BRAVE STAR
singing like a slow scent beneath the sunArchive for November, 2007
125.
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
-Derek Walcott
124.
a lil mornin music for ya:
Portrait of Tracy / Jaco Pastorius (with Weather Report.) Live at Montreux Jazz Festival. July 18, 1976.
122.
as you may or may not know, i’m always on the lookout for new black art. and booyah i have found some. in a brief talk by ann farnsworth-alvear, a brilliant professor aqui en esta universidad, i learned about liliana angulo, an afro-colombian photographer who does conceptual self-portraits (like say, cindy sherman.) the fotos deal with such topics as images of blackness, history and modernity and they are beautiful. see:
121.
“If you put the words on a page and you believe in them, then it’s a poem.”
-Euware Osayande
120.
so, i have been working all day. or attempting. and i’ve gotten some things done, but there is still more to come. something is looming on the horizon for me. i don’t know what it is. i’m afraid but i’m also feeling strong. the other day, i thought to myself about how happy i am and how powerful i feel. i’m glad i had that realization. i think i’m ready for whatever comes in these next days. i know they will be full of work and challenges but what days aren’t?
perhaps this is the change that i have smelled in the skies and tasted on my tongue. we will see.
in other news, i finally have students for the brave star collective. i’m so excited to begin. so excited to share the work of our literary ancestors and to help my girls explore the beauty of writing their own lives.
well…that’s all.
love!
a
119.
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
118.
hehe, i just discovered today that i won the thomas gates memorial scholarship…meaning that i no longer have to worry about paying my rent this year…i might even be able to go to ghana over spring break. yes.
well, since i have been working so hard on this paper about maracatu, i have become even more obsessed with brazilian dance. i want to learn to dance forro now. i want to be this good one day:
ok, i need to stop youtubing, and get back to work.
love,
a
117.
so, this weekend i chose to hibernate. since thursday, i have been inside, thinking and reading and writing and i feel fabulous. i just needed a little break from the world. on thursday, i watched tieta do agreste, a carlos diegues film based on jorge amado’s novel. it was kinda cheesy but reminded me a lot about family, which i’ve already been thinking about as thanksgiving approaches. then last night, i watched a raisin in the sun, the movie based on lorraine hansberry’s play. first, i would like to say that hansberry is brilliant. i read her memoir years ago, but have never read the play or seen the movie. i would like to add that i officially have a girl-crush on young ruby dee. she is a wonderful actress and so gorgeous! ah, what an awesome plot. to supplement my ever-so-chill nights of late, i spent most of today rethinking some of my goals, and writing. actually writing. hallelujah! i thought for a minute that my characters were silenced but they have returned. holla back at the muses! also, spent a large chunk of time working on my family tree, another project that i’ve been trying to get together for a while. it’s been really cool to look at old census reports and find my great-great-grandparents. i’ve traced a couple folks back to slavery. before 1865, everything’s still a jumble…i also got around to finishing beth henley’s crimes of the heart, which is much much better than the movie. it’s a short play about sisters that just added a little more fuel to my fire. i’m so revved up. i haven’t felt this good in so long. i hope you all enjoyed the weekend as much as i have. peace y’all.
a
116.
“The transformative power of love is not fully embraced in our society because we often wrongly believe that torment and anguish are our ‘natural’ condition.”
- bell hooks
