Mamalicious!

Well, it’s a wrap. Today marks the last day of our 32 Days of Black History celebration, and I’ve been mulling over how to end. As I’ve wondered, Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” started playing in my head. But the last post will not be a music post, that much I know, even though putting together the playlists have been fun.

I thought about making the last post a round-up post, a “Best of…” retrospective of posts from this blog and those of my fellow 32 Days… celebrants. But frankly, I’m tired this morning, still fighting off something viral that must run its course. And I’ve got looming deadlines. Besides, I’ve never been good with superlatives, always hard pressed to name my favorite anything.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this whole blogging experience–in the preparation of my posts and in the reading of others I’ve been educated, challenged, and entertained. I’ve made new cyber-friends and gotten to know old friends better. My view of Black History Month as a celebration of the personal as well as the political has been solidified. I’ve been reminded of how much I do not know, and my thirst for knowledge and understanding has at once been quenched and intensified.

I can’t really explain how it happened–osmosis maybe?–but as I’ve written here and read and read and read elsewhere throughout this past month, ideas related to my fiction and nonfiction writing projects have been challenged, reshaped, and solidified (again, that word). As I aim for it to do each day of my life, my world got larger, and as a result, my writingbetter. I picked up the pace, I’m clearer about the stories I want to tell about black folks, myself and others. As I shared with the students in Mini-Me’s class, history is all about storytelling, and as a storyteller, I have a more definite sense now of my marching orders.

In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude for this to: Yvette’s scholarship, Christina’s eloquence, Connie Divers Bradley’s novel, and Tami and ABW’s passionate writing about political and social justice. Of course this is not an exhaustive list. But noting that this partial list is all-female helps me segue nicely into…

March is Women’s History Month. While I think this is a worthy celebration, no more blogathons for me anytime soon! But I do encourage you to keep up with what’s happening on the following blogs in celebration of this month (and all year through): What Tami Said,WomensSpace, The AngryBlackWoman, and Christina Springer.

All that said…In the course of blogging daily this past month, I’ve observed what many a writer before me has noted: A writer can get lost in the blogosphere. The ideas! The great writing! The interesting cast of blogging characters and the commenters who love/hate them! The distraction! Now that this blogathon is over, I may well post less frequently, but I intend to post more of my own words here when I do.

(In case anyone is wondering, I know I hinted at a Soul Food Sunday, Part 2 entry yesterday, with pictures, but alas, it did not come to fruition. However, dinner was most definitely delicious…and I felt like a complete slug afterwards.)

What else? I must thank my co-celebrants…Yvette (most def), Tami, Christina, Chris, and Inkognegro. Many thanks as well to all our guest bloggers and interviewees!

Now I’m off to tend to my sick self, and tackle the three deadlines I have this month. I will be using this space to self-promote and update on my writing projects. I really appreciate the cheerleading many of you do for me as an emerging writer. It means a lot.

In the meantime, please keep stopping by and do leave comments. In case anyone was wondering (and I know at least one person was) you do not have to register or login to leave comments. Also, one of the reasons I moderate my comments is that it also serves as de facto private email. If you leave a comment, no one will see it but me until I approve it to be posted. If it’s obviously meant to be a private communication, I won’t post it.

I will leave you with a poem. It was written by Terrance Hayes, who I meant to profile here. I love Terrance’s poetry, and happy that I can count him and his wife, Yona Harvey (also a poet) among my friends and fellow Wranglers of Little People. Terrance has written three books of poetry, and the poem below is from his most recent collection, Wind in a Box. Enjoy!

the blue seuss

by terrance hayes

blacks in one box

black in two box

blacks on

blacks stacked in boxes stacked on boxes

blacks in boxes stacked on shores

blacks in boxes stacked on boats in darkness

blacks in boxes do not float

blacks in boxes count their losses

blacks on boat docks

blacks on auction

blacks on wagons

blacks with masters in the houses

blacks with bosses in the fields

blacks in helmets toting rifles

blacks in harlem toting banjoes boots and quilts

blacks on foot

blacks on buses

blacks on backwood hardwood stages singing blues

blacks on broadway singing too

blacks can charleston

blacks can foxtrot

blacks can bebop

blacks can moonwalk

blacks can beatbox

blacks can run fast too

blacks on

blacks and

blacks on knees and

blacks on couches

blacks on good times

blacks on roots

blacks on cosby

blacks in voting booths are

blacks in boxes

blacks beside

blacks in rows of houses are

blacks in boxes too

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am and is filed under 32 Days of Black History, Blogging, Books and Writers, Friends, Race Matters, Wordsmithin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.