I'll take this month, yes, and the other 11 also :)

I got this idea from a blog I stumbled across and I thought well enough of it that I'm creating my own suggestions for what to listen, read, or watch for Black History Month:

MOVIES

1. Crash



2. Bamboozled



3. Daughters of the Dust



4. Malcolm X



5. Mississippi Marsala



6. anything by producer Oscar Micheaux



7. The River Niger



8. Blacula



9. The Hurricane



10. Beloved

BOOKS

1. anything by Toni Morrison



2. The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass



3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X



4. Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah



5. The River Where Blood Is Born Sandra Jackson-Opoku



6. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker



7. Corregidora by Gayle Jones



8. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois



9. Africana: The Enclyclopedia of the African and African American Experience



10. The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton

MUSIC

1. Something Inside So Strong by Labi Saffre



2. We're A Winner by The Impressions



3. Keep On Pushing by Curtis Mayfield



4. Anything by Aretha Franklin



5. Soundtrack to Roots



6. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now by McFadden & Whitehead



7. Keep Your Head to the Sky by Earth Wind and Fire



8. Revolution by Arrested Development



9. Anything by Gil Scott-Heron



10. Say It Loud by James Brown

And to close out this post, a poem I wrote:

WILLIE PEARL'S ARTIFACTS

I have no memory without these poems.

So, I gather her artifacts and time shifts

Her past into my future: a marriage certificate, gold rim eyeglasses, a black chiffon dress, a pair of earrings, a plate, two tea towels, a photograph of her grandmother, a letter from home.

Light shifts. The candle behind

Reflects on the mirror in front of me and

Her spirit passes through.

Your home was a landmark on the

Twentieth century underground railroad.

Crossing over the Mason Dixon line,

Folks bound for Detroit could

Rest and get a decent meal.

A pot of greens, sliced tomatoes, cornbread,

And sweet tea brings the comfort

That quiets my own desperation.

I have no memory without these poems,

My own offering on the landscape.

I gather them to honor, to create, to know

Meaning in this place. To dignify the freedoms

You never had.

I sojourn further and form shifts: the catfish jumping high turns into an antelope running that turns into a woman singing that turns into a bird flying that turns into the immortal sun.

We are everywhere!

Scraps of African fabric

Handstitched with the breath of God!

We! Us! You and I, hand to hand, eye to eye, soul to soul

Emerging as one dark body over time and place.

(c) Karen Davis, Louisville, KY  2003