Category Archives: Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass

The Writing Life: Writing An Award-Winning Epic Poem

Posted on May 13, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, was a co-winner of the 1998 Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize for an epic poem on the theme, “the captivity, exploitation, and suffering of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, Slavery | Tagged 1998 Edwin Mellen Poetr Prize, Africa's Gifts to America, American Civil War, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass; Slavery; Edwin Mellen Poetry Press, Hayes-Tilden Compromise, J.A. Rogers, James Weldon Johnson, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Rene Descartes, Sex & Race, Swing Low, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Picture of Dorian Grray, W.E.B. DuBois | Leave a comment

On this day, April 9, 1939, in American History…

Posted on April 9, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

…Marian Anderson Performs for 75,000 Outside Lincoln Memorial, because she was banned from indoor venues because of her race. See https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/apr/09. My poetic tribute to Marian Anderson, in my collection, The Black Feminine Mystique:

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Poetry, race | Tagged Marian Anderson, The Black Feminine Mystique | 1 Comment

The Assassination of Dr. King – My first “political memory”

Posted on April 4, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first political memory, at age 7, is the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was too young to remember the assassinations of JFK and Malcolm X, and although RFK would be assassinated later in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Poetry, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged Andrew Goodman, Decisive Decade, James Chaney, JFK, Jim Crow, Malcolm X, Michael Schwerner, Mississippi Burning, MLK, RFK, The Black Blood of Poetry | 1 Comment

Poetry Matters

Posted on April 1, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

April is National Poetry Month. It was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. It is a month to celebrate poets’ integral role in our culture. #poetrymatters. This National Poetry Month, read one of my books of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, NYPD, Poetry, police involved shooting, police-involved killing, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats | Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters.com, Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award Finalist, National Poetry Series Finalist, Winner of the Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize for an Epic Poem | Leave a comment

Daddy Dearest

Posted on February 22, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same month and year Negro History Week was established. Then, we were Negroes. Thirty-four years later, when I was born, we were still Negroes. When my father died at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Family, Fatherhood, Fathers, Lest We Forget, race, raising black boys, Relationships, Slavery | Tagged 1960s, Black Arts Era, Civil War, Confederacy, Decisive Decade, Emmett Till, Fourth of July, Jim Crow, NOrth Carolina Governor Michael Easley, Richard Wright, Segregated South, Southland, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, Virginia, War of Northern Aggression, World War II | 3 Comments

From the American Revolution to the Black Arts Cultural Revolution

Posted on February 21, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

After the American Revolution, most of the defining moments in American history involve or revolve around Black people. Black folk were even involved in the American Revolution, fighting on both sides – the British promised Africans and the descendants of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nation of Islam, Patriotism, Poetry, Politics, race, Revolution, Slavery, Streets of Rage, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged 1619, 1619 Project, American Revolution, Boston Massacre, Camelot, Crispus Attucks, JFK, Larry Neal, RFK, The Black Arts Era | Leave a comment

Happy Valentine’s Day to African American Literature!

Posted on February 14, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Since it is Valentine’s Day, I dare to say that I have an ongoing love affair with African American literature. And, once again, I am teaching African American Literature in the 20th Century for another college. (I previously taught it … Continue reading →

Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, Slavery | Tagged African American Literature, Amherst method, Andra Day, Black National Anthem, Black Poetics, Booker T. Washington, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America -- An Anthology, Eurocentric, Henry Louis Gates, Herb Boyd, James Weldon Johnson, Larry Neal, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Robert L Allen, Some Reflections on the Black Aesthetic, The Black Arts Movement, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Three Negro Classics, Toni Morrison, Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The African American Presence in American Literature, Valentine's Day, Valerie A Smith, WEB DuBois | 2 Comments

The Black Arts Movement

Posted on February 8, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The theme for this Black History Month is African Americans and the Arts. For purposes of this blog, I’ll highlight the “Black Arts Era” (1960-1975). The Black Arts Era began at the very beginning of what Samuel F. Yette, influential … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, Politics, race | Tagged Black History Month, Decisive Decade, democracy, JFK, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, MLK, Muhammad Ali, RFK, Samuel Yette, The Black Arts Era | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Posted on February 7, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black History Month is nearly 100 years old! Granted, it began as Black History Week, on February 7, 1926, and didn’t become Black History Month until February 10, 1976. My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Fatherhood, Fathers, Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Patriotism, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution | Tagged Black History Month, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Lost Cause, Miseducation of the Negro, MLK, Negro History Week, segregated U.S. Army, WEB DuBois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II | 2 Comments

Black Fruit, Strange Fruit

Posted on February 6, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first book, the award-winning epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, deals with the theme(s) of “the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America.” But not all of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Murder | Tagged Equal Justice Initiative, Strange Fruit, Whit Mob Lynches Thomas Brown on Courthouse Lawn in Nicholasville KY | 1 Comment

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