Once by Alice Walker

I like to ask questions. Many times, I like to request suggestions when it comes to what I read. The suggestions don’t have to be super informed, like a reader knowing the history of a book or the understanding of the way it influenced culture and society. Sometimes, I just want to hear a reader’s pure personal opinion, no matter how simplistic.

I bought this book because a young writer and bookstore staffer responded to my question of which of two poetry collections I should purchase (I won’t reveal what the other book I was considering was because I deeply respect both poets), by simply expressing that she loved Alice Walker. That was good enough for me in that instance. I trusted her admiration. Many people admire Alice Walker, but I knew this person was an avid reader and a good writer, whose work I am a fan of. I began to read the book and was glad I trusted her opinion.

Without further ado, here are three poems I enjoy from Alice Walker’s Once:

WARNING

To love a man wholly

love him

feet first

head down

eyes cold

closed

in depression.

It is too easy to love

a suffer

white eyes

godliness &

bronze

in the bright sun. – p. 68

_____________________________

THE BLACK PRINCE

Very proud

he barely asked directions

to a nearby

hotel

but no

tired-eyed

little village chief

should spend his

first night

in chilly London

alone. – p. 69

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Left: Anarchy and the Sex Question: Essays on Women and Emancipation, 1896-1926 by Emma Goldman (PM Press). Right: The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler (HarperCollins)

There are times when I read nearly a dozen books at one time. Recently, after a long pause from reading profusely, I decided to stock up on several books I wanted to delve into, reading many of them for a few chapters at a time, then moving on to another. I would sit and do this for three to four hours at a time. I have been this way since I can remember. This is not a declaration to incite others to become impressed or even inspired. It’s just what I tend to do.

But there are two books that have stood out for me amidst the myriad of classics, new and contemporary releases, poetry books and informative non-fiction manuscripts I’ve been reading: Anarchy and the Sex Question: Essays on Women and Emancipation, 1896-1926 by Emma Goldman and The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler. While reading them back to back, I realized the books compliment each other very well they exhibit starkly realistic examinations of the history of women (Emma was living the history while she was writing her essays), and a genuine concern for the well-being of women’s lives – anthropologically, socially, politically, sexually and psychologically.

They seem to flow together for me and I want to share my observation for anyone who, not just women and female identified intellectuals, but anyone who wants to learn more about the ascent of patriarchy and how it affects women’s experiences; existentially, tangibly and in several other different ways. I’d like to express that I believe these books will be satisfying.

You can find inexpensive used versions of both books. Anarchy and the Sex Question was published in 2016 as a pocket sized book by the independent publisher, PM Press. The book is sold new for 14.95 USD and can be found used for as little as 6 USD at any independent bookstore that carries Marxist, leftist and anarchist literature. The Chalice and the Blade’s first paperback edition was published by HarperCollins in 1988 and has since been published in 26 foreign editions. It was originally sold for 14 USD and can be found used for as little as 4 USD online or in independent bookstores that sell historical and vintage political science books. Both books are usually filed in the Political Science sections of bookstores.

In conclusion, these books aren’t hard to find, nor are they expensive by any means. I humbly suggest you read these books in unison and learn all you can about the history of women and the brilliant authors who shared their thoughts, research and empathy for the advancement of equality of women and humankind.

Publik / Private and Publik / Private Small Press Presents:
An Evening with Author Jordannah Elizabeth & Special Guests

November 6, 2018
The Motor House
7:00-8:30 pm

Local author and widely published journalist, Jordannah Elizabeth (O Magazine, Cosmopolitan, BmoreArt, Village Voice, Ms. Magazine and more) will be presenting never before read works from her upcoming chapbook, “The Warmest Low Reader: The Deep Blue Sea” along with poems and selections from her published books, “Don’t Lose Track Volume 1” (Zero Books) and “The Warmest Low (Chapbook One) Limited Edition Two,” and her favorite poets and authors.

Jordannah has taught at Maryland Institute College of Art, Creative Alliance and lectured at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, and was a guest journalist at Harvard University’s Black Lives Matter: Music, Race and Justice Conference.

Her unique existential ode to Baltimore City will be presented in full at The Motor House!

There will be an audience Q&A at the end of the evening.

Special Guest Readers will include local poets and writers:
Amorous Ebony
Cierra Lione
Lauren H. Smith
Theresa Columbus
Tracy Dimond

Image by: Miguel A. García

Being different is a reality that I’ve lived for as long as I can remember. I’ve always waded through my vivid imagination, my mind full of stories of rockstars, fairy tales, travel and poetic adventures. Because I had such an engrossing inner life, I never really thought to much about my outer appearance. Of course, I dressed and bathed, and interacted in school, but ideas of my gender in regards to the way I dressed and behaved was not a prominent concern. By the time, I was 19 years old, my friends began to call me “queer”, not because of my sexual preference, but because I was unique and couldn’t be put into a box. My LGTBQ friends and I were like peas in a pod, and for the first time in my life, because queer seemed to fit so well with my free flowing – and what I later learned was genderfluid experience, I accepted who I was by being aligned with those terms.

All in all, no term can define one’s experience in full, and of course, a gender assignment cannot define my story of survival, but being queer, gender fluid, and more importantly, “Jordannah” has helped me understand that my work in life is to live without limitations and rigid definition.

Nonetheless, what should be understand as I write as survivor or sexual abuse is that even though my body survived, my identity struggles with how deeply I want to be entangled with my survivorhood. My brain is permanently damaged due to trauma and nearly a decade after the abuse, I still work to train it how to proportionately react to emotional stressors, conflict and intimate relationships. How does a fluid gender identity cohabit with the brain of a survivor?

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You must understand, when you’re born and raised in Baltimore, there’s a certain type of paranoia you experience when you’re in the dark. Yes, it could be because of violence, it could be of abuse and drugs, but over in my neighborhood where middle class families, college students and 30+ artists all mingle peacefully with the homeless, my paranoia more or less has to do with invasion of my privacy.

Don’t get me wrong, a little over a year ago, five blocks down the street, my neighborhood did insight the worries of needles on the sidewalk and the safety of the prostitutes I would hear being beaten in the downstairs apartment, but yes, in my current home, during this season, I only worry about 5-0…and now that I write it, I guess no matter where you live in Baltimore, being Black and from this small, complex City, our fears are all the same.

My partner had to go back into my apartment to look for something after we’d been mingling on my porch. After a couple of minutes, I followed him in and, I saw him shining a flashlight over my desk. He found the item he was looking for on my lounge chair, after I turned the light, and when we stepped back out onto my porch to chat, I asked him accusingly, “This is the second time you were looking around my desk…” He replied, “What are you hiding on your desk?” I replied, “I think you’re five-0.” Continue reading →