowds. In 1976, his creative sensibilities, his innate organizing skills, and his associations with a convergent generation of excellent poets, musicians and dancers immediately led to a collaborative project he directed that would commemorate 100 years of Black struggle for freedom and Human Rights. Titled The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People (1863-1876/ 1963-1976) , this production, which included upcoming novelist Arthur Flowers and such poets as Safiya Henderson-Holmes, BJ Ashanti, Tom Mitchelson, Louis Reyes Rivera, et al, was staged in Harlem over a period of two days, signaling much of what was to come from Sekou's sense of vision, steadily breaking ground for what was then a new literary genre,

Performance Poetry, fully anticipating elements of both Hip Hop Culture and Spoken Word Art.

 

In 1977, the aforementioned poets, along with Zizwe Ngafua, Rashidah Ismaili, Fatisha (Hutson), Sandra Maria Esteves, Akua Lezli Hope, Mervyn Taylor, and Sekou, among others, formed the Calabash Poets Workshop, which group signaled the arrival of a new literary heat in New York, regularly producing soirees and fori (1977-1983) that included all of the arts and culminated in a three-year attempt (1979-1982) to establish an independent Black Writers Union.

 

Upon the release of his first vinyl album (circa 1980), Are & Be, Sekou Sundiata was dubbed by Amiri Baraka as "the State of the Art." Since then, Mr. Sundiata established a longtime relationship with  CCNY's Aaron Davis Performing Arts Center, through which venue he intermittently produced new material for the stage, consistently collaborating with musicians, dancers and actors. He was eventually selected for a number of earned fellowships, including a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida), and as the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York, in which university's Eugene Lang College he remained a professor.

 

He was, as well, among those featured in the Bill Moyers' PBS series on poetry, The Language of Life, and in Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO.

Among several highly acclaimed performance theater works in which he served as both author and performer are: The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, which toured nationally and received three AUDELCO Awards and a BESSIE Award; The Mystery of Love, commissioned and produced by New Voices/ New Visions at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City and the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia; and Udu, a music theater work produced by 651 ARTS in Brooklyn and presented by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, the Walker Art Center and Penumbra Theater in Minneapolis, Flynn Center in Burlington, VT, the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and Miami-Dade Community College in Florida. Throughout this period and since 1985, he developed a close association with co-collaborator and legendary trombonist Craig S. Harris.

blessing the boats, Sundiata's first solo theater piece, an exploration into his own personal battles with kidney failure, opened in November 2002 at Aaron Davis Hall, NYC. It has since been presented in more than 30 cities and continued to tour nationally. In March 2005, Sundiata produced The Gift of Life Concert, an organ donation public awareness event at the Apollo Theater that kicked off a three-week run of blessing the boats at the Apollo's SoundStage. in partnership with the Apollo Theater Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation and the New York Organ Donor Network with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Since 2006, his the 51st (dream) state has been presented throughout the U.S. and in Australia. Both blessing the boats and the 51st (dream) state were produced in collaboration with MultiArts Projects and Productions (MAPP). In addition to working within community engagement activities at Harlem Stages/Aaron Davis Hall, the University of Michigan and University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI), the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), the University of Texas Austin (Austin, TX), in Miami Dade College (Miami, FL), and the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Sundiata has appeared as a featured speaker and artist at the Imagining America Conference (Ann Arbor, MI), at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), and at the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Conference (Minneapolis, MN), among others. Prior to his demise, he was engaged in producing a DVD documenting the America Project for use by universities and presenters as a model for art and civic engagement.

In addition to the 1979 Are & Be album, Sundiata's other releases include a second album, The Sounds of the Memory of Many Living People, and two CDs, The Blue Oneness of Dreams, nominated for a Grammy Award, and longstoryshort. Each of these works are rich with the sounds of blues, funk, jazz and African and Afro-Caribbean percussion, with the latter two featuring Craig Harris.

 

He is survived by his mother, Virginia Myrtle Feaster, his wife, Maurine Knighton, daughter Myisha Gomez, stepdaughter Aida Riddle, grandson Aman, brothers William Walter Feaster and Ronald Eugene Feaster, as well as a host of relatives, admirers, students and friends.

 

A private funeral service of family and friends is scheduled for Saturday, July 21, and a commemorative celebration of his life and work is scheduled to take place on August 22, his birthday, at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Opera House. Details to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in the name of Sekou Sundiata to the New York Organ Donor Network or to the National Kidney Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

(l. Craig Harris; r. Sekou Sundiata)

hoodoo haints: in the name of the king, toni cade bambara and cultural workers, rickydoc flowers and ideological orchestration

SUNDAY

hello world, this turned into an interesting post (for this post you
need to put on some cassandra wilson cause this a magic carpet ride)

in the course of it i hainted martin luther king

getting very comfortable calling hoodoo ancestors haints and enjoyiing the process of gradually discovering them like im doing

think ima work it into rest (sorry ec)

im been using this riff where jubilation highjohn drape himself in 101 talismans when he is about to do performancework in the novel,

its become a trope but its 101 just because i liked the poetry of it - one hundred and one talismans

but what i should do is call on 101 hoodoo haints in the lyrical riffs - the hoodoo pantheon of rickydoc - drop an invocation into the text whenever i see narrative opp to do so

do it raw now, clean it up later -  narrative opps that reflect whatever attributes i want to give the haint
was thinking about it cause i hainted martin luther king while writing this post

im getting very comfortable calling my hoodoo ancestors haints
hainting them as the process of transforming them into tribal deities/guides/etc

how would i define that loafication process, that orishafication process,the sanctification process, in which tribal ancestors are annointed, want something very hoodoo, haintifying, haintification maybe

am i deifying them, that dont quite work for a highmagician to construct a process of deification
its beneath me - in the holy narrative im attempting to create, how do i want these tribal haints to function

deities
or something more

gotta be something more

why then do i feel the need to make it a holy narrative
because its more culturally binding, more effective mythwork

but i dont ever want to encourage subjecting humanity to the rule of deities
i think i see deities as instruments of humanity being greater than it is, as guides not masters

at the same time i acknowledge that most folk need deities

or someting along this line, i will have to figure it out later
this dont sound like one i will be able to answer off the cuff

what happen was i working on this presentation for the
educational opportunties center syracuse

cultivating success

my 1st straight up motivational speaker gig
hate to charge them but i aint doing it for free no more

they teach folk struggling, working folk trying to get back in school, immigrants, refugees
im talking to the teachers, consultants, administrators at their annual thingee

talking about teaching as a sacred calling
about teaching folk whove been left behind to catch up
about the challenges of that in the 21st century -

talking about teaching as handling fragile souls and how you get
weary in those social work jobs but you know you doing what

nobody else can . . . (blah de blah de - o you know the routine
my basic riffs shaped to the moment

ima rock the house and get paid, not a lot,
just enuf to feel good about it

that mean i got to shine

conch, anklebells, bluesharp and kalimba
they gon get the throw down - the full monty

trying to think of a performance haint to call on
somebody who know how to put on a hoodoo show

maybe marie leveau
apparently she knew how to put on a show, w/the snake and all

or maybe martin, because thats the kind of show
i really want to put on, on the realside, thats who i emulate

as a performance speaker

i want the martin luther king effect
21st century stylee, hoodoo stylee

im the name of martin luther
thats who im going to call on for performance work henceforth

shame about his daughter dying recently
shame about the family not holding up the torch

but i guess it bes that way sometime
folk got the right to walk their own path

have to remember that w/my nephews, my crew
my daddy didnt push me, he let me make my own decisions

take the consequences of faulty ones
one decision ive never regretted was to hold the torch up high

imogunla alakoye once ask me, who most changed the african american condition
martin or malcom, and imogunla was a malcolm acolyte, even looked like him

but we both agreed it was martin

that say a lot to folk who lived thru the pre civilrights south
i was trying to explain it to a ghanian partner of mine the other evening

who was shall we say not appreciating nonviolence as a strategy and talking a lot of i woulda this and i woulda that and i tried to explain the pre civilrights south situation and why it was the strategic posture appropriate to the moment and the courage it took

and i tried to explain the difference the struggle made in our lives
how the struggle caused us to say we just wasnt gon take this kinda treatment no more

and i was so inarticulate but he felt what i was trying to say

you folk who went through that with me you know what im talking about
i know you feel me

and you folk wasnt there
you feeling it too - i know you do

recently picked up a book walking down jericho road about the memphis garbargeworkers strike that
brought martin to mason temple that rainy night in 68, when he say he been to the mountain top

say he aint fearing no man - may not get there with you
but we as a people will get to the promised land - i seen it he say

thats the hoodoo haint im calling on for performance work henceforth
in the name of the king do i do this

in struggle
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world
trying to post but not really feeling it

bush giving up a lot of material but truth be told
bushs antics have begun to bore me

his recent comment about the deadlines causing more casualties
same old bush trying to blame otherfolk for the consequences of his policies

we all know why we taking casualties in iraq

bush de classifying years old report on al quaeda in iraq
samo samo - amazing that he thinks we will still fall for this selective intell trick

even folk used to believe him tired of it, he keeps trying the same old techs
the same old slogans

goodling immunized testimony blaming everybody but herself
samo samo - the republican rightwing has just tired me out

darfur  samo samo   haiti  samo samo, im tired
im weary in my bones im weary

this morning i followed a google inquiry to rootsblog posts from 3 years ago
and it was kinda depressing - most of it does not stand the test of time

and i have written a lot of wordage for this thing and still average 50 hits a day
i read about folk w/100s and 1000s of hits a day and there is arthur, still chugging along -

the little engine that could

ive tried being more topical, but topical often bores me
you want straight news best to get it elsewhere

if im going to be putting the time in i have to deal with whats important to me
which often im sure becomes repetitive because it reflects my obsessions

its like im thinking out loud, working thru concepts impo to me as a thinker
a visionary and ideological orchestrator

im fond of that concept you notice, ideological orchestration - got it from toni cade bambara basically
she once at a writers conference john o did at howard referred to writers as cultural workers

the term spoke to me - she called them cultural workers because of her left marxist thing
but ive always been comfortable with the great man/woman theory of history - if you get my drift

so i translated that as cultural orchestrators, befitting a players sensibility who considers everybody, including the powerful to be played - to be placed on the board of destiny - the visionary artist is a manifestation of the individual as historical force - the left i come out of isnt comfortable with that

this comes out of the aesthetic of the griotic literary school of which i am a member - we consider ourselves cultural custodians, shaping the culture through our works

over the years this strategic posture evolved into ideological orchestrators - ideological players like myself
in contention trying to shape the way the world thinks - thereby shaping the future, the destiny of humanity

- the longest most comprehensive game, the one that swallows all others, is the one that wins
that is most influential in the shape of things to come

i think ideological orchestration but often use cultural orchestration because its more digestible to folk

but other writers get deals and make money off thoughts not nearly as pertinent or profound
(at least i think they pertinent and profound, sometimes i wonder if im just delusional)

they get listened to and get respect, me im just out here wailing away for my 50 a day
i console myself w/awareness that visionaries often dont get play during their lifetime

but i do often wonder about this blog and the time investiture, wonder if its worth it
i got to assume it is, i have over the years come to trust my creative obsessions

like when i became obsessed with learning bluesharp
and blew and blew and blew and it felt like a diversion then but i couldnt help myself

and now it (and kalimba) have become integral parts of my identity as a literary bluesman
a performance poet and ritual prophet/sorceror

these obsessions feel like they a waste of time when you caught up in them
but i assume that all this blog wordage will be historically significant somehow someway

one hopes one prays
because i dont seem to have a choice in this, every couple of days i sit down no

matter what and just write about something anything, whatever come to my head
while im sitting there

these blogs dont work unless you get obsessive about it and i tend to
the obsessive, its my artistic temperament, my big projects - novels and holybooks

wouldnt get done if i wasnt obsessive about it
but sometimes it works against me and i hit the wall - repeatedly

just bam bam bam bam bam

ohwell, i got to assume that when the roll is called my name will be there
got to assume it will all work out and the generations will appreciate what ive done

got a little taste of the blues i believe
sorry ec, just dont feel like roaring today

lets do a couple of comments flowers and get outta here
maybe reflect on some ticklish situations in which im not quite following the progressive partyline

lebanon: what can they do, cant enter the camps and cant let fatah a islam keep growing, got to ignore palestinian complaints but i hope they work hard at minimizing collateral damage (dead civilians)

dustup between congressional black congress and fox news in one corner - obama, clinton, edwards
et al in the other - theyve all have refused to participate in a presidential debate cbc set up w/fox in september

im with the candidates, cant support fox news efforts to fake folk out when they use their power so blatantly against our interests as a people - somehow they will context this to their agenda of discrediting us

i hear the fox been giving the cbc various sorts of bribes and other pr moves, but their substance is poison - far as im concerned them cbc folk need to straighen up and fly right - or left as the case may be

immigration: conflicted about being supplanted by hispanics but have to come out in favor of compassionate immigration policies because of our historical alliance and because it also affects folk from africa and the caribbean - just hate that blackfolk falling further into the cracks but that aint the fault of hispanics is it

we basically got to do it like the jews did it - small numbers, big game, global backup
got to turn the whole race into players

advice to barack and hillary under attack from republicans for recent vote against funding: ignore them
dont let them get you all defensive about what you know is right - shaping the dialogue is an old repub trick

samesame ex president carter, i admire that man, he speak his mind when he know he right - did it with israel (that took courage), did it with bush (just speak the truth)

hated they forced him to backup w/that silly tradition of presidential courtesy, his allegiance should be to america, to a world afflicted with bushitis - speak truth to the people man and let the chips fall

something i have to constantly remind myself
in the name of jimmy carter

and toni cade bambara

im outta here, taking my blues to

the sacred desk and clock some pages
thats always good for what ails me

my love to you all

rickydoc flowers
hanging in there

laying paths and raising up the sun: the me i see

SUNDAY NIGHT

hello world

i would like to edit down that last post
i was reeling and just talking away -yakkety yakkety

but im too tired to read thru it, another 24 hour shift
and this project is closing down w/a whimper

im just throwing any old thing together now
cause today the last day im doing this

probably have to crash most of tomorrow, still got two criticals
fbs manuscript and rests prophetic thread (and palf)

i think ima do that thread next cause fbs manuscript
will take me out of my head, ima give thread 2 days max

which puts me up to the 9th, 2 days on felixs manuscript
makes it the 11th, (who am i kidding, lets say 3 to do a
good job of it, cannot give it 4)

3 puts me in about the 12th, thats 5 days prep for schoolhouse
thats cutting it thin rick, thats cutting it real thin

best i get back to work, closing down rootwork rebuild tonight
what i got is what i got, what i dont have is time . . .

later
rdoc

NO FOOL, ITS SATURDAY

hello world, its me, braindead flowers, doing his zombie thing
worked full 24 hour shift yesterday, havent done that in years

been bogged down w/rootwork rebuild, have reached point where im rewriting
its major texts, worked STRUGGLE segment all day yesterday

deep how much its my basic political philosophy ive done over and over
a million times, you could probably give it verbatim fearless supporter of rootsblog

and im thinking here i am investing critical time in this thing one more time
that the public has repeatedly ignored as not pertinent

why are you doing this
again

how many times are you going to hammer your head against this wall

it makes such good sense to me i just do not understand why people
keep ignoring it, i keep thinking maybe i just havent quite said it
convincingly enough maybe, this time for sure it will fire up the tribe

and feed the tribal soul, this time for sure

(one thing make it more digestable would be to cut out all that mythwork
all that destinywork you be putting in there flowers - start talking about
the stars and the destiny of the generations and all that and folks eyes
glaze over - would help if you just kept to conventional politics instead of
trying to claim the prophets mantle - but if i got to cut my vision out of the
equation whats the point, thats what makes me me   . .  .)

well this time im not going to just put it out there and hope folk get it
this been the most extensive rewrite to date of my political vision

ive gone into old versions and presentations and im putting it all together
and coming up with the most polished and comprehensive presentation of my vision to date
(not counting rest for the weary of course)

almost 40 pages im trying to whittle down to the bone for web purposes

then ima look at that as the nucleus of a book, a compilation of articles
about 21st century paradigms of struggle, start really pushing folk for those

trying to position rebuild of rootwork as a strategic repository
along the lines of chickenbones to place these works until they book quality

turn this into a dialogue if i can (which mean i got to be open to growing
and not assume i got the answers - keep reminding myself there are many
roads to timbuktu)

other thing ima do is use my oraltrad skilz to learn this as a presentation
and turn this into a stumpwinding sermon of a presentation
then start selling myself cheap on the college circuit - will work for souls

also maybe send it out in one big mailing on my old rootsletter list
i would get a lot of dead addresses and please take me off this list returns

but i would get my presentation out to my market win or lose

and also that would wean that list (5000 or so) down to something manageable (1000?)
of folk who really interested in what i got to say instead of think im little better than spam

im going to put it up on the nationalist lists too
and wherever else i can think of

or what i might do is just send announcement of the link
that would be more neighborly than sending whole thing unasked for
but i wouldnt get as many eyeballs

or do stripped down submissions letter for the mailing, decisions decisions

but its the presentation thats going to make that puppy
once ive learned it and start putting the hoodoo preaching on it it should rock your world

that way i dont feel so bad about the time its taking

ima give it today and whatever i dont get of it by the end of the day
dont get got, got two or three others to do

literary hoodoo, literary blues and contemporary hoodoo segments
i will schedule a day, hopefully not two, for them

got basic graphic work to do, keeping it as simple as possible, timetimetime
keep thinking simple elegance flowers, keep thinking grace

got to do fbs manuscript then and still would like to weave that enhanced prophetic thread
in rest for the weary before i have to switch to schoolhouse focus, i need to get some novelwork
done out of this kind of zombiepush to justify the wear and tear on my body

and i havent done any pan african literary forum work either

jeff caught up w/some weeklong gig in england, he been moving the ball solo, which does
not feel good to the old team player, need to start pulling my freight on that

and the schoolhouse on my trail, tick tock tick tock, 10 days and counting

i got to start shaping that course right now, not a days slack, im already behind

okay, enuf whining, a couple of commentaries and im out of here
spoke to katrina omogun the other day, she always so interesting to talk to

she has more unconventional reads on hoodoo than i do, she sending me an
unpublished manuscript she currently shopping around, ima make time for that too

okay, thats not a real commentary flowers, thats basically still me me me
what about this one, the army recently sent out re enlistment letters

to officers who had either died in iraq or been grievously wounded
i cant even put my customary ironic sneer on that one, i tried

but it felt like a cheap shot, im going back to work
tick tock tick tock

hangtough
rdoc

IS IT FRIDAY ALREADY

hello world, im reeling zonedrunk
but im really pleased w/rootwork rebuild

when i built that site in 98 it was cutting edge
but almost 10 years is a longtime between rebuilds

its coming along well, a couple of days and i
can put paid on that one - for the moment

couple of quick observations
and im outta here

somalia: hopefully interim government will become real government
in short window of ethiopian military support

somalia will have to decide its geopolitical identification at some point
will they be africanist or islamic - the interim government strikes me as more
africanist than the other guys

not saying has to be either/or
saying the question of primary identification is pertinent here

for folk who arent clear on it i got a beef w/the coercive nature of islam
in africa - weve already lost the northern crescent, must we all submit

islam must be made to understand it is a guest in africa
and not a conqueror

my somalia commentary will reflect that perspective
probably be more strategic than progressive

my apologies beforehand

i also notice some noise about bushes latest 'signing statement'
in which he disavowed recent congressional proscriptions on reading americans mail w/o warrants

he continues to push the signing statements to historical levels of executive privilege
he continues to be a problem child

what else, there was something else i wanted to comment on
oh, the latptops microsoft gave to selected bloggers

so i got passed over again

im willing to sell
aint nobody made no offers

im outta here

couple more days and i will put
paid on rootwork.com rebuild

aint that good news
another project down

looking good

WEDNESDAY
hello world

old rootdoctor feeling apologetic on you
im so deep in the zone its just me me me

lot of stuff happening in somalia worth commentary
but its just me me me - no wonder i dont got no readership

schoolhouse crunch coming, challenging forms course
that ive explicitly designed as novel workshop

in spite of fact its almost impossible to workshop novels
in a semester format, got to figure that one out

while studying what i consider the great works of african american lit
the magical works, literature as magic, narrative as magic, spellwork

mumbo jumbo
corrigedora
the healing
texaco
mamaday
beloved
the cattlekilling

ive taught these before but everytime teach them i have to reread them
everytime i get more insight into what they do

been systematically working on my reading skilz for a couple of years now
since thats what i do for both living and avocation - and it is a skill im proud of

one i need to get better at every year

im finally seeing benefit of this effort in my critiquing and reading skilz and
looking forward to bringing new eye to these works

also looking forward to  figuring out how to help people write novels
in a workshop/semester format

thats going to be an interesting challenge
apparently students thought so to, didnt get but 5

lowest forms course enrollment ive ever had but it just might
work out for the best in a novel workshop where folk have

to trust each other enuf to expose nascent dreams

but that course will take a lot out of me
im invested in doing it well

will have to hit the ground gunning
cause im squeezing this last week for leftover 2006 projects

got to lay that prophet thread in rest
got to read fbs manuscript  (this weekend flowers)
got to finish rebuild of rootwork.com (check out new look, but dont try to navigate yet)
got to make panafrican lit forum contributions to remain viable member of team
got to do new ren maintenance, newren always gets priority, my slice of johns legacy

i would like to do that griotic report for 2007
and i got to strip and stain stairs, an overdue honeydo i been promising

apologies to folk i owe calls emails etc
im deep in the zone and there i plan to stay

not to worry though, old rootdoctor keeping his eye on things
bringing the sun up every morning

right on time - like the conjureman should

aint nobody had no complaints, right
sun looking good, right

im outta here
rdoc

TUESDAY
hello world (and all its generations)

musical accompaniment to this posting
still eric wainaina

it is a chastised conjureman before you today
finally started rebuilding rootwork.com

found an rootsblog archive page oct 2003
been doing this since 2003 and i get about 50 hits a day

i must be doing something wrong

too much me me me most likely
but i just talk about whatever is in my head

because im a literary man i just assume its of interest to the world
what i think and see, what i speculate, what i create - the paths i lay

apparently it isnt  (hopefully future generations wont agree)
my readership so low i have to question my assumptions

wonder if i should flip the script and try to be more mainstream
but i have always loved the cutting edge

(i choose to assume low readership is because im ahead of my times -
there is of course the possibility that i have no talent but i do not
choose to go there, if that is the case id rather not know . . ,)

artist have to decide early if they going for the cutting edge
and be willing to pay the cost

so be it
i love the cutting edge

dont care if nobody reads me
i just want to exist

be the me that i am in my literary heart
the literary force i know myself to be

what i like about rootsblog is that i do what i damn well please
thats the only thing justify the time and wordage - doing what

i damn well please - and trusting my literary instinct
trusting my obsessions to pay off in the end

true wordage is literary/historical presence

so anyway i decided to finally rebuild rootwork.com and
its traumatic to see how dated my webspace is

my poor little cyber holyground

gon give this week to rootwork
been putting it off for years

rest for the weary got serious time last week/month
gon backburner it now and take care of rootwork.com

so i start moving through it,.right, to see what i got and
i am so embarrassed - that got to be done right away

man, how could i have put that off so long

hope to give rebuild some kind of online magazine effect
21st century empowerment strategies and such
im not quite sure yet but i will be by the end of the week

here we go again
another major project under impossible time constraints

gotta move on pan african lit forum too, looks like
a donedeal - jeff moving the ball, i got to pull my freight

gotta start prepping my literary hoodoo class too
gotta get on that real soon, im real invested in doing that well

tick tock tick tock

im outta here
rdoc

singing in the choir

hello world

back in nairobi and can do a real posting

wrote the bulk of this a couple of days ago

redid it this morning on the roof of the stonehouse

and just now posting it

oh ive been seriously out of the loop

lamu is like going back in time about 200 years

been reading day old kenyan dailys; standard, nation, whatever i

can get my hands on, so i have a rough idea of whats going on in the world

i know ethiopia and the somilian interim government routed islamists but between
somalian distrust of ethiopia, keeping the warlords in  check and a budding
islamic insurgency the interim government gon have to get serious w/the quickness

(hint: 1st step of magnanimous victor: coopt moderates) - else pray for somalia

i know that the palestinians fighting each other – bummer

and a tickled israel been offering abbas guns (instead of land)

i know folk still dying in darfur while islamic and african

countries coddle sudans bashir – bummer

i know that bushs new idea in iraq consists of sending

in more troops against the advice of the generals (when

has he ever listened to the generals) - bummer

i see they bout to hang saddam - and add kangeroo trials
to torture and other degredations of us policy in iraq

those black masked executioners look like they came
straight from the beheading videos - whose idea was that

somebody explain to me again how we came to be dying in support
of an extremist shiite neotheocracy and why we cant leave

hate to see kofi go (bummer) but i suspect he needs a rest and maybe he

can be less circumspect now – i suspect he got a lot to say (redemption)

and i heard the godfather of soul closed down his act

(i can see him throwing off his cape and coming back for one more show)

thats about all i know of blackworld global significance while i been gone

which is very frustrating for an internet junkie like me

who generally checks google.news every 20 minutes or so

to make sure i know whats going on - when its going on

the old rootdoctor like to see, old rootdoctor like to know

keep my finger on the hoodoo pulse

but lamu is a magical place, very otherworldly

which for a magical realism writer is a good space

and i been working hard, moving slow working hard

thats all i ask of the literary gods, give me the hours and i will accept what i get

many of the faculty went off on a 2 day dhow adventure among the islands

but mr literary workaholic could not see 24 hours of woodshed time unspent

they came back w/all these tales of adventure and i hate i missed it

but i think i would explode if i couldnt work on my novel for 24 woodshed hours –

just fucking explode – im way too desperate for that

went on the boatrides last year and after about 30 minutes of exhilaration

i file them under more of the same

there was a faculty reading last night, jeff allen read the prologue

to his new book, song of the shank, powerful stuff

reminded me of something aishah rahman once told me when as a young cub

i once mentioned to her that i wanted to be the greatest novelist ever lived

she said no art, thats not what you want

she said what you want to do is sing your song the best you can sing it

that way she said, you can appreciate other folk singing theirs

one of the most important insights ive ever been given as a writer

right up there with john o killens once telling me ‘art, you a brilliant writer

but with a little compassion you could be profound’

singing my own song has kept me from being jealous of my

friends works and styles and successes like georges recent mcarthur

its kept me from trying to write like folk i admire (marquez, wideman, chamoiseau)

and concentrate on making my own style sing (flowers)

and its going to keep me from gnawing off a leg cause i dont write

like jeff (allen) does, cause that was some powerful stuff he read last night

a passage that covers some of the same historical ground rest covering

also we talked about his pan african literary forum idea – he is really fired up about it

dont know if jeff fully aware of the work it will entail
or just so fired up probably doesnt care

while the old gray organizer shuddering at the
commitment and op cost

and if im contemplating helping jeff do his thing, i can no longer justify

not putting the time in it will take to take new ren to higher ground

the pan african lit forum is a great idea thats going to eat prodigious noveltime

i been approaching new ren writers guild the way john o approached his workshop

john killens concentrated on helping folk write good novels

(which can entail up to 10 years of guidance)

may not get the play the literary rah rah folk get

but johns o killens as literary visionary is a story yet to be told

oh well, one does what one must - when one must

which reminds me i need to do my end of the year griotic report fairly soon,

got that why bother sense of frustration on me though

its not like anybody actually cares if i do it or not, except maybe me

maybe one or two others - we talking a whole weekend of hard work

pretty much for naught – like so many of my weekends – all work no glory

i had such potential when i started out

where did it all go – now my future seems to be all past

cant really cry about it cause on the real side

i been blessed – beyond my wildest dreams i been blessed

but this particular novel continues to abuse me, just read it thru and so

much of it still unacceptably weak - i wonder sometime if it will ever work

got to ignore all the doubts and just plow on, no matter how i feel about it

just dig in everyday i can and slog thru – soon as the suns up

last day in lamu and im composing this on the roof of the stone house

waiting for enuf sunlight to get some work done

lights go out every night, been coming back on about 3

(ive been told rich expats on other end of island suck it up at will)

been an aggravation workwise but i have learned to live with it

i use the laptop till the battery go, go to bed early, wake up when

lights come on at 3 and commence to crunching it

but no lights this morning at all and waiting on the sun to write by is a bummer

cant work when i want to work wont work

everybody else having fun, i dont do fun, aint interested in fun,

i just want to work, world aint real unless ive done my days novelwork –

and waiting on the sun to rise to be able to work just do not get it

not by a longgame it dont

might as well gone on the boatride i cant work

and thinking i might have to pass on jeffs initiative

aint got time to be signing on to somebodys else vision

got visions of my own need tending

but i really like what jeff has in mind

the potential is limitless, a pan african literary infrastructure

only reason i been considering it is because its jeff that asked me

one of the few folk in the establishment i consider friend

also tempting literary in crowd and gatekeeper points
which appeal to the once upon a time  power freak in me

but my response to lack of respect in literary circles is to pretty much

ignore them - concentrate on getting my work done and bet on historys judgement

ive gotten this far without pandering, why start now

best to stay focused - rest for the weary - the longgame

jeff can afford to do this, jeff has already made his bones w/rails
if he dies tomorrow his historical rep is assured, mine is not

still got to make my bones w/rest - before its checkout time

else aint gon be no rest for the weary

been back and forth w/it but im liable to go ahead and sign up
a running buddy has asked me to participate in good game

what can i do

fortunately me and jeff good w/the mutual respect rituals

you the man   no no, you the man   no i insist, you the man

cause two weeks in somebodys elses world

is two weeks enough for me

suns up
and im outta here

my love to you all

rickydoc flowers

mganga maua

wouldbe prophet

of the hoodoo way

one more lap for the long distance runner: in the name of o killens

WEDNESDAY

hello world
on lamu and kickng back

working hard on rest for the weary
moving frustratingly slow but moving

had resolved to disavow last post
was going to stock that idea w/all
the other good ones

cause i just cant afford the loss of noveltime

its rest for the weary, do or die
strictly the longgame
maintain new ren; everything else can wait

jeff got the bug about doing a pan african literary forum thing
this congregation of african writers has fired him up

and hes got all these ideas blubbling up
i can either sign up or pass and i hate to pass on an
idea whose time has come

i fear it wont set well w/sls
hate to lose that connection

have really enjoyed myself on lamu
its like ive gone back 200 years

and again theyve set me off by myself
they know i like my privacy, i like my room enuf
that i enjoy holing up writing  /  when we got power that is

ive passed on all the social activity and just holed up w/rest for the weary
other than conferences w/folk its just been me and this novel

which is the way it should be

im outta here, computer time is tight
will check back in when i get back to nairobi

hangtough
rdoc

hello world
heading for lamu today

sitting here in nairobi listening to some bobby blue bland

and reading this helluva story the last trip by sefi atta

(debut novel: everything good will come – have to hunt it down)

in chirumenga 8 - a literary magazine published out of south africa

by ntone, south african brother i been hanging with

i have met so many strong african writers this trip, its been an experience

this kwani movement never ceases to amaze me

reading chirumenga and the boldness of the work in it

make me humble, i mean bold, make me think of all that huffty puffty

i was talking a couple of days ago about speaking truth to the people

behind little minor personal like a gig

make me wonder all over again if im ready for primetime

make me wonder if my 2^nd string status isnt warranted after all

man i dont want to get all into that literary organizing it would entail

i just want to concentrate on doing my novel - my poor neglected novel

but i interviewed ntone, fierce young brother who is also a helluva dj that

know how to rock the house, and when i asked him why chirumenga

he spoke on providing a platform for others and

i could just hear john o killens talking about providing an

infrastructure that nurtured progressive young black writers

and i thought about pendas comment awhile back about young writers having

the patience and discipline it took to move work from mediocre to

good to great – and how much john o killens struggled to provide a space for that

sacred space, holyground

and i realized im gon have to do that

ima have to do that

i look at what binya has done with kwani

how the harlem writers guild publishing books now

and i know newren gon have to make that move

i know so many works deserve to be published

and with print on demand its kinda doable

and new ren members got the skilz and resources to make it happen

and i know john o killens would want me to do this – 21^st century stylee

i been thinking about a online magazine for years now

and i absolutely love the graphics quality to chirumenga

got the organizing skilz to pull it off w/relative ease

but all i can think of is the loss of noveltime it would entail

my poor neglected novel

been trying to avoid these types of major organizing commitments

spent all last year shedding them, but seeing what binya doing with kwani

seeing what ntone has done with chirumenga

and this impressive brother, hope, from nigeria w/black orpheus
and this impressive sister, khadija from britain w/sable

and so many others from all over the african world

that ive met this week

and me and jeff allen pondering a move

in west africa

when ntone said he wanted to provide a platform for others

that really resonated with me (and the power aspect speak to me too you know)

i asked him what pieces satisfied him most and he spoke on

binyas piece coming home and how he is proud that he is the first

one to print it and look what has come from it - the caine prize,

the kwani movement - and now this publishers collective (he waved his

hand to encompass all the african writers on the patio) and who knows what . . .

and im thinking how i got to keep john o killens legacy

alive and all the things i need to do with new ren and . . .

all it will require is me allotting the time and i guess

i got to go ahead and do it

but god im so afraid its going to kill noveltime

no, scratch that, know it will kill noveltime

maybe what i will do is schedule this move

for the fall of next year

that will give me this semester and my summer

woodshed to put this puppy to bed,

i will have to be all the more systematically ruthless about getting my noveltime in

and my holybook time and my shorts/nonfiction time etc etc et fucking cetra

in the meantime lay out business plan type stuff, strategic plan stuff,

nonprofit status, funding sources, cajoling folk, refining the vision

and so forth and so on - tires me out just thinking about it

i think i would call it: in the line of o killens

or something like that, something that honors john o killens legacy

i guess the next step is to get in touch with my folk

see who will sign up - for one more campaign

(they havent digested my last initiative yet and here i come asking for more -

best i have the plan fully laid out and even in play before i approach folk – help

convince them im serious about it - serious about the follow thru)

got a chance to hangout with my boy muki garang last night –

hiphop impresario and warriorpoet - we went to my favorite ethiopian

here, habesah restaurant over near the yaya center

muki young talent w/a vision and the precisely

kind of folk i would like to get works from

life is such a struggle

so many projects, so little time

im outta here, plane to lamu in a few

maybe i can get a couple of novelhours in . . .

my love

to you all

rickydoc rootdoctor

mganga maua