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Category: Musings

Blogging/Musings/Writing

It’s Been A While! Here Is an Update, of Sorts

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Leslie Reese / 24 Comments

This is going to be the first random post in the four years since my blog, folklore & literacy, went live on November 30, 2014. The reason why I am doing th...

Aesop/Blogging/Books/folklore/Louise DeSalvo/Musings/Writing

#Throwback Thursday: What Do Louise DeSalvo and Aesop Have in Common?

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Leslie Reese / 15 Comments

Greetings! Happy 2018! I’ve elected to re-publish one of my early posts – back when I had about four followers!- while I figure out what I want to d...

Books/Education/Gwendolyn Brooks/Musings/Poetry

Celebrating the Birthday of Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Leslie Reese / 20 Comments

Two years after the Detroit riots (also known as the the 12th Street Riot, the 1967 Rebellion and the Uprising of 1967), and one year after the assassination of...

Activism/Civic literacy/folklore/Literacy/LOVE/Martin Luther King Jr./Memoir/Musings

Where Is The Love? Reflections On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Leslie Reese / 30 Comments

When we were children in the 1960s and 1970s, family who had migrated from the south to cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis made annual ca...

Civic literacy/LOVE/Musings

True Names: Reflecting on Lost Lives

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Leslie Reese / 7 Comments

“Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.”** I am in pain over our nation’s ...

folklore/Food/Literacy/Little Leslie/Memoir/Musings

Sardines!

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Leslie Reese / 34 Comments

Yup this post is about sardines and I’m going to dedicate it to my friend Deloris because its all her fault. Here I am: supposed to be working on my post about ...

Books/Diversity in Children's Books/folklore/Literacy/Little Leslie/Memoir/Musings

Memory of First Reads

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Leslie Reese / 18 Comments

Note from Leslie: Clicking on colored text will allow you to discover more about that item! One of my early memories is of receiving books in the mail beginning...

Books/Culture/Doris Lessing/Film/Jean-Paul Civeyrac/Musings

“My Friend Victoria”: Finding Value in Uncomfortable Readings & Viewings Part Two

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Leslie Reese / 2 Comments

PART TWO (Read PART ONE) The farther away I get from my first impressions of this story the more it becomes other things. Is this what happened when Jean Paul C...

Books/Culture/Doris Lessing/Film/Jean-Paul Civeyrac/Musings

“My Friend Victoria”: Finding Value in Uncomfortable Readings & Viewings

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Leslie Reese / 3 Comments

PART ONE I am having difficulty thinking about the film “My Friend Victoria” and the Doris Lessing novella “Victoria and the Staveneys,” from which the film was...

Books/Culture/Musings

Tearful Reunion With Some Classics

Posted on August 16, 2015 by Leslie Reese / 16 Comments

Oh! How is your summer going? I also mean: goodness gracious but I hope you have had some fun and/or a vacation and things like that….! ….found myse...

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Have You Read These?

  • Black Men Reading: Chef Omar Tate, PART ONE
  • “The Transformative Power of Reading and Writing”
  • In Memorium: Mary Oliver’s Blue Horses
  • Black Men Reading: Rod Kelly Hines, PART TWO
  • Black Men Reading: Rod Kelly Hines, PART ONE

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Artwork by the late Tom Feelings from Soul Looks Back In Wonder (1993)

Chew the Fat! (Comments)

  • Vanessa on Black Men Reading: Chef Omar Tate, PART ONE
  • Robert Okaji on Black Men Reading: Chef Omar Tate, PART ONE
  • Margaret Laing on Black Men Reading: Chef Omar Tate, PART ONE
  • Claire 'Word by Word' on Black Men Reading: Chef Omar Tate, PART ONE
  • Leslie Reese on Memory of First Reads
  • Leslie Reese on “The Transformative Power of Reading and Writing”

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Writing Desk belonging to Ida B. Wells -journalist, anti-lynching activist, suffragette- on view at DuSable Museum of African American history.

Instagram

  • Part One of my Black Men Reading Seriesđź–¤ interview with Chef Omar Tate (@coltrane215 ) - link in bio -got me reaching into the wayback machine, again! This time for a 1980 Fawcett edition of Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine by sisters Norma Jean and Carole Darden. Swipe ⬅️ to see the back cover and the menu for a Shoebox Lunch.
From the back cover: “out of a seven-year journey to their roots, visiting relatives in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, Norma Jean and Carole Darden have created a one-of-a-kind book of recipes, reminiscences, and priceless family lore.”
#spoonbreadandstrawberrywine #vintagepaperbacks #vintageblackpaperbacks #read #cook #eat #familyhistory #blackheritage #shoeboxlunch #normajeandarden #caroledarden #blackmenreadingseriesđź–¤ #blackmenreadingseries #lesliesblogposts #culinaryhistory #folklore
  • I’m so excited to introduce you to Chef Omar Tate (@coltrane215 ), creator of @honeysuckle_popup. He brings a love of Black Heritage and Literature to his kitchen aesthetic.
In our Black Men Reading Series🖤 exchange, Chef Omar Tate shares why he appreciates the series. We also talk about black men and emotional literacy; the idea behind creating Honeysuckle, his Black Heritage dining experience; books, writing, and more! PART ONE is up in the blog, today. Link in bio! Photo courtesy of @hed_photonerd 🙏🏾.
#culinarydelight #read #write #cook #poetry #emotionalliteracy #blackheritagedining #Honeysucklepopup #eat #ChefOmarTate #blackmenreadingseriesđź–¤ #blackmenreading #lesliesblogposts #culinaryhistory
  • Vintage books and coffee with multi-colored stones for literary birthdays. Swipe left⬅️ for close ups of this 1975 Bantam edition of Sula by Toni Morrison (b. February 18, 1931); and 1983 reprint of From a Land Where Other People Live by Audre Lorde originally published by Dudley Randall on Broadside Press in 1973. Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934; she died on November 17, 1992. From a Land Where Other People Live was a National Book Award Finalist for Poetry in 1974.
#ToniMorrison #AudreLorde #Sula #Fromalandwhereotherpeoplelive #books #read #write #bookstagram #booksandcoffee #vintagebooks #vintagepaperbacks #BroadsidePress #DudleyRandall #poetry #womenwriters #blackwomenwriters #literarybirthdays
  • Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones in “Claudine” (1974). #filmclassics #diahanncarroll #jamesearljones #films #movies #classicmovies #classicblackmovies #classicblackfilms #Claudine #themakingsofyou
  • For #ReadSoulLit day 6: in the street. I’ve owned this book for so long (since it was first published in 2003)! I’ve decided to finally read it. Edward P. Jones’s The Known World. #books #read #bookstagram #edwardpjones #theknownworld #blackhistorymonth2019 #americanwriters #blackamericanwriters #blackwritersmatter #readsoullit
  • “thank you, Lord, for the rain,/for the splash of racing tires/in the dark, steaming pavement river./cooling rain,/grey sheets against the violet sky/of evening, ah...thank you for the dripping-wet/of trees, grass, buds,/smell of soaking earth in the evening./thank you for the pillows of mist, thank you, thank you, for the cool, cooling rain.” - from the poem, “Rainrituals” by Aneb Kgositsile.
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I am proud to have been touched by the generous life’s work of Dr. Gloria House/Aneb Kgositsile. She is the 2019 Kresge Eminent Artist! She is being acknowledged for her tireless work as a poet, essayist, educator, and activist; and the honor comes with a $50,000 award. Shown here are her two earliest books of poetry, Blood River(1983) and Rainrituals(1989). She has since published two more collections: Shrines(2003), and Medicine(2017). Cover art on Rainrituals is by #RomareBearden. Dr. House has raised a wonderful son; is a retired college professor; has supported and mentored generations of poets (myself included) and social and political activists for more than 50 years; and continues to be a vital and gracious warrior today. Swipe left⬅️⬅️for a recent photo of Dr. Aneb Gloria House, and one of us taken by Willie Williams circa 1989 with poet/scholar Murray Jackson(1926-2002) and (seated) poet and founder of Broadside Press Dudley Randall(1914-2000). #gloriahouse #anebkgositsile #poetry #read #write #activism #socialjusticewarrior #kresgeemimentartist2019 #rainrituals #bloodriver #books #murrayjackson #dudleyrandall #bookstagram @kresgeartsdet 
#literaryDetroit #Detroit #BroadsidePress #booksandcoffee

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