Blog Posts for devorah major

Revolutoinary Poets Brigade

devorah major — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:02:01 -0700

I was recently invited to join this collective of engaged poets. (How can one resist joining a revolutionary poets brigade?) They have a number of actions planned starting with two readings. The first one, held last Friday was wonderful. Poets included myself, Alejandro Murguia, Sarah Menafee, Neeli Cherkovski, Agneta Falk, Arthur Sheridan, Rosemary Manno, Carla Badillo Coronado, ...

Toni Morrison, Character, & Back to Blog

devorah major — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:44 -0700

Last night I went to see Toni Morrison. It had been decades since I had seen her, she had a new book which I knew I was going to read. She is a woman who fully lives her life and even if the questions posed, or discussion presented does not fully engage me, I know Morrison will say something that will make me think. She’s wide and funny and down to earth, always real, always ...

Writing the New, Finishing the Old - It's a Matter of Keys

devorah major — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:35:02 -0800

Yesterday I finally finished the next chapter in the novella I am writing. This chapter like many sat with its beginning words held between my teeth, carried in my armpit, running through my belly, recounted at night before I fell asleep so it would be there waiting for me the next time I cleared the space in both my life and my head to move the story forward once again. Now this ...

Obama- Post election -The Black Vote and the Work Left to Do

devorah major — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:17:45 -0800

It has been several presidential elections since I conceded to vote for evil, the lesser of two evils that is, a capitulation in the face of fear. I just decided one day that that was an absurd notion. My grandmother after all was one who would say to someone who proclaimed that they were “only playing the devil’s advocate” that the devil didn’t need an advocate. I was clear ...

Miriam Makeba - An African Song

devorah major — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:25:22 -0800

I grew up in a home where mostly jazz was washed the walls of our flat., jazz without vocals, without words, with loads of bop but no ditty. That and what was to me then a stream of dull talk radio voices. I had no idea what radio Pacifica was although I believe my parents had made some noises about peace and news. In other words, for a child, boring on top of boring. There was no ...

Looking through the Day of Flying Flags and Speeches

devorah major — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:46:54 -0700

July 4th is always problematic for me. Yes, I know there is also Louis Armstrong to remember and celebrate, and Ted Joans too. And Thomas Jefferson died on this day, a day his children by Sally Hemmings could celebrated as the day of their legal emancipation from father’s slave to free. So what to celebrate of America and its birthing. It is more possible in the USA, than in many other ...

Movement Mothers

devorah major — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:55:55 -0700

We women who came of age during the Black Power Movement, the Peace Movement, the Free Speech Movement, and yes the Feminist Movement continue to move in a circle that is, almost always, far different from most of our mothers. We were and are more independent, involved in a community reaching further than the local school or religious sanctuary, demanding a different type of relationship ...

State of Exile- a brief review

devorah major — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:10:18 -0700

“If exile were not a terrible experience, it would be a literary genre.” So begins Christina Peri Rossi in her prologue to her moving book of poetry State of Exile, translated by Marilyn Buck and released last month by City Lights Publishing (http://citylights.com/). State of Exile fell into my hands because of the illness of David Meltzer. He was scheduled to read Marilyn Buck’s ...

Two Summers, One Agenda 1866, 2008

devorah major — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:41:23 -0700

It was the summer of 1866. Congress with much rancor and many protests passed the 13th amendment. Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and outspoken supporter of women’s rights had campaigned long and hard for the amendment. He worked with anyone to forward his agenda of justice and opportunity for all. "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong," he would ...

The Music of Hope

devorah major — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:52:03 -0700

“If you live with hope you’re dancing to a terrible tune.” My sister of time and family, if not shared parentage, is reading me a line of graffiti she sees scrawled on the wall as she rides Marti down Atlanta streets into the hood where hope all too often, when found at all, is encased in a neon glow looking almost tawdry in open sunlight, a certain house, an abandoned pawn shop, a ...