IN Honor of LIFE: listen.

Alessandra Belloni by Hasan Bakr, Jan. 9, 2018.

"Listen to the sounds you cannot hear hearing what others may, or may not hear. At some point, Your honest is clarity, your clarity is gratitude. ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories [10/22/18]

FRINGE CREATURES
© Chiara Fersini, artist

FRINGE CREATURES
by Melissa La Flamme

Wisdom ways say,
don't tell.
Show.

Embody.
Smell.
Move.
Breathe
fire.
Sing honey
rising
from the wellspring.

Notice strong
what residue
lingers
on your damp soul,
what releases
a perfectly
discordant note
off the chart
of your everyday
transactional reality.
What surprising riff
alights
psyche's
true
musk;
incites
a rumble
of courage
in you, as you,
crashing on waves
of ancient anger
running pure
now as protest
to overthrow
everything about you
not authentic,
not of soul.

A revolution
you are,
down and dirty
on some wholly, holy
quest
to call in,
reclaim,
protect
and cultivate
all of you,
your one messy life.
Ruthless in its terrible
Beauty.

Discerning,
calling home
your true nature
from every
other
contortion
is what you do
til you don't;
til Mystery
unhinges you,
frees you
from daylight's
mind-chains,

til the trap door to
crazy-wisdom
creaks open
and chaos
wafts
on ancestral winds,
revealing
abandoned buildings
strewn with
burnt-out bodies
of old lies,
waiting for release.

Ask Impossible
questions,
the real ones
you've avoided
til now.
Ask those Others
who meet you
when you're not looking.

The Ones
on the back roads
dusty with wander,
harbingers of a dangerous
liberation—
rare animals with attitude,
fringe creatures,
sovereign,
free of answers. 

© Melissa La Flamme, 2016, 2017 


Melissa La Flamme's book, "What You Are For: Inciting A Revolution In Your Soul," is available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1478753250

Analysis of Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour tristesse

by

Françoise Sagan

" In the first of this two-part novella, I found myself charmed by Sagan’s poetic narrative more so than the story. The story itself was interesting as it portrayed a young, well-to-do French girl enjoying a Mediterranean party lifestyle free of responsibility. The family composition and moral attitude not typical for the 1950’s era it was written in also contributed to the interest of this story. However, when the setting and situation of a motherless girl partying with her playboy father on the French Riveria was stripped away the story actually struck me as a story depicting something very normal.
Teen angst, confusion, a question of responsibility and sexual experimentation are all highlighted in this book.

Seventeen-year-old protagonist, Cecile, was essentially just embracing the teen experience. She did, however, express it in a way that was unusually well-spoken and thoughtful considering Sagan was only 18 at the time she wrote this book. It wasn’t until the second part that my curiosity peaked and my fondness was completely won. When Cecile became aware of things like her own selfishness and the needs of other people, I found myself developing more of an attachment to what I was reading, as this was the point that I could see Cecile as a whole person. Although in many ways she is a child, she is also is also in many ways a grown up. Her laziness, combined with the decisions that she makes solely on her own desires are reflective of her youth. However, her ability to not linger on the small things or take the actions of others too personally is mature and admirable. I also enjoyed the way she found beauty and fault in all the characters mentioned. She seemed to be personally interested in the human character and her descriptions of those around her were affectionate yet honest. Descriptions of herself and how she felt her social position was in relation to the other characters was of interest to me as it offered yet again another candid and introspective observation from in a voice perfectly suited for a narrator stuck in an age somewhere between child and adult. 

The unsuspected and sudden ending, although sad, was just the sort of thing I was content to leave with as I felt confident that this would lead to a maturing or faster self realization for all the characters involved." — Valerie Baber

BOOK PROMOTION: A LUMBEE GERSHOM

Anita Jo Shifflet reading her book,

A Lumbee Gershom. (2018) 

alumbeegershom.com

Lonely and tired, the lovely young Indian woman with the white father and Lumbee mother embraced courage and chased truth as she looked into the angry eyes of a crowd that judged her. She knew she was the evidence her parents had broken the law by loving and marrying one another. She also knew her existence was evidence that racism exists in people of varying shades of color. Her two worlds melted into one as she looked directly into the eyes of her critics and began to speak.
"For I have been a stranger and have dwelt in a strange land...I am A LUMBEE GERSHOM." 

Anita Jo Shifflett, Lumbee author and lawyer promoting her book in November of 2016.

🌻 A LUMBEE GERSHOM🌻


Where Do You Dwell? Are you prepared for a journey into my world? A world where my skin deceived those that did not know the true me? A world where I grew up playing with the children of great writers, doctors, attorneys, United States Generals, and even United States Senators. Or would my real world interest you more? The world of my brown skinned mother and my people, the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina. A community filled with clapboard houses, mobile homes standing a top of exposed cinder blocks, old pick up trucks with strong brown arms propped upon doors making their way down old dirtroads, mule pulled tobbaca’ crates, the sweaty faces of the tobacco croppers with barefoot Indian children freely running through flat fields of sand and old Indian women sitting on front porches shelling field peas faster than any machine could possibly imitate.

Such scenes came from my hidden world…the world of A Lumbee Gershom.
Or does my secret world interest you more? A place where words like “miscegenation”, "mixed marraiges”, "Eugenics” and "forbidden love affairs” shaped my young adult life.
And the best part?
Every word is true…. Take the journey with me, JoJo…the original Lumbee Gershom.

ON SALE NOW $15.00 SIGNED TO YOU BY JOJO. BUY YOUR COPY NOW AT
alumbeegershom.com

a Lumbee story

I love this land dotted with abandoned old barns and smokehouses now filled only with memories of another time... they tell of a forgotten tribe in forgotten times and oh my, how much the old clapboard houses and fading worksheds can tell us if we would choose to be still and look at our past instead of speeding by it with disregard.

We are so blessed ...for we live in a land we intimately know like "no other place on earth." It is but the few who can make such a claim to the land they call home....We are the blessed....We are the survivors... We are the prodigy of warriors whose graves we drive past each day ...

And so I like to do small things, like stopping along the journey to really look at what resembles what must have been a plow or a tobacco crate or crib. And Many times I leave with only more pictures in my camera, but my brother, sometimes ...just sometimes, I leave inspired to be the best I can be because THEY...our grandparents and great grandparents were the best THEY could be everyday and I know this to be true, how? Because they survived so that we can now thrive.

And those words my friend, came from a rusty old red tractor sitting in a cleared field down "nyear" the schoolhouse....🌻
Best Regards,
JoJo Brooks Shifflett 

Anita Jo Shifflet with Dennis Banks.

One has to stand still to know this story, not move to know the motion of the past, and one needs to care enough to listen in silence without rushing to the next moment, the next thought! Jo Jo, in your story a phrase caught the rhythms, in my ear, of Ubuntu. I heard it catching the universality of your storytelling.

"I leave inspired to be the best I can be because THEY...our grandparents and great grandparents were the best THEY could be everyday ...Because they survived so that we can now thrive..."
This concept, Ubuntu, is far away from Western ideologies and much to do with Lumbee and other nations here on Turtle Island. This interconnection is a language you speak very well. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

a Lumbee woman's fashion tip.

Anita Jo Shifflet said, 

Anita Jo Shifflet said, "A true lady travels light and prepared ... black boots, a black handbag , red lipstick and ALWAYS has a good READ tucked in her handbag for those days when the subway is late and The Wall Street Journal is too grey!" 

This post is sponsored by the Makers of A LUMBEE GERSHOM...A Good Read for the Girl on the Go!!!
Check JOJO BROOKS SHIFFLETT out at Alumbeegershom.com

PROMOTING: A Lumbee Gershom!

Anita Jo Shifflet, Lumbee author promoting her book: A Lumber Gershom (2018).

Dear Customers...All Orders have been processed and will be shipped out January 27, 2018...All books will be inscribed and signed by JoJo. We apologize for the delay but had many orders to process. If you are interested in taking the journey with JoJo, You can still purchase your inscribed & signed copy for $15.00 at
alumbeegershom.com — with Anita Jo Shifflett.

La Force

Lanita Lola Lewis in prayer

Top of The Hill

If you don't see it
it does not mean
it's not there

maybe it's
something
out of the box

around the corner
out there
beyond what is

open your eyes
mind  heart  soul
let wisdom flow

it
begs
to be

you must come
to the top
of the hill

the view
is different
here

So - please
don't shackle me
 and tell me

I
am
free ...


Jayé Wood, author
'Strength of a Woman'

Once a girl, now a woman.

"If you must insist on improving the quality of life improve yours." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Rosa Brighid by Danny Desantos early in January wearing a harness by Malice Lingerie.  

Early on little girls like to imitate and later emulate women whose sense of fashion is an essence, a being true to themselves that creates an atmosphere around them. It is elusive so it is mysterious. The woman who is not a lady, yet is still a woman can become many things, or embody the deeper treasures and become a Sacred Woman. It is the lady whose mystique is a quality girls can perceive, but cannot articulate until later in their lives, who hopes they become ladies because she can help them become ladies! 

The Little Girl, the Woman, the Lady, the Sacred Woman are moving entities within the soul of the Feminine. Without them women are just bodies, les carapace; and Art is lost.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

1/16/17

Rosa Brighid's book in print Now available to order in print:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1122913 

ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. 

 

One of the great problems of our community is that we and our children are often kept in the dark on the ugly history of this nation.  We are not led to understand the intricacies of slavery, how it came to be, and how choices made 300 years ago create the world in which we live.

 

Most importantly, we don't understand how much of slavery, oppression, Jim Crow and racial terror was driven by hard, cold economics.  In fact, if most black people were aware how many trillions of dollars were stolen from our people, the reparations debate would be over. 

 

To help with this issue, I've put together a lecture series in TheBlackHistorySchool.com called "The Economics of Slavery."  This program consists of a set of recorded lectures I've given on Black Economic History and how all of this ties into the world in which we live together. 

 

The book I use for this lecture series is "Black Labor, White Wealth," by Dr Claud Anderson.  This book should be required reading for every black child in America.  

 

This is a course for anyone who wants to have a raw and authentic analysis of America's racial past, the economic incentives for the creation of this past, and how these factors often influence our lives today.  Right now, the program consists of a 7-lecture sequence, but I am going to continue to add recordings to the vault that you can view at your discretion.  

 

The material is self-paced and pre-recorded, and comes with a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee.  

 

You can sign up for the program at a discounted price of $69.99 by using this link.  The price will go up very soon, so you may want to take advantage of this opportunity now. 

 

I created this program because I truly believe, at the bottom of my heart, that we've been lied to for 400 years.  My lectures are designed to tell you the truth.  

 

Sincerely,

Dr Boyce Watkins 

Feb. 27, 2017  

CreateSpace
 
The Souls of Black Folk is a groundbreaking early work of sociology, published in 1903, and advocates for black education, voting rights and other civil rights while capturing the state of affairs and of debate at the time.

·       
Knopf

An expansive, lavishly illustrated history of the variegated black experience in America, Life Upon These Shores has a wide scope but is rooted in specificity through hundreds of photos and careful scholarship.
















·       

Little Brown and Company
You can call it current events or history in the making, but Wesley Lowery, a Washington Post reporter who has been covering police brutality and Black Lives Matter, brings together the results of his reporting - both political and personal.




















University of North Carolina Press
In an extensive oral history, E. Patrick Johnson tells the stories of black gay men who have made their homes in the South.

Myra A. Jolivet author of Pushed Times, Chewing Pepper, a murder mystery series