Napowrimo 2024

It’s been a while since I participated in Napowrimo. There’s no specific reason. Just too many thing going on during the month (during all the months). But, I decided I’d give a go, this year.

I started a day late, but committed to writing a poem a day for the month (which is the point of Napowrimo). I decided not to worry too much if I missed a day or couldn’t think of anything to write at the time. I’m writing 30 poems (and maybe a few more) even if I have to write them in May!

Why am I telling you this? Because I’m five days behind and I feel a little guilty about it. But, I’m not giving up! I have some ideas jotted, and one the poems is taking me a little longer to write than usual because the idea is bigger than I thought it was.

I also want to encourage anyone who is participating in Napowrimo and has fallen behind like me to dust the eraser crumbs off your page, shake off the guilt and keep going – even if it means you’re still writing poems in May. Just write! Okay?

Art or AI?

I swore I wouldn’t use it but it happened. I’m playing with AI in my downtime. I’m using it at work. I’m using it to create new banners for my social media pages.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve had as a blogger has been finding positive images of African American people. If I needed an image of an African American couple, the best I’d be able to find was an interracial couple. With AI, I can – within fifty attempts – prompt the program to create something close to the images in my head.

AI Prompt: elderly African American man and woman looking at each other lovingly and smiling

Many artists are concerned about the ways that AI will impact their craft, which is entirely understandable. Will someone like me go to a graphic designer to create original art for their book cover design, social media posts, promotional materials and such? I don’t think the need for graphic designers is going away. I don’t think AI will dry up the fine art business either.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: This post was not written, revised or edited by AI. I like writing my own stuff. When publishing my work, I like to have a trusted human look it over and edit it. Humans understand the nuance and intention that lives between the lines of an author’s work. There are still many concerns about how AI deals with copyrighted images and written publications. It’s going to take time to figure out how to keep original works from being stolen and create rules that work internationally. But, for now, I’ll continue to dabble and learn how to create images I’ve been looking, with the help of AI.

Do you use AI? What are some of your concerns about the tool?

Leave the World Behind

I just finished watching Leave the World Behind on Netflix. The film is an adaptation of a book by the same name, written by Rumaan Alam. I started reading the book today. I’m roughly halfway through and I feel that the book is more subtle in its observations about the environment, racism, classism and conspiracy than the film is. The book gives you room to decide how subtle or blatant any of the illustrated social issues are in this type of crisis. (I’m nowhere near the end of the book, so this subtly I’m describing may change.)

I enjoyed the film to a certain point. There is a buildup as one strange thing after another happens to the two families involved, but for all of the build up, I feel like the ending fell flat.

Leave the World Behind is what I would call. “a quiet film.” There wasn’t a lot of action. There was a lot of conversation between characters, and outside of the loud and scary things that were happening in the film like planes, falling out of the sky and ships running aground, there wasn’t much action.

Many of the comments that I’ve seen about this film have said that it seems like the main message of the movie promotes hate against white people. I disagree with that. I think the film, like the book, took a look at things that already exist and considered how we respond in a crisis when we have limited or unverified information. (Remember COVID and the run on toilet paper and water?) It examined the types of things that might happen leading up to a collapse or infiltration of our infrastructure. It talked about conspiracy theories, our overreliance on technology, and yes, it did talk about racism and classism, too. It also talked about how fear changes the people you thought you knew well, and how all of the unknowns makes us compete for limited resources to the point of violence.

Even though I’m not a fan of the ending, I still recommend the film, and encourage you to read the book. It’s a good story. The book will give you plenty to think about.

What are your thoughts on the film and book?

Promotional poster, all rights to the creator

Bread, Toilet Paper and Bananas

The air is frigid and biting outside, today. The determined fingers of cold have managed to wiggle their way between the fine cracks and crevasses around the windows and doors of the house and are competing with the warm air blowing from the HVAC for residence. I’m caught in the middle, bundled in a thick sweatshirt, lined leggings and the fluffiest socks I own. I look out the window at late winter’s demand for attention. This intended show of force is minor. The snowflakes are as fine as powdered sugar. The snow crystals are too fragile to build up on any surface. Where they do manage to stick, they take on the appearance of white mold.

I remember the one year when winter decided to encroach upon spring’s territory. That April, she dumped a few of feet of snow in a single  day. I opened my front door to find a foot high mound of snow pressed against my front door. I declared defeat, retreated indoors, and let winter run her victory lap. She dropped big, heavy flakes for almost 48 hours. Snow plows and salt trucks struggled to keep up with her assault. Grocery and convenience stores stock were quickly depleted of bread, toilet paper and bananas.

Children were thrilled to enjoy a couple of snow days in such close proximity to spring break, while adults wished they could stay home every time it snowed. But no, the grownups had  to contend with slick roads, while winter threw cotton ball sized snowflakes at their windshields. Bills don’t stop because of a few feet of snow.

When the flakes settled, our region was buried under three feet of snow, in some areas. There was nowhere to put the excess precipitation from this storm, combined with the accumulation from two previous storms. The mountains of plowed snow threatened to clog local drainage systems and flood communities as it melted. There were concerns that the collection of packed snow, if dumped into the river, would cause banks to overflow and flood an even broader area. Self-proclaimed social media ecologists ranted about global warming and climate shifts. Others wondered if a second Ice Age was upon us. In the end, we survived winter’s last stand and spring flourished without further incident.

Today’s cold and slushy weather is a minor inconvenience, in comparison. It was timely reason to cancel plans to rush from place to place, taking care of tasks that couldn’t be managed during the workweek. Spring will be elbowing her way into the atmosphere tomorrow and everyone will be eager to venture outdoors to take care of the errands they were only mildly interested in completing today.

📷: NikeWrites

How We Close

Here we are again on the cusp of saying ‘goodbye’ to the current year and rushing into the arms of the New Year. 2021 is being swept, dusted, mopped and saged out of our dwellings.

Many will proclaim the exiting year as horrible and glad to be rid of it. Declarations will be made regarding personal change, owning the new year and resolutions will be written about improving health, finances and relationships.

Rubbing up against all the declarations, proclamations and resolutions is the desire to “return to normal,” in the face of a persistent and deadly virus that has decided to take up residence in our lives. Isn’t it interesting how we long for the years we called horrible as the calendar moves from past to present?

Jim George is credited with saying, “It’s not how you start, but how well you finish.” If that is the case, it seems like searching for what was good in 2021 is a good way to set the tone for 2022.

No year is completely perfect. There will be ups and downs. That’s a part of life. More than several times this year when asked how I was doing, my response was, “Life is ‘lifing!’” (I know “lifing” isn’t a real word…but I’m a writer. I have the fine privilege of creating new words.) Somewhere along the way, I got tired of listing the things I see as “bad.” Besides, nobody really cares.

And so, as we bid 2021 farewell, I invite you to consider all the things that were good, all the things that went according to plan, and anything that created a new opportunity or opened a door for you (even if it was attached to a less than perfect experience). Walk into the New Year by making peace with the last year.

I wish you and yours a Happy New Year. Make it great.

Photo by Alfred Schrock on Unsplash

What I’m Working on Now

I’m sure you’ve noticed the enormous gaps in blog posts over here. (I am SO sorry!) I’m still writing…in spurts. My physical and mental writing space has been cluttered for a while. My creative focus however, has shifted a bit.

For the past several months I’ve been having online discussions about Black Cinema. I’m uncomfortable calling them “reviews.” We aren’t “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” about every movie. We discuss the backgrounds of the movies, the cultural impacts and influences the films may have had at the time, we even talk about a little film history. (My co-host, Don is like a walking film library!)

I love breaking down the story, Don can tell you all about the actors, directors and production details, and Nicole keeps me and Don from going off the rails!

You can find these lively discussions on the Facebook group: Movies That Move We, our YouTube channel: Movies That Move We, and every week on Clubhouse (you guessed it) on Movies That Move We!

Stop by the YouTube page and take a sneak peek at some of the previous shows. We’re a lively crew! (And we keep the conversation going over on Facebook!)

The Movies That Move We Crew

120 Seconds

I see them every day on my commute. They don’t have access to proper face masks, so they pull the hoods of their jackets over their heads and draw the strings tight until they only have a slit to peer through. It’s the only protection they have from the virus.

They work each end of the intersection, one holding a sign stating his cause, the other two held bunches of flowers and walked between the cars, trying to sell them whenever traffic came to a stop.

They all kept a pace. But, I noticed the young man working the northbound traffic the most. He had a noticeable limp, but his gait held purpose. As soon as the light turned red, he left his position at the top of the median and began marching between the cars. During this time of day, he could only walk between the turn lanes. He knew he only had 120 seconds to make it to the bottom of the turn lane before the light turned green and he would need to begin his march back to the top of the median, again. I watched him do his work, counting his steps and the seconds, waving the bouquet of flowers in his left hand while clutching three other bouquets in the crook of his right arm, hoping all the while a driver might have a few dollars to spare for some flowers. He wasn’t asking for a handout, he was trying to make some money to buy something to eat, or maybe to get some more comfortable shoes. The soles of his of his boots were falling apart.

The light turned green. I glanced in my rear view mirror to see him marching back up the median, counting his steps as traffic moved forward and new rows of customers rolled to a stop.

Photo credit: Matt Artz

Motherhood

Ten little fingers,
on two perfect hands.
Ten perfect toes,
on two perfect feet.
The first precious breath,
first wail of new life
erases all pain,
and fills the senses with delight.
This period of gestation,
labor and rending
was well worth the wait.
What a miraculous transformation.
I thought I was whole.
You’ve wholly changed me;
enlisting me into this new sorority: Motherhood.

http://Photo by Andrae Ricketts on Unsplash

New Chapters

The first quarter of the year has come to a close. (That was fast!) I am a co-author in the recently published, Women Overcome Through Writing Anthology. I hope my chapter will encourage anyone who is considering writing her memoirs to push past the fear and write! My contribution to this book has been one of my most challenging projects, so far. Challenging, humbling, and worth it!

Thanks to Coach Jaime Washington for her encouragement and wisdom and we worked through our fears and committed our truths to the page. Congratulations to my co-authors! You ladies are amazing!

Stay tuned! I’ll be sharing a link where you can purchase a copy of this inspiring anthology very soon!

Writing the End, First

When the television show, Scandal, premiered, I recall Shonda Rhimes saying, she knew exactly how the series would end. Being a ‘pantser,’ I was amazed! How did she do that?! I declared her and her writing team a group of stone-cold, geniuses at that moment!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my coaches have challenged me to do some things differently. It’s caused me to revisit the way I approach my writing. I usually start at the beginning, and write in a relatively chronological order – without an outline. (This hasn’t been working for me.) It’s a great way to start and get ideas down on the page, but I’m realizing that I have plan (outline) and perhaps, know where I want the story to end, first. I think I’ll finish more projects if I take that approach.

In the meantime, I have two projects in which to figure out their endings. I’ll keep you posted. (Pray my strength!)

Photo by Kat Stokes