Counteract book bans the easy way: read and share great books — A culture of reading Father’s Day is just about here, and I pause to think of my father. His values on knowledge and reading are my guiding light these days. Such as, how do we stop and counteract all of this censorship nonsense and book banning? How? By promoting a culture of reading in…

There are millions and we are all different — Roll Call — Reginald Dwayne Betts. Martin Espada. Monica Youn. Edgar Lee Masters. Lawrence Joseph. J.P. Howard. The list is long. Millions worldwide. Poets who are also lawyers. Lawyers who are also poets. It feels like it is not a fit but it is for me. Always fit. For many, like Evie Shockley…

My favorite guided spiritual meditation — Many nights, I listen to guided meditations to fall asleep. It is how I am wired. A soft voice to put me in the present and to focus on nothing at all but the immediate. It is how to live. No worries about tomorrow, yesterday, or some bill to pay…

White Supremacists, Of Course. — “Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.” — Derrick Bell Way back in 1995, Derrick Bell, one of the key players in the Critical Race Theory movement, wrote about the attacks on the movement from many different ideological spectrums. This is back when CRT…

Marion Barry, the legendary D.C. politician, provides the answer — Even if he is convicted of some crimes and is out on bail on appeal, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President in 2024. None of the Republicans who took the stage last night to debate real issues have a chance against him. Believe me, I know; I…

Trane’s birthday (September 23) is a Holy Day — North Carolina John Coltrane was born today, September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, N.C. He grew up in High Point, N.C. I passed through the city once looking to buy some furniture. A few locals mentioned that John Coltrane had been born in their city. It felt like he was still there, alive…

a literary collage on African-American culture and history — every poem always begins w/ sir joe q’s most famous: “i’ve got so much trouble on my mind…” my head back & forth like a cameo song… What is Funk? “…Funk music was the social protest discourse of the young Black poor and working-class community after the euphoria of the civil rights movement…

No matter what popular music you love, the answer is Louis Armstrong — Satchmo The most important popular musician in the history of American music is Louis Armstrong, a Black man from New Orleans. Tell that to Jann Wenner, the troubled and confused ex-publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine, who likely knows nothing of Armstrong’s gift to America as its most important popular musician. Armstrong…