tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30695388797697466072024-02-06T19:50:26.338-08:00The Journal of Dera R. Williams: A Room of My OwnDera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-35066153329938539132017-12-18T18:18:00.000-08:002017-12-19T01:05:56.628-08:00Reclaiming My Space<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have been writing stories about my growing up in
Oakland, California for about 15 years or more. I would have a memory from my
childhood and write it down, sometimes as a snippet or vignette, or as an anecdote and most
times as a full story. Some are notations and ideas to be revisited and fine-tuned
and others as short memories or images. Some of my childhood memories were prompted
by going to my old neighborhoods or in speaking with someone who brought up the
past by saying “Do you remember when…?” Over the years, I have published some
of these stories; some have been blog posts and others have been published in
anthologies or online or print journals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Most recently, on Thanksgiving last month, my nephew’s
girlfriend’s mother was a guest at my sister’s house. She was a native of the
Bay Area, born and raised in Alameda, just as my siblings and I were raised in
Oakland, my sister born here, my brother and I coming to Oakland as babies. In
speaking with our guest, we found many commonalities; we went to some of the
same places, shopped at some of the same stories and knew some of the same
people. We were constantly saying, “Remember when?” or “Remember the place?”</span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the last ten years or so, I have watched my beloved
city, Oakland, go through numerous changes. It started slowly, subliminally,
and slowly, but steady, until suddenly it was there, unrecognizable. Some
things have been beneficial, a lot has not. I have seen the homelessness rates
rise drastically as many families are pushed out of rentals that were previously
affordable. I have seen many institutions torn down or abandoned to be replaced
by corporate and tech offices or new not affordable housing. Schools have been
closing for lack of attendance, replaced by charter and private schools that
are not available to everyone.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For a long time, I have turned a blind eye and
pretended as if the changes did not affect me or that I did not care. But I do
care. Because suddenly or not so suddenly, I was becoming a stranger in my own
backyard, in my space that I have lived, worked and played for 64 of the 66 years
of my life. How did that happen? More important, what was I to do about it? Maybe
it was that Sunday afternoon when I stopped at the Shell gas station on the corner
of Golf Links Road and Mountain Boulevard across from the Oakland Zoo on my way
home and the families leaving the zoo and getting gas at the same station appeared
to be looking at me as if I was from outer space (was I becoming paranoid?) or
maybe I was just looking so good in my Sunday church best they couldn’t help themselves.
Or maybe it was the Emergent Strategy group I was involved with this past
summer where I met a great group of fierce women and men, some new to the Bay Area,
who see social justice to make a better Oakland and the world beyond, but I
decided I was reclaiming my space.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oakland is full of great people who have made and are
making Oakland great. In reviving my blog, it is my desire to bring to my
readers some of those people and what they are doing s well as some of the
places and institutions that are continuing a legacy of creating space, time
and avenues to retain some of the old Oakland and how it compliments and
engages the new Oakland. I recently had a reading and presented my story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Blackberry Summer</i> to a group of
writers at a brunch in San Francisco. It was received well and evidently
relatable to several people. I knew for a certainty that it was time to send my
stories out to the world, that my history and the history of Oakland is needed
and wanted; that the institutional memory must not be lost, reclaimed and given
a gift to our City. So, in 2018 look out for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stories of Growing up in Oakland: In My Backyard.</i></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Reclaiming My Space</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I have to learn to be
comfortable in the spaces I used to occupy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The spaces that were
previously my playground</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Those spaces that are now
occupied by others</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Who are now claiming as
theirs </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As if they have been here
all along</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But they are just
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">While I am the rightful
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I never gave up my space</span></div>
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while</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But now I am reclaiming
my space</span></div>
<br />
<br />
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Emergent Strategy Group (Oakland)</div>
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Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-69351278589230236802015-09-28T14:06:00.000-07:002015-09-28T14:06:30.480-07:00Learning to Accept a New Mother, a New WayI posted a blog on the Alzheimer's Association blog.<br />
<br />
http://www.alznorcalblog.org/2015/04/21/learning-accept-mother-way/Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-72739295599894242212014-05-27T00:11:00.003-07:002014-05-27T01:50:21.092-07:00Nephew’s Graduation from U.C. Berkeley: Underrepresented Black Students in U.C. System is a Glaring Reality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last Wednesday morning was a glorious day for a
morning graduation in Berkeley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Greek
Theatre on U.C. Berkeley’s campus was the setting for the Interdisciplinary
major department graduation of which Maurice received a B.A. degree in American
Studies with an emphasis on Race and American Popular Culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course our family was delighted and proud to have
our loved one graduate from what is known as the best public university in the
nation. But my joy was marred momentarily by the fact that I counted less than
20 graduates of African descent out of approximately 500 names on the program.
This glaring lack of Black students at Berkeley is a bone of contention that is
one of an ongoing discussion among people in my circle. It has been reported
that the admission rate of Black students decreases with each incoming class.
Those of us who live here in one of the most, if not most progressive, liberal
areas in the country, the San Francisco Bay Area, are both appalled and
flabbergasted at this atrocity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ironically, it was a Black man, and that term is questionable,
who as a U.C. regent led the fight against racial and gender preferences in the
University of California admissions policy. Proposition 209 was passed about 15
years ago and the admission rates for Blacks continually decrease while
increasing for Latinos, Asians and Caucasians. Unfortunately Affirmative Action
became a bad word for conservatives resulting in guidelines for admission a
mangled set of ridiculous and prohibitive kangaroo court of nonsense criteria. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Black community, especially here in this area
are keenly aware and proactive seeking ways to break down those barriers. In
the community college system, counselors diligently work with Black students in
the application process for transfer to U.C. Berkeley and other U.C.
universities; proactive Black parents strive to prepare their children to
follow the U.C. track, and Berkeley Black alumni and professors work closely with
Black students in recruitment and retention of our prospective students. But
many bright Black students forgo applying to Berkeley, preferring to apply to
private colleges or Historically Black colleges who vigorously recruit them and
offer attractive packages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But all in all, this past week was one for celebrating.
Friday afternoon, the Black Graduation was held at Zellerbach Hall. There were
about 100 students who attended (not all Black students elected to attend this momentous
occasion). Of course we hear, why a Black graduation when our ancestors died
for integration? That is a topic for another day. I wrote a blog in 2009 that
gives some insight to why we have a separate celebration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://derarwilliams.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-black-graduation.html">Why
a Black Graduation?</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>U.C. Berkeley’s
graduation was beautiful and inspiring memory. African drums, sorority and fraternity
chants, and the atmosphere of solidarity made this a momentous occasion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Black student body is a tight-knit group
who support and encourage each other in the four to five years duration of study.
As one student speaker said, “You have to fight to get in Berkeley and fight to
get out.” So many bright, intelligent young people, who know where they are
headed and are making their dreams a reality, my nephew among them. They are
forging their futures in a changing world knowing they are privileged to have
been admitted and survived to graduate from such a prestigious university to go
forward to make their stamp on the world. Terry Bryant, Eco-chef and food
justice advocate admonished the students to find a purpose in their
passion while pursuing their education and goals. So, that moment of sadness
and disappointment was temporary. As Pharrell says in his hit “Happy” which
seems to be the theme song this year at graduations, “Ain't gonna let nothing
bring me down because I’m Happy.” <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-78688801749406551042012-07-30T00:37:00.004-07:002012-08-20T00:04:21.849-07:00Journey to Freedom<br />
Why would a free black living in the North after having been emancipated voluntarily go back to the south risking being enslaved again? That question and many others were answered at the lecture and book signing of Lois Leveen, author of The Secrets of Mary Bowser, at the African American Museum & Library in Oakland on a sunny afternoon on Saturday, July 28, 2012.<br />
<br />
The nation, especially the southern states are celebrating the sesquicentennial, actually it is easier to just say the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. As a native southerner— though California raised, and a regular visitor to the south, I have struggled with both my love for history, especially African American history, culture and literature and my love for the south and my dislike for reminders of such a painful period for black Americans and the nation and my feelings about southerners who still revel in their Civil War heroes and their proclamations for States rights. My love-hate relationship with the south and the Civil War makes me a reluctant student of Civil War history.<br />
<br />
After listening to and meeting Dr. Lois Leveen, I think I somewhat have made peace with my ambiguous feelings. Lois was born and raised in New York, but as a lover of history and African American literature and history, became a student of the Civil War history by default. She is a regular contributor to Disunion, the New York Times coverage of the anniversary of the Civil War. She has taught history and literature at universities and is now lecturing at libraries, museums, universities, and bookstore on the same topic. She is also a feminist and has taught African American literature and history and has been influenced by bell hooks and June Jordan. <br />
<br />
Dr. Leveen’s lecture consisted of three parts, Mary Bowser, Weaving History into Fiction and Reflecting on Making Up the Past. She first heard of Mary Bowser from reading A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hines and Kathleen Thompson. This book about black women in American history had a scant few lines about Bowser, a woman who was born into slavery, emancipated, educated and lived in Philadelphia, who went back to the south and became a slave again in order to aid in the abolition of slavery by becoming a spy in the Confederate White House under President Jefferson Davis. Wow! Powerful and mind-boggling, to say the least. <br />
<br />
What kind of woman would do such a thing? Actually, Bowser’s life was not well documented, nor is there much evidence about her. Lois never meant to write a novel about Mary Bowser when she set out to research and write her story, but because of the lack of documentation, she culled from her extensive research and created an imagined life through fiction. She had a letter from Mary’s former owner, Elizabeth De Lew ib Richmong, Virginia and other documents and writings in which she was able to create the Mary Bowser in the book. It isn’t even certain the picture rumored to be Mary Bowser is in fact her. Unfortunately, Mary Bowser’s journals were discarded by her family in 1952. Though the evidence is sketchy, there is enough evidence to substantiate there was a Mary Browser and that she had an innate intelligence and photographic memory that served her well as a Civil War spy.<br />
<br />
Why have most of us not heard of this woman? Well, for that matter, how many people know of other black woman heroes during the Civil War and Reconstruction and beyond? Most school children have heard of Harriett Tubman and Sojourner Truth? But how many know of Phillis Wheatley, Francis Watkins Harper, Mary McCleod Bethune, and Ida B. Wells? But hasn’t it always been that black women’s accomplishments were hidden and minimized? Zora Neale Hurston said the black woman was the mule of the world. How evident is that in American history?<br />
<br />
Dr. Leveen’s lecture incited an excitement to research more about the Civil War, the south and about free blacks and their status in cities like Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities. Recent reading of both nonfiction and historical books has also added to my enthusiasm. I recently read nonfiction The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White and The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman which is fiction. Both of these books explore black life after the Civil War. Ironically, I am currently reading Freeman by Pulitzer prize-winning Leonard Pitts, Jr., a story about a man who has been free for 15 years, living in Philadelphia and who goes back to Mississippi at the end of the Civil War to look for his wife. Though this is fiction, Pitts’ research tells us this was not unusual. Former slaves set out to find their loved ones, even if it meant going back to a hostile south. <br />
<br />
A book club member has already given her stamp of approval for The Secrets of Mary Bowser, so I am eager to get into it and read about real life characters that Leveen referred to such as David Bustill Bowser and Dangerfield Newby. Dr. Leveen posed the question of why was the Civil War a significant part of American history. Indeed her insightful presentation left me with a renewed interest in Civil War and slave and free black history.<br />
<br />
<br />
July 29, 2012 <br />
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<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-43765620062613933812012-06-29T03:32:00.000-07:002012-07-05T18:05:29.202-07:00VONA: A Community for Writers of Color<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><br />Downtown Berkeley was shining with the rock stars of literature Thursday night. I attended the Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation faculty reading at Berkeley City College. VONA, as it is better known is a writing program for writers of color. <a href="http://www.voicesatvona.org/Home.html">http://www.voicesatvona.org/Home.html</a> As Diem Jones, director of VONA said, it is a community of writers that was founded so that creative voices from cultures that until very recently went unnoticed. Diem went on to say 70% of the writers are people of color, and don’t you remember going to writing programs or workshops and being the only black or Latino or Asian?<br /><br />I am an alumnus of VONA when they were still at University of San Francisco; they are in their second year at U.C. Berkeley. Being in a community of writers where you have an affinity with others who look like you, where you can write about your culture without excuse, or you know that the critiques are based upon your writing rather than snide comments about a character that is unfamiliar to the majority. I remember attending the Squaw Valley Writers Conference several years ago and out of over 500 writers, there were maybe 20 black writers. I remember one of them telling me that she was verbally attacked in her workshop repeatedly about her characters or writing. One classmate asked her, “Do your characters have to be black?” WTF! A writing community such as VONA is a place to create freely without apology.<br /><br />Students came from all over, from a range of ages, at different stages in their writing careers. There were New Yorkers, southern Californians, Floridians, one from Puerto Rico and one from Nigeria. They came to glean all they could to sustain their writing for a little while longer. But the stars of the night’s events were not the students and there were 94 of them, in fiction, memoir, poetry classes, LGBTQ narrative and some in residencies. The focus was the illustrious faculty. With authors like Sci-fi author Tananarive Due, literary fiction writers Mat Johnson and poets Willie Perdomo and Patricia Smith, there was plenty to be star struck about. They read from either works in progress or published works.<br /><br />The formidable Nuyorican Willie Perdomo read from a work-in-progress with a character of theme of Bon Bon to rhythmic rap of his tongue simulating bongo drums. The petite Maaza Mengiste read a moving passage from her acclaimed novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, set in Ethiopia during the Haile Selassie regime. Minal Hajratwala read from her memoir about immigration, Leaving India. She talked about being American born did not remove her from the pain of immigration politics. Randall Keenan and Mat Johnson are two brothers I can listen to for hours on end. They both read from their fiction works-in-progress. Both were engaging and witty, Johnson lamenting about ghosts, and Keenan about Capoeira and art. Math was hoot, saying he never had so many students willing to let him make them cry. M. Evelina Galang, a Filipina, is currently writing about women during WWII but she read from a past book about a teacher who empowers a group of young students of color. Tananarive Due kept us spellbound reading from her fourth book in her Living Blood series, My Soul to Take. In speaking with her later, she told me she is teaching at SpelmanCollege in Atlanta. Co-founder Elmaz Abinader, writing chair at Mills College read from her memoir about her father (who is now 102 years-old) as a boy in war-torn Lebanon. Faith Adiele, also faculty at Mills, read from her already 600-page memoir manuscript about traveling to Nigeria to find the father who had abandoned her. Closing out was Affralacian poet Patricia Smith. “Lysol” was heart-rending as she spoke of a mother who wanted to wash away her daughter’s dark skin. The daughter kept saying, “I’m black, I’m not dirty.” Powerful! The audience rose to their feet.<br /><br />Two veterans of VONA were missing. Pulitzer Prize winning Junot Diaz, also one of the co-founders of the program is ill, as is David Mura. Junot has been a draw for years, pre-Pulitzer, for his outspoken demeanor, and his sharp New York, sometimes acerbic critiques. David as the residency instructor is known for his thorough, straight forward guidance of fine tuning your manuscript. They were missed but both are on the road to recovery and will be back next year. Well wishes to both of them.<br /><br />It was truly a reunion of VONA alumni, staff and others in the writing community. One of the first people I saw when entering the auditorium was Jacqueline Luckett (Searching for Tina Turner & Passing Love), also a VONA alumnus. I saw Aya de Leon who was the facilitator of a black women’s writing group I was involved with in the 1990s. She is at U.C. Berkeley teaching poetry and was instrumental in bringing the poetry of Tupac to the curriculum there. I got reacquainted with Kira Allen, who used to host poetry readings at La Pena in Berkeley. Carolina DeRobertis, whose books about women in Argentina and Chile have received much acclaim, was there due to give birth any day. She taught English at Merritt College where I am. I saw another colleague, Cleavon Smith, English faculty at Berkeley City College, who just had a play staged.<br /><br />I missed seeing Nakia White, the daughter of my good friend Denise. I was delighted she had gotten into the VONA program despite it being highly competitive. I asked around about her and Maaza Mengiste said she was in her class and that Nakia is an excellent talented writer, which I already knew. You go Nakia!<br /><br />I am so glad I didn’t let a sinus headache keep me from Thursday’s event. It was well worth the ten dollars I had to pay for parking. VONA is such a needed and necessary program. There is now a program in the winter at the University of Florida and I hear talk about a program possibly in New York. VONA, a writing community for the people.<br /><br /><br /><br />June 28, 2012<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-85517063726922309342012-06-28T23:21:00.001-07:002012-06-28T23:23:48.967-07:00Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour<span style="color: blue;">I am a member of Southern Writers on the She Writes writing site. We are embarking on a blog tour. The information is below. Note: I am a guest blogger on June 29.</span><br />
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The She Writes Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour<br />
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The Southern Writers of She Writes cordially invite you to The She Writes Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour.<br />
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The purpose of this tour was to give as many of the members in the Southern Writers group a chance to offer their hospitality by having others visit their home blogs. <br />
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During the week leading up to the 4th of July, two blogs will be featured every day sharing their interpretation of the tour’s theme: “Southern Living.”<br />
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People who leave insightful comments on the blog post(s) during the tour will be entered into a random drawing to receive a special Southern Living-themed prize (worth $50) donated by Zetta Brown and JimandZetta.com Author/Publisher Services.<br />
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The more blogs you visit and the more comments you make throughout the tour, the more chances you get.<br />
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It would be nice to turn this into an annual event if interest warrants so come on out!<br />
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Tour Date: Wed. June 27<br />
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Blog Name: Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge<br />
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Blog Owner: Ramey Channell<br />
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Title: "Evolution AND Creationism: The Birth of a Southern Novel"<br />
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URL: www.sweetmusiconmoonlightridge.blogspot.com<br />
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Tour Date: Wed. June 27<br />
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Blog Name: My Writing Journey<br />
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Blog Owner: Charity Bradford<br />
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Title: "Hospitality, Welcome to the South"<br />
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URL: http://charitywrites.blogspot.com<br />
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Tour Date: Th. June 28<br />
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Blog Name: Ruminations and Reflections<br />
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Blog Owner: Rebecca Elswick<br />
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Guest Blogger: Natalie Parker-Lawrence<br />
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Title: "Patrice Melnick: Louisiana Poet, Festival Muse"<br />
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URL: http://wwwrebeccaelswick.blogspot.com <br />
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Tour Date: Th. June 28<br />
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Blog Name: Holly's Narrative Dream<br />
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Blog Owner: Holly Raychelle Hughes<br />
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Title: "Pictures and Words"<br />
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URL: www.writerhughes.wordpress.com<br />
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Tour Date: Fri. June 29<br />
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Blog Name: Musings & Meanderings: Thoughts on Life and Healing<br />
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Blog Owner: Melanie Pennington<br />
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Title: "The Flavors of My Childhood"<br />
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URL: http://musingsandmeanderings-mlp.blogspot.com/ <br />
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Tour Date: Fri. June 29<br />
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Blog Name: The Full-Bodied (Book) Blog<br />
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Blog Owner: Zetta Brown<br />
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Guest Blogger: Dera Williams<br />
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Title: "Not Your Storybook Southern Belle"<br />
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URL: http://fullbodiedbooks.blogspot.co.uk/<br />
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Tour Date: Sat. June 30<br />
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Blog Name: Delani Bartlette’s Travel Blog<br />
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Blog Owner: Delani Bartlette<br />
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Guest Blogger: Stacy Allen<br />
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Title: "Changing The Past, Inventing The Future"<br />
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URL: http://matadornetwork.com/community/delanib<br />
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Tour Date: Sat. June 30<br />
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Blog Name: Emily Kennedy, Author<br />
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Blog Owner: Emily Kennedy<br />
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Title: "Southern Gentlemen"<br />
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URL: http://emilykennedyauthor.com<br />
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Tour Date: Sun. July 1<br />
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Blog Name: Ryder Islington, Author<br />
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Blog Owner: Ryder Islington<br />
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Guest Blogger: Deidre Ann Banville <br />
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Title: "New Orleans Caulbearers"<br />
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URL: http://ryderislington.wordpress.com<br />
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Tour Date: Sun. July 1<br />
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Blog Name: A Penny and Change<br />
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Blog Owner: Penny Leisch<br />
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Guest Blogger: Trisha Faye<br />
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Title: "Change...as the moon goes on shining"<br />
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URL: http://apennyandchange.pennyleisch.com/blog<br />
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Tour Date: Mon. July 2<br />
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Blog Name: Zetta's House of Random Thoughts<br />
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Blog Owner: Zetta Brown<br />
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Title: "Texas Tornadoes and Other Memories"<br />
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URL: http://zettashouse.wordpress.com<br />
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Tour Date: Mon. July 2<br />
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Blog Name: Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia<br />
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Blog Owner: Patricia Dorsey<br />
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Title: "A (Southern) Life in Poems"<br />
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URL: http://patricianeelydorsey.blogspot.com/<br />
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Tour Date: Tue. July 3<br />
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Blog Name: A Penny's Worth<br />
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Blog Owner: Penny Leisch<br />
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Guest Blogger: NancyKay Sullivan Wessman<br />
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Title: "Books & Business & Reality: No magic bullet"<br />
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URL: http://pennyleisch.com/wordpress<br />
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Tour Date: Tue. July 3<br />
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Blog Name: The Novelette<br />
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Blog Owner: Laura Gschwandtner<br />
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Title: "Southern Living with True Grit"<br />
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URL: http://thenovelette.com/blog<br />
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<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-22684337306910920172012-06-27T01:02:00.001-07:002012-06-27T01:05:52.623-07:00Be Still: The Essence of Water<br />
This past Saturday I attended a self-care event hosted by the Black Women’s Media Project. The Be Still Retreat, which is free of charge, is given quarterly and in its seventh year. This was my third time attending and it has always been an uplifting experience for mind, body and soul. Self-care practitioners including, health conductors, holistic healers, physical fitness experts, yoga instructors and massage therapists share their wisdom and gifts with the ladies who range from early 20s to some in their 80s and diverse ethnicities and cultures. <br />
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Dr. Frank Staggers is a constant guest speaker. A well-known community physician, his lecture about the effects of diabetes and hypertension among African Americans is worth paying for. Dr. Staggers extols the benefits of attaining and living a less stressful life in order to lessen the symptoms of high blood pressure and to live a longer life. He suggests that we practice being still; a time when you turn everything off, including your mind. Just sit and be still. When Dr. Staggers patients tell him that they relax by reading or sewing, which is not good enough. The brain and mind is still working. In order to fully relax, one must turn off both of those.<br />
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So he had all 150 attendees sit in a relaxed state and just be still. Initially, your mind is running a mile a minute, all kind of scenarios play in your head, but eventually the mind releases the cares of life and your body loosens up and your thoughts turn to nothing… but peace and tranquility. Dr. Staggers suggest we practice this stillness two or three times a day, if possible. He suggested water sounds, especially of the ocean accompanies your meditation. Water is calming and soothing. Think of sitting on the beach watching the water; the sun shimmering over crystal blue water and your mind just floats away.<br />
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Be still.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOC8pxu1v6cOK64dLcmUNDEOH-k1szDTJptSBvV0JUrpXw8bS7teHT4wOFpDwHbM0PF69rbqnSkq9n_u3-bmW51OL85HqJKa0HvyAfg2T5M2VsSUV-gx4lGAUodYeZ2dxsDyxs45gnco4i/s1600/JLSaquatic.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOC8pxu1v6cOK64dLcmUNDEOH-k1szDTJptSBvV0JUrpXw8bS7teHT4wOFpDwHbM0PF69rbqnSkq9n_u3-bmW51OL85HqJKa0HvyAfg2T5M2VsSUV-gx4lGAUodYeZ2dxsDyxs45gnco4i/s320/JLSaquatic.JPG" vca="true" width="320" /></a></div>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-22507674198415334502011-06-18T22:31:00.000-07:002011-06-19T00:17:38.359-07:00Father’s Day and Birthday Tribute<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANtZCWYKSDpbMr538RKhCwcw3ndybyysdX5O3BRtCPBOvcXmewLxULUxcddofylYXOzPUo5_dM-lO407EqGmdU4whKd2EPgecjjcJSOtDtysyOBJ19K9G3198uLpkh5RV3g9wGtvWQf7D/s1600/Ourblackfathers.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619825489269138066" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANtZCWYKSDpbMr538RKhCwcw3ndybyysdX5O3BRtCPBOvcXmewLxULUxcddofylYXOzPUo5_dM-lO407EqGmdU4whKd2EPgecjjcJSOtDtysyOBJ19K9G3198uLpkh5RV3g9wGtvWQf7D/s200/Ourblackfathers.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriTeWuShUjTj8Fh0F0JmW4YI4r_jZG4uMFR-0HuuVDlxv65yBCRWh7A_Xvin3P09yoB_CNR7CuLSEtRioV8zz9l1bzNxOtjHqzijBelwSYEslSWC1JaqT5Sg4MQAlhqg6eYbqGrH-crvA/s1600/Dera+father%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 196px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619824860562639794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriTeWuShUjTj8Fh0F0JmW4YI4r_jZG4uMFR-0HuuVDlxv65yBCRWh7A_Xvin3P09yoB_CNR7CuLSEtRioV8zz9l1bzNxOtjHqzijBelwSYEslSWC1JaqT5Sg4MQAlhqg6eYbqGrH-crvA/s200/Dera+father%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><span style="color:#000099;">As the country celebrates Father’s Day, I have thoughts of my dad who died in 1990. June is also his birthday month; he would have been 87 years-old June 12. When I see the state of so many families, and black families, in particular, I think how blessed I was to grow up with my father, and that he was an involved father.<br /><br />In 2008 I published a piece through Five Sisters Publications called Our Black Fathers: Brave Bold Beautiful. Hopes for a Dad’s First Born was borne out of a letter Daddy wrote to me when I was nine months-old. I got my penchant for writing naturally as attest to Daddy’s writing skills that served him well as editor of his college newspaper. When he wrote this in early 1952, we were living in Little Rock, Arkansas and the words he wrote was indicative of the conditions we were living. Arkansas was the south and therefore governed by Jim Crow laws. Yet his letter was also full of hope, hope for a future that transcended racism.<br /><br />=======================================================================<br /><br /><br />Hopes for a Dad’s First Born<br /><br /><br />A whiff of tobacco, the curling smoke of a pipe, an olive bathed in a martini, a brand new book with pages still stuck together. Those images and senses bring back memories of my dad.<br /><br /></span><span style="color:#000099;"><em>To "Cocoa"<br />Hopes for a Dad's First Born</em><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#000099;"><em>Not quite 9 months old are you, my darling – bordering between a baby's chubbiness and a little girl's nymph-like slimness. The laments "Momie" and Da da" have attained distinctness, but words with more than one syllable are beyond your grasp. I look into your pecan-brown face, with the dark eyes so like your mother's, and I think of all the hopes I have for you. Hopes which, if they are to crystallize, must survive a world on the brink of nihilism.<br /></em><br /><br />So begins the letter Daddy wrote to me over fifty years ago when I was a toddler. I recently came across this letter while going through some files of documents; birth certificates, diplomas, and the like. My mother had given the letter to me a few months after my father’s death in 1990. As the first time I read it, again I was touched and amazed at the words my father had written to me, his eldest child and daughter.<br /><br />Laybon Jones, Sr. loved to express himself through the written word. He fancied himself a wordsmith as well as a philosopher on the order of Socrates. He was on his college newspaper staff and at one time thought of journalism as a career. He delighted in fancy writing pens and kept a well-stocked office at home.<br /><br /></span><span style="color:#000099;"><em>You are happy, my sweet, as only a baby who has had the love and care of devoted parents could be. But what about your chances for happiness when you are 21? Through your formative years will I be able to shelter you from the ravages of a cruel world? I have no illusions that I will. Yet I trust to God that He will imbue me with the strength to impart to you an intrinsic armor of love and beauty that will withstand the adversities of a temporal existence.<br /><br /></em>Daddy had a proud spirit, one born of growing up in poverty and learning to cope with the abandonment by his own father at a young age; having to scuffle and work hard to prove that he was capable of achieving success. Deep down he had an inferiority complex about growing up poor in the 1920 and 30s, of being disadvantaged because of his black skin, and the feeling of shame of coming to the big city of Little Rock wearing the same ragged coveralls he wore in the small farming community in eastern Arkansas where he was born. The little country boy tried to fit into his new community in the midst of the Jim Crow laws of the South, while determined to avail himself of new friendships among the up-and-coming African American middle-class of that city.<br /><br />He shielded us, me, my younger brother and sister, from as much pain and hurt as he could. Raised in multi-cultural California, we were not prepared for separate public facilities when we went on our family summer trips to the 1960s South. We expressed amazement more than fear when a raggedy truck roared by with a motley crew of bedraggled young adults began to hoop and holler and heckle us as we road down the Texas highway in our brand new Buick. Daddy calmly told us to look straight ahead and to hold up our heads. He refused to acknowledge ignorance on any level.<br /><br /></span><span style="color:#000099;"><em>I wish I could tell you that you were born into a world of brotherhood and love for all mankind. But to tell you this would only make your awakening more poignant and frustrating. So I must tell you the truth; “the unrelenting bitter truth” The world isn't serene and garden-like, it is turbulent and savage. While there is some vestige of brotherly love scattered about the various facets of the earth, the core of mankind is hard and replete with hatred, avarice and prejudice. Nations are against nations; ideologies are clashing, with their ominous voices echoing throughout the world. Men are dying – some for what they believe – others for that they don't understand.<br /></em><br />We moved to Oakland, California from Little Rock, Arkansas when I was two years old along with other Black families who migrated to California for better employment and economic opportunities. Daddy’s first job was at a furniture store where he was a stock boy. There is a picture of Daddy that used to hang in the hallway of our home; a young man in a pristine white sailor suit, proudly worn as an enlistee in the United States Navy. He is poised and well groomed, wearing an air of assurance because that was how he portrayed himself, as a king on a throne. He was six feet, three inches in height with a sinewy lean build that commanded attention. He posed for that picture, one leg propped up, leaning forward, looking directly into the camera, flirting with it, that was my Dad.<br /><br /><em>But it isn't all dark, my honey. For a ray of hope penetrates the abysmal well of confusion and</em> </span><span style="color:#000099;"><em>frustration. That ray of hope springs from the progenitors of this generation. And you of my flesh and blood I fervently hope will fortify yourself to meet the tide.<br /><br />It is my hope that you will possess strength, dignity without ostentation, and love tempered with understand. To insure this, I must teach you to revere His word,....thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.....". Stand up straight and look the world in the eye. Face the vicissitudes of life with resolute calmness. Never tire of a deep thirst for knowledge and understand. Never lose a respect for the desires of others. And, above all, keep the faith in God and confidences in yourself.<br /><br /></em>Daddy liked the finer things, a cold martini, a good biography and first-class hotels. He appreciated a woman wearing a hat to church on Sundays and a minister that exalted the Word of God in an old-fashioned but dignified manner. He also exposed his family to travel, books and the love of learning with a broader view of the world that was beyond our society’s self-imposed limitations. </span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="color:#000099;">Books were important to him and consequently they became so to his children. We had built-in book cases in my childhood home and they were always filled with books, all kinds of books. There was no censorship in the Jones household; anything in that bookcase was fair game. It was there I discovered James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and William Faulkner. There was a variety of nonfiction titles that far exceeded my comprehension at age ten or twelve years old, yet no book was off limits; we could read or attempt to read anything that was in that book case.<br />Serving in the military was a means to an end for my father. He served four years in the segregated Navy during Word War II, became eligible for the GI education bill and enrolled at Philander Smith College, a small, Black Methodist college in Little Rock at the age of twenty two. He graduated four years later and married my mother and had three children of whom he was very proud. He had a remarkable career track; real estate broker, educator, director in a government agency and a consultant for minority contracts.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#000099;">When I pass by the newsstand in downtown Oakland, I cannot help but think about Daddy going there every Sunday after church to pick up the New York Times. He would come home, light his pipe and prop his feet up on his desk and immerse himself in what was going on in the world. Daddy was taken away much too soon but he lived to see sweeping changes in the country, including the transformation of the South through the civil rights movement. The same luxury hotel in Dallas which we were not allowed to darken the doors in 1963, welcomed us with open arms in 1968. Daddy not only achieved some of his goals and dreams, he lived to see his children, one of who was that little chubby girl of nineteen months, achieve some of their dreams.<br /><br />Dera Williams<br />November 13, 2007 </span></div></div>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-15207955923606348402011-03-09T12:58:00.000-08:002011-03-09T15:09:12.870-08:00Featuring Author Lutisha Lovely at Marcus Book Store<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufjGIQB4diSnc6kfg9v3eOdag05hNiW2_rf6SgKtCNurdPPXZ2TBKBzz225ROP1OmEE2yNT7vI-ZKZ59xBOGn8P3PRD2Sgnd54bRLcFFk5yH6dNEq0gWCd1AsHSD_u-GJxY4SyNPYab8r/s1600/marcusbookLLsigning.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582188971153548738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufjGIQB4diSnc6kfg9v3eOdag05hNiW2_rf6SgKtCNurdPPXZ2TBKBzz225ROP1OmEE2yNT7vI-ZKZ59xBOGn8P3PRD2Sgnd54bRLcFFk5yH6dNEq0gWCd1AsHSD_u-GJxY4SyNPYab8r/s200/marcusbookLLsigning.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypFFtCN6UNuhIko_gUSnaD3HHpcX_xIM1b-bsi94Tl-VBvPmsdFuPXeqtw-NQKgq4fHC82Q-hjY_FdwoRZ_psHHsvCBLtiDxJ_50A8bLYE-gYpCp5rd61b7VpsQNZW0MVPzwAZviyGYDZ/s1600/lutishalovelysigning030511.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582188771521459346" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypFFtCN6UNuhIko_gUSnaD3HHpcX_xIM1b-bsi94Tl-VBvPmsdFuPXeqtw-NQKgq4fHC82Q-hjY_FdwoRZ_psHHsvCBLtiDxJ_50A8bLYE-gYpCp5rd61b7VpsQNZW0MVPzwAZviyGYDZ/s200/lutishalovelysigning030511.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="color:#663366;">Lutisha Lovely Book signing Marcus Bookstore, March 5, 2011l<br /><br />When I walked into Marcus Bookstore on Saturday night, I was greeted by<br />Cherysse, the proprietor and the author for the evening, Lutisha Lovely. She was wearing skinny jeans and comfy boots, dreadlocks down her back and a big, welcoming smile. I knew very little about Lutisha Lovely. I had heard about her drama-filled church-based books but had not read them. I had however, read her Zuri Day romance books. But more on that later…<br /><br />All Up in My Business with emphasis with hands on hips and rolling head is the book she is promoting and the first of a new series. She said she didn’t want to be known just for faith-based church drama so she and her editor came up with the idea of a wealthy family series set in Atlanta to branch out into mainstream fiction and relationships. Lutisha loves the city of Atlanta and although she was born and raised in Kansas, and now lives in southern California, she has spent many good times in Hotlanta. Her first release party was held there for her sixth book in the Church series, Heaven Forbid. She likes the idea of the historical and cultural aspects of African Americans when asked why Atlanta? But actually she stressed the story could take place in any large southern city where black folk love good food. The Taste of Soul restaurants run by the Livingston clan serves up more than tasty soul food.<br /><br /><br />Lutisha feels like her characters talk to her, come through her. It took her about nine months to write AUIMB, but she is always writing two books at one time, promoting another and editing another. Her publisher, Kensington contracted models for the book instead of using stock photos which speaks volumes about their belief in her value. Publishers Weekly named AUIMB as top one of the 10 picks for their spring book releases and used her cover. She highly recommends the trailer:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QN-v4lpv8<br /><br />Lutisha has an acting background, has been a broadcaster for the Kansas City Chiefs and a managing editor for a magazine. She also wrote plays and poetry. She worked in the dot come industry and made a lot of money until it went bust. She sat down and wrote the first 30 pages of Sex in the Sanctuary in one sitting. She is a PK (preacher’s kid) and knows the mega-church community well and though she knows intimate details, her favorite mantra is, “Don’t ask me, don’t try to bribe me, I won’t tell.”<br /><br />Lutisha self-published SITS in 2004 and inspired by E. Lynn Harris; she sold her books at beauty salons, grocery stores, and gyms. As a new writer she reached out to well-known writers and was rebuffed; by names that we would know-----“Don’t ask me……….” LOL<br /><br />In 2005, she went to Book Expo in Los Angeles with remaining three books of her first print run of 100. She met the acquisitions editor from Kensington who asked to read SITS. Within a few months she was offered a contract and she had been told that it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Lutisha feels that her use of a professional editor and graphic artist showcased her professionalism.<br /><br />Then her editor asked her to write romance which she thought would be a breeze as she grew up reading the genre, but she learned that romance was very formulaic and she needed to master the rules of writing romance. Thus Zuri Day was born; a Caribbean sister, bohemian type sister with attitude. She is a persona/alter ego to the point she gets into character (this is where her acting background comes into play) to the point she has requested two badges when she attends the Romantic Times conference next month. She will release her sixth romance next month. I have read a few of her titles including her first, Lies Lovers Tell. She has written a total of 14 gooks, 13 of those written from 2006 on.<br /><br />Lutisha read the prologue with attitude and her effervescent personality just flows out to the crowd and we were grinning during the whole signing by her captivating stories of going to Jerusalem as an actor to film Biblical films. She loved interacting with the Israeli’s and Muslims much to the Christian film producers' chagrin. When I asked how her family and parishioners back home feel about her books, she said she received a few letters claiming blasphemy. Her father, who she adores, flipped through one book and told her she appears to write very mature material but her parents don’t read her books but are very supportive of her career and accomplishments. She considers herself a very spiritual person but her views on Christianity have changed from the traditional sense.<br /><br />Side note: As many of you know Marcus Books is in the community and occasionally we get a “community member” who comes in and disrupts things but Lutisha handled it good and he was soon gone happy. But she had us rolling when she said, “Now if he really wanted to go there, he would get crazy meets crazy.” It was such a treat to be in her presence, she wanted pictures with everyone and just felt at home. A married couple drove two hours from Sacramento to see her. They are avid fans and read her books together. And before I forget, Lutisha gave a shout out to APOOO and especially to Donnica who is a reviewer for our review team and gave it a thumbs up.<br /><br />I enjoyed reading All Up in My Business and look forward to Mind Your Own Business, the second book she has just finished writing. The third books title is Taking Care of Business. It may be hard times in publishing but this sister proves if you have the right stuff, you can make it happen.</span></strong></div></div>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-18069489801472428192011-02-24T01:16:00.000-08:002011-02-24T01:23:37.982-08:00My Most Interesting Ancestor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXjSNkK3Y_xbDc8phna9G-m0pKl8Uh6bNzX0iHTdWm5zquiF7MIyeO_OWby89Mp7cTeegOELcKoXpQ6O_j-gxRS_5Hqjh3zmwwhyZFrhDKU1rWn27sm2TbEp2wNgldHxdPJHYz1VxQN0r/s1600/Straight_college.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 71px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXjSNkK3Y_xbDc8phna9G-m0pKl8Uh6bNzX0iHTdWm5zquiF7MIyeO_OWby89Mp7cTeegOELcKoXpQ6O_j-gxRS_5Hqjh3zmwwhyZFrhDKU1rWn27sm2TbEp2wNgldHxdPJHYz1VxQN0r/s200/Straight_college.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577183726910375522" /></a><br /><em>Most Interesting Ancestor- Fannie Rowland Thompson Gilliam<br /> <br />I loved to hear my mother, Vivian Rowland Jones, talk about her favorite aunt. Fannie Rowland Thompson Gilliam was born in 1867 to Hester Duckworth, a former slave and the man who brought her from South Carolina as part of his property, Dr. James Rowland (aka Doc Rowland) in LaPile, Arkansas of Union County. Fannie was one of three children of that union. The other two were a girl who died in infancy (name unknown) and my great-great grandfather, John Rowland. That made her my great-great aunt, the sister of my mother’s grandfather.<br /><br />Fannie appeared to have the most colorful life in the Rowland clan as she is the one who got away from the “sticks” of LaPile in rural southern Arkansas and the harsh farming life of that community during a time when the majority of African Americans in the southern United States were striving to survive less than twenty years coming out of slavery. Doc Rowland, who was her father and the man who was the slaveholder of her mother, acknowledged his children and they took the Rowland surname. Like many white men who fathered children with black women, he had an interest in their life. It is unknown if he had part in Fannie pursuing an education. I do not know how it was Fannie attended college in New Orleans around the 1880s, nor could my mother or aunt tell me, which would be a six hour drive from her hometown by today’s standards. Nevertheless, she attended Straight University, a college for Negroes, which offered courses of study ranging from elementary to college-level courses in music, law and theology. In 1886, Straight discontinued the Law Department and began to focus on the liberal arts, industrial arts, and teacher training. In 1934 Straight College (changed in 1915) merged with New Orleans University to become Dillard University, a historically Black college which still exists.<br /> My mother remembers a picture of Fannie and some of her classmates, all light-skinned women as she was. It is not known if she completed college or what was her course of study. There is a story that one day she and a group of her classmates were walking down the street near the university and her bloomers fell down on the ground. She was of course embarrassed. One of the girls said “Just step over them and keep on walking.” And that is what she did. <br /><br />Fannie married a J. Thompson in her 20s and they were later divorced. No children came from that union. Reportedly, she was unable to have children. She had another short-lived marriage thereafter. In 1908, at 41 years old she married widower Robert Gilliam from Clark County. Robert was a widower and father of a young daughter, Otelia. Otelia Gilliam later married Samuel Rowland, who was Fannie’s nephew through her brother John, and my mother’s father. That is how my mother’s maternal and paternal side became joined. When I was younger I would get confused when my mother referred to Fannie as both her great aunt and her step-grandmother. They all lived in LaPile, then Huttig in Union County. Fannie became more like a mother than a step-mother to Otelia and they shared a close relationship.<br /><br />Fannie was a lover of literature as evidenced by her collection of books by Shakespeare and other literary wonders such as the Afro- American Encyclopedia 1891 that my mother still has. According to my mother, she also liked to sew and was quite fashionable. A few years ago when were visiting Huttig, we went through an old trunk at “Old Place” that was filled with antique buttons that Aunt Fannie and Grandmother and Otelia used in their sewing. She was of medium height, a light-skinned woman with long curly, fine hair. She belonged to the Mt. Olive A.M.E. Church in Huttig, a community next to LaPile. Fannie died in 1945 and was buried at Batts Chapel Cemetery.</em>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-16049755476271586642011-01-17T17:17:00.000-08:002011-01-17T20:11:35.105-08:00I Have a Dream<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U0JvjP0iTUIWB1xzYUVLdJ4psXrgBcsIpHDHLUimEZJpphk_O-wQJuu9Sl2mw5HoLFsejzkHGH3jzD-O_dTVMX4EyqHQ3lCR17Cfrvox5swLPoS30YCeWurXSnDmAQaUBopZoMChwx22/s1600/marianne-williamson-smiling.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U0JvjP0iTUIWB1xzYUVLdJ4psXrgBcsIpHDHLUimEZJpphk_O-wQJuu9Sl2mw5HoLFsejzkHGH3jzD-O_dTVMX4EyqHQ3lCR17Cfrvox5swLPoS30YCeWurXSnDmAQaUBopZoMChwx22/s200/marianne-williamson-smiling.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563373744569651762" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj469c-0aUgc1QLm8FLQtEel-O0RhfGwNX-LY7Aw1CYzn6AHYQ1lpLeXcNNdXUyj67Ge3zO7c7Sbdeqw0LSul0p4vIq4Zky9n40D5HAkgQZgjsX2fdL7w04CnyfdXjc-XPvKTN-8DCGfpsH/s1600/index.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj469c-0aUgc1QLm8FLQtEel-O0RhfGwNX-LY7Aw1CYzn6AHYQ1lpLeXcNNdXUyj67Ge3zO7c7Sbdeqw0LSul0p4vIq4Zky9n40D5HAkgQZgjsX2fdL7w04CnyfdXjc-XPvKTN-8DCGfpsH/s200/index.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563373519927402850" /></a><br />I am resurrecting my blog and what better day than Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday? In past years, I have been lax about celebrating this important day but for some reason, this year was different. Was it the tragedy in Tucson, the overtone of racial intolerance or the rising murder rate among young blacks right here in my hometown of Oakland? I don’t now and I decided not to give it too much thought. So when I attended Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in West Oakland last Sunday and heard about their Martin Luther King, Jr. program and instead of sleeping in late, I decided to attend their 10:00am program.<br /><br />Yesterday at a service at Lake Merritt UMC, where Rev. Beasley preached, several people seemed eager to tell their stories. One older white gentleman worked in Harold Washington’s office in Chicago during the struggle. A woman said her father, a minister stood against racism in their small Illinois town and remembered she was in college when King was killed and how the black students would not let her and her roommate participate in their circle of protest.<br /><br />Taylor Church was packed including the balcony. As a result they opened up two more media rooms to stream in the program. I was in one of those rooms but I didn’t feel any less detached from the beautiful singing, dancing and poetry from young people of different races. I the guest speaker was Marianne Williamson of the best seller Return to Love. A quote from that book has been erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Williamson, spiritual author, lecturer and conscious woman, recalled the day she learned of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. She was a young teenager and was at home with her mother getting ready for dinner when they heard the news. They were devastated and when her father came home, the first words out of his mouth were, “Those bastards killed him.” She went on to say that some school history books have reduced the Civil Rights movement to one paragraph and there is increasingly a move to whitewash this country’s history--- it is up to us to see that is not done and to continue to carry on King’s dream. <br /><br />“Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” said King. Yes, indeed, when I looked at the Oprah Show as she showed clips of previous shows, I have hope. There were the white teenagers who taunted the Little Rock Nine in 1957 and the racist who has recently adopted two black teenage boys. We have a long way to go but there is hope. I too, have a dream.<br /><br />Dera R. Williams<br />January 17, 2011Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-44614111767305006442010-02-18T16:41:00.000-08:002010-02-18T16:43:29.266-08:00People Get ReadyPeople, get ready, there’s a train a comin…<br /><br />Yes, people, get ready, because surely the world is coming to an end when children are committing the kinds of crimes they have been lately. The Bay Area has been inundated with shootings, assaults and all manner of crimes committed by young people. In Vallejo, a 15 year-old boy shot an ice cream truck vendor, an elderly woman in the chest. Thank goodness, she survived. Why did he shoot her? He was trying to rob her and because she didn’t speak English, he thought she was trying to resist. Some more Vallejo kids beat up a city worker. There have been various other incidents, kids committing crimes, often with a gun. But the end all be all occurred this past Sunday when three teenagers entered a Richmond church and shot and injured two brothers, also teenagers. <br /><br />A former gang member said, “They have crossed the line.” What gives? Ministers are calling for a summit on what to do about the crime and young people? I don’t mean to be cynical, but they have done this before. It is said that these young people are in pain. They haven’t had proper parenting.; they don’t have role models. Frankly, I am tired of the excuses. Shooting in a church? Where are the boundaries? Like someone said, they have no boundaries. The corner church just as well the corner store. The aunt and uncle of the kid who shot the ice cream vendor appealed to the public to not judge their nephew. He has had a hard life, going from foster home to foster home. The father of the boy who assaulted the city worker said he wanted to make sure his son was treated fairly and he himself was killed by violence a few days later. <br /><br />So, what is the solution? What can be done? I have no answers. The things that used to work; community involvement, parent concern and more policing are not available. Often these kids are raising themselves because of the lack of parents or neglectful parenting. Women are raising young men alone but that is a whole other blog. The situation in Vallejo with increasing violence is tied directly to that city’s bankrupt system and cutbacks in the police force. In my city of Oakland, I’m told there is more policing but they are still having side shows, doing donuts and crazy antics—a young woman was killed about two weeks ago when a driver lost control of a car. In fact, that young woman herself had been involved in taping a violent assault in a hair salon. <br /><br />I don’t know what the solution is and I do not expect any quick answers. I just needed to vent and I have access to this space to do just that. While things are bad, there are young people who are doing phenomenal and positive feats. I hope to bring those stories soon.<br /><br />February 18, 2010Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-11581188963454359362010-02-01T00:54:00.000-08:002010-02-01T02:22:46.320-08:00Late, but Right on Time<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1lVzAXtKVt97nhhITT_IXVFASsPAqH2bcaJ-oXv_GlcUp3_e5n8zPXvImI0tMBrKIMZtTBT56XB3bQEtDQHOoeXBzUrJIdodihR7JWqRESpAqjVfsrdckT-ZAnK5GnnrLuXXjmta1MENm/s1600-h/0471175803.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 100px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 122px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433218418798361666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1lVzAXtKVt97nhhITT_IXVFASsPAqH2bcaJ-oXv_GlcUp3_e5n8zPXvImI0tMBrKIMZtTBT56XB3bQEtDQHOoeXBzUrJIdodihR7JWqRESpAqjVfsrdckT-ZAnK5GnnrLuXXjmta1MENm/s320/0471175803.jpg" /></a>
<br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRcbbdBDW6I7e6WZT5qHbQPXEI3zweDDKvIXwixTD1h6WixRpeFuJUwL0b_0YbreQZhyqS-k2iXSy2fzjLx9NC8l2y4Neff1zD4LfV3HsRqdcISwGMNor4g2Gg5M455TbUUCPgvnzJiej/s1600-h/800021_32.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433217923711319682" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRcbbdBDW6I7e6WZT5qHbQPXEI3zweDDKvIXwixTD1h6WixRpeFuJUwL0b_0YbreQZhyqS-k2iXSy2fzjLx9NC8l2y4Neff1zD4LfV3HsRqdcISwGMNor4g2Gg5M455TbUUCPgvnzJiej/s320/800021_32.jpg" /></a>
<br />Well, it is 2010 and I did not blog in January. I don’t really have a reason for it. I started several blogs but nothing really materialized. When I look back at 2009, I’m pretty satisfied with my blogging, a vast improvement. But looking and going forward for 2010 is what I am about.
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<br />While I wasn’t blogging in January, I have been writing. Some exciting things have materialized in the way of gearing up my writing life. Back in November, I was kind of depressed and having a pity party about my lack of writing. I don’t believe I submitted anything, although I had one publication in January 2009 with Go, Tell Michelle. I was in a state of suspension. I was mentoring and encouraging others but I could not get myself together to further my goals. I have written quite a bit on my childhood stories on this blog. I have written shortened versions of some of the stories I have crafted in my collection. It came to me that I can publish this collection, I mean self-publish because hey, this is about heritage, family and I don’t need a publisher to tell me it is okay to publish MY STORY. So with that in mind, a weight was lifted off of me and I am revising and adding stories to my book that will give another view of my beloved Oakland. Stories of family, community and adventures while I was growing up. I will also look into having some of the stories posted in one of the local newspapers.
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<br />I was asked to participate in a collection with two writers by an author who I admire, a woman who has published several books. This book will be about mothers and daughters. I will be contributing two fiction stories. I am really excited because though I am multi-published, I have had very little fiction published. I am both excited and scared but ready to take the leap. So, look out for that to come out around Mother’s Day. I will keep you posted.
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<br />I received an email in early January from a children’s publisher to be a consultant for a historical book. Yep, just out of the blue. It occurred to me in talking with my writing partner, Teresa and she said it, things are happening when you brush off your fears. I know that God is guiding me and that my attitude had to change in order for him to make a way for opportunities to blossom. There are other opportunities; a chance to place an article about my trip to Cuba on a travel site, write articles for an up-and-coming women’s magazine and write more fiction for a new journal. It’s all here; I just have to grab hold of it.
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<br />Last weekend, I had an opportunity to attend a workshop with some phenomenal black women, all great writers, movers and shakers. We shared, wrote, networked and spoke of producing a community, a consortium of black writers, mentoring and publishing together. There were writers who are workshop leaders, community activists, educators, and even a well-known television journalist. I realize the possibilities are endless, that dreams and goals can be attained and we have the capacity to embrace all that is bestowed upon us as women in general, black women in particular, as leaders in our community and how much writing can play a part in making things happen, as it is a vital part of all the women who attended the workshop. I am hopeful, I am determined.</strong></em> </div>
<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-77999604390964534182009-12-21T23:59:00.000-08:002009-12-22T00:02:34.351-08:00MM- Remembering and Losing SantaHow can I explain that until the age of eight, I believed there was a true<br />Santa Claus. I mean the white beard, red suit, big belly and all. I can remember putting out milk and cookies for Santa and in the morning it would be gone. So, how did I get to the point where Santa was no more?Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-68669061466103218152009-12-14T22:50:00.000-08:002009-12-14T22:52:28.887-08:00Memory Monday- More Childhood Story IdeasNow that I have decided to go full steam ahead with my childhood story collection and publish it, I am gathering even more stories. Maybe because I have been sick the last week, I am remembering illnesses from my childhood. Two in particular.
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<br />I was to be a flower girl in my mother’s first cousin, Pauline’s wedding. I was about three years old. My mother had made my dress and I was all excited but a few days before the wedding I caught the measles or maybe it was the mumps. That was back in the day when those diseases were common. Needless to say I could not be in the wedding. I remember crying and crying, I was so disappointed.
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<br />Then when I was about eight, I fell and broke my arm roller skating. We were living on 24th Avenue. I was rushed to Children’s Hospital. And when I say break, I mean I broke my arm. I stayed in the hospital three days.
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<br />Oh, yes, mentioning about my childhood illness reminds me of the time we went to get immunizations, how my parents tricked us and how my brother and I almost got a spanking for running away. Okay, I need to flush that story out. Back to the cough medicine and bed.</em>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-43338990499087048232009-12-07T23:34:00.000-08:002009-12-08T00:05:09.498-08:00Back to Memory Monday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe906zST_-VYJTq9WNmsxbhIy1hftS9z-dXnP2pVHagv6JCYNkVeFGWwACPOghIukw0wF1sVQJPNHvdx-eKTHuyJ3-uQsNIC83QE2hBL6tUpP_khMYci-kwGs4aYGgfyoOtXEusVk5CwQk/s1600-h/Scan3_00031.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 234px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412772880959991154" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe906zST_-VYJTq9WNmsxbhIy1hftS9z-dXnP2pVHagv6JCYNkVeFGWwACPOghIukw0wF1sVQJPNHvdx-eKTHuyJ3-uQsNIC83QE2hBL6tUpP_khMYci-kwGs4aYGgfyoOtXEusVk5CwQk/s320/Scan3_00031.jpg" /></a>
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<br />In writing my memoirs about a pivotal time in my childhood that culminates in the year 1963, I made a list of memories that would bring this piece together. These stories will be the basis for a book.
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<br />They are:
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<br />Little Red and Earthquake
<br />Dimond Park
<br />Trick or Treat
<br />Shirley Temple Curls*
<br />Lisa the Creole girl*
<br />The motorcycle girls.- Wendy*
<br />Amos n’ Andy*
<br />Celia, Wendy, Carmela, Jimmy Sue
<br />Debra the bully
<br />Jennifer – best friend- Louisiana Creole- Gumbo
<br />Carmela and Santa Claus
<br />Steven Fong and the Grocery Store- father’s suicide
<br />Roger Chevron and the party
<br />Getting a whipping at my birthday party
<br />Tyrone getting killed on a scooter on 23rd Avenue*
<br />Blackberry Memories*
<br />Manzanita and the Maypole
<br />Playing the radio and the older kids dancing to it
<br />Playing music of the 50s and 60s- This is Dedicated to the One I Love, I Danced to a Quarter of Three, School is Out.
<br />The Ballet- Taking dance lessons with the black bourgeois kids at Barbara Braxton’s studio in West Oakland*
<br />Black dolls/white dolls
<br />The transition from 24th Ave. to Brookdale Ave.
<br />The girl who’s mother ran away with her boyfriend (Kathy?)
<br />Walking to Jennifer’s house
<br />My little red-haired friend at Garfield School*
<br />Walking by Myself to Garfield School- You're a big girl now
<br />Mrs.Feefee taking care of us and the whipping over a hot dog and Birely's orange soda.
<br />Walking to Monkey Wards
<br />Modeling/charm class at Montgomery Wards
<br />Going to Arkansas
<br />Cabiness, Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Jackson-Hamilton Junior High School
<br />Mrs. Eating Tortillas’ at Celia’s house
<br />Going to school after Mom left for work- Flo going to school by herself
<br />The transition from 24th Avenue to Brookdale Avenue</strong>
<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-91366600162755738812009-12-02T01:17:00.000-08:002009-12-02T01:19:07.128-08:00Things That Work My NervesI had one of those days and a lot of things irritated me. This is my list of things that irk me. This is by no means complete but all I can think of right now.<br /><br />Rude people:<br /><br />The ones who do not yield at a four-way stop sign. You know the ones who take off behind the car in front of them without regard to if it is their turn.<br /><br />People who chew and pop gum in public. You can do that all you want in your house or in private. Doing it in public is just tacky and crass.<br /><br />People who stand so close to you in line at the store, the bank, even at the pharmacy. Back up off me! I don’t know you like that. And there are too many damn germs going around. You ever hear of swine flu?<br /><br />People who reach across you, step in front of you, stand in front of you and don’t excuse themselves. Total disrespect and hella rude.Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-70987523301969295102009-11-24T00:22:00.000-08:002009-11-24T00:26:06.633-08:00Remembering To Be Thankful<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfwDb_bq0VjA4SleT6zTv0wKhkLAs316kdMyRFZSQrhnKUnKRy2uUzYfMbcxBuwVcy-i6nj8WOZX0GWlJuJD9sUf5ZEt4kN7_ApBGBN0N0rBKwG8qjfUGkPF-1AY3a698slyt-9S76tKX/s1600/thanks_goodeatsroastturkey_med.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 160px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 120px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407583534670407586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfwDb_bq0VjA4SleT6zTv0wKhkLAs316kdMyRFZSQrhnKUnKRy2uUzYfMbcxBuwVcy-i6nj8WOZX0GWlJuJD9sUf5ZEt4kN7_ApBGBN0N0rBKwG8qjfUGkPF-1AY3a698slyt-9S76tKX/s320/thanks_goodeatsroastturkey_med.jpg" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="color:#993300;">We, or rather speaking for myself, I get so caught up in the business of living everyday, trying to keep head above water, that I forget to stop and count my blessings. This Thanksgiving week is as good as time as ever to say how thankful I am.<br /><br />I am thankful for waking up everyday<br /><br />I am thankful for my health and know I should do better<br /><br />I am thankful for my 83 year-old mother<br /><br />I am thankful for my beautiful daughter<br /><br />I am thankful for my siblings and extended family<br /><br />I am thankful to have a job<br /><br />I am thankful to be in my right mind.<br /><br />I am blessed in so many ways, I am thankful for so many things<br /><br />What are you thankful for?<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving</span></strong></div>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-63905893396897189782009-11-09T22:58:00.000-08:002009-11-09T23:08:13.051-08:00Memory Monday- Remembering Savannah<em><span style="color:#006600;">Town square in Savannah<br /><br />Sound<br />The smell of magnolia permeating the air in the square of downtown Savannah<br /><br />Jazz musicians warming up their instruments, the lazy drawl of the saxophone<br /><br />The seduction of the trombone, deep, unhurried, .<br /><br />The piano rumbling a series of notes that eventually became a tune,<br /><br />distinguishable to a Duke Ellington tune.<br /><br />Smell<br />Sweet syrupy honey intermingled with scent of fresh baked bread<br /><br />causing stomachs to rumble.<br /><br />Sizzling platters of Lady’s and Son’s fried chicken<br /><br />wafting up to our noses,<br /><br />the finest in Savannah cooking.<br /><br />Sight<br />The Spanish moss sprouting wildly<br /><br />Colorful books on display<br /><br />A Confederate flag in the window<br /><br />My look of horror and disbelief<br /><br />Reminding me of where I am<br /></span></em>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-45073823814760758062009-11-03T00:03:00.000-08:002009-11-03T20:04:09.846-08:00Childhood Memories- Ballet Among the Black Bourgeois<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_B_ZsGB9znRDqbejCvIvRraD8aiWDDwFilaU9Z2FetofLTvMShlDeciK-jQFElWYc-EOA28jMcBv65KnQT0hb6JLkToK4Wald2DnyLWgHxpL9YO-VZT93chjXzE4nJAc-UD95_oEzoWR/s1600-h/41K02FwaMSL.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 207px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399797627387002578" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_B_ZsGB9znRDqbejCvIvRraD8aiWDDwFilaU9Z2FetofLTvMShlDeciK-jQFElWYc-EOA28jMcBv65KnQT0hb6JLkToK4Wald2DnyLWgHxpL9YO-VZT93chjXzE4nJAc-UD95_oEzoWR/s320/41K02FwaMSL.jpg" /></a>
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<br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoTitle">Ballet Among the Black Bourgeois</p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoTitle">Childhood Memories
<br /></p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoTitle"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoTitle">Originally Written in 2001</p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:0;"></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >I happened to be </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >reading a novel called Breathing Room and coincidentally I had cleaned out my closet and came upon some pink ballet slippers. In an attempt to get exercise and perhaps recapture my childhood, I had taken some ballet lessons at Grand Dance, a local ballet studio a few years prior. It brought back memories of my taking ballet lessons at a black-owned ballet studio in the ‘60s<span style="BACKGROUND: silver; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial">.</span><span style="font-size:0;"> </span>The book is told from three points of views and one of characters is Zadi, a fifteen-year old middle-class black girl living in Washington D.C.</span><span style="font-size:0;"> </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >Her story is told in writings in her journal given as a Kwanzaa gift by one of the other characters.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>In this journal, Zadi is writing to “Sisterfriend” and she talks about many things, boys, clothes, her father’s new wife and a major part of her life, ballet.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She is an advanced ballet student who stresses over her fouette</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-family:Symbol;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;">¢</span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >s, pirouettes and the wrath of Ms. Snow, the dance teacher.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She is also anticipating a role as Odille-Odette in Giselle and dancing for Alvin Ailey or Dance Theatre of Harlem.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Zadi takes lessons from a black-owned studio where the students are also black.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span>This so reminded me so of my experience over thirty years ago when I took ballet and tap dance lessons at Barbara Braxton’s dance studio in West Oakland at 24<sup>th</sup> and Market.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>In a ramshackle building on the corner, I trudged up the gray stairs and past graffiti-strewn walls for my ballet and tap lessons either Saturday morning or Wednesday afternoons.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I took lessons off and on from about 1959 when I was about eight years old until about my sophomore year in high school about 1966, as I recall.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span>There in Barbara’s studio, I learned to loved dance, especially the ballet.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Barbara said I had the perfect feet for ballet; I had a natural pointed toe and beautifully shaped calves.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Over the years I still hear remarks about my nicely formed calves from my years of dancing.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Though I didn’t pursue dance as a career (I had a dance major in my first year of college) the truth was I held back.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I was shy, somewhat withdrawn, not wanting to shine and be in the limelight.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Barbara would get exasperated with me because when we had individual projects, I would make something up short and sweet.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She would always say I had the potential but my dance projects were too short.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span>The students at Barbara’s studio were the popular girls, the daughters of the black bourgeois.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Children of doctors, dentists, lawyers and successful businessmen. Some belonged to Jack and Jill and their mothers were member of the Links.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I knew many of them through my father’s club, East Oakland Business and Professional Men’s Group.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>There was Janet and her older sister, Cynthia (who later married Gene Washington, 49ers football player), daughters of Dr. Watson who had a large medical practice and cute brothers.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Mickey’s (the only boy I can remember that took ballet) parents was the first black family to buy a home in Orinda in the ‘50s. His father was a physician also His father was also a medical physician.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Judge Broussard’s daughters also took lessons there.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Cheryl Taylor was older, but she was the daughter of a renowned officer in the military.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She also ended up marrying my high school crush, John Ivey( which is a whole other story).<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I also remember Joslin, who lived not that far from me who was a very good dancer.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I don’t remember what her parents did.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Barbara’s studio is where the middle-class and upper class black girls went for their dance lessons.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>It was like a special club.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>When I would see these girls at different events or outings it was like a special fraternity.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span>Some of these girls could really dance, some of them were very awkward and I could dance circles around them but still I didn’t showcase my talent or skills like I could have and as a result I never advanced to toe shoes.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Anyway, I remember those days of putting on my ballet slippers, I had a pair or black ones and pink ones and when I put them on, I let my young cares drift away.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Barbara was a woman in her 30s and she had two children during my tenure with her.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She was a formidable, attractive brown-skinned woman with her hair either hanging to her shoulders or pulled back in that ballet style bun.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>She also taught tap dance.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I remember once my sister having on her tap shoes and my brother picking at her and she kicked him with her tap shoes.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Barbara ended up moving to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city st="on">San Jose</st1:city> and closing her studio here in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:city>.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>That left a gap in ballet for black girls, although there was Ruth Beckford Smith who taught modern dance in the ‘60s with the Oakland Park and Recreation but there was none of African descent who taught ballet for many years probably not until the late ‘70s.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span>Reading Zadi’s letters to Sisterfriend in her journal, I am also reminded of a book by Rita Williams Garcia called Blue Tights.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>In that book an inner-city girl is rejected at a white ballet studio and told her body is not made for the ballet and finally finds acceptance at a black studio learning African dance.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>Zadi talks about the joy she feels at Ms. Snow’s studio and I am reminded of her same security and protection dancing with someone who will nurture and encourage her.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >Present day 2009:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >A few weeks ago, I attended a choreographer performance for the Oakland Ballet. Several Bay Area ballet dances performed prominent choreographers’ ballet and while there was no black ballerina but a black male dancer, one of the choreographers honored was Alonzo King, whose body of work is without question, one of the finest. Even today there are stereotypes about black bodies and dance techniques.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>But I am so thankful that an avenue was provided for black girls like me in my early years that may have been discouraged from dance and judged by European standards.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I am also thankful I have a mother who appreciated art and culture and exposed us, my sister and me to dance. It has been well over forty-five years since I took my first ballet lesson but my memories linger of the fondness I had for the art and the opportunity to be introduced to dance in a positive manner, an art form I still love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" >November 2, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span><span style="font-size:0;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size:0;"></span><span style="font-size:0;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: rgb(51,153,153); FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-77804397588299701342009-10-26T21:44:00.000-07:002009-10-26T22:00:52.676-07:00Halloween Back in the Day<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYnhYxSZQhDK7KbohwpyUvyRc5o_S8-dM-epz2TIjqTQdTvVox_4XeBguI8PS2L1RnhYcRN-YWe76uWtNHfsa2H5KhJ1Juger4XX8aMxO78EgzObQah0qI6yk_ZSlBzMgARGsgDlxTEuF8/s1600-h/300px-CandyCorn.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397140279492026722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYnhYxSZQhDK7KbohwpyUvyRc5o_S8-dM-epz2TIjqTQdTvVox_4XeBguI8PS2L1RnhYcRN-YWe76uWtNHfsa2H5KhJ1Juger4XX8aMxO78EgzObQah0qI6yk_ZSlBzMgARGsgDlxTEuF8/s400/300px-CandyCorn.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jZqDkyOCynJUKWp2kYAnS-taVNYza6qdfG5c27-3g9T7WY7ZAMGoyEMWOzO9lIuqStrtgFLAFsRWC53khClHEPCPRXSDiE_8pf-hMr0s3YmXO0nxqURsbIkeiShAbXsem0rF-1NTzQTN/s1600-h/haunted.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 230px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397139459565844914" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jZqDkyOCynJUKWp2kYAnS-taVNYza6qdfG5c27-3g9T7WY7ZAMGoyEMWOzO9lIuqStrtgFLAFsRWC53khClHEPCPRXSDiE_8pf-hMr0s3YmXO0nxqURsbIkeiShAbXsem0rF-1NTzQTN/s320/haunted.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><em><span style="color:#ff9900;">Halloween back in the day in Oakland was sooo cool. Trick-or-treating in the 50s and 60s in the neighborhoods in which I grew up, 24th Avenue and later, Brookdale Avenue was safe, fun and a community event. I can remember going trick-or-treating with my mom when my sister and brother were younger but the real fun was when a group of us kids from age nine and up would go off all over the city (not really but it seemed like it) and getting loads of candy. We would be gone for hours and we did not worry about someone putting something in the candy or razor blades or any of that stuff. We just had fun.<br /><br />The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock was regular fare so we were really geared up on the scary movies. The Adams Family and the Munsters television series got us ready for the haunted houses. I remember this old lady’s house over on East 26th Street that was spooky and we called it a haunted house and being scared to walk past but we marched bravely up to it on Halloween night, still scared, but not to miss out on any goodies. The lady just gave us regular candy.<br /><br />I remember being a fairy, a ghost, Snow White (ha ha). We got huge amounts of candy. My mother would go through it and throw out loose unwrapped candy and then we would put our horde in big glass jars and we were supposed to be meted out a few pieces but my brother and I always ended up eating as much as we could. I remember getting a tummy ache one year. But that was then and this is now. Parents now have to worry about every little thing and have to think on every angle. Most people go to people’s houses they know, some do not trick-or-treat at all. I see lots of churches have parties; some call them Harvest day. They have games, costume contests and plenty of goodies. But I still remember Halloween back in the day when we were carefree and innocent.<br /></span></em></div></div>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-71065359425215990802009-10-20T21:34:00.000-07:002009-10-20T21:38:29.864-07:00Memory Monday-- Oops I Did It AgainWell, this is the second time I forgot Memory Monday blog. There has to be a way to remind myself, a tickler or something. I mean, I thought about it that morning but then poof, I completely forgot.<br /><br />Memory, forgetting, it's all in rememberances.<br /><br />Well, I'll be back later in the week with a new blog.<br /><br />Peace out!Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-50466686742545897642009-10-12T22:20:00.000-07:002009-10-15T00:41:59.584-07:00Memory Monday- I Remember Fall Days<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SbP617Y7G82WQfnH7cGnsXnZHkdH2CwpKQaqVSJHtyXRccuHJKqLmH4Fqrrs03Nxh63S67QBBD9J6MyAudUFtisRt0wCkX3R6g6bcYEz0sM-GxrO6Fq41AjAKPSsTjm_ItY6qWQrQtY8/s1600-h/Untitled.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 300px; float: right; height: 400px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391959800516960338" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SbP617Y7G82WQfnH7cGnsXnZHkdH2CwpKQaqVSJHtyXRccuHJKqLmH4Fqrrs03Nxh63S67QBBD9J6MyAudUFtisRt0wCkX3R6g6bcYEz0sM-GxrO6Fq41AjAKPSsTjm_ItY6qWQrQtY8/s400/Untitled.jpg" border="0" /></a><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" equiv="Content-Type"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDWILLW%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style>
<br /><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I remember fall days</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">a light wind blowing a leaf down the street</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Walking to school with a cool breeze </p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">whipping against my legs</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Buttoning my car coat up to my neck and</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">pulling the hood over my head</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Autumn leaves dancing in synchronization</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">of burnt amber and new gold</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I remember fresh boxes of crayons</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">The smell of new pencils</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">and learning times tables and spelling words</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Drawing diagrams of verbs and nouns on blackboards</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Games of kick ball and tetherball wrapping around a pole</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I remember ashy legs that became shiny with Vaseline</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Pigtails with ribbons and barrettes that hit me in the face</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">when the wind kissed my weathered cheeks</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I remember the first rain that signified</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">summer was over</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Halloween masks and trick or treat</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Big bags of candy and delights</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Darkness descending earlier and earlier making</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">the days shorter </p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Taking a bath and running to the portable heater</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">Sneaking to watch Amos n’ Andy before bedtime</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I remember fall…..</p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal">My favorite season, the best time of the year.</p>
<br /><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDWILLW%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Copyright<span style=""> </span>© 2009<o:p> </o:p>Dera R. Williams</p>
<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-10735560572482592982009-10-05T23:32:00.000-07:002009-10-19T00:28:42.246-07:00Memory Monday- The Little Rock Nine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGDzwk27K0q0ky0_TyDPigEZiBvyrp7IZUrwIK4jW2pIl9KJgyoKocO1LckwZ9V5M2QB9EY-8W50u-YhiipZDtd-MwD2U0AOrUdbne0GdMsqlURcJUrJPBgLGdoaBeLNeLwOaXRtMuxIC/s1600-h/IMG_0597.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGDzwk27K0q0ky0_TyDPigEZiBvyrp7IZUrwIK4jW2pIl9KJgyoKocO1LckwZ9V5M2QB9EY-8W50u-YhiipZDtd-MwD2U0AOrUdbne0GdMsqlURcJUrJPBgLGdoaBeLNeLwOaXRtMuxIC/s400/IMG_0597.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389380033663733490" border="0" /></a>
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<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDWILLW%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was too young to remember the Little Rock Nine, the nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. I was born there and at two years-old moved with my parents to Oakland, California. We were frequent visitors to Arkansas, but it was not until I was much older did I read about and realize the sacrifices those young people and their families made.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I read several of the Little Rock Nine memoirs, and I am currently reading Carlotta Walls Lanier’s account, <i style="">A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School</i>. The youngest of the nine at 14, Walls Lanier would not speak of the ordeal; so traumatized was she, for thirty years. She left Little Rock in 1960, as did her immediate family after the bombing of her home. Lanier Walls was a bright, ambitious, intelligent young lady, who just wanted to best education possible to secure the future she felt she deserved, yet there were thousands of people who tried to take that basic right away from her. And Why? Because they were threatened by the color of her skin and threatened that their way of life would be changed. Arkansas’ Governor Faubus was determined to keep the six girls and three boys from entering Central High by calling out the National Guard. Angry white parents taunted, threw things, berated these youngsters, their faces full of hate. <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDWILLW%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" >But Daisy Bates, a journalist and activist who was born in my mother’s hometown of Huttig, was unafraid of standing up to the white establishment that dared violate these young people’s rights to an educated as mandated by the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" >
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This past summer I visited Little Rock, along with my mother, sister and niece as part of our family reunion in the southern part of Arkansas. It is a much different city then it was in 1957.<span style=""> </span>You would never have known this was formerly a Jim Crow city. We spent a lot of the time visiting and reliving the history of that city. We visited my parents’ alma mater, Philander Smith College, the Mosaic Templar Museum on 9<sup>th</sup> Street, other museums. We also visited Central High and the majestic school’s architecture is amazing. Lanier Walls gives the history of how this school came to be built and why she so wanted to attend. Earlier this year, monuments were erected to the Little Rock nine on the Capitol grounds and we of course, visited that. We took lots of pictures at both places.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last year in 2008, Soledad O’Brien of CNN featured Central High in her <i style="">Black in</i> <i style="">America</i> series. Little Rock schools are totally integrated, I dare say, more integrated than the schools in Oakland. So it pained me that now that black students can freely attend Central High--- which is still considered prestigious, that the students self-segregate themselves and that black students are routinely herded into low-achieving classes. I know this is not endemic to Little Rock particularly but a symptom of the inequality of the educational and economic structures of this country. However, I am proud of the great many prominent African Americans that graduated from Central High and those faces I saw in the glass cases honoring high-achieving students. All in all, I have to say I am pretty much proud of my birth home.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Enjoy the pictures.</p>
<br />Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3069538879769746607.post-87821923337127970782009-09-28T22:52:00.000-07:002009-09-28T23:10:32.255-07:00Memory Monday- Remembering Janie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEe8NS7NEravhyphenhyphenLA2DsSt9Q12yw8oF2ZmTB7UW9nfmEdJYkn-HcHKGaWTRrc_eFc8TKRAIxbi_yxDokYy5IHjIsJno_UCwYQLHcDpAhPZfqJY2F-2wqaDssYTqTTuCL3Q6OpFLz-h8yGa2/s1600-h/Qffs+v35leo65ADcPz4nI8rwoTThKNT6i2VMz6KtR0gonpTiQJcfvKXG8zSnvGq0MLcNrfhGOyk=.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEe8NS7NEravhyphenhyphenLA2DsSt9Q12yw8oF2ZmTB7UW9nfmEdJYkn-HcHKGaWTRrc_eFc8TKRAIxbi_yxDokYy5IHjIsJno_UCwYQLHcDpAhPZfqJY2F-2wqaDssYTqTTuCL3Q6OpFLz-h8yGa2/s400/Qffs+v35leo65ADcPz4nI8rwoTThKNT6i2VMz6KtR0gonpTiQJcfvKXG8zSnvGq0MLcNrfhGOyk=.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386767016567536882" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is my all-time favorite book because it made me believe in the possibilities. I read TEWWG at a time when I was finding my way as a writer. TEWWG showed me the complexity of both language and art. The dialect titillated my sensibilities and brought me back to a place where Blacks governed their own lives, albeit hard times. Janie, the lead character is a character that came into her own and was finding herself. I, too, was at a place in my life of finding myself. Janie’s journey of discovery was my discovery of language and how it speaks to one’s life. TEWWG gave me license to believe that I could write. I saw in myself the pioneer. This book brought out the womanist, yet feminine as Janie was a pioneer in black womanist movement.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">I read the book for the first time almost 20 years ago for an English class after I had returned to college for a liberal arts degree. This was also around the time I began to take my writing seriously. My daughter was about ten years old and while she still required my attention, she was growing up and becoming more independent. Up until that time my writings consisted of journaling and an occasional short story. But now I felt I was ready to write longer fiction and made my first attempt at novel writing. Writing in the first person, my work-in-progress was called simply “My Mother’s Homeland” set in either Haiti or Martinique, I changed back and forth, oh boy. But I knocked out some pages that had people asking me, “Is this a true story?” </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It was then I began to believe in the power of my writing and the possibilities. My desire and need for writing grew immeasurably and I was knocking out pages and overwhelmed with possible topics. Like Janie, I was coming into my own, becoming my own woman as a writer. This also was around the time my father was dying of cancer. His impeding death and the turmoil in the last few years of his life, his moving back to Little Rock, and my awakening was overwhelming at times. But through it all I knew my dad had faith in my writing abilities. He believed I could. Janie had to conquer her fears of navigating the 130s south as a poor, black woman without a man. Her burgeoning independence made me realize that I had the fortitude to step out and begin to pursue my dreams. Janie became my shero.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"></span>Dera Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14513910913210988047noreply@blogger.com4