aprilisms
the APRIL R. SILVER blog
Established 2008
Quote of the Week: Sonia Sanchez on Writing
“…I write to keep in contact with our ancestors and to spread truth to people.”
Quote of the Week: Toni Morrision on Fear (Song of Solomon)
What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not? (from Song of Solomon)
This Week, I Turn 40.5
[This week, on December 15, I will be 40.5. Here’s an essay I published a few years ago that you might enjoy. Many others did.] Forty Backwardsby April R. Silver (2006) Last month I turned 38. With 40 fast approaching, I’ve been more reflective than usual. I’ve begun to observe …
Quote of the Week: Toni Morrison (Bluest Eye)
There is really nothing more to say — except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how. (from The Bluest Eye)
The Kidding of Children
“God has lessons for us, but sometimes God has The Devil to deliver them.” That’s the soul of the message that I got from wise woman NANA CAMILLE YARBROUGH a few years ago. Don’t know what we were talking about, but it applies to this next entry. I dated said …
In Memoriam: Odetta
From Yesterday’s Put On BLAST!(December 3, 2008) Dear POB! Family, I’m sorry to share this news: Odetta, respected around the world as the “voice of the civil rights movement,” has passed. Sonya White was the first person that I know of who shared the news that Odetta was in the …
Quote of the Week: Zora Neale Hurston on Self-Love
I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.
Quote of the Week: Zora Neale Hurston on Maturing
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Quote of the Week: Zora Neale Hurston on Reaching
No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.
Quote of the Week: Zora Neale Hurston
“Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tub find out. Maybe it’s some place off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don’t know nothin’ but we see. So de white man throw down de load and …
What Man Is This?
This is the last weekend before the BIG election and the country seems well-poised to elect into the highest office in the land a Hawaiian-New Yorker-Chicagoian born of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas. What has America come to? Could it be that the collective “we” are …
Quote of the Week: Sun Tzu, Author of “The Art of War”
“The general who advances without coveting [wishing for excessively] fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.”~ Sun Tzu
Black, White, Whatever” by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
This is absolutley one of my favorite poems. Thank you Kelly for sharing this!
Quote of the Week: Sun Tzu, Author of “The Art of War”
Timeless: “Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate. ~ Sun Tzu was a Chinese General, …
Quote of the Week: Sun Tzu, Author of “The Art of War” Read More »
Quote of the Week: Julia Cameron
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist Way, is one of my favorite authors. Here’s a gem from her: “Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough – …
Quote of the Week: Audre Lorde
“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”~ Audre Lordewriter, activist
#AKILAWORKSONGS #ArtsAndActivism #BlackLivesMatter
• Our Statement in Honor of Indigenous Lands and Communities