( “Embracing the Whole of Life” digital painting of James Baldwin by Aberjhani ©2024 modeled after original photography by Sedat Pakay ) The centennial celebration of the birth of author-activist James Baldwin in 2024 offers a unique opportunity for educators, students, advocates, and various groups to delve into the profound sociopolitical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of Baldwin's life and work. Of particular use in this endeavor may be this observation made by author-poet-artist Aberjhani: Please CLICK HERE FOR FULL FREE ACCESS to read entire article .

Here's a question worth considering: At the heart of the 8 compelling nonfiction stories and 5-article appendix which make up Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah is this interesting question: What would your life mean if you were living someone else's dream of what it should be? For some very good answers to why, please check out: https://www.prlog.org/13003205-dreams-of-the-immortal-city-literary-odyssey-through-savannahs-cultural-embroidery.html Cyberwit.net News Release

Incumbent Mayor of Savannah, Georgia (USA) Edna B. Jackson . (photo courtesy of Diva Magazine). Journalist Patricia C. Stumb, in a 1999 Connect Savannah news magazine story titled “Peace, love & blessings…,” wrote of how I “found worldly consciousness in the heart of [my] hometown.” Her observation was surprisingly precise because during that period while living in Savannah, Georgia, I had indeed become more aware of my hometown on the global scale of things. I had also become more cognizant of myself as an author whose influences and inspirations tended often to derive from regions far beyond it. However, expanded consciousness or not, there was no such thing as overlooking the profound thematic shift that occurred in the city’s history when Floyd Adams became its first African-American mayor in 1996. That event prompted the composition of these lines: By way of an African wind a letter came today. It was not scribbled over Hallmark fantasies or popcultur...

Cover of Black Gold, An Anthology of Black Poetry (art by Turner Mayfield Publishing) When contemplating such issues as the current protests against the trend of white policemen killing unarmed black men (or boys in the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice) and the unceasing escalation of war and terrorism across the globe, some might consider poetry an insignificant subject to address as the year 2015 approaches. Others, however, might contend that just like black lives in the past, present, and future–– poetry matters. One important reason poetry matters is because it often helps to expand humanity’s capacity for putting brutal and sublime experiences alike into usable, meaningful, contexts. What may be the oldest known Christmas poem, A Visit from Saint Nicholas (often referred to as “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) was first published anonymously on December 23, 1823, and later attributed to Clement Clark Moore . The year was a relatively peaceful one compared to the year...

Advocates for civil and human rights march in Washington D.C. (photography by Getty Images) “We must not approach the observance and enforcement of this law in a vengeful spirit. Its purpose is not to punish. Its purpose is not to divide, but to end divisions--divisions which have all lasted too long. Its purpose is national, not regional. Its purpose is to promote a more abiding commitment to freedom, a more constant pursuit of justice, and a deeper respect for human dignity.”–President Lyndon B. Johnson (Remarks upon Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964) Because so many social and political turning points took place in the United States during the 1960s, the country in recent years has observed a number of important historical milestones and continues to do so in 2014. One such milestone is the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The act became a law July 2, 1964, making the official anniversary date July 2, 2014. Awareness of that date is particularly ...

“And the syndrome goes on; this is only a poem, wondering when to our senses we will come home.”      ––T.J. Reddy (from A Poem About A Syndrome) Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural arts movements. The recently-deceased  Amiri Baraka has been identified as a hero of both the late 1950s Beat Movement and the 1960s and 1970s Black Arts Movement. Poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Sterling Brown remain renowned for their link to the Harlem Renaissance. One of the more powerful qualities of such movements is that they often inspire more creative genius than the world takes time to recognize. Or sometimes they produce creative thinkers of a type that “others” tend to fear and consequently attempt to destroy. It is possible both these scenarios may be applied to the poet, visual artist, human rights advocate, and educator k...

                                1972 Associated Press photo of Amiri Baraka by Julian C. Wilson . This story was originally published as part 2 of "Two Literary Laureates Celebrated: Herta Muller and Amiri Baraka." It was written at the time in honor of the great Amiri Baraka's (1934-2014) 75th birthday. It is shared now upon the occasion of his passing : While his was not among the names short-listed for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Amiri Baraka has long been lionized for his tell-tale intellectually precise yet poetic analysis of U.S. culture and his fire-brand style of political truth-telling.   A playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer and performance artist all wrapped into one, the Newark-born Baraka attended Rutgers and Howard Universities and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He launched his writing career under the name LeRoi Jones with the 1958 play, A Good...

“He got kicked in the back He say he needed that He hot willed in the face Keep daring to motivate…” –– from the song History by Michael Jackson Upon the launch of the Guerrilla Decontextualization website in August 2012, the concept that inspired it was defined primarily in ultra-modern technological terms. Examples of the practice included the following: short clips from longer videos presented as definitive statements of an individual’s beliefs, photographs of private moments marketed for public entertainment, and statements made decades ago reported on the evening news as though they were made just a few hours earlier. All were instances of events removed from their original context for the purpose of fulfilling an undisclosed agenda. The result often went beyond simple defamation of character, which is generally defined as any knowingly erroneous communication that damages an individual’s or organization’s reputation. By insidious contrast, guerrilla decontextualiz...

        Working cover from the scheduled 2014 book release Journey through the Power of the rainbow . “…We are living in an era in which billions of people are grappling to promote communication, tolerance, and understanding over the more destructive forces of war, terrorism, and political chaos that have characterized the beginning of the 21st Century.” –– Aberjhani, from Journey through the Power of the Rainbow A frequently asked question among readers who took note in 2013 that I was working on a collection of quotations is: have I abandoned the idea? That would have been easy to do considering the reluctance of traditional publishers to invest in books containing any substantial amount of material that has been previously posted on the Internet. The challenge for me, and for the tech angels who get a kick out of throwing whatever pro bono support they can in my direction, was to take a deep breath and dive into the years of published books, unpublished...

                     Yusef Lateef Gold digital graphic courtesy of Bright Skylark Literary Productions .                             (based on original 1968 Atlantic Records album for "The Blue Yusef Lateef) “ When the soul looks out of its body, it should see only beauty in its path. These are the sights we must hold in mind, in order to move to a higher place.” Yusef Lateef, from “A Syllogism”   How could I have known, as a nine-year-old child growing up in Savannah’s Hitch Village project, that Yusef Lateef was speaking light in the form of music directly to my soul through his saxophone and flute when I first heard his masterpiece of an album The Blue Yusef Lateef ? I could not have imagined that years later, while seeking the timbres of my own creative voice out in the world, his would find me again. It happened this time as I sat in the wi...

                         The Bayou Maharajah himself: James Booker. (photo by Henry Horenstein) “…His music pushes the boundaries of what is possible on the piano with an intricacy that surpasses Chopin. It was this complexity that attracted me to Booker. I needed to find out how a man could be both barely tolerated and completely loved – and how his music might make that possible.” ––Lily Keber, Director’s Statement  Bayou Maharajah , a film by director Lily Keber and producer Nathaniel Kohn on the life of the late New Orleans genius of jazz James Carroll Booker III made its Savannah, Georgia, debut before a full audience at the Telfair Museum’s Jepson Center for the Arts on December 19, 2013. Keber’s exceptional accomplishment in Bayou Maharajah has been acknowledged with several important awards. Among them are: the Oxford American’s Best Southern Film Award, and both the Audience Award and Special J...

                                Cover of Notes to the Future by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu . “Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.” ––Nelson Mandela, Presidential Inauguration Address When Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela stood before the people of South Africa on May 10, 1994, as its first black and democratic president, the moment represented much more than a personal victory. It embodied the kind of glimpse into humanity’s potential for harmonious coexistence that history rarely provides. Neither the concept nor the practice of persecution were invented the day Mr. Mandela began as a middle-aged man serving his 27-year prison sentence on Robben Island in 1963.  There are nevertheless, in his case, the notable distinctions of excruciating sacrifice, phenomenal grace, and uncommon personal evolution which moved almost 100 wor...

“We each have lessons to learn and to teach, and healing is something we all do together.”—David Bedrick ( Talking Back to Dr. Phil ) Black History Month is a time I usually reserve for purchasing and reading books by and about African Americans to help add functional substance to the month’s cultural and educational value .  It therefore was unlikely that I would read David Bedrick’s Talking Back to Dr. Phil ––after receiving a copy as a gift––any time soon.  This is what happened to change my mind: Just as I was preparing to place the book halfway between a stack of titles waiting for my attention, I took a quick look inside at the acknowledgments page and read this opening sentence: “About twenty-five years ago, I had the privilege of hearing the music and poetry of Etheridge Knight, a freedom-loving black poet living in Boston.” Since Knight was one of my all-time favorite tortured-soul scarred-radical-genius explosively-complex literary heroes, I k...

Though up and live, the website has been adding new content at a moderate pace as students, authors, teachers, historians, researchers and other interested visitors familiarize themselves with it and utilize the unique content to their advantage. The following is an abbreviated table of contents: 100 th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance   Home Page The Harlem Renaissance the Year 2020 The Approaching 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance In Celebration of Literary Cultural Migrations W.E.B. Du Bois and a Lesson from the Master Teacher Known as History Call for 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Papers Bright Skylark Literary Productions 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Website Launches - Bright Skylark Literary Productions

“…The whole purpose of the construction of The Bridge of Silver Wings was to provide a path leading to The River of Winged Dreams, or to serve as a resting place until the river’s deeper and truer nature revealed itself.”              --Aberjhani, from The River of Winged Dreams There were no conscious plans to turn The River of Winged Dreams into one of the most quoted books both on and off the Internet. Had there been such a plan, chances are the users of Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads , Pinterest , Wordpress and other blog sites likely would have been more inclined to avoid the title rather than embrace it. However, that it has become one of the more quietly-celebrated modern works of literature around might be considered less surprising when looking at the private and global circumstances under which it was written. Those circumstances are revealed in the book’s foreword and introduction as well as in the text of the poems and in the es...

Website logo for 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance The exact start of the Harlem Renaissance cannot be easily identified––nor, for that matter, can its end. There are in fact those who maintain that the Harlem Renaissance has never come to full head-on conclusion. It has instead adapted, evolved, and shifted forms like a chameleon of cultural consciousness and moved with steady unimpeded grace from one decade to the next and from one century to the next. As for when it started: the physical migration of African Americans out of rural areas of the South, from the Caribbean and elsewhere into the New York City neighborhood of Harlem during the 1910s, certainly set the stage for the dazzling explosion of creative genius that would come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance . The people of African descent who made their way to Harlem “on the first thing smoking,” as Zora Neale Hurston put it, not only became captivating subjects of paintings, plays, novels, poetry, ...

Filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson and actor/producer Danny Glover. ( Photo by Larry Busacca and Getty Images ) After opening in U.S. theatres September 9, 2011, and closing November 6, 2011, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 managed a total d omestic gross of only $268,813 before making its debut on Public Broadcast Stations (PBS) over the February 10-12, 2012, Black History Month weekend. Although the documentary film made its PBS debut as stated, it did so in the state of Georgia initially on channels accessible only to those who subscribe to high definition cable services. It later aired on more accessible channels at 1 a.m., 3 a.m., and 6 a.m. respectively. Consequently, many who may have wanted to see it did not and those still wishing to see the film would do well to check local broadcast schedules before its final PBS showing on February 29, or, invest in the DVD. That a film such as The Help has grossed almost $170 million during its theatre run, and is nominated for this ye...

In addition to kicking off the beginning of Black History Month 2012, February 1 also marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes, one of America’s most acclaimed authors. Although widely celebrated for his poetry, plays, and short stories, the phenomenally prolific Hughes was also an author of celebrated memoirs, novels, works of history and translations, as well as an editor of anthologies. In honor of Hughes’ lasting legacy, actor Danny Glover has presented dramatized recitals of his work for at least a decade and is currently on tour portraying the author in An Evening with Martin and Langston . Fellow actor and director Felix Justice portrays Martin Luther King Jr. in the production. Performances are currently scheduled to take place February 8 at the Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York ; and on February 9 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. For the entire Langston Hughes celebration please click this link : Notebook on Black Histo...

Historian Carter G. Woodson, who during the Harlem Renaissance founded Black History Week––later to become Black History Month––was a powerful visionary able to resist the constant denigration of his people’s humanity as represented by institutional racism and counter it with more positive affirmations made with groundbreaking research and publications. While twentieth century organizations such as the American Eugenics Society and the Ku Klux Klan devoted their resources to asserting the inferiority of African Americans, Woodson valiantly identified among his people examples of genius and innovation that revealed a very different story. For the full article by Aberjhani please click this link: Notebook on Black History Month 2012 (Part 1): Carter G. Woodson and Company - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

( photo by Getty Images ) Out of the 250,000 deaths caused by natural disasters in 2010, the overwhelming bulk of them occurred when the massive 7-point earthquake struck Haiti on January 12 and took some 230,000 lives, prompting concerted relief efforts that are going on to this day. A major part of those efforts has been maintaining awareness about Haiti’s continuing recovery needs and U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon has teamed up with the Grammy Award-winning group Linkin Park to do exactly that via an online town hall meeting called “Haiti Today, Haiti Tomorrow” on February 22 at 6 p.m. (EST). Please Continue reading on Examiner.com: Report on 2011 International Year part 4: Haiti's Hope Now and Tomorrow - National African-American Art | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/african-american-art-in-national/report-on-2011-international-international-year-part-4-haiti-now-and-tomorrow#ixzz1EdZPS2Q0 By Aberjhani