Asia "Bleed"

Asia is a powerful poet.

A60s Take 6 Concert LLU-END 02 14 10.mpg

Tribute to Fred Gray

Today I honor Attorney Fred Gray, the lawyer most associated with the case responsible for the desegration of city buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. I write this blog today because, well, when I was a student so long ago, my history teacher failed to tell me about Mr. Gray and the four female plaintiffs who went to court to argue for the desegration of city buses. Now, when I journey to Mongtomery, Alabama and ride on a bus I do not have to sit in the back of the bus.

For that, I have to thank Attorney Gray and four African American women.

There were four plaintiffs named in the law suite-- Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Louise Smith. Gray argued in this case that bus segregation should be ruled unconstitutional because it violated the fourteenth amendment of the constitution.

Take the opportunity to share the Browder V Gaylecase with your students. Have them read Gray's Bus Ride to Justice. This book offers an example of the use of the legal system in one's fight for equality. Bus Ride to Justice is a text that should rest on the shelves of every library. Amen!

Ohio University Second Life Campus

Awesome!

Take 6 LIVE - Wade In The Water

Take Six is "setting the standard" for African American Classical Music.

Free website - Wix.com

Blackademics November Interview: Amiri Baraka

Two of America's greatest writers. Many lessons; many gifts.

blessings.

Expository Writing Song

Great piece on writing an essay.

YOU CAN BEGIN AGAIN - Daystar Singers

Blessings; God gives us the opportunity to "begin again."

Take Six Concert February 14, 2010 at Loma Linda University

In celebration of African American History Month, the School of Religion's Humanities Program Presents Take 6 on February 14, 2010 at 6:00 pm at the Loma Linda University Church on the campus of Loma Linda University located in Loma Linda, CA.



I keep playing these words in my ears. And, indeed, I feel at rest. These are African American male childs. They are the "Strong Men" that Sterling Brown honors. I imagine they will sing in the tradition of their fore parents. I imagine in their sound we will experience the middle passage. I imagine they will sing in honor of the 60 million and more Africans who are still at the bottom of the sea. I imagine they will remember, as they sing, the sorrow songs of Dubois. I imagine they will drag a linguistic lyric like Langston Hughes does in his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers": "I've known rivers. . . /My soul has grown deep like the rivers."
I also imagine, because they are Christian, on the evening of February 14, 2010 these sons-brothers-fathers will set a spiritually provocative standard. Their jazz-styled religious and secular a Capella sound will stir our souls into a deeper relationship with Christ and a celebrated commitment to family.
I am looking forward to this Valentine evening. It will be bathed in a tradition that is honestly American. Have mercy!!!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: On My Mind

Imagine me sitting in the historic Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. The pews are empty now; there are no Sunday worshippers at this meeting. An old security guard walks around the church. He seems to be a gate-keeper. He tells me that this holy place is where young King started his ministry.

As I sit in the church, I am alone, "absence in my body; present with the Lord," and thinking of King. I imagine how he might have stood in the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Excerpts from sermons preached by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are playing. I observe the setting of this old church that nurtured King in his youth. I imagine the boy preacher King exhorting his ". . . trial sermon" (Baldwin 280).

I hear Dr. Martin Luther King's voice, and it serves to interrogate my conscience; it urges my commitment to civil and human rights; it shapes my memory. I merge myself into the baptismal water of King's voice as it is represented in the inaugural address of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, "Address to the First Montgomery Improvement Association Mass Meeting." I hear him talk about the people with ". . . dark complexions," about how "they will inject new meaning into the veins of history and civilization."

This is how I come to this Monday in which we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr. I have been baptized Dr. King's sermons, sermons that gave and give public voice to the Jim Crow racism in Montgomery in 1955, a sermon that compelled Rosa Parks, the protagonist of the boycott to say, ". . . it became clear to me that we had found our Moses, and he would surely lead us to the promised land of liberty and justice for all" (A Call to Conscience 4-5).

Today, I honor Dr. King; I yearn that we will each find the peace he desired for our country. Let''s digest Dr. King's vision of "new meaning into the veins of civilization." Let's be the best expression of humanity on this day--right now.

Tribute to Monique

Monique in Precious

Today I celebrate Monique, the actress, the comedian, the icon, the mother, the wife. Today I celebrate a sister who is a representation of the best in African American womanhood. Civil Rights activist Joseph Lowery once said Rosa Parks was the essence and quintessence of African American womanhood, i.e., the kernel, the core, the heart of the womanhood.

Signifying on the tradition of Rosa Parks, Monique is that kernel, that core, that very heart of the womanhood. She inspires, she affirms, she excites African American women and women, in general, to be.

To be who they are on their own terms; to be. To be who they are called to be; to be. She inspires young girls to understand that the so called weights should not stop them from acheiving their dreams. Monique is because of her mother, her father, her sister, her brothers, even her brother whose illness attempted to destroy her.

I applaud Monique, and I also want to celebrate her husband, Sidney Hicks, an African American brother who is the wind--beside her wings.

Oh and because my intent is to be totally authentic as to what I am thinking right at this moment. I want to applaud brother Sidney for a lesson he is giving me right now.

The lesson: He asked Moniue to lose weight, not so that he could love her more, but so she could be healthier. The message: People love you for who you are--not the pounds you carry. If someone says, I can love you if you lose weight, get a degree, pray, go to church, smile more, know this: They do not love you; they are narcissistically in love with their own insecurities and think that if you are "better," they will be better. As Monique says, "keep it movin'." Thanks brother Sidney. You are one of Sterling Brown's "strong men."

Continue to fly Monique ; continue to show us "the way" !!!

Blessings!!!

Authentically Dr. Hyman