poor righteous teacher profile picture

poor righteous teacher

The journey is my destination

About Me

I am a scholar, an advocate for my people, a lover, a fighter, a romantic (even though I am a natural skeptic, I choose to believe in love and romance), a rebel WITH a cause, and a lover of beautiful things-- people, places, art, music, ideas, and like-minded rebel souls. I play for the love of the game, yet I play to win. I work like I don't need money, but I seek financial security. When I love, I love with such passion, purity, and intensity that few are truly ready for it. ************************************************************ *****************************************This is one of my favorite quotes from James Baldwin. He wrote it about Harlem on the 100th anniversary of Emancipation, but I think it applies perfectly to New Orleans in the present day: "This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, for the heart of the matter is here, and the root of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity ... I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, You exaggerate. They do not know Harlem [New Orleans], and I do. So do you. Take no one's word for anything, including mine -- but trust your experience. Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go."ToolsForMySpace.com

My Interests

I like live music, various performing and visual arts, festivals, parks, traveling, and community service/activism-- Basically, I like soaking in the local culture and in return, I believe in doing my part to support the local community and economy. Everything in life is cyclical-- birth and death, give and take, ebb and flow, yin and yang. . .

I'd like to meet:

I'm only looking to make friends--I am too busy for much else right now.

Music:

To be my friend, you must like good music. period. In my iPod right now-- The Roots, Zap Mama, N'Dambi, Joi, Bilal, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Jean Grae, Pharoahe Monch,Bob Marley, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Buju Banton, Finley Quaye, Capelton, Anthony Hamilton, Break Reform, Raphael Saadiq, Arrested Development, Res, Conya Doss, Coldplay, Country Joe and the Fish, Maroon 5, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Bill Withers, Sam Cooke, Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Shuggie Otis (what'chu know about him?), Del the Funky Homosapien, Wu Tang Clan, Cee-Lo Green, Ken Ford, Phillippia, Various Brazilian Artists [including Seu George, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, and the City of God Soundtrack], Common, De La Soul, Jean Grae, A Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu, Floetry, Goapele, Dwele, Jack Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Jelly Roll Morton, , Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, The Pharcyde, Louis Armstrong, Jill Scott, John Legend, Mahalia Jackson, Devin The Dude, Mike Davis a.k.a. Dr. Eargasm, Joshua Redman, Kanye West, Kem, Billie Holiday, Leela James, Roy Hargrove, Sizzla, The Ohio Players, etc. -- I know this is a random selection but it is a good sampling of my music tastes.

Movies:

Old favorites: School Daze, House Party, Coming To America, Some Like it Hot, The Toy, Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song, Superfly, Uptown Saturday Night, Five on the Black Hand Side, Breakfast at Tiffany, A Bronx Tale, Hairspray, Goodfellas, The Color Purple, Imitation of Life, Do the Right Thing, Mahogany, and Easy Rider.Great Love Stories: Love Jones, Same Time, Next Year, Father of the Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Carmen Jones, Dirty Dancing, If Lucy Fell, Romeo and Juliet, Casablanca, Only You, Annie Hall, Boomerang, The Wedding Singer, Love and Basketball, Something's Gotta Give, Rebel without a Cause, West Side Story, and now Brokeback Mountain.(Relatively) Contemporary Movies: City of God, Napoleon Dynamite, Ray, Crash, The Best Man, Office Space, Rushmore, The Royal Tennebaums, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lackawanna Blues, Swingers, Eve's Bayou, Lost in Translation, Kung Fu Hustle, Hero, Hustle and Flow, and Sideways.

Television:

I don't watch much t.v. these days but I really love old t.v. shows-- "Nick at Nite" is my joint! One of my favorite contemporary show has to be Arrested Development. Even though it is off the air, it is one of the funniest, smartest shows on television . . . ever! I also really like the Boondocks, Grey's Anatomy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Lost. I like to watch Girlfriends, My Wife and Kids, the Parkers, Friends, and Everybody Loves Raymond in syndication.

Books:

This is a random list of books. I read (too many) books for my research and writing but this is a growing list of personal favorites-- The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison), The Color Purple (Alice Walker), Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), Where the Sidewalk Ends (Shel Silverstein), Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss), Soul by Soul: Life Inside an Antebellum Slave Market (Walter Johnson), Lord of the Flies (William Golding), My Soul is Rested (Howell Raines), The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger), Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak), The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Mask (Frantz Fanon), Children of Strangers (Lyle Saxon), I've Been a Woman (Sonia Sanchez), Iola Leroy (Frances Harper), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs). . . . and the list keeps growing

My Blog

Jim Crow becomes sophistocated--Is now James Crow

I borrowed the title for this blog from a speech Farrakhan gave at the 10 year anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington D.C.  He spoke about how racism has become much more subtle and i...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:13:00 PST

Florida: The worst state in the Union

Yes. I said it.I believe whole-heartedly that Florida is the worst state in the Union.  Of course there are more boring states than Florida.  I imagine the Dakotas would fall in that categor...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Thu, 02 Nov 2006 08:28:00 PST

From "Fight the Power" to Flavor of Love"?

Since the month of is October celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, I put a photo of my shero, Kathleen Cleaver (Eldridge Cleaver's former wife and the Communication Secretary of...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:20:00 PST

Black girls: Is our hair our religion?

 Okay, many of you who know me know I'm obsessed with my hair.  I admit it.  However, my obsession stems from other people's reaction to my hair rather than any sort of love for it myse...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:26:00 PST

Sugar, Water, Purple

So, I was rocking it old school this weekend and made some red Kool-Aid.  I started thinking about that Dave Chappelle sketch about Grape Drink.  I musta fell out laughing just thinking abou...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:13:00 PST

Guilty Pleasure

So, I must confess my new guilty pleasure: I have recently rediscovered the enjoyment and pleasure of watching of "America's Funniest Home Videos."   I'm not sure "re-discovered" is appropriate...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:23:00 PST

Maine: The New Jim Crow South?

Has Maine become the new Jim Crow South?    In the past few days I have read about two violently racist incidents in Maine.  In one incident, a pregnant black woman was verbally assa...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:08:00 PST

Thoughts on Oya

As some of y'all know, I am currently on a spiritual journey of sorts (insert your joke here).   As a result, I have been thinking a lot about my place in this worldmy place as a woman, a d...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:38:00 PST

Has Dave Chappelle Gone Too Far?

.. width="425" height="350">..>Okay, so this is the sketch that made Dave Chappelle rethink the angle of comedy on his show (according to an interview he did with Newsweek).  Really it's the firs...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:06:00 PST

A Good Man is Hard to Find

So I'm getting older.  We all are-- it's undeniable.  And I guess with age comes responsibility and the desire to settle down and do the grown up thang-- find a partner, start a family, have...
Posted by **your third eye's vision** on Wed, 02 Aug 2006 02:18:00 PST