Category Archives: Literature & Cultural Criticism

Literary criticism, authors, books by others, cultural interpretation, and literature-centered essays.

The Weary Blues Redux

Posted on February 15, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 1926 Langston Hughes published his collection of poetry, The Weary Blues.  That same year my father was born in the segregated South.  Carl Van Vechten’s book, Nigger Heaven, was also published that year. My father was born on this … Continue reading →

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Maya Angelou, A Muse for All Ages

Posted on February 14, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On this Day of Love, also known as Valentine’s Day, I want to uplift an author and one of her books, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  I love Maya and this book! Maya Angelou was challenged by none … Continue reading →

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Octavia E. Butler — Amen I Say to You! Amen!

Posted on February 12, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Octavia E. Butler went where no Black women writers had gone before – her writing is out of but of this world!  Butler was the first science fiction writer to ever receive the MacArthur Fellowship.  And though Butler can be … Continue reading →

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They Came in the Morning, and Returned that Night

Posted on February 10, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

This book was originally published in 1971, three years after Richard Nixon declared his War on Crime when he was campaigning for the U.S. presidency.  As I have written elsewhere, Nixon’s declaration of war in 1968 marked the beginning of … Continue reading →

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A Good Black Man is Hard to Find: The Pathological World of Alice Walker

Posted on February 7, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Dear God! Once upon a time – it seems that long ago – I was working on a Master of Fine Arts (MFA).  I was reading Alice Walker.  She had accused Black men, specifically Black male authors, of not reading … Continue reading →

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A Good White Woman is Hard to Find

Posted on March 28, 2021 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I recently met some amazing people, one a Flannery O’Connor Scholar, which had me revisit O’Connor’s works. Granted, I hadn’t read her since college, a very long time ago, where almost all literature courses had you reading dead white men … Continue reading →

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Prison Walls v. Love — Review of “Memoirs of a Prison Lawyer/Prison Wife,” by Claudette Spencer-Nurse

Posted on June 25, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Memoirs of a Prison Lawyer/Prison Wife, by Claudette Spencer-Nurse, is a love story.  It is an improbable love story.  It is a love story that has defied the odds.  It is a love story for the ages.  It is a … Continue reading →

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The DNA of Story and Song

Posted on April 10, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I am sitting in an affluent white church which, quite frankly, smells like old money.  A middle-aged white woman walks down the aisle like a bride at a wedding and stands near the row I’m sitting in and asks if … Continue reading →

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Remembering Les Payne — FAKE NEWS, Tweets, and Ftweets*

Posted on March 30, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this moment of “FAKE NEWS,” often decried by its most ardent propagater-in-chief, it is worth nothing what recently deceased Les Payne, Black Journalist Extraordinare, gave as advice to young reporters: “Journalism begins when somone says no.”  Most importantly, the … Continue reading →

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Zarafa

Posted on November 9, 2017 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On my early morning ride on the #4 train the other morning, a young woman in Muslim garb, including a hijab covering her head, enters the train at Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn and stands by the door. She’s holding a … Continue reading →

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