Danny Weiss has a good band-- I love jazz and I love hearing it live(in my limited experience). One of these days I am going to chicago and going back to the Green Dolphin. God, tonight when they played "When Sunny Gets Blue," I was transported into a galaxy of pure extasy. I love that song---and the cymbals and the trill that man made....ahh me, how beautiful.

Barbra Streisand

Barbra is an activist,artist,diva, intellectual.... I will write about her later.
Meanwhile, check out her trtuh alerts and her articles of interests.

I love,adore, and absolutely just worship Barbra Streisand (was that strong enough?.) She has been MY icon ever since I was perhaps ten years old-and I have always wanted to be her , emulate her--god, me and Barbra Streisand. I don't remember which I saw first, Funny Girl or The Way We Were--but I do know that by the time The Back to Broadway Album came out in 1992 I was already a seasoned Streisand devotee.

Born April 24th, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York on Pulaski Avenue (and I am not looking up any of this any of this information), Barbra attended Erasmus Hall High School where she was a classmate of Neil Diamond (Mae West was a graduate as well) and graduate from High School at the age of 16. Her first Broadway effort was I Can Get It For You Wholesale in which she played Ms. Marmelstein. She was 19 when she had her first Broadway show. This woman is an incredible and amazing talent. She is the only person to have won all five major awards in the entertainment industry (the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy, the Tony, and the Golden Globe), she is the first woman ever to write, direct, star in, and produce her own film "Yentl," as well she held the record for the longest time for the youngest recipient of the Grammy(which she first won in 1963 for The Barbra Streisand Album, her first album) and the youngest winner for the Best Actress Academy Award (which she won in 1968 for her first film, Funny Girl). She was the second-highest box-office female of the 1960s (behind Liz Taylor) and the top box office champ as well as the top female singer of the 1970s. ALas, Barbra still remains the most successful female singer in history--having more Gold albums than any other artist male or female and more Platinum and MultiPlatinum albums than any other female artist. She is ranked number six on the best selling artists of all time list (and ALL of you Mariah Carey people better back off--its there to find--www.riaa.com). She is also the only artist to have a number one hit album in all of four decades- (the 60s,70s,80s,and 90s).

Barbra is magnificent. I don't have any favorites of Barbra--I love it all. I love Funny Girl--and I think what I love most about Barbra Streisand is her passion, her integrity, her intellectual curiosity, and her bold and incredible presence -"Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter. Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter." She is by far the most incredible force to reckoned with in Hollywood (that said, she is also the third wealthiest woman in the entertainment industry).AND she has never compromised on her principles--or her nose. She is a Jewish woman playing a white man's game--and she wins at it. All hail Barbra!

Nina Simone

1933-2003. God Bless Her Memory. The link in this title is a Review I wrote of her autobiography, I Put A Spell On You. I thought it was a fitting profile.




Some of my favorite songs by Nina include " Mississippi Goddamn" "Go To Hell" "Why? (Is The King of Love Dead)" --Oh, I just love Nina.

Elaine Brown

Elaine Brown

I love Elaine Brown, and have loved Elaine Brown ever since my most wonderful and dear, half-black, half-vietnamese Black panther radical friend, Wanda let me borrow a copy of her book, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story. Elaine exudes a raw strength and integrity, and displays a certain kittenish sexuality that I liken to that of Gloria Steinem's. Born in Philadelphia, Elaine attended the prestigious Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice and Philadelphia High School for Girls, and then briefly attended Temple University majoring in journalism before making her way out to the west coast where she got her start working as a PlayBoy Bunny in one of the PlayBoy lounges.There she became the mistress of well-known writer,ex-FBI agent, and Kennedy cousin, Jay Kennedy--whom she credits with her education and budding political awareness as a woman of color.

In L.A., Brown became involved with the well-respected leftist newspaper and publication, Harambee. It is through her work with this paper that she became acquainted with and intimately involved with Huey P. Newton, one of the founders and the chairperson of the Black Panther Party. Elaine became a member of the Black Panther Party and quickly found herself in several key positions--inlcuding Chief Editor of the Black Panther Party newspaper, " The Black Panther-" which was the second best selling newspaper in the country during its heydey.

In 1974, after Huey P. Newston fled to Cuba, Elaine Brown became the chairperson of the Black Panther Party. In her book, she gives light to the affect that the Black Panther party had on state, national, and international levels-as it had chapters in at least thirty countries around the globe. She points to the social welfare programs started by the Party which were coopted by the federal government (such as the Free Lunch, Free Breakfast, and Headstart programs), all of the free clinics started and funded by the party-- and the fact that she--at the helm of the Black Panther Party--played a very big role in getting Jerry Brown elected governor of California and Lionel Wilson as mayor of Oakland, California. Elaine Brown left the Black Panther Party in 1977, relocating to France.

Elaine Brown is a beautiful, multi-talented spirit. Along with all of these activities, Brown is also a composer who composed several songs affiliated with the Black Power Movement. She is now a Phd, affliated with Morehouse College in Atlanta.

I should take the next few posts and detail some of the people that I admire, and provide a profile for them.

THe King's English

Excerpted from August Wilson's essay "The Ground on Which I Stand"-1998

....in the Webster's Third New Internation Dictionary

BLACK....outrageously wicked, dishonorable, connected with the devil, menacing, sullen,hostile,unqualified, illicit,illegal violators of public regulations, affected by some undesirable condition, etc.

WHITE...free from blemish, moral stain or impurity, outstandlingly righteous, innocent, not marked by malignant influence, notable auspicious, fortunate, decent, a sterling man.

Such is the linguistic environment that informs the distance that separates blacks and whites in American and which the cultural imperialists, who cannot imagine a life existing and even flourising outside their benevolent control, embrace.

I am halfway through August Wilson's "The Ground On Which I Stand," and what I have to say at this point is that I love August Wilson. I just saw someone being arrested. It was a white woman, I looked out of the window to see if it was someone of color--their is enough racism in this town. This police state and the White Male authority figure that it upholds....It made me think of Angela Davis-- I have thought about her experience of being captured by the FBI after that most glorious period of "Free Angela" being shouted across the world- and her position as a Black woman/of color--inside the police state. There have been many to suffer as such.... We hail her as a demi-god now--she is a most celebrated figure, but as Bettina Aptheker points out in her book--the threat against Angela was very real--if she had been convicted (by the all white, all male jury she faced in 1972)she could have faced the death penalty. It is the agony and the extasy that we admire...

Today is my nephew's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBIE!;-)

Memory

I was in Donna Joe Whitley's class....and I cried when we were reading about how white policemen killed a bunch of Slavic workers during coal miner's strike-- and and the people in the class tried to tell me that they were targeted not because they were Slavic, but because they were a "marginzalized group." I don't know if that is laughable or not.

Ok, I just spent the last twenty five minutes trying to figure out how to put links into my link section-- I must say I gave up in frustration.. However, I do want to say as well that I think it is a very interesting and useful tool---this coding...however, I think one needs to be ware of the computer culture.....It is technical, and not very humane...It should be a tool, not a way of life.

I am thinking now of the many faces that I can wear.....especially on gay.com. I am a writer--I make up characters all of the time. Alas, Just thinking of this in terms of Consciousness and Concsciousnesses---Susan once told me that I suffer from a triple consciousness which, I perhaps equate with what Cornel West calls a "the triple crisis of self-recognition." Alas, I even further see myself--and the expression of my identity--very much fully within the context of what Barbra stated on the Actor's Studio-- in terms of having a sensibility-- a sensitiveness which allows you to absorb different things from the world,to be aware of that which others don't pick up on.....This is what makes an artist for sure. Sally Field discusses the process that she goes through in preparing for a film as taking razor blades and scraping away at herself, leaving little bloody marks--through which she can absorb the character that she needs to inhabit. I think this is an interesting discussion of the idea of consciousness, the nature of Consciousness, and how people choose to identify themselves.... Identity politics...and the nature of the political......

The Crazy Black Nigger is something that scares white people to death. God, Malcolm X is our beloved.... I will continue that train of thought later. But alas, that which does not fit into what is "white normal" scares the people in the power structure shitless....

I wanted to write about retirement teas. I have been to quite a few in my time. When I was little, they were an elegant fare-- semi-formal with old ladies that smelled of Estee Lauder and other perfumes. They were great. I also remember a tea that my Aunt Bea gave once. Aunt Bea was Aun't Carolyn's sister, who was Uncle Arhcie's wife. It was the most elegant fare I had witnessed-- and still leaves quite an impression on me. She held it at her house--which was an elegant old house with wooden paneling, soft drapery, and plenty of sunlight. The food was excellent, and the china, crystal, and silver which we used were incredibly ornate. I remember she w as a wonderful and gracious hostess... A beautiful memory....

Link to my gay.com profile

Pierre_Tascher_02

There are several things I need to learn--patience is one of them. I have a strong endurance, and when I was a child I think I was somewhat patient--but I am at my string's end. This system has got to end... Alas, I haven't blogged and I want to, need to, about Adrian. Adrian is a beautiful girl-- light-skinned, real down home Black girl-from Detroit. When she walked into the library and we bonded, it was a beautiful thing. Her story of her experiences as a graduate student here at this school is one that reminisces with not only me, but every other Black graduate student that I know at this university. The psychic stress of being of color in a predominantly white AND Racist environment (which, I won't hesitate to say is inherently tied to its conservativism)is something that is harrowing and can kill you if you let it. And one needs to talk about it and share stories and experiences. bell hooks talks talks more explicitly about it than any other Black academic/intellectual that I have encountered thus far--and she speaks to the many, many men and women of color who have given up or altogether avoided institutions of higher education because of their racism.... THIS MUST STOP! I dont care what it takes and I dont care what it entails, but this white male power structure has got to go! Not one more generation of "Othered" peoples should have to experience this.... and they ask why people of color don't go into higher education at the same rates as others? and I am sure the same is for Latinos and asians. I look at my own family-- most of my aunts and uncles have advanced degrees--my grandmother worked on her masters, but had a nervous breakdown the year before my mother was born. I refuse to let it happen to me.....

One given-- I am not here to make you comfortable.

God-- The Yelp I Gave! I am over run with palpitations! Elaine Brown is COMING to CAMPUS AHHH GOOD !!!!!!!! I can die a little bit happy now.

My family tree-not complete

I want to write, before I forget, and in case i am in need of something other than my memory. The children of my great grandfather, John Archie, and his wife Sadie Mae are Earnestine, Bertie,Thelma(my grandmother),Johnnie, Sadie, Gladys (Betty), Lawrence, and Archie. DeRamus and Goodson combined, John Archie Bradson DeRamus and Sadie Mae Goodson.I was telling Clara this morning about my Uncle Fess, my Aunt Bertie's husband, who was principle of Autaugaville High School for approximately fifty years. In my grandmother's and my Uncle Lawrence's time, when they were in school-e the number of Doctors and Lawyers, and people with advanced degrees came out of their classes---this is all due to Fess. The name of "Fess" Sterling James McDavid, is one that is revered in Autauga County....That said, I had two Fess's. Fess McDavid and then my great grandmother's brother, Fess Goodson--Macaulay Ware. McDavid's first wife was named Mary Foster McDavid, and like he was to my aunt, she was several years his senior.My grandmother loves to mock her. She says that when she would introduce herself in public she would state "My name is Mrs. Mary Foster McDavid, the first Negro woman president of the National PTA, the State Supervisor ofthe JEAN Teacher's Association, and the first Negro womam from the state of Alabama to sing with Wings Over Jordan through the National Hookup."A four line introduction.-)They had a school named for her in Montgomery, but it was torn down in the late 80s or early 90s. For those, my relatives perhaps, that are interested... I found her online....
http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/history/mile1930.asp
The link is also in the title... Ehh, computers.

Peace Be to All

It's a beautiful morning out. I have felt the need for the past few days to describe and write about my uncle's house. My favorite part of this house was the single room up the backstairs, off of the kitchen--wooden stairs and room with a bright, sunny view on every side--onto the street and the backyard. It also has it's own private bathroom. I often imagined that it was a former slave quarters--and the little secret passageway that connected it to the other set of stairs in the main part of the house was a place where slaves hid, their own private escape. My sister scared the shit out of me once with this passageway. She was always the one to discover the hidden things.... I don't even remember going through the passageway-- I did go into the closet. This beautiful, antebellum-esque structure, even though I believe it wasn't built until the 1920s sparked my imagination and was definitely a place where I could rest,relax, find peace, and ease into my own selfhood and mind. There is nothing better than sitting out in my unc;es garden, in his wooden gazebo surrounded by tall trees that covered the sun, and flowers growing from every limb and out of the ground...It is beautiful and I want to be back there right now. To lie in the middle of his gazebo and feel the air hitting my face and feel my skin get flushed and tingle with the blowing of the wind, with flowers in my hands and books strewn about.....

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