Sunday, November 24, 2013

NaNoWriMo - day 24 - Love work

I am honored today to celebrate the third anniversary of Red Stories. The work and love I put in. Not just me, but my community too. Thankful.

A poem a day for 2013 - day 327 - Red. Stories. Connection.

Red Stories
Our stories
This love of words and stories
Tales and family
Elders and memories
Anniversary
Poets
Artists
Painters
Dancers
This is the energy

Of life and leaving

I'm feeling some kind of way today about life and how it circles. My favorite health care client passed away last night. I will miss her greatly and remember her stories and poems and songs. I will cherish the memory of the walks we shared and funny things she said.

Very shortly after receiving news about my client's passing, my very good friend had a baby girl.

Happy birthday Red Stories

Tonight we celebrate the third anniversary of Red Stories! I am so happy about this! If you are in the area and are available then come out and enjoy the show and celebrate with us at Vibrations located at 2435 Manchester Blvd. Inglewood, CA. The features tonight are Food4Thot and Queen Socks. I look forward to seeing you. 7:30, $10.00.

Kat with me

Part 1

Saturday, November 23, 2013

NaNoWriMo - day 23 - Friends

Because I love Kat and once a month conversations that last forever and ever and friends are my family my heart.

A poem a day for 2013 - day 326 - Day

Hold me
Like friend
Get me
Like love
Like lover
Like kiss
Like remember
When

Friday, November 22, 2013

NaNoWriMo - day 22 - Yes.

Laundry
Goapele
Erykah
Maxwell
Yellow candle (the color is not significant - I don't think)
Two incense sticks (scent unknown)
Folding
Quiet
Easy
Ebony Magazine
Friday
Night
Live

A poem a day for 2013 - day 325 - Write. Now. Woman.

I know what it is like to be the kind of woman I am
A woman who waves her hands and hips under the stars
Into the wind of darkness I am an innocuous sapling in the forest
Waving magic wands that light up and diminish like a bic
In the back row of a poetry spot
Can you hear those elongated vowels
The scent of freedom balled up anyway between the pages
O how I love it
O how I love myself and artists like me
Debunking the stereotypes of what others think we should be

We know ourselves salient
Sanctioned by our venerable elders
We are necessary to the now
We are super heroes leaping the pejoratives in the daily news
Leaving editors deranged

Listen to the noises we make with our tongues
The clacking of our jaws to signal another
Smell the incense in our locks, our Afros and twists
Hair falling straight to the ground
Reach to Oshun
We are so beautiful

We are so water
We are so ocean
We are so fluid
So liquid so clean and life
Like pomegranate and coochie and moon and lilies
Don't that sound so free

My people are amazing
Look us in the eyes and see the places we've been
Planets have been named after us
We are everywhere
Standing on stages spilling life from our limbs
Come up and say hi
Do you want to put your hand in my shirt to see if milk will
Drip from my breasts
It will
It will you know

Listen
Listen to all these poets and sounds
Like lilies
Like tears
Like women giving birth
Do you know how that sounds
I know what it is like to give birth
To release to God something that was
Never yours to own

For Renisha McBride

So much work to do

I was a prosecutor in a case that used race-based testimony to sentence Duane Buck to death. Now, I'm calling for the state of Texas to spare his life and grant him a fair sentence.

Sign My Petition

robin -

In 1997, I was one of the prosecutors in a court case that used race-based testimony to sentence to death Duane Buck, who's black.

At the time, I was an Assistant District Attorney in Harris County, Texas and Mr. Buck was being tried for murder. During the trial, an "expert" witness named Dr. Walter Quijano was permitted to testify that being black increases the likelihood of 'future dangerousness'. That testimony in part led to the jury sentencing Mr. Buck to death.

Mr. Buck committed a terrible crime and deserves to be punished, but he does not deserve to be sentenced to death because of the color of his skin. That's why I started a petition on Change.org calling on Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson to allow Duane Buck a resentencing hearing so he can serve a sentence based on his crime and not his race. Click here to sign my petition now.

Three years after Mr. Buck's trial, the Texas Attorney General actually promised that he'd get a new, fair sentencing hearing. This was along with six other men who were sentenced unfairly because of similar testimonies in their own trials. Those six other men have received their hearings, but not Mr. Buck.

I started my petition in the hopes that District Attorney Anderson will act to make sure that our justice system is not tainted by unconstitutional considerations of race -- and that begins by having a new, color-blind sentencing hearing for Duane Buck. Please click here to sign my petition now, calling on District Attorney Mike Anderson to grant Duane Buck a resentencing hearing.

Thank you.

Linda Geffin
Senior Assistant County Attorney
Houston, Texas

Sign My Petition

Gratitude

This morning I am grateful for the easy movement of my back
For massage I had yesterday out of sheer necessity
Because I could not walk another block
I am thankful for friends with gifted hands and professional tables
I am thankful for love and how it shows up in my life
I am thankful for my eyes opening late on this sunny day
Though early and rain would have been ok too
I am thankful that my mother spent her birthday in fun and laughter with friends
I am thankful for my son
Whom I am always thankful for
I am thankful for hearing my uncle's voice yesterday
Though the conversation was quick and in the throws of my work time
I am thankful he spared a moment
Thankful for small moments because none are small
I am ever grateful for WomanPreach and the ways women's voices are
Discovered, uncovered and developed
I am thankful for my friends and family
For my home, food, bed
I am thankful for this one more day to live all
New