Roger's Journal

April 23, Poem 23 - Cumbia Night at the Hotel Congress - Tucson, AZ

2011-04-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

Cumbia night at the Hotel Congress – Tucson, AZ In any language the brass is a breathy narrative, the horns are a village of callings-out to the people gathered in the square; and if the horns are announcement and oratory; if the horns then pronounce into being the landscape by which we will enter this village, if the trombone’s deep bluster is how you ask

April 22, Poem 22 - still life with sheriff, governor, desert

2011-04-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

because Arizona's attacks on ethnic studies must be stopped. if it is allowed to succeed, it will eventually be in every state. It is only the conservative vanguard of a nationwide movement to destroy the education of youth of color, if you think your state's policies are better, take a closer look.still life with sheriff, governor, desert The governor of Arizona

April 20, Poem 20 - Open Letter to Norma

2011-04-30T11:47:00.001-07:00

Open Letter to Norma For her daughter Yasmeen (may 1 1990 - apr 20 2009) An elegy If the locket of ash around your neck Feels like a bullet; if you ask Strangers to finger that bullet, It's smooth weight, it's tip True and sharp as a prayer For your daughter's eternity... If the word tomorrow seems even more Heavy than the bullet's weight in ash, And your

The BloodJet Writing Hour - Rachelle Cruz interviews Roger Bonair-Agard

2011-04-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

40 minutes or so. get you some apple pie, some ice cream and some bourbonHere's the link to the archived show:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/2011/04/26/the-blood-jet-writing-hour-hosted-by-rachelle-cruz-with-guest-roger-bonair-agardTo schedule a reading or an appearance please contact Ofer Ziv at Blue Flower Arts at 845-677-8559 or email ofer@blueflowerarts.com.www.facebook.com/

April 19, Poem 19 - National Botanical gardens 1986 (fiction based on some shit that fo sho happened)

2011-04-25T23:25:00.001-07:00

National Botanical Gardens 1986 In the middle of the hurricane belt, hurricanes never seem to touch Trinidad. The meteorological maps are perplexed. They show storm after storm approaching the island and beating a path around it. Trinidadians don’t even take precautions anymore. They prepare for things with the gather and the cook. In Trinidad, we call it liming.

April 18, Poem 18 - morning / father

2011-04-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

morning / father If when my grandfather (whom I called Daddy because my mother called him that) shone shoes on Saturday (every Saturday, every shoe in the house) I hadn’t sometimes sat on the floor in front of him reaching into the hand made wooden box, inlaid with shelves (one for polish of various colors, one for polish rags and shine rags) to hand him the

April 17, Poem 17 - ars poetica: parable of carpentry

2011-04-24T00:36:00.000-07:00

ars poetica: parable of carpentry everything obeys the sun now the body blooded to dark in its command. every question answers itself in the choices – both those made and those eschewed. the sun itself is a question – or maybe an indictment. I once lay in the sun for the express purpose of getting a tan. I was upset that I had lost so much gleam in my

April 16, Poem 16 - Horse Sense / fiction based on true events, or sumpn like that

2011-04-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Horse sense I’d never ridden a horse before, but I didn’t think that an obstacle to doing so on this particular day. The weather, which was treacherously close to falling below sixty degrees, even though it was June, just a day earlier, had finally begun acting right, and it was a robust seventy-five by 10AM. I awoke early and came downstairs to my host’s huge kitchen.

April 15, Poem 15 - inordinate

2011-04-22T09:43:00.001-07:00

inordinate adj. not within proper or reasonable limits; immoderate; excessive: He drank an inordinate amount of rum. unrestrained in conduct, feelings, etc.: an inordinate admirer of women disorderly; uncontrolled not regulated; irregular: inordinate crew of friends with whom to carouse fuck what you heard im ordinary

April 14, Poem 14 - learning to read (after Frank X Walker)

2011-04-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

learning to read(after Frank X Walker) Because my mother never shooed me from the room when she was talking about politics, and never thought I should leave even when the sweet gossip about a friend was on tap. Because my mother let me join in when adults spoke and never spoke to me in a babyish condescending tone – Because my mother drank good whiskey and

April 13, Poem 13 - Afro (after Kelly Norman Ellis)

2011-04-19T22:30:00.001-07:00

Afro (after Kelly Norman Ellis) My mother's afro was a magic orb of goodness. Afro Sheen leaked onto it's ends and became emerald in the sun. It was 1975 and my mother told me every day, that I was black; taught me how to comb my own round globe of halo - how to hold the pick at its shoulder where the fist became the bad-ass comb's wrist. In 1975

April 12, poem 12 - H / fiction. any resemblance to actual events or people is some bullshit...

2011-04-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

H In the summer of 2005, the sting of the World Trade Center tragedy was still fresh for many Americans. For many of us, it was as much that now we were plunged full-scale into a war we knew was bullshit. For some, it was that we were all of a sudden living in a way we hadn’t before. It was the new normal. Any gathering of a mass of people in a public place was a possibility – we were told –

April11, Poem 11 - translating belonging to blackness

2011-04-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

translating belonging to blackness because I belong to every where I be & because I rep- resent Chi too… I wear my official city of Chicago belt-buckle the one with the four stars the blue bars white Now… on the South side all the kids think I’m 5 ‘O’ To schedule a reading or an appearance please contact Ofer Ziv at Blue Flower

April 10, Poem 10 - the guard in juvenile jail...

2011-04-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

The guard in juvenile jail tries to hip some unruly kids as to what’s in store See dat’s the problem wit you lil niggas – think you know everything – I’m tryna tell you some shit so you might not havta come back here, but y’all 16 and think you already know shit. Look, you think I wasn’t here before, where y’all is? But in my day, we beef and got up and fought

April 8, Poem 8 - Listening (for Savion Glover)

2011-04-11T12:18:00.002-07:00

this offering from a commission for a collabo i'm doing next month listening “im to blame for this. I feel that it has not been presented as fun because my approach can be so internal…” Savion Glover (on the public image of ‘hoofing’) Before buck & wing or soft-shoe; before Bill Robinson and definitely before Fred Astaire – before Lindy Hop

April 8, Poem 8 - Listening (for Savion Glover)

2011-04-11T12:18:00.001-07:00

April 7, Poem 7 - circumference

2011-04-09T10:02:00.001-07:00

circumference (after Yusef Komunyakaa) I spent entire evenings playing the same record over and over in the Winter of 1977. Good Times, by Chic Risque I was alone and learning that every part of my body enlisted to making a god of me; protection and punishment all at once. I was born to holler into the sun a warbled note leaving my throat to messenger myself

April 6, Poem 6 - Roger age 9 pens a note for his adult self - Winnipeg 1977

2011-04-09T10:01:00.001-07:00

Roger, 9 pens a note for his adult self – Winnipeg, 1977 after Jimmy Santiago Baca They have taken your friends so you will make new ones. They have taken to calling you outside of your name, so you will become a stone. They have insulted your ability with books and words, so you will cultivate aggression. They have isolated you amidst a snarling sea of other

April 5, Poem 5 - Conditional

2011-04-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Conditional As the different streams having their sources in different places mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear and crooked or straight, all lead to thee. Swami Vivekananda (Hindu prayer, fr. an address to the Parliament of Religions – as taken

April 4, Poem 4 - Gratitude

2011-04-06T16:58:00.001-07:00

Gratitude for Karen Finneyfrock Think film – possibly noir, a city constantly threatening to rain, a thirst for beer and coffee. Think how a woman smells when she’s lived in an old house, and the house (if your memory is correct) is comfortable in its dark woods. Think haunted – the good kind – the woman’s walls dressed in velvets, her bed low off the ground

April 3, Poem 3 - Chuck takes Golden Gate (another poem/memoir/short fiction mash-up)

2011-04-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Chuck Takes Golden Gate When Chuck leaned forward and bit the woman on the shoulder, I knew we had a problem on our hands. We were all a little drunk on pints of Jack Daniels, and he’d already been hollering at every pretty woman who passed by, but this was an upping of the ante if you will. This was taking it up the proverbial notch. And the woman didn’t seem very concerned as she waved him

April 2, Poem 2 (or memoir, or short story) Lake Placid, January 2008

2011-04-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

Lake Placid, January 2008 And Barack wins South Carolina and I’m frightened again, and I’m done preparing my lesson for the inmates for the next morning, and I’m alone in a bed and breakfast and I feel alone, so I leave to get a drink and I don’t know where to get a bar open in a sleepy town like this at midnight in the Winter and I have no car, so I’m setting out on

April 1, Poem 1 - how to write a love poem

2011-04-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

how to write a love poem Just today, telling a boy in juvee how to write a love poem, I’m stammering over ideas of detail and unique, trying to get him not to say happy or sparkling eyes but to talk about what is his love’s, only hers, and no one else’s like how the first time I picked up something from somewhere, a book maybe a phone, and on the train

2011-03-09T05:07:00.000-08:00

i almost never write at home; but invariably i write in the airport on my way back. here goes 1 of 2 such drafts fr this last trip. return: on leaving again It is true that there are free samples of rum being served at the airport. It is true that the server will give you any amount you need and ask you to come back. It is true that the woman at the food stand will

2011-01-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

Roger makes a prophesy for Samuel Reynolds I consider it my duty to allegorize the falling of birds; to tell the fable which explains the proliferation of finch and blackbird throughout southern fields. I was anointed a long time ago exactly for such stories as this. This is a black poem. This is an old black man poem; a blues and calypso poem. A poem for smoke &

2011-01-18T20:30:00.001-08:00

it's raggedy. pls feel free to comment and critique at willRoger discovers the blues after Cornelius Eady & Joy Harjo I am a black poet – plain and simple black first. I do not know if I am a poet before I am a man or a man before I am a poet. I come from a people who have ways of telling such things. I come from a people whose history is inside history.

2011-01-12T03:37:00.000-08:00

Roger fulfills some prophecies …waterproof, like a felt swan navigating a river of origin and ash. Pablo Neruda My hands are massive stone columns I cannot raise to defend me from my own calumny. Horses are made of the same hide, the same will, but everything slows down what I once thought I could become in the world:

2011-01-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ode to the man who leaned out the truck to call me nigger That night I hadn’t yet considered death.Before I met you; before you leaned outthe truck window to call me nigger, I knewnothing of my own flesh’s surrenderto blood, dust. But I did know speed; I knewthe weight of lumber and the forearm’s debtto torque. I knew (and loved) the sound of shatter-ing glass, the quick snap of a duressed

2010-12-18T15:02:00.001-08:00

Ode to my headphonesYou anoint me youth-culture, black,blank gaze and swift to fist; my headin the vice of your grip & underthis hoodie, I become 20 yearsyounger; a stick up kid, a flight risk.Because I look like a runway signaler,like a crazy tarmac matador, my handsslashing the air as you bulge from my temples,I stay in flight. Just short of a helmet,unleashing a steady assault of bassdirectly

2010-12-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

Ode to the hunting knifeYour scabbard is the laughterof any man who once livedon the big end of surprise.You sound like a violin when drawn swift – blade singing a soft death against the leather as it births toward the light and thenyour sweet weight, like a small cantaloupeor a large avocado – the heftcomplete it is how you catch lightsharp like that twinkling like a showerof

2010-12-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Bout to set off some first draft Odes. Big Ups to my homie Samantha ThornhillOde to my Brooklyn fitted.Brown like me – straight brimmed, you signal all my people. You, aggressive white cursive against the crown – Brooklyn. You cock smooth to the side over left eye; shadow like the borough – Brooklyn; shadow like how we run through streets. We could call you, cap – but every b-boy knows, you

2010-12-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

2 first drafts - poemsEqual Opportunity steady pissin in my cerealHe’s 19 – already done things I knowI’ll never get to – has talked himselfout of point-blank, gun-slide, break-yourself-Joe dialogues. His dialectis smooth – homie can spit; can movefrom UFC to death’s rifle truthsby rhyming Kimbo with limbo.Makes sure I know he’s got a long life;that for those who don’t respect thathe’s got a

2010-12-10T05:24:00.000-08:00

Alice Oleson, prof of eng, univ of dubuque; responds to real talk bible posting - advent Week 1, Day 3 I was thinking about what you said on your blog about Romans 13,about hedonism, where you define hedonism as rendering oneselfanswerable to sometimes no other god than the body. And I really likedthe way you came around to discuss temperance (almost Templeance?),really, so that the body is open

2010-12-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Advent Week 2 Day 1To understand this day’s reading; Isaiah 11: 1-10, is to understand J.C.’s mandate, as expressed in the stories told in Matthew, John and elsewhere in the New Testament. What stands out most here is the long exposition of how many different animals will just be cold chilling with animals which normally are their predators. In addition to this, the reading suggests, that

2010-12-03T13:42:00.001-08:00

Advent – Week 1, Day 4This past Sunday, my good friend and sometime mentor and erstwhile Chicago poet/elder, Kent Foreman passed away. He has been a fixture here for some time now in the underground poetry scene and had indeed, been writing and performing poems since long before most of us were born, including on the road with such jazz greats as Max Roach and Oscar Peterson. His life was a

2010-11-30T23:03:00.001-08:00

Advent Week 1 Day 3I have for some years now accepted the term ‘hedonist’, as an accurate descriptor of who I am. I have called myself such unapologetically and sometimes even proudly. A hedonist pursues the outer limits of his/her own pleasure with such fervor as to render himself or herself sometimes answerable to no other god, but the body. Anyone who knows me even semi-well will probably

2010-11-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

The Advent – Week 1, Day 2The reading for day 2 is Psalm 122, A song of degrees of David, which quite frankly sounds like a 5 percenter hip-hop album. I am beginning to wonder about the symbolism of the city of Jerusalem in the Bible. Of course the Bible is rife with symbols posing for meaning that we often get ourselves in a lather over by reading literally. Jerusalem I think, is one of those

2010-11-28T22:53:00.000-08:00

Real Talk Bible - The Advent - Week 1, Day 1The season of the advent has come and with it a time for contemplation and preparation. What does it mean that we’re to prepare ourselves for Christ’s birth? Frankly, I dunno. I’m not of seasons and rules mostly, but I’m moving away from my self-styled reading of the Bible for the Real Talk Bible series to write on the passages specifically dedicated

2010-11-24T02:15:00.000-08:00

2 poems for the nov 30/30. numbers 4 and 5. first draft foolishness.Roger becomes a choir boyI was born of the African Sanctus, Handel’sMessiah, a handful of other classic hymnsand choir-loft dust. I sing myself in Negrospirituals. Women clothe me in robes.My grandmother awaits word of my anointing, my doctoral thesis, my shiningcoconut oil skin coming home from school.I sing loudest when I

2010-11-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

My colleague and friend and ex episcopalian minister, Tamie Harkins is curating a blog of commentary to coincide with the advent. She has already given me the specific reading i'm supposed to do, so follow her on the facebook. There'll be some #realtalkbible commentary there. Meanwhile, this...So, through the first ten Chapters of Acts, the disciples led by Simon Peter have heeded Jesus words

2010-11-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

4 conversations had at the juvenile detention center on Wednesday:Conversation 1Young brother 1: Oh, who dis nigga?! Aye Joe! Who the fuck is you?Me: Ask me again in a manner I can actually respond to.Conversation 2YB 2: Aye man, what dat is on your chest?Me: a crown(everyone in the room turns to look at the 1 latino kid – of course the unspoken dialogue ia about whether or not it’s a Latin King

2010-11-20T10:59:00.001-08:00

So the book of John is going in, in a way that I could not have predicted. Here’s the thing; I don’t get how there is any question whatsoever about how we supposed to be dealing with this Jesus nigga. The Pharisees come to stone him for blasphemy, for saying he is of the Father, and therefore God, and Jesus gets mad 5 percenter on their whole crew with this gem: “Is it not written in your law,

2010-11-16T11:02:00.001-08:00

Nov 16, 2010.Through Chapter 8 of the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus' exploits are related in even more easy, plainspoken, real talk prose than the book of Matthew - which is itself quite straightforward. Jesus shows up at a wedding. His mom hollers at him that the wine is done and he tells them fill up the jugs with water and all of a sudden it's wine and that's his first miracle. The

2010-11-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

This is my official re-launch of this blog after having not posted to it for several several years it seems. Look for musings on everything, from the Bible to bootleg fitness and short essays and the occasional first draft poem. Look back at entries from previous years if you wish. You'll probably find that some of my perspectives on things have changed / are changing. Feel free to comment.

2010-04-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

day 3, poem 3 - up jump the boogie (for john murillo)guys! i mentioned ghazal in class recently. this would be an example!Up Jump the Boogiefor John Murillo’s book partyWe piled into the upper room, sniffing for our kindfiending one another, all different shades of blackreincarnated of another renaissance, we dressedall smooth, so sharp we seemed blades of blackall tropes present, the diva

2010-04-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

day 2, poem 2 - entreatyentreatyFather, I’ve been buildinga body worthy of my ownlies, moving it from cornerto open field, from the insidesof dark cars, to the lastbleak bedroom I’ve inhabited.I’m building it out of the lies I toldmyself. I’n building it of the liesI grew to believe of you – the thighsof yours I’ve inherited from the foyerof your bright, bright heart.I’ve never wanted anythingso

2007-01-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

January 20, Milwaukee, WI - 1:32AM - central timeLast night (Thursday) i had my official Milwaukee book release at Mecca, a bar on Milwaukee's west side. This bar is owned by Dasha and her husband Kendall and they do a weekly open mic set which often has a featured poet who this time was me. It was a great time and in what is probably this country's most segregated large city, i was really happy

2007-01-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday January 13, 2007 - 1:30PM - Pacific TimeOlympia, Washington.So a prosecutor, two public defenders, a psychologist and a poet walk into a bar... thing is, i'm not even joking. The Brotherhood is a large, warm, clean, homey-feeling bar in downtown Olympia. It is on Capitol Way and was in the past a biker bar. Of course its clientele is now predominantly... hipster!What strikes one

2007-01-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

Thursday January 11, 2007 - Olympia, WA - 7:13PMI've decided that since i'm going to be blogging my road adventures that maybe i should find some way to categorize what specifically i'm blogging about in some way that is truly meaningful for the folks who might read it. and in thinking about what that might be i had to ask myself what i was truly qualified to speak on - aside from poetry and

2006-12-30T21:50:00.000-08:00

saturday december 30, 2006 - 11:49PM - Chicago, ILChicago, ILTruth be told i wouldn't bring the new year in, in Chicago left to my own devices, but i'm here and it's all good.i haven't blogged for a while and there are many things i've thought to blog about since ii last did and indeed, my thoughts on those things were coherent at the time i thought of them, but now... not so much. so this blog

2006-10-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday October 25, 2006 - 6:41AMThere is way too much to really tell since the last time i updated but let me start with this. I've been to Milan and lost my phone there (God, i STILL love saying that!)It was a great three days. I was there with VisionIntoArt (www.visionintoart.com – y'all should really check them out – we're playing at the STONE on halloween night). i had forgotten that

2006-08-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 26th, 2006 - Noonso i left my house on friday evening with the express purpose of going to get terrance hayes' new collection, "wind in a box". i also managed to cop major jackson's new collection "hoops", hayes' previous collection "hip logic" and brigit peegen kelly's "song".let me say this about that. don't walk. run!! and go get all these collections if they aren't already

2006-07-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

Friday July 14, 2006 - Iowa City, IA - 10:53PM (Central Time)1.- Red knee-length shorts (or swim trunks / because of the sprinklers)- Green Mexican National team football shirt- sneakers (Champion brand from Payless $24.99)This is a rabbit-hunting uniform. It allows for mobility, easy breathability. The shorts protect from rug-burns to upper thighs if dive or slide tackle is required to snag

2006-07-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 12 - 3:35Am - Phoenix AZSoul(for Allie and Maureen)Later that night three girls seatedin a row would all say noto Yuri because he was sweating too muchand later that night i would dancewith Hanz Barbour's sister who was attractiveenough but we danced the slow songtoo fast and it meant that i was softand couldn't make her grind her fifteen year old hips againstmy thirteen year old

2006-07-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

July 11, 2006 - Phoenix, AZ - 12:31AMPhoenix and the end of World Cup football I'm not quite sure how i'm supposed to spend my days now. Football is over for a minute and i'm a little like a fish out of water. I really need to find a league to get my own game going again (and shed these pounds i put on over the tournament) and to stop this hyperventilating that is taking place because of the

2006-06-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

June 15, 2006 - 1:50AMSo it's a full month since last i've posted anything, and now my brthday month is over (it was a glorious one; there were half-naked pictures and everything) and World Cup football has begun (soccer for you... uhm... other people).of course what that means is that i want to really hear nothing much from folks that doesn't begin with the phrase "did you see that bullet of a

2006-04-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday April 16th (again) - 8:28PM - Pacific Time - Phoenix Airportso the last time i was here on my way to tucson, the woman in the burberry dress and the tall red heels, had the same layover with the same delay that we had. walked into the same bar we did but apparently couldn't carry drinks to the same extent. she teetered off the bar stool and while her ankle rolled over about 16 times on

2006-04-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday April 16 (easter Sunday) - 6:14PM - Pacific TimeSo this is the first time i went to the wedding of someone i used to date (i think). interesting sensation, though no big deal since we work together all the time. i am now in the tucson airport, thoroughly tired, hungover and about to begin leg 1 of a three leg flight that will land me in new york if all goes well at 7:12AM tomorrow

2006-04-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Monday April 3, 2006 - 10:10AMSo this teaching thing has begun to overtake my entire psche. i dream about the students. i talk about them incessantly, you know, like parents talk about their babies constantly for the like, the first three years of the child's life?i have to apologize to folks now and say (after 20 minutes of droning on about the children) "oh i'm sorry, how are yr kids? or job

2006-03-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

Monday March 27, 2006 - 12:38AMLike i need to be awake at all... these past two weeks were crazy. on the week before the 18th, i had laryngitis, but had to rehearse all the way through that to get ready for the VisionIntoArt "Sounds" show on the 18th. Got that done and then headed out to Oakland on Tuesday evening (leaving straight from school) to go do the last leg of the teachers' diversity

2006-03-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

Thursday March 9th, 2006 - 1:12AMhmmmmm, well what to say. i'm wide awake even after two tylenol PM. on the upside i've just typed up a coupla poems. i have stuff to learn for VIA so i should probably work on those too (we have shows coming up on the 18th and 25th).can't report to the general public anything of use that happened in my life over the last two weeks, except, if you go to my

2006-02-28T03:39:00.000-08:00

Tuesday February 28, 2006 - 6:30AMSo i can't sleep... no big deal, but check it, right... so i'm in this outdoor hot tub at this hotel in Nth. Adams Massachussetts, and there's a blizzard going on and amongst the 7 or so folks on the hot tob are these three gay dudes from brooklyn, who are basically all the "Jack" character from Will&Grace. their names are stephan, tyler and fred (did you all

2006-02-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

Tuesday february 21, 2006 - 5:40PMSo Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, poet extraordinaire, countryman and fly-ass human being, has loaned marty and i a laptop until we buy laptops of our own. so life is spared for the moment. in the meantime, i'm looking at folks faces in the streets of williamsburg to see if they look like they been in my house. i don't know what that looks like but i swear i'll know the

2006-02-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

Monday February 13, 2006 - 4:26PMi'm stealing some time at a computer in the high school i teach after-school at (martin luther king, jr. high). my apartment was broken into on friday and i lost three laptops. who burglarizes from a fourth-floor walk-up?! marty also lost her passport. it's more the violation than the laptops but now of course i have to start planning the "Replace our Laptops"

2006-02-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Thursday February 9, 2006 - 4:45PMThere are any number of ways to begin this entry, like "...so two ferrets are shooting heroin in the forest" or i could say "...and then we all got H's tattooed on our chests" or i could say "...so when the gay Republican gentleman started telling Talaam and Life about where homo meets hip-hop" and still none of my last three weeks would make any sense to you,

2006-01-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

Thursday Januray 19, 2006 - 1:14AMtoday i awoke at 6:40AM, taught two classes at brandeis high school, travelled downtown to satellite high school, met with my co-teacher to go over lesson plans, had lunch, went back uptown to teach a one-on-one student, nodded on myself, went home to nap for an hour and then went out again to rehearse for vision into art stuff. but check it... conversation

2006-01-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

Thursday January 12, 2006 - 12:03PMthe hell with insomnia. got me the good drugs - slept for 10 hours!! so i got the job. now i'm scared. i have to work every freakin day!! i have to get up, dress thoughtfully and go to someone's job and teach folks every day! to answer questions; no i'm not cutting my hair. i'm not taking jobs anymore that are going to tell me how i should groom (that's

2006-01-11T01:11:00.000-08:00

Wednesday January 11th, 2006 - 4:12AMSo it's insomnia time and Blind Date re-runs just ain't gettin' it done. Had a job interview today that went pretty well. i might just have messed around and got me a job - four days a week, three hours a day teaching curatorial studies through spoken word at Satellite Academy High School, a magnet school on the Lower East Side of NYC. I'll know on Thursday

2006-01-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Tuesday january 10, 2006 - 9:53AMyeah yeah yeah. i haven't had anything to say since last year, but there's been way too much to think about. peter's death stumped all of us. we're still finding out in every moment all those things that peter gave us. this past sunday we did a memorial celebration for him and i'm glad that some of us who showed up were folks who didn't know him at all or that

2005-12-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 13, 2005So i'm back from Michigan and i had a blast. if any of you go to patrick rosal's blog and he's beaten me to reporting on the events in michigan, well... he's a liar!that's all i have to say abut all that stuff about red-neck rodeo and chanting in African!i had a brilliant time in Michigan, the testicle-numbing cold notwithstanding. among the things i did, was to visit

2005-12-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Monday December 5, 2005 - Ann Arbor MI - 8:36PMIt's so freakin' cold here, i want to fight somebody every time i step outside, so i'm not stepping outside till i absolutely have to. i'm at Jeff and Karen's (Kass) place now, so i've had home-cooked meals two nights in a row. From now on i might make it a rider on my performance contracts to stay at the homes of married folks with children for at

2005-11-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Thursday November 17, 2005 - 10:51AMI can remember the first day i knew i could play. It was my first P.E. class in secondary school (Form 1 - the equivalent of about 6th grade). The P.E. teacher, Mr. Warner - who was also the school's varsity coach and would later be a national team coach - divided us into two teams and basically rolled the ball out onto the field. At that age, we had no

2005-11-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday November 12, 2005 - Chicago, IL - 2:19PM CSTI should have sent this out last week and now i'm in Chicago. Spent some time last night with the goodly Mssrs. Coval and Lansana and talked nuff tall shit. Today in a couple hours, Trinidad and Tobago's national Football team (soccer for those of you who are confused), affectionately known as the Soca Warriors, begin their final leg of

2005-11-02T05:21:00.000-08:00

Wednesday November 2, 2005 - 5:15AMso thank God for Republicans in general and Trent Lott in particular because them bitches jes keep me in poems or at least stuff to write about. by now you all have probably heard his latest pronouncement (well it's in the title of the poem below). as always feel free to critique the thing. i'm dealing with the insomnia ebola again, but i'll post halloween

2005-10-31T00:46:00.000-08:00

Monday October 31st, 2005 - 12:41AMSo this is the poem i did for this ubercool event (the Generation Ecstatsy thing) this past Tuesday).other than that, there is much to report but nothing that i've yet recovered form after the allergy medicine and rum fiasco last night. yes. i went to a party at my old apartment (my old roommate Sam is moving out and they're turning the space into a commercial

2005-10-26T03:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday October 26th, 2005 - 2:56AMokay so weird and surreal weird happened tonight. i was commissioned to read this poem for this company called ubercool (go to ubercool.com). they track trends in consumption and style etc so as to be able to market high-end products to rich people (my synopsis - especially the part about rich people); and it was held in this really exclusive club called the

2005-10-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday October 20, 2005 - 11:30PMSome Random Thoughts about some not so random things:1. On David Stern's implementing a dress code for players in the NBA; amongst other things, that they can't wear headgear to the arenas or sweat suits or bling it up (they must wear suits and ties), and all that represents, i have this to say...when the league needed these brothers blinging to make the league

2005-10-13T03:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday October 13, 2005 - 2:46AMIt's been a little over three weeks since last i posted anything here. i offer my apologies. what else to galvanize me to action but a good bout of insomnia and a victory by trinidad and tobago over mexico 2-1 in port-of-spain i world cup football qualifying. that means that trinidad is now in a home and away playoff against bahrain for this region's final

2005-09-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday September 13, 2005 – sometime in the afternoon – Bushwick Polling StationWhat is the sound of hope? what kind of beast grating its underbelly against the sand is the sound of something changing?Today I am working a nightmare job for the Board of Elections. I got to the polling station at 5:30AM and I have to be there till well after the polls close at 9PM. Most of the voters coming

2005-09-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 10th, 2005 – 12:36AM – PST (Seattle)So not much to report from the Bumbershoot wrap party; coupla free drinks, some dancing. I did however have the chanc to reconnect with Otha Major; a beatboxer from Seattle who just might be the best in the business I’ve come across. I got to work with him a few years back and got to hear him again tonight. I need to have him come to New

2005-09-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Friday September 9, 2005 - 2:27PM - Pacific Standard Time (Seattle)so... after about the 8th drink (3 vodkas, 5 Hawaii 5-Os), i get on Roberto Ascalon's motorbike - i wore a helmet - and roared off into the Seattle night. i also had on a kind of... Last Dragon 'Sho Nuff costume of bright silver to make me a little more exciting. we all tried on various costumes from Karen Finneyfrock's costume

2005-09-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday September 7, 2005 – 12:12PM (Pacific Time)Featured at the Seattle slam last night. Seattle’s venue is always a joy to be a part of and perform in. By the time I got to the stage I was a little bit tipsy. Moreover, Lynne sent me a horoscope thing yesterday that said I should take artistic risks this month – something about Pluto in Venus and how Venus takes care of me – whatever. So I

2005-09-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 3, 2005 – 1:30PMThe New Orleans disaster teaches several lessons, and the desperation of the situation in which we find ourselves, dictates that already there is nothing to glean hope from except that maybe we will indeed heed the lessons to be learned here.Despite the best rhetoric of our leaders and popular purveyors of the politico-cultural stasis, America is still incapable

2005-09-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Thursday September 1, 2005 - 8:24AMIt's been a minute but here are the highlights. I've been to Chicago to play ball with high school friends and participate in Chicago's Carifete, its version of West Indian style carnival. There was a lot of rum and red body paint (there are pictures above).I leave for Seattle on Labor Day for Bumbershoot Music Festival to perform at a slam there and at the

2005-08-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

Friday August 19th, 2005 - 4:39AMPatrick Rosal is the devil! but that's another story...We got to Albuquerque for the National Poetry Slam on Tuesday. Hotel Blue is a small motelish like joint (complete with outdoor balcony/hallways) with a very decent pool. The poets pretty much filled it up which is a good thing. If you're hotel management you don't really want to have to worry about the

2005-08-18T05:02:00.000-07:00

Thursday August 18th, 2005 - 4:52AMSo i want to say thanks to all of you who weighed-in with opinions and commentary on art vis a vis slam. i'm now back from the National Poetry Slam and had a wonderful wonderful time. i'll get to that in a moment. This conversation was overheard in a bar upstate NY last night. The speaker is wearing a tractor cap, a t-shirt cut off at the sleeves,

2005-08-03T02:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Aug 3, 2005 - 2:09PMSo, the countdown to the National Poetry Slam is begun. The regional competitions are all done and we won two of the four; the one at our own venue, and the one at Brooklyn's venue (which surprised the hell out of me).Our team is really really ready, i think. We have three tight duets and amongst us, a plethora of very good, very well rehearsed/performed work that

2005-07-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 27th - 5:12PMit's really hot. this is the first time i can remember walking in nyc as slowly as i walk when i'm back home. i just walked from 5th avenue and 6th street in park slope to bergen st and court st in cobble hill. this was not a good idea necessarily for the 95 degree 100 per cent humidity weather, but now i'm having a lynchburg lemonade (jack daniels and lemonade) and

2005-07-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Monday July 25th – 12:42PMMASQUERADE – aftermath/anatomySo here’s how it went. On Friday afternoon, I got a haircut, then I got together with Lynne to rehearse our duet part of the show. The rehearsal involved a coupla beers and re-running the duet about five times, and running parts of the show with the inter-stitials read by Lynne, one time. Lynne left, I napped. It was about 95 degrees. I

2005-07-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Friday July 22nd, 2005 - 1:40AMCOUNTDOWN TO MASQUERADE 3So, i can't sleep. Pieces from the show just keep running in my head. This is one of them pure anxiety bouts of sleeplessness. i guess it's good though, that the pieces are running in my head. it means at least that i remember them. this doesn't feel as frustrating as insomnia normally does; and perhaps because i know exactly where it's

2005-07-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 20, 2005 - 2:15PMCOUNTDOWN TO MASQUERADE 3I've run the show again, with the new cuts and everything, and slowly i'm getting more comfortable. I've memorized one of the new pieces and re-memorized a couple of those that i hadn't done in a while. It's coming together. I've made a bunch of CDs today, and i've eaten and i've jumped rope and done my sit-ups and checked my e-mail (

2005-07-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday July 19th, 2005 - 8:32PMSo i've made my cuts to the script. It actually wasn't as much over my target time as i thought it would be, but i should make allowances for crowd reaction and transition and that sort of thing. I got rid of two pieces that i think are somewhat redundant in the show and ran it for the first time. It's really rusty, so i have to run it again at least three times

2005-07-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Monday July 18, 2005 - 3:58PMCOUNTDOWN TO MASQUERADE 3This is the second time i am typing this because i just lost the entire post when i tried to send it to my blog. I've just got done finalizing my script for the show. I've added some stuff, removed some stuff from MASQUERADE 2 and generally done some re-ordering. It is a little longer than i'd like it, so when i leave here and go back to the

2005-07-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 13th - 4:55AMi've been up for an hour so i'm a little punchy, but i had a chance to check out rigoberto gonzalez's feature at acentos last night and he was awesome. go to his website and buy everything he has written. that's all i can figure to say about that right now...thanks too to all the folks who gave me so much love on the HBO airing. to the young lady who commented that

2005-07-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

Friday July 8th, 2005 - 7:55AMSo much to talk about so I'm jumping around a little bit. I've been trying to maintain (still) the discipline for writing i got going at Cave Canem. It wasn't too hard to do while i was teaching the residency in Ann Arbor last week. The other teachers, Kevin Coval, Scott Beal, James Kass all provided us with writing exercises that kept us going (i still have to

2005-06-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

thursday june 23rd, 2005 - 2:57PMso the trick has been to try to maintain the discipline developed at cave canem. i'm doing decently so far. i'm staying fairly well on task this week. today, i even set aside some time to practise my djembe and stuck to it fairly well. i'm going to write now and then go to the gym. First i'll show another poem from the cave canem week though. it is an

2005-06-20T09:10:00.001-07:00

Monday June 20th, 2005 - 8:40AMSo i'm back from Cave Canem and i feel myself transformed... again... I thought that the experience i had the first year culdn't be duplicated. I even came in with a plan; exercises i wold use to generate the poems which you have to generate every morning by 10. i figured that if i did this, i'd be fine. i'd get work done and i wouldn't be up staring at the

2005-06-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

2005-06-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 16, 2005 11:29PM - Cave CanemLast night i went to Wal-Mart. I wanted frozen fry chicken for the late night session where we would drink and talk a little retire to write the next day's poems, come back and drink a bit. i was traumatized. one should be traumatized by anyplace in which it is possible to get underwear, a gun AND a Big Mac. Further, an able-bodied couple and their

2005-06-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 15, 2005 - Cave CanemThis is what i turned in yesterday to Erica Hunt's workshopBassmanI was planning to forget calypsoand go and plant peas in Tobagobut i am afraidi cyah make de gradecuz every night ah lie down in meh bedah hearin' ah bassman in meh head... Mighty Shadow (Bassman, 1974)The bassman is a drunken jokerspinning like a fightin' cocktwo