My preparation began before even landing in Accra it would seem. It was interesting as I went via Namibia Air and stopped in Windhoek and Lagos before reaching my destination. In Johannesburg the Ghanaians on the flight were, as most black people in South Africa are, very respectful and almost unassuming, especially those designated as […]
Letter from Italy
Thanks for sending me the latest issue of “Hard Crackers.” It is an excellent issue. It has confirmed my view that we need a similar publication in Southern Europe and particularly in this country. TV news and newspapers here are unable to take the day-to-day discourse seriously, and to convey it to any public. Here […]
The Ex-Panther
When I lived in Baltimore and went to events sponsored by the anarchist bookstore, often I’d notice the presence of one or two ex-Panthers, stray corks bobbing in an ocean of youthful whiteness. They stayed to themselves, never spoke or asked questions and usually would leave quickly afterward. These men would always show up at […]
Letter from Garibaldi to Lincoln
On this date, 155 years ago (August 6, 1863): “In the midst of your titanic struggle, permit me, as another among the free children of Columbus, to send you a word of greeting and admiration for the great work you have begun. Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any […]
Ardmore, Tennessee: “Don’t Like Your Rights Taken Away? Don’t Take Away Someone Else’s!!!”
Driving from Huntsville to southern Tennessee, the Huntsville exurbs soon dissolve into rolling corn fields alternated with soybean patches and then the lanes shrink into just two. This stretch of north Alabama and south Tennessee is speckled with small towns that blend into one another, each announcing “historical districts”; their only real claim to fame […]
Poems
Bedroom Window Musty gray dawn trespasses into the noon hour; And one looks like the other from this side of my bedroom window. Weather stained pawn malingers from stale to sour; And one smells like the other as I slump by my bedroom window. Curtains are drawn Like me, to endeavor or cower; And one […]