Billie Holiday - "I'll Be Seeing You"

I've been thinking about Billie Holiday's music all week. I guess it's just that season. The weather is cooling off and perhaps I associate her music with autumn days. I don't think of her music as sad, but it does cause me to be contemplative and dreamy. I think of these times and her times. I think of the world, but not as it is but how it could be. Yes, I am a dreamer. I supposed that is what helps me to cope. God keeps me sane. Well, I just dropped in to share my thoughts. I'll be seeing you...soon. ~PEACE

Harlem Renaissance Poet: Countee Cullen

Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember.

Countee Cullen was a leading figure along with others who helped to define the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Cullen suffered high blood pressure and uremic poisoning and died suddenly on January 9, 1946. He was 42.  Read more...

Sources:  wikipedia, blackfacts.com, and American National Biography Online

Top 100 MBE: Charles S. Dutton

Hollywood Actor, producer, and director Charles "Roc" Dutton will be honored at the 3rd annual Top 100 MBE Award ceremony. Mr. Dutton, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, has an illustrious career as an actor that continues to grow strong. His recent role was as Willie 'Pops' Davis in, The Express: The Ernie Davis Story.

The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 6, 2008 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The University of Maryland (UMUC) Marriott Inn and Conference Center in Adelphi, Maryland. The annual award, which honors outstanding women and minority business owners in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia was started by Maryland native, businesswoman, and entrepreneur, Sharon R. Pinder of the Pinder Group, LLC. For more information please visit top100mbe.com

Photo source: irconnect.com

Local Event: Fire in the Belly

The Sage of Anacostia: Frederick Douglass

"One and God make a majority"~ Frederick Douglass



"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs"~Frederick Douglass

Who is Frederick Douglass?


These photos were taken over the weekend at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park in Baltimore, Maryland. We gathered there to celebrate my great-aunt's 80th birthday. I'll have to go back to Baltimore to take a closer look at the exhibit real soon. Happy birthday aunt Pearline!

Photos: Douglass memorial bust, Mrs. Bess and Douglass, Stephen Bess and Douglass

(The photos feature quotes by Frederick Douglass on prayer and God)

Book on Subject: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, by Himself

Photo & Fact

Vials for crack-cocaine found in an alley in Baltimore, Maryland

Photo by: Stephen A. Bess

.
“Over time, as the suppliers figured out how to make crack more easily, the price of crack fell dramatically,” says Levitt. “Therefore, an addict could consume much more crack with the same amount of income. The number of people using crack has fallen, but the total amount of crack consumed hasn’t fallen nearly as much because each addict is consuming much more.”
Sources: http://www.chicagogsb.edu/
(The Economics of an Illicit Drug Market, April 2006)

Today In American His-story

September 7, 1954 - Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md., public schools integrated.

Today:

We have a public school system in Washington, D.C. that is
84.6% Black and 4.5% White/non-Hispanic. In Baltimore the numbers are similar.

Baltimore City:

87.5% Black
10.8% White/non-Hispanic

Intergration? Am I missing something?

source: National Center For Education Statistics
photo: Suprememe Court Bldg in Washington, D.C. / by: S Bess
Model: Thomas Bess

Shake What Your Ancestors Gave ya!

This weekend, I had the pleasure of going to a bridal celebration for a South African couple in Baltimore. This is a couple that I've met only recently. They are traveling to South Africa within the next couple of weeks to have a traditional SA celebration of their union. Actually, the Bride is South African and the Groom is an African American from Baltimore (I use the term African American only to differentiate between the two because we're all just Black folks to me). They are a beautiful couple and they love each other very much. Now, whenever I go to a celebration for anyone of just about any culture, I find a way to participate in whatever is going on culturally (without being pretentious). Culturally, my experiences have ranged from Caribbean to Latino. I've only recently come into contact with people from Africa over the last couple of years. I love the similarities and I especially love the differences that they have with African Americans. South Africans love to sing, dance, kiss, and eat. They also love to talk politics no matter the educational level.

The music at the party was all South African music and a little Reggae. Yes, it would have been nice to hear a little Hip-Hop or R&B, but this particular party was strictly South African and I was cool with that. So, I watched a little and I danced a little just as I always do. The songs were in their language, but hell...I don't usually listen to the words that I'm dancing too anyway...just give me a beat. Anyway, there were other people at the party also from Baltimore. I counted three women and the mother of the groom. Unfortunately, they did not seem to enjoy themselves the entire time. They fixed their plates, found a place to sit and it was all she wrote until it was time to leave. They seemed shocked and amazed as they watch a shapely gathering of South African women turn the front living room into a dance floor. The bride sat in the middle while the women gave her praises and well wishes through song and dance. I found it to be a beautiful sight.

I felt bad that my fellow African Americans were not able or willing to open up and appreciate what was going on. Maybe they saw it as too distant from what they or their not so distant ancestors were accustomed to? Perhaps they were just observing and the experience would be different next time? Nevertheless, the South African men and women seemed oblivious as they danced well into the midnight hour. I joined in and I had a fantastic time! After all of my observing and dancing, there was one bright spot among the groom's relatives. The mother of the groom eventually got up out of her chair and began to dance! The women began to shout and clap as the weak, but determined woman rocked from side to side to the rhythm of the music. I laughed and clapped as well as I witnessed the old woman from West Baltimore revisit her African past. It was beautiful!

Note: Thhe woman that is the subject of this piece died recently. May she dance and shout in a
joyous voice for all eternity. Peace~