wordLife

emersonWRITES workshops for local youth

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Beginning January, Emerson College is offering free writing workshops that teach local high school students how to express themselves through creative writing.

The workshops, of which there are five, take place on Saturdays from 10a - 1p.

Interested high school students can apply here.

sapphire gives birth to the kid

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:41:00 +0000

On June 11, 1996, author/poet Sapphire gave birth to Precious Jones, the abused, illiterate, obese main character of her gritty debut novel Push. Fifteen years later, her latest literary labor of love has given birth to another unforgettable character.

Her new novel The Kid, released in July, chronicles the life of Precious’s son Abdul. The story paints a poignant picture of the precarious, perilous path Abdul walks in the aftermath of his mother’s death from AIDS.

Currently on an extensive tour to promote the tome, Sapphire admits that the frequent travel can be tiring, but says she nonetheless embraces the opportunity to talk about how her texts give voice to the voiceless.

“I tell myself – as the kids in New York say – ‘I’m representin’,’ says Sapphire. “I’m representing for my book. And it’s not just my book as a commercial product, but it’s my book that represents an African-American AIDS orphan, my book that represents poor people, my book that talks about social issues that a lot of texts are not [talking about].”

energe embodies chicago's swag & soul

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

Behind his fresh and fashionable exterior, Energe is calm, reserved. He may not wear his heart on his Hermés sleeve, but he makes sure to pour his soul into his songs. Rap realism blended with smooth, melodic melancholy, his music takes the highs and lows of life and finds middle ground.

And certainly, much of the twenty-something's life has been a balancing act, where the singer, producer and songwriter has swayed between pursuing a music career and pursuing a college degree, between producing music and performing it, between singing and rapping, between welcoming the spotlight and staying in the shadows.

But it’s hard not to shine when you grow up in the city that gave birth to Donny Hathaway and Fred Hampton, bred Oprah and Obama, made Common & Kanye hip hop household names, and was home to a basketball team with a breakout star that had an entire generation of black kids wanting to be like Mike.

writing space

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:36:00 +0000

Gotta keep it peace like a Buddhist
I ain't a New Jack
Nobody 'gon Wesley Snipe me
It's less than likely
Move back
Let I breathe, Jedi knight
The more space I get the better I write
Never I write, but, if, ever I write I need the space to say whatever I like...

-- Jay-Z, "Change Clothes," The Black Album

Harvard University's Hip Hop Archive hosts producer 9th Wonder

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:47:00 +0000

As he introduced a man he said he’d been blessed to call both colleague and friend for the last few years, noted African American studies scholar Dr. Mark Anthony Neal recalled his first time meeting hip hop producer 9th Wonder.

“We’re just sitting there, waiting for our [radio interview] to get started, and we start talking about our kids and parenting. And 9th Wonder starts talking about going to school conferences and open houses and [other] parents looking him up and down like, ‘So what do you do for a living?’ [And he tells them], ‘I’m a hip hop producer.’ And they’re confused, right? And he said to me, ‘Somehow, [people think that] because you’re a hip hop producer, you’re not supposed to be involved with raising your kids,” said Dr. Neal. “At that moment, I knew this was a special cat.”

Indeed, Patrick Douthit, known by most as 9th Wonder, is much more than just a hip hop producer. He’s a husband, a father, CEO of his own record label, member of the Universal Zulu Nation, an NAACP ambassador and a college professor.

And yet, for 9th Wonder, hip hop is where it all started; it’s the axis around which his innovative, multifaceted career has rotated for years.

Read the rest online at BayStateBanner.com!

boston medical center food pantry celebrates 10 year anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

When a serious eye problem sent Dorchester executive professional Laura B. rushing to Boston Medical Center’s emergency room, she had no job, no health insurance, and no idea how she’d be able to receive the care she needed to address the chronic health conditions she’d been coping with.

In 2006, eleven years into her stint as director of a South Boston nonprofit, Laura was laid off and has struggled to maintain gainful employment and stable income ever since. She’s also had to grapple with Type 2 diabetes, weight problems and glaucoma, serious ailments she had neither the knowledge nor the money to monitor and manage.

But shortly after becoming a BMC patient, Laura received a prescription not to a pharmacy, but to the hospital’s food pantry, an innovative food assistance program where patients receive referrals to obtain free food that can improve their health.

Now, Laura is one of some 7000 local residents that receive over 20 tons of free fresh fruits, vegetables and meat the hospital gives out each month.

For the last ten years, the Boston Medical Center Food Pantry has brought a sense of stability to the lives of local residents with socio-economic barriers that prevent them from accessing healthy foods and quality healthcare. A referral to the food pantry is often the first step for patients on the path toward getting fresh, wholesome foods and learning and adopting healthier eating habits. Pantry patrons are also encouraged to participate in food preparation classes in the medical center’s demonstration kitchen, where they can learn how to cook food, control portion size, and more.

anonymous boston sheds light on media's role in urban violence

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:23:00 +0000

The cheerful smiles of Eyanna Flonory and Amani Smith beam down from a large portrait of the mother and son mounted on the wall. Their bright faces are visible from the street outside through the big picture windows of Fenway art gallery The Fourth Wall Project. Next to their photo, dozens of statements about the young family stretch the length of the wall.

“The black youth of today seem determined to make their own race extinct,” reads one comment. “Add Mattapan to the list of cities that need to be nuked off the face of the planet,” reads another.

And near the bottom of the wall, one comment flatly states, “Save your tears for the toddler. He would have grown up to be a gang banger too.”

What can’t be seen from the street – what’s missing from the wall all together – are the faces of the people who posted the comments. And though the words and the images are close together, to many, the lives of this young family and the people who posted the comments about them are worlds apart.

call for proposals: we learn 2012 networking conference

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:07:00 +0000

Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network (WE LEARN) is seeking proposals for its annual networking conference and gathering to "build a community of co-learners" that share experiences and stories in order to strengthen women's literacy skills.

The theme for 2012 -- Women in Literacy: Access Technology, Build Connections and Create Networks -- moves our attention towards using technology for educating, empowering and enriching our lives and communities.

Download the conference information and proposal form here, and learn more about WE LEARN by visiting their website, welearnwomen.org.

cancer support groups brings patients of color together

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Just two years after Jacqueline Harris settled into retirement, she was diagnosed with cancer.

Her daughter, siblings and a few close girlfriends have been a welcome support system throughout the treatment process, accompanying her to doctor’s visits, cooking meals and providing encouragement. And while Harris was aware that her cancer experience could cause her to lose hair or weight, she didn’t expect that it would lead to the loss of some friends.

“A few friends have fallen away for different reasons, I think because of fear,” she said. “I think some people, when they look at a friend or a person who has cancer, it forces them to look at their own life and their own death. And it’s hard for some people to deal with.”

For Harris, joining a cancer support group proved to be an important resource as she tried to heal not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually as well.

At the suggestion of her oncologist, she contacted Facing Cancer Together, a Newton, Mass.-based non-profit that provides support groups, self-care classes, therapy sessions and other safe spaces where people living with or dying from cancer can vent, learn, grieve, share and connect.

Read the rest here!

tomorrow: third sector new england book drive

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:57:00 +0000

On Saturday, November 5th, Third Sector New England will host its annual book drive. The books collected will be donated to the Prison Book Program. Read more about the Prison Book Program here.

City partnership helps bring bike share to Roxbury

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:03:00 +0000

This past July, Mayor Thomas Menino announced the installation of New Balance Hubway, a bike sharing service that allows anyone over 18 with a membership to rent a bike by the hour or day.

Hubway is the flagship program of Boston Bikes, a City of Boston initiative that strives, according to its web page, to “make Boston a world-class bicycling city by creating safe and inviting conditions for all residents and visitors.”

Over the past few months, the Hubway system, with its sleek, grey metallic bikes and computerized payment centers, seems to have caught on with residents and tourists in Boston’s bustling downtown area.

But will Hubway catch on in the hood?

Visit Baystatebanner.com to read the rest.

female execs give students inside scoop on music industry

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Nearly 200 people filled the seats of Berklee Performance Center to learn how to take their music business careers to the next level.

In its fifth year, the “Business of Hip-Hop/Urban Music Symposium,” is an annual knowledge sharing event hosted by Berklee College of Music that puts music industry professionals on the hot seat so that members of the panel’s audience can ask questions about the ins and outs of creating, promoting and earning income in the music business.

Dubbed the “Ladies First Edition,” this year’s panel convened earlier this month and featured five female music industry executives who have played a major part in hip hop and urban music, including Nina Packer, GM of Bryant Management (which guides the careers of music megastars Lil Wayne and Drake); Lynn Scott, VP of Marketing at Universal/Motown; Rose Daniels of MusicIndustryOnline.com; Shanti Das, president of Press Reset Entertainment and former VP of Universal/Motown and Columbia; and LaTrice Burnette, cofounder of Game Media and former Atlantic Records marketing manager who has coordinated campaigns for Jay-Z and Diddy.

Berklee alumni and event co-producer Darcie Wicknick said the symposium presented an ideal opportunity to “highlight the value and the level of leadership among female executives in hip hop and urban music,” and dispel the myth that mostly men manage the music industry.

The BayStateBanner.com has the rest!

Head wraps bring style, hope to cancer patients

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:37:00 +0000

It was the type of sunny Sunday afternoon that seemed perfect for food, friends, fashion and fun. And knowing the intimate garden party gathering was for a good cause seemed to make those who came to The House of Tafari Collection’s Wrapping for a Cause fundraiser even more enthusiastic.

Held among the greenery and flowers of the Edward L. Cooper Sr. Community Gardening and Education Center in Roxbury’s Fort Hill section, Wrapping for a Cause featured a keynote address from Dr. Abbas Qutab, live music and poetry, a head wrapping demonstration and a fashion show highlighting ornately crafted head wraps and sophisticated clothing designs.

Read the rest online at BayStateBanner.com!

Photo courtesy Lena Thomas.

Former SEBA executive director snatched up by ESENA

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:50:00 +0000

Former South End Business Association (SEBA) executive director Stacy Koeppel has been hired as the Ellis South End Neighborhood Association’s new executive assistant. At ESENA’s September board meeting, vice president John Herbert introduced Koeppel to members, noting her ability to create strong connections with people, businesses and organizations in the South End.

"When we met with Stacy to try to convince her that this was a good idea, both [board president Michael Hall] and I came away very impressed. We left the meeting saying, ’She is perfect!’ We both felt that she understood exactly what it was we wanted to do... plus, she’s a lot more organized and smarter than a lot of us," Herbert joked.

"That’s a lot to live up to," Koeppel quipped, but she seemed up for the challenge as she explained to board members how she planned to leverage the relationships she built during her nearly decade-long stint at SEBA to help entice businesses to join ESENA.

Read the rest online at MySouthEndNews.com!

taste of salt explores family and racial isolation

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:47:00 +0000

It’s the type of weather that makes many stay inside, but the rain didn’t stop a small crowd from gathering at Harvard Book Store last Friday night to hear author Martha Southgate read from her new novel The Taste of Salt.

The writer, who started out in news and magazine journalism covering film and entertainment for publications like The New York Times, The New York Daily News and O: The Oprah Magazine shifted gears mid-career to focus on writing fiction. The change of pace proved positive. Her debut novel Another Way to Dance received the Coretta Scott King Genesis Award for Best First Novel, and subsequent releases The Fall of Rome and Third Girl from the Left were also met with acclaim.

Like many authors, Southgate finds intriguing ways to incorporate her interests and experiences into her books. She saysThird Girl from the Left was inspired in part by her love of film and movies, while The Fall of Rome, which focuses on how race and class impacts the lone black professor and black student at an exclusive educational institution, was influenced by Southgate’s own experience attending a prep school. She says one of the initial inspirations for The Taste of Salt however, was discovering a colleague’s husband’s unique occupation.

Read the rest online at Baystatebanner.com.

brothers banter about america's racial politics

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:06:00 +0000

Tomorrow (9/29), journalist, author and cultural critic Toure and Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy will sit down with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA to discuss their recently released books and "racial politics in the age of Obama."

The event, hosted by Harvard Bookstore and the W.E.B. Dubois Institute, starts at 6p; tickets are $5. Check out more details here.

martha southgate gives readers a 'taste' of her new novel

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

This Friday, Sept. 23rd, award-winning author Martha Southgate heads to Harvard Bookstore to read excerpts from her fourth novel The Taste of Salt. In the book, Southgate dives into the life of a Black woman scientist with a passion for the ocean, uncovering the experiences and emotions she and her family encounter as they try to come to terms with their father's alcoholism.

Harvard Bookstore's website has the details.

beats, rhymes & life

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:31:00 +0000

Growing up in the projects is enough to make anyone search for a way out. But for Session, music was more of an entrance than it was an escape. It was the key that unlocked the door to a world where he could use words and rhythms to define his style, speak from his soul and rep the streets that made him.

"Making music wasn't something I decided to do," the producer/emcee says. "It's been the one constant in my life as far back as I can remember."

Read More

why we write

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:59:00 +0000

We will certainly continue writing, because, as the great Zora Neale Hurston wrote in Their Eyes Were Watching God, 'there is no agony like an untold story inside you.' We can make sure that we continue to have wonderful writers by reading them. That's one way we can nurture young talent, by reading more."

-- Edwidge Danticat

literacy, libraries & liberation

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:31:00 +0000

A meeting of the minds for two women who have a way with words: writer/orater/teacher/activist Angela Y. Davis sits down with author Toni Morrison to talk about "literacy, libraries and liberation."

Courtesy of the New York Public Library

rapper turned writer sister souljah schools readers on Islam

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:19:00 +0000

This month, more than a billion Muslims across the globe will observe Ramadan, a period of daily fasting to celebrate and reflect on the power and purpose of their religion. And while Islam is the second-most practiced religion in the world, it is still perhaps one of the most maligned and misunderstood faiths on the planet.

Spurred on by the growing intolerance and ignorance surrounding Islam and Muslim people, raptivist-turned-writer Sister Souljah is using her powerful way with words to give readers the real deal on the religion and its followers.

“I think the media image of Muslims is very flat and very one-dimensional. They have a tendency to be portrayed as people who are only interested in politics and revenge and nothing else,” Souljah says. “I thought it [would be] interesting to show those other dimensions and… [to show] the Islamic community as human beings that are trying to live their lives happily and trying to stick to their culture and save their traditions.”

Preserving culture and tradition has long been one of Souljah’s platforms. In the 90s, her Afrocentric raps and rabble-rousing speeches empowered listeners to know their history, embrace their culture, and fight the power. Now, her street-savvy books are encouraging readers to explore how history and culture shapes people’s values, lives and communities.

Click "Read More" to read the full-length article. To read the published version, visit BayStateBanner.com.

"suga got a long way to catch you..."

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 01:49:00 +0000

nostalgia, ultra

An electrifying ensemble of emotion-drenched essays, edgy and eclectic fashion editorials, provocative profiles of powerful women, and an ahead-of-the-curve take on culture and creativity, Honey magazine was the guidebook for fly, fresh, fierce black and brown females on a journey to discover self, society and soul. Circa 1999

q&a with Sapphire

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:32:00 +0000

For more than 20 years, author/poet Sapphire has taken readers through the looking glass, using her works as a mirror to reflect the beauty, brutality, power and pain of the modern-day black experience. Raw and unflinchingly realistic, her texts have left a large and lasting mark on contemporary American and African American literature.

Released earlier this month, her new novel The Kid continues her exploration of how race, poverty and gender shape black people’s lives. The book plunges readers into the mind of Precious' son Abdul, whose life spirals out of control after his mother dies of AIDS. And while the compelling coming-of-age story uses Push as a jumping-off point, Sapphire describes the books as “two very different stories.”

Tell us more about the character Abdul.
He’s a smart kid. Yeah, he has some bad days and does some bad things, but he’s not a gangster, you know what I mean? Although he is tall, and he is big, and he has had violence inflicted upon him, and he is violent at times, he is also creative; he is also obsessed with the idea of making it and becoming a part of the mainstream, becoming a dancer, becoming an Alvin Ailey. He does not want to be a gangster; in fact, he’s angry that he gets put into positions where he doesn’t have the material things he needs. So he’s not an outlaw. But he could be if we don’t help him.

Read the rest online at the Baystatebanner.com!

this thursday: sapphire reads from lastest novel the kid

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:02:00 +0000

The Kid, Sapphire's sequel to her gritty, gripping fiction debut Push, follows Precious' son Abdul in the aftermath of his mother's death. A harrowing, heart-wrenching coming-of-age story, The Kid is a tale of a boy who's young, gifted and black, but also violent, restless and wild, a motherless child searching for his soul in a society virtually devoid of spirit.

Sapphire will be reading from The Kid this Thursday, June 28th at 7p at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA, and wordLife will definitely be in the house -- follow us on Twitter at @youheardwrite as we live tweet (we'll use the hashtag #SapphireatBrattle) from the event!

life of the mind

noreply@blogger.com (wordLife) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:59:00 +0000

... [W]e need for more young black people to fall in love with the life of the mind and to become voracious readers and writers."

-- Dr. Cornel West, "The promise of America: Noted public intellectual Cornel West discusses his views on making the nation better" (Interview in The Bay State Banner)