The Electric Slide Boogie

New Year's Day 1:16 AM
and my body is weary beyond
time to withdraw and rest
ample room allowed me in everyone's head
but community calls
right over the threshold
drums beating through the walls
children playing their truck dramas
under the collapsible coat rack
in the narrow hallway outside my room
The TV lounge next door is wid...e open
it is midnight in Idaho
and the throb easy subtle spin
of the electric slide boogiestep-stepping
around the corner of the parlor
past the sweet clink
of dining room glasses
and the edged aroma of slightly overdone
dutch-apple pie
all laced together
with the rich dark laughter
of Gloria
and her higher-octave sisters

How hard it is to sleep
in the middle of life.

Audre Lorde

Doctor Lawyer Teacher

Heather Day of What's Popping NYC reminds us what hip hop is actually about. She recorded this for her students.

Doctor, Lawyer Teacher from Heather Day on Vimeo.

Common Death

I am reading Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko which is a novel that takes place at a moment with Native people in what is now North America are interacting with the white colonizers that are seeking to "civilize" and generally change the ways of life that people have been practicing and living for so long. One of the most profound things that has effected me about this book is the relationships that the characters have with death. In one section of the book Grandma Fleet teaches her two young grandchildren that when planting a garden it is much more reliable to assume that the plants will reproduce themselves then it is to assume that a human with all of the realities of the day will be there to replant the seed that next year. This struck me as I am aware that my life and my assumption of life for those around me is so unique to my time and space in this world. For so many the assumption of life is non existent. The diseases I had or was vaccinated from as a kid are what are killing people in so many places. In this novel Silko never belittles death. Having it be more common places does not mean its any less painful. I want to remember this when I think about myself in relationship with people in my life that I love and with the world.

celebrating a life: "a writer and a fighter"

Chicago is mourning the Thursday death of Beauty Turner, a housing/community activist whose life touched a lot of other lives for the better, judging from her blog, Beauty's Ghetto Bus Tours, and the numerous obituaries already published in her memory.

from the Chicago Tribune:

Beauty Turner 1957-2008
Beauty Turner, 51: Chicago public housing activist and reporter
Dedicated her life to telling stories of city's most vulnerable residents
By Sara Olkon Tribune reporter
December 19, 2008
Beauty Turner, 51, a longtime public housing activist and writer in Chicago, died Thursday at Rush University Medical Center.She suffered an aneurysm Monday night, fell into a coma and never recovered, said her son Landon Turner. A charming and disarming presence on the South Side, Ms. Turner dedicated her life to telling the stories of the city's most vulnerable residents. She was as well-known for her greeting of "Hey Love" as she was for taking on officials at the Chicago Housing Authority. "I'm a writer and a fighter," was how she liked to describe herself. article continued.

Jon Krist

Dear, Dear Friend Jon who left this side for another is in my thoughts every day. His family started the Jonathan Krist Foundation. They offer scholarships to young people seeking to exercise their creative selves. How we remember people is so important. I try to say his name out loud everyday. My mama says saying someone's name out loud keeps them with us. May his memory be a blessing. His memory is a blessing to me.