milesaway44105

Models Monday: Still Thinking about Duck & Goose (edited)

The only time I remember books being read to me is when I attended elementary school and I loved it. I also remember my classmates’ enthusiasm when we learned of the weeklong book fair planned for our school as well as those weekly trips to the school’s library. If anyone ever read to me atContinue reading “Models Monday: Still Thinking about Duck & Goose (edited)”

Models Monday: Commemorative Lies

Last week, I wrote a post about the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and offered a few reasons why I’ve waited to go. Today, I have a new reason that pushes back my visit even later. Yesterday (Sunday) was the last church service to be held at Friendship Baptist, Atlanta’s oldest baptist church,Continue reading “Models Monday: Commemorative Lies”

Models Monday: Resemblances

For people who know me, you could easily think that the photograph above depicts me in someone’s kitchen. You would be wrong though, as my mother is the teen featured in an early image of our family kitchen. When I saw this photograph for the first time, I actually thought it was me before itContinue reading “Models Monday: Resemblances”

Measuring Lives through Currency

Museum honors young lives lost in church bombing. For some time now, I’ve been sitting on this report (hyperlink above offers a video news report and transcript of the interviews with the two women pictured above) on the exhibit on display at Atlanta’s new museum in tribute to the four girls killed in the KKKContinue reading “Measuring Lives through Currency”

Models Monday: Choosing Words, Building Worlds

Over the weekend, Miles had a play date with a former school buddy. We happened to see the five-year-old with his mom while out running errands earlier that week. I gave her my cell phone number and Saturday, she called. In arranging for them to play, I welcomed her into our home and thanked herContinue reading “Models Monday: Choosing Words, Building Worlds”

Models Monday: Now I Get It

I have heard Beyonce’s “Who Run the World (Girls)” before. I have probably seen her perform it on one Youtube video or another, but when I saw her perform that song on HBO last night I came to a new understanding regarding its soundness. Thus, I know why I’m so tired now: I’m running theContinue reading “Models Monday: Now I Get It”

BiDil

Originally posted on Abagond:
BiDil (2005) is the trade name for isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine, a heart medicine for Blacks. It is the first race-based prescription drug approved by the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the 1980s Dr Jay Cohn took two drugs that were no longer under patent, put them together and patented them…

“The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” Frederick Douglass

When I was a child, I had very petty reasons for being in the doldrums about the fourth of July. Basically my melancholy had everything to do with the menu my mother planned and the clothes she chose for me to wear. Every 4th, my mother would plan a menu that included barbecue ribs, coleContinue reading ““The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” Frederick Douglass”

RIP: Walter Dean Myers (1937-2014)

Before my dear friend Carmen introduced me to Walter Dean Myers and thus one of my son’s favorite books, The Blues of Flats Brown, my husband told me that his English teacher colleagues had assigned Monster and the kids loved it. At the time, I didn’t know Myers was the author, but it all makes senseContinue reading “RIP: Walter Dean Myers (1937-2014)”

Models Monday: Claim Your Name…and Make Others Call You by It

When my son was a baby, his babysitter called him Little Bean because Bean was my family’s nickname for me. When we celebrated his fifth birthday this year, the ex-babysitter’s daughter came with her son and she referred to my son as Little Bean, to which he replied, “my name is Miles.” She looked atContinue reading “Models Monday: Claim Your Name…and Make Others Call You by It”