Thursday, June 05, 2008

On the Margins

TwitThis



Every since my pastor told me that Black women are the
gate keepers of the
margins, I haven't been the same.

He said this, then handed me bell hooks' Feminist Theory,
and Malcolm and Martin, American Dream American Nightmare
and encouraged me to write.


I was honored.

I was also bummed out.

It felt great to be encouraged, but man, those margins get lonely.

I also haven't been the same since I realized that gentrification,
crack and prostitution all can be explained with capitalism.

Much of the sophistication of my understanding can be attributed
to Filthy. I did intellectual ground work by reading like a maniac,
but he helps it form like Voltron.

Last week I made a mental note to Google Tre Ellis. This morning
I did and I was surprised. I have always loved his novels.
They were weird as sh*t. However, the lens that I read it with years ago
didn't allow me to see how he handled gender and sexuality.
I am excited to see what I will think about it, upon revisiting it.

His work is couched within the tension between Ishmael Reed
and Alice Walker.

This also ironic to me because I have been thinking
writing doing a post about how both Alice & Ishmael
are my living literary parents. So the fact that Tre's work
is cognizant of the tension between Ishmael and Alice
further helped me put 10 on 2 regarding my excitement.

Then in the middle of reading about Tre Ellis, I remembered that I
wanted to check for Donnel Alexander. Then BLAM. There was his blog,
with a post titled Miss Rap Supreme & Gentrification.

I read it thinking "I would write a title like that".

In that moment, at that precise moment, the margins became,
a tad less isolated.

It was kind of like the feeling you get when your old best friend moves
back from out of state, to her grandmommas house down the street.

It was like when Ta-Nehisi e-mailed me saying he had written the book.

Now if we can get some ZZ Packer and Nichelle Tramble we will be cooking
with fish grease.

What are you reading now?

Been on any margins lately?

16 comments:

Nexgrl said...

I am reading Them by Nathan McCall.

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

one of my fav books is plattitudes by him

GMllz said...

I just finished ENOUGH by Juan Williams and Free To Choose by Milton Friedman...now reading Race Matters by Cornell West

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

I'm back to Malcom Gladwell, reading Blink, with Deepak Chopra's Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire waiting in the wings and The Diary of Anais Nin on deck for a beach day...cuz she makes me fell sultry and capable of just about anything.

the prisoner's wife said...

i am still sort of picking my way throughBodega Dreams & recently revisited my copy of Word:On Being a [Woman] Writer. you might want to check that one out. lots of good essays by Suheir Hammed, bell hooks, Barbara Kingsolover, etc...

Model Minority said...

Blogger GMllz said...

I just finished ENOUGH by Juan Williams and Free To Choose by Milton Friedman...now reading Race Matters by Cornell West
======

One word.

Libertarian.

Model Minority said...

@TPW
Dude. Bodega Dreams makes me Tingle.

Seriously.

Thank you for the recommendation on Word. getting it from the library TOMORROW.

@AJ
The Diary of Anais Nin on deck for a beach day...cuz she makes me fell sultry and capable of just about anything.
=====
Say word. I NEEDS some of that in mi vida.

GMllz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
changeseeker said...

I just finished Ta-nehisi Coates' The Beautiful Struggle (thank you very much for the tip on that one in March) and now I'm going back and forth between Never Drank the Kool-aid by Toure' and Respect in a World of Inequality by Richard Sennett. The jury's still out on the second one because I'm only about 50 pages in, but Toure's good.

Dame said...

After reading this I feel very the very opposite of complex as I’ve been just reading “The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Body Language” and “Teach Yourself HTML and XHTML in 2 Hours”

One cannot live on politics alone……

Margins …..hmmm I might need a diagnosis

Model Minority said...

The jury's still out on the second one because I'm only about 50 pages in, but Toure's good.
=======

So hard for me to read Toure. I just, can't grasp it. You know how you want to like something, because it is experiental and nerdy. I think my sense was that it was like wu tang meets zora with out the grittiness. Perhaps I will give it another look.

I have seem him around tho and he seems like a good dude.

Model Minority said...

“The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Body Language”
----------

You are a NUT.

However, 70% of communication is body lang so that rocks.

RPoeta said...

I love bell hooks' Feminist Theory..Living in the margins can be isolating but the act itself is radical.

Anyways,I am reading James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time..such a great little book.

M.Dot. said...

Living in the margins can be isolating but the act itself is radical.
======

Yeah. Lonely indeed.

"Fire Next Time" is....that fire.

Pun Intended.

Anonymous said...

i think i'm gonna revisit "Freedom Dreams" by Robin D.G. Kelley. it's amazing, def on that becoming more human human being tip.

i was gonna let you know bout my blog once it gets going. but glad you found it anyways!

Model Minority said...

Alloo love,

Yes. I found you. I monitor my link backs like a hawk :}

Robin "Yo Mommas Dysfunctional" is THAT deal.

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