We are everything and you heard me.

Read this.

Watch as these words bounce, bounce
Burst into a million liquid colors
Dive dip and plunge into your heart
Rush circulating swim absorb swell throughout your body.

We travel each other like blood
And I like it, don’t you?

You are: no longer my enemy, I know that now.
I am: no longer the thing you use as difference.

I ignore your frowns and offer a smile, because
You are good, true and all mine.
It’s about love.
It’s about the eye.
Remove the blinders, turn to face the sun.
Best self throbbing right here now
With you.

Used to wish for death.
Didn’t know the chrysalis was breaking open
That soon enough I’d get my wish
Ambered, missing, but here, whispering no.
In the meantime, in this moment
Me and you kissing,
Holding each other
And being each other’s breath.

But even that wasn’t totally it, you know?

When I finally materialized
Formulated, congealed, solidified in my heart’s eye
And fell apart

Peace and serenity offer silence.

And it didn’t matter what you/i/we thought
Anymore. Couldn’t.
I split my chest open, grabbed my feathers.
Fly high above now
myself looking down at me
And laughing.

It only mattered when I forgot.

Contributors to the book, Be a Father to Your Child (Soft Skull Press, 2008), have launched an online petition that they are asking black males to sign as a gesture of commitment to protecting girls and women from violence and exploitation. It is reproduced below with the permission of one of its authors, Spelman College History professor William Jelani Cobb.

Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women

Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations
that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl.
During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street
corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our
own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and
watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that
he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African
Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of
such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have
witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a
fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at
the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black
community. [Read the rest of this entry »]

AIDS Project Los Angeles Releases Third in Series of Publications Focused on Black Gay Men and HIV/AIDS

Los Angeles, Calif., June 24, 2008 – AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) today announced the publication of “To Be Left with the Body,” the latest in a series of publications created by and for black gay and bisexual men to explore the impact of HIV/AIDS on their lives. Co-edited by Cheryl Clarke and Steven G. Fullwood, the collection features contributions from 16 writers and poets, and a series of photographs by New York artist Artis Q.

“AIDS Project Los Angeles is committed to a robust and relevant conversation with black gay men about HIV risk,” said APLA Director of Health and Wellness Programs Vallerie D. Wagner, who wrote the book’s foreword. “We have a responsibility to take action, stand firm and stem the tide of this pandemic.”

Gathered into four sections, the essays, poems and stories of “To Be Left with the Body” pose provocative questions (“Who is the HIV/AIDS virus pushing us to become?”) and offer accounts of “bodies…at war with themselves; bodies aging, being positive, holding illiness; and seeking and finding their grace.” Throughout the book, Artis Q.’s series of seven photographs, “Me and My Shadow,” shows well-known New York City landmarks layered with an ever-present black male silhouette. [Read the rest of this entry »]

Take a look and see here for more folks from the reading.

Find out more about Fire & Ink, Inc. here!

Come hear Herukhuti, Sharon Bridgforth, James Earl Hardy, Shelton Jackson, Lisa C. Moore, Jonathan Plummer, Kimberly Q, and Kai Wright read from their latest books tomorrow

@ Fire & Ink Presents!
Thursday, June 12, 2008 @ 8 p.m.
Hilton Newark Gateway Hotel
1 Gateway Center, Newark, NJ