-
Recent Posts
- The Pledge of Allegiance, Little White Lies, and All that Jazz!
- Racial Reckoning & Reparations
- A Constantly Evolving Lifespan: A Review of “This Life” by Quntos KunQuest
- Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
- Treatment Not Jail – “Fostering Benevolence”
Recent Comments
Michael Pass on Racial Reckoning & Re… William Eric Waters,… on Racial Reckoning & Re… Mark Chapman on A Constantly Evolving Lifespan… Spyros Germenis on A Constantly Evolving Lifespan… Debra Sterling Walte… on A Constantly Evolving Lifespan… Archives
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- June 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- October 2019
- June 2019
- April 2019
- February 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- September 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- November 2016
- October 2016
- June 2016
- April 2016
- February 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- January 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- June 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
Categories
- Amadou Diallo
- being a teenager
- Black patriotism
- Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass
- Chief Banks
- child welfare
- Commissioner Broken Windows
- Commissioner William Bratton
- crime
- Education
- ezwwaters
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Family
- Fatherhood
- Fathers
- Ferguson
- Ferguson Missouri
- Fist Lady of NYC
- Five Percent Nation
- foster care
- Genealogy
- Growing Up
- James Baldwin
- Jesus
- John F. Kennedy
- Justice Chronicles
- juveniles
- Lest We Forget
- Life Sentences
- Malcolm X
- Martin Luther King
- Mayor Bill de Blasio
- Michael Brown
- MIssouri
- Mother's Messages
- Murder
- Mussolini of Manhattan
- Nation of Islam
- Nelson Mandela
- NYPD
- Osborne Association
- Parole
- parole board
- Patriotism
- Poetry
- police involved shooting
- police-involved killing
- Politics
- race
- raising black boys
- Reentry
- Relationships
- Religion
- remorse
- Revolution
- Shawshank Redemption
- Short Stories
- Slavery
- Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats
- Sonny's Blues
- Streets of Rage
- The New York Post
- The Summer of Capri
- Uncategorized
- urban decay
- Urban Impact
Meta
Category Archives: Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats
National Superhero Day
Today is National Superhero Day. Over the years I’ve written a series of poems about “heroes.” In my last collection, “The Black Blood of Poetry,” which I am shopping around, is this poem: In Search of a Black Hero Coming … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Poetry, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage
Tagged Batman, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, heroes, National Superhero Day, Superman, Tarzan, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Black Feminine Mystique
Leave a comment
The Prison Portal
Poets are on a quest to find a word that is worth a thousand pictures. I don’t know if there’s a poetry gene, but there’s connective tissue joining poets. Even before I know a writer is a poet – a … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Poetry, Reentry, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats
Tagged Bell Gayle Chevigny, Jan A Nicometo, On Language, PEN America, PEN Prison Writing Program, quantum jump, quantum physics, William Safire
Leave a comment
The Three Pillars of American Society: Slavery, Segregation, and Hyperincarceration
America stands on three pillars: slavery, segregation, and hyperincarceration (incorrectly referred to as “mass incarceration”). These “pillars” implicate and impact mostly Black people, but also all people living in America or dreaming about coming to America. In fact, the U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Life Sentences, Politics, race, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage
Tagged Angela Davis, Are prisons obsolete?, Brown v. Board of Education, Charles E. Silberman, Confederacy, Criminal Violence Criminal Justice, Declaration of Independence, George Jackson, George Wallace, hyperincarceration, Jessica Mitford, Kind & Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, Loic Waquant, Mario Cuomo, Plessy v. Ferguson, Segregation, Slavery, Southland
Leave a comment
A Farewell to Black History Month, 2022
Black History Month is in the shortest month of the year. Caesar Augustus, thinking that the month in honor of his name was too short, took days from February, short changing what would become Black History Month. In fact, when … Continue reading
“Final” Touches on The Black Blood of Poetry
Early this morning I put the “final” touches on my title poem, “The Black Blood of Poetry.” I wasn’t going to post it, but it is timely, and I’d rather not wait until the collection is published to put this … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, James Baldwin, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, Poetry, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Sonny's Blues, Streets of Rage
Tagged "I can't breathe!", #AllLivesMatter, BlackLivesMatter, Blood in My Eye, Emmett Till, Fred Hampton, George Floyd, James Baldwin , James Chaney, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Ossie Davis, Soledad Brother, The Black Blood of Poetry
1 Comment
“The Man Who Cried I Am!”: Celebrating Fifty Years of Life
It seems like only yesterday when I wrote this piece as I approached a milestone birthday, but it’s been nearly ten years. As I approach another milestone birthday, I am looking to complete my fourth collection of poetry, entitled, The … Continue reading
Posted in being a teenager, Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Growing Up, juveniles, Patriotism, race, raising black boys, Relationships, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage, Urban Impact
Tagged Allen Ginsberg, Granada, Howl!, Panama, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Wretched of the Earth
Leave a comment
A Bibliography of Police Misconduct for Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats
As I have indicated elsewhere, when working on my collection of poetry about police misconduct, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, I drew on news reports and headlines. While doing a little Spring cleaning, I came across the original manuscript … Continue reading
Posted in Amadou Diallo, being a teenager, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Lest We Forget, Murder, NYPD, Poetry, police involved shooting, police-involved killing, Politics, race, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage, Urban Impact
Tagged "A Bit of Justice", "Black undercover cop is shot; a case of possibble 'friendly fire'", "City Hall rally rebukes Workfare, "Don't let it happen again", "Los Angeles Officer Is Held in Drug Theft in Unusual Graft Case", "Neighbors call shooting unjust", "No Way Out", "Police brutaliy protesters rally against 'Stolen Lives'", "Police kill suspect in domestic dispute", "Real reform can stop police brutality", "Settlement of $3 Million in Fatal Choking by Officer", "The War at Home", BlackLivesMatter, Charles Brooks, Daniel Wise, Daryle Lamont Jenkins, Ed Morales, Gore Vidal, Herb Boyd, John Milgrim, Margaret Sena-Stahl, Michael Randall, New York Amsterdam News, Peter Richmond, police brutality, Suspect shot by cop still in ICU"
Leave a comment
The Slaughter of the Innocents
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, I have been rereading some of my poems in my collection about police misconduct, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats. I am even more disturbed now than when in 1995 I … Continue reading
Posted in being a teenager, crime, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Lest We Forget, Murder, NYPD, police involved shooting, police-involved killing, race, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage
Tagged BlackLivesMatter, cops and robbers, police killing, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Slaughter of the Innocents, toy guns
Leave a comment
Blue Knight Riders
Despite national and even global protests on police misconduct and killings of unarmed Black men, another Black male, Rayshard Brooks, is shot twice in the back by a white police officer in Atlanta, Georgia for what amounts to sleeping while … Continue reading