Here’s my latest, Eye: Notes to a Poet. I wrote about Care Bears, Public Enemy, white Jesus, writer Kiese Laymon, space travel, Brer Rabbit, and artist Sheena Rose. Painter Titus Kaphar contributed a poem and painting. To say that this a big deal or a high honor is an understatement. These people are like Gods to me. I am beside myself. It never occurred to me that I’d ever write about becoming a writer. I always thought that talking about …
Tag: writer
The first time I met Harlemite rapper, producer, filmmaker, and actor Mtume Gant aka Core Rhythm, was in our Harlem Renaissance class at SUNY Purchase College. Gant usually had the most to say when it came to class discussions about our reading assignments. He was so vocal and passionate that I felt intimidated to raise my hand. Thoughtful, and progressive ideas effortlessly sprung off his tongue. There were few places where our opinions diverged. Most times, I was envious of …
San Francisco cinematographer Colin M Day filmed the ill work of graffiti artists Rime, Revok, Risk, Flying Fortress, Decolonize, Nychos and Pose in The Motor City. As a dedication, the said artists replicated the work of the recently deceased prolific graf writer Nekst (Sean Griffin). Interviews include Revok and Pose. Official description and video below. Like New York City in the 1970s, modern day Detroit is a paradise for street art. The miles of unused facades and ample loads of …
Nekst was a prolific writer out of Houston, Texas. According to Houston Culture Map, he got hooked on tagging in the early 90’s and never stopped. He even did a bid in Dallas for “art crimes.” I get the impression that he went in as Next and came out as Nekst. He eventually made it to New York where he ran with the Mad City Kings crew. Nekst died last year. Information surrounding his life and death remain a mystery, at least …
The spark that let the Civil Rights Movement rolls around San Francisco followed by a film crew in 1963. The documentary Take This Hammer first broadcasted in 1964. Writer James Baldwin’s freestyle rhetoric lights firestorms. Check it here. The American Dream and the American Negro By JAMES BALDWIN I find myself, not for the first time, in the position of a kind of Jeremiah. It would seem to me that the question before the house is a proposition horribly loaded, that one’s response to …
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