the hours

he said it couldn't get any better
knowing the extent of his capabilities, assuming my own.
he laid down holding his breath, trying to catch what was left.
he placed his hand in mine and his arm around my neck, allowing my head to rest on him.
i listened to his quickened heart slow down its pace, beating in time with rain, drowning out the sighs in our breath.
i looked up at him looking down at me, our eyes having there own conversation.
i could tell he wasn't ready but i was running out of time.
if i allowed him to sleep, the morning would come faster and end what was left of this dream.
i kissed him softly.
he knew he could not resist.
our bodies spoke in their own language.
we conversed for what seemed like hours.
starting out gibberish, ending in tongues.
it always gets better he said. Read more!

about a boy or two

i let the idea of you and me
roll around on my tongue
and sit awhile
taking
precious time
to savor and re-taste
the sweet blend
of you and i together
and it was good. Read more!

between you & forever

sitting here thinking....

wishing
i was there with you
laying
staring over at you
across sheets
under covers
you peel away the layers
and i'm exposed
bare
you and i
nothing between us but forever
i take my time with you
basking in the beauty of
your skin on my skin
my hands in your hands
you on my head
me on your mind
us together
i wish i could duplicate the feeling
this feeling
that i feel when we're together
like forever
really is the only thing between us

...like we don't have to race time. Read more!

the blower's daughter

kindred spirits in this life
his mind, my eye
i am the fruit
that sits closest to him
not wanting to fall too far from
the hymn in me
speaks in song
i feel him
and weep for us
his addiction, our burden
stifles those that love
those that long
to call him
daddy
longs to be free
to be seen as such
so he takes that hit
and i go down...

i am not a fighter
but a lover
of the image i see
mirrored in flaws Read more!

next assignments...

light & subject | portraits

brainstorming

Read more!

hello lover....

since my birthday is coming up next month i've been thinking about what to buy myself. i always like to do something big and special in my honor and this year was supposed to be a trip to London. needless to say, that ain't happening so since i'm staying stateside i want to get something i've had my eye on for quite some time...canon 30d dslr. i've finally found one that's a decent price on craigslist but i'm still not sure i want to spend the money...sigh.

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portraiture

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a love poem

i felt your hesitation
and knew
you'd hurt me
knew
i'd love you
me being
no stranger to pain
i've been a masochist
since my first

love

hit me
i hit floor
crawl in corner
hide
from fact
that
i do
and you can't

love Read more!

untitled

i experienced our uppers

and downers

with cocktails and cigarettes

maybe one

once in a while

cause i don't smoke

but you

kept it fresh on my tongue

the taste

remembering the last time

tasting you 

sweet on my lips

and 

the bitter end

of us.

Read more!

course work

so i'm taking a color film photography class and it has been a bit of a struggle so far. i've been told, in so many words, that i am not creative, have no depth, and the harshest of all just plain sad.

here are of few of my non-creative, depth-less, sad prints...

depth-less?

non-creative?

sad?

i'm a work in progress

Read more!

a short conversation on love...

he: " you love me... don't you?"

she: " i wouldn't go that far."

he: " how far would you go...?"

Read more!

my favorite poem

BLUES FOR AN AFRICAN PRINCESS

Sad-eyed Ghanaian girl

how you know so much

so soon?

Dealing with the world

with gentle persistence.

Teaching me while you

act like you learnin.

Looking at me out of 

ancient African eyes

deep enough

to drown in

Lookin at me like

I'm ten feet tall

and me stretchin to be it

an almost makin it

an everybody surprised

                                         but you

- Sam Greenlee

Read more!

it came

I got my book in the mail today....

An exquisite book of poems by Sam Greenlee, if you haven't heard of him allow me to introduce you. 

 NOTORIETY

I new I'd arrived

when she

said about me:

Yeah, I remember you

you carried a 

shoulder bag

before

they were

in style.

Read more!

sensible words

"and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anais Nin Read more!

love overboard...s.o.s.o.s

only in el lay

Read more!

i wish u were here

and you could lay on me
and i could stroke your hair
and you could wrap your fingers in mine
and i could kiss your brow
and you could look into my eyes
and we could sit in silence
and enjoy each other

if i were there Read more!

lady sings in red

Read more!

labors of love

Read more!

dance....

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is coming to los angeles...

Alvin Ailey was born in Rogers, Texas on January 5, 1931 and moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he fell in love with concert dance. Inspired by performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and classes with Lester Horton, Mr. Ailey began his formal dance training. It was with Mr. Horton, the first racially integrated dance company in this country, that Mr. Ailey embarked on his professional dance career. After Horton's death in 1953, Mr. Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In 1954, he and his friend Carmen de Lavallade were invited to New York to dance in the Broadway show, House of Flowers by Truman Capote. In New York, Mr. Ailey studied with many outstanding artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and took acting classes with Stella Adler. The versatile Ailey won a number of acting roles, continued to choreograph and performed as a dancer.

In 1958, Mr. Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Ailey had a vision of creating a company dedicated to the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance heritage and the uniqueness of black cultural expression. In 1960, he choreographed Revelations, the classic masterpiece of American modern dance based on the religious heritage of his youth. 

Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Ailey created some 79 ballets, many of which have appeared in the repertoire of major dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Ballet. 

Mr. Ailey died on December 1, 1989. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times wrote of Mr. Ailey, "You didn't need to have know Ailey personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm and exuberance and his courageous stand for multiracial brotherhood."

source abt

March 18-22 the dorothy chandler pavilion hosts the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater North American Tour

get your tickets here

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a black history in photography: the goodridge brothers

the goodridge brothers

Goodridge brothers (Glenalvin J. (1829-67), Wallace L. (1840-1922), and William O., (1846-90)), African-American photographers born in  York, Pennsylvania. The success of their entrepreneur parents, Evalina and William,  a mulatto descendant of Charles Carroll, enabled Glenalvin to open a daguerreotype galley in York in 1847. Thanks to the influence of Joseph Rinhart and Montgomery Simons, Glenalvin achieved a regional reputation of prizewinning ambrotypes. However, an extortion scheme falsely accusing him of sexual assault resulted in imprisonment and premature death. By 1865, Wallace and William had re-established the studio in Saginaw, Michigan. To the end of the century it stared in the success of the area's timber economy. The brothers were an effective team. Wallace managed the studio and specialized in portraiture. William, under contract to regional railways, travelled throughout Michigan recording the lumber boom with stereographs and larger views. In 1890 William died, only a year after the Department of Agriculture sent his lumber views to the Centennial Exhibition in Paris as part of its forestry display. Until Wallace's death in 1922, the studio remained the most important African American establishment in photography's early history. 

source answers

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i reminisce...

i feel the impression my words make at my finger tips

impressions you made on me

i write hard to get them through

to me

more than just words expression

less i don't write them

down they go as memories

stuck in my mind to be conjured up 

at random instead of intentionally

looking for you in my thoughts

so i write you a new hymn

made special for me to enjoy as i fancy

fantasize about how good

to be this good

vivid with extraordinary banter

torrid and firy our strum

perfectly fitting

i hear us 

when i re-read my thoughts of you

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rainy days

majestic 

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a black history in photography: james vanderzee

James VanDerZee

James VanDerZee (1886-1983) was an African American photographer during the Harlem Renaissance who was best known for his pictures that captured the lives of African Americans in New York City. He had a gift for capturing the most influential individuals and riveting artistic moments of the era. Early 20th century activist Marcus Garvey,  entertainer/dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and renowned poet Countee Cullen were among his more prominent subjects.

Learn more here. 

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thoughts at midnight

i'm reminded of you and me

mostly you

at moments when i should be thinking of other things

warm with excitement i shudder and welcome the calm cold that covers me

like the scent we made that i bathed in

have you showered? 

i can still smell you and i'm back there

walking my fingers over you while you play

in me you stirred

up something i want more of but

can't stop shuddering shaking thinking

long enough to take it. 

Read more!

a poem

20/20

how could i 

not desire you 

for myself

coveting more than 

stolen moments 

i give freely

and make believe

for a time

that you are mine

enduring 

the simpleness of passion

acting out with you

what i cannot express

to him

but try

i play t e a c her

and pet

only to "end up" the

B.I.T.C.H.

then he

rolls over

tired 

of pre t e n d ing

our chem is try

is nsinc

or on countertops

what about my

femininity

the softness

of me

you touch 

sensually

i know

i can not fall 

for you

autumn is only for a season

as they change

others will long

for your comfort

and you will 

go

as swift as

you came

a whirlwind

upgraded

to a tropical storm

Read more!

a black history in photography: addison spurlock

Addison and Mamie Spurlock

June 19 Addison Scurlock was born on this date in 1883. He was an African-American photographer. Born in Fayetteville, N.C., he graduated from high school there, and in 1900, moved with his family to Washington, D.C. His father, George Clay Scurlock, had run unsuccessfully for the North Carolina Senate. He also worked as a messenger for the U.S. Treasury Department, while studying law and he later opened a law office on the 1100 block of U Street.

Young Scurlock began his career as a photographer as an apprentice to Moses P. Rice, who had studios on Pennsylvania Avenue. By 1904, he learned the basics of photographic portraiture and the entire range of laboratory work. That same year, he started his own business at his parents’ home on Florida Avenue. He photographed students at Howard University, M Street, Armstrong high schools, Black universities, and high schools throughout the South. In 1907, he won a gold medal for photography at the Jamestown Exposition. He opened the Scurlock Studio in the African-American community’s theater district in 1911, and concentrated on portraiture and general photography. His clients included brides, successful people, politicians and presidents, convention guests, and socialites.

Learn more here.

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a black history in photography: james presley ball

The daguerreotypist James Presley (J.P.) Ball born in 1825 in Virginia, probably a freeman. As a young man he learned daguerreotyping and opened his first studio in Cincinnati at age twenty. The city was a center for anti-slavery activity as well as the photographic arts, and Ball became a leader in both. He wrote and published a pamphlet depicting the horrors of slavery to accompany a large panorama in his gallery, and served as the official photographer for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. By the 1850s, his business had achieved tremendous success. Frederick Douglass, Jenny Lind, and the orator, Henry H. Garnet, among other notables, sought out his services, he became quite affluent.

Continue reading here. Read more!