I didn't think I was going to get this grant because there appeared to be a poet purist on the selection committee who didn't think a visual artist/poet/playwright/karate black belt/samba dancer/Berkeley MBA making a living in finance would ever pool it off – "not going to happen," she told her fellow judges/jurists. She used Paul …
Read more “Moving Behind Moses Project – 11 months down, 6 more to go”
This is an amazing report of a 22 foot relief by celebrated African American artist tied to the Bay Area "lost" to one of the school's storage stacks, sold for the pre-tax price of $150.00 then resold to the Huntington library – its first major acquisition of an African American artist. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/arts/design/art-by-sargent-johnson-berkeleys-loss-is-museums-gain.html?sq=sargent%20johnson&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1329890593-5MP8NaOLMk/sf9zpdimRiA
SFMOMA | Explore Modern Art | Our Collection | Sargent Johnson | Forever Free
I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical of SFMOMA’s full page ad in The Examiner announcing Mark Bradford’s concurrent show with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; skeptical of what I would actually see on their white walls. “Mark Bradford’s lush, richly textured, large-scale works express the energy of the urban environment through layers …
I snapped this in Marrakesh; our guide pointed to the small crowd in a nonchalant way at the same time trying to be informative as a zookeeper is informative about the mating rituals of monkeys. It was his tone, the undertone if you will, describing this thing that women do – henna. These women were …
I miss Morocco. The breadth and call five times a day. The men who almost look like me, their hair like mine. I miss the push of the street, the meat, the vegetables, the village dust. I miss the mint tea, the no protein for breakfast but perhaps a little yoghurt and an egg. I …
My great uncle is famous for losing. It was a big loss and a historical win at the same time. He lost to this man – Don Budge grand slam champ in 1940. Uncle Jimmy was the ATA tennis champ at the time. I wonder what it is like to be a famous loser/winner? …
I took this picture while during research at Arlington Memorial, the site of the Women in Military Service for America memorial. I found this beautiful warrior glaring, thinking. I don’t know where she is, I don’t know where she was going. I imagine her in a helicopter enroute to a mission with her comrades, or …
Read more “Black History Month – Celebrating Our Warrior Women”
Family history had been a mystery to me prior to me “data mining” for my latest project “Moving Behind Moses – A poem celebrating African American Women’s Contributions to the United States Military”. My father didn’t talk much about his father, other than he left his mother. My father was actually raised by his grandmother …