First Lady Michelle Obama. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The amazing W.E.B. Du Bois is often celebrated as one of America’s greatest educators, historians, human rights leaders, prolific authors, and galvanizing change agents. What many may not realize is that during the first half of the 20th century he stood among that select group of “enlightened” men who championed the rights of women, and who argued that their full empowerment was crucial to the continuing development of democratic ideals and practices. The degree to which Dr. Bois believed the unfettered role of women in American society was an absolutely essential one can be summed up in part by these words from his pen: “...No state can be strong which excludes from its expressed wisdom, the knowledge possessed by mothers, wives and daughters.” There are numerous reasons to spend time considering Du Bois’ insight on women’s equality at this specific juncture of history in th

“No one seems to think it  significant that upon the policemen’s arrival Kajieme Powell possibly had  reason to fear for his life and reacted in a manner consistent with his  disability.” ––Article excerpt (Aberjhani) “Democracy is not a gift of power,  but a reservoir of knowledge.” –– from The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois The month of August happens to be  one in which a number of notable events in African-American history, relatively  recent in historical terms, have occurred. There are the birthdays of such  celebrated individuals as author James Baldwin (Aug. 2), President Barack Obama  (Aug. 4), and philanthropist and performing artist Michael Jackson (Aug. 29). From this point forward, people  shall also certainly recall August 9, 2014, as the day when 18-year-old’s Michael Brown’s death served to ignite a series of violent night-time protests  eerily reminiscent of similar scenes from the 1960s. The chaos also functioned  as yet one more reminder of how readily th

                   The ever-popular LL Cool J on the March 2013 cover of ESSENCE Magazine . “What I’m sowing today, I be reaping tomorrow So here’s some joyful bars, to replace your sorrow.” --LL Cool J (from Old School New School ) It was very difficult not to laugh when reading Robbie Ettelson’s satirical rant, “Being Positive is for Chumps,” in last week’s online Acclaim Magazine , against celebrity rappers for their inspiration-oriented tweets. In fact, I’ll admit it. Even though the sarcastic tirade was based in large part on a quote from The River of Winged Dreams , the subtitle of the piece almost sent me rolling on the floor: “If Robbie of Unkut comes across one more inspirational tweet from a rapper he's going to vomit rainbows.” At the same time, I smiled at the realization that the quotes which apparently have threatened to turn Robbie’s tummy inside out were often, for the rappers who shared them, not just quotes at all. They were testimonials to w

“…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 essay titled “Feathers of Gold, Feat

Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama. (official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson) “Hope drowned in shadows emerges fiercely splendid–– boldly angelic.” --Aberjhani, from The River of Winged Dreams One of the political jabs with which critics of Barack Obama used to attack him during his first run for the U.S. presidency was that his proposed platform was more rhetorical poetry than political substance. That charge has been largely reversed at this 2013 beginning of his hard-won second term. The cry now––mostly from those frequently described as extremist conservatives, Tea Partiers, and the “ New Plutocrats ”–– is that the poet in President Obama has allowed power to exert its corruptive influence. It has, they charge, caused him to imagine that he is “a king” in a country where monarchy is not the law of the land. The supposed evidence is his successful passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

"You were born a child of light's wonderful secret-- you return to the beauty you have always been." Quotation from the poem Holiday Letter for a Poet Gone to War from the book VISIONS OF A SKYLARK DRESSED IN BLACK by Aberjhani. One of the greater joys of my endeavors as an author and poet has been an occasional opportunity to compose poems, essays, and articles to supplement the vibrant works of visual artists with my own literary constructions. That was the case in 2011 when providing panel text for paintings featured in the extremely gifted artist Michele Wood’s I See the Rhythm of Gospel exhibition. Previously, I had been blessed with a similar honor when composing ekphrastic poems for the art of Luther E. Vann in ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love . And I’ve written any number of essays reviewing the works or chronicling the lives of other contemporary artists such as Allen Fireall (who currently, heartbreakingly, is challenged by the need for a hear

Web surfers who have written about Aberjhani, translated works by him, or shared links to various posts of his work began to experience something unprecedented in early September 2012. It happened while performing an advance Google search on the term “author-poet.” In addition to the expected search return of well-known classic authors and poets who fall into this category, the query unexpectedly generated the above image of various historical and contemporary authors described as: “Authors frequently mentioned on the web.” There between William Butler Yeats and Edgar Allen Poe was the famous photograph of Aberjhani taken by celebrated photographer John Zeuli. Others included William Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, James Joyce, and Charles Bukowski. Please click below to view image and read the full post : Authors Frequently Mentioned on the Web - Bright Skylark Literary Productions

"Interpretation of Harlem Jazz" a.k.a. "Drawing in Two Colors" art by German artist of the Harlem Renaissance Winold Reiss. (circa 1917, public domain) “Life calls the tune, we dance.”   ―   John Galsworthy , from Five Tales It was almost enough for me to simply join PEN American Center and set up a profile page without doing much else to qualify its existence. Such a page alone could allow me to relax inside the satisfaction of knowing I had remained true enough to my literary calling to place my name beside that of authors whose lives and craftsmanship had so often empowered my own. That idea, of course, faded very quickly as I further allowed myself to acknowledge something I have long known: you do not claim rights to an honored tradition just because a few books allowed you to bring them into the world or because you managed to cough up the obligatory dues. One claims a right to such traditions very much the way runners on a winning Olympic relay