Wendy Jane's Soul Shake

My friend, and very talented artist, Julie, invited me to a panel talk held at one of Providence’s gems–the arts organization, AS220

The panel, titled I’M AN ARTIST: WOMEN OF COLOR SPEAK consisted of poets Kate Rushin, Sussy Santana, theater director Francis Parra, and actress and theater artistic director, Jackie Davis. The panel was moderated by poet Franny Choi.

The panel began with […]

I came across this post on author and anti-racism educator, Tim Wise’s, blog.

Of course, I think the young women poets here are amazing, and I love what they have to say, but as a white person, I end up feeling guilty, and wonder, “are they talking to me?”–especially if I start to think, “but I’m a cool, understanding, empathetic, didn’t grow up in the suburbs, down with black people, white person…”–does that make me even more pointedly who they are talking about?

Please watch, and post your comments below:

Brave New Voices: (Video) “We Don’t Mean to Offend You By Calling You Racist”

Oh my…these women are amazing, and this message much in need of being heard. Below the video, check out the link for Brave New Voices, and YouthSpeaks…

http://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/

http://youthspeaks.org/

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SOURCE:  www.timwise.org

By now, most of you know about my Facebook poems, the daily poems I create from my friends’ status updates.  Well, it’s crossed my mind, more than once, that these poems are a melding of many voices:  black, white, Latino, Cape Verdean, Asian, and more.  How often do we get to hear voices come together in one piece of work, other than in song?

Here are three recent poems that bring a diversity of voices together […]

In a prior post, I mentioned that I write daily poems on Facebook  made from my friends’ posts.  And, even though I thought I’d take a break after completing my 30 posts in 30 days goal, I couldn’t resist posting last night’s FB poem.  There were so many posts on racism, that I thought it fitting I share it here.

FACEBOOK POEM OF THE DAY (made from your posts)

…you write the posts, I just put ’em together-strange how many posts mentioned racism today…

where the white man
went wrong
what’s up with
all these racist receipts?
“ugly itch”
She is probably
plotting revenge

weird incident
Charlize Theron adopts
a black baby
no hate
Black on Black & White
stay native my friends

Blatant racism just
the way I like it
Mitt Romney: I can relate
to Black people. My
ancestors once
owned slaves
…but we knew
this already
Beyond Black & White

Thanks to the people whose posts I used:  Deb, Philip, Christopher, The Root, Philbrook Museum of Art, Beyond Black & White, Russell