Tag Archives: being a teenager

Triumphing Through Levels of Grief

Posted on March 8, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Today is International Women’s Day. During Black History Month and these first couple of days in Women’s History Month, I have uplifted women, mostly women authors. Today, though, I want to uplift a woman near and dear to my heart, … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Lest We Forget, Mother's Messages, Religion | Tagged being a teenager, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Family, fathers, Growing Up, juveniles, raising black boys, Relationships | Leave a comment

Chadwick Boseman: In Memoriam – Black Panther!

Posted on August 31, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Two years ago, in preparing to deliver a high school graduation commencement address at the Fedcap School in Orange, New Jersey, I researched a number of commencement addresses by pop culture characters and personalities. During my research, I came across … Continue reading →

Posted in Lest We Forget, Race, History & American Society | Tagged ##BlackSuperHeroesMatter, #WakandaForever, being a teenager, Black Lightning, Black Panther, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, BlackLivesMatter, Bruce Lee, Chadwick Boseman, Fedcap School, Howard University, Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Panthers, raising black boys, Superfly, Superheroes, Superman | 2 Comments

The Black Blood of Poetry

Posted on August 17, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Over the weekend I got some good work done on my title poem, “The Black Blood of Poetry.” A little more than twenty years ago, a poet-friend, Rachel Wetzsteon, who committed suicide in December 2009, perhaps because she felt too … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Writing Projects, Lest We Forget, Streets of Rage | Tagged "If We Must Die", being a teenager, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Black Summer, BlackLivesMatter, Claude McKay, Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Pantoum, Poetry, Rachel Wetzsteon, raising black boys, Relationships, Sonnet, suicide of Rachel Wetzsteon, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Black Feminine Mystique, Villanelle | Leave a comment

“The Man Who Cried I Am!”: Celebrating Fifty Years of Life

Posted on August 6, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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 Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Streets of Rage | Tagged Allen Ginsberg, being a teenager, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Granada, Growing Up, Howl!, juveniles, Panama, patriotism, Poetry, raising black boys, Relationships, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Wretched of the Earth | Leave a comment

Dear Daddy: A Love Letter to Your Beloved South

Posted on July 15, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

July 15, 2020 Dear Daddy, Last night I dreamt of you for the first time since your death. I woke up with tears in my eyes. Although you have been dead for a little more than 38 years, in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Lest We Forget | Tagged being a teenager, Benin & Togo, Cameroon, Civil War, Confederate memorials, Confederate Monuments, Confederate statues, Congo, discrimination, Ellis Island, Emmett Till, Family, fathers, Four White Men Kidnap and Rape Black Girl in Tylertown MS, Ghana, Growing Up, NC, Nigeria, racial reckoning, Segregation, slave ships, Southern Bantu peoples, the South, Township of Bath, Virginia, white supremacy, WW I, WW II, Yeatesville | 1 Comment

A Bibliography of Police Misconduct for Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats

Posted on June 18, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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 Books & Writing Projects, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged "A Bit of Justice", "Black undercover cop is shot; a case of possible '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", Amadou Diallo, being a teenager, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, BlackLivesMatter, Charles Brooks, Daniel Wise, Daryle Lamont Jenkins, Ed Morales, Gore Vidal, Herb Boyd, John Milgrim, juveniles, Margaret Sena-Stahl, Michael Randall, murder, New York Amsterdam News, NYPD, Peter Richmond, Poetry, police brutality, police involved shooting, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Suspect shot by cop still in ICU" | Leave a comment

The Slaughter of the Innocents

Posted on June 18, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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 Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Streets of Rage | Tagged being a teenager, BlackLivesMatter, cops and robbers, Growing Up, juveniles, murder, NYPD, Poetry, police involved shooting, police killing, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Slaughter of the Innocents, toy guns | Leave a comment

The Fires This Time

Posted on June 5, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Last year, 2019, we marked 400 years since Africans were brought to Virginia and America’s “peculiar institution” took root. Since then, in the annals of American history, there has been systematic oppression and brutality against the descendants of Africans in … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged "If We Must Die", 1619-2019, 1919 Race Riots, 1960s, America's Original Sin, Barbados, Beaumont, being a teenager, Black Patriotism, Burn baby burn!, Decisive Decade, Dr. King, Ellis Island, James Baldwin , juveniles, Martin Luther King Jr., North Carolina, Original Sin, Panama, Panama Canal, peculiar institution, police involved shooting, raising black boys, Relationships, Slavery, The Fires This Time, Virginia, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

Linda Fairstein’s reckoning, not her demonization

Posted on June 18, 2019 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Len Levitt, in an Op-ed piece in amNew York, 6/18/19, “The campaign to demonize Linda Fairstein,” as it relates to her behavior to convict the Central Park Five, writes that we “seem to be going through a period of racial … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Lest We Forget | Tagged #WhenTheySeeUs, amNewYork, being a teenager, Central Park Five, juveniles, Len levitt, Linda Fairstein | 1 Comment

This day in history — April 17, 2006 — Latino Teen Beaten, Sexually Assaulted in Texas for Trying to Kiss White Girl

Posted on April 17, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 22, 2006, David Ritcheson, a 16-year-old Latino boy, was attacked by two white teenagers, David Tuck and Keith Turner, at a house party in Spring, Texas. After Ritcheson allegedly tried to kiss a white girl at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lest We Forget, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Aryan nation, beaner, being a teenager, David Ritcheson, David Tuck, federal hate crime laws, Keith Turner, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, white power | Leave a comment

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