Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson - YES WE DO!

This past Saturday on what would have been MJ's 51st birthday, thousands of people gathered in Prospect Park to pay tribute to the King of Pop!

Brooklyn's own Spike Lee hosted the event and he declared that it was going on rain or shine. That morning the sky was gray and the day damp, but it didnt matter to me - a hurricane couldnt have kept me from being there.

My daughter and I arrived around 1PM and joined the stream of people that snaked its way towards Nederland field.

As we made our way through the acres of people who were cheering, laughing, dancing and swaying to the music - I began to cry.



For me it felt as if I had stepped into a vat of emotion - I could feel everyones sorrow and happiness - does that make sense?



MJ was there in spirit and he waved his glittered gloved hand and the clouds cleared - YES THEY DID -- and that thunderstorm that every forecaster and his mother predicted would drench our day was nothing more than a sun shower.

It was magical...just like the man himself.

When MJ died I was very confused by my reaction to his death. The grief I felt was something usually reserved for a close friend of family member. No lie ya'll, I cried for two straight weeks!

What was wrong with me???

What was wrong with me was that I had forgotten what MJ had meant to me wwwwwwwaaaaaaaay back when. And with his death the feelings that I had had for him back in the seventies and eighties resurfaced. And I know this now because I went back and re-read my journal and do you know what I found? I found out that I was head over heels in love with the man and his music!

ROFL

But what sixteen year girl wasn't, right?

Anyway, it got me to thinking about memory and how over time certain things aren't really forgotten, but simply stored away to make room for new memories.

This revelation was further instilled when I visited Tayari Jones' blog and clicked on a link to Saeed Jones' site. Saeed had posted - according to Tayari "the most wonderfullest TOMO quote ever" - and I gotta agree with her.

If you don't know who TOMO is - it's TJ' nickname for the the most wonderfullest writer ever - Toni Morrison.

The quote is this:

“You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places to make room for houses & liveable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. “Floods” is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that… Like water, I remember where I was before I was straightened out.”






More MJ Birthday Party Pics!

Bernice L. McFadden

Just like old times......a photo essay

Liz and I have been friends for 21 years. When we first met she had two young daughters and I had a three month old baby girl. We've weathered a lot of storms together. Back in 1990 when we were both unemployed, and really down on our luck, someone sent her a check for $20 dollars and she shared half of the money with me.

Yeah, we're friends like that.

But life since then has improved ten fold! She's now a funky-cool - 46 year "young" grandmother with a passion for nature, travel, art and all things beautiful and spiritual!



Back in the day when we were both working at "30 Rock" we would troll the city hot spots until the wee hours of a the morning. As we got older though, our outings became sedate - dinner, wine, good conversation and then home and in bed at a reasonable hour.

But last night was different - last night was like old times.

We spent the evening in a section on Manhattan know as the Meat Packing District. I hadn't been there in years -- my how things have changed! The sidewalks are lined with trendy bars and restaurants which are patronized by people who look as if they've just stepped out of a glossy, fashion magazine.

We had dinner at Vento Trattoria which was accompanied by an expressive bottle of Cabernet Franc. Afterwards we strolled over to the Hotel Gansevoort Hotel, took the elevator up to the roof and had $22 dollar cocktails!



We found a cozy corner that not only afforded us a staggering view of the Hudson River, but a prime location for people watching. And believe me there was plenty to see! I felt like I had walked into a scene from Sex and the City -- 4 real ya'll -- line thin, little girls in ten inch heels and skirts so short it's inevitable that their "coochies" will end up with pneumonia.

And tell me something are dudes actually "padding" their crotch areas? Cause I saw some stuff that should garner entry into the Guinness World Book - or at the very least a starring role in a blue movie.

I could have sat there people watching all night long, but alas we had yet another "spot" to hit and so we made our way across the street to a lounge/bar patronized by some interesting characters who were dancing seductively and off key to the hip-hop music that blared from the hidden, wall speakers.

I was bopping my head and tapping my foot when it happened - I yawned - and I knew that my evening had come to a shuddering end. It had been a night like old times, but clearly I was some twenty years away from the high-energy, angst driven, creaturess of the night I had once been.

I was tired and fading fast and looking at the sleeping dude was like adding a shot of Nyquil to my club soda!




Around 1AM Liz and I said good-night on the corner of 14th street and 8th Avenue. After her taxi sped off, I remained on the sidewalk for a few moments, soaking up the energy that surrounded me, feeling the city's heartbeat pounding beneath the concrete.

It's really amazing...this New York City - this Manhattan....this life of mine and the people in it.

Bernice L. McFadden

She ain't heavy - she's an author..

We black folk have long been accused of behaving like crabs in a barrel - preferring to climb all over one another in order to reach the top of the mountain, this rather than bend our backs and offer it as a step...up.

Well I'm proud to be a part of a community of "steps" and not crabs.

Steps?

Yeah, authors who hold one another up during the good times and the not so good times. Authors who celebrate each others achievements as if they were our own.

Sidebar: When my friend and fellow author, Donna Hill found out from me via email that I had finally found a home for my novel Glorious -she was so happy for me that she created a joyful noise at her desk (she was at work) and then sent me a bouquet of flowers as a congratulatory gift.

We spread the word about our colleagues new releases, new additions to the family as well as those family members that God has drawn back to his bosom.

*moment of silence*

We do this because we respect each other as people, colleagues and artist. We do this because we are bound by this gift of writing and because no matter what illusion the industry has perpetrated in order to divide and dismiss - the bottom line is that we're all in this together.

We inspire each other to reach for the stars and remind one another that the only limits in our lives are the ones we place on ourselves.

Example:

This year at the Harlem Book Fair, Author, Margaret Johnson Hodge made a statement that she did not want to write anymore. It was sad thing to hear. She confided to me that she felt she had nothing to offer the readers. She said she feared that her melody (muse) had abandoned her.

Why was she feeling this way?

Well the climate of the AA literary market played a large part. It seems as though the people we fashion our stories around only want to read one or two types of books. Of course that is not true - it's all part of the illusion.

When Margaret learned that I had secured a book deal - this after some editors declared that my career was dead - she called me up to tell me that she was inspired, that her melody had returned and she she was back to making beautiful music again!

The lesson she learned was that her first allegiance is to herself and not the demands the industry places on us.

Can I hear a AMEN!!!

I write for me. I write for my ancestors (they are the best part of me), I write the books that I want to read and because I do that - I make it good for you!

I was over joyed to hear that Margaret had found her muse and humbled that she felt I played a small part in that.

Sometimes we help people without even setting out to perform a specific act of assistance.

Ain't that cool?

Steps...... that's what it's all about ya'll.



*I know the title of this blog is gender specific - but please know that the brothers are included in this as well*

Bernice L. McFadden

Literally, Literary..

Last night I watched, with great interest I might add, the documentary FORBIDDEN LIES which is about the "alleged" hoax that author, Norma Khouri played on the literary world.

The documentary is nearly two hours long and I have to say that in those two hours I swung between belief and disbelief so many times that by the close of the show I was so emotionally undone that I was panting.

If you didn't see it, please find the time to do so, as SHOWTIME will be airing it numerous times over the next few weeks.

Literary hoaxes intrigue me - I don't know why, but they do. Here are a few of my favorites:

Danny Santiago, "Famous All Over Town" (1984). The award-winning autobiographical novel by the presumably young Chicano writer turned out to have been written by Daniel James, a 73-year-old former black-listed Anglo screenwriter.

Janet Cooke, a Washington Post writer, won a Pulitzer Prize for her September 1980 story, "Jimmy's World," a profile of an 8-year-old heroin addict. Two days after she received the Pulitzer, the newspaper's editor announced that was an elaborate hoax.

Forrest Carter, "The Education of Little Tree" (1977). This memoir by a "Cherokee orphan" who battled racism and struggled to find his heritage, was actually written by Asa Carter, a white Ku Klux Klan member who'd worked for Alabama Gov. George Wallace. (In more recent reprints, "The Education of Little Tree" was labeled "fiction.")

"Go Ask Alice," by anonymous, was the 1971 diary of a teenage girl who died of a drug overdose and published posthumously as a cautionary tale. Years later, it was revealed to have been written by the book's "editor," Beatrice Sparks, a psychologist and Mormon youth counselor who based it on the stories told by some of her students. Sparks has gone on to produce many other "actual diaries" about troubled adolescents, including "Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager" and "Annie's Baby: The Diary of an Anonymous Pregnant Teenager."

To see more literary hoaxes you can go here.


I don't know if you all know about the controversey surrounding Justine Larbalestier's YA novel, LIAR - so if you don't here is a quick recap:

White woman writes YA novel about bi-racial, mocha-colored, kinky haired girl and publisher slaps doe eyed white girl on cover.

cue: OUTRAGE.



So Justine herself was baffled by the cover and when she asked her publisher why they would do such a thing she was told that book wouldn't sell as well with a black face on the cover. (foot in mouth) What they meant to say was: books with black faces on the cover don't sell well to "white-folks"

This is just further clarification as to exactly why "our" books are plastered with black faces - it's clearly segbookgation.

Anywhoo - people lost their ever-loving minds and began spewing venom in the form of blog posts and emails to the publisher and editor. And what happened? Well Bloomsbury back pedaled on their defense which claimed that the white girl on the cover "was intended to symbolically reflect the narrator’s complex psychological makeup."

(*Aaaabullshitchooo* - 'scuse me ya'll I just sneezed.)

What was I saying? Oh yeah, so they back pedaled, acquiesed, came to their senses -- whatever you want to call it - and changed the cover to this:



People are estimating the cost to replace the jackets for the 100,000 books that were printed may be in the range of $7500.00.

What advice do I have for publishers? None. My grandma always says: "Experience is the best teacher." And I foresee many more lessons to come.

Angela Benson's 'Sins of a Father" will hit bookstores nationwide on August 25th. Visit her website to read an excerpt and then you know what to do after that right? PRE-ORDER!


Drummmmmroooolllllllllllllllllll!

So if you haven't already heard or figured it out - my historical fiction baby (Glorious) will be published by Akashic Books, next year. I always said that she would end up where she was supposed to be and I believe that Akashic Books is the best place for her.

Glorious will join the ranks of books written by authors such as Chris Abani, Elizabeth Nunez, Colin Chaner, Achy Obejas, Amiri Baraka, James Greer, Maggie Estep and Jennifer Baumgardener..just to name a few.

You gotta love what they're doing for literature and their creed totally rocks:

"Reverse-Gentrification of the Literary World"

Happy Friday Ya'll!

Bernice L. McFadden

Readers are family too

Technology has made it easy for everyone to share their intimate and not so intimate life details with the world.

Last year I invited the readers of this blog to follow me as I began my journey to find a home for my novel Glorious. Personally, I thought it was going to be a quick, and painless trip; but it did not work out that way. I posted my rejection letters and recorded my emotional up's and down's as well as my full-fledged break down when I announced that I DID NOT WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE....!!

I have laid bare my soul and pealed back my writers skin to expose my beating, sometimes damaged...other times completely broken heart. And like family you wrapped your cyber arms around me and....squeezed tight. Ya'll prayed for me and prayed with me and sent me words of encouragement that pushed me forward. One author and friend to the blog wrote: "Go on and lay down your burden, the rest of us out here will hold it up for you." (tearing up at the memory)

Have I thanked ya' ll lately for all of the love?

THANK YOU!

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. The following is an email from Diamonte Hamlett:

Bernice - I have been checking your blog for several days and ---nothing. So I wait and check and again today, so certain I'd see the still shot of little white girl dancing. Lo and behold...Glorious has been published. Elation, anticipation, gratification - no longer denied. I check your blog a lot to say the least, but this week more frantically, more frenetically as if I was waiting on something. I think I kept checking because I prayed for you and wanted an affirmation that God had answered my prayer. I was certain you'd blog about it if He did - and you did. **Exhaling**

It is so comforting to know that chaotic benevolence is still afoot in the multi verse - and you and me and us are the recipients.

Faithful reader,

-Diamonte



Happy Sunday Ya'll - remain blessed and highly favored..........

xoxo

Bernice L. McFadden