Category: Women

Two Things Thursday #12

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1. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
2. Alanis Morissette: “Uninvited”, 7/24/1999 – Woodstock 99 East Stage (Official)

1. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a powerful book. So far, the author has pulled me in and captured me as his faithful guest–a part of his audience while he tells his tale and reveals his whole heart. It is full of pain and patience and resilience and stories from his past that I can relate to. In the book, the author has written . . . is writing a letter to his teenage son about the ways of our nation.

Based on the author’s background, his words tiptoe into my presence and slap me on my face. I love the language he uses, the imagery he creates, and his soulful way of getting his thoughts across.

Here is a summary of the book:

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. —

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. ©Copyright 2023 Ta-Nehisi Coates

If you enjoy having your mind rattled and learning a thing or two about America’s history, I recommend this book.

2 “Univited” by Alanis Morissette is such an incredible song. The lyrics are captivating and her voice is even more so. She has a way of pulling her listeners in and shaking them gently, but releasing us into the wild as we bathe ourselves in those same lyrics for years to come. It is a timeless classic and is ten times better when she performs it live.

The above YouTube video is one of my favorite performances of the song by her. I hope you enjoy it.

Two Things Thursday #11

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1. The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
2. Pictured Poem, “Mushy”. Created by Tremaine L. Loadholt

1. The Darkest Child . . . this book should have come with every type of trigger warning available, but it did not.

I cannot explain how emotionally charged I have gotten while thumbing through these pages. The author, Delores Phillips died without writing any more completed or finished works and we, as readers, cannot question her about WHY she decided to pen this particular tale.

The book is fiction, but it doesn’t feel like fiction. I’ve cried. I’ve gotten angry. I’ve had to read in passing moments to allow myself time to “heal” from the detriment and torture placed on the main characters (children) by their own mother.

It is a rollercoaster ride without a destination in sight, it seems, but it’s so enthralling that I must succeed in making it to the end.

I HIGHLY recommend this book, but I will say this . . . if you are an Empath, please prepare yourself for the pain you will feel, and give yourself time to digest this one. It is not meant to be rushed through at all. It is meant to be savored, dissected, understood, and applauded (if you make it to the end).

Here is a brief description of the book:

Set in Georgia in the 1950s, Delores Phillips’s debut historical novel, The Darkest Child (2005), follows thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn, an intelligent African American girl, as she battles to finish her education in the face of family tragedy, social upheaval, and her mother’s unthinkable abuse. Before her death in 2014, Phillips worked as a nurse in a Georgia facility that tends to abused women and children.

It is 1958, and Rozelle “Rosie” Quinn has just quit her housekeeping job. Although she is still considered a second-class citizen in Parkersfield, Georgia, she is light-skinned and beautiful. Rosie has always felt she deserved better. Tangy Mae, Rosie’s thirteen-year-old daughter, walks her home as Rosie moans in pain and announces to all the world she is dying.

Rosie is not dying, however, only having a baby—her tenth . . .

The Darkest Child, Super Summary

2. Mushy is the first poem about one of the characters from The Darkest Child. I am writing poems because this is how I move through things that bring pain to my doorstep.

I have written three poems so far for three different characters, and I know a few more will be birthed before I am done reading this book.

I understand Mushy and her need to get far away from her mother and also the need to NOT be like her, but try as she might to remove her, her mother is in her blood–she is her mother’s child.

And there is no running away from that. And really, that’s what hurts me the most about this character. You cannot run away from who you are–you’ll always come back to YOU.

As Long As I Have Music, I’m Gon’ Be All Right

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I am a lover of music. I’m certain I do not have to tell any of you this.

Jennifer Patino and her husband have an awesome website (The Jam Files) where they review artists, get nostalgic about their favorite songs, and share just flat out great writing on top of it all.

I’ve written a piece for this brilliant venture, and it was published yesterday.

You can follow The White Rabbit by clicking the link to read below. I hope you enjoy your time spent there.

I’ll be visiting the site regularly myself.

Thank you in advance. Peace and blessings.

https://www.thejamfiles.com/post/as-long-as-i-have-music-i-m-gon-be-all-right