Thanks to James Horton, curator at Sights and Sounds Black Cultural Museum and Expo for permitting us to use the museum as a backdrop for the photoshoot of Phyllis Smith’s forthcoming book, Cotton Pickin’ Days. Smith is a poet. She started writing as a pre-teen about her life growing up in Fayetteville, Georgia, during the 1950s. Smith never stopped writing. She seldom shared her poems with the public, except for poetic tributes to people in the community who had transitioned. Soon Smith started getting requests to write poetic eulogies for members of the city. She read them during their homegoing

Read More…

You expect lewd and lascivious acts from Donald J. Trump, and you usually get them. When you think that Trump has fallen below the lowest common denominator, out of thin air comes the point you feel cannot be matched, even by Trump himself. At a weekend campaign rally in October with a few thousand of his cultlike followers, Trump stooped to perhaps his lowest level. Lower even than his crude, crusty talk about grabbing women in their panties, “cause they like you to do it.” Smaller than mocking a reporter with Down Syndrome, lower than whining about John McCain, while

Read More…

It’s 1:00 am. I’m up early for the start of another day. There is nothing new about this routine. Usually, my day starts around 2:00 am with my fingers running across the keyboards of my desktop. I will write until around 5:30 am, then take a nap and arise again around 7:00 am and run through the routine of dealing with people who sleep through the night. Perhaps, the only difference about this day is that the calendar on my desk says it is October 16, 2019. It seems that just a few days ago it was October 16, 2018.

Read More…