| |
 | Posted by ingeneus
| Thurs, April 25, 2013 at 7:23 PM |
 Even the smallest shot of insanity can be deadly.
Nija "Morenike'" Matory has been writing short stories and poems since she was a young girl in elementary school. Her passion for reading and writing developed at an early age. "Reading was very important in my home, my parents' relationship started from the discussion of a book; reading created my family."
Taste of Insanity had only been available a month after its release on the book shelves when Amazon was forced to put up a notice informing patrons that the book was out of stock; this occurred more than once!
Author Morenike` is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and a graduate of Jackson State University, B.A. English. She is currently furthering her education completing course work required to receive her Masters of Art in English. Morenike' aspires to one day become a world-renowned novelist, focusing on African American literature (fiction), poems, and short stories that reflect the African American experience and community.
Morenike' recently sat down with inTOUCH to share how the smallest shot of insanity could be deadly.
InTOUCH: Miss Nija 'Morenike' Matory formally known as Morenike'; your name is unique in itself. What influenced you to become an author?
Morenike': I come from a family of avid readers so it was instilled in me to read, read, read. I'd read so many stories until I finally realized there is power in words. Writing chose me and I am grateful for my purpose and the ability to speak for the voiceless.
InTOUCH: It is so refreshing to meet someone that can appreciate reading! Today many would express how literacy is lost in many homes. How would you describe yourself as an author?
Morenike': I'm a no nonsense, wild, firecracker author. (She crosses her legs, laughs and continues to say) I don't play about my characters. They are the archetype and they represent a plethora of people; to insult my characters is to insult the people they represent and the real life issues and experiences which is the basis of it all.
InTOUCH: It is interesting that you use real life issues and experiences to build your characters. What is your main source of inspiration?
Morenike':My biggest inspiration are my supporters. People that continuously tell me, "I remember when you use to write all those stories in elementary, middle, and high school; don't give up." (she looks up) and I'm so thankful to receive the strength that I get from above. I really want my supporters to know that it is become of them. Everyone needs a support system and I am to blessed to have mine.
InTOUCH: Receiving your peers compliments must be very rewarding. Now, let's talk more about your debut novel!! Tell us about Taste of Insanity.
Morenike': (She sits back with a small grin to reply) Taste of Insanity is about three young women that are hit with some form of travesty in their lives which lands them in a mental institution. While there, they are faced with secrets and memories from their past, dealing with their present and therapy, and coping with what the future will bring. The book is published under La Femme Fatale Publishing and is now available on Amazon. I was really excited about the release on April 1, 2013. To walk in a library and see my book on the shelves was a dream come true!
InTOUCH: Now, we don't want to spoil it for the folks that have not read your book, but I must admit the plot is intense. Please explain to us what initiated the writing/planning process for this book?
Morenike': Honestly, the idea for this book has been with me since high school but people weren't ready to hear such a powerful story at the time. I wrote it all out when I was encouraged by the spirit to take action on my thoughts for the novel. The time was divinely ordained.
InTOUCH: For our audience that have yet to read the book please give them a little sneak peek of the ending.
Morenike': (She hesitates a little) well I must hold  Share on Facebook ·  Bookmark on Delicious 
Book Release Alert
sexy city books
atlanta, georgia
contact: Tiffani Dailey
info@ladimbooks.com
Erotic Fiction Has a New Ladi to Love
 Atlanta, GA - Erotic fiction has become one of the highest selling genres in the emerging eBook market, outselling classic novels by 4,000% says, Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk). With some calling urban erotica the 'sole' reason that some publishers have remained viable even with many other genres seeing steady declines in book sales.
"Writing this book has been a symbol of my liberation. I feel like this genre chose me not the other way around, " states Ladi M, author of 9 Orange Roses a sexually charged book that centers around the sexual escapades of a single, professional woman as she releases her inhibitions and places herself in an open tunnel of sex that ends up consuming the better part of a three day weekend her life in a way she never imagined. "I know the book is supercharged with sex which is what I wanted my first release to be - raw and uncut. I knew who I wanted my audience to be and this is my nod to them."
Ladi M has plenty of company in the erotic fiction genre including one of the authors who has been attributed with giving birth to urban erotica, Zane who has written over two dozen novels within a genre that is continuing to explode with popularity. Amazon currently has over 48, 000 titles within the erotica category alone. Fans of the material can look forward to Ladi M placing her hat in the ring of erotica too.
Ladi M.'s debut book, 9 Orange Roses is set to be released and available for sale on March 29, 2013 and will be available through their website, www.ladimbooks.com and on Amazon Kindle devices and apps. Follow Ladi M. on Twitter @ladimbooks or on Facebook by searching "Ladi M Books".
##  TONY ROSE, PUBLISHER/CEO, AMBER COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, INC. & 2013 44TH ANNUAL NAACP IMAGE AWARDS RECIPIENT FOR LITERATURE RECEIVES "A PROCLAMATION"
IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA.
At Phoenix City Hall, Adora Lewis, Special Advisor to the Mayor of Phoenix, AZ, presented "A Proclamation" from the City of Phoenix and the Office of the Mayor, to Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO of Amber Communications Group, Inc. At the bottom of the "Proclamation" it reads:
"WHEREAS, Tony Rose, Publisher and Amber Books in their Fifteenth Year of being based in Phoenix, AZ, were announced as the winners of the NAACP Image Award for Literature - "Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens" for the title, Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America's Young Leaders" by Gregory J. Reed, Esq. (Amber Books), at the 2013 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards Show, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, on February 1, 2013.
THEREFORE, I, Greg Stanton, The Mayor of the City of Phoenix, Arizona hereby proclaim February 22, 2013 to be TONY ROSE AND AMBER BOOKS DAY in the City of Phoenix and ask all citizens to recognize this very special day. Signed, Greg Stanton, Mayor.
With Tony Rose and Adora Lewis at Phoenix City Hall were his wife, Yvonne Rose, Associate Publisher of Amber Communications Group, Inc. and his mother, Mrs. Muriel Waller of Roxbury, MA and Phoenix, AZ.
THE ENTRE TEXT
A PROCLAMATION
TONY ROSE AND AMBER BOOKS
Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO, Amber Communications Group, Inc.
WHEREAS - Tony Rose was born in Roxbury, (Boston) Massachusetts, raised in the Whittier Street Housing Projects, was honorably discharged from the United States Air Force after serving in the Vietnam War, and attended the University of Massachusetts and the University of California in Los Angeles. He was employed as a production assistant at the Burbank Studios (Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures), in the Accounting and Sales division at Warner/Electra/Atlantic Records (WEA), an Accounts Representative at Warren Lanier Public Relations and as an A&R Representative at RCA Records
WHEREAS - Tony Rose returned to Boston and along with Maurice Starr became the primary architect of that, which in the late "70's" and "80's" would be called "The Boston Black Music Scene" a movement that would lead to the discovery of the international blockbusters, "Prince Charles and the City Beat Band", "The Jonzun Crew", "New Edition" and "New Kids On The Block". Tony Rose in the "80's" held Record Production deals with Virgin Records, Atlantic Records and Pavilion / CBS/Sony Records.
WHEREAS - Tony Rose formed and based Amber Books, the nation's largest African American Publisher of Self-Help Books, in Phoenix, AZ on January 2nd, 1998 and published it's first title Is Modeling for You? The Handbook and Guide for the Young Aspiring Black Model by Yvonne Rose and Tony Rose, January 29th, 1998
WHEREAS - Tony Rose and Amber Books in May, 2000, became the first African American Independent Publisher to ink a multi-year, Co-Publishing/Imprint deal (Amber/Wiley Books) with a major book publisher (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), publishing titles such as: The African American Woman's Guide to Successful Make Up and Skin Care and many more titles from 2000 - 2007.
WHEREAS - Tony Rose incorporated Amber Communications Group, Inc. in 2001 and formed imprints that include: the award winning Amber Books - Self-Help Books; Colossus Books - Music Biographies; Amber/Wiley Books - Self Help and Financial Books Co-Published with John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Joyner/Amber Books - Co-Publishing with the Tom Joyner Foundation; and Quality Press - The nation's largest African American Book Packaging Company, and has successfully negotiated numerous world-wide partnerships, licensing and eBook licensing deals for Amber Communications Group, Inc. in the United States, South Africa, Canada, Europe and Asia.
WHEREAS - Tony Rose and Amber Books, in their Fifteent  AMBER BOOKS TITLE
"OBAMA TALKS BACK: GLOBAL LESSONS - A DIALOGUE WITH AMERICA'S YOUNG LEADERS" BY GREGORY J. REED, ESQ.,
WINS THE COVETED AND PRESTIGIOUS
NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR LITERATURE.
National - February 1, 2013 - Amber Books, the award winning imprint of Phoenix, AZ based, Amber Communications Group, Inc., was announced as an NAACP Image Award winner for "Best Literary Work - Youth/Teens" - for its title, "Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America's Young Leaders" by Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and has earned an NAACP Image Award for Literature at the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards Show, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, February 1, 2013.
Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO, Amber Communications Group, Inc., stated in his acceptance speech, "On behalf of Amber Books, Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and the Keeper of the Word Foundation, we are extremely excited to have been honored with an NAACP Image Award for Literature.", Rose added, "I want to thank God, with whom all things are possible and Gregory J. Reed, Esq., who brought "Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America's Young Leaders", an outstanding and historic collection of student letters to President Barack Obama, and his responses to those students from all across America, along with the President's speeches, public statements, and quotations during his campaigns and tenure as President of the United States of America, to Amber Books.
Rose stated, "We thank the NAACP Image Awards, The 44th Annual Image Awards Sub-Committee Members, The NAACP Voting Members, our NAACP Image Awards Literary Coordinator, Annette Thomas, for her diligence and hard work on behalf of our African American Literary Community, and I thank my wife, Yvonne Rose, The Associate Publisher of Amber Communications Group, Inc., for her and her editorial and design team's tireless work, and technical and creative skills, in making a great book even greater".
Rose further added, "Thank you to everyone who made this outstanding NAACP Image Award in Literature possible!!! Thank you".
Best Literary Work - Youth/Teens
"Fire in the Streets" - Kekla Magoon (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
*WINNER "Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America's Young Leaders" - Gregory Reed (Amber Books)
"Pinned" - Sharon G. Flake (Scholastic Press)
"The Diary of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess" - Alice Randall (Author), Caroline Williams (Author), Shadra Strickland (Illustrator) (Turner Publishing Company)
"The Mighty Miss Malone" - Christopher Paul Curtis (Wendy Lamb Books (Random House Children's Books))
Other NAACP Image Award recipients included: Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Denzel Washington, "Flight"; Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Viola Davis, "Won't Back Down"; Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Samuel L. Jackson, "Django Unchained"; Best Actress in a Drama Series - Kerry Washington, ABC's "Scandal"; Best Motion Picture - "Red Tails" and Best Independent Motion Picture - "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; Best Literary Work Fiction - Kimberla Lawson Roby "The Reverend's Wife"; Best Literary Work Non-Fiction - Jeffrey Toobin "The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court" and Best Literary Work Children's - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, "What Color is My World".
The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. The literature award winners were announced during a pre-show star-studded event, at the Shrine Auditorium at 3:00pm, prior to the live show on Friday, February 1, 2013, which aired at 5:00pm PST on NBC.
President Barack Obama achieved a landslide victory in 2008 and 2012. He has touched the lives of young people, more so than any previous president. During his presidency, he sought to continue that inspiration by maintaining an engaged relat Official Book Signing for DJ Necterr To Be Held on January 8, 2011 from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm CST.
Houston, TX (PRWEB) January 3, 2011
Renowned DJ, author, and hip-hop insider, DJ Necterr, will be in attendance at Katy Budget Books in Houston, TX to sign his jaw-dropping, "tell-all" autobiography that speaks on his life and the hip hop industry.
"His body shakes violently, and he realizes he is lying on the floor staring ahead into the darkness under his bed. He tries to clear the fog that is invading his mind and ignore the strange sensation (is it pain?) in his chest."
The extraordinary (sometimes violent) life of DJ Necterr is chronicled in his autobiography, The Perfect Gangster, a journey from the deadly streets of Chicago to the top of the hip hop industry. A tiny kid who witnessed the murder of his brother but went on to work with some of hip hop's greatest like Jay-Z, DipSet, Lil' Wayne, and Young Jeezy. Necterr's story is filled with blood, guts, drugs, and prison; but it's also filled with love, redemption, and success. Necterr holds nothing back in these pages, as he shares the secrets and inner-workings of the world's most dramatic music industry; including the betrayal he suffered at the hands of Lil' Wayne (who ended up in prison for something else.) Read tales of Juelz Santana, Memphis Bleek, Lloyd Banks, and the gritty world of drugs and the police. Find out what it takes to live the ups and downs of a 10-year-old break dancer, school DJ, runaway, and drug trafficker who finally turns his life around to become The Perfect Gangster,a hip hop artist who tours the country as a promoter, and a promising act in his own right.
DJ Necterr is scheduled for his signing to be held at Katy Budget Books at 2450 Fry Rd Houston, TX 77084.For directions or more information about the Jan. 8th event, please contact the store at Katy Books 281-578-7770.
For additional information, contact:
Melanie Whitaker Poinsettia Publications 1(800)351-2480
The book can be purchased from Katy Budget Books and Poinsettia Publications. For more information about the author, please visit http://www.ThePerfectGangster.com
ISBN: 978-0615394473/$17.99
# # #
Melanie WhitakerPoinsettia Publications800-351-2480Email Information  | Posted by lauren
| Mon, December 13, 2010 at 3:19 PM |
 by Dwayne Ferguson
The iPad has become a tremendous treasure trove of comic books and interactive books for children. It has become a great equalizer, bringing name brands such as Dr. Seuss, Marvel, DC, classic titles from days of old, and new publishers to a new audience.
I've been in the publishing industry since the early 1980's and the iPad is the dream device I've been waiting for. Steve Jobs said 'it's magical' and I totally agree. So it was with great joy that I went to work, bringing my previously published works, as well as new characters, to the iPad.
I'd like to share how I brought two of my iPad books from concept to finished product. I'll start with the cute one first, then the super spy one. "Dash & Everest: a Very Kitten Christmas" was brought to life using old-fashioned sketches, 3D software, and the Corona SDK.
When I first started this project, the idea was to draw the art, scan the pages into my Mac and then color everything in either Photoshop or Illustrator. But I typically will also experiment with other ideas and built a 3D model of Everest (my actual cat, and yes, I also really have a cat named Dash too!) in Lightwave 3D. The model really brought a big smile to my face and I knew which way to go. I'd do the entire book in 3D.
Fortunately I've had the pleasure of working on many children's books over the years, from Ghostbusters to California Raisins, to Power Rangers, so I was able to apply those sensibilities to the character designs for Dash, Everest and their environment. Instead of focusing on hyperrealism, I decided to go the cute and cuddly route. I applied this art direction to the color schemes and texturing as well. Simple, colorful and fun.
The story was fun to write and I made sure to tell a delightful tale, while not talking down to children. This is something I learned when I worked at Marvel comics. Never be afraid to write for children; realize that they are smarter than we all think.
Now that the artwork was done, it was time to think about how I'd get it onto the iPad. I dabbled in trying to teach myself Objective-C and, after many migraines and crying, I searched for another solution. In the past, I used to develop interactive games in both Flash and Director, but Action Script created massive app files and crashed my iPad whenever I tested the them.
I searched many game development forums, learned about ePub and how to make those, but it wasn't until I discovered the development platform called Corona that I knew I found the answer I had been searching for. Corona runs code lightning fast on my iPad and it's desktop simulator makes rapid development intuitive.
Another thing that came in handy is being able to combine my own programming with the huge library of code on the Corona website. You don't have to know every single piece of code and by doing a search, can find that one line that helps you finish your project.
Now I'll switch gears and discuss my comic book, Black Zero: Mercenary Ant. Unlike Dash & Everest, Black Zero is a secret agent, who travels the globe to do what spies do. Instead of bright and cheery, this series is more James Bond, starring an ant who wakes on the the wrong side of the bed every morning.
After drawing several sketches I settled on one with Zero armed to the teeth. I typically like to go too far, and then scale back. I also took some quality time to design weapons, gadgets, set locations, etc. I used the experience learned from art directing the animated television series Mutant League and applied it to the comic book: dark, moody, but still fun.
I modeled the characters in Lightwave and built shaders that would make everything look like they were hand drawn in the anime style. This technique, called cel shading, is very popular and lends itself very well toward digital comics.
The distinct advantage to using 3D models for comics is simple: you never need to draw that character or building again. You just need to p NEW YORK – In her low husky voice, Maya Angelou came out singing an old African-American song about a rainbow to express her love of books and libraries.
"God put the rainbow in the clouds ... so the viewer can see the possibility of hope. That's what a library is," said the 82-year-old poet, author, and dramatist as she finished the song based on Genesis.
Friday's occasion marked the official announcement by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem of its acquisition of some 340 boxes of her personal papers. The center is part of the New York Public Library.
The 6-foot-tall author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" walked with difficulty on stage. But once seated, she regaled the audience with reminiscences of her Arkansas childhood and friendships with such 20th century powerhouses as novelist James Baldwin and civil rights activist Malcolm X.
Angelou said she was 8 years old and a "voluntary mute" after she was raped at age 7 when a teacher at her all-black school showed her the library and said, "I want you to read every book in this room." She did — all 200-300 of them.
"No bad can happen to you in the library. You can't be raped or mugged in a library. You can't be talked down to, belittled, humiliated in the library," she said. "As soon as I'm in a library, I'm OK."
The first time she entered the grand New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue with its sweeping staircase and rooms where she could "read what happened in China in the 4th century," she was bowled over, she told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week.
"It still makes me weak in the knees to think that I can go into any library in the world and nobody can keep me out," she told the AP.
The decision to house her papers at the Schomburg — the world's largest repository of material on people of African descent — was "so easy," said Angelou, who's donated other material there over the years, including a collection of letters from Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass.
As the Schomburg's national membership chair, she's raised $7 million, said library Director Howard Dodson.
Angelou recalled for the audience how the books at her Arkansas elementary school, which were donated by whites, were often coverless and tattered. But by the time she and her classmates were done with them, decorating them with cotton and pretty cloth, "the books were so beautiful," she said.
She recounted how an English friend whose father was a famous Communist and friend of Paul Robeson gave her tapes of the actor-singer in concert supposedly in Hungary, knowing how much she loved African-Americana.
Angelou said she couldn't get anyone in her home state of North Carolina to transfer the tapes into film so she turned to Dodson. It was Dodson, she said, who discovered that the concert was not in Hungary at all but taped at a church in New Jersey after Robeson's passport was revoked for his political views in the 1950s. The tapes were then smuggled out of the country, she said.
Angelou also recalled an incident involving Baldwin.
In her famous storytelling style, she said the "Native Son" author, who was all of 5-foot-5-inches "in wedges," came to her rescue after taking her to "a joint" that reeked of "Lysol and urine." He had briefly left her alone at the bar and returned to find a burly man pestering her.
She said Baldwin came right in between her and the man and said: "You've been taking care of her for me? You're dismissed now," and then added an expletive that Angelou repeated for the audience, which roared w  | Posted by manifesto
| Wed, May 05, 2010 at 11:50 PM |
 Your entertainment is no longer my entertainment. This I have now accepted.
My realization has been a few years in the making, but only recently did it start coming together. Not long ago I was driving when I saw a billboard for a local hip-hop radio station featuring eight current rap and R&B superstars. I only recognized Lil' Wayne and Drake.
I haven't followed a show with a predominantly black cast since I can remember.
In the past two months, about 90 percent of the hip-hop I've bumped is from the Renaissance Era: Reasonable Doubt, It Was Written, The Infamous and Southernplayalisticadillakmuzik.
When I watch the BET and Essence awards shows - which I never go out my way to do - I don't recognize half of the performers or presenters. It all came to a head during a night out at a club last Friday. The DJ played the song "All I Do Is Win", and dozens of club goers sang along in unison. I asked my man AK who the main artist is, and he didn't know either. "All I hear is 'WAWAWAWAWAWAH'," he said. "That's not hip-hop."
Boom. He singularly - and refreshingly - reinforced what I've been on for a while now: I'm woefully out of touch with what's hot in contemporary black entertainment. The schism between what I like and what's popular among us is most glaring when it comes to music; I often use this space to demonize contemporary "urban" music, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I still can't wrap my head around most of the audio basura that makes the Billboard charts these days.
It doesn't help that I spend much of my time around a bunch of black preteens and teenagers: When they hop on YouTube and turn "their" music on, they sing along to all the lyrics and I'm absolutely in the dark. On a recent field trip, the bus driver turned on Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop" and damn near the entire bus sang it bar for bar - breaking my heart in the process.
I realize that every music genre experiences generational stylistic shifts, but hip-hop and R&B have experienced a glaring devolution: the seismic changes in the music industry combined with the fall of New York hip-hop have all but destroyed the incentive for quality rappers to even bother trying to crack the mainstream. As a result, scads of epigones and cats who are openly disinterested in meaningful lyrics are selling tons of ringtones and iTunes singles.
The bar for musicianship in R&B is about two inches off the ground now. Beyonce may be talented, but put her oeuvre against that of, say, Aretha or Gladys, and it's a shut-out. The four- and five-part harmony that dominated the 1990s by way of groups like Boyz II Men, Jodeci and Dru Hill cops a squat on the likes of Trey Songz, who could walk in my apartment, slap my cat, sit on my couch and go unrecognized by me. I've no interest in Songz or just about any other R&B niglet not named Maxwell making money off music in 2010.
I don't think age and maturity is the culprit so much as the material has just gotten creatively worse across all mediums. When I was in middle school, the movies, music and television that my contemporaries and I appreciated were reflective of what black adults liked. I assume not much has changed and that the adults are obviously buying this crapola for themselves, so my conclusion is that it's just flatly all getting worse.
When I was 12, shows like "A Different World | Posted by manifesto
| Tue, April 20, 2010 at 12:55 AM |
  I started grad school last week, and I took a full-time job a couple weeks before that. The layoff lifestyle, while perpetually stressful, had its upsides in the chilling-out department. All of that's over now.
To commemorate the end of that life, here are a few of the things I've enjoyed in the first quarter of 2010, in the event that I can inspire some of you to check out the things I hold near and dear to my heart and pocketbook:
- I cop maybe two or three video games a year - only the best ones. With nothing else truly on my radar for 2010, I may very well stop at God of War III for the Sony PlayStation 3. It's a fitting coda to the most satisfying video game trilogy in history (yes, that includes Halo). With a satisfying mix of artery-piercing action, an epic soundtrack, puzzles that require a cerebellum massage for advancement and a little splash of carnality (Kratos doesn't just slay bad guys, if you know what I mean), I will get far more pleasure out of the 13 or so hours it takes me to beat this game than I would in hours of Madden.
- There has never been, and I doubt will ever be, a comic strip that delivers in every way like Calvin & Hobbes. The story of a precocious six-year-old and his stuffed tiger - which long ago made me consider a career as a syndicated cartoonist - turns 25 this fall. A nostalgic conversation in February made me cop The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, a nearly 1,500-page comic opus covering three hardcover tomes that contain each and every strip from its 10-year run. It took me over seven weeks to finish it, and I read it almost every day. Creator Bill Watterson pretty much owned my childhood, and I got a kick out of re-reading all the old strips with complex socio-political nuances that I didn't understand when I was 10 years old but liked nonetheless. Get it on Amazon and save at least $60.
- The Wire is gone forever. The Tudors is wrapping up. Entourage and True Blood are on breaks. And just about every other television show I care about is either off the air or just fell clean the f**k off. So why in hell do I bother paying for cable? Maybe because I can always count on Real Time with Bill Maher. It's odd to admit that if I had a role model, it'd be a 54-year-old white man, the star of such 80s cinema verite like Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. But his relentless, candid assaults on willful ignorance are the likes of which I see or hear nowhere else. He's hated not because he spouts rhetoric, but most of the time he focuses on the unvarnished truth. If you need to glean an idea where he's coming from, check out his "New Rules" on YouTube.
- The blogosphere is a dual-edged sword: it gives regular schmoes like me an outlet to grip the masses. But the problem with blogging is akin to the one with about 98 percent of rappers these days: everyone thinks they can do it, while a very select few are actually good at it. That's why there are only two blogs on my bookmark list: Byroncrawford.com and Straightbangin.blogspot.com. The writer of the former, Byron Crawford, is an incendiary hip-hop "journalist" who isn't so much a quality writer as he is absolutely hilarious...he's the kind of writer I'd be if I ever wanted to throw away dreams of the mainstream altogether. His over-the-top misogyny, hilarious musings on a myriad of topics, partiality to white women (he's a brother) and ability to find quality web m  | Posted by berhenda
| Wed, April 07, 2010 at 3:00 AM |
Where the Poem Takes You or Where You Take the Poem?
Frequently I am asked where I get my inspiration from and I would have to say there is no one place; there is something deep within that is touched and words flow on their own. The ancient Greeks believed muses were conduits for which one derived inspiration and there are countless biblical accounts of how God spoke through his profits and poets are prophets. The commandment of poet is to tell the story or give account of the human experience. Poetry causes the reader or audience to reflect and react. It is from this ebb and flow that poetry has changed lives and has given a voice to those who would ordinarily be unheard. HBO's Brave New Voices is great demonstration of how creativity can save a life. Poetry for youth is one of the best antidotes for aggression and risky behavior.
Some common themes for me are my children (students) and love (not marriedyet) but the when and where one can find a poem, you may find interesting, so here are my top 10 places to find inspiration:
10. In the lady's room in the morning is where I get a lot of my best literature
9. My girlfriends¦sistah talk is full of color and humor
8. After a long talk with Jesus
7. Before walking right into what I will later pray that God will forgive me for¦temptation is a mother!
6. Hope for a particular out come or prayer manifestation
5. A quote or message
4. Love in all its carnations
3. Music¦Nina Simone, Sade, Bob Marley, Santana, Coltrane, Monk, John Lennon and the list goes on.
2. Silence¦sometimes the stillness can bring out the best work
1. My heart¦I have learned to always be true to it and it has guided my pen every time
Please support local authors and please support poetry.
http://www.ber-hendawilliams.com/purchase.html
| |
