When does a person become an artist and not simply a person who at times creates art? In music it requires a certain attainment of skills to simply play music and then the line is formed as professional or an amateur musician, lines that do not necessarily reflect on one’s […]
On Saturday September 3 Rafaella Marzano and Sergio Iagulli of Casa della Poesie and I flew to Sardinia for their Fall Literary Festival. The banner roughly translates to “New Year of the Poets” because in Sardinia the beginning of Fall after the summer harvest is considered the beginning of a […]
Every time I am given the honor of coming to the Casa della Poesia in Baronisi, Italy it is a pleasure and an adventure. Baronisi is a small city near the port city of Salerno that, among other offerings has a university, convent and a park across the street from […]
Last year and much of this year I did very little posting on my website. But I read voraciously. I found myself not just reading newer releases but also books that had been out for decades that I had somehow missed. I tend to read a few books at once, […]
On June 4th I made a speech for the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle’s 95th Poets Dinner and Award Ceremony that was held in Benicia City Park. Several people asked if they could read the speech so I offer it below. When given the theme of discovery I used my typical […]
In 1968 Black Fire literary anthology edited by Imari Baraka and Larry Neal was released creating a clarion call for the Black Arts Movement. Essays and poetry from a range of authors including Nathan Hare, Calvin C. Hernton, Sun-Ra, Henry Dumas, A.B. Spellman, Sonia Sanchez and many others. Fifty-four years […]
This is another excerpt from my journey with the tapes. I taped one dozen tapes. Sadly one, tape number 10, was stolen so I only had eleven to transcribe. This excerpt is from the eleventh tape. Today, February 8th is father’s birthday. He would have been 94this year. He has […]
I have a fairly limited experience with opera. My growing years were mostly jazz with a few helpings of blues, a handful of Broadway musicals, and of course full servings of R&B and Soul as my teens beckoned. But there were also recordings of Handel’s “Messiah,” “Amahl and the Night […]
HaÏti-Haitii? Philosophical Reflections for Mental Decolonization By Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s book, HaÏti-Haitii? has strengthened my ideas about Haiti, colonialism, and his commitment to staying true in his struggle for Haitians true freedom. The book reads as a series of meditations and simple poems punctuated by blistering proverbs, as the […]
A poet, for whom I have much respect as poet and person, on reading a recently finished manuscript counseled me to reconsider my use of “I” in the poems. No specific poems were pointed to simply the observation that I could create stronger poems in that way. The poet noted that […]
