However...

...on this day I've set aside to celebrate the marvelous specter of a black man on the verge, I channel surf past CNN and am brought hurtling back to the real world--a commercial populated by sweaty, grunting Negro b-ballers, playing a pickup game with a pitcher of Kool-Aid.

America. Gotta love it.

So how surreal will this campaign get? And what about this spate of Saturday night "Adios, Hil" parties I keep hearing about?

First of all, thanks to everyone who's already donated!

I've almost reached my goal...if you can, sponsor me as I participate in the New York Writer's Coalition's Write-A-Thon this weekend! I'm signing up to write for eight straight hours, all for a great cause. (It'll probably take me that long to finish the crown of sonnets I promised one of my more demanding sponsors...)

Please visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/wordwoman and give whatever you can--$5, $10, it all helps. Any amount at all will allow the NYWC to continue offering groundbreaking creative writing workshops in shelters, assisted living centers, juvenile detention centers and other places where voices are often silenced.

In gratitude. Me.

Here's a shortcut. Punch it:

First of all, thanks to everyone who's already donated!

I've almost reached my goal...if you can, sponsor me as I participate in the New York Writer's Coalition's Write-A-Thon this weekend! I'm signing up to write for eight straight hours, all for a great cause. (It'll probably take me that long to finish the crown of sonnets I promised one of my more demanding sponsors...)

Please visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/wordwoman and give whatever you can--$5, $10, it all helps. Any amount at all will allow the NYWC to continue offering groundbreaking creative writing workshops in shelters, assisted living centers, juvenile detention centers and other places where voices are often silenced.

In gratitude. Me.

Here's a shortcut. Punch it:

Hi,

I'm taking part in the New York Writers Coalition 2008 Write-A-Thon to raise money for the groundbreaking creative writing classes the NYWC offers to seniors, the homeless and at-risk youth. For eight straight hours on Saturday May 17, I'll be writing and workshopping my a** off--energized by your pledge. Please take a moment to glance at my page and help me reach my goal of $1000--so that we can continue to hear the voices we most need to hear.

Here I am:



If there are any questions, or if you would like to donate by mail instead of online, please don't hesitate to backchannel.

Kisskisskiss

I like money.

We all like money.

Poets REALLY like money. They just don't have much of it.

So I'm always (well, almost always) thrilled when a fellow wordsmith hits the jackpot. Cheers, kudos and a great big juicy backslap goes out to Tony Hoagland, who just snagged the $50,000 Jackson Prize, which (says the press release) "honors an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim."

Ummm. Let's see, now...no major national acclaim....let's check out that bio, shall we?

"Tony Hoagland is the author of three volumes of poetry: What Narcissism Means to Me (Graywolf, 2003); Donkey Gospel (Graywolf, 1998), winner of the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets; and Sweet Ruin (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry; as well as a collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistakashun (Graywolf, 2006). His poems and critical essays have appeared widely in journals and anthologies such as American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and Ploughshares. He is the winner of the 2005 O.B. Hardison Jr. Prize. Awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is the only national prize to recognize a poet's teaching as well as his art. Hoagland also received the 2005 Mark Twain Award, given by the Poetry Foundation in recognition of a poet's contribution to humor in American poetry. Hoagland currently teaches in the poetry program at the University of Houston. He is also on the faculty of the Warren Wilson low-residency MFA program."

Whoa. That reeeeaaallly sounds like acclaim. That reeeeeaaallly sounds national. That reeeeeealllly sounds like national acclaim.

Is this how heralded you have to get to be considered not heralded at all? What hope is there for us, teeny litle minions squeaking our stanzas from beneath the floorboards?

I started the day in a funk, continued the day in a funk and now am about to end the day in a funk. Don't get me wrong--I loves me some Hoagland, but c'mon now!

Do. not. miss. this.

APRIL 2, PANEL 4 PM / READING 6:30 PM

State of the Art: African American Poetry Today

Metcalf Ballroom, George Sherman Student Union, Boston University
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

Elizabeth Alexander, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Nikki Giovanni, Major Jackson,
Yusef Komunyakaa, Dawn Lundy Martin, Carl Phillips, Sonia Sanchez, Quincy
Troupe and Afaa Michael Weaver.

No black person in this country saw Obama's speech as "just talk." (That criticism STILL smacks of,"Boy, that Negro sho' can talk pretty.") My parents were first-generation up North--mother from Alabama, father from Arkansas--and when I was growing up in Chicago the church was the place where we got our souls back. We learned that it wasn't prudent to trust every white person just because he was white. We learned to beware of the white merchants who set up shop in our communities just to overcharge us for cheap goods and bleed us dry. These were important lessons for my parents especially, who'd come to Chicago believing that pleasing white folks was the key to the good life. We learned to at least begin to love ourselves despite being told, constantly, how worthless we were and how invisible we should be. And my preacher--the right Reverend Matthew Thomas, who I listened to and learned from for 21 years--conveyed the message.

His hard words were necessary to teach me balance. I didn't grow up hating everyone, but I didn't grow up freely trusting either. I learned how to measure and confront discrimination I would face in school (and this was extremely important, since I was bused all the way across town to a place where I was one of only 12 black students) and on the job. Rev. Thomas, who could preach with the best of them, wasn't just a good speaker. He was using his status in the community to jolt our complacency, to remind us how others saw us--"Never forget this if you are to survive."

Many churches in the black community have a Rev. Wright in the pulpit. Now, because someone in his congregation is running for President, the message has gone public, and for many folks, understandably, it's a scary message. What amazes me is that naysayers aren't giving Obama credit for being able to process that message intelligently and find a place for it among all the other cultural input he's received in his life. What he heard in church is not all that he is. How crazy is it to think (and I've heard this many times in the past week) "Well, he sat there and listened, so that must be what he believes."

I've sat in many, many places where I heard things I agree with and things I don't. I've admired teachers who have provided me with valuable lessons mixed with things that I listened to respectfully, but chose not to believe. For my entire life, my mother has been in awe of white people, and constantly defers to what she sees as their better judgment. She'd prefer if I felt that way too. I understand the root of that belief--but although she is my mother, a woman who has taught me some very lasting lessons about how to live my life, I will never agree with her on that point. You can love someone, admire someone, even when they spout something you don't agree with. See how that works?

As for Obama's speech being damage control, that's not HIS fault. So many people prodded, waiting for him to "go black," and now that he has, he's scary. What he did, basically, was talk openly and honestly about race, something no one in public office has has the guts to do for years. It wasn't just pretty talk. It was truth. And black folks' truth is just as valid as anyone else's.

I thought of a great "3 a.m." response ad for Obama.

In the darkness, a phone rings. And rings. And rings. Finally, a sleepy
Hillary says: "Bill, honey, could you get that?"

I swear I should be in advertising.

Starting from a knowledge point of absolute zero, I need to shop for mp3 recording equipment. What I need is equipment capable of recording lectures seminars and readings which will later be podcasted. Is mp3 equipment what I need? Are there other options? Remember, I'm at absolute zero.

Where should I begin?

Thanks for any help at all.

This from "Heat String Theory," the blog of Professor Aldon Lynn Nielsen (http://heatstrings.blogspot.com/):

"Speaking last night in Richmond, Barack Obama became the first candidate in this year's presidential race to assert that learning how to read poetry should be a part of every child's education in the United States.

One trusts that this will be taken up in the next round of debates."

Oh, Barack. You had me at "poetry"....