This evening, I saw a guy at Rouses Supermarket in the Metairie, Louisiana. He had three items in his cart: A 12 pack of toilet paper, a case of beer, and a large cake.
An older woman in the next line told him, "I see you have your priorities straight."
The scene reminded me of a Katrina news story in which the only treasure two guys were trying to save was their bourbon.
In Rouses, I remained calm despite the frenetic energy ricocheting through the checkout lines that snaked beyond the checkout area into aisles. No keeping six feet from a fellow there. The bread shelves were nearly empty except for the less popular breads such as Pumpernickel and odd packs of buns. Surprisingly, the store had toilet paper, but probably not for long. Of course, they were out of Lysol spray and the soap supply appeared to be dwindling as well.
Target at Clearview Shopping Center had far fewer people. I guess word has spread that their food shelves are nearly empty. One lone loaf of smashed white bread in the bread aisle remained. No soups in the soup aisle, just broths. I didn't bother going downstairs because I'd also dropped by Target on my lunch break yesterday. Even the nail files were gone along with alcohol, Lysol spray, Clorox wipes, and so on.
Lakeview Grocery on Harrison Avenue in New Orleans, part of the Roberts chain, only had a few loaves of raisin bread but two selves of Wonder Bread left in the sliced bread section. A woman passed by and said, "Everywhere I go, I see Wonder. People are like (she frowned), Well, Wonder will have to do."
The sense of coronavirus panic gets to you after a while. A quiet paranoia takes over. At work, I went to wash out a cup and brought my purse, keys, and phone with me, thinking that something could wrong. Perhaps I would return to my office, a secure area, and my badge wouldn't work. I wanted to be able to leave the building and get home if I were locked out of my area. The last time I felt that nervous was after having to complete three active shooter trainings in less than four months.
I hope all this anxiety rolling off shoppers and compulsive hoarding turns out to be excess preparation. The best thing would be that social distancing and hand washing causes the corona virus scare to fizzle. Sure, people will be angry, feel stupid, and probably blame the media for over-informing us sensationalizing our circumstance, but the alternative would be worse. All the warnings could be warranted, and we could be woefully under-prepared for disastrous event.
On CNN, Van Jones tells the truth about Prince's life, which is that Prince was a generous soul. He says this is the most important story to remember about the man other than Prince was a genius musician.
I knew some of what Jones said about what Prince as philanthropist. I remembered his alignment with Yes, We Code and his concern about and help for New Orleans, but much of this I did not know.
The next video is Jones's 2015 interview with USA Today in which he talked about Prince supporting Yes, We Code and that movement'ss first hackathon, which was held in New Orleans in 2014. Prince headlined the Essence Festival here that year. That concert was the last time I saw Prince perform live.
I can follow a recipe or simply throw something on the stove to see what happens, but I don't think of myself as a cook. That's probably because I don't love cooking. Still, watching this 1993 episode of Julia Child's PBS series, Cooking with Master Chefs, swept me into a misty nostalgia, memories of my grandmother and mother at the cutting board.
My grandmother -- now, she was a cook!
In the video I've posted, Child introduces Emeril Lagasse who cooks shrimp étouffée, which is a type of smothered dish that can be made as well with crawfish or chicken. Generally, any poultry, shellfish, or meat that will not overcook during the smothering process will do.
Emeril, a young up-and-comer then, carefully guides viewers through his method, taking time to explain various terms and show some of his techniques at least twice. As I watched him peel and clean the shrimp, I recalled my grandmother and my mother teaching me how to peel and devein the little scavengers. But what really brought back memories was Emeril's preparation of the mirepoix, the chopped vegetable mix that Cajun/Creole cooks tend to use for almost all dishes. A mirepoix consists of bell peppers, onion (my grandmother always used scallions), celery, and garlic, occasionally carrots, too.
My grandmother and mother never called the mix a mirepoix that I recall, but I definitely remember my mother saying, "always use these seasonings" for dishes such as étouffée, shrimp and okra succotash, gumbo, and so on. My mother was not a fan of cooking either, but she could make a good dish when she chose to. She didn't spend much time guiding me in cooking, but this video reminds me of one of the few times she gave me a cooking lesson.
Side note here, Julia introduces New Orleans Cajun/Creole cooking and lists its influences; however, she leaves out a major influence, African. I'll just assume the tourism board didn't make that clear to her back then.
And so this happened: I was interviewed by Quaint Magazine about the big poetry and music event I coordinated for this weekend, Born to the Beat.
I am grateful to Quaint forinterviewing me about Born to the Beat because I am trying my best to promote the mini-festival so the poets have an audience. And I.do not deny that I can be so corny that I would make a Poet Tree for a poetry event because I did, That's what you see above. I've been tweeting that and other graphics to get the word out that this Saturday is the big day, 2:00 p.m., at Morning Call in City Park.
As they say in the old church, "Those of you who know the word of prayer, please pray for me." I need all the help I can get.
Kia Groom, the publisher and editor of the literary magazineasked me a question about the list of impressive poets lined up for this event in honor of the Beat Generation. Here's the full list here with the most recent addition, Nigerian poet and University of New Orleans professor Niyi Osundare, Ph.D. And it is an impressive group. I think I may have intimidated myself. Every one on the list has been published and many of them have won award for one of their poems or for a collection of poetry, even the emcees are literary stars, Megan Burns, a poet, and Alex Jennings, a fiction writer. The Shiz band is playing, too, and it has a poet as well.
What I was thinking pulling together all these gifted people in one spot? I've scared myself.
William F.DeVault Dennis Formento Gina Ferrara JohnGery Tyler Gillespie KiaGroom Kelly Harris-DeBerry Carolyn Hembree Julie Kane Kay Murphy Biljana Obradovic Niyi Osundare Valentine Pierce A Scribe Called Quess? M. E. Riley Kristina Robinson Mona Lisa Saloy Terri S .Shrum Clare Welsh and our emcees, MeganBurns and AlexJennings
The article tells some of the disturbing details of abuse 400 to 500 Africans endured on the São José Paquete Africa before the slave ship sank not far from the Cape of Good Hope. Unfortunately, the detestable conditions they faced were typical of slave ships.
Some people reading the article have been shocked to hear how Africans were forced onto these ships and squeezed into cargo holds like livestock for a four-month journey to the shores of the Americas and Europe.
But Lonnie Bunch, the founder of the African American History Museum at the Smithsonian knows this horrid history and of even worse traumas the enslaved suffered. So, he gets that the lives lost during these treacherous journeys, also known as the Middle Passage, and the lives of those who suffered in bondage later deserve a dignified remembrance.
Here's how their memories will be honored at the museum Bunch runs.
The space in the museum for the items pulled from the sea, he said, will include recordings of voices describing the slave trade — “a place,” Mr. (Lonnie) Bunch said, “for you to mourn and to remember.”
This is the attitude we've hoped the architect behind the current design of the proposed National Slave Ship Museum would have adopted. But his vision as shared with the Times Picayune last week reveals again that he just doesn't get it. Remembering the humans who traveled to this country in shackles as well as those that did not survive the journey should not be an entertaining moment or a time to make everyone feel better than he felt at the Holocaust Museum.
James doesn't understand that a slave ship replica as a tourism boat and the Middle Passage as an indoor "simulation ride"he claims will let museum visitors "experience as a slave their journey at sea" is just wrong. The only outcome of such a presentation will be a distortion of history that creates more tension and misunderstanding between ethnic groups in America.
Today I find myself in a bit of an emotional quandary. The National Slave Ship Museum, a project that I thought had died quietly already, appears to be alive and well. According to a local station, the New Orleans City Council approved last night a proposal to build this museum. But raising my eyebrow at this questionable endeavor proposed for the New Orleans Riverfront is not what troubles me. What's really tearing me up is that I must write my objections about a project that is the dream of an elder and a fellow lover of Black History in Louisiana, and encourage him to do no harm.
The National Slave Ship Museum is the dream of black, “amateur historian” Lloyd Lazard, 74. He first proposed the project in the mid-90s, going so far as to lobby the Department of the Interior and gain a thumbs up, reports New Orleans City Business, and he's been at it ever since. I applaud this kind of tenacity, but what will happen after Mr. Lazard passes on?
In 2005, the proposal for the museum was included in a riverfront revitalization plan for New Orleans (.pdf). In 2013, the key players stepped forward again and registered National Slave Ship Museum, Inc., with the state of Louisiana as a non-profit corporation. Antoinette Harrell-Miller of Kentwood, Louisiana, a genealogist, is listed as a director. Clifton James of the Urban Design Research Center, the architect who designed the proposed complex that's pictured above, is listed as its agent along with Lazard.
I'm not against museums about slavery or any attempt to educate the public about this sordid era of American and world history. Also, I'm glad that a group of black Louisianans have taken the initiative to stand up for Black History amid idealizations of the past fostered in this state.
My concern is that this project sounds like something that could easily devolve into a garish, Disneyesque-knock-off theme park (Epcot not Magic Kingdom). If not so grand as Disney, then maybe it will be the colorful Yeehaw! of Opryland in Nashville. So, one minute a slave ship, the next a party on deck with a brass band. I mean, this is New Orleans.
“The proposed $170 million museum will include a life-size interactive slave ship built inside a new five-story building and a riverfront park with an amphitheater and two replica African villages.
The museum complex will also include a Creole Caribbean African restaurant, an herb and vegetable garden, a DNA lab, an exhibit and meeting space.
As a part of the museum experience, visitors will have the opportunity to travel aboard a fully functioning replica slave ship that will sail to Natchez, Miss., and Scott's Bluff in Baton Rouge, located near Southern University.” (emphasis added by me)
Does this sound like a museum that will educate the nation about the loss of thousands of lives during the Middle Passage and the
enslavement of millions of Africans around the world through the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade? Or does it sound more like a Fantasy Land complete with riverboat rides?
A "fully-functioning replica slave ship" sailing down the Mississippi River with tourists would be an abomination.
The loss of black lives under the slave trade and the
enslavement of black people in America should be treated with the same
solemnity and sacred care shown victims remembered with the United States
Holocaust Museum not the brashness of a theme park passing for museum.
The people involved in this project (Lazard, Harrell-Miller, James) seem to be sincere, community-oriented people and activists. Lazard wants to not only feature American slavery but slavery around the world. Still, their vision for a museum about the dehumanizing horrors of the slave trade feels short-sighted and distorted. As you may grasp, this vision to approach slavery as consumable amusement "museum" is the root of my objection.
Louisiana has a problem reconciling with its slavery history. The tourism industry here repeatedly prefers to sugar coat or blatantly lie about slavery's atrocities, and it sounds like this proposed venture will be no different. For instance, one article at the Uptown Messenger, after mentioning that Lazard sees a vision similar to the World War II Museum and the Holocaust museum (or the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center), continues with this quote from someone else who may be involved:
“One component of it is incredible horror and destruction, but they’re mostly places of hope and victory and heroes,” said Michael Mayer, a West End boat builder.
Well, that's just what America needs given its current dysfunction on race and the Black experience, a slave ship museum that lets visitors leave feeling they've been in a place of hope surrounded by victory and heroes. Instead of grasping the depravity and horror of it all, folks can stroll along with their children saying, "See that! Everybody's overcome. Slavery all worked out for the mutual good."
I hope that's not what Mr. Mayer meant, but that's what I envision happening. How would that outcome be helpful?
Also, any comparison between the Underground Railroad and a slave ship is ludicrous. Through one black people seek self-determination; through the other they are chattel.
This project calls to mind that slave-ship video game that turned out to be a promotion for a slavery documentary. Thinking it was real, people protested, wondering who would want to interact with slavery as entertainment.
And another thought arises: How strange that the white man who turned Whitney Plantation into a slave museum painstakingly ensured visitors could not leave comforted and thinking "it's all good," but with this proposed slave ship museum we see a group of seemingly sincere black people bending over backwards to make a slave ship experience enjoyable, to fashion black suffering as an attraction. Is it possible this project needs a dash of white guilt?
I can't help but feel this project has probably mushroomed into a toxic cloud of imprudence since Lazard first shared his dream.
Gena Haskett of Los Angeles, writing on Facebook, also cannot fathom how such a presentation of the Middle Passage and slave trade would be acceptable to anyone concerned about education and African-American history.
"Will they re-create the rapes, the physical abuse and the tossing overboard of sick and dying Africans? Sea water and feces are not good smells to have near a restaurant. I have more questions but I'm feeling queasy from the ones I just presented. Not good. Not good at all to base it on abduction ships."
New Orleans, my hometown, has a rich history that includes being a major port through which slaves came from Africa, and as anyone can gather through the state of Louisiana’s plantation tourism, the enslavement of Africans was big business throughout the state. But this plantation and slavery tourism has always been painful and problematic.
With the exception of the Whitney Plantation exhibit that focuses on the lives of slaves instead of the "genteel" lives of their masters, the cruelty and horrors of slavery have been largely sanitized by the local tourism industry. Certainly this sanitizing has served not to tell the public the truth but to glorify and mythologize the antebellum South.
So, despite the most likely good intentions of the people involved to date, I am concerned that the proposed National Slave Ship Museum ultimately will fall into this same kind of minimizing that trivializes the hellish lives of the enslaved or turn the tragedy of the Middle Passage into some kind of amusement park ride.
I am also concerned that in the end the slave ship museum will be little more than a money-making operation no matter its “non-profit” status now, and so it will become just another way black bodies are exploited by the local, state, and Federal governments as well as major corporations. Nonetheless, I am not asking simply that this museum project end.
I am asking for national dialogue and complete transparency in the process, including sourcing, research, staffing, management, and funding. Also, since it’s called the National Slave Ship Museum, I ask that that the national community be made more aware of the plans. We need a deeper discussion about whether this is project is on the right road and much broader oversight. New Orleans, after all, is not the guardian of the legacy of slavery alone nor may it alone presume to speak for the millions killed or crippled by the slave trade.We are, after all, still living with its damage.
But how did this slave-ship museum project get this far? Why didn't one of our black city council members declare, "Hell no! On our ancestors' graves and again, no! Not like this. Never like this."
Please sign the petition demanding that the New Orleans City Council sends this museum's planners back to the drawing board. Click here and sign.
This video features the art piece "Head Games." It documents a project I did for a required course in the MFA program at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana. The course is Form and Idea. Creative Writing Workshop students have had to take the course through the Film, Theater, and Communications department; however, this is the last year the course will be required for students in the creative writing MFA program.
The course has been replaced by craft courses in the students' specific disciplines, such as poetry and fiction.
My instructor was Henry Griffin, a screenwriter and film professor. He's a passionate and enthusiastic educator, consuming vast amounts of literature, film, and music. While I see the need for craft courses, even applaud their addition, I also think the program may lose something by not exposing its students to this interdisciplinary course.
For the final assignment, Griffin required us to take a piece of art from one genre--a song, a movie, a book, a painting, etc.--and adapt it to a different art form. I chose to turn Joni Mitchell's classic 1975 song "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" into the papier-mâché piece you see in the video.
The idea came to me when I saw local artist and fellow poet Valentine Pierce on Facebook showing off a wig head she'd covered with newspaper via papier-mâché. She did it for practical reasons--to show off hats at the French Market that she's created , but her photo caused me to recall seeing wig heads covered that way when I was a child. And then I remembered making a paper mache duck with my mother when I was bout 8 years old. She was an elementary school teacher.
One of the restrictions for the project was to not do anything you've mastered. We had to do something that we've never done before or had not done in a long time. Paper mache fit the bill for me. Previously I had thought about turning the song into a movie poster, but my drawing's rusty, and the 3-dimensional aspect of the head appealed to me.
Mitchell's song is about a woman enduring psychological abuse and control-freak tactics, so I curated tweets from the #WhyIStayed Twitter campaign launched by Beverly Gooden last year and typed them up, printing them on the laser printer. Later I pasted then on the top of the head. Throughout the piece I also used Joni's lyrics handwritten on different types of paper (newsprint, construction, printer, tissue) and some of the psychologically crippling words I've heard or read before.
The head represents a woman trapped by mental abuse, one who doubts herself, and fears leaving her abuser for whatever reason. That could be financial fears, fear of losing social status, fear for children, or fear for her own life. Sometimes it's all of the above.
Instead of using Joni's actual song, I used the karaoke back-up because I don't want her people to get on me. :-)
The Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus rolled Saturday night, February 7, in New Orleans. It is one of city's many Mardi Gras clubs.
Relatively young, Chewbacchus is unique for its focus on science fiction icons and tropes. This year's parade's theme was “The Cult of the Sacred Drunken Wookiee,” and so billed itself as a "satirical space cult."
Lots of fun! The Krewe has more than 1000 members and the parade felt like it, too.
My daughter was one of the parade escorts, so the first time I went and found a viewing spot with friends on the corner of Frenchmen and Dauphine Streets in Faubourg Marigny adjacent to the French the Quarter.
Anybody can join and march. This year the fee was only $42, and both people of all ages paraded. It was wild and family friendly. I think next year, if I'm still alive, in decent health, and have a few extra dollars, I'll get a tricycle and ride in it myself as sort of a bucket list item.
I think that I prefer some of the looser, more home-spun parades, to the fancier ones that have been rolling for decades. A few weeks ago I also attended the raunchy, political satire Krewe du Vieux for the first time. As its name suggests it's a French Quarter parade. While much older than Chewbacchus, it's also a homespun spectacle of fun-loving rabble-rousers.
I probably would not have gone but I was invited to watch from a French Quarter balcony. Despite having grown up here, that was a first for me, too. Here's the video I took of Krew du Vieux.
The picture above was taken at the Circle for Michael Brown rally and march in New Orleans this Sunday. Organized by the Black Youth Project of NOLA, #BYP100NOLA, the rally began at Lee Circle on the city's famous St. Charles Avenue. The circle is named for confederate general Robert E. Lee, and the organizers noted that in New Orleans, black people are surrounded by memorials to confederate heroes, people who wanted to keep black people enslaved. One organizer and activist, poet A Scribe Called Quess, declared that the Lee monument and others need to come down.
The BYP100 organization is run by and focuses on black people between the ages of 18-35, folks considerably younger than I am, but I went with my daughter. She and I attended the first Ferguson-related rally--National Moment of Silence--in August.
Today's group marched from Lee Circle to Congo Square, Louis Armstrong park, stopping at the midway point on Canal Street to perform a #DieIn. A die-in is a variation of the old fashioned 1960s sit-in. During a die-in, however, protesters lie down and mimic being dead to represent all the black people who have been killed by police. The BYP organization has organized DieIns around the country to protest police brutality in the wake of Mike Brown's killing and Darren Wilson's non-indictment.
The New Orleans organizers also mentioned victims of neighborhood crime, such as young activist George Carter, 15, who was shot to death near his home in October. His body has been described as being "riddled with bullets."
Along with photos, I also captured Vine video at the event.
A little Bob Marley kept the crowd focused while awaiting the beginning of the rally.
Black organizers of the rally asked white allies to guard the perimeter to create a buffer between police officers in case an officer became aggressive. According to the speakers (and I have heard of this as a non-violent direct action tactic), white allies played a similar role in some organized protests during the Civil Rights movement. For instance, young white people went down to Mississippi where they had to learn how to take directions from the black people who were being oppressed. Also, they weren't used to being attacked by police officers or white racists themselves either, so there was much to learn.
As the PBS documentary Freedom Summer explains, black activists in the South were tired, and they needed the help of young white activists from the north.
That said, the NOPD, which was not out in high numbers, kept its distance, blocking off streets so the protesters could walk and watching on the sidelines. Nontheless, according to organizers, the police have been highly visible at night when protesters meet at Congo Square/Armstrong Park.
Nearing the End of One Struggle in the Unending Struggle
Promoting inclusion of all members of the African-American community, a number of representatives from various groups spoke to the protesters at Congo Square, such as the director of Women with A Vision, and a young activists representing the LGBTQ community within the black community (young person pictured below). Poets recited their works as well, all part of the drum circle.
On Tuesday this week, renowned activist Angela Davis, along with other panel members, discussed and presented information on slavery and the prison industrial complex. Davis is introduced at the 53:20 time mark. She opens commending the exhibition on Angola at the Ogden Museum.
One of the reasons we should recognize a connection between slavery and the prison industrial complex, says Ms. Davis, is the evidence that racism is driving the prison industrial complex. Louisiana's prison system reflects this trend which is global. Even in Australia, the Aboriginal people make up a disproportionate percentage of the prisoners. Then she discusses the evolution of the prison industrial system in America.
Saying she did not have time to go into detail about the connection between slavery and the prison system, she recommends the book Texas Tough by Robert Perkinson. According to Amazon.com, the book is "a sweeping history of American imprisonment from the days of slavery to the present, explains how a plantation-based penal system once dismissed as barbaric became a template for the nation."
But why is it that the United States imprisons more people than any other nation? That's a question to ponder after listening to the video.
She quickly touches Ferguson, Katrina, and disaster capitalism as well. Then she focuses on the capitalization of producing surplus bodies by taking away programs that steer people away from prison and the privatizing public programs, such as public education.
Her most important point, she says, abolishing the prison system and the aftermath of slavery. But don't miss the 30-minute question-and-answer period.
The first half of the video focuses on the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. Located on a former plantation and named for an area in Africa from where about half of the nation's slaves came, Angola appears to be trapped in time. A former Confederate major bought the property and turned the slave quarters into prison cells.
So, it seems as though Louisiana whites in power made a statement early about where it intended to put its black population. That's my thought, not theirs explicitly.
One of the speakers, Henry James, is a man who was freed through DNA evidence and advocacy after being wrongfully convicted of rape. He was sentenced to life in prison and served 30 years before the Innocence Project and others proved his innocence.
Former prisoner Carmen Demourelle also spoke. She's a straight-talker.
Here is the description straight from the video's information text.
Slavery, The Prison Industrial Complex, a Panel Discussion with P.3 Artists Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick. Xavier University, Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion, Qatar Auditorium, Room 112A & B (1 Drexel Drive)
Panelists: Angela Davis, Political Activist, Scholar, Author
Keith Calhoun, Artist
Chandra McCormick, Artist
Carmen Demourelle, Former Prisoner
Henry James, Exonerated Former Prisoner
Norris Henderson, Former Prisoner, Public Defender, Political Activist
Moderator: William P. Quigley, Law Professor and Director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University, New Orleans
This round-table discussion examines the failed systematic machinery of mass imprisonment and the combined efforts under way to abolish it. The discussion includes prominent activists, artists who have documented the Angola Prison for years, and former prisoners—who provide a first-hand viewpoint. The participants come together to both inform the public and discuss strategies for change while reminding us of the crucial, invigorating and ever-present affinity between activism and art.
Thanks to a Facebook friend, I became aware of these NPR Field Recordings filmed in New Orleans during Essence Fest this past summer, Ledisi, a New Orleans native, and Jazmine Sullivan.
Ledisi sing's "Woman" on a French Quarter balcony.
On Wednesday, October 22, thanks to a friend with an extra ticket, I got to see Macy Gray at Tipitina's in New Orleans. It's a standing-room-only intimate venue with quite a colorful history, so by the time we walked back to our cars my feet were on fire. But seeing Macy was worth the pain. She is not only talented, but funny and down-to-earth. She's also 6 feet tall in her stocking feet. I didn't know that.
Near the beginning she sang one of my favorite's of hers, "Caligula," as well as some others such as "A Moment to Myself." But she also performed new material: "Bang Bang," for example. Closing with her greatest hit, "I Try," she led the audience in a sing-along, which you'll see in the video. But I'm not sure we needed her to encourage us to sing with her, as you can see.
Macy also told us a funny and creatively embellished story (I'm sure) during the middle of the concert about why she and her band came "all the way from Los Angeles" to New Orleans. Her guitarist, she said, played an instrumental part in their decision. I wish I had recorded it, but one of the reasons they came, other than New Orleanians party and drink a lot, was "the women in New Orleans have the best vaginas in the world." The audience cheered both the drinking and the vaginas.
Cary Nokey opened for Macy. I was unfamiliar with him, but he is also gifted. He has a great voice, great hair, and he definitely gave the crowd its money's worth in entertainment.
Tonight I attended Women Performing for Women, a benefit for Hagar's House, a sanctuary for women and children in New Orleans and a ministry of First Grace United Methodist Church. The event was held at Cafe Istanbul. The evening included performances by The Pussyfooters (a women's step group), Nichol Luebrun & Lizzy Shepherd, Charmaine Neville, (funk and jazz) and Amanda Shaw (Cajun fiddler).
I enjoyed it in spite of my having to record Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder.
Here are some of the Vine videos I took.
First, the Pussyfooters and also a clip of the Cupid Shuffle.
This man certainly enjoyed his time on the dance floor.
Having run an actual newspaper/magazine before, I was fascinated when I saw the first Paper.li paper tweeted to me on Twitter. I don't remember who tweeted me all those months ago, but before long it seemed that every other day someone sent a tweet directing me to his or her Paper.li paper.
Since I had already been thinking about narrowing my focus to books, publishing, entertainment, and politics, in that order, I began to toy with the idea of creating my own Paper.li paper that curated just those topics. Now, I've done it.
My paper is called Bell, Book, and Scandal, a play on the name of a movie I loved in my youth, Bell, Book, and Candle starring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart.
The movie is about a witch (Novak) falling in love with a mortal (Stewart) after casting a spell on him to make him fall in love with her. She initially goes after him, however, because she doesn't like his fiance. The spell backfires, and as a result she falls in love and loses her magical powers. Her mind-reading cat plays a big role in the film. You can see how she uses him to cast her spell in the video below.
The movie's title may itself be a play on another use of the phrase. According to multiple sources, an obsolete ceremony for excommunication from the Roman Catholic church was also called "bell, book, and candle" because those three items were used during the the ritual. Phrases.org.uk says, "In the excommunication ceremony officials close the book, quench the candle and toll a bell, as for someone who had died. The phrase is old and first appears, in Old English, circa 1300." The entry adds that the phrase appears in Shakespeare's King John: "BASTARD: Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on."
I've found a few articles on the excommunication ritual, which was done in secret, but here's an overly-dramatic video with graphics that explains it, albeit with sensational music.
While my paper, Bell, Book, and Scandal, may occasionally curate articles on paranormal activities and events (I live in New Orleans, so how can I resist?), it has nothing to do with witches or secret religious rituals. The bell in its name represents the Liberty Bell (politics), the book, all things literary, and the scandal, arts and entertainment coverage that happens to favor ABC's Scandal. But I will also have my eye out for news of How to Get Away with Murder and science fiction and fantasy-oriented shows such as SyFy's Helix and HBO's Game of Thrones.
It's my hope that by narrowing my focus, I'll hunker down, read more books, and devote more time to creative writing.
In 2005, Rahkyt aka Mark Rockeymore, produced the music and audio for this poem, "An Angel for New Orleans" by Aberjhani, after Aberjhani recorded the recitation. Nordette Adams created the video this weekend in recognition of the 9th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Recent clips have been added at the end to acknowledge the city's progress since that tragic day, August 29, 2005.
#NMOS14
National Moment of Silence
New Orleans, Louisiana
August 14, 2014
A nonviolent vigil held in solidarity with the
Ferguson, Missouri, protests to honor the
memory of Michael Brown and all other victims
of police brutality and vigilantism.
Organized via Twitter
and other social media
by @FeministaJones, #NMOS14
prompted vigils nationwide.
Approximately 200-plus people
participated at Lafayette Square
on St. Charles Avenue.
The young woman speaking in the video is
a Dillard University student named Chanelle,
aka @WhatTheNelle_12 on Twitter.
According to her T-shirt, she is also a
member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Names read during the moment of silence included
Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, Wendell Allen,
James Brisette, Henry Glover,
Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Ronald Madison
Patrick Dorismond, Oscar Grant,
Sean Bell, Kimani Gray, Renisha McBride,
and too many more called to "rest in power."
Shanelle also said that young people like her are said to be
apathetic and not to care, but the young people at the vigil
should show the world that they do care.
She said that police brutality and vigilantism is not
only a Black problem, but everyone's problem.
And as a sign-up sheet was passed around, she added
that it's important to mobilize to reduce
other acts of violence in New Orleans.
Too many bodies on our streets.
We never know how near we are to those touched
by violence. During the vigil, next to me stood Emily,
the young woman with the sign.
Emily lives in New Orleans and is
Michael Brown's cousin.
Her sign says:
"Be angry.
Be outraged.
Don't be
distracted.
This video was posted by
the Whose Shoes Are These Anyway blog
and Her411.com
The Pelican Bay Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, is owned and operated by husband and wife Maurice and Tanzanika Ruffin. They are both native New Orleanians and attorneys with a little extra something on their plates. He is a fiction writer. She is une cuisinière who trained Le Cordon Bleu. And take it from me, they do restaurant well.
I took my cousin for her birthday. The food was excellent and so was the service. Tanzanika elevates some of great home cooking. Nothing tops natural talent. The food is excellent.
I had catch-of-the-day fish fried to a crispy golden brown, a green salad, fries, a Barq's root beer in the antique bottle, and I finished with pound cake. Fresh ingredients, expert seasoning (not overly-salted but flavorful!), and beautiful plating all make eating at Pelican Bay a treat. Next time I hope to try something from the bar and the pizza, which people keep telling me is delicious.
While there I also met Tanzanika's mother who helps out, and learned many of the dishes on the menu have ties to their family recipes. I must assume the macaroni and cheese is one of those. It's scrumptious, and I don't say that about just any mac 'n cheese, not greasy but delectably cheesy. Not a Stouffer's restaurant bake but the real Southern thing.
On a return visit for a night of poetry and music, I tried the wings and daquiris. Both are winners.
Finally, the prices are reasonable. I look forward to a third visit.
Boy, I wish I had the fortitude to go see Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf tonight. I was just there Sunday for a poetry reading, but bands draw much larger crowds than poets, and I really have to be in a certain mental state for a mass of folk.
Basin Street Records recently posted a new music video from the band, "Rebirth Groove."
It struck me that the band is using a greater variety of modern jazz, jazz funk, and jazz fusion elements in their work than they did say, fifteen years ago.
When I say a "greater variety," I'm thinking of some of their older pieces like "Do Whatcha Wanna" and other tunes from that album. Also, I'm not saying that they didn't have those elements before, just that in "Rebirth Groove" more elements are amped up, more feels improvisational. Naturally, they still have those moments that say, "We're still a "New Orleans brass band" with roots in New Orleans jazz, but they've definitely broadened their musical palette.
Cars flipping over the Causeway guardrail happens more often than I care to contemplate. Apparently yesterday, a driver's truck went over the side into the lake, and this is what happened. As Alvin Pike was driving to work, "the pickup truck in front of him suddenly hit the [Causeway's] left guardrail and careened back to the right side of the bridge," reports the Times Picayune." So, Alvin stopped his car, halted other drivers, and jumped into the lake to save the man. Great story! Pike's so modest. Like most heroes he says anybody else would have done the same.
According to the New Orleans Advocate, the driver was reaching for his cell phone when he lost control of his truck. Um, I would definitely not reach for a cell phone while driving over the lake. Bluetooth's the way to go.
Maybe I should keep a life vest on the font seat of my car. I was surprised to learn how many of the regular Causeway drivers carry them.
On follow-up, I'm posting that Solange, Jay-Z, and Beyonce have issued a statement about the now-infamous elevator brawl. Essentially, the statement says that we, the public, should let this matter go and accept that the Carter/Knowles family is only human. Well, I agree with that, but here's the actual statement as reported by the Associated Press earlier today:
"As a result of the public release of the elevator security footage from Monday, May 5th, there has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident. But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it," the statement said. "Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred. They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family."
The family also denies that Solange was intoxicated. ABC News also reports that the hotel employee who released the video tape has been fired. Well, we knew that was coming, right?
Also, here's CNN folk discussing the family's statement.
Following the release of the elevator pictures, there was speculation that Solange attacked Jay-Z to stand up for older sister, Beyonce. Allegedly Jay-Z was getting too chummy with fashion designer Rachel Roy. That explanation makes Solange sound as though she doesn't understand how marriage works. A sister-in-law going off will not stop a husband from flirting or cheating, and I'm pretty sure Beyonce can take care of business herself. But I've never had a sister, so what do I know.
Here in Solange's adopted city, New Orleans, the media loves her. Since she moved here, the Times Picayune has been following her doings. I'm glad she decided to come back to her Louisiana roots, but just as I never bump into Brad Pitt, I also never bump into Solange. If I did, however, all I'd say is, "Thank you for being here."
I'm old enough to be Beyonce and Solange's mother. Having grown up in a time when black female entertainers, though popular, never ruled the airwaves like this (not even Diana Ross), I'm sort of fascinated that so may people of all ethnic groups keep up with what Beyonce does or doesn't do. But I suppose Oprah, too, paved the way for black female stars to be just as idolized as white female stars. And Michael Jackson paved the way for such idolization of black stars in general.
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