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Reparations Action

This is the 7th installment in my reparations series where we’ll turn from background to action. Click to read the introduction. Continue with background facts about me and the salacious real me facts. I’ve included some warnings, plus the joy of reparative work. My last post I told you the “why” of choosing creative writing as...

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I Feel to Believe

When we took an apartment in New Orleans, I began reading the Times-Picayune newspaper. I would spy a column by Jarvis DeBerry and feel as if I’d found an Easter egg. Back then, we were in the city part-time. I didn’t know DeBerry’s publishing schedule. So each column was a surprise and delight. A collection of those columns, each so impressive,...

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Reparations: Why Creative Writing

This is the 6th installment in my reparations series. Click to read the introduction. Continue with background facts about me and the salacious real me facts. I’ve included some warnings, plus the joy of reparative work. Today, we turn to what led me to take up reparations. Fiction Leads to Fact Twice, I’ve delved into my...

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Happy New Year’s, NOLA

There’s a softness in the New Orleans air. The littlest birds make the loudest flutter of wings as they fly into the cedar next door. The white pup down the street calls his barking hello from his balcony, the door behind him open to let in the soft air. The sun slants. The man working on his house speaks, nodding. Black garbage cans dot the...

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“Oh, No!” Godzilla: Mardi Gras 2022

I removed my hat. The priest’s thumb against my forehead was warm with oil, the ashes gritty. Afterwards, he urged us during Lent to take a step—maybe two steps—Godward. The quiet service with no singing, no Alleluias ended quietly. But before that, for a solid ten days, up and down the streets, day and night and into day again, the city...

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Reparative Work

A scene from our reparations journey: We sit in the office of Dr. Ebony Lumumba, the Chair of the English Department at Jackson State University. We’re discussing the amazing conversation the night before on the stage of the McCoy Auditorium between Dr. Lumumba and Imani Perry. Dr. Perry was discussing her new book, South to America. (as soon as...

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Reparations: Me Facts

I’ve been writing about race for almost as long as I’ve had this blog. Even before this early post using the metaphor of building a house on a cliff. Specifically, I’ve written about reparations, such as this post on the Mississippi that could have been. My 2022 reparations undertaking is not new. It is focused. I thought some...

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Another Mother Mary Publication

I know, I know. I said I was starting a new blog schedule in 2022. And I am, I promise. But I want y’all to know about my latest publication: “The Three Mary’s Birth Hope…or Not” It appears in EAP the Magazine’s Winter issue. You can read it here. The story is an excerpt from my unpublished novel...

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Do You Want to be Transformed?

Don’t answer too quickly. Think about it. It’s a big question. Most Christians traditions value transformation, though different churches use different words. Born-again. Repentance. Metanoya. In this Advent season, rebirth is a big one. Most label transformation a goal, if not a promise. Transformed, you won’t see the world...

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When Her Face Changed

The video updated the famous Kenneth and Mamie Clark doll experiment. The videographer gave African American children a white doll and a Black doll. She asked each child, which doll is good? Which doll is bad? You may recall that back in the 1950s the US Supreme Court cited the results of the original doll experiment in ordering the integration...

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