Had my father continued to age in his body of flesh and bones, he would be 93 today. His spirit continues to nourish me and lift me when I face mountains that seem too steep to climb. I love the legacy he left me and take great joy in the […]
I am almost always reading three books at a time, usually spread across genres, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as essays, memoir or history. Right now on my bedside table these three are among the offerings. Chris Abani has a way with words, his prose has the music and richness of […]
This Sunday I had the pleasure of participating in a mini-writer’s retreat presented by the wonderful Poets and Writers organization. At one point we had to tell the group something about ourselves. One of the writers said that she had no community. Later on talking with her about what it […]
Of course, there were always hurricanes. Saharan winds astir with West Atlantic seas traveled west crossing the Atlantic. But there are those who say the character has changed since the days of American slavers. African storms, born on African shores now cross the Atlantic gaining strength and bearing down on […]
An obvious question for my Dad was what was his road to writer and how and why did he find his home in non-fiction. As a second-generation writer I had my father, god father and many of my parents’ friends as shining beacons. But my father was from a different […]
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the various resistance efforts around the globe and at home. I grew from a child of peace to a woman of peace and have never seen bombing as the right tool. All terrorism is wrong. Years ago I wrote a piece as […]
I always have problems answering the question of what poet or poets most influence me. In what way? In what period of my life? Living or ancestor? Yet when one of them passes I am deeply aware of how profound their influence was and is. Mari Evans is one such […]
If you go to any bookstore, independent or chain, it will seem as if you are inundated with magazine choices. But often the best magazines cannot be found on those shelves. Caribbean Interview is an important magazine that needs to read, looked at and enjoyed with its mix of visual […]
On Wednesday January 18, 2017 in a windy, cold pouring rain storm San Francisco’s Main Library’s Koret Auditorium under the auspicious of the SFPL and LItquake filled with people listening to writers responding to the looming reality of a Trump presidency. It was an honor for me to be […]
A friend e-mailed me recently asking if I she could use a poem I sent to her a while ago. I read the poem and for just over a day could not remember whose dead I spoke of. The names gave clues, Syria was freshest, but then it could have […]
