My Pushcart Nomination

‘After the House Burned Down”

Terrific tidbits

I have the pleasure of sharing the following new works of art by wonderful writers, with reviews and associated events for their powerful voices

April 15, 2021; Checks and Balances

Can a man die of oxygen deprivation if there’s a strong, heavy knee placed on his neck for 9 (oh, just give and take, the killings haven’t even slowed down yet, homeys) minutes? Or must we dig for alternative causes like all the ills that black folks have been heir to and victim-blamed for throughout these last great American centuries—drugs, poor self-care, poverty, despair, lack of faith in the SYSTEM and the MAN, systemic denigration [note the intended pun! The word means ‘to blacken’!] and devaluation—till we come up with something resembling business as usual.

Race and America; Political Blackness 2

I Can’t Breathe

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL BLACKNESS

POST 2. History is a tale of many ‘Accidents.’ Today I’m thinking of something one can call ‘Accidental Political Blackness.’ Accidental Political Blackness is a part of my history. And a part of brown people’s history. Tomorrow is Juneteenth. On June 19th, 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger came to Galveston, TX to inform slave-owners that President Lincoln had actually freed all slaves TWO YEARS before that. The slave-owners were incensed, horrified, terrified, mortified, but compelled to obey. Still, they got those two extra years of political whiteness. ‘Accident’ of history, one might say, at least of History as written by…