It’s been awhile since the last Eclectique Interview. This will be the second interview with a poet. That’s Sarah Browning, director of D.C. Poets Against the War and Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Sarah is also author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007), and co-editor of D.C. Poets Against the [...]
Sometimes I have to remind myself of the power of thinking different for the common good, and some of us designed our lives around it. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011 “Think Different” was one of my favorite Apple campaigns. I didn’t follow Steve Jobs as a personality like some people follow George Clooney. Or maybe [...]
Too much, too much. June must be the final push on the event scene before people begin dispersing to the vacation scene. Again, just scratching the surface: ITVS COMMUNITY CINEMA PRESENTS – “TWO SPIRITS” June 5 at 3 PM (Washington DC Jewish Community Center) June 12 at 5 PM (Busboys and Poets) FREE – For [...]
Years ago while studying the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 for a cultural anthropology class, we held a kiddush in honor of and as a living interpretation of the young women, many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who died when the 9th floor factory accidentally caught fire near closing time. It was the practice [...]
The late great Gospel music artist Rev. James Cleveland’s “Peace Be Still” captures my thoughts surrounding recent events from Tucson to Tunisia, and also the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth. This past week, poet Nikki Giovanni made a visit to DC. My first introduction to her writing (as a child) was the [...]
Yesterday’s shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 20 other victims (to date) at a meet-and-greet your Representative gathering outside a Safeway in Tucson, AZ left me speechless. The Congresswoman is currently in a medically induced coma after being shot in the head at point blank range. The chief neurosurgeon at the University of Arizona [...]
Aside from being outstanding performers, what do Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Taraji P. Henson, Lynn Whitfield, Tracie Thoms, Isaiah Washington, Anthony Anderson, and Jeffrey Wright share in common? They were trained by Vera J. Katz. I was trained by Vera J. Katz as a playwright. Vera suggested and directed my first full-length play while she [...]
I’ve always known Tracye as a vegan, health educator, and one of the most attractive energetic, and positive people you’ll meet in the capital city. As an omnivore, I credit Tracye’s pluses to her choices and priorities especially when it comes to food. I was honored when Tracye asked me to host her book launch [...]
I remember meeting Elizabeth Edwards many years ago. I found her so real, direct and easy to talk to or even grumble with. This was when John Edwards was running for the Senate. Even then, I said, “She’s going to be the Edwards story.” Elizabeth Edwards, 61, joined the ancestors today in her home in [...]
Any and all posts, rants and raves about the film adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s choral poem, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, have gotten just what’s coming to them…attention, retweets, ping backs, Facebook recommends. I remember many moons ago, a young Shange, hot off the success of her “for [...]
