i write this in oakland with ny still on my skin. traveling with no lip balm, oil, deoderant or water is really demoralizing…i am so excited to be home 🙂
first, a political note for the history books:
a few weeks ago I was in chicago and had a talk with jeff johnson, aka cousin jeff from b.e.t. he mentioned some brilliant ideas he’s been working on, but then he said he was considering endorsing blackwell over strickland for Governor of Ohio. i told him the idea was ludicrous, the wrong front for his battle. he said blackwell met with him when strickland ignored his outreach, and that blackwell had an economic plan for black people, and that anyway, blackwell hadn’t been proven to be involved in any voter fraud. now it sounds like jeff’s starting to go public, and its so disappointing. it’s hard enough that the man whose incompetence paired with his willingness to pay for his rise in power with the voting rights of his own people seems unstoppable. he doesn’t deserve the help of such a smart, savvy, committed public figure as jeff. it’s sad that we haven’t fostered the kind of solidarity where jeff could see other ways to make his point about the weaknesses of the democratic party’s relationship with black folks. i hope we as people of color in the voting community can love jeff enough to make it safe for him to change his mind before its too late, otherwise the work in ohio will be doubled at minimum, reaching the black vote.
notes from new york:
– i was walking around ny and, as i have been seeing signs everywhere, i decided to put my ipod on shuffle and see what came out as my walking-around-ny-at-night music. Surprise, surprise: "Fall in love" Slum Village.
i searched for ‘Many Rivers To Cross’, Jimmy Cliff.
– the heartbreaker still takes up space in NY. in oakland i recently had the experience of forgetting his name for an hour. and even though i know he’s far away i kept seeing him on the corners of these streets. this town is the flyest ghost town ever.
– i dropped my glasses in the locker room of the baths and spent the rest of the day going around without glasses and i must say, i kind of love the sparkly ny without the details that
can only be seen in sharp sight. in the baths every body looked flushed and soft and lovely. in the streets, the city seems cleaner and smoother and brighter. but i kind of hate the staff at vision express in the basement of macy’s who refused to help me put the frame back together so i could see for the rest of my ‘early birthday’ weekend. never mind that tho, you can’t stop a girl with superglue and a dream!
my sister’s house is full of costume type things, and i tried them all:
from the plane:
charmed and spent!
1. My sisters whisked me away for all my favorite
foods and experiences: pierogis at veselka, caprese at tanti baci, croque
madame at le monde, the baths, cheap shopping, turning off my phone ringer. And we went to mass at autumn’s church, where the pastor gave a very progressive homily. i am cheap on clothes but not scents – yes, i got an $18 block of soap from lush (from my sister april!). it smells like heaven in a whiskey bottle with a whisp of smoke at the bottom.
2. Then
I caught mervyn marcano and khari mosley’s pre-black august early tipsy at rice, where beautiful
jenn was workin take-out like a polo-shirted fairy. 6 hours later she gave me a bubbly massage, mm-mm jenn! i’ve seen the black august line-up before, lots of talent, but i had to choose a night with friends watching ‘do the right thing’ in the summer breeze, eating catfish and mexican corn.
3. I arrived at habana
to gifts, hugs, and king leke selling me this dress with a whisper in the ear,
plus I found a handpainted trucker hat to go with me new pumas. someone whispered to me that they too had a heartbreaker, oh the exquisite pain, when love changes every day.
3a. AND jeffrey wright was there with his son and some dangerously low slung pants. a dear friend whose name i will not mention here nearly fell down before screaming, "my life is complete, i’ve seen jeffrey’s ass crack." crass, but really, jeffrey made it feel like a poetic exposure.
4. Shane
and sofia got me a gorgeous turquiose bracelet to go with my now
coordinated perma-jewelry…did I tell you i upgraded my nose stud to
turquiose laid in white gold? I had a dream once about a woman with turquoise crowns and a pet turtle in her mouth, I have never
forgotten that way of seeing prosperity.
5. dear friends rolled
thru habana and the night was
so nice. we left early-ish so i could get my bag of jersey knit sheets from shane’s house (almost the last of my move, my sweet soft sheets in every color) since i had a 5am departure time – and we went in mayor ramos’
sweet smelling benz, whatever that means – but we had to come back out again for more partying! which i never ever do!
6. And we came back to champagne toasts from sofia
and lopeti and a knock-out round of spitfire flirtation in every direction. there was a woman there with the most amazingly huge round behind, and it became the topic of conversation as she batted her eyelashes. ‘my whole family looks like this.’ collective ‘damn’ from the latenighters. and then, sting like a
butterfly, come home with me. the game was afoot but i was a-sleepy 🙂 Nobody does it like brooklyn. The hour I
slept was full of dreams of comfort and plenty, the wisdom: cupped
in the palm of love you will know no need. The sun is starting to rise
here, it will chase me all the way home.
on the future of the blog:
i appreciate the sweet words, but i think i am going to begin a countdown to the end of this blog, to end on september 6, 2006. i want the new challenge of finding other spaces to be heard, spaces that require more discipline and editing and art than this one has come to. here i am just too tempted to spill it all. i’m starting a series on what i’ve learned about how organizations grow before i turned 30. i have a piece out in the next clamor on fat activism. we are starting a blog for ruckus where i can let off political steam. we know i can write a lot, and expose a lot, without much feedback…what’s next?
i have been asked about publishing a collection of the best of this blog. if you think i should pursue this idea, email me about your favorite posts – you don’t need to find it, just if you remember the topic, and we’ll see if there’s enough here to publish into something, or if it was truly an indulgent exploration.
and so 23 days left of blogging then. and counting!