Writer / Poet and Author of <i>Arc and Hue</i>

I haven’t been blogging as much as I would have liked in 2011, and I’m hoping to change that. I just did one of my last readings for the year in Columbia, MD, where I shared the stage with Terrance Hayes as part of HoCoPoLitSo’s (Howard County Poetry & Literary Society’s) inaugural reading for the Lucille Clifton series. We were honored to share the night with one of Ms. Clifton’s daughters too. We talked about how we approach the page, what advice do we offer to young writers, how jazz and hip hop as artistic forms impact poetry. Here’s a photo from that dialogue.

I’m working on interview questions, essays, and poems, and working my way through another semester, but I plan to offer some online workshops and manuscript consultations soon. If you are interested, let me know.

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I needed to write something to clear my head before trying to sleep. I feel deeply hurt by the denial of a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court. I’ve been involved in many death penalty protests and several protests against specific cases. This one held open a window that made me feel as if this case might be different. The biases of race and class are undeniable in this particular choice of punishment and throughout the entire prison industrial complex.

I do encourage people to check out the campaigns by Amnesty International, the NAACP, and the invaluable work that The Innocence Project continues to do. I also encourage people to check out Angela Y. Davis’ tiny, but insightful book Are Prisons Obsolete? and the documentary Deadline about the moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.

I wanted to share a poem that may change. I needed to write so I can process what happened. Tomorrow, will be another day to move forward.

Not the Words

I signed letter and petition on behalf of Troy Davis,
counted the hours that passed before he was strapped
to gurney for more hours that I clutched and hoped
that my name would be the last one needed to nudge
the tide toward overturning. I am afraid of stilled limbs,
halted breath. Time, a rigid, finite vice clamps down.

The last chance to close one’s eyes should not be
assigned by writ, enforced by rows of black flak jackets.
Inert paper turns into fatal weapon. Last breaths should
not have blueprints. A final shudder precipitated by profile,
a death as a symbol, sketched in the chiaroscuro of melanin
as indictment, set as some sort of relief pressed into lives
that are poor, brown, less than clean, polished wealth.

All of this is so clinical, trapped in metaphors that will not
resuscitate the man who left saying he was innocent. He was
free. Troy Davis is free, but the ink falters when I write such
words. There is no freedom unless the death machine loses gears.
Martina Correia stood away from her wheelchair, and I will stand.
De’Jaun Correia stood fully in his seventeen years. He will stand.
The former warden, an FBI director, and b-boys made their stand.

As midnight presses its fingertips against my eyelids, a gurney
looms in my head. A man strapped to his last hours while
judges deliberate, or not. Those fetters were never named torture,
but innocence claimed is defiance. The semantics of execution
damn the cloud of doubt drifting thick and filmy tonight. Forgive
and forget are not the words. A new vocabulary must be written
for a new South, new evidence, new humanity, new lives intact.

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I wanted to blog about something topical today since the news is irritating me, but I decided to make some cupcakes-vegan cupcakes at that.

Some of the ingredients are a bit more expensive, but I definitely feel that the food is a bit more guilt free. The recipe is a slight variation from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Sometimes, they tell you to put a little less in each cupcake filler, but it depends on whether or not you’d like the cupcake to be slightly domed or not. Read the recipe all the way through so you have an idea of how to pace yourself. I decided to share the recipe here and a photo of the finished product.

I just had to take a bite, so you could see the dark, rich red that may be a result of the carob chips that I added to each cupcake.

Vegan Red velvet cupcake STEP 1: 1 cup soy milk whisked w/ 1tsp apple cider vinegar, then set aside to curdle.

Vegan Red velvet cupcake STEP 2: Combine 1 &1/4 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2tsp baking soda, 1/2tsp baking powder.

Red velvet cupcake STEP 3: After mixing dry stuff,add 1/3cup EVOO,2tbsp red food coloring,1tsp chocolate extract,2tsp vanilla extract,1/4tsp almond extract. Add soy milk & apple cider vinegar mixture to this as well.

Red velvet cupcake STEP 4: Fold ingredients in until lumps disappear. Add optional carob chips. Fill cupcake liners in pan 2/3 up.

Red velvet cupcake STEP 5: Cook in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting STEP 6: Soften non-hydrogenated vegan shortening or margarine. Find a bowl w/ high sides & whip w/ electric hand mixer. 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese w/ 1/4cup softened vegan non-hydrogenated shortening.

Red velvet frosting STEP 7: Mix 2cups confectioner’s sugar into vegan cream cheese & shortening 1/2 cup at a time. It will get fluffier.

Red velvet frosting Final STEP: Whip in 1tsp vanilla extract. Frost cooled cupcakes with this sweet frosting.

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