not another f*cking blog!

brooklyn's 40th anniversary west indian carnaval parade

2007-09-04T10:50:00.001-04:00

nose bone and skull, originally uploaded by threecee.

yesterday, labor day, was the 40th annual carnaval parade in brooklyn, where millions turn out for the spectacle, food, music and people-watching.

i didn't stay long, as i'm fighting a cold or flu or allergies or hang-over or some combination of these. unfortunately, my photography suffered, so this is one photo of only two that i liked.

here's the other:

downtime, originally uploaded by threecee.

here are photos from others on flickr.

i like them apples

2007-08-31T18:54:00.001-04:00

apple wood leaf, originally uploaded by threecee.

today's my father's 86th birthday.

born in jamaica, he first came to this country in the early 1940's as a guest worker. the u.s. was at war, and labor on the homefront was in short supply, so the u.s. government imported many caribbean men to work the farms.

a single man, born and raised in the countryside outside of montego bay in a family of modest means, the guest worker program was about the only way that my father would ever get to see "streets paved with gold" in "the land of milk and honey."

the men were trucked around the u.s., housed in barracks; their destinations tied to the schedules and climates of produce: the seasons to sow, grow and reap strawberries, cotton, oranges, potatoes, corn, lettuce, and apples from maine, to florida, to california and many states in between.

the experience opened his eyes to the good, the bad and the ugly of 1940's america: from seeing a man practically lynched, to seeing the vast plains of the midwest and grandeur of the rockies. from seeing the crushing poverty of the rural south to glimpsing the unimaginable wealth of the well-to-do. [ where did the expression "well-to-do" come from? well to do what, exactly? maybe that's a topic for a future post. ]

of course, when the war ended and the gi's returned home, the guest workers were sent back to their homes. many would come back, as my father did in the early 50's. as a young man, he was drawn to opportunities and energy of new york city; that's probably where i get my love of the city.

anyway, what does any of this have to do with apples? well, these apples are from a tree in the front yard of my parents' house, the house were i grew up, in rural connecticut. the house where, when they bought it in 1968, trees were growing through the kitchen floor and we spent the first night literally camping in the living room. the house in the town where we were the first, and i believe still the only, black family to settle there. the house where they put 5 kids through college, the first college graduates in the family. the house where, more often than not, we were living hand-to-mouth. we kids never knew the razor's edge on which we were living for many years.

these apples taste pretty sweet to me.

balance

2007-08-27T17:49:00.001-04:00

HI SPEED BALANCING, originally uploaded by threecee.

i'm posting this photo a bit reluctantly.

while walking with friends to lunch in fort greene, we passed by this auto repair shop on fulton street. the business appears to have been here for years, judging by the vintage of the signage. i must have passed by this shop many times, where their services are often applied curbside, right in front, as they don't appear to have an actual garage big enough for a car. their floor jacks and tire inventory are right on the sidewalk. this kind of shop still exists in many parts of brooklyn, but they're getting rarer. auto repair shops don't mix with $3,000,000 brownstones...

anyway, we're walking by, and i "see" the building for the first time. it's a "flatiron", a triangular structure that i find alluring. could it be my love affair with the number 3? i stop to take a few photos and then start to move on, when the owner comes out and confronts me:

him: what are you doing?
me: taking pictures of this building.
him: you can't. it's illegal.
me: yes, i can. it's not illegal.

[ insert about 7 variations of the above dialog, each iteration more agitated than the last ]

him: it's my building. you can't take a picture of my building.
me: yes, i can. i'm on a public sidewalk.
him: why do you want a picture of my building?
me: i think it's a great looking building.
him: no, it's not.
me: i think it is.
him: well, it's my building. it's illegal for you to take a picture.
me: it's completely legal for me to take a picture of your building. you can come to my house and take a picture if you want.
him: (while fidgetting with his cell phone) i'm gonna call the cops.
me: go ahead. we'll be around the corner having lunch.
him: no. you have to wait.
me: okay. sure, i'll wait. (calling his bluff)
him: well, i don't want to waste my time waiting for the cops.
me: fine.

we head to lunch at a little mexican spot just around the corner. we happen to be seated near a table of NYPD. i describe my confrontation to one of them to get clarity, but none of them seem that interested in talking to me, and they don't seem to be very knowledgeable about this issue. probably a good thing he didn't call the cops if they don't know what's legal, either.

over lunch, talking about photography and rights and permission with my friends, i come to the conclusion that although i strongly believe i'm well within my legal rights to take the photos, the fact that the owner was so against it gives me pause. i decide that i'll go back to the shop after lunch, talk to the owner and tell him that i'll delete the photos if it's so distressful for him.

one of my friends says that i shouldn't do it, that the building owner is ignorant and should learn that it's not illegal. i agree with her in principle, but on a "karmic" level, i don't like to generate ill-will if i can avoid it. i know i'm right, but i don't have to "be" right all the time. choosing one's battles and all that.

balance.

i do go back to the shop. he's working on mounting a tire when i arrive. i tell him that i'll delete the photos if he feels so strongly, but he waves me off, never says a word and his demeanor isn't the most welcoming. i was a bit disappointed in that i had some fantasy of the owner and i becoming fast friends over this little understanding, that we'd talk about gentrification and the changing neighborhood, etc. but i doubt that's going to happen.

hello, brit in brooklyn reader

2007-08-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

just wanted to welcome those who've found their way here via the interview of yours truly, posted today on the brit in brooklyn blog.

my first encounter with Adrian (BIB blogger) was a random meeting on the corner of carlton avenue and dean street, while we were both out taking photos of the footprint of the proposed Atlantic Yards development. we'd known of each other via "the internets", but had never met face-to-face. he's a nice chap. someone should interview him someday. i'm betting he has more than a few interesting tales to tell.

living in new york city is good for your health?

2007-08-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

an article in the New York Magazine describes a study which appears to show that new yorkers are healthier and live longer than the average american:

Last winter, the New York City Department of Health released figures that told a surprising story: New Yorkers are living longer than ever, and longer than most people in the country. A New Yorker born in 2004 can now expect to live 78.6 years, nine months longer than the average American will. What’s more, our life expectancy is increasing at a rate faster than that of most of the rest of the country. Since 1990, the average American has added only about two and a half years to his life, while we in New York have added 6.2 years to ours. In the year 2004 alone, our life expectancy shot up by five months—a stunning leap, because American life spans normally increase by only a month or two each year. When these figures came out, urban-health experts were impressed and slightly dazed. It turns out the conventional wisdom is wrong: The city, it seems, won’t kill you. Quite the opposite. Not only are we the safest big city in America, but we are, by this measure at least, the healthiest.

an interesting read. some possible reasons for the change are the reduced crime rate, better sanitation, more walking and climbing stairs, healthier food, better hospitals, decreased drug and tobacco use.

a tornado? in brooklyn?!?

2007-08-08T11:48:00.000-04:00

Carlton Avenue storm, originally uploaded by threecee.

yes, martha, a tornado in brooklyn.

it's believed to have touched down at about 6:15 this morning somewhere around here, roughly 6 miles south of my home.

all that i had to endure was a house-shaking thunder clap that woke me up at 5 a.m., and then mother nature continuing to show us who wears the pants in this relationship with about 3 inches of rain in an hour (which turned my backyard into a swimming pool and my neighbor's cellar into an indoor pool), gusty wind (which i feared would bring down my backyard tree), and a 1,000,000,000-watt multimedia show (incredible lightning and house-shaking, car-alarm-activating thunder).

of course, the MTA (the folks who operate the trains & busses) was well prepared to weather the storm... to see how the poor souls who had to get to work today felt about it all, or if you have hours to kill, check out the new york times' city room blog reader comments.

my map fetish

2007-08-06T19:19:00.000-04:00

continuing my obsession with interactive maps, i recently discovered Drive Project: New Orleans. it's an interactive map project that documents the flooding of New Orleans neighborhoods. Bill Klingensmith, the artist, drove the streets of New Orleans as his equipment automatically took photos and recorded each photo's time and location.

here's how he describes the project:

Drive Project: New Orleans is my attempt to encourage awareness of a significant tragedy that remains unresolved. The project is a challenge to conventional media that uses new forms of media. As an individual, I am proud to use my skills to contribute artifacts, both digital and physical, which pay homage to a city that is so important to the development and essential character the United States’ culture and heritage. This project could not have been done at any other time; it uses currently available digital technology to present a massive amount of content as an interactive web site. It is important for people to see my project and therefore hopefully come to a better understanding of the scale of devastation. The goal of Drive Project: New Orleans was to present an objective view of key locations in a city at a certain point in time. Some have interpreted the project as a political statement; others believe that it is simply a good resource to help them understand the scale of what happened and reinforces that the event is not over. As long as it makes you think about New Orleans, I am satisfied.

one of my best decisions, ever

2007-08-04T23:09:00.001-04:00

a recent article in the New York Times delves in the lives and psyches of silicon valley millionaires "who don't feel rich" because they essentially feel the need to keep up with the Jones next door. this keep-up-with-the-Jones "burden" may have been increased by the sequence of events around the dot-com bubble burst of 2000. many had borrowed big bucks for big houses (among other things) based on their net worth on paper before the downturn. now that the bubble has burst, up to 90% of their paper wealth at the peak of the dot-com craziness has vanished, but the bills and mortgage statements still arrive each month.

so now, many are still working 80-hour weeks, just like they did 10 years ago.

i could have been one of them. thankfully, i was able to step away from silicon valley and have never looked back. i didn't bank the many millions like those in the article, but i did manage to get out with enough real assets to buy and renovate a home, as well pursue other interests without the need for 80-hour (or 40-hour) work weeks.

Hiroshima Memorial presentation: HIBAKUSHA plus RABBIT ON THE MOON

2007-08-03T23:11:00.000-04:00

a dear friend of mine, Kathy Sloane, will be showing her film short, HIBAKUSHA, at the Roxy Theater in San Francisco. the show is monday, aug 6th, 7pm.:

In this fifteen-minute film, Japanese citizen Keiji Tsuchiya uses 12 powerful watercolors, which he painted five years ago, to tell the story of his experiences in Hiroshima as a 17-year-old soldier during the month immediately following the dropping of the atomic bomb. While the film addresses a horrific moment in history, it emphasizes how Mr. Tsuchiya has directed his life towards purpose and healing through his life-long commitments to preserving the Japanese horseshoe crab and advocating for survivors of the atomic bomb and against nuclear war. Directed by Kathy Sloane. Running time: 15 mins.

also showing is a film by Emiko Omori, RABBIT ON THE MOON:

This is the story of 120,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in camps during WWII. The trampling of civil rights; a generation's loss of a lifetime's work; the fissures created in a strong, vital community; the drafting of young men from the camps; the racist loyalty questionnaire - all told through the experiences of the co-producers' family and many other former inmates. Directed by Emiko Omori. Running time: 85 mins.

the 3 H's have arrived

2007-08-02T18:02:00.001-04:00

cool
Originally uploaded by threecee
the hazy, hot and humid dog days of summer are here in brooklyn, as would be typical for august. highs of 92 today and 96 tomorrow.

those who can have already fled to the shore or other points cooler than these concrete and pavement boroughs. those without means or opportunity to escape make do with what they can.

a favorite cool spot with the local kids is Dean Playground, almost directly across the street from my house, with it's water-sprinkler-fountain thing.

sorry subscribers!

2007-08-02T16:35:00.000-04:00

you may notice that your newsreader indicates that most of the entries on this blog have just been updated. that's partially correct. i'm trying a new blog editor, ecto, and due to a "feature" of the application, i had to twiddle some bits deep in the bowels of the blog to get everyone to play nice together. i think everyone's cool, but only time will tell...

the "man date"

2007-07-28T17:40:00.000-04:00

it didn't really dawn on me that i had a "man date" tonight. he is a good friend of a friend, well, really just a good friend. we've know each other for several years.

ironically, we're going to see Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm, which was co-directed/co-produced by a friend of a friend of the friend. from the synopsis on their website:

This is the story of one simple invention, the vibrator, and its relationship to one complex human behavior, the female orgasm. The history of the vibrator and its medical use had virtually vanished until historian, Rachel Maines, researching needlework patterns in early 20th century women’s magazines, ran across ads for electric vibrators. Piquing her curiosity, she traced the origins of this early electrified appliance and made an astonishing discovery. Under the guise of a medical treatment, Victorian doctors had used vibrators to relieve women of symptoms of hysteria by masturbating them to orgasm. Why did women need this treatment? Female sexual satisfaction was, and continues to be, misunderstood or, worse, ignored. Almost 70% of women do not reach orgasm by penetration alone. Yet, the social, legal and religious definition of “real” sex is just that: penetration of the vagina to MALE orgasm. FEMALE orgasm isn’t even considered. Is it any wonder that a lot of women were unsatisfied? Their dissatisfaction was labeled “hysteria.” Symptoms of hysteria were vague – being cranky, reading French novels while wearing tight corsets, etc. It was a disease manufactured by doctors creating a lucrative clientele and a mutually camouflaged procedure that satisfied both.

will some people assume that we're a couple? probably, it won't be the first time, especially with my "arty" eye glasses and "interesting" footwear.

i'm not [racist|sexist|homophobic|misogynistic|etc.], but my neighbor is

2007-07-24T11:31:00.000-04:00

a new poll by Zogby International attempts to plumb the depths of american prejudice. but instead of asking those polled about their personal views on race, sexual orientation, religion, politics and gender, it asks what americans believe are the views of their neighbors:

Over my years of polling, I've learned that Americans tend to offer socially acceptable responses when questioned on their own views about race and prejudice. That's why in this poll we predominantly asked people about "most Americans'" views on race and prejudice. We believe this provides a far more accurate window into how people really think about these issues. Americans are more forthcoming when discussing the problem in the context of their neighbors' lives than in the context of their own lives.

what i find interesting about the poll results is that i'm in almost complete agreement with what those polled believe about the prejudices of "most Americans", but i usually feel that my views are in the minority. puzzling. i'll have to ruminate on that.

Harry Potter!

2007-07-21T20:00:00.000-04:00

ha! made you look!

you can't write this stuff

2007-07-20T23:55:00.001-04:00

walking back home from a bar in the park slope neighborhood of brooklyn [ for those who don't know, park slope has a certain reputation for, um, let's say, blandness. and baby strollers. and wannabe MILFs (attention: googling MILF may return results that are XXX rated... you have been warned!). a certain white-bread (white-bred?) mixed with aging left-wing hippie charm. not that there's anything wrong with that ].

anyway...

walking back home to prospect heights [ which really doesn't yet have a rep for anything other than being between park slope and fort greene. and the site of the proposed "Atlantic Yards" abomination, but that's a whole nother topic. google it, too. ]

so, anyway...

walking back home to prospect heights from a park slope bar/club called "Barbes." it's an excellent spot, by the way. tonight, the 10pm show was a band from somewhere in west africa. don't remember the name of the band (again, google can help us out). the band was comprised of, what appeared to me, 2 men and 1 woman who i'd bet were born and raised somewhere in africa. the other 4 or 5 band members looked like they were born and raised in park slope. could they all have been african? maybe, but i doubt it.

anyway...

what i really wanted to write about was the volvo-drivin-with-left-arm-clad-in-an-oxford-shirt-hangin-out-the-window guy, who looked like he was from park slope, pumping some straight-ahead instrumental jazz (i'd guess something like some ravi coltrane, but i can't be sure). it was a scene out of some low-budget hollywood summer crap movie, in which the volvo driver's name would have been skip. or chip. or...

contrast that with the typical sub-woofer-pumpin-drive-by-of-some-hip-hop-MC-whatever-that's-always-rollin-by-my-crib. on a tuesday. morning.

you get the point: you can't (or maybe shouldn't?) write this stuff.

cancelled!

2007-07-16T18:05:00.000-04:00

today was the day that i finally got around to cancelling. i was inspired by a friend who just cancelled his netflix subscription.

here's what got the axe today:

my gym membership: the plan was to go to the gym when the weather was too brutal to bike or run. i really can't stand working out inside on a machine. it feels too much like torture. and, i had lost my membership card months ago. only an out-of-town friend would use my membership. you know who you are, and the employees of the sports club certainly did not. as i was only ever in the place to *start* the membership, and the original sports club was recently acquired by the Crunch Fitness chain, there was little chance of them knowing he wasn't me. and, believe me, he looks absolutely nothing like me.

netflix dvd movie rental: much like the gym membership, i haven't been watching any movies lately. not that there weren't good movies. there was a time where i'd watch more movies, but those days are long gone. about the only times i watch tv these days is to catch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

auto insurance and registration:

technically, they're not yet cancelled, but will be after tomorrow, assuming that the DMV doesn't thwart my efforts. i sold the car to my sister. i shall miss it; it served me well for a few years in CA, then on the cross-country move to NYC (the start of that cross-country drive is the photo above), throughout the house renovation, and numerous trips around town and other spots on the east coast. i don't need one to commute (don't have no job), don't need one to get around NYC (the subways and buses are usually pretty efficient. even the G train was convenient to/from the P.S. 1 "warm up" last weekend, and the G train doesn't have the best rep), and i can take Metro North to visit the family in CT. and, if i really need a car, then i just use zipcar

HBO, Showtime and On Demand movies: again, wasn't watching them much, especially now that The Sopranos has ended. i will miss watching Weeds when the new season starts. maybe i'll have to mooch off friends if i really need a fix.

these alone probably save me about $250 per month! that's money better spent travelling, dining out, going to concerts... or, if i were fiscally responsible, it'll be used to pay off my credit cards, and not to buy a new toy (although, the iPhone looks very slick. maybe you've heard about it?).

next on the chopping block are cell phone text messaging, magazine subscriptions (Wired, MacWorld, Time Out NY. well, maybe not Time Out NY... yet), and other stuff i rarely use, so i must not need them.

i'd like to believe that the democrats have found their spine...

2007-07-16T15:17:00.000-04:00

...with senator harry reid's threat to fillibuster on withdrawl from iraq, and real rumblings about impeachment, but i've been let down so often in the past, i forgive myself for not believing any of it until i see it.

Conrad McRae Summer Youth Basketball

2007-07-15T17:21:00.000-04:00

yesterday, i took what may be the first of many photos of the Conrad McRae Summer Youth Basketball games. the games are played all summer long on the Dean Playground basketball courts, across Dean Street from my house. check out the photos here.

from their website:

Celebrating its’ [8]th anniversary season, named in memory of beloved NBA star-athlete, Conrad McRae Summer Youth Basketball League has been fulfilling dreams and making a profound difference in young lives through the discipline of basketball. An idea conceived on a sweltering weekend in June 2000, four dedicated friends decided to
do something for the idle youth on the streets of their Brooklyn neighborhood for yet another summer. They agreed upon hosting a one-loss elimination basketball tournament. Relying completely on word of mouth to spread the news, they were thrilled by the excess of 100 youngsters who showed up to participate in their inaugural event during a 4th of July weekend.

what's missing from the photos are the sounds of the games: the refs' whistles, the cheers from the crowd, and the booming music that plays during breaks in the action.

a walk in the woods

2007-07-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

took a long walk in the woods today, in Lover's Leap State Park, to be exact. considering that it's only about 10 miles from where i grew up, i wish that i'd checked it out before today.

see more photos from today's walk

for me, a walk in the woods transports me back to my childhood. we moved from Bridgeport to New Preston, CT when i was 4. it was the summer of 1968. Bridgeport was definitely urban, and rapidly in decline economically and socially. New Preston was very rural. we were the first black family to buy a home in New Preston, and i think we're still the only.

i remember walking through the woods behind our house for what seemed like miles, but was literally only a few hundred yards. a fruit orchard was on the far side of the woods, and my brothers and sisters and i could not resist "sampling" the sweet, juicy peaches, plums, apples and pears after a long walk beneath the green, cool canopy.

it was quite a contrast to the streets of Bridgeport.

Atlantic Yards photo book profit to be donated to DDDB

2007-07-09T02:55:00.000-04:00

per the suggestion of a friend, i've decided to donate all profit from the sale of my Atlantic Yards photo book, Atlantic Yards: [De]Construction of The Neighborhood to Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn for their legal expenses.

so, for each book you buy (and they make great gifts!), i'll donate $5.05 for the hardcover and $3.05 for the softcover.

Finally!

2007-07-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

today's editorial in The New York Times finally calls for the withdrawl of U.S. forces from Iraq "without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."

i had cancelled my subscription to the NY Times many months ago following its support and defense of Israel's (most recent) invasion of Lebanon after the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in July 2006. i thought Israel's response to the kidnapping was excessive and indefensible. the NY Times thought otherwise, so i voted with my wallet and cancelled my subscription. (full disclosure: i still have a subscription to their crosswords. it's an addiction that i'm not trying to kick).

anyway, after many *years* of enabling the Bush administration's rampage, the Times finally is advocating pulling the plug. i suppose "better late than never" but it's hard to think of anything else positive to say about their late-to-the-party opinion.

will i resubscribe? i doubt it. i believe that i'm better informed by reading the news from many different sources online, and i don't have the guilt about the resources used and pollution created to produce and deliver a paper to my stoop every morning.

apoplectic

2007-07-03T02:47:00.000-04:00

not that it was much of a surprise, and surely more evil things happened somewhere in the world in the past 24 hours, but Bush's commuting of Libby's sentence just pushed me over some edge. i'm not even going to provide a link to the story as it will be easy enough to find info by searching for "Bush" and "commute" and "Libby" and "f*ck". those 4 search terms returned over 40,000 hits on google just seconds ago (and over 160,000 hits if you leave out the "f*ck").

recently, i've discovered the word apoplectic. well, not really discovered. i've heard it before but never really knew exactly what it meant. but somehow i knew that it described just the right balance of intensity, rage, irritation, disbelief, disgust and near complete loss of one's mental faculties that it could be accurately used for my feelings after hearing of this news. it's literally a medical term, as in:

"Did you hear what the f*ck 'president' f*cking Bush did today? He f*cking commuted that pile-of-sh*t Libby's sentence! Can you f*cking believe how f*cking *&Y^@T$ these *ssholes are? This latest piece of f*cking above-the-law bullsh*t is gonna cause me some sort of f*cking apoplectic brain f*cking hemorrage!!"

i literally feel that my head will explode. any minute now.

and, in case i've offended anyone with the use of f*ck in this post, let me just refer you to our Vice man, DICK Cheney, about the appropriate use of the word f*ck.

maybe that's their real agenda: to cause apoplexy in those who don't have their heads up their own or someone else's *ss. those unfortunate enough to be left standing will be used like batteries (ala The Matrix) to power DICK Cheney's "heart."

shooting in nyc may soon be more difficult

2007-06-29T11:03:00.000-04:00

shooting with a camera, that is.

from the New York Times:

Some tourists, amateur photographers, even would-be filmmakers hoping to make it big on YouTube could soon be forced to obtain a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance before taking pictures or filming on city property, including sidewalks.

New rules being considered by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance.

The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment.

considering that many (including me) already don't know exactly what is and what is not (and who is and who is not) legal to photograph (for example, this recent confrontation), i think that the proposed rule changes will only make the picture murkier.

Brooklyn Matters

2007-06-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

Brooklyn Matters (http://www.brooklynmatters.com) is a great documentary that lays out the reasons why the proposed Atlantic Yards development is bad for Brooklyn.

here's a blurb about it:

No single event will have a more drastic and long-lasting impact on Brooklyn than the proposed Atlantic Yards development. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood. Brooklyn Matters is an insightful documentary that reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and planning principles to try to push their own interests forward.

i don't know why it's taken me so long to post about it on this blog, but i guess better late than never.

if you can, buy the DVD and support the cause.

Karla Brundage poetry reading, July in NYC

2007-06-12T14:44:00.000-04:00

a friend, Karla Brundage, will be in NYC for readings from her recently published book of poetry, Swallowing Watermelons.

here's the skinny:

wednesday july 11, 7-9 pm:
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 E 3rd St (Between Aves B & C)

saturday july 14, 4-5:30 pm:
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery @ Bleecker

from the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contacts:
Ishmael Reed
510.428.0116 ireedpub@yahoo.com
Kim McMillon
510.228-6775 kimmac@pacbell.net

Swallowing Watermelons
By Karla Brundage

(New York, CA), April 27, 2007 -- On Saturday, July 14 from 4 PM – 5:30 PM, come to The Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery @ Bleecker, prepared to hear poetry that reaches to the bone, and come from the heart. Karla Brundage collects nearly twenty years of writing in Swallowing Watermelons, her first published collection. She tracks her life experiences as a biracial young woman, a single mother, and an artist activist who has lived in Hawaii, New York City, and Zimbabwe, where she traveled on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange, and California, where she now resides.

Swallowing Watermelons was published by ISHMAEL REED PUBLISHING COMPANY on April 5, 2007 (ISBN 1-4257-1463-3, Paperback: $12.95, 104 pages). Swallowing Watermelons is Karla Brundage's first published poetry collection and contains almost twenty years of her writing. Her poems are deeply honest, personal reflections--vivid stories from the heart cut to the bone. Moving between Hawaii, the mainland United States and Zimbabwe, she shares moments in her life as a daughter growing into a woman, as a lover, a mother, and single parent.

Praise for Swallowing Watermelons:

"In this first collection, Karla Brundage demonstrates her thematic range and reveals that she is not afraid to explore the gamut of emotional entanglement. The poems are honest, vulnerable, bold and triumphant."
---Opal Palmer Adisa, author of Eros Muse

Swallowing Watermelons

Swallowing whole watermelons of sorrow
Breaths come shallow
Like one no longer
Dependent upon the earth to giver her breath.
Grasping but not reaching
Through tangles of telephone wire
I am beholden,
Our child a lifeline to you.
Invisible cords of communication,
Forever linked by her birth.
I am you now
You are me now
She is us.

“I adored Womb Dancing, Competition of the Hair, Breasts, and Wanna Be White Girl. In all of those poems, I felt Karla sure-footed-ness, and wicked sense of playfulness. She is so brave to have exposed so much of herself. This is a very beautiful book.”
---Photographer Kathy Sloane

About the Author
Karla F. Brundage is a poet, essayist, writer, activist, performer, and teacher of high school English. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals and magazines including: Bamboo Ridge, Konch, Hip Mama, Oahu Review, Kaimana, and La’iLa’i. Her poetry has been included in the anthologies Intersecting Circles: Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1999) and Adam of Ife: Black Women in Praise of Black Men (Lotus Press, 1992). Her essays have appeared in the journal Bamboo Ridge, and in the anthologies Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, edited by Ishmael Reed (Viking Press, 1997) and Conversations: Essays for Reading and Writing (Longman, 2003). Her writing has been performed onstage in productions such as The Medea Project, directed by Rhodessa Jones (San Francisco Center for the Arts, 1994); Carving Circles directed by Joyce Lu (Earl Ernst Lab Theater, May 1997); and The Herstories Project (Exit Theater 2005).

Karla received a degree in English Literature from Vassar College, where she studied post-colonial African literature with South African exile Dr. Moses Nkondo. In 1999, she received her MA in Education from San Francisco State University, specializing in Multicultural Curriculum Development and Implementation. As a participant in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program in 2001, she spent a year teaching in Zimbabwe. Her efforts to effect social change through art include participation in Poetic Protests, and teaching poetry to youths in the penal system as well as to women and men in maximum-security facilities. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she teaches creative writing and literature.