Great Blend of Watercolors playlists

I have had the honor to be asked twice to guest deejay on the amazing Dee Henry Williams' radio show, A Great Blend of Watercolors, on KFAI radio, 90.3 f.m., a treasure of a community radio station in Minneapolis. Getting to do this is very cool for three reasons:

• Being a radio deejay is a life-long fantasy of mine.
• Being asked to be on this long-standing program of "music of the diaspora" is an honor.
• Dee and I are family, connected through my granddaughter.

So I've made two play lists for the show. Check them out!

Great Blend of Watercolors #1
1. Up Above My Head (I Hear Music In the Air), Ruthie Foster
2. For the Love of you, Isley Brothers
3. Sexual Healing, Max A Million
4. Funkin' for Jamaica, Tom Browne
5. Boogie Oogie Oogie (Single Version 2), A Taste of Honey
6. I Don't Know, Ruth Brown
7. God Bless the Child, Jill Scott
8. When We Get By, D'Angelo
9. Where Are We Going?, Marvin Gaye
10. Save Room, John Legend
11. I Wanna Thank Ya, Angie Stone & Snoop Dogg
12. The Rain, Jill Scott & Will Smith
13. It's Your Thing [Extended Remix], Jackson 5

Great Blend of Watercolors #2
1.Try, The Sounds Of Blackness
2. A Song for Mama, Boyz II Men
3. Ocean of Tears (Mama), Ruthie Foster
4. A Woman In Love, Joan Armatrading
5. Soul Food, Leela James
6. Testify!, Nedra Johnson
7. I Idolize You, Lizz Wright
8. Hard Times No One Knows, Ray Charles
9. You Really Got a Hold On Me, Gaye Adegbalola
10. Bone 2 Pic (Wit U), Angie Stone
11. Always In My Head, India.Arie
12. Love Like This, Faith Evans
13. The Sweetest Thing, The Refugee Camp All-Stars
14. Walking Away, Craig David
15. Raining Revolution, Arrested Development
16. Po' Folks, Nappy Roots
17. Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys), Jay-Z

Dory is my new hero but I can't remember why

Quick, before I forget...

My brain is slowly disintegrating, especially my memory. A good friend calls it CRS or "Can't Remember Shit." If you are with me on this, no need to explain the details. If you aren't there yet, really you don't want to know... but it's coming your way, some day -- one of the many gifts of aging.

But something special happened today. I was having a typical CRS moment at a staff meeting, stumbling through trying to remember the name of a staff member (not in attendance thankfully -- that happens, too), and his department, both which I should know well.

Then suddenly, in mid brain scramble, like an angel of mercy, Dory popped into my head and smiled sympathetically at me. (Dory, in case you've forgotten, is the plucky memory-disabled fish played by Ellen Degeneres in Finding Nemo).

So I stopped trying to remember anything, laughed and told the group, "Forgive me, my memory is shot. I'm just like Dora!" While, almost. I forget, but maybe. Wait! Now I remember! Dora is that little short kid I've written about in this blog before. Dory is my new hero for mid-life.

I think.

Letter to President Obama on Afghanistan

I don't typically write letters to the President. I know (from working in an elected official's office myself) that such a letter is screened by some 20-something aide, then cataloged and perhaps sent a stock response. But I felt compelled to send the following email letter yesterday, on the afternoon before the speech explaining to the public the "justification" for escalating the war in Afghanistan. Somewhere in my heart I thought if enough energy is sent to Obama, he would access his heart and change his mind.

December 1, 2009

President Obama,

I fiercely supported your campaign for president and believe you are the best president for our country and our world.

I believe in your brilliance and compassion and your political savvy. I believe in your vision for change. I believe you are a change maker.

You inherited a huge mess and are trying to make your way through some unbelievable burdens not of your doing. I think you are steering us toward a better tomorrow on almost every front.

That said, I feel compelled to write to say I do not support your decision to increase troops in Afghanistan. I say that having family members who are in harm's way, right now, serving there. I know there is a belief that more troops will make them safer and will make the outcome of the war better. I disagree. They will be safer if they come home. We can address issues of instability in that region without this escalation. If anyone can figure out how, I believe it can be you.

President Obama, we need our energy, our dollars, and our hearts focused on the crisis at home. We need better health care, better public education, more affordable housing, more jobs.

Please, listen to your heart, which I believe is the heart of a peacemaker, not a war maker.

I know you have weighed your options carefully, but do not go down in history as the person responsible for escalating this conflict.

Rather, I urge you to be the leader who stands in line with Ghandi, and with Martin Luther King Jr., and insists that change is possible through peaceful action.

Sincerely, and with respect,

Ann Freeman

I am also honored and humbled to be asked to post this letter on the blog for the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Race and class divide is deep and wide amongst queer folks

The race and class divide amongst queer folks is wide and oh so deep, yet so often not talked about or addressed as one of THE issues in our community -- and it is.

So read this article, posted on The Griot! Here's an except:

Black working class gays left out of national gay rights agenda

When Obama delivered his "gay agenda" speech to the well-fed, well-scrubbed mostly white crowd of gays and lesbians at the Human Rights Campaign's Annual Dinner on Saturday night, anyone outside of the LGBT community would have assumed by the applause that the entire "gay community" is in agreement that access to serve in the military, gay marriage, and hate crimes legislation are our primary issues. But in reality, HRC's political agenda is not what I want. It does not speak for me, nor for the lives of many other black, poor and working class LGBT people.

Given the fact that we're in a long recession where hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in almost every month of 2009, and national unemployment numbers are at nearly 10 percent, why are we not talking about the issues that most people are concerned about - health care and the economy - and their impact on the LGBT community? The truth is, for many people at that dinner who could afford the cheapest ticket at $250 a plate, jobs and wages are of little concern.

Let's keep talking about our stuff, people!

Update from post racial America, October edition

This in the news this week (in case you though you were in a time warp, this is indeed October 2009):

Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License By Louisiana Justice of the Peace

A couple of "lowlights" from the article:

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Hmm, last I checked, anti-miscegenation laws were banned in 1967 by Loving v Virginia.

Seriously?!

Related post: A "Loving" kind of day, or is it?

Related photo -- heh!:

>Hmmm. Last I checked, all miscegenation laws banned by Loving v Virginia in 1967. 42 years ago.

Related post: A "Loving" kind of day, or is it?

Related photo: