these days

as i travel around the city and see "kerry for president" placards and bumper stickers still affixed in place, i wonder if this is a larger phenomenon, signs of quiet protest. i want to start counting "kerrys" and taking notice in other cities. surely we as a progressive nation haven't completely given up in these dark and ignorant times.

the other day i told a friend (we were talking about the new testament) "if these are the last days, i hope they don't hurt too much."

Past and present heros

A moment of silence in remembrance of Ossie Davis.




Thank you for the example of your life, Mr. Davis. As he said about Malcolm X, "he was our Black prince."

The Jill Scott show at the Paramount in Oakland last night was magnificent. Her voice was perfectly beautiful. She sang almost all her songs from both CDs. She chatted and broke it down ("I'm gonna tell you where we went wrong...men, we still need you - even if you're gay, we still need you...). She showed her appreciation and big heart to the audience, who responeded in kind. I'm not excited by many performers nowadays, but Jill Scott is worth getting excited about - she grooves you with love and intergrity! She makes me feel like I'm her friend. Love her love her love her love her!

black history month

greetings and happy black history month! i heard a pre-recorded announcement in walgreen's (schoolin ya while you shop!) about the establishment of "negro history week" by carter g. woodson in 1926 - no, not because this is the shortest month, but because abraham lincoln and frederick douglass were both born in february.

i asked a number of friends to comment on what blackness means to them. a simple question elicits complex answers. check out some of the responses.

february is always action-packed, making it one of my favorite months of the year. my vcr (some of us don't have tivo yet) gets a good workout from pbs specials in february!

my friend larry and i had fun reliving the sounds and flicks from the 80s while watching "black in the 80s" on vh1. hard to believe now that twenty years ago there were two top ten tv shows featuring african americans ("the cosby show" and "a different world") .

and finally, i got a real kick out of seeing "the spook who sat by the door" again. this is as deep as it gets - the fictionalized story of the first black man in the c.i.a., who goes on to train gangs in urban guerilla warfare, sparking uprisings in black communities across the nation. this film was so scary to the powers-that-were when it was released in 1973 that its distribution was widely surpressed. i've also heard that some of the cast members (including the magnificent paula kelly) were blacklisted for years. thank goodness for cable in 2005.