Morphological Confetti

I was tagged by Geoffrey to name 25 who have influenced my writing. There are some you might find surprising, but I thought of it carefully (with the help of my bookshelf) and came up with the following: 1. Richard Wright 2. Paul Laurence Dunbar 3. Ishmael Reed 4. James Baldwin 5. Jean Toomer 6. Langston Hughes 7. Ernest J. Gaines (pictured above) 8. Fydor Dostoevsky 9. August Wilson (Playwright) 10. Octavia Butler 11. Toni Morrison 12. Zora Neale Hurston 13. John Henrik Clarke 14. Sterling Brown 15. Irwin Shaw 16. John Donne 17. William Shakespeare 18. Oscar Brown Jr (Singer/Songwriter) 19. Edwin Torres 20. Clifton L. Taulbert 21. Curtis Mayfield 22. William Faulkner 23. Bill Withers (Singer/Songwriter) 24. Joseph A Walker (Playwright) 25. Kahlil Gibran Honorable Mention: Jesus Christ (Holy Spirit) who is with me everytime I pick up the pen. (Note: The names are in no particular order. Also, some of the names are song writers. ) Now, I'll have to tag 25 bloggers. Here's my l...

This passage has to do with courtship in the slave community of the Antebellum American South. I find these women creativity fascinating and very intriguing. So natural...so beautiful: “They [slave women] used sweet-smelling flowers and herbs as perfume and often kept the good dress packed in the flowers and herbs so that the clothing would absorb the pleasant fragrance. Hoops were made out of grape vines and were worn to make the dress fall neatly away from the body. A bright-colored hat or headwrap made for the finishing touch.” Source: (excerpt from Aren’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, Deborah Gray White,1985. Artist: Susan Lyon

The book is called: Mr. Unavailable and the Fallback Girl by Natalie Lue (aka NML). I’ve been reading NML for about three years on her blog, Tired of men... I have giggled and scratched my head to many of her articles about dating and men. She told me about her book long ago, but I thought that I would give it a review after I’ve read the entire book – Haa!! Time proved me wrong, and she did warn me. Anyway, I have read some of the book and what I’ve read so far is great. I saw a lot of old “Me” in this book. Yeah, I was once “Mr Unavailable.” As a matter of fact, the longest relationship I’ve ever been in is my current marriage of three years. Before I was married, my relationships lasted 8 months to 1 year – tops! Anyway, I have provided an excerpt of this wonderful work. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Natalie provides many chapters and many different scenarios that you will definitely find a piece of yourself in. Check out this excerpt: Why you catch Mr Unavailable when he f...

Arrested Development is a great example of the "conscious" or "resistance" music of the 90s. I was a student at Savannah State back then majoring in English. I was fired up! It was all about "Blackness," identity, and joining some militant campus organization. Back then, I remember having a t-shirt that read, "The Blacker the College, The Sweeter the Knowledge." Ahhh...those were the days. Power to the People!

In the American system of slavery, African Americans had many ways to resist the dehumanizing conditions that existed. The songs they sang (known today as Negro Spirituals) had a purpose: they were sung to express their grief, petition to their God, and soothe the pain of bondage. Most of the songs were made up from stories they heard in the Bible, but they all seem had the same underlining plea – Freedom. Here is an example: Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? Deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? They why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, Jonah from the belly of a whale, The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, Then why not every man? Well, the ancestors were eventually released from bondage and entered into the American Aparthied system of Jim Crow. In these modern times, African Americans have marched, staged sit-ins, and fought up to the very moment Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States. So, what are we resisting to...