excellent piece Uncle Rudy!  I'm pleased for you that you two were able to spend time together over the holidays.

Thank you!

Monica

*   *   *

Dear Rudy,

Your memoir, “Driving the Blues Away,” is so warm and truly makes you feel like my brother, being raised in the Negro Baptist church, your father’s prayers at the table, your mother singing in the choir . . . these are also my memories.

My father died in March 2001 (two months before his 89^th birthday). I was a “daddy’s girl,” and prayed incessantly for years that he would not leave me. It was selfish prayers . . . still I needed him for a long time . . . well into middle age. Finally, I was ready to let him go . . . In those final days my father could not speak except through the movement of his fingers as I sang yet one more spiritual I’d heard as a child when he was younger and they were common at our church at the corner of 23^rd and Jefferson Avenue in Newport News. The intimacy we shared in those last days was wonderful, I think as much so as when I was a baby.

God truly answers prayer (as your mother reminded you) in the most unpredictable and loving ways.

I wish peace for you and your family during this holiday season.

*   *   *

Rahim- Peace.

I just read your article of your Grandmother. It was wonderfully written, the pace was astounding, the voicing beautiful. I guess all that we can do is hope for the best in these situations. I have just spent the holiday talking with my brother and working out the finances for my mother's funeral. She is 79 now. I hope that you are taking care of yourself. Stay Strong!

amin sharif

*   *   *

Hi Rudy,

I had an opportunity to read the piece at home last night. It is a very moving piece. I love when you share your feelings in your writing. I like how you spoke about the past and present in this piece. I could visualize everything you wrote about. You made the words come alive for me. Because I had an opportunity to meet Mama, it was near and dear to my heart. I like the way you bridge the past, present and even future. Your discussion of the incident with the gun was very moving.

I wondered about how old you were. I know you love your Mama very much, but you seem to be more understanding of Lucinda than in the past. I really like that. I really can relate to how you feel because of the health problems of my mother. 

I am so proud of you for being able to put your feelings down on paper. It took me a very long time to want to share my feelings with anyone after the deaths of my husband and son. Mama is alive and so is my mother. We should cherish every minute that they are with us. You are such a good writer.

I am happy about the book and the success of ChickenBones. Somehow money and even success pails when we think about our families and special loved ones. Well, that's enough preaching . Have a blessed day. Let's keep in touch.

Peace and blessing, Yvonne

Rudy,

Thank you.  That's a great piece.

George

Thanks so much for sharing your story and for the inspiration to face all the Mondays ahead.  It sounds like you have great genes to rely on!

God bless,

Pat

but, of course, it is a good piece. i would reverse the last two paragraphs so that you complete the circle established by the title. there are a couple of other grammar/technical matters, but nothing you won't catch if you read it aloud when you do a final polishing.

i like the autobiographical nature. it is really "you talking" and even though the subject matter is ostensibly your mother, the deeper subject is you and your thoughts about mortality and living a good life. i like pieces like this. it's a great report.

i would like to put it on e-drum. what sayeth thou? aye or nay?

awaiting your reply,

kalamu

*   *   *

Boy, watchu doin up dis early?  That was real good, quite moving.  Sounds like you had a good visit.

Fred

Rudolph:

Thank you for sharing a powerful portrait of your mother.  I cried as I read it, because, for weeks, I have been holding my breath for my Ashanti mother who it seems is waiting for God to call her home.  It is sad, yet the bravery of a mother is comforting.  Thank you for your comforting words. 

God bless you and your family.

Peace,

Bisi

Good day, Rudy,

Despite my long silence, you have been on my mind as you toil away on 33rd street. I hope you are making progress in your monumental challenge to expose the young people to the vast world of knowledge you understand and hold the key to for them in the library. . . .

But I have spent sometime journeying to Jerusalem with you in this article of your recent visit, always a respite in the peace of that rural scene, so filled with tenderness in the midst of the hard life lived there by too many in the past, and still.

Thanks for continuing to include me in that circle of your personal remembrance.

Fr. Zilonka

*   *   *

Dear Rudy,

Thanks for sharing your beautiful mother's story with me. I read every drop to the finish. It is a great narrative and a great story. You should send it to a magazine.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving final minutes left.

Yours

Patricia

*   *   *

Rudy

I really enjoyed reading that.  I, like you, can see so much of this in me.  I'm a different generation being 31, but I was raised by my grandparents (mama and daddy) because of a 17 yr. old mom's circumstances, and everything that you capture in your writing I can identify with first hand. 

My grandparents are 73 and 85 right now.  Daddy (85) is giving Mama a run for her money.  He's crabby, still wants to drive all over town, won't wear his new glasses and will never see a dentist.  I talk to her several times a week, and she makes me laugh.  He's forgetting things all the time.  He had a bunion removed last week, and mama caught him elevating his other leg (smile).  Her stories are so funny, but everyday, I know that they both get closer and closer to the end.  I try not to think about nothing except that they have paid the ultimate price in this life and that they have instilled so much "good" in me that I should never go bad.

Thanks for sharing.  Your memories and experiences always spark so much in me. 

Happy Holidays.

Latorial

*   *   *

Rudy,

Greetings from Mexico City!  Words cannot express how so very moving this piece was for me.  It is very touching!

As ever, 

Herbert

*   *   *  *  *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Bonjour Rudolph,

I am so glad to see your web site. It is a great idea to promote Marcus Christian. I do admire this author. I discovered his photo in Quebec City at the library of the University during my PhD. Then I went to UNO and I discovered the immense work he has done. He was a remarkable man. I would like to write in French his biography one Day and to promote his life and work. I hope I will succeed in my project.

Thank you so much

Martine Geronimi
Professeure associée
Département de Géographie UQAM
Membre du comité de rédaction de la revue TEOROS, revue de recherche en tourisme.
Chercheure au GREF-UQAM (Groupe de recherche sur les Espaces Festifs)
514-987 3000 poste 3900#
http://membres.lycos.fr/mappamundi/
Associate professor
Geography Department UQAM
Montreal
fax : (514) 987-6784
http://www.geocities.com/geronimi_m/real1a.htm 

Rivera on Toussaint & ChickenBones

I agree practically totally with your assessment of Toussaint & his impact [on the 19th Century! and...] on social struggle throughout the Americas...

By the way, after I read a few of the pieces regarding Toussaint, Oge, Christophe, Dessalines, etc., I reached back to review the interview you did on me... It's amazing to me how well it all reads and how relevant it is to the exposition of ideas, especially with the pimping of our hunger that goes on (thus,... your three amigos)...

When you get a chance, you should review your items to clean up the little errors that have been popping up as late. lower case when it should be Capitalized, misspellings here and there... Your site is going to go on for ever, even after you stop doing it... it still serves as a collection of contemporary history and views not likely to be found anywhere... You take care. Hapy New Year! Later. 

Louis

*   *   *   *   *

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Permit me to introduce myself. My name is Benjamin Albert Dent, son of Jessie Covington Dent and Albert W. Dent (President of Dillard University for many years), and brother of the late poet Tom Dent. I was recently goggling around, and found you article entitled, Jesse Covington Dent,  Concert Artist & Humanist. Thank you for the kind article about my mother and father.

With apologies for being a nit-picker, I thought you might like to know about a couple of minor spelling errors in the article.

My mother's first name is spelled "Jessie," (with an "i"). She always told us that the feminine form of the name was spelled "Jessie," whereas the masculine form of the name was spelled "Jesse" (without the "i"). In fact, her father's name was Benjamin Jesse Covington -- the source of both my mother's name "Jessie" and my own name "Benjamin." In any case, she spelled her name "Jessie."

I also noted another very common misspelling -- it's "Juilliard," (with two "i's"). See http://www.juilliard.edu/splash.html.

Best wishes for the Holiday Season,

Ben Dent

*   *   *   *   *

Dear Rudy,

Thank you for letting me know that you received this essay and how you are. I am saddened to hear about your concerns about your decisions to put out ChickenBones. 

I want to tell you how much ChickenBones has meant to me.  I feel very indebted to ChickenBones for the space you have provided me and other writers, artists and activists.  You have certainly made many sacrifices in your own life to do so, and I know that has not been easy.  Your willingness to continue on, despite the sacrifices and set-backs is one of the reasons I appreciate you and ChickenBones so much.  

You have created such an important space, one that, as the hits to the site can attest to, people are eager to have, both to publish work and to read and learn from.  I think that the sharing of ideas is such a pivotal part of movement and social change, it has the potential to broaden our horizons, deepen our understanding, and provide us with vocabulary to understand the world and our place in it.  I know that it has been other people's words that have soothed me, helped me think through a situation, and to locate my own humanity through all of this mess.  

And dear Rudy, you help to create such an opportunity for many, many others.  You have helped to archive and reclaim history and to also showcase today's voices, the ones who are trying to carry on a beautiful and inspiring legacy of self-affirmation, resistance, and the determination to create alternative ideologies and a new world.  You have helped to bridge the past with the future. 

In short, ChickenBones has such a special place in my heart.  And you, dear Rudy, as one of the first people who reached out to me when I began to write publicly, provided me a space to present my views, and who has also been kind enough to engage me about my work and life, you have a special place in my heart as well.  You have helped to nurture, nourish and encourage me as an emerging writer, and I am so very grateful to you for that.  

Please know how truly appreciative people, including myself, are to you for all of the work and sacrifice put into ChickenBones.

Take care,

*   *   *   *   *

I read your journal on a regular basis...I like to know whats going on in Baltimore. I used to live in Baltimore, as a matter of fact, I was born there. I now reside in Atlanta. I was wondering what if anything is going on with the LeftBank Jazz Society? Are they still active? That was once a Wonderful organization.

*   *   *   *   *

Dear Rudolph,

Thanks so much! The promo is wonderful, and I am sure the contributors will be thrilled.

All Best,
Sheree

*   *   *   *   *

(from e-drum)

I am intrigued and will certainly be on the lookout for info about the Nat Turner film.  While I'm appreciative of Mr. Lewis' dedication in tracking the making of the film, I have to say that he seriously weakens his credibility as a  serious cultural critic with the unnecessary name-calling ("fuckers," "Judas"). I suppose he got my attention, but only to the extent that I now want to see the film and judge for myself.

Lynn Pitts

New York

*   *   *   *   *

(from e-drum)

I find this Nat Turner film travesty worse than the Cold Mountain flap because it denigrates the most basic Black revolutionary impulse: liberation from the most long-standing and systematic attempt at dehumanization of a people in the history of the world. In this sense, it is an attack against us and our ongoing struggle. It seems that at the very least we must mount a letter writing campaign. But there should be other strategic moves we could make as well.

Other ideas, brothers and sisters?

Obery Hendricks, Ph.D.

author of Living Water: A Novel

*   *   *   *   *

Hi. I am a reporter for the New York Times writing about Nat Turner and was interested in your comments about the film documentary, as seen  on the ChickenBones website. I can be reached at 212 556 1768. 

Thanks 

Felicia Lee 

*   *   *   *   *

Peace, Rudy,

It is with a troubled heart that I hear of yet another documentary film that tokenizes people of color, ignores white supremacy, and takes a liberal stance on revisionist (his)story.

I read Junious Stanton's critique of the film, and what resonated the most with me was the following:

"Little is known about Nat Turner's background. The film does not endeavor to shed any light on him as a person caught in the mire of a debasing and degrading social system. To do so would have given the film a definitive point of view, shown Turner's world through his eyes and engendered sympathy for his plight, if not his actions. Christopher and Greenberg were not about to do anything like that. ***To do so would have been a revolutionary act on their part and they never would have gotten funding to make the film in the first place!"***

It is definitely challenging to think about revolutionary people of color spaces when the funding is controlled by white people. Sounds as though much of the film's problems began in its pre-production stages. It's always sketchy when two white men, of all people, get one person of color on board, Charles Burnett in this case, to front for them, liberal white men, in order to prove that they "really care" about affirmative action and getting the "true story". This is an infuriating form of "compassionate liberalism".

One of my friends interned with PBS American Life series, and he had definite issues with the editing of the films. Much of the problems related to films is white revisionist visionings of films. My friend despises Ken Burns, and I heard that many of the interns would mock Burns's dry, ethnographic filming style. Basically, the guy makes shitty documentaries.

As for "Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property", I am disgusted by the title itself, which reinforces the idea that black people are property. It's such a liberal thing to use euphemisms like that - "property" to somehow make the brutality of enslavement of African people less real.

If it would help, perhaps there could be a petition sent to California Newsreel, or a series of letters stating why this film is problematic. It is difficult to think about the ways in which (his)stories are still being whitewashed and made palatable. The film is essentially blaming African people for the pathological system that was North American chattel slavery. Malcolm says it clearly when he talked about the incarceration of his mother into a mental institution:

"I knew I wouldn't be back to see my mother again because it could make me a very vicious and dangerous person - knowing how they had looked at us as numbers and as a case in their book, not as human beings. And knowing that my mother in there was a statistic that didn't have to be, that existed because of a society's failure, hypocrisy, greed, and lack of mercy and compassion. Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight."

I don't think people understand the anger and violence that all people are capable of, and that it is not just under extraordinary circumstances where people become capable of killing another human being. There is a book by a Filipino man, Carlos Bulosan, where he talks about the violence of oppressed migrant workers, most of whom are immigrants to North America. This can also be seen in the discussion of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, where the idea of killing people is seen as other, when in fact, the people judging are actually unwilling to acknowledge their own violence. And violence is deeply connected to power and control.

Peaceful living is sometimes a, for lack of a better word, privilege. Let me know if there is anything I can do to be in solidarity. If that means writing many letters, and making phone calls, so be it. These responses are not reactionary - they are necessary as long as people and institutions perpetuate white supremacy. I can also spread the word. i am on an anarchist people of color list serv and if you are not averse, i could forward the critiques onto that website. i know people would be in solidarity with critiquing this film. let me know what you think.

i hope you are doing well, rudy.

in struggle and solidarity,

soo na

*   *   *   *   *

Rudy, thanks for this message re. the Turner. Though I'm not informed as you are re. him and his history, what your message says sounds sadly familiar. What can you do? Contact PBS and insist that they listen to your concerns and see if they can't put a rebuttal spot on after the film.

Write the newspapers. But here's my question:  have you seen the film yet? If not, is there a way to do so before it is broadcast and that way you can fine tune your argument against the film. Burnett has creds, doesn't he, Killer of Sheep, etc. And not all white film producers are what you think they are; in fact, the racial b-s cuts both ways, to wit Ken Burns' travesty JAZZ, where he capitulates to the Marsalis line of history as his family likes to see it. But....it souonds like there's a lot more at stake re. the Turner project. I wish you luck with this, but don't despair.

History is not what it used to be, its teaching, its filming, its importance; it isn't about truth any more, if it ever was. I've done some reading about how the Right controls the content of what goes in history text books for the nation's schools and it makes me want to buy a gun. Of course, the feel-good liberals, though they don't have control, are also selective, so there you go.

Question: what's with Turner being fathered by his master? Any hard evidence on this? Doesn't surprise me, but if it's the case , it loads the issue even more. Strom, are you listening . . .

Best,

Sibbie

*   *   *   *   *

I suggest organizing a community education program--nationally/internationally--to educate the community as they view and discuss this  Nat Turner film. Any money for that? If not, pass the hat. Black Churches used to sponsor films when segregation prevented us from going to their theatres.  Ask the churches to do the same. This is an excellent opportunity for real education. Somebody could also contact Haile Garima (SANKOFA) because he used community networks to market his film. Fort Valley State Univ has an African Film Festival. We might ask them to show the film, critique it, do a video of the critique and make that available to folks.

We should respond. What about Ashe Cultural Center as a venue?  I also know a film maker in NYC who might be interested in joining the effort. Maybe Charles Burnett would respond to an invitation to COME to present the film, given the controversy. We have a formidable network and we ought to use it.

I am copying a couple of friends.

Joyce E. King

*   *   *   *   *

Dr. Graham,

I never received an email from you... I got your email address from your advertisement at the Turner website.  I read your critique and two other critques ("The Uncertain Identity of Nathaniel Turner: The Scholars Debate" by: Rudolph Lewis & "A Bio-Religious TIMELINE for Nathaniel Turner (1800 - 1831) compiled by Rudolph Lewis).

I'm certainly not qualified to critique your work but I can say unequivocally what I feel -- To say I was disappointed is an understatement; you had a prime opportunity to answer directly the unsubstantiated ramblings of the guy Rudolph Lewis and you don't even

Touch on many of the points that he is trying to make about the authenticity of Nat Turner (like his mother and who his father is -- we do know that his father is white -- that's for sure -- a fictional white father by the name of GRAY; and some "hocus pocus" stuff about NAT being a gifted child who could read without being taught, and speak several languages to boot; but instead you yourself rambled on... spiting forth poison against Gates, Greenberg, Styron and others -- things that only you can understand.  You

did not attack the authenticity of Turner's Mother; you did not attack the authenticity of Turner's "supposed white father," and you took 30 plus paragraphs into your critique to even mention William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator article (which you give short rift to)  and that's it... you go back to attacking Gates and the others about various and sundry things that had nothing to do with a critique of Nat Turner.

Lynn L. Smith

PS:  Humble yourself for your people (they're dumb and lost), lower the price on the book-- unless you're only interested in selling your BLACK LIBERATION work to White people; who're really not interested except in terms of a curiosity - "Oh, how inciteful, can I get a copy free?"

Hope to have most of your money to you before Fall... Right now I'm very very sick and taking full responsiblity of my children.  But your money will come....

*   *   *   *   *

Hello,

I am a student in a Caribbean Art History class online (www.govhs.org), and right now I am working on a project that deals with aspects of religion in the Caribbean, and how religion has affected art in the area. I discuss the practice of Vodou in my project, and I need examples of Vodou-influenced art. The article "Experiment in Haiti" by Dewitt Peters on your website http://www.nathanielturner.com/experimentinhaiti.htm has several images that could be of use to me, and I will properly cite where the images are from. Where can I ask for permission to use these images?

Thank you,

Allison Weide

 *   *   *   *   *

Hello

My name is Angelica Journagin and I attend Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. I am currently working on a project for a class preparing a flyer and I was wondering if I could have your permission to use the picture of Linda Brown and her new classmates located on page:

Thank you for your time
Angelica

*   *   *   *   *

Messages from Ravindra Babu

Dear  Brother RUDY

Grace and peace to you, to your Dear family and Brother & Sisters there with you in Christ. Many more greetings to you in His most worthy and Fair name.

At present, we are being covered out our works in 6 poor villages, from next month April 2004, on words we had decided to do our works in 5 poor villages, besides these 6 villages.  The following are the respective name of these 5 villages.

1. Chebrolu

2. Gudiwada

3. Epurupalem

4. Esukapalli

5. Bhattiprolu

There are 55 poor widows and old age woman, 32 poor and destitute children being here in each village.  We are going to extend our services for this poor people. Five villages’ together, poor widows and old age persons: 275 Five villages together, the poor and destitute children are: 160 In this aspect, we are going to take special interest and care and we will extend our services for these poor people in due course of time and we do strongly feel and believe that the God will definitely utilize our services for these poor people.  Hence, in order to do our service more effectively and fruitfully, your help support and specifically the Lord’s Grace is highly mandatory in all our proposed Herculean endeavors.

Generally and usually there are thousand of poor widows, old age persons, neglected persons and destitute children in India.  In regard to these poor people, there is a lot to be done by us on humanitarian grounds.  I had strongly decided to dedicate my Entire Life for the cause and service of these poor and destitute people I do stand by my word and I am promising you in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ. And more over, I shall always feel and think that I had a good brother in U.S.A, for which you will be the only good brother to me, who wishes for our good, in the world.  

In the same way kindly do think and regard me as your brother, pastor p. Ravindra Babu in India and don’t forget me ever and forever.  We are constantly and continuously urging the God that our cordial relations are to be continued ever and forever, despite some hardships and constraints.  We are all constantly praying the God for you, your respective family members, Ministry members, for your respective Board Members and for your other fellow Ministry team.

Therefore brother, by taking all these specific matters and factors in to consideration and notice, we do hope you may react very peacefully for my specific concerned and we do anticipate for your further the most fruitful and optimistic decision and we shall await for your most earliest response in this aspect with fervent hope.

Thanking you Brother,

Yours Brother in Christ,

Pastor P. Ravindra Babu,

President / Founder

HOLY FIRE MINISTRY

SOUTH INDIA.

mmerry_joseph_45@hotmail.com

Dear Beloved Brother RUDY

Greetings in JESUS Name

Here in India, we will have our own problem and hard ships and we are hereby forwarding our prayer request lists pertaining to hardships.  Hence, please kindly pray for all the concerned.

1. Street children and abundant children are to be saved.

2. The handicapped people should able to walk freely.

3. Pray for Mentally retarded children in order to get good memory power, sound health and be regarded as rightful citizens in the society.

4. To have a rightful and reasonable change in the attitude and behavior of the persons who are deeply addicted to the alcohol.

5. To have a rightful and proper change in the youth, these who are infested with HIV / AIDS.

6. To be healed and cured for persons affected by AIDS at present.

7. The criminals who are struggling with the court and as such for a favourable judgment for them.

8. To have a sound health and rightful memory power for the mentally disturbed people.

9. To have a child for those who had no children.

10. The separated husbands and wives to be re united.

11. At present, the patients who are suffered from different diseases in hospitals and their diseases are to be cured.

12. To have affection and feeding for widows.

13. To have a rightful and strong change in the attitude and tendency of the young stars, who are deeply addicted to narcotic drugs.

14. The Gospel to be spread to, villages, towns, cities, metropolitan cities and different countries in the world.

15. To have a world peace.

16. To have a change in the way of thinking and attitude of Naxalites and Terrorists.

17. Unemployment problem in India is to be solved.

18. To have a good and sound health for old age people.

19. The persons struggling with different family problems and their family problems to be sorted out.

Myself, our family members, Ministry members, church pastors and Glory to God Orphan Home Children are sending their heartful good regards and best wishes to you, for your Family, your Ministry members, your respective Board Members and Other Fellow Ministry Members.

Anticipating for your further fruitful and favorable response at an earliest in this regard with hopefully and prayerfully.

Thanking you Brother,

Yours Brother in Christ,

Pastor P. Ravindra Babu,

President/Founder

HOLY FIRE MINISTRY’S,

SOUTH INDIA.

mmerry_joseph_45@hotmail.com

My dear Beloved Brother RUDY in CHRIST,

Warmest greetings to you in his most wonderful Name of our Lord, soon coming savior Jesus Christ.   I received your e-mail and understood all the contents of the same in a most comprehensive outlook.  Thank you very much for your e-mail.

Received by me from the internet café on 03-03-04 noted its contents there in. At the outset, I apologize to you dear brother for the inordinate delay in responding to you immediately, because, I am completed to visit the cyclone victims and spent with them till day before and returned back to headquarters TENALI to day and picked up your e-mail from the mail box and therefore, the delay is inevitable and pardon me for the same dear brother.

Yes: dear brother, as asked for by you, I am expecting to receive the pictures from the photo studio concerning the devastation caused by terrible cyclonic storm and will be going to send the same by postal mail on 5th March, 2004 which you may receive with in week and request you to kindly pray for the same.  On coming to know of your physical ailments from your mail, myself, my mother merry, my father Joseph and church pastors started immense praying for 4 hours today and continuing still praying for you and we are confident that you may resume to work by this time, by the MIRACLE power of God.  Praise the Lord for his Glory.

Dear brother Rudy: please kindly note that our Ministry is an independent Ministry, striving for Him in India with utmost Faith and we have no help and support received from within an Abroad.  We were struggling hard to meet the needs of Orphan Children, neglected people and poor widows living in all our congregations who are suffering for food, clothing, shelter and medication.  You are well aware that Christians are very poor and are living below the poverty line in India, and further you are well aware of the Ministry needs too.

You are in our personal, family and assemble prayers dear brother and request you to continue to pray for us, for rending a regular monthly help and support to meet the needs of Ministry and further pray for the abundance of our Ministry in India.  Please let us know the present situation of your physical ailment whether you are freed from all pains and swelling suffering for the same, to enable us to take a Fasting prayer for you to commence soon after hearing from you.

Anticipating for your further fruitful and favorable response at an earliest in this regard with hopefully and prayerfully.

Thanking you Brother,

Yours in his services,

Pastor P. Ravindra Babu,

President

HOLY FIRE MINISTRY’S,

SOUTH INDIA 

mmerry_joseph_45@hotmail.com

*   *   *   *   *