THE Angela Davis

Over 65 and still remarkably beautiful at her age, in more ways than one. I got to hear this revolutionary speak in a room of crowded bodies, personal space long forgotten. She sat 15 feet from me. Speaking about the Critical Resistance 10 grass roots movement. Speaking briefly on Obama. Forcing me to inspect myself, my consciousness, and my priorities. I had walked into the Training for Success school feeling nervous and small at the imminent possibility of being in the presence of someone so great.
I left knowing that the person I had been waiting for all along had walked in with me. And that either my dissertation or thesis was probably under my fingers. I also left knowing that my role as a sociologist would be the same as a writer, to make revolution irresistible: through mythbusting, etc.

Oh Kanye

Not going to complain about the so-called Hip Hop nominations, and not about to argue over whether or not what Kanye did was wrong. Instead I choose to dwell on the comments that arose from his act.
The comments have been seen before: "Setting the race back", "Making Black people look bad", "Confimring the idea that we're ignorant niggas."
We, as a people, can't seem to stop self policing. We condone others' right to judge us. This is ridiculous, esp since society will continue to find fuel for their ideologies and stereotypes even if we censured ourselves invisible. Instead of fighting our behaviors can we fight their right to judge us as a group, the right to assume that Kanye's behavior is a product of his race. If that's the case, the guy calling our president a "Liar" was a member of the wrong race.

"We talk on this page"...

As I was walking through the hospital yesterday on my way home from work I came across this poem in a frame on the wall. Langston Hughes' "English Theme B". Loved it but especially this line in particular.
This line reminds me of a concept that comes up over and over again in my english classes: the idea that every book you read is a dialectic between you, the author, the characters, etc. I believe this whole heartedly, in fact, this is why I read so slowly. I can't help but think over every idea, connect the lines on the page to stories or people in my own life, or stories that I have heard before.
It makes me happy to write between the lines on the pages in books. Not only because this is a mark of ownership, but also because when I read the book in the future it will become a conversation between myself, the book, and the thoughts I had when I read originally.
I get to engage with the likes of Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Brooks on my own terms.
"...I feel that what people bring to my work it at least as important to them as what I put into it." -Octavia Butler