Tayari's Blog: February 2010
February 28, 2010
Amazing Line-Up in Brooklyn
The Tenth Annual National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers University is especially awesome this year; I am so excited to be a participant. Toni Morrison is the honorary chair, but the whole line-up is pretty delicious. Those of you who were disappointed that Dolen Perkins Valdez's reading got snowed out will get another chance to see her. Also Bernice MacFadden will be reading from her new one, Glorious. Colson Whitehead is on board and so is my former professor, Jewell Parker Rhodes. Edwidge Danticat will be there and many many others. (I'm giving a "talkshop" about writing fiction.)
Registration is just $60 for all four days. There are also opportunities for people who want to work as volunteers!
Procrastination Never Hurt Nobody Links
February 26, 2010
Chapters Reading Canceled
I am so sorry to tell you that the Chapters Reading-- featuring Dolen Perkins-Valdez-- has been canceled. The reading was set to be a swell event, so we are all very disappointed. Not only was I looking forward to hearing Dolen, but I was also excited to hear from our Girls Write Now mentor/mentee pairs. When you see our girls in action, you will see right away why Michelle Obama presented GWN with The Coming Taller Award. Girls Write Now is preparing the next generation of women writers one girl, and one word at a time. Please consider giving GWN a donation to help us continue this important work. Since the entire Northeast is snowed it, how about you give us the money you won't be spending on cab fare.....
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Community Service
February 25, 2010
Our Kind Of People
You all have heard me praise Dolen Perkins-Valdez's new novel, WENCH. If you're in NYC, come out to Chapters, the cool reading series by Girls Write Now. Dolen will read along with our genius members of GWN! In addition, there will be a raffle, cool goodies, and amazing folks.
The reading itself will be terrific, but you should also come out if you want to meet like-minded people. New York can be so alienating and it's hard to meet people that care about what you care about. So come to the series, hear some powerful writing, and mingle with some great people.
Friday, Februrary 26
The Center For Fiction
17 East 47th Street
6-8 pm
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February 24, 2010
Kendra, Take Me Away!
I have been control-freaking my life lately in order to meet all my goals. I have been scheduling myself from when I wake up, until when I go to bed. I have been very disciplined, but sometimes things happen that you can't plan for. Case in point: I was on my way to work-- arms full of books and papers, trying to balance my umbrella-- when I saw 
that someone had busted the windows out of my raggedy car and snatched my pathetic little radio. I just took my unhappy self back into the apartment and called the police and the Gecko.
On a cold miserable day like this, I need me some Kendra.
Kendra Clayton is the protagonist of the mystery series by Angela Henry. I love reading the adventures of a GED teacher who finds herself at the center of all the action in her Ohio hometown.
When I find myself stressing out and want to escape, this is exactly 
the type of book I like to curl up with. Angela's books are sort of like the Sue Grafton alphabet series, but with a sister-girl touch. The other characters are delightful, too and there is just enough romance to keep it interesting.
Angela sent me the latest in the series, "Schooled in Lies." I 
noticed that the cover was different than the others. From her blog I learned that her publisher had opted not to renew the series. Angela Henry is a determined and resilient as her characters. She published the latest book herself.
I have to go to work in a little while, but while I wait for the cops to show up, I am taking a little Kendra-break.
February 23, 2010
RELENTLESS Links
Newsflash: I spend a LOT of this blog. Now am on this kick where I am scheduling out my day, I'm seeing exactly how much time I spend doing what. I gave myself thirty minutes get these links up. HA! It's been thirty-three and I haven't even started typing them in. But that's okay. I love keeping this blog. I just have to juggle my schedule around a bit. So, with no further ado, here are today's links, though a little abbreviated because I didn't get to check out all my my source sites.
February 21, 2010
This Teacher's Pets
I know I have been sort of MIA from the the blog for the last week or so. My life has been so hectic that I have actually been getting up at 5:30 in the morning and writing out a schedule for how I must spend each minute of each day until bedtime. I give myself exactly 17 minutes for my morning coffee and journal writing.) It's the only way that I will be able to meet all my obligations which include, but are not limited to: finishing the edits on The Silver Girl, reading the applications for the people who are applying to Rutgers-Newark MFA, reading a book I am reviewing for WaPo, teaching my classes and grading their papers. So I am sort of frazzled.
But here is the little surprise that life had tucked away in the bottom of the bag. Teaching is actually helping me push through the manuscript. I know this is counter-intuitive and goes against everything you ever overheard at the bar at AWP, but it's true.
I won't mention their names, because I would probably get sued or something, but my students' work actually helps me see what's wrong with my own writing. One former student sent me a draft of a novel she's working on. I read it over and I was really moved by the way that she described the emotional landscape of an older character. That really cracked the whip on me to think of the way the body informs the action of the story. Then, I was reading a story for workshop and the student wrote about snow in such a way that made me ponder the weather in my own story. The way we talk about weather is regional and specific. I went back and improved several chapters. Yet another student brought in a delightful story about doomed love and she made me remember to keep it funny, even when the events are most-unfunny. The best antidote for melodrama is a pinch of humor.
So, thank you dear students, for all your inspiration. And thanks, blog family, for your patience. I'll post again tomorrow. I'll put it on my schedule.
February 17, 2010
The NYT Remembers Lucille Clifton
I am crazy busy today, so no time to blog properly. I just wanted to bring your attention to the NYT obituary for Lucille Clifton. I know that I have dogged them out on many occasions for the shabby way they handled the deaths of people whom I consider major. So, it's only right that I steer you to the lovely remembrance posted for Ms. Lucille. There are two poems included and a gorgeous photo.
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February 15, 2010
Save The Jet Book Links
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Amp Up Your Fiction With Me This Summer
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts has published the schedule for this summer. I am offering a new course called HE SAID, SHE SAID: BUILDING CHARACTERS THROUGH DIALOGUE, SETTING, AND CONFLICT, CONFLICT, CONFLICT.
I got the idea from this course from noticing that many of the writers I mentor have trouble making their stories really sizzle. Sometimes I diagnose it as being too in love with your characters to let them really hit the wall. Other times, it's nice people's disease-- people who avoid conflict in life have a hard time getting it down on the page.
In this class, we are going to take existing drafts and turn the heat up. I am sure you have a story that is good enough, it's fine, but it's sort of forgettable. Bring your story to class.
Southern ladies, this analogy will certainly resonate with you. When I was a teenager, someone told me to put on every piece of jewelry I wanted to wear with a certain outfit. Then, before leaving the house, take off one, and you'll be perfect. This is my approach to conflict in story-writing. Don't hold back in the creation, then tone it down right when you're done. Writing is not for the faint of heart, or of pen.
Dates are August 15-20. Scholarships are available. Details here.
February 14, 2010
Farewell to "Mama Lucille"
When I posted the video of Lucille Clifton reading, I had no idea that she had been ill. I am so sorry to tell you that she passed away last night. She was only 73. I was so devastated to hear the news that I left the restaurant where I was having dinner.
Last night, on twitter, there was more love that you thought you could pack into 140 characters. Everybody read her poetry and posted favorite lines.
Today, I ask that you honor Lucille Clifton by doing your own writing. Let her know that she can take her rest, and that we will keep it going.
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Category:
Current Events
Here Rests, by Lucille Clifton
This is one of my favorties. An elegy for her sister
here rests
my sister Josephine
born in '29
and dead these 15 years
who carried a book on every stroll.
when daddy was dying
she left the streets
and moved him back home
to tend him.
her pimp came too
her Diamond Dick
and they would take turns
reading
a bible aloud through the house.
when you poem this
and you will, she would say
remember the Book of Job.
happy birthday and hope
to you Jospehine
one of the easts
most wanted.
may heaven be filled
with literate men
may they bed you
with respect.
February 12, 2010
Friday Pick Me Up
The poet Lucille Clifton says one should wish to celebrate, more than one should wish to be celebrated. So here she is, reading her poem, "Won't You Celebrate With Me."
February 11, 2010
Revision is a Hell of a Drug
Please forgive me for being so slow with the blogging lately. I have been working on my manuscript, The Silver Girl. Revision makes me sort of obsessed. My friend, Howard, told me a story about one of the French impressionist painters-- he couldn't remember which one-- who would be frisked when he entered the Louvre. Why? This famous painter (whoever he was) kept trying to sneak brushes etc. into the museum under his coat. And why? Because he wanted to touch up his masterpieces.
So, whether this story is true or not, it resonated with me this week. Revision is necessary, but it can make you crazy.
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Reading at Fordham Tonight!
I am going to give a reading tonight at Fordham University. I was worried that it would get snowed out, but it's on! If you are in the NYC area, I'd love to see you there. It's at 7 p.m. | South Lounge, Lowenstein Center, Lincoln Center campus. Directions, here.
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February 05, 2010
The Best Reading Series in NYC
And, (cue the infomercial voice), that's not all-- also featured at the events are the genius girls who belong to Girls Write Now, one of the best afterschool programs in country. (You don't have to take my word that GWN is the best. If you don't believe me, just ask Michelle Obama.)
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Community Service
February 03, 2010
Brother Sister Links
February 01, 2010
My Mama's History Is Black History
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-Ins, in whch twenty-seven black students from North Carolina A&T sat down at a segregated lunch counter and ordered a meal.While it is true that this famous act of courage sparked much of the civil disobedience which changed the history of this country, it was not the first action of its kind. I would like to bring your attention to another sit-in, two years earlier, taking place in Oklahoma City.
In 1958, teenagers in OKC sat down at Green's Lunch Counter and ordered a meal. Among these brave young people was my mother, Barbara Ann Posey Jones.
As Howard Zinn showed us, there is a whole people's history of the United States that we won't know about. Here is the voice of Claudette Colvin, the teenager who refused to give up her seat on a Mongomery Bus, a year before Rosa Parks. Resistance is always happening. It's just not always on the news.
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Current Events