Art Np2

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."    Maya Angelou

Image via Wikipedia  What Did You Do? My son and I were in the car going to run some errands.  Before we drove off the block we live on, we saw my ten year old neighbor squirting what looked like liquid lighter fluid on a fire burning in a old Weber grill.  Flames flew up, and he jumped back just before the fire almost burned his little, dirt streaked face. Of course, I had to stop and see what he was doing. I saw someone sitting on the porch and I was hoping and praying it was an adult, but it wasn't.  It was a shirtless three year old girl who never made a sound.  She just stared at me wide eyed with mouth open.  Another boy, who appeared to be seven or eight years old, was standing at the front of the porch next to a cooler.  I ran past them and told the boy to put get away from the fire.  The smaller boy grinned at me. "We are barbecuing some frogs," he said.   "You wanna see?" With pride and he opened the cooler.  It was full of water and live turtles and f

Believe nothing.  No matter where you read it.  Or who said it, Even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.                                                                                             Buddha

"Learning to Read" by Frances E. W. Harper VERY soon the Yankee teachers Came down and set up school; But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,- It was agin' their rule. Our masters always tried to hide Book learning from our eyes; Knowledge didn't agree with slavery- 'Twould make us all too wise. But some of us would try to steal A little from the book, And put the words together, And learn by hook or crook. I remember Uncle Caldwell, Who took pot-liquor fat And greased the pages of his book, And hid it in his hat. And had his master ever seen The leaves up on his head, He'd have thought them greasy papers, But nothing to be read. And there was Mr. Turner's Ben, Who heard the children spell, And picked the words right up by heart, And learned to read 'em well. Well, the Northern folks kept sending The Yankee teachers down; And they stood right up and helped us, Though Rebs did sneer and frown. And, I longed to read my Bible, For precious words it said; But

Charlotte Gordon, the author of  The Woman Who Named God,  is writing a book on Mary Wollstonecraft and my recent mammogram showed no evidence of tumors.  Now you might be thinking what the two things have to do with the other.  The thing is there is not a lot of scholarly research being done on the work of comtemporary writers such as Tayari Jones, Martha Southgate, and Lori Tharps.  I am sure you can think of others.  Toni Morrison's writing is brilliant, but she is not the only writer out there doing thought provoking work. What got me thinking about the subject was Charlotte's generous sharing of her thoughts and feelings on her blog as she is researching her current project.  So many times I have felt that no one could  have been through my life struggles,  Then I hear or read about someone else' life, and reminded once again that it is not true.  I am just another woman who lived on this earth and experienced a certain amount of joy and sadness just like everyone els

If just one life is saved it will be very worth it. http://www.detroitblog.org/

William Kentridge "I believe that in the indeterminacy of drawing - the contingent way that images arrive in the work - lies some kind of model of how we live our lives. The activity of drawing is a way of trying to understand who we are and how we operate in the world." - William Kentridge Over the last three decades William Kentridge (South African, b. 1955) has developed a vast multidisciplinary practice that includes drawing, film animation, artist's books, printmaking, collage, and theatrical performance. He first achieved international recognition in the 1990s, with a series of what he called "drawings for projection," short animated films made from charcoal drawings that address life in Johannesburg during and after apartheid...  - source, MOMA web site Link  William Kentridge - MOMA, 5 Themes

Substitute Me tells its story from the perspective of its main characters Zora, Kate, and  Brad.  African American, middle-class Zora has been hired by white, yuppie couple Kate and Brad to care for their seven month old son Oliver.  Classes and cultures clash as stereotyping takes its effect.  Both women have a need for one another and their connection creates unforseen, but predictable circumstances. This book is a moving and enjoyable read.  It really made me think about how women relate to one another and how class and race alter the way we see people that we believe are different from us. I think this would be a great book for book clubs.  There are some questions for book clubs to start with in the back of the novel.  There will definitely be plenty to discuss. 9/11/10

Saturday, September 18th, 2010 at 5pm The Decimation of Professor Richard Fink will provide a bridge between traditional sculpture and some of the ideas surrounding postmodernism. While taking as its starting point a series of conventional sculpture heads, the Decimation of Professor Richard Fink transforms those static pieces into an interactive performance work.  The work will begin as a series of 20 life-size portrait heads modeled from life and cast in plaster. These will be unique works, mot multiple copies or editions. The majority of those 20 portraits will be ceremoniously smashed in a ritual of decimation. Only two will be saved. The entire process from selecting the survivors through the ritual of decimation will be captured on video.  Unlike conventional sculpture, which yields only a concrete work, and unlike conventional performance art, which is transitory, the Decimation of Professor Richard Fink will comprise both performance and enduring sculpture. While the result

One of Those Days It’s one of those days. What I mean by “those days” is that the day is not going the way I planned. I finally made my appointment for a much needed mammogram, but the car didn’t start. So, I tried to call and cancel my appointment, but my *******phone did not work. Then I went on the computer to use ******* Broadband and the message Signal Unavailable came up. I have been having some problems with ******* so I kept trying it and the signal finally came through. And get this and I am not kidding; I am writing this blog entry over because I lost it even though I did save it. What will I do today? I will wash dishes, vacuum, do laundry, read, and sew some curtains. I wanted to make a pumpkin pie but I have not been able to find any canned pumpkin or sweet potato filling in the stores. One manager said that “there is some kind of production problem.”My only alternative is to buy some yams, cook them and make my own pie filling, which I could do, but I have no neighborhood

Sorry, if you have read any of my posts already.  They were on another page and I am combining all my writing into an one page blog. Political Action Reports all over the television and internet have described how Rev. Al Sharpton and Glenn Beck were accosted and doused in a liquid compound that caused the demagogues to articulate how to deal with the war in Afghanistan, failing schools, rising prison populations, the unabalanced trade deficit, sexual violence, and unemployment. Their ideas have been described as innovative, creative, gutsy, and achievable. At this point, no one knows what the compound is or who the women were who held the two political activists down and covered them in a thick purple glue-like substance. This much is known: Both men were believed to be stalked in the days before the bold confrontation. Forced to submit to the will of what was reported to be a hoard of stout and hairy females, the men are now resting in seclusion and earnestly thinking about the futur

Image via Wikipedia In April, I went to a presentation at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland by Edwidge Danticat and Manno Charlemagne.  Danticat is an award winning novelist who was born in Haiti. Her novels include The Farming of Bones ,  Krik Krak , and Breath, Eyes, Memory .  Charlemagne is a Haitian political activist, singer, and songwriter whose beautiful music has a healing affect.  Their presence helped put a face on the tragedy of the earthquake which killed 200,000 people on January 12, and made plain the hope and strength alive within the Haitian people. Haiti, a former French colony located on the island of Hispanola where slaves worked the fields of profitable sugarcane plantations, received its independence officially in 1804.  Many of its citizens have remained poverty stricken and the country has been controlled by dictatorships.   Breath Eyes Memory is an eloquently written contemporary coming of age novel.   In the nineteen eighties the protagonist Sophie Caco mov