conjuring nina

Last weekend when my girl Lynn and I went to check out the African World Festival in Detroit, I told her I was "conjuring Nina Simone." I had forked out my fro and draped a floor-length sundress over my sunbrown frame. I was looking good and feeling really diva-ish, ya know.

But conjuring Nina is more than a matter of style. Cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal posted this piece recently that acknowledges Simone's impact on our [the hip hop] generation. Lauren Hill, Talib Kweli, and Common have evoked Nina either verbally or through sampling. To be sure, Nina's music transcends time and generation.

But for me, growing up a dark-skinned girl in a Eurocentric environment, Nina was [and still is] also visual reminder of fierce, unadulterated black beauty and bravery. She was outspoken, or as Neal describes, "ornery," and unapologetic about it. I'm so grateful to have seen her perform before she passed on. Between intermissions, she would saunter onto the stage with her head held high and command the awe she so deserved. When I think about the model of black womanhood she represents for us "women of a certain age," I feel a little sad for the black girls coming up today (some who have no idea who Nina Simone is: I know, I asked my students). Whenever I'm feeling "less-than..." I'm glad I can conjure Nina, tilt my head high, fork out my fro and get my strut on.

midwest weather forecast ... sucky again

Heat+rain=humid

the walker and the walk

I've long been an avid walker. As a city kid, I walked the Mission and downtown San Francisco, the Wharf, Pier 39. I grew up walking to and from school, scaling the towering hills that make up SF's signature landscape. Then I'd spend summers with my father and other family in small-town Tejas where I was convinced we could walk the whole town. Quite often we'd follow the railroad tracks like those kids in Stand by Me. Luckily we never stumbled upon a dead body. We did sneak around unpopulated corners and under bridges to smoke cigarettes though.

New York by far is my favorite walking city. The city is filled with so many attention grabbing shops, vendors, people, performers that you can walk miles and miles up and down streets and avenues and not grow very tired (at least not quickly). Today's Times features lovely meditations on the walk:

"The walk unfurls according to mood, physical endurance and visual appetite," writer Nicole Krauss tells us. Historicizing the walk, Alex Marshall reminds us, "The 19th century was the age of the flaneur and the boulevardier, figures who made strolling down Fifth Avenue or Broadway, often vividly attired, a fashionable activity worthy of their counterparts in Paris or London." Other avid walkers share their stories as well. Feel free to share yours too.

yep, another reason to love new york

New Yorkers live longer! Could it be that walking promotes a longer healthy life? I've always believed this, but not at a snail's pace ...

"Researchers have long known that people here walked fast—far faster than anyone else in the country. Indeed, the easiest way to tell a New Yorker from an out-of-towner is by walking speed: The natives blast down the sidewalk at blitzkrieg pace, and the visitors mosey along like pack mules."

keep reading here

New Study: Making Black Girls "Ladylike" Discourages Achievement?

(Big ups to my girl at brown girl chronicles for bringing this to my attention.)

WASHINGTON – A new study shows that teachers tend to view the behavior of black girls as not "ladylike" and therefore focus disciplinary action on encouraging behaviors like passivity, deference, and bodily control at the expense of curiosity, outspokenness, and assertiveness.

click here to continue reading ...

improper jogger

Since women are not allowed to run topless in public (even at 96 degrees), isn't it only fair that men with boobs follow the same prohibition?

i heart janeane garofalo

It's a wonderfully stormy night and I just watched The Truth About Cats and Dogs. It reaffirms everything I love about Janeane Garofalo. She's dynamic, a great actor, funny, pretty, smart, on the right sight of politics ... I know she's playing a character but come on, "Abby" plays the violin on one end of the phone line then her love interest reads to her from Camera Lucida in turn. Okay, maybe it's just me.

p.s. I watched Dirty Dancing earlier and decided to listen to Otis Redding for two hours. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

not everything is about race ... really

Is the NAACP running out of relevant causes to support? To be sure, no one should be presumed guilty (not even an "alleged" despicable abuser of animals) until he's had his day in court. But really people, Vick has more than enough money to hire the best lawyers in his defense. Why doesn't the NAACP do something useful for a change? Like make sure kids in low income school districts get proper textbooks and access to technology! Or why not offer some useful commentary about black men and how too many are entangled in the sports industrial complex (oh yeh, a critique of masculinity would need to be launched here as well; not sure all those male mouthpieces of the NAACP are ready for that).

And check out the way R.L. Wright addressed the following question:

When the Duke lacrosse players were accused of rape, the NAACP came out early in favor of the accuser. Isn’t that the same thing PETA and the Humane Society are doing?
In the case of the Duke players, everyone did form an opinion before the trial, and I’ve been reminded several times that the NAACP came out in favor of the young woman who was the accuser in that case. And I’ve said that just because you make one mistake doesn’t mean you have to continue to make mistakes. In other words, instead of saying, “Let’s rush to judgment in this case because the same thing happened to those boys at Duke,” we should be learning from what happened there and stopping the prejudgment of people’s guilt outside of a courtroom.

Wrong Answer RL! How about, "Well, in the Duke case we might have rushed to judgment but white men DO have a history of raping or otherwise sexually abusing black women with impunity. And the um accuser in that rape case is not a dog."