Simone's Oasis

Broken Word: Your First Encounter With Catcher in the Rye

2010-02-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

In light of Salinger's death, I thought I'd ask:

When did you first come across Catcher in the Rye? Do you remember your first time reading it and discussing it with your classmates? What was the most fascinating element of the book to you?

I remember reading it as a junior in high school. I tried to imitate it, as, at that time, I was first becoming serious about writing and this book felt like the standard to me. I continue to ask, Where do the ducks go? We should know by now!

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People's History Month: Even More Amazing Grace

2010-02-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

This video speaks for itself. When you get the time, do yourself a big favor and watch it:

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Local Events: Literary Stars Visit UC Berkeley

2010-01-29T08:00:00.001-08:00

If you're close to UC Berkeley, you may want to consider the following events:

--If you recall, in August 2009 I wrote a poetic offering on Natasha Trethewey's Myth. Well, the poet herself will be at UC Berkeley on Thursday March 4, 2010 for a reading! I'm so going to try ot make this. Trethewey won the Pultizer Prize in 2007 for her book Native Guard (which I highly recommend). If you're not aware of the Louisiana Native Guard, I'd especially recommend this collection. The book is wonderful; it also deals with themes of loss, as well as racial identity.

--Dan Bellm, winner of the California Book Award for his book of poems, Practice, will visit Berkeley Thursday February 4, 2010.

--Literary critic Terry Eagleton will be on campus Monday April 5, 2010 speaking on the topic, "The Death of Criticism." I might also try to make this event. He made post-structuralism a little easier for me to navigate into.

For the entire spectrum of artists, intellectuals and musicians visiting Berkeley, see the press release link here.

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Trailer Park: Howl

2010-01-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a clip from "Howl" - the upcoming film based on the obscenity trial surrounding Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem, "Howl."

I'm stoked about this movie, though I've already read negative reviews about it. But still, watching James Franco equals a plus, and watching James Franco play a poet equals plus plus plus! If you don't know about the controversy surrounding the poem, it's regarded as one of the monumental works of the Beat Generation. It was, during the time of its publication, considered a problematic poem because of its sexual depictions and drug references. The publisher of the poem was even thrown in jail, though the charges were later dropped.

I wonder if this poem would have generated the kind of reception it originally did if it remained an oral piece. Here's a clip of Ginsberg's reading of the feature poem:

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Question of Week: Backing Up Your Work?

2010-01-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Do you back up your writing in any way? Do you make copies of your work to an external portable hard drive, flash drive, sync it with or upload it to online storage, email it to yourself? Or do you not back any of your work up at all?

Do you do a majority of your writing directly on a keyboard to screen, or on a notepad, or both equally?

Have you lost anything important because you simply didn't back it up? Did you discover something new and delightful while having to re-craft that work?

Personally, I have software that allows me to sync some of my writing to an online storage system, so that, after I write, I merely hit a button, and my work on the device I'm using synchronizes with the backup location, so that both places always have the same data. I also use the email method, which is preferable for me.

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Poetry Call: Poets' Corner Contest

2010-01-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

If you live in Modesto, California, and like to either dabble or immerse yourself fully in poetic creation, you may be interested in submitting your work to the 29th Annual Poets' Corner Contest.

The contest is comprised of two categories:
General: Any kind of poetry, so your free verse wanderings are welcome
Special: Poems about Peaches and Cream. I'll let you visit the web site here for details on that, and the contest at large.

Here is another opportunity to share your voice with your community.

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Broken Word: Anthology on the Black Experience of Nature Receives NAACP Nom

2010-01-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

In December, I made a post about a new anthology entitled "Black Nature" that focuses on the African American response to nature. The anthology is edited by Camille Dungy, and has just received an NAACP Image Award nomination. You can read more on the anthology and its praise here.

As said in my previous post, this is a book I'm very interested in getting, and is on my To Do list. Over the course of eight years, I, of course, became well-studied in the canon of the single-voiced response to the natural world. I'm very interested in reading nature through additional, and equally as significant, voices.

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Broken Word Focus: Kelly Tsai

2010-01-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

Spoken Word and Kelly Tsai are pretty much synonymous terms in the spoken word community. Prolific, accomplished, well-travelled, she is a poet and activist born in Chicago and hailing from Brooklyn.

Check out her website here: http://www.yellowgurl.com/bio

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Broken Word Links: January 19, 2010

2010-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Kanye West recognizes the poets that came before him, and takes on the responsibility to carry on their torches.

Working at Amazon warehouses = long hours, no overtime and punishment for getting sick.

TSA finds it unsafe and unwise to allow its passengers to read books during the last hour of its flights. Expressing literacy is, it seems, a new (and old) danger. This, I think, is only the beginning of mandates that will be driven by a passion for ignorance. Jumping from point A to point 2.W45 = no competent connection.

Photo Citation: http://upcoming.current.com/

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Sac Local: Fill a Bag with Books for $5!!!

2010-01-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

Got a grocery bag? Love books?

The Friends of the Sacramento Public Library present: Fill a Grocery Bag with Books for $5 Day!

Who what when where?

Where: The Friends of the Sacramento Public Library Warehouse - 8250 Belvedere Avenue, Suite E, in Sacramento / Phone: 916-731-8493

Day: Saturday, January 16, 2010

Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Books for a budget! That's what I'm talking about!

Photo Citation: The Webstaurant Store

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Broken Word: Sterilizing Poetry from Hip-Hop

2010-01-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, apparently doesn’t like Snoop Dogg being put in the same analytical breath as Shakespeare. This article by John Lundberg of the Huffington Post, at one point (quoted below), begins to irritate me, especially when he seems to imply an issue with most teenagers likely naming rappers as their favorite poets. The author's thinking on the matter, in that regard, strikes me as retrograde, fearful, uninformed.

And Motion's purist attitude of wanting to keep the hallowed halls of poetry sterile from anything that won't inch its way into the good graces of his poetic definition is indicative of a problem that will continue to deepen the schism between people and poetry.

Again, you can read the article here.

So now here is the argument: Sometimes, you can steep too low when trying to make poetry appealing to teenagers. Apparently, hip-hop music, while being the closest rendering of poetry at its roots and staying true to the art's most formal, original forms, is still, somehow, the lowest pier for teaching poetry.

I'm not afraid to say that, again, those who stick up their noses at hip-hop have never listened to a hip-hop album in their lives. It's the idea that that man, with the sunglasses and pigtails can, no, should, actually write something that can demand our analysis in the same way the rosy-cheeked guy can, that sickens many of our beloved elitist superpoets. Any time you start separating art, suggesting that you can't look at exhibit A to learn an appreciation for exhibit B and, in turn, learn about their familial ties though unique in their individual elements, you push the stake harder through the heart of that art.

Rap and poetry are akin to me, anyway. So, my issue with Motion and this John Lundberg of the Huffington Post: How is excluding Snoop from poetry lessons maintaining the integrity of poetic study? Rap, to state the obvious, is pure, formal poetry - spoken, metered, rhyming.

So says Lungberg:

“But Motion is right that artists like Eminem, and even Angelou, only scratch the surface of poetry's power.”

Look, I agree that Angelou isn’t the best American poetry has to offer (as a matter of fact, I don't care for her work at all), but Eminem is a very worthy writer to study. I did a presentation on one of his songs in a Meter & Rhythm class, and realized what a great lyrical composer he is. No one writes like him. I’ve studied his rhymes, like, sat there and not only broke down the unaccented/accented nuances of his songs, but also broke down his rhyme schemes and the musicality of how he writes with the words, alone.

This article by Lundberg is afraid of what poetry is. (And don't ask me what it is!) So, what Motion and Lundberg are telling us to do is vociferously rehash the same old voices and keep seeing where they take us, because it is only through their voices we will understand all stories.

Frankly, I love Poe, but I’m all for introducing Jay Z, B.I.G, Aceyalone, Eminem and Diamond D into our poetry classes. Teenagers need to know that poetry doesn’t have to be up there, somewhere far in the distance of the clouds where they need a pedagogical ladder to climb to be able to touch the bottom of the words. Let’s start with what’s right now; stop harking to an eighteenth and nineteenth century poetic past and demanding its relevance at every twist and turn, insisting on making it unconditionally important to minds that may be more interested in the poetry of the culture that appeals to them, the poetry of their generation that they feel coincide with their voices in these times in their language.

Why must we always say, "Well, let’s try to show how Shakespeare's sonnets can be compared to rap"? I mean, that’s fine and all, but why can’t we start with here? Why can't the bar be those of this poetic present? Hip-hop is a starting point - more teenagers have taken in poetry from listening to hip-hop than from choking up Shakespeare. The fact that, to me, more teenagers can "bust a rhyme" by their favorite emcee than "bust a sonnet" by Shakespeare reveals, to me, that folks like Snoop, Fabolous, Joe Budden, Cam'Ron, represent the bar by which this generation finds its poetry. Why can't these little literary cults wrap their minds around the fact that, yes, Shakespearean poems and Snoopian lyrics have plenty in common, and that either can be the stepping stone for engaging in each others' works?

Why must the poets of this generation be pushed over because of a dire insistence to listen to the voices form the graves from which all living poetry must be measured, from which all of today's experiences must find validation?

Photo Citations: http://www.nlcphs.org (Shakespeare); http://www.babble.com/ (Snoop)

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Poetry Call: SPC Poetry Book Contest

2010-01-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Second Annual Sacramento Poetry Center Poetry Book Contest is upon us!

Got a mauscript, or a collection of poems you've put together that you have chillin' around the house or, in my case, suffocating in folders buried beneath mammoth text books? Then you may want to consider submitting your collection to the Second Annual SPC Poetry Book Contest before the end of March 2010.

The winner gets:

Okay just kidding!! Well how about just some exposure and dough?

See the SPC page

here for details on this contest.

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Broken Word: Are Best Of Lists Helpful to You?

2010-01-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune writes a post here expressing her disconcertion with "Best Of" lists at the end of the year. She seems to suggest end of the year Best Of lists hang too much on the past, are too preoccupied with the literary landmarks of yesteryear. Not to mention she regards list compositions as effortless. She also critiques the lack of passion and warmth in the construction of those lists, calling them "cold, methodical calculation[s]." She seems to feel, rather, there should be greater zeal for the best of now, the present, and what is to come.

I do understand her concern when speaking on the possible anxieties over putting together a Best Of list:

I find myself a lot more worried about balance and diversity than about naming the books that really moved me, instructed me, surprised me, infuriated me, shook me up and turned me round — even though, invariably, the books that actually do all of those things end up being a naturally diverse, effortlessly inclusive lot.

I understand the feeling of pressure to construct a Best Of list that is as democratic as possible for the sake of seeming more credible, inclusive, sophisticated or "open-minded." I don't understand that call to be super-conscious because I, myself, have compiled a Best Of list, but because I've read people's reviews of Best Of lists, and their major complaint is always, 'why aren't there more ___________ on the list?' And the absence of __________ usually makes the person suggest ignorance or naivety on the part of the list compiler. I agree with Keller in that you just need to choose the best work, period.

At the same time, I don't entirely understand her frustrations. A list, to me, by nature is impersonal, cold, mechanical, uninspired. I don't have an issue with the compilation of Best Of lists. I don't feel they're desperate or inauthentic or threaten the integrity of the work listed. Honestly, they give me a potential reading list to, in turn, put together for myself. I don't really concern myself with those works potentially representing a higher brand of work, or worry about their prestige. I just look at those lists as potential reading material for the future. They are helpful in that way.

What are your thoughts? Do you read Best Of lists? Do you find them useful in your selection of books to read, or movies to view, etc?

Again, you can read Keller's post here.

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Trailer Park: The White Ribbon

2010-01-06T09:13:00.001-08:00

Can you guess what this movie's about?

Hmmm...The synopsis indicates it's about strange, strange things that begin to happen in a little German village...I have a feeling this is one of those "morality play" narratives.

It's directed by Michael Haneke, who directed the movie Cache, one of the most interestingly creepy films I've seen.

I wonder when this'll come around to town.

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Broken Word: Choreographed Poetry

2010-01-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

In this post, I asked how listening to poetry in foreign languages might affect your interpretation or understanding of a poem. Well how about dance?

High school students put on a performance doing a choreographical interpretation of Poe (read article here). I love it. This, for me, would definitely encourage a sensitivity to the spirit of a poem, not just its elements. Such a "reading" can really open up undertanding of poems in a new way. Choreographical translations, to me, might make poetry feel nearer or more immediate. Neat stuff.

Are there any poems you'd be interested in seeing a dance interpretation of?

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Sac Local: 2010 MLK March and Celebration

2010-01-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about the upcoming Dr Martin Luther King Jr March and Celebration taking place on Monday January 18, 2010. This is a very special day, because I think that peace, unity, and community are values worth adopting with as much enthusiasm and fervor as possible.

The March and Celebration are not simply about Dr King's dream, but about an investment, at large, in social justice and togetherness.

I hope as many of you as possible can make it to the March, which will get started at 8 a.m. at the Oak Park Community Center, and/or the Celebration that will be held at the Sacramento Convention Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. I'm excited about the festivities!

The March and Celebration is a great way to not only stand up for a wonderful vision of peace; it's also a great way to meet people, interact with local entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders, and find different kinds of opportunities for yourself.

The website MLK365 located here has all the information and details you could possibly need about the events of the March and Celebration.

Let me know if you're planning on attending!

Onward!

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Community Topic: Favorite Poetry Book Cover?

2010-01-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

Is there a book of poems whose cover you especially like, is admirable to you, or you find of importance?

I like this cover for Gwendolyn Brooks' extensive collection of writing. I love the title, and love the plainness of the cover, suggesting the great ordinariness of the stories that are to follow.

What about you?

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Poetry Call: Tule Review

2010-01-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

Okay Sacramentans, the Sacramento Poetry Center is soliciting submissions for the June 2010 issue of their mag, the Tule Review! I think I will submit a couple poems. SPC is pretty open, it seems, in terms of what they're willing to accept, so if you don't feel you specialize in a particular kind or type of classifiable poetry, that's totally cool. If you just like to write, but don't write within a specifically identifiable framework, you should be alright. As per their page, they "consider all styles and forms" of poetry. (Oh yeah, they won't take haikus though!!!)

I encourage you to submit (look who's talking, coming from the person who's often looked at poetry magazines dubiously). There's nothing to lose. Even if you're a teaser poet, you may want to consider dropping a couple poems in the mail or e-mail.

So mark February 27, 2010 on your calendar, as this is the deadline for submitting work to the June 2010 issue of the Tule Review.

You want to view the page here for all the information you need to know regarding this call for submissions.

I wish you well!

Photo Citation: Sacramento Poetry Center

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Yearly Roundup: 2009

2010-01-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

2009 provided a redirection in vision for me. I shut down, or suspended operations of, a poetry website, and decided to open up this Blog that focuses on poetry and people in a more manageable way. I hope you all have been enjoying this Blog, and hope you'll let me know how I can make it better in the upcoming year.

I look forward to what the new year has to offer for the Simone's Oasis community, and hope to see the readership grow. Hopefully the community format of SimonesOasis.Org will enable more interaction and discussion this new year.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to continuing to share with you in 2010.

Poetry Focus: Found Poetry

2009-12-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this post, I have a quick task for you! Compose a found poem and share it!

A what?

A found poem is a poem composed of passages you extract from outside texts - magazines, newspapers, cookbooks, speeches, journals, blogs, articles - any outside text. You can structure those passages into a form you choose, order the lines the way you want and break them where you like. I'd encourage you to not add words to the passages, though you may eliminate words as you see fit. That's it!

Try writing a 10-20 line found poem based on something you may have sitting around you or have access to - a blog, a website, an encyclopedia, a book, a magazine. Extract 10-20 lines or so from that text. Structure the passage that way you want. Break the lines where you want. And, if need be, remove some of the words to see what the passage can be altered to say. When done, SHARE!

If you don't have anything to extract from, let's try a speech from President Obama:

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

***Now let's see what you get! You may share your poem on this post here.. Remember, you have to be registered on the community to post!

In Remembrance: Dennis Brutus, South African Poet

2009-12-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus died in his sleep December 26, 2009. He had been suffering from prostate cancer. He was 85.

He's a poet whose name is linked with anti-apartheid and Nelson Mandela, even being imprisoned alongside Mandela in the 60s.

Poets like Brutus strike me as necessary poets. His life tells me that poetry can truly find urgency in the most personally or socially-defining times. To commit poetry to the domain or mere expression of the aesthetic, in my estimation, does the art a severe disservice. The origins of poetry are of necessity, of cultural survival, of social and spiritual utility. I love seeing poetry taken off the wall of mere spectatorship, and find itself in someone's hands.[/soapbox]

Brutus was also part of the effort that led to South Africa's prohibition from Olympic competition in the 60s.

His his work has been banned in South Africa for years, though "Thoughts Abroad" managed to slip through under his pseudynom John Bruin.

In the 1970s, Brutus immigrated to the United States and taught at Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh.

For some reason, I want to call Brutus a real poet. I don't know what that all means, but hats off to his legacy of, in act and word, championing the cause of unity and justice for people and the earth. He dedicated his life to fighting against division and corruption, and that alone is, to me, a life worth living.

Sources: LATimes.com, Stuff.co.nz
Photo Citation: Stuff.co.nz

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Announcement: SimonesOasis.ORG Community Open!

2009-12-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

The community accompaniment to this Blog is now open over at SimonesOasis.ORG! Be sure to register so you can comment on posts, since comments on this Blog have been disabled, but are enabled on the community site.

The purpose of the community at SimonesOasis.ORG is to allow the Blog to be a more interactive place where you can post, communicate with me and other readers much more easily.

Most Blogs are single-voiced. But, with the kinds of topics I post, I'd like to expand the Blog to a community format to encourage discussion.

So posts that are made on this Blog will be re-posted on the community forum at SimonesOasis.ORG as well, to make discussion a little easier.

Also, you will have to register on SimonesOasis.ORG to use the community board, comment on posts, and discuss topics. You will also be able to start your own topics for discussion.

Comments on this Blog are now disabled. Each post made on this Blog is accompanied with a link to where you may comment on that post.

**The only difference between this Blog and SimonesOasis.ORG is that the ORG will cater to community interaction and commenting.

Movie Thoughts: Precious...Precious misery loves company

2009-12-27T20:44:00.000-08:00

So I went to see the film "Precious" Thanksgiving evening with my grandfather and cousin. The movie is based on the novel "Push" by author and poet Sapphire.

Off the bat, I think about the title of the novel versus the title of the movie - "Push" versus "Precious" - and what both imply about the egregiously burdened life of the title character Clareece "Precious" Jones.

I'll preface by saying I know that the title of the movie was originally "Push: based on the novel by Sapphire," but was changed to "Precious" due to another movie that came out this year called "Push." So, in an attempt to keep the Sapphire Push distinct from the Other Push, the title "Push: based on the novel by Sapphire," was changed to "Precious." With that said...

The title "Push," to me, is redeeming because, at the end of the film, "Push" suggests that Precious has decided to use force in her life, meaning, she has determined she will mobilize herself on a journey of her choosing - not her mother's, or her teacher's, or her environment's - that she will "push" herself from her obstacles to a life that responds to her desires and no one else's. "Push" is a title indicating strength, assertion, possibility, anticipation.

In my estimation, the title "Push" alone would've made the movie better.

The title "Precious," to me, does nothing to get under the movie's skin. It merely cutely alludes to the motif of lost innocence. If anything, the title "Precious" tries to provide whatever positive characterization can be given for a character the movie itself seems to despise.

By the time the movie finished, aside from hearing sniffles from moved audience members and hearing a man sitting on a bench telling a woman, "That movie was so emotional," the biggest talking point of this movie for my cousin and grandfather dealt with us having to witness yet another movie that shows black people not being any better than what they are in the eyes of a condescending observer. Well, at least dark-skinned blacks not being anymore than what they are to a condescending observer. If you're light, there's more hope. But that's for later.

I'm becoming less and less moved by black people being in these "rose from concrete" narratives that rarely feel triumphant to me. Precious, to me, feels infused with self-hatred and self-disgust. It's a story that, to me, is enamored by its own misery. Watching the movie, I couldn't help but think Precious wasn't even a character indicative of a person, but rather a character indicative of caricature, some exaggerated portrayal consistent with what "outsiders" are comfortable with thinking.
I agree with the endeavors of realism insofar as it attempts to mirror what seems immediately knowable. But this movie, in my estimation, doesn't mirror the tragic situation it takes on. It mirrors and mocks it to the extent that, for me, the director becomes sadistic, taking pleasure in portraying the agony of its protagonist. Precious is not given the chance to claim herself. The movie only shows us what she is as the story sees her and tells her to deal with it.

My cousin who accompanied me to the theatre was not a fan of the movie at all. Her main indictment: All the actual uplifting characters in the movie didn't look black, though they were. They all "looked like white people," or, in other words, were fair-complected, looked distinctly different than (whiter than) the troubled black people in the movie, who were all dark-skinned. I thought that was a good point. What this this tells me is that even black people - the director of this movie is black (Lee Daniels) - can, whether consciously or not, succumb to racial (or colorist) attitudes that foster self-hating and self-defeating narratives.

As for the performances, I liked Mo'Nique (somewhat) - she did a solid job. To me, she wasn't great because I think great acting has to involve being inside a character, not just replicating what likely might already be at the forefront of the personality you have. I'm not judging her, I'm just saying that Mo'Nique didn't totally seem to be acting to me, lol...Her final scene, though, was great.

I do think the movie was too judgmental of her. Her meanness was the stuff of hyperbole. If not that, then I certainly felt like the director was trying to manipulate my stance towards her character. I feel I didn't have a choice other than to despise her. Villains are usually interesting. Okay wait. Villains that you are actually given an opportunity to become interested in, rather than just be repulsed by, usually prove to be, indeed, interesting characters. Mo'Nique's character, to me, is not interesting. What you see is what you get. The movie pretty much forces you to be repulsed by her, dare I even say laugh at her craziness. (My cousin told me her friend laughed at Mo'Nique when she saw the movie. That sort of reflects what I'm talking about when I say her character is what it is - nothing more, and her performance isn't great. It's just...her? Sorry.)

The explanation at the end of the movie as to why she is so mean to her daughter, Precious, fits in an odd psychoanalytically weird kind of way. I would've preferred the movie without her explanation, because explanation, to me, should serve to open the audience to a character's situation. To me, 'Nique's tell-all scene, though well-performed, made the movie more ridiculous because, at that point in the film, I really didn't care what she had to say. The movie did not warrant her having a monologue, because caricatures don't have a voice, and her character was complete caricature to me. I'm sure she'll get some kind of award for this performance. She's already been nominated for a Golden Globe at the time of this post. I'm less concerned with the accolades she may or may not get, and more concerned with what those accolades always represent for black actresses who take on roles that put themselves in the good graces of their industry: staying put.

Well, what is good about the movie? I guess it wants to teach self-acceptance, if I can even call it that. In my estimation, the movie actually doesn't teach that at all since it has this recurring theme of Precious wanting to be white or light-skinned (all the people "better" than her are fair-skinned). At the end of the day, I do feel this movie is about Precious accepting who she is, but not necessarily wanting to be who she is and "pushing" to become something she feels is superior to what she is now.

Issues of racial identity and colorism can certainly be evaluated in this film. One of the very first things Precious says in the film is that she wants to have a light-skinned boyfriend. She also says she desires to be light-skinned. At one point in the movie, she looks in the mirror and her reflection is of a white woman. The movie, I don't feel, quite makes a statement on those desires. They are just left as they are. She does not want to be what she is, and, for all that she is, she certainly doesn't want to be dark while being those things.

One thing I will say about Precious, and what interests me more than anything else in the movie, is the importance of language. Precious reminds me so much of Celie from The Color Purple. Both sort of write themselves into existence, find rites of passage in writing, create themselves in words, and at some point, insist on their own narratives. So I find it particularly interesting, then, that the teacher in the movie frequently tells Precious to "keep writing, write, write, just write..." to keep yielding herself to language. Precious never really situates herself until she begins to write, and as she does, her story begins to unfold.

Anyway, I know many people adore the book and the movie. I haven't read the book, and, thanks to the movie, have very little to no interest in doing so. I will be frank: I can't see how anyone would enjoy this film, or find much of anything admirable in it. If you've seen it, what are your thoughts?

Photo Citations:
Mo'Nique: http://www.filmofilia.com/, Poster: http://www.thicksational.com/home/. Classroom: http://movies.wn.com/, Hospital: http://screencrave.com/

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Spotlight Express: Hip Logic by Terrance Hayes

2009-12-26T14:47:00.001-08:00

I put a poetry book entitled "Hip Logic" in my Amazon queue it seems like years ago. It's a work by Terrance Hayes. I was interested in getting it a couple years ago when I went on a determined quest to buy as many poetry collections as I could by contemporary African American authors.

Hayes, who is a creative writing professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, published Hip Logic in 2002 after it was selected by Cornelius Eady for the National Poetry Series (The National Poetry series solicits manuscripts for publication).

The book is described as musical, and as a contemplation of black male identity. It's seen as a work of remarkable originality and mastership of language.

As for Hayes, himself, you can see him reading in this video:

Sources: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=82155

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New Book: Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

2009-12-21T09:58:00.001-08:00

I don't know enough of Camille Dungy's work. So reading this review about a new anthology of poems she is Editor of, entitled Black nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, was a good thing, because it tells me I need to catch up on her material.

I will be getting this anthology. As soon as I read the first line of the review, which says Dungy believes blacks and whites look at nature differently, I knew this anthology would be something I'd be getting.

It features poems by black poets about nature. As the reviewer notes, Dungy sees blacks and whites as having conflicting responses to nature. Whites revel in its beauty, celebrate its wonder. Blacks see nature more ominously and critically, connoting a history of plight and hardship.

This is a topic that interests me: the black response to nature. Of course, after eight years of majoring in English in college, you get sucked in the cyclical dialogue about the Romantic perspective of nature: Nature is beautiful. Nature is refuge. Nature is the wellspring of the imagination. Nature is the aesthetic standard. Nature is to be cherished. Nature is where you're most yourself. Nature is where you find your peace and inner-person, etc. We frequently, if not exclusively, see the light side of nature (pun intended) and that light side represents the tenets by which we define a canon.

I'm looking forward to getting this anthology to see the conflicts and complexities nature, in another light, summons within those speakers.

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Unclassified: Oh Monarchs, I'll Miss Ya

2009-12-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

I am so heartbroken over the departure of Sacramento's WNBA Franchise, the Sacramento Monarchs. I was stunned, and I mean jaw-dropped stunned, when I read that the Maloofs were no longer going to operate the franchise. There hadn't been any suggestions the Monarchs were having trouble gaining a fanbase or being relevant to the community. Apparently, the Maloofs wanted to focus more on the Kings. (So, I'm quietly rooting against them for the rest of the year).

The Monarchs recently had their dispersal draft in which the team was officially broken up, and that really hit home and made me realize that the Monarchs are done, have been completely dissolved. (Dispersal draft=rest of league drafts players from the folded team). I was so sad as I read the article. Nicole Powell taken Number #1 by the New York Liberty....etc., etc.,..

My family and I went to the very first Sacramento Monarchs game in 1997 at Arco Arena. They got clobbered by the New York Liberty, if I remember correctly, but it was exciting to see them play, especially with me being a young girl who was very athletic. Through watching the Monarchs and the league as a whole, I could see, for myself, the possibility of pursuing athletics professionally or at a high level. Over the years, my grandfather and I have gone to several Monarchs games and would keep up with the team over the summer.

The Monarchs won the WNBA championship in 2005, which was a huge deal to me. Though I think some in the Sacramento media tried to downplay their achievement because it was accomplished by a women's team, I think any time a championship is won at any level of athletic competition by any group of players, that achievement should be treated with respect regardless of gender or the popularity of that particular sport. The work is just as hard, the committment is just as great.

The Monarchs were one of the Original Eight WNBA teams when the league began in 1997. They have produced some memorable players over its thirteen-year run. We have the great icon Ruthie Bolton, former WNBA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Yolanda Griffith, the league's all time assist leader Ticha Penicheiro, not to mention other remarkable players such as Kara Lawson, Nicole Powell, Rebekkah Brunson and many others.

I'm really going to miss the Monarchs come May. If the Houston Comets can fold, which was arguably the greatest WNBA team in league history at the time of its folding before the 2009 season, then I guess any team can fold. This just sort of makes me nervous for the state of the WNBA as a league that can survive another decade. If solidified teams can fold, teams that have won championships (Houston, Sacramento, Detroit) and that have support from the community, then just how stable is the WNBA? I know it all boils down to money, marketability, and focus...but I mean, it's just happening to frequently.

It seems like the WNBA relocates teams often. Continuously moving teams from city to city is not, to me, not a completely good sign for a league still settling itself in the professional sports world. Their lack of geographical consistency, I think, hurts them. You have to have identifiable teams: Team A in this particular city who wear these particular colors who have these particular names...You can't just keep relocating franchises and expect to maintain face as a professional sport.

Anyway, I went to a game in 2008, and, during a break, Ruthie Bolton made an appearance right in front of me. You know I had to bust out the cam! And if you don't know who Ruthie Bolton is and how important she is to women's basketball, or just the sport of basketball, period, then I just don't want to say to you right now.

Check her out showing off her Olympic Gold medals towards the end of the video. I wish I had gotten a better close up of them. It was like wooooow seeing them in person.

Anyway, bye Monarchs...it's been great. Thanks for those wonderful memories.

Photos courtesy of: SacBee.Com and MetroStart.Net

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Unclassified: Man Freed After 35 Years in Prison

2009-12-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

BARTOW, Fla. – James Bain used a cell phone for the first time Thursday, calling his elderly mother to tell her he had been freed after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

Mobile devices didn't exist in 1974, the year he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a 9-year-old boy and raping him in a nearby field.

Neither did the sophisticated DNA testing that officials more recently used to determine he could not have been the rapist.

You can read the full article here by MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer.

This statement stuck out to me from all the rest:

"No, I'm not angry," he said. "Because I've got God."

Love truly is supernatural, truly is from God, truly is God. God is love.

I don't know anything about this man, his life - it doesn't matter. That statement was a testimony all in itself.

Even outside of the context of his case, just keeping that attitude of forgiveness (even when outrage might seem justified) and letting the love of God flow throughout you is freeing in itself. When you have God, you don't have anger, bitterness, hate.

I look at what Jesus went through during his Crucifixion, and how all those egregious things happened to the Son of God - THE SON OF GOD! And the words that came from Jesus were all in love, truth, and peace, "Forgive them Father..." That act puts hate to shame. Hate is embarrassing.

**Image used in this post copyrighted to the AP.

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Broken Word Links: December 17, 2009

2009-12-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

94 year old woman publishes seventh book of poetry, Poetically Speaking, Vol VII.
Pablo Neruda: the seashell collector?
Al Gore gets poetic on global warming:

New Book: Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life

2009-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

Carol Sklenicka has written a detailed 600 page biographical work on Raymond Carver entitled Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life.

You can read a review by Mark Athitakis with Powells.Com here.

One day, maybe in the far and distant future, I will venture to read this.

In the meantime, if someone gets to it before me, please holla and write something about it so we can post a guest review! I'm still working on my "Dreams in the Mirror" cummings biography, and that's been over the course of a couple years..

Being nosy can really require a lot of time!

Community Topic: Do you perform your poetry?

2009-12-15T15:51:00.000-08:00

Do you perform your poetry? And I don’t mean do you sit on a stool in front of a microphone and read from your book. But do you commit your poems to memory, get on stage, and sort of “act” your poems with the expression of overt emotion, tonal changes, gestures, and other performative features in accompaniment with your recitation of the words? Tell us about how you see yourself as a performance poet here.

(Make sure you're registered on the community forum!)

Broken Word: Invictus

2009-12-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Clint Eastwood's new movie starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon entitled "Invictus" is about the relationship between Nelson Mandela and the captain of South Africa's rugby team who seek to bring their country together through the sport.

Well, since this blog focuses on poetry, you know that the movie ties in with poetry somehow! And it does...

"Invictus" is the name of a poem by nineteenth century English poet William Ernest Henley:

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

**************

That poem is so heavy-hitting...I'm going to commit it to memory. Invictus, in Latin, means "undefeated."

Also, if you remember, Timothy McVeigh quoted this poem as his last words before his execution on June 11, 2001 for the Oklahoma City bombings.

What is this poem saying to you?

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Testimony: Making Choices, not Allowances

2009-12-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

I made a poor decision on Friday that, obviously, I should not have made. And it wasn't really a decision I wanted to make, but rather an allowance I made that I had no business making involving my job.

I've always had the attitude that I must use my time wisely, that I do not want to look back on my life with regret, that I don't want to, in the present, put myself in a situation where I'm stifled into making a poor decision that I will look back on with heartache.

My greatest fear is wasting time.

So, at work this past week, my "don't waste time" value was put to the test. I was offered two schedule/reward options by an individual: (a) commit more time to my job for a designated amount of money, or (b) commit the same amount of time I am currently committing to my job for a designated amount of money.

My initial decision was B: Do what I'm doing now, but with improved benefits, but not as glowing as Option A, yet still improved. The offer was perfect. So what do I do? Not listen to the Lord, not follow my heart, and choose the less preferred Option A after, I feel, practically being begged to.

I failed to live up to my values in that regard. On Monday, I will have to let the person know that I no longer want to commit to Option A, and would rather stick with Option B. This is the best decision for me. I am not dedicated to money. Making money is not a valuable principle to me. "Not wasting" is.

I do not want to speak to the individual I'll be talking to about this with because he is not a friendly individual. I know what his reaction is going to be, and I know that he will, in his draconian demeanor, suggest that I gave him my word that I would commit to Option A, the option he wanted me to commit to. His demeanor during our Friday discussion was completely abominable, disrespectful, and the ugliest conduct I've seen of any person I have met. Having to bring this situation up again on Monday, after he thought it was resolved because he had his way, is only perpetuating a headache I want to be forever over.

What he will understand is that my bond to myself is the only bond that counts for anything in life, and that I am a quality employee that is irreplaceable.

This is a matter of life. Ten years from now, I am not going to say to myself, 'Simone, you wasted your time. What were you thinking? Was the extra money worth it? No. Why did you stray from your principles? Why did you let yourself be used? Why did you waste time?' That's my greatest fear, and I will not happen.

Two important people in my life have already told me that Option B is the more profitable (not speaking of money) decision. That should've been a huge red flag to my eyes, telling me not to back down.

The Lord has given my the opportunity to not let myself be put in a situation I, in my heart, don't want to be in. So why put myself in a horrendous situation, as I've done, by denying the Lord's provision? I have to walk in his strength and be serious about it. If I keep taking on the attitude that 'Oh, it's not a big deal,' over important choices, I'll keep losing out. Decisions like this are a big deal, they're a matter of faith.

Part of my purpose in writing this post is to encourage you to - to the greatest degree you can - have no regrets. Ten years from now, will you say you wasted your time? That it could've turned out better? That you could've reaped blessings by walking in the Lord's strength, and not trying to play cool and commit yourself to hard burdens?

I take this kind of examination seriously. The time I value most is with myself, my mom, and my family. And I will ensure that I keep my bond to myself, first and foremost, before I even dare make allowances to committing my time - one of the most significant resources granted to each human being on this earth - to a situation that is not what is on my heart.

Life is so much larger than work, than clocking on, sitting at a desk (ruining your eyesight from monitor concentration for 9 hours!), quickly eating unpaid lunches only to rush back to clock on, continue sitting at a desk, clocking out, then going home only to wake up and do it all over before you know it. And to spend 42.5 hours a week doing that in an environment that constitutes 71% of the week. It's not worth it.

What employers are buying up (at a pretty good rate) is your time. Yes, they're buying your services, but, in reality, they're buying your time. And life is precious. And I don't believe that I need to choose one over the other. The blessing comes when the work you do gives back to you. Money is not a form of giving back; all it actually is is a form of taking, telling you there's more where this came from if you sell a little more of your time. The idea of working to death is scary.

The reality that your culture creates your desires and then fulfills them - telling them that those desires are your own - is tragic. I've made a commitment to myself that the only environment I will be consumed by is the environment of my writing and a commitment to serving others, not laboring at the mercy of a dollar bill.

For me, I can't think of a better way to live.

News: 100 Days, 100 Poems

2009-12-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Kahlil Almustafa of South Jamaica has written 100 poems in 100 days for the first 100 days of President Obama's presidency.

That's a pretty cool task. For more information, you can visit his website here.

I think I'm going to try something like this. Maybe not 100 days, lol...But say 50 days and 50 poems. Maybe the first 50 days of 2010!

Have you tried a daily writing exercise such as this before geared to writing everyday for a set number of days on a particular focus? How did this goal turn out? Were you consistent? If so, how did you manage to stay focused? How satisfied were you with what was produced? What have you since done with the material?

News: Rare copy of Poe book makes bank!

2009-12-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

It looks like an original copy of Poe's first book of poems, "Tamerlane and Other Poems" recently sold for over $660,000 at an auction. Read: $660,000. Now that's what I call literary superstardom.

I hope my first book goes for at least that much! (shameless plug time: check the bottom of this blog for my debut collection! hehe)

According to the article, which can be found here, about 50 copies of the book were produced, and about a dozen remain in circulation. I think I might start a hobby collecting rare poetry collections.

So I ask, how much would you pay to get your hands on a rare copy of a book? Or a rare first edition? Are there any poets or writers who may have rare collections of work you'd be particularly interested in finding?

Community Topic: Who are some of your favorite writers?

2009-12-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

Who are some of your favorite writers? Whose poetry or books can you just not put down, that you find yourself always immersed in, anticipating the next word, the next release, or the next time you'll be able to invest yourself in their work?

e.e. cummings and Gwendolyn Brooks are my favorite poets. I especially love the sonnets of Ms Brooks.

Leave your comments to this topic here on the community forum! (Make sure you're registered as well).

Movie Thoughts: Mysterious Skin

2009-12-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

By the time I finished watching the film "Mysterious Skin" when it first dropped in 2005, I could barely pull myself from the sofa, deeply stunned by how heart wrenching its story was. It is one of the most heartbreaking films I've seen.

Mysterious Skin a somber narrative about the ramifications that can extend from child abuse. It genuinely shows how such circumstances cause the main character, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt to, in turn, abuse himself. In this film, Levitt really got me noticing what an incredibly gifted actor he is. He gives one of the most outstanding performances I've seen. To me, it's the performance of a lifetime and shows him coming into his own skin as an actor.

The movie is pretty heavy dramatically, and will make those uncomfortable watching work dealing with child abuse to turn away from it. (The movie was almost banned in Australia). What is compelling about this movie is how convincingly it deals with the repercussions of abuse, and without desperate hyperbole. What happens to Levitt's character actually seems more like repercussion than condemnation. It's not judgmental or angry, only honestly affected, which I think allows the movie to be as moving as it is.

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POLL: Poetry and Femininty

2009-12-05T20:03:00.002-08:00

POLL: Do you think a man writing poetry suggests his femininity?

Broken Word Links: December 2, 2009

2009-12-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

At one time I really wanted to do poetry outreach in the prisons. I was reminded of this ambition by Zohar Atkins, a student from Brown University who teaches poetry to prisoners and is now a 2010 Rhodes Scholar recipient.
A poetry series offends some due to its title evoking a slur that has been used against Spanish Speakers. What are your thoughts on this controversy?
Looking back on my recent post featuring Cowboy Poetry, it's probably particularly fitting to note that Doris Daley has won best female cowboy poet honors.

Monthly Roundup: November 2009

2009-12-01T18:58:00.001-08:00

November's here already! Crazy!!!! Well, here we have it for November 2009: The Monthly Roundup!

First off, if you don't know about the community expansion I am creating around this Blog, please see this post with all the details about SimonesOasis.Org.

Early in November - on an offbeat note and at the recommendation of a friend and reader, I made a post questioning the fanaticism of many over the Beyonce. Why America, why? And, why World?
The Biblical poetry I read is fascinating and is the most precious wellspring of inspiration I have for my own writing. I ask you: Where do you find your poetic inspiration from the Bible?
How does memory inform poetry? Is poetry the result of accepting brevity?
Filmmaker Katherine Brooks posts a topic on her blog concerning gender, the speaking subject, and film. If you're interested in gender studies, this post may be of interest to you.
I came across a fascinating article on Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail and how poetry literally saved her life.
In the Time of People: I interview Iraq War veteran Harold Newbill on his tour in Iraq
Have you ever tried listening to poetry in a language you do not speak?

Upcoming Special Posts:

Why must a man's sexuality be questioned if he writes poetry?
Movie Thoughts: Precious...more like Misery
Movie Thoughts: The Brown Bunny...(much better than Precious)
Movie Thoughts: An alternative "reading," or dare I see "seeing" of Steven Spielberg's Minority Report

...and plenty of posts regarding the delightful world of poetry and writing. Stay close, subscribe, keep reading...and register on the community forum at the ORG!

Blogcast: SimonesOasis.Org

2009-11-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

Check out my new quick blogcast on SimonesOasis.Org, the expansion community for this Blog, SimonesOasis.Com. For the blogcast click here. Or click the player below:

And if you haven't read about the expansion of the Blog to SimonesOasis.Org yet, see this post here for all the information.

For Writers: Three iPhone Apps I Recommend

2009-11-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

If you're a writer and have an iPhone, there are many applications offered in the iTunes Store you might find useful. However, there are three applications that have been particularly useful for me.

Screenplay: (see image on right) Screenplay is an application that allows you to write screenplays write on your phone, formatting them according to industry standards. The developers of this application are partners with Final Draft, Inc., which stands as the model in screenplay formatting. This application gives you the options you need to detail your script technically. You can also synchronize your screenplays with the developer's online storage system, or email your scripts to yourself as another backup method. You can, in turn, also import your screenplays from the backup system. See their site here for all application details. This application has doubled my writing production just from sheer convenience.

Notebook: Notebook is another great application I initially used for writing scripts before purchasing Screenplay. Like Screenplay, the developers of Notebook also allow you to sync your notebooks with their online storage system (as well as email them to yourself for backup). You can create multiple notebooks, and apply HTML. You have various options, including password protecting your stuff and creating private notebooks. See the application page here for details. It's pretty basic, but is still a nice convenient virtual notebook option you can carry around with you.

Story Tracker: (shown left) With Story Tracker, you can keep track of the stories, poems, essays, etc. you submit to magazines, journals, etc. for publication. The application comes with a plethora of options that will assist you in organizing your submission life. The features are many, so I will simply give you the application link here. This is great if you enter a number of your works into contests or to various venues for publication consideration.

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Broken Word Focus: Cowboy Poetry

2009-11-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to do a short Broken Word Focus on Cowboy Poetry, a genre of poetry I knew very little - okay nothing - about until this afternoon. I had heard the phrase "cowboy poetry" in graduate school (seriously, I don't remembering hearing it before then!), but only in passing. So I decided I wanted to get to the bottom of this Cowboy Poetry thing.

Cowboy Poetry is a pretty serious, beloved, and deep-rooted tradition in the American West. It's not some poetic phenomenon that started at the dawn of the new millennium that people are just now getting the hang of. Cowboy poetry in the American West goes all the way back to, well, the origin of cowboys, where they'd sit around campfires and converse, tell stories, entertain each other, and recite poetry.

Cowboy Poetry is derived from the oral tradition of song. After watching performances of Cowboy Poetry online, I notice that the poetry does remind me of the spirit of spoken word performances often seen in the African American poetic tradition - or, even more so, the hip-hop community. I'm not talking about the content, or the attitude, or the rhythm of both kinds of poetry being the same. I'm saying that both genres - the spoken word tradition and the Cowboy poetry tradition - distinctly preserve their oral roots. Both kinds of poetry are more effective heard and experienced in the present.

If you don't know what Cowboy Poetry is, it's this: the celebration of the culture of the American West. I want to stress that the poetry aspect is just as important as any other dynamic of its culture. Poetry is part of the basic infrastructure of its tradition.

Your one-stop online shop for all things Cowboy Poetry has got to be CowboyPoetry.Com. It is a comprehensive site showcasing the artistic culture the American West, with, among other things, featured Cowboy poems and poets. You can go to this page specifically to see its poetry features. The poems I came across seem to have a rhyme scheme, and can easily be read as song. Those musical and formal elements really emphasize its oral and performance feel.

Also, a link for the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is here.

Now to the Cowboy Poetry in action:

I have to say, I'm intrigued by this poetic tradition. Though I know many may have reservations about the consequences of the Cowboy way of life in our nation's history, I thought it'd be interesting to find out more about the importance of poetry to its culture.

Sources: Cowboy Poetry On-Line, CowboyPoetry.Com

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Announcement: Expanding the Blog - SimonesOasis.ORG

2009-11-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

Before the end of the year, I will be expanding this Blog to SimonesOasis.ORG (you are currently viewing SimonesOasis.Com), to enable the Blog to be a more interactive community where you can communicate with me and other readers much more easily.

I know that Blogs are mostly single-voiced, but, with the kinds of topics I post, I'd like to expand the Blog format to be more communal and discussion-friendly.

Many people tell me, for example, they don't know how to comment on this Blog. Maybe it's a generational issue, maybe it's a matter of poor Blog formatting. In the upcoming weeks, the posts made on this Blog, and the posts that will continue being made on this Blog, will be migrated to SimonesOasis.ORG, which, I think, will make interaction and discussion easier.

The Blog, of course, is sticking around. The comments and discussions will simply occur on the expanded site, SimonesOasis.ORG.

Also, you will have to register on SimonesOasis.ORG to use the community board and discuss topics. You will also be able to start your own topics for discussion.

When that migration takes place, comments on this Blog will be disabled, and you will be provided with a link to Blog topics on the new site, where you can comment. I'd recommend registering on SimonesOasis.ORG now so you can be set up for the expanded site and discussion. This Blog will stand as a front page for the whole Simone's Oasis theme. The only difference between this Blog and SimonesOasis.ORG is that the ORG will cater to community interaction and commenting.

I will let you know when the expansion is fully made. In the meanwhile, please feel free to register on the ORG. Enjoy your stay, thank you for visiting.

Broken Word: Listening to Poetry in Foreign Languages

2009-11-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

Reading this article surrounding an event that took place last week featuring various poets reading poems in 20 different languages, I wonder about the kind of impact hearing poetry in a language unfamiliar to you might have. How would it influence your appreciation of a poem? How would it affect your "reading" of it?

A quote given in this article actually reflects why I like listening to poetry not written in English, or in a language I don't know:

Wanner, who is also a translator, said it is impossible to translate poetry precisely. Even if people don't understand the foreign languages, they will gain something from the event by hearing the originals.
"For me, that's the charm of it," he said. "Instead of focusing on the semantics of it, you focus on the music of it.

I think that statement captures a valuable tenet of experiencing poetry: put yourself in a position to be captivated by the poem, not simply captured by it. I can appreciate an experience of a poem that takes away the semantic imperative.

Do you listen to, or even attempt to read, any poetry in languages you don't understand or are not fluent in? What is to be gained from listening to or reading poetry in languages you do not speak or are familiar with?

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Interview: Around the World and Back Again

2009-11-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

"At a time in my life when I was having trouble in school and relationships [my stepfather Gary] talked to me about his troubles around the same age," says Harold Newbill, Cryptologic Technician in the U.S. Navy Reserve. "I was 22. He was 19 at the time he joined. He joined the Navy and credited it with turning his life around. I felt I needed a change like that, too."

It was this decision to join the U.S. Navy that started what has now been a ten year tour in the armed forces for Harold Newbill. His active service, much of it on a Destroyer ("lovingly referred to as 'Tin Cans' by many"), has taken him across our entire world to places such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain (Persian Gulf), Darwin (Australia), the Secychelles Islands, Bali, and many other distant places. It was his time on the USS Decatur (DDG-73) as an Electronic Warfare Operator that, Newbill says, provided his most valuable lessons on life.

In April 2008, Newbill deployed to Iraq for eight months. While there, he worked in Detainee operations as an analyst assisting in cases involving bomb makers and other kinds of terrorists. He also stepped foot in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. Aside from that experience, Newbill says he "never went 'outside the wire' as going outside the base is called."

Yet, while deployed in Iraq, one of the most profound challenges Newbill faced occurred off the battlefield. He had just married his girlfriend, Kelly, of several years that past September, and less than seven months later, had to leave for Iraq. This made his departure, for both of them, even more difficult.

"Leaving was tough but we knew she would visit me while in training in South Carolina," Newbill says. "The tough part was leaving after that."

His wife, Kelly Newbill, experienced various emotional extremes around his leaving.

"Even though I understood Harold had a job to do, I was also mad at the military for taking him away from me," she says. "I guess you could say I had a mixture of feelings around him leaving ranging from anger and frustration to sadness and disappointment."

Although she knew Harold was not directly in harm's way, she says she still felt nervous over the smallest delay in communication, perhaps an email taking long to arrive to her through the channels. And though Harold, himself, tried to keep mentally strong during their separation, obstacles still found a way to present themselves.

"I kept the mindset of my duty and stayed strong. But for her, it was tough in ways I didn't know at the time. Separation of this type presents challenges nobody could totally prepare for."

In December 2008, Newbill completed his service in Iraq and returned home to his wife, family and friends. He says his deferment will keep him from having to return to Iraq until 2013, though he indicates a withdrawal is planned before then.

Though many have expressed their viewpoints, indictments and praises of the war Newbill gave his service to, he says that, ultimately, people in the U.S. are not given a comprehensive picture of the war effort. He believes headway has been made in the war, but also believes the Iraqi people will be the ones ultimately responsible for their own advancement. He also sees the U.S. as having equipped the Iraqi government to create improvements for its people.
"The success or failure of the Iraq conflict relies more on the Iraqi people - police, army, politics and such - than anything we do," he says.

"We have made great efforts to make things work for them," Newbill continues. "We are different, though, in culture and that difference presents problems for us in conveying our intention, which, from the solider and sailor level is predominantly benevolent and hopeful and often without politics."

When all is said and done, Newbill says the closest show of "success" in the war will be measured according to how greatly the lives of Iraqi citizens have improved.

"Success in this war would mean, to me, a stable Iraq, that citizens have a quality of life including safety and security - an Iraq that is as terrorist free as it can be."

Now that he's returned from Iraq and is settling back into his life in Sacramento, Newbill, who cites Thomas Jefferson as one of his heroes, has taken on a new responsibility as leader.

"I am the operations leading chief for my unit," he says. "I help keep my sailors employed, act as a mentor, lead the effort to train on new mission work and set the example as best I can."

This attitude of taking initiative reflects one of the many character traits his wife sees the Navy as helping shape. Though Kelly did not know Harold before he joined the military, people have shared with her the impact the Navy has had on his maturation.

"From stories not only from him but his close family and friends who knew him before [I did], I would have to say that the Navy has heavily shaped who he is today," she says. "Harold has always been a 'take charge' kind of guy, but the Navy instilled discipline and honor in him that has helped him grow into the respectable and honorable man he is today."

Though Harold may have both peers and a country who are grateful for his achievements, his wife seems to be one of his proudest admirers.

"I am very proud to say he is my husband and very proud of all his accomplishments both in the Navy and in his civilian life."

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Broken Word: What does genre have to do with poetry?

2009-11-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

Inspired by this article on the public and social relevancy of poetry, poet CD Wright suggests that "writing that doesn’t confine itself to one genre” may prove must interesting.

That thought raised a more general question for me: Does any poem confine itself to one genre? It's hard for me to force a poem, or any art, onto exclusive grounds. Genres always overlap, to me, or just all out collapse. I hesitate to identify the kind of poem I'm reading; subtleties always keep me at bay from doing that.

How do you think poetry relates to genre? Does the recognition of drama insist on a superficial reading of a text?

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Broken Word Links: November 12, 2009

2009-11-12T12:27:00.000-08:00

Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century, a new anthology of poems by young poets who, in the words of their editors, "address the particularity of being alive now."

Remember Elizabeth Alexander? If so, good! If not, no! She talks about her inaugural poem for the President (now do you remember?), and the groundwork that informs her poems.

This is a site I've been frequenting lately: Authors.com. If you write, you should probably pay a visit there as well.

Naked Bones Can't Run, a new book of poems by a woman named Lillian Williams. Reading the article is heartbreaking enough, without having even opened the book yet.

Consider: The Speaking Subject, or not so much

2009-11-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Katherine Brooks, film director and writer in the indie circuit, has made a fascinating post about gender and film. She had a conversation with Geena Davis (where has she been?!!) who is a member of a study group entitled See Jane. The group's focus is to examine gender portryal in film.

In one of the studies featured in the post, the group examined 3,000 speaking characters from movies over a 15-year period, 1990-2005. I'll let you read her post to see what conclusions were drawn from that investigation.

By the way, I like the chosen method of analysis, to begin with, as language examination always seems useful when evoking gender studies (or, of course, any cultural studies).

Some say art is a reflection of the culture that prodcues it. We can learn so much about our culture, its values and its presumptions from our movies, and, more specifically, from the characters who "have" the language, so to speak, in those movies.

Anyway, the study is pretty detailed, so I'll hush and let you read it here: http://katherinebrooks.com/blog/?p=216

Also, one word that kept coming to mind while reading her post was "scopophilia," which is a term denoting the love of watching.

And I really like the idea of films needing more female narrators. Thank you.

And one last thing: You can visit The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media here.

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Broken Word Focus: Dunya Mikhail

2009-11-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

I came across this article posted on Duke University's The Chronicle website about an Iraqi poet named Dunya Mikhail who fled Hussein's regime in 1995.

The article is touching, though I don't feel totally comfortable using that term because it may cheapen how moving the article really is. The part that got me was about how poetry, in her own words, "saved" her life. She was even cited as one of Hussein's enemies when her poetry was revealed to contain criticisms of his regime.

One point of the article that really fascinated me was:

Hoping to avoid censorship, Mikhail said she used figurative language to embed her criticism of war beneath symbolism and imagery.

Figurative language, to me, is most useful in political poetry by, in its very nature, being used to encode what might be perceived as dangerous information. Dangerous information, to me, can be anything that is too revealing, whether it be political or not.

Again, you can read the article here.

General Question: How might symbolism and figurative language, in your mind, help make a poem more or less effective?

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Trailer Park: Uncertainty

2009-11-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

This looks pretty good. I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's movies. He's really done well for himself in film. This movie looks like it'll be no exception. According to Yahoo Movies, it should be out November 13, 2009 in limited release.

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Poetry: A collaborative poem with co-workers

2009-11-07T10:46:00.001-08:00

This is a poem written by myself and two co-workers, inspired by our delightful job.

*****************
Night falls.
Short days
that never end -

files waiting to be filed.

(Too much work
that has to be dome)

Pushing keyboard buttons,
my mind is an empty trash can

(I just had it, too,
it slipped away)

We just let it flow
staring at the broken ceiling

Odors...incense...smoke

******************
You know you're living the good life when you can write poetry with your co-workers about your job!

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Movie Thoughts: Boys Don't Cry (10 Years Later)

2009-11-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

Boys Don't Cry is an excellent movie. It seems like it was just yesterday I watched it, feeling stunned by the revelation from the closing credits that the movie was based on events in the life of an actual person named Teena Brandon.

It's actually the first movie that made me cry, and that was while I wasn't even watching it. No, wait a minute. Father of the Bride was the first movie I got misty on, followed by Boys Don't Cry, and then Black Hawk Down.

Boys Don't Cry messed me up, though, meaning it "stuck" with me, was constantly present in the back of my mind providing thoughts for consideration. I think it had such an impact on me as a viewer because I have a soft spot for "love stories," and even more than that, I'm deeply intrigued by what a "love story" is. Movies that don't make assumptions about the nature of pursuing love, and assert rather than absorb ideas about that pursuit, are movies that affect me the most.

I'm reminded of a scene from Boys Don't Cry in which the protagonist tries to explain to someone a dilemma she feels she needs to be privy to, and stating, at one point, "it's complicated." That statement, to me, stands as a symbolic comment on not so much the nature of her perceived condition, but rather the nature of attempting to fulfill the concept of love. It is complicated, involved, ambiguous, uncertain. What does it entail? Is it a continuous pursuit? It is ever really fulfilled? Can the journey be completed?

And I don't think a love story is a story about someone "falling in love" with someone else. I guess those are more like romance stories. I think a love story involves a character deeply affected by the idea of valuing someone so greatly, so deeply, so humbly, it supersedes his humanity. The love story is the belief in such a vision, and having the heart to pursue it. It's about the idiosyncrasies of the journey.

Anyway, ten years later I look back on this movie, understanding that I like it because it recognizes the protagonist as someone who made an honest human endeavor to embrace that journey. That's all I really ask of any movie - be honest.

As a viewer, I'm simply interested in the pursuit.

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NEWS: 19-year old singer mauled to death by coyotes

2009-11-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is so sad, so tragic. A 19-year old young girl named Taylor Mitchell, a folk singer from Canada who was rising to popularity, was mauled to death by two coyotes while hiking in Nova Scotia. This is just terrible. You can read the full story here.

I hadn't heard of her until I read the story. Her My Space page is here: http://www.myspace.com/taylormitchellband

She was a young woman with a dream, and seized the moment to follow her passion.

What more can one really do? Make life of every breath.

Broken Word Links: November 4, 2009

2009-11-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Check out clips from President Obama's poetry jam at the White House! Says the First Lady: "Tonight's event is really just another way for us to open up the White House and once again make it the 'People's House.'"

Letters from Byron to a friend sell for almost a half-million U.S. dollars!

Persian poet Rumi helps brings perspective to a shattered world.

Have you used the Academic Sentence Maker? Hmmm...nope.

Unclassified: Beyonce Why?

2009-11-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine suggested I write a post about my attitude towards The Beyonce. Occasionally, I don't mind diverting from the focus of the blog to tackle an "unclassified" topic not related to poetry, movies, or people making valuable contributions to our world. So I will exercise that reservation to make a brief post about my take on Beyonce.

I don't like seeing people deceived, and so The Beyonce rage has bothered me for some time, mostly since she's gone solo. I liked Destiny's Child - well, I liked The Writing's on the Wall - but the fanaticism people across the world have for Beyonce is not understood. In general, I don't understand, and always question, the celebration of anything generic.

I have asked a couple people who are fans of hers why she is so great. The most compelling answer I've heard to date is "she has good beats." Does she produce her own music? And I'm not too trusting of her "creative contributions," anyway, when all one need do is google her songwriting scandals to see the many stories about misallocated credit. (I think those stories are true, by the way).

She doesn't bother me. All in all her music doesn't bother me. It's her overblown stardom that's irksome.

I wrote a post some time ago questioning the fantacism over Jay Z, whose attributions of greatness I don't get, either. But Beyonce's glaring iconography is even more dubious. Her superstardom, if anything, is a reflection of society's desperation for an entertainment icon (I say the same for Justin Timberlake) more than the incredible nature of her work. It's really not her bad. The consumer's appetite for music has been dumbed down, and so their expectations have been significantly lowered. What we hear nowadays is sound, not music. Soon, we are going to have to develop a more relevant term for what comes from through our radio airwaves. But I digress.

So I can sort of understand Etta James' not so laudatory words about Beyonce after she performed At Last for President Obama. I can understand her unwillingness to be indoctrinated by the media zeal towards all things The Beyonce.

I'm tired of it and I want answers.

Beyonce fans tell me: How is Beyonce, as an artist, deserving of her glory? On that note, how is any artist deserving of his or her stardom?

Monthly Roundup: October 2009

2009-11-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

The Roundup: October 2009

October had a number of posts on topics I hope you found of interest! We started things off with announcing President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I saw the award as relevant to his accomplishments, as he has planted positive inspiration in the hearts of so many people. You have to start with a vision, with the assumption things can get better for all mankind, and with the message of a promising future if anything is to be improved upon, and that's what President Obama has done. He's helped lay the groundwork. I think the award is not just for Obama, but for anyone investing in such a vision of unity and peace.

I wrote a write-up on My Mom, the Educator. Be inspired young educators of America! Be inspired!

And if you haven't checked out my magazine blog, In the Time of People, then what are you waiting for? You're late! Get on board the readership!

If you've seen The Matrix or The Terminator, you should know who Sophia Stewart is.

Unsurprisingly, (or maybe very surprisingly) Britain's favorite poet is T. S. Eliot. I thought John Keats would be higher up on that list.

I learned about an event called Poetry Africa, and it has awakened a desire in me to learn more about the global poetry community.

Did Shakespeare write a play he was not credited for? Would you be surprised if he had not written a number of plays he is credited for?

My Space user gets prison time for a song about frustrations with law enforcement.

And my first Spotlight Express goes to playwright Tennessee Williams.

Upcoming Posts:

Finishing up a post on a psychoanalytical reading of the movie Vanilla Sky
On the note of movies, how much of the movie Minority Report is fantasia?
By special request, Spotlight Express on Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca
What does creativity have to do with insanity?
A brief examination of why people may not like poetry

AND MORE! Stay tuned for more on poetry, movies, people and the in-between on Simone's Oasis! Thanks for visiting! Tell your friends. And if we're related, tell other members of the family!!!

Broken Word Focus: The Poetry of the Bible

2009-11-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or does the Bible have some of the best, most beautiful poetry ever written? All the inspiration I need comes from this Book. And the Psalms has got to be a precursor to lyrical poetry, if not one of the finest representations of that genre, itself. Are there any Scriptures you find particularly wonderful from a literary and aesthetic standpoint? I love reading John 1. Its construction is just brilliant, powerful, moving. Here's part of the chapter:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Looking at it from a literary standpoint, without trivializing its power, this Scripture is just so beautifully cryptic. I love the language. And really, I love the King James translation of the Bible as a whole. It renders the words so poetically. The Bible is truly a remarkable source of artistic inspiration.

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Consider: Another side of Christian missionary work?

2009-11-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

I try to be perceptive when I read articles or stories that express extreme suspicion of outreach work conducted under the banner of Christianity. I really couldn't tell you what Christianity is, so this post doesn't make too many presumptions about the term.

On my Facebook news feed, a friend posted an article that examines a possibly more sinister side of Christian missionary work in Thailand and Laos. You can read the article here.

I appreciate the work missionaries do across the world when it comes to spreading the Gospel. (I do wish we'd give just as much focus reaching out to people in the U.S.). I am not going to be naive and say that everyone who purports to come in the name of God indeed comes in the name of God. Maybe they came in the name of their god. In my heart, I don't believe every Bible thumper believes in the God I believe in narrated in the Bible. Anyway, the essence of missionary efforts becomes muffled when those who purport to come with the Good News start to exploit the "non-believers" and make a mockery of the very real need to reach people with a Biblical message. I do believe most missionary work, however, is sincere.

How do you see the impact of missionary work on people across the world?

Question of the Week: Memory & Permanence

2009-11-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

To what extent do you see poetry as an attempt to preserve memory, and to what extent do you see it as an attempt to revise it? Is revision an attempt at preservation, or does preservation involve faithful documentation of an essence? What is the role of memory in poetry?

Shunryu Suzuki said "because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer." Is poetry, in some ways, the demonstration of such suffering, the agony left by an effort to inscribe permanence? Or is poetry more or less an acceptance of brevity, the expression of an emotional and psychological tolerance for something short-lived?

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SPOTLIGHT EXPRESS: Tennessee Williams

2009-10-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

After reading about Tennessee Williams' honor by the Cathedral of St. John for his induction into the Poets' Corner in New York, I thought I'd start a Spotlight Express feature on this Blog to post brief "express" features on literary figures, primarily poets.

So, the first Spotlight Express will be on playright Tennessee Williams, gov't name Thomas Lanier Williams. You probably know him, most notably, as the author of The Glass Menagerie (I remember doing a scene from that play in high school theatre!), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and a Streetcar Named Desire.

He wrote 30 plays, as well as poetry and essays.

Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, though he lived much of life in New York, where he died in 1983 at the age of 71. His father was an Episcopal priest and is thought to have been abusive. However, he had a very close relationship with his sister who was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. At the approval of their parents, she had a lobotomy to address her mental illness. The procedure ended up completely crippling her. Some believe her demise contributed to Williams' alcohol abuse.

When reading the plays of Tennessee Williams, you may notice his work primarily deals with society, conformity, and the individual. They are suspicious of social constructions and precepts of values and order. Williams, himself, was seen as a social deviant of sorts. Categorically, his plays are memory plays: plays comprised of a narrator's projected recollection of past events.

Williams is considered a writer from the Southern Gothic tradition.

He died in a hotel in New York after choking on an eyedrop bottle cap.

Some of the most notable actors who have been in productions of his plays include Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, and Katherine Hepburn. He is noted as having a remarkable influence on twentieth-century American cinema.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter awarded Williams the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Tennessee Williams' Quotes:

"Security is a kind of death."

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Oh yeah, and check out Angelina Jolie's homage to Williams on her arm: "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages" > >

Thanks to Professor Darryl Haley and Wikipedia

Question of the Week: When do "non-poets" turn to poetry writing?

2009-10-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

When do people, who don't consider themselves writers of poetry, turn to poetry-writing and find it most useful?

Do you think that in light of social, national, and global disillusionment and inquiry, maybe as seen in our country and world now, poetry writing has regained its usefulness and importance to the individual? With the level of challenges facing human beings today, do you think people are looking to move inward more? Does turmoil always necessitate an artistic response?

In my eyes, financial, environmental, spiritual, social, and global crises do ask people to become silent. How people react to that silence varies: it may come in the form of poetry, prayer, art or meditation. When people are confronted with the unavoidable reality their refuge has been undermined, I think there is an increased desire to move deeper into the recesses of subjectivity.

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Broken Word Links: October 22, 2009

2009-10-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is cool! Can you determine which lines are from YouTube comments, and which lines are from poems by e.e. cummings? I didn't do as well as I would've liked to, though I consider Cummings my favorite poet. Let's see how you do.

Remains found in Utah, according to archaeologists, are not those of poet Everett Ruess, who disappeared over seventy years ago in Utah's canyon country. He was twenty years old, and his story has become the stuff of legends.
A poem by Alice Jane Taylor, who you might otherwise know as British writer extraordinnaire Alison Uttley, has been published after a century.

Sac Local: Sacramento Poetry Day!

2009-10-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Poetry Day is arriving ever so soon! So you know what that means! Time to write, write, write, and submit!

Celebrate Sacramento, lash out at Sacramento, poeticize Sacramento in 75 words or less!

See here for submission guidelines.

Hurry! This could be your big chance to get on Oprah! (or maybe the Sacramento Bee...)

Consider: My Space User Gets Prison Time for Song

2009-10-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

Antavio Johnson of Florida was sentenced to two years in prison for posting a song on My Space about killing two police officers for harassing him. You can read the full article here.

The article states that detectives found out about Johnson's song while searching for gang-related activity...on My Space.

Well, to say the least, the effort by law enforcement to cyber-cop the online world for "gangsters" is, in my estimation, futile and remarkably funny. My Space is a social network for nothing more than posing and performance. My Space, or any social site, will bring out the E-thug in anyone who has an interest in displaying that kind of character. If anything, the endeavor to catch cyber-gangsters reveals that actual crime must be at an all-time low. How about cops doing community work? How about them contributing to the effort of preventing, as opposed to reacting to, crime and violence (especially virtual offenses)?

I can't get past it just being a song. What I question here is the division of art and life. Johnson did not state he was going to unload on two cops. He wrote lyrics about unloading on two cops. I fail to see a legitimate threat there. Hip-hop is all about using a persona to express frustrations, indignation and rage. It's the nature of the genre. It's a substitution, in some ways, for actually acting on those feelings. In hip-hop, words are the daggers.

A warning for Johnson to take down the song would've been sufficient.

At heart, the issue is not the police officers feeling threatened by a rap song. The issue is the establishment, once again, feeling threatened by the potential of hip-hop to break down its door.

Thanks to Hip-Hop DX

Poll: Should lyrics be a basis for criminal prosecution?

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Quotable: Erma Bombeck

2009-10-21T13:32:00.001-07:00

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"

- Erma Bombeck

This quote will help guide me. I hope you find inspiration in her call to action as well, in wherever your passion may live.

My Magazine Blog: In the Time of People

2009-10-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

That's the name of my magazine "sister" Blog to Simone's Oasis - In the Time of People.

I just posted the article on my mom entitled "My Mom, the Educator," as well as my letter on behalf of my Great Grandfather to President Obama, and also an Upcoming feature on the next article.

About In the Time of People:

In the Time of People (or ITTOP) is a magazine Blog with a simple focus: writing and sharing stories on everyday people, from teachers to service folks to community leaders, from poets to readers, from thinkers to seers to those with voices waiting their flight.
The magazine is interested in seeking the unnamed and, once finding them, revealing their narratives. ITTOP features people you may like to know, people who may inspire you, people who may make you want to cheer, be proud of others, stand up and shout, sit down and reflect.
Simone Youngblood is the editor of In the Time of People (as well as its sister Blog, Simone's Oasis).
In the Time of People is open to you and your story. If you are breathing, you have something to share. And if you are reading this statement and would like the magazine to help share your story, your vision, your voice, please contact us with your "slant," your story, and your name. ITTOP would be glad to talk to you and take down your words.

Take a moment to visit In the Time of People...a magazine Blog about everyday folks.

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High Note: Angie Stone - I Ain't Hearin' U

2009-10-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Angie Stone has a new song out entitled "I Ain't Hearin' U." You can hear it here.

I'm liking this one, though I wasn't expecting the sound. I think I still have Mahogany Soul in my head.

Her new album, Unexpected, comes out November 24.

Thanks to: Media Fire

Broken Word: Shakespeare's Uncredited Play

2009-10-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

According to this article, a plagiarism program called "Pl@giarism" has revealed that Shakespeare co-authored a 1595 play with Thomas Kyd (English dramatist) entitled "The Reign of King Edward III", for which the Bard was never credited.

Sir Brian Vickers, a Shakespearean scholar, says phrasing found in Edward III matches phrasing found in Shakespeare's early works in a manner that leads him to the definitive conclusion that Shakespeare assisted in the penning of the play.

I think it's an interesting suggestion. Though a part of me is more inclined to question Shakespearean authorship than contribute to it.

And I checked out the Pl@giarism site here.

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Broken Word Links: October 12, 2009

2009-10-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

This story tickled me. It's about a dramatized funeral for poet Edgar Allan Poe, who died 160 years ago. A complete funeral ceremony was performed in his memory in Baltimore. Says one attendee, "I think it was what he deserved." He's my favorite author. It would've been neat to see this live.

Broken Word Focus: Mayhem Poets - I had heard of these poets some time ago and, at that, heard they were really good. They're a spoken word trio from New York, made up of poets Mason Granger, Kyle Sutton, and Scott Raven.:

And Boston takes the time to uncover its black history at the Forest Hills Cemetery (where e.e. cummings is also buried).

Consider: Who is Sophia Stewart?

2009-10-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm quite interested in the 1999 case that involved an African-American woman by the name of Sophia Stewart, and the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix, The Terminator, and Warner Brothers. If you know nothing about this case, you shouldn't, because it was barely, if at all, reported on by the mainstream media. As a matter of fact, I only came across this case by word of mouth.

Here's the deal: In 1999, Stewart filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers (film studio that released The Matrix), the Wachowski Brothers (the directors of The Matrix) and Joel Silver (producer), claiming that The Matrix was plagiarized from her book, The Third Eye. She lost her case after failing to appear in court for preliminary hearings, but her apparent negligence does not dissuade me from buying into her story. I do think there was some shadiness on the part of Warner Brothers, and, I'll be frank, I do believe both race and gender played a role in the downplay of this case and the unwillingness of many to grant it any credibility. Not to mention, as Stewart says, Warner Brothers is owned by AOL-Time Warner, which owns 95% of all media. There's no way a case disputing authorship - by a colored woman! - of one of a studio's most megalicious blockbuster hits would be reported on by that studio's parent company.

To me, the glaring problem (for many people that counted in this matter) is that Sophia Stewart wrote a manuscript that, not only a black person, but a black woman (double whammy!) had no business writing. Black women simply aren't supposed to pen work on the cerebral, intellectual, and philosophical level of The Matrix or, for that matter, The Terminator. Consider this quote by Sophia:

"When you read "The Third Eye", you will see it's all one story [The Matrix and The Terminator]. You have to understand I am very subtle with the way I write, I work on the subliminal. When I write I don’t want people to be able to tell my race or gender. Look at Octavia Butler the most famous black female science fiction writer they never put her work on the big screen. "

And I think that is exactly what the problem was - the manuscript did not dictate the "race" and "gender" of its author as "black" and "woman." Ooops. Hollywood isn't interested in "minorities" doing anything too ambitious, but if they do, they are to do so with the assistance of the "majority," or simply majority opinion. You know, they just have to make the story more consumable for the American public.

It is no secret that Hollywood, for all its progressive showboating, is racially biased and culturally confused. I can't tell you more than ten "minority" actors and actresses, let alone "minority" screenwriters and directors, that are consistently designated important spaces on the big screen (the obligatory biographical role set aside). Hollywood, to say the least, is terrified of color unless it's placed in a certain, comfortable context.

I don't care how many more times Halle Berry or Penelope Cruz win an Oscar, and how often Hollywood puts on a puppet show to appease its cultural critics - the real test of whether or not Hollywood can relieve itself of its racial ignorance and fears will only be revealed in the positions it allots to people of color off screen, such as that of director and writer, and in stories that do not create Wikipediaed or Googled microcosms of their culture and narratives.

Anyway, the disparity of colored voices in Hollywood has already been well-analyzed and chronicled by people a lot more upset about it than I am, so I won't go off on that right now. I simply want to bring light to the case of Sophia Stewart. Her story is particularly important to me as a black female writer who hopes to see her manuscripts on the big screen. I'll be honest, I had never considered the obstacles that might face a woman of my ethnicity and my gender, coupled with my ambitions. So Sophia's story is of unique importance to me.

The very incident of the case, whether well-founded or not, raises an awareness that suggests, as a general rule of thumb, your work must be guarded, and you must understand what you are up against if you release it, in some form, to a marketplace. Stewart originally submitted her manuscript to the Wachowski Brothers through an ad. What you may realize after releasing your work, in part or whole, is that, depending on your physical makeup and plumbing, the battles you may encounter may surprise you - even in the twenty first century.

You can read Sophia's page on the Underground News Network here: http://sophiastewart.unn13.com/thirdeye.html

Now, I will say I have not read The Third Eye (found it on Amazon, but apparently as of now it's not available), but I still find myself giving Stewart the benefit of the doubt, because that kind of shadiness on the part of big Hollywood studios is exactly what would happen in a situation like this. Furthermore, the FBI, itself, stated in their investigation of the copyright case against The Matrix "creators," that "credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers."

Ultimately, the question that occurs to me after reflecting on this case is: What is originality? What is plagiarism? I think such determinations will always be for the courts to decide. I ask you, Reader: Do you think ideas, necessarily, recur? Do ideas, necessarily, overlap? In all honestly, I'm sure there are plenty of writers who have penned stories very similar to The Matrix, The Terminator, or The Third Eye. I guess the question is: Who gets the glory? And oh yeah but do we want that person to hold the trophy?

To be frank, if anyone had a copyright case, wouldn't it be the Biblical writers?! Who doesn't see the parallels between Biblical stories and The Matrix - or even The Terminator? But do parallels qualify as plagiarism?

Anyway, here is a last quote by Sophia that breaks down the relationship between The Matrix and The Terminator, and her book, The Third Eye:

"First these two franchises are owned by the same people or movie house. Ok, The Terminator and The Matrix are actually “one book”. That’s my "Third Eye" manuscript. It’s nine chapters but it's all from the same source (no pun intended) Terminator starts from the front of my book to the back. Matrix starts from the back of my book and works its way to the front. They are moving in two opposite directions. My book was separated into two. "The Third Eye" is an epic, my book spans three time frames the past, the present and the future. Those films do the same thing. The child in the first Terminator who is born to the pregnant lady (Sarrah Connor) grows up to be the same as the grown man character in the Matrix called Neo, it’s that chosen one, savior concept. Matrix starts in the future, when technology has taken over. The Terminator was sent to kill the child who was prophesized to destroy the machines. That intersects directly with Neo as being the one prophesized to bring the machine reign to an end. One critic who is unaware of my lawsuit called the movies cousins but they are actually one in the same in the original."

Again, you can read more about Sophia's case, and see images of her manuscript, here.

Sources:
Sophia Stewart UNN Page,
MeetMyMind Blogspost
Playahata
Wikipedia

Poll: Which best reflects your position on the Sophia Stewart case?

Broken Word: T.S. Eliot is Britain's Favorite Poet

2009-10-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

According to Yahoo, the Eliot is Britain's most beloved poet. Is it okay for me to identify him as an American poet? That'd probably irk him, but I don't see what the issue is.

Ultimately, how do I attribute a national adjective to a poet? Is it based on place of birth, place of allegiance, place of livelihood? The identifier has always bothered me, anyway: American poet, British poet...I don't get what I'm supposed to garner from the prefix. It would be just as irky for someone to identify me as, even more specifically, a black poet. I'd freak out. (Though I wouldn't mind Sacramentan poet).

And can I say I'm surprised Keats wasn't higher up?! Number 9? No way!

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Current Events: Pres Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

United States President Barack Obama is the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize!

In the words of the committee:

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future.

Enough said!

You can read more on BBC News here.

I'm happy for the President, and believe the message he has represented warrants such an honor.

Event: Poetry Africa October 5-10 2009

2009-10-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'd like to become more familiar with international poets. The 13th annual Poetry Africa International Poetry festival is currently taking place in Durban (South Africa), and is going on through October 10. I have to say I am unfamiliar with the entire list of performers, and that's not a problem. I know now.

I found a promo for a documentary that follows poets on their way to Poetry Africa in 2007. I'm intrigued. One day y'all might see me there!

You can read more about Poetry Africa 2009 here.

Consider: Why Don't Book Clubs Include Poetry Collections?

2009-10-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

In light of this post by by Audra Otto of MinnPost.com,
I, too, wonder: What's up with book clubs rarely, if ever, reading poetry collections? More than any other genre, I think poetry asks for group study and discussion. A book club seems like an ideal forum for poetic engagement. Though I believe poetry can be an intensely private enterprise for both writer and reader, I think creating an open dialogue on the art will only further involvement, or, at the least, create access to, the sometimes alienating intricacies of the craft. So if, as Otto says:

The exclusion of poetry might also be a consequence of the prevalent notion that poetry is too erudite for the average reader, too obscure and inaccessible.

Wouldn't book clubs, then, be that much more beneficial to opening, or deepening, the poetic experience? If, as Otto suggests, the notion exists that "poetry is too erudite for the average reader, too obscure and inaccessible," then wouldn't the inclusion of poetry in book clubs help mitigate those obstructions by encouraging discussion, thereby making the art a little more approachable?

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In the Time of People: The Education of Andrea Francis (okay..my Mom!)

2009-10-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

Andrea Francis originally wanted to be a lawyer.

Then she realized the classroom could be just as effective a platform for social progress as the courtroom could be.

“I liked the idea of using education as a forum for change as opposed to the law,” says Francis. “Of course both are equally important.”

Nineteen years and hundreds of students later, she sees her choice to pursue a career in education as a wise decision.

“I didn't know how long I'd stay in education, but it turned out to be a career decision,” the UC Davis alumnus explains. “The longer I stayed and vested myself in the profession, the more I realized I belonged there.”

Francis says one of her greatest rewards as an educator comes from watching the unique traits and peculiarities of her young students. And even in their youth, Francis sees herself as learning from them, as well: “Truly, it happens all the time!”

Though the immediate rewards for Francis are many, one of the main challenges she sees confronting the educational system is the difficulty of producing new, effective ideas. Oftentimes educators, faculty, and administrators find themselves in a rut when it comes to creating practical solutions that effectively address their students' needs.

“Education is a revolving door oftentimes presented with no real new solutions to challenges such as closing the achievement gap, socializing young people, and raising test scores. Although often good and well-intended, recycled ideas often make their way back into the system over and over in an attempt to find the best solution.”

Politics and bureaucracy, however, are not the barometers that measure how meaningful Francis’s experience as an educator has been. And though she has performed extensive administrative and program work away from her students, Francis says that her most rewarding memories as an educator take place in the classroom. The students constitute the prize of her career.

“They come in sizes, shapes, and backgrounds of all kinds and each hold a value unique to him or herself. Some have little, some have a lot. Some will break ranks with humanity when they lose or break their favorite pencil. Their frustrations are warranted, and sometimes not, but part of the whole learning process. Their experiences are what I smile about and remember daily.”

She continues, “Because every event is memorable in the life of a child, every moment becomes memorable in the day of a teacher. Children to me - aside from seniors - are one of the most intriguing groups of individuals in society. They laugh, pose questions, make undecided calculations, move on impulse at times, share, blend, create, and inspire, and are just fun people to work with.”

One of Francis’s current focuses is helping acclimate new teachers to the culture of their profession. Francis sees adaptability as the most valuable trait for people aspiring to a career in education. “It is important to know how to learn quickly, and adapt and remain flexible to change in this profession,” Francis explains. “The ongoing changes and demands in teaching are what seem to challenge and frustrate many people, especially new teachers.”

Ultimately, for new teachers or experienced educators, Francis believes that each person chooses what to make of his or her teacherhood. “The joys in teaching are the joys you create. Like most professions, if you follow what [you’re] passionate about, you'll enjoy it and do well. The joys for me are many.”

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Trailer Park: Good Hair

2009-10-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary "Good Hair" by Chris Rock - coming out October 9, 2009 - exploring the fascinating adventure of black women and their hair.

On a general note, I haven't come across a practical investigation of why the black community cares so much about its hair. I have speculations as to why it's so important. But for me, my relationship with my hair has always been a matter of me merely trying to deal with it, and has hardly involved me trying to make a cultural or fashion statement. Nowadays, I rock kinky twists simply for the convenience of the style, so I rarely, if ever, concern myself with battling my hair.

But I think the fundamental attitude, overall, of black folks (black Americans) towards their hair is that something needs to be done with it, that the hair needs to be managed. I honestly think black hair has been perceived as a beautiful challenge, or, even more, a wonderful venue of opportunity. Black hair simply requires a different kind of attention than other kinds of hair. On this continent, I don't see the phenomenon as any deeper than that.

And I've come across different definitions of "good hair" - definitions that have, in fact, been completley opposite. I've heard "good hair" defined as really thick (nappy, tightly coiled, kinky) hair. And I've heard it defined as hair that is fine and easy to comb. Personally, I've always seen "good hair" as a combination of both.

How do you see this whole "good hair" phenomenon?

A Journey: Publication

2009-10-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well here I am, a writer of poetry without a single non-self publication.

Why?

I think on J.D. Salinger's idea that when you sell your work, the act is equivalent to prostitution. Now, when submitting your work for publication, I do think you are selling it. When you shove your work into some context, other than the context of itself, you are selling it. I don't think there is any objective in submitting work for publication other than exposure, so people know your work exists, so people know you exist. My question is: Why?

Maybe it's my aesthetic that leaves me skeptical. Maybe it's the way I accept my own poetry-writing that makes me so unagitated. Putting together poetry, and sharing it with close friends and family, is sufficient for me. We might even then discuss it, which is especially important since they aren't avid, or even casual, poetry readers. Aren't these the people I want to reach? I don't want to enter a dialogue' I want to begin one.

I write for a living. Meaning, I write in order to obtain a living, to obtain the hidden exactness and spontaneous fruition of life.

When your work is published in a magazine, it is being translated. You lose something of the original. The poem absorbs its surroundings. This is not a problem for many poets; for me it is, because I believe writing has value, alone. I don't like the box of cereal effect, sitting there on a shelf in the midst of comparable offerings, fighting for its existence and isolation.

With that said, I have been looking for publication opportunities, simply because it's the prescription for any serious poet, right? But I'm taking it in stride. I've been rejected everywhere I've submitted thus far. Even if the poems had been accepted, my general attitude would still be the same: Going through the process of seeking publication is gestural. And I seek something more, something that's always becoming, and will.

I don't want to know what tomorrow holds. I consider my poetry more like prayer watching its own rising.

Poll: Have you had any of your work published?

Furthermore, what have your experiences been with publication? How long did it take for you to find your niche? How many rejections did you get before your first nod? How important is publication to you?

High Note: Robert Kelly's New Album

2009-10-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Man, the Musician, the Mystery (or the Pied Piper as he likes(d)? to refer to himself) that is R. Kelly has a new untitled album dropping October 13. I apologize if you're turned off from this post because it's about R. Kelly, but I have to say that I am not his judge. I'm just a music listener and a longtime follower of his music life, not a longtime mob leader against his personal life.

For the most part, I've liked the guy's music. Yet, I'm not so much excited about the new album as I am about just hearing from the man, knowing he's still making music, knowing he hasn't let pitfalls take away his voice. I don't say this because I enjoy hearing the content of his music. I say this because I think his music is his refuge and his art. I think that he uses his songs as his diaries, and removes all censorship from his thoughts, his wishes, his desires, his struggles, his pain, and his intricacies to create shamelessly transparent music.

His candidness, of course, is a turn off to most people, as we all know that in order to get through some of Kelly's songs, you have to allow a certain kind of tolerance, if not willingness to accept the frankness of his material. But what I've always appreciated about Kelly is that his music is open and unashamed. What some would sing around, Kelly sings directly about, many times in ways that evoke laughter or a "No he did not!" He has fun with his music, he seems to take pleasure in where he can take it, and never forgets his audience. He's a storyteller, a creative writer. I can hardly see anyone else having the edge to do "Trapped in the Closet" and its 658,492 chapters. (It is still going...?) Kelly is interested in making his audience listen, and that I respect.

Though I think Kelly's best music is behind him, specifically, 12 Play - TP.2.com, with some good hits afterwards, I'm glad to hear he's still making music, that he's not totally beat down. He's like a one man band, a lone man standing, a musician who won't stop plugging away. In today's "music" culture of the one-year and gone ephemeral pop entertainer, Kelly's longevity is remarkable.

Play on, Pied Pieper, play on...

Monthly Roundup: September 2009

2009-10-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, here we have it: Simone Oasis' second Monthly Roundup! Once again, thanks for visiting. And be sure to spread the word about the Blog or its posts through some of the options available to the right of this post (social bookmarks, Facebook, etc). In the near future, I'll probably make a MySpace page associated with this Blog, and will certainly tell you all about that when it happens.

I dedicated the month of September to giving exposure to my letter to President Obama on behalf of my Great Grandfather, George Francis, who passed away December 27, 2008, at the age of one hundred twelve. He was the oldest United States citizen to vote for Obama in the Presidential Election.

I don't know how many people have read the letter, but whatever the number is, it's not enough. Maybe some don't feel as strongly about pushing this letter as I do, and that's okay. But this is really about doing something beyond myself and yourself. It's about committing my Great Grandfather's legacy to public consciousness by asking President Obama to formally acknowledge his historic life. It can happen. It will happen. But this letter needs support, it needs viewership. I am one person in a world of five billion. I need help. Please post this letter where you can, share it where you can (Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc). Please help history know history.

Moving on, my latest post asks about the role of the Internet in creating poets. To what extent do you see the Internet as having made poets - people who would not be writing poetry if not for social networking sites and platforms that ask for the constant generation of writing?
Further on the subject of poetry, I found a really interesting article on Ethnopoetics. If you don't know what that is, check out the post. The article is a worthwhile study and read.
My article on my Mom, the Educator, should be posted this weekend, after a long delay!
I started a "Making of" segment of this Blog that will follow my first movie-making experience next Spring! Follow as I embark on my road to Oscar glory!
I share some poetry in motion to Brian Eno, entitled, fittingly enough, "The Ascent."

As always, you can check all the Blog posts via the archives located in the right-hand column.

Upcoming Posts:

Is there a link between poetry and craziness?
Why people don't like poetry
My Mom, The Educator
Rap and poetry, rather, rap is poetry
Psychoanalysis and the Cameron Crowe film, Vanilla Sky

and many, many more.

Be sure to follow the Blog on Twitter!

Does the Internet a poet make?

2009-09-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

This week's Question of the Week stems from an interview on NPR between Scott Simon and Jackson Musker regarding the impact of the internet on poetry.

Simon asks Musker the following, and, in turn, our Question of the Week is:

"Have poets migrated to the Web, or has the Web actually made some people poets? "

I like what the Internet is doing for poetry, in giving people immediate platforms on which to write, write, write. I think the availability of writing or blurb forums like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger (epsecially), and other social networking sites are making people aware of their possible creative sides by obliging them to generate material.

I definitely think that poets ("pre-existing poets") are taking advantage of online networks, but I think, even more so, "non-poets" are using the Internet to stake their places in the art, as well.

I do feel something is lost in the explosion of online poetry, and I think that something is craft. But the fact that the Internet has done so much to facilitate a growing platform for poetry-writing is encouraging in itself.

So, what do you see happening?

Poll: In this day and age of social-networking mania, which, in many cases, do you think came first: the poet or the Internet?

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Broken Word Links 09/29/2009

2009-09-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

I love Switchfoot (rock group from San Diego). "Learning to Breathe" is one of my favorite songs! I have all their albums (with the exception of their last one), so it's a treat watching the "making of" of their new album, "Hello Hurricane." Get into them! They make beautiful music. I know their work is classified as "Christian" - I don't think it is. I just think they make "clean" meaningful songs.

Speaking of new albums, Alicia Keys is coming out with a new album in December, The Element of Freedom. To be honest, I'm pretty indifferent about it, though her music, over time, usually grows on me.

For you Sacramento Kings fans, or for anyone familiar with former King Vlade Divac, this is a great article on him by Marc Stein of ESPN. I'm sure many concur with his glowing words about the Serbian star.

A new magazine I'm interested in - Mosaic. You might be, too.

And if you're in New York (I hope to be soon), pay a visit to the Poets House!

Ethnopoetics, a transformative study

2009-09-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

I came across a really interesting article entitled "The Original Performance Poetry" posted on the Poetry Foundation's website. The article is by a translator from New York, David Noriega.

The article is on ethnopoetics, a term coined in the 1960s by anthologist Jerome Rothenberg. I had heard the term ethnopoetics before, but did not know much (or anything) about it. I had assumed it referenced the study of poetics from "ethnic" cultures, but realized that definition implied a kind of centrality that I was sure the study, itself, would likely reject.

Ethnpoetics is, at heart, the study of primitive poetries and song. In a broader sense, research Professor Dennis Tedlock states that the study of "any poetics is always an ethnopoetics." And one of the most valuable commentaries, to me, on the usefulness of the study is also provided by Tedlock: "It is precisely by the effort to reach into distances that we bring our own ethnicity, and the poetics that goes with it, into fuller consciousness." I like his use of the term "distances," avoiding the suggestion of an alienated other, and, instead, suggesting a place of possibility.

Anyway, the article by Noriega is really informative and fascinating. Be sure to take a listen to the soundclips, without which the power of the article may not be fully realized.

What I admire most about ethnopoetics is that it seems to be an attempt at unification through translation. It's not an estranging kind of study, but rather an interactive one in which primitive work is, in a way, reborn, in the hope of discovering not only the circumstances of its origin, but also the capabilities of our own poetic craft as well.

I can say that I like the endeavor of ethnopoetics, reflected in Noriega's suggestion that it strives for transformation more so than transparency. I especially like how he shows this in his citation of Pound, Ginsberg and Blake (going back to the idea that ethnopoetics is a unifying practice).

After reading the article, I'm reminded of the old adage that there's nothing new under the sun. What we do, even when we feel we're discovering new information, is merely translating preexisting information. So, I'm confronted with the question once again of what it means to be original, if anything of that nature can be accessed without supernatural intervention. The title of the article, in that regard, strikes me as intriguing: The Original Performance Poetry. Didn't that happen in the Book of Genesis?

Anyway, the article was a great read. Again, you can find it here.

　
Sources: The Original Performance Poetry, Dennis Tedlock's Ethnopoetics page

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Coming Soon: My First Article - My Mom, the Educator

2009-09-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

First Article Coming Soon!!
Andrea Francis (my mom!) will be the focus of our first In the Time of People (ITTOP) article. She has been an educator for several years. Although her profession involves challenges, they, more importantly, provide joys:

"Because every event is memorable in the life of a child, every moment becomes memorable in the day of a teacher. Children to me - aside from seniors - are one of the most intriguing groups of individuals in society. They laugh, pose questions, make undecided calculations, move on impulse at times, share, blend, create, and inspire, and are just fun people to work with! I get excited when I work around young people because of their enthusiasm and quest for knowledge - or socialization."

**Our full article with Ms. Francis is coming soon! So stay tuned. If you're an aspiring educator, you certainly won't want to miss this!

Trailer Park: Bright Star

2009-09-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

John Keats (nineteenth century European Romantic poet) is in the house!...or theatre. When "Bright Star" makes its way to Sac Town, I'm on it. The movie opened last week, 09/18/2009, in limited action.

Still can't believe this man was only 25 when he died. His biography is one of the saddest, most heart-wrenching stories I've read. But what a body of work he left!

LOL of the Day: BDB (Baby Dancin' Beyooooncaaaay)

2009-09-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

Tears immediately swelled in my eyes. This little one is too much. Oh pop culture, your wiles, your wiles...

New Music: BeBe & CeCe

2009-09-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Speaking of Gospel music, B & C have a new one out! They're droppin' a new album (after how many years?) entitled Still. It'll be released October 6, 2009. Here's a song from that album:

Question of the Week: The Gospel

2009-09-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

What makes a Gospel song, a Gospel song?

And how would you, if at all, distinguish Christian music from Gospel music? Are they one in the same, or do they carry distinctive qualities? Does the presence of the names "God" and "Jesus" make a song, automatically, Christian or Gospel? Or must the entire attitude of the song be brought into consideration? What's the difference between Gospel music and the Blues? What are your thoughts on the "secularization" of Gospel music - music that is created to specifically appeal to a "secular" ear, but in the hope of presenting a sacred message to a wider range of people? Or, does Gospel/Christian music even need to sound a particular way for it to be called Gospel or Christian?

The Making of: My First Movie, Script Supervisor

2009-09-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Making of: My First Flick!

I'm going to make posts on this Blog following my experience of participating in the making of a movie by Sacramento filmmaker Greg Stechman (my close friend's brother-in-law).

And I've been assigned to responsibility of Script Supervisor! From what I understand, this is a very demanding role. I've already told Greg I pretty much know nil about making a movie, but he's willing to help me get the experience of being on set and working with the director and crew, so I'm pretty stoked about it. (Stoked means excited, right?). We'll begin filming weekends sometime in Spring 2010.

By the way here is Greg's IMDB page: Greg's page

So here we go...!

My Poetry in Motion: The Ascent

2009-09-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

The Ascent
- poetic motion by Simone Youngblood

Here is a poetry in motion video I made. The background music is, fittingly, "The Ascent" by Brian Eno. Video includes my original photography. The music slowly and quietly begins emerging around 15 seconds in. You may want to elevate your speaker volume. Video is about a minute and a half.

Click here for my video. Thanks for checking it out!

Question of the Week: Tip To Go Orders?

2009-09-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

Tipping To Go

Do you tip To Go orders?

I don't know how the restaurant workflow system works, so I don't know if people who work the To Go section of a restaurant are expecting tips the same way those who are serving tables may be. What is expected, if anything?

Seriously, the other day I go to a restaurant that will remain unnamed, order a dessert (not even a dinner, we talkin' about dessert!). The To Go girl was nice, and I remember thinking to myself, "She's working for the tip. I'd like to give her one, but it won't be more than $1.00 because I'm basically ordering ice cream. However, leaving her a buck tip might be more of an insult that not leaving her a tip at all."

But what do you know, low and behold once the receipt arriveds, I leave the girl a $1.00 tip on the tip line just for her efforts.

She looked like I stabbed her in the stomach. Really, I shouldn't have left her anything. It would've caused less harm.

What's your policy on tipping To Go orders? Do you do it? I don't understand why they're expecting a tip, because I'm coming to pick up my food and go, not sit there and hound them for extra napkins and ranch. But like I said earlier, I don't know what the job of To Go clerks entail.

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Consider: Hate

2009-09-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hate is sin. The only thing that will prevent people from realizing that reality is hate itself.

Today I read this story about another racial attack involving a black woman who was beaten by a white man at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Georgia, while, according to witnesses, screaming that she was a black b**** n***** (you can guess what letters the asterisks represent). When I finished reading the short article, the immediacy of this Scipture from Hebrews came to mind:

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."

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Consider: No, I'm not embarrassed...

2009-09-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

Kanye Represents Kanye

so I have a problem with an editorial on All Hip Hop with the following excerpt:

I (and every single person I happen to know) was completely embarrassed as an African American and/or as a member of the global Hip-Hop community by Kanye and Lil Mama.

Whenever an African American celebrity acts up, I find it funny how so many African American editorialists and columnists rush to the reactionary foreferont with "I, as a member of the African American community, am embarassed by this African American celebrity who's acted up. I'm so sorry, I'm so ashamed..." (Now get back in the corner, hush, don't act up no more!) It really feels like a "Don't upset massa" kind of mentality.

The fact that (too many) African Americans always feel the need to condemn the outlandish behavior of other African Americans in order to thwart the chance it might reflect badly on them, or in order to take the high road to distance themselves from the outlandish behavior to begin with, shows, if anything, African Americans are catering to the existence of bigotry. If not, why, then, the urgent need to rush to, let's be frank, the white community, and plead, "Look at what he did! I'm so embarrassed and I don't approve of that lowly behavior by that lowly individual! I'm telling you this so you can know I'm not like him. Look at me! I'm not being like those other don't-know-how-to-act black folks!"

Who are you trying to prove yourself to...still? Kanye's actions are Kanye's actions. Why do we still have this mentality of what you do represents me? As African Americans, are we still trying to prove ourselves, validate ourselves, legitimize ourselves, still trying to match up to the audience we're, at heart, apologizing to?

When will the actions of an African American celebrity represent himself, his condition, alone? When will African Americans stop sweating over the need to separate themselves from the bad apples, just to prove to others that they are not like...that?

Kanye's post-VMA interview reveals enough - that he's riddled with pain, needs help, is completely and utterly exhausted and on the verge of meltdown. Who doesn't go through those things? Who hasn't, at some point, run away from their issues rather than address them? Ultimately, his antic wasn't even about Beyonce not getting the award. It was about him, his plea for help. There was nothing funny about what happened at the VMAs. To casually say let's just move on, while seeing that the man is clearly in a state of need, is to ignore his humanity, is to perpetuate the problem of seeing an image first, a person last. I hope, at this point, people are around him supporting him, letting him know that peace is not predicated on anything this world can offer.

Kanye needs to get out of the spotlight. He's sucked it all up and needs to detox. This incident wasn't about the black community and the black community needing to come to its own defense - this was about Kanye battling his own demons.

At the beginning of the day, some things may start out as a community issue, but at the end of the day, it's always a you issue.

The All Hip Hop editorialist ended his piece with:

"We’ll leave it at this. Sometimes our biggest and brightest don’t know how to act and our smaller, talented artists get far too excited about some stupid press and a lil' spotlight."

And that's all there is to it. It's a statement on them. You can read the entire editorial here.

And what Lil Mama did - jumping on stage while Jay and Alicia were performing - is a non issue. Not even going there.

Friday Walk in Poetry: Internally Speaking

2009-09-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Shut up and Speak!

A plea for silence

Today, September 11, 2009, my literary quote of the day reads:

"Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard." The quote is by novelist Daphne du Maurier (you know the movie The Birds by Hitchcock? - based on her story), and I find myself radically agreeing with her words, maybe to the extent that I've actually moved away from the intention of her statement to begin with.

Me - I'd rather listen than talk, be taught rather than teach. Take it in, and then lose where I hid it. I'm really not vocal at all, and, as a poet, might even be classified as lazy, though I'd prefer the term reserved. I try to let my poetry do all the talking. I think it's saying enough.

When I used to respond to work on poetry sites, I'd completely ignore the author of the work in my feedback (well, maybe not completely - more like mostly partially). I wouldn't really ask questions the poem couldn't provide answers to (even if those answers were more questions). Even when the site member came along and explained matters to me, I'd give no credence to his explanations if I couldn't cite those defenses inside the poem. My point being - a writer should be read. Not talked to, but read. The breath of the poem can lead me where I need to go.

What stands as the carrier of meaning is not authorial interference, but the frequencies of the poem itself. This may seem fundamental to many readers of poetry, but, much of the time, too much leeway is given to, "So what you meant was..." (No, actually that's not what I meant, but how you said it makes my poem sound real deep. I'll take it!) As far as I see it, if the "meaning" is not accounted for in the poem, sans your telling me it's accounted for in the poem, then it's not accounted for in the poem.

I can't stand having attention brought on me. During my college years in which I workshopped and discussed many of my poems, I always felt extremely uncomfortable talking about my work from the critical standpoint of "what does it mean?" Most of the time I'd just want to blurt out a remark that would've probably come across as me showing disinterest and trying to be a smarty pants. So, I'd have to remember my setting: Classroom. Do what students do. Don't be a poet. Be a student. And off I'd go into nowhere-land.

I barely even participate in all the literary fun. I realized long ago the most important things I feel I can say have already been articulated much better by someone else, or can be found in my poetry. And I can't say them the way they come across in my poetry because then I'd sound like a pedantic. In my eyes, if you speak what you already wrote, you're a pedantic. You don't know that much. Most information really isn't worth knowing, just summoning when the time comes to show someone it's there.

To me, too many literary environments stick their fingers down your throat to force something out of you, a kind of intellectual boulimia where you take it all in just to spit it all back out. Now what did I learn in my American Poetry class? Let me try to re-phrase that...Okay no, so here goes what I wrote in my notes.

As I get older, I wonder: What does all the dialogue amount to? You nodding your head, being impressed, and continuing to do exactly what you did before you you realized you were impressed by...yourself.

The most effective way to improve as a poet, to me, is to read poems, even by poets you don't like. (I don't like many of the poets I was taught to like. Actually, I don't like reading a lot of poetry at all. But I do love poetry). I think reading poetry helps remind you of what you desire in your voice, of what direction you're headed in.

Panels, conferences, lectures...What ever happened to the internal monologue? Are those still around? Why must every theme, every miracle, every conviction be a topic for a panel to discuss? What about the private conversation?

Is anything not spoken?

O-Kay: Ghostface's New Album Cover

2009-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Wizard of Poetry, Huh?

What do you make of this cover art for Ghostface's new album?
I make a huh.

It's odd. That's not a negative critique. It's odd. But for some reason, I'm not very surprised by the utter outlandishness of it all.

***Album drops September 29.

NEWS: Get Schooled!!! Oct 8, 2009

2009-09-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

I know I said I wasn't going to post again until September 8, but I wanted to let you all know, well in advance, about Get Schooled!

Per ed.gov:

"On September 8, the U.S. Department of Education will ask students to respond to the President’s Back to School challenge by creating videos, up to two minutes in length, describing the steps they will take to improve their education and the role education will play in fulfilling their dreams. Watch this page for more information about the “I Am What I Learn” video contest for students."

See the site Get Schooled for the details!! Someone do this joint!

My Letter to Barack Obama on Behalf of My Great Grandfather

2009-09-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't read this out on my other Blog:

Man of Three Centuries

On December 27, 2008, my Great Grandfather, George Rene Francis, passed away in Sacramento, California at the age of 112.

I could write a book talking about how significant he was to me. But in the spirit of concision, the picture below, I feel, summarizes the legacy he has left. The picture was taken the day after the election of President Obama by The Sacramento Bee, and shows my Aunt Veronica holding the front page of The Sacramento Bee up to my Great Grandfather, with the image of a victorious Barack Obama gracing the cover.

I love this picture and forever cherish it:

Below is a letter I wrote to President Obama, while he was still Senator Obama, requesting his acknowledgment of my Great Grandfather at some point during his campagin. On the night he won the election, President Obama cited a woman who was 109 years old and had voted in the election. My Great Grandfather was 112 years old when he voted for Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the United States of America, and was able to do so before he passed on December 27, 2008, about six weeks after Obama’s election. I can’t think of a finer way for my Great Grandfather to have left this Earth.

Both President Obama and my Great Grandfather were a part of the creation of each others’ histories.

Here is my letter:

***beginning of letter
October 2, 2008

Senator Barack Obama
Washington D.C. Office
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Obama,

My great grandfather, the oldest living man in the United States of America – at 112 years old – supports you! I am writing you on behalf of my great-grandfather, George Rene Francis, who also shares the position of second oldest living man in the world. It would be an honor, in every meaning of the word that denotes a profound privilege, if, during your intensely demanding schedule, one could arrange for you to meet my great-grandfather, who lives in a convalescent home in Sacramento, California.

I understand that accommodating the logistics of such a meeting might be challenging; however, I believe a meeting between you and my great-grandfather would prove rewarding. Though such a visit might provide incremental press coverage for your campaign, my request for you to meet my great-grandfather is disengaged from politics – it derives from my belief in the necessity of hope, prayer, and love – dynamics that have allowed you both to be creators of history. He is a maker of history by being a man of three centuries, having lived the last four years of the nineteenth century, the entire span of the twentieth century, and, so far, the first years of the twenty-first century. You are a maker of history by representing the dream Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of when he emphasized the primacy of personhood and internal character in the quest for personal and social triumph.

This letter seeks to express to you how profound your potential Presidency is to the life of my great-grandfather, and, not only that, but how meaningful, simply, your candidacy for Presidency is to the remarkable legacy of his life.

George Rene Francis was born on June 6, 1896, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to George and Eliza Francis. As we know, the nineteenth century South into which he was born was governed by, and marred with, resolute racist ideologies, attitudes, and abominable cruelties. Yet, despite the racial, social and economic adversity he faced, my great-grandfather is not a product of circumstance – he has been a part of a cultural history even larger than himself: at the age of seven, he heard Booker T. Washington speak, and, at another time, saw Louis Armstrong play on his front porch. But most importantly, my great-grandfather, as an individual, is a true self-made man: He has been a prize fighter, self-taught barber, automobile mechanic, vaudevillian dancer, and independent trucker, and worked several other small jobs as well. Though, temporarily, he was able to face the challenges of living in the socio-economically disadvantaged South, he moved to California in 1949 to seek out a better life for himself and his family.

The idea of an African-American running for President in a country that has been relentlessly divided over race would have been inconceivable to the nineteenth-century consciousness into which my great-grandfather was born. The fact that you, Senator Obama, are in the midst of creating a remarkable national, political and social history my great-grandfather is here to witness – 112 years after his birth into a United States that was, at the time, only thirty-three years removed from the Emancipation Proclamation – is, to say the least, a miraculously spiritual experience for him.

My great-grandfather, as the oldest living male in the United States of America – and also its oldest registered voter – has been acknowledged by several institutional, media and governmental entities. Some of the recognition he has received includes:

• Guinness World Records recognition, which acknowledges him as the oldest living male in the United States
• A letter of recognition from United States Senator Barbara Boxer (California), dated June 21, 2008;
• A “Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition” from Congresswoman Doris Matsui (U.S. House of Representatives), dated June 21, 2008;
• A “Resolution of the City Council, City of Sacramento;” signed by a number of Sacramento council members including Mayor Heather Fargo of Sacramento, dated June 21, 2008;
• A letter from Bishop William Weigand of the Sacramento Catholic diocese, dated May 29, 2008, congratulating him on his 112th birthday, and stating: “Such a momentous occasion most certainly calls for a special celebration.”
• A letter of recognition for his 100th birthday from Bill and Hillary Clinton
• A front page headlining article by The Sacramento Bee for the Monday, June 4, 2007 issue
• An front page headlining article by The Senior Spectrum for the Tuesday, May 8, 2007 issue
• Willard Scott of NBC’s The Today Show announcing his birthday from Centenarian to Super Centenarian over the last eight years
• And many, many more honors

I believe that meeting my great-grandfather, Senator Obama, would be a humbling experience, allowing you to starkly and authentically realize how much of a miraculous figure you are to him, personally, and would have been to those of his generation, and before. My grandfather has told me that the grandparents of my great-grandfather were slaves, meaning that my great-grandfather had firsthand contact with the legacy of slavery. Therefore, meeting my great-grandfather, as an African-American on the cusp of assuming the office of Presidency in a country that, during my great-grandfather’s generation, politically and socially disenfranchised so many African-Americans, would be a very real symbol of triumph for both you and him.

I joyously await your response to my request, which you may be able to fulfill during one of your Northern California tours. I, too, have the audacity to hope for your meeting with my great-grandfather.

Most Sincerely,

Simone M. Youngblood

P.S. You may read more on my great-grandfather at georgerfrancis.com.

**end of letter

I do hope that this letter reaches President Obama one day.

I, and members of my family, did make many attempts to bring this letter to the attention of those associated with his campaign and staff.

Regardless, this is my public monument to the legacy of my Great Grandfather, George Rene Francis.

I love you Papa.

***This month of September, I'd like to focus on pushing the above letter to as many people as possible across the world (not nation, world). You may not have known my Great Grandfather - George Francis - hey, you may not even know me. But if you are reading this, I would be deeply grateful if, with the online networking skills you have at your disposal, you would bring this letter to the attention of as many people as you know and are able to, whether it be through emails, your web page (I can give you a reciprocal link on my Blog), social bookmarking like Digg , Stumble Upon, Delicious, and so, so many others news sites (see the "Share" link on the upper left-hand side of this Blog).

Maybe you're busy, but you've read this far, so why not spread the word about this letter? There are even social bookmarking links attached to this post (and every post) that will allow you to spread this letter across the web. It won't take you very long.

I ask for your help in pushing the word around about this letter. Perhaps it'll get in the right hands for President Obama to see.

I ask you to be a part of helping history meet history.

Thank you,

Simone, one of his many Great Granddaughters

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Trailer Parks: Robin's Back & So is Peter

2009-08-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

Two movies I definitely want to see:

Robin, I like you in these roles! What roles? These roles! And he's playing a poetry teacher on top of that! A poetry teacher! I'm on this!

And here is a trailer I saw when I went to see the horror movie of all horror movies, Halloween II. The trailer is for a movie called "The Lonely Bones, based on a novel by Alice Sebold.

The imagery in this movie looks beautiful. The "heaven" scenes alone are captivating, and are what got me interested in the trailer to begin with (though they are apparently controversial to, how surprising, some "Christians." Side note: My post on the flat out, deliberate twisting of "Christianity" will be coming up soon as well.)

Anyway, what movies are you looking forward to seeing this Fall?

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UPDATE: Ted Kennedy Buried

2009-08-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Mr. Ted

Photograph copyrighted to its owner

Senator Ted Kennedy laid to rest in Arlington.

Poetic Offering: Stillbirth

2009-08-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

I came across this poem while researching the poetic form, the pantoum. Ouch. This poem is haunting and at the same time terribly grievous.

Stillbirth
by Laure-Anne Bosselaar

On a platform, I heard someone call out your name:
No, Laetitia, no.
It wasn’t my train—the doors were closing,
but I rushed in, searching for your face.

But no Laetitia. No.
No one in that car could have been you,
but I rushed in, searching for your face:
no longer an infant. A woman now, blond, thirty-two.

No one in that car could have been you.
Laetitia-Marie was the name I had chosen.
No longer an infant. A woman now, blond, thirty-two:
I sometimes go months without remembering you.

Laetitia-Marie was the name I had chosen:
I was told not to look. Not to get attached—
I sometimes go months without remembering you.
Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space.

I was told not to look. Not to get attached.
It wasn’t my train—the doors were closing.
Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space.
On a platform, I heard someone calling your name.

**
What are your thoughts on this poem? For some reason I want to bust out with a psychoanalytical reading, but feel such readings run the risk of trivializing a work's seriousness.

Anyway, I just had to share this beautiful poem. It's heartbreaking, and seems to offer such a precise reflection of grief and the condition of loss. It does remind me of a poem I looked at by Natasha Trethewey entitled "Myth."

Also, you can visit the poet's homepage here.

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Puhleeze: A problematic review of Morrison

2009-08-28T08:40:00.001-07:00

I'm very interested in a discussion about Toni Morrison's "Whiteness and the Literary Imagination."

Now, I am learning to realize that when I involve myself in “serious” discussion, I come across abrasively. I've been told this many times, and I will say it’s unintentional. When I speak on a conviction, sometimes my words may appear to be, could I say, too affirmative and set against alternative. Now that’s also not my intention, but I accept the perception. (tangential moment coming...) My question is: Who wouldn’t speak with outright certainty on a conviction? If you’re going to argue something you can’t shake yourself from, you better come fully loaded. It’s an effort with fighting. Anyway, not to ward off potential discussion, lol..(I probably shouldn’t have prefaced the post with that, lol)

First off, if you haven't read the book, you’d be wise to get a copy of it and read. It’s an analysis worth reading. (I have a link for it on the Blog to your left).

In laymen’s terms, Morrison examines how the American literary tradition has been shaped, in part, by an “Africanist” presence. Even in what seems to be the omission of blackness from its narratives, blackness is still present in absence, so to speak, and is still an important driving force behind the action. What seems exclusively a white or not-black terrain is, actually, not. Both presences exist cooperatively in propelling the narratives.

Ultimately, the book reveals a kind of deconstruction in which whiteness is not fully present and pure (or, for that matter, anything). Presence is presence only because of the suppression and negation of “others.” The things that are being forced out of the narratives and landscapes still seep into them, and are shown to carry definitive roles. The “other” of blackness, in Morrison’s eyes, cannot be shaken from the imagination of early American writers.

This is just a surface explanation of the book, but to me, summarizes what is fundamentally being reasoned out.

Now, maybe I stuck my finger too far down the throat of a reviewer on Amazon who, I believe, did not apprehend the intentions of the book, which is fine. Hey, for all I know, anyone can be misreading the book at any moment. But my point is that his critiques were not justified, in my estimation. And now his mob has advised me that suddenly I don't know how to read and am arrogant. Their hurt feelings are neither here nor there. If you want to debate, debate. Otherwise, improve your life by learning.

I take issue with this reviewer suggesting that Morrison is bitter, and that the book is not that good because she can't write. All his response tells me is that he never read the book, meaning, he didn't know how to read the book. I rarely see a middle-ground when it comes to criticizing books that deal with race. It’s either maddened backlash or mad praise.

The review can be read at the very top of this page here, with my response under the name “Etymology.”

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