Transcribing and redacting the tapes has given me a more nuanced sense of not only who my father was but of who I am as a second-generation immigrant of West Indian heritage, as a breed, as a black woman, and as an offspring of artist parents. Of course, my father […]
This Sunday I had the pleasure of participating in a mini-writer’s retreat presented by the wonderful Poets and Writers organization. At one point we had to tell the group something about ourselves. One of the writers said that she had no community. Later on talking with her about what it […]
My father was born February 8, 1926. He, but not his presence, left this planet June 19, 2011. Of the many things I love and admire about my father is the fact that he was the definition of what I consider a man. His manhood was not a […]
When my father was a child he gave his Kingston, Jamaica born mother the title of duchess. He told me it was because of the stately way she walked down Harlem avenues, the sharp way she dressed and one particular hat she wore which was like a hat that Grace […]
Music was a foundation of growing up. I remember my father building a speaker when I was quite young and then taking me to the Sea of Music record store to buy (used) records. He bought a musical for me (I think it was West Side Story) and some jazz […]
My father returned to Africa for a third time in 1979. This time he was the director and one of the writers in a team of people making a documentary about the liberation struggles in Southern Africa. They started out at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit which was […]
Well to be absolutely factual, I might, maybe even probably, would have lived. Everyone on that part of the bridge at that moment did not die. One man who was driving a truck layed down on the floor as the roof of his truck crushed towards him. He lived. But […]
I love bookstores. On more than one occasion I have said, by way of introduction, “My name is devorah and I am a bookaholic.” I love independent bookstores that have core values and intriguing book offerings. Bookstores, independent bookstores are a bastion of free speech, free thinking. That is why […]
Once again 9/11. 9/11 the anniversary of Allende’s government being overthrown in Chile as part of a CIA planned coup. 9/11 the day the World Trade Center falls and Pentagon terrorist actions. And if the hundreds of engineers who say the buildings could not have gone down because of a fire […]
Of course, there were always hurricanes. Saharan winds astir with West Atlantic seas traveled west crossing the Atlantic. But there are those who say the character has changed since the days of American slavers. African storms, born on African shores now cross the Atlantic gaining strength and bearing down on […]
