FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Saturday, November 12, 2011

ELEGY OF A CULTURE...






THERE WAS A TIME WHEN

I THOUGHT I’D BE ABLE TO GET MY PEOPLES

OFF THE STREETS…

OFF THE DRUGS…



BUT THAT TIME HAS GONE

NOW I’M JUST TRYING TO PRESERVE THEIR CULTURE

THE MUSIC…

AND THE ARTS…



IF THEY COULD HELP ME

TO RAISE THE BLACK MAN HIGH , TO A NOBLE SEAT

THEN WE COULD

ALL FIND PEACE…



BUT THEY WANT TO DIE

THEIR LEGACY WIPED FROM A BLANK CENOTAPH…

FORGOTTEN

ELEGY…



THERE WAS A TIME WHEN

OUR DESTINY WAS WIDE-EYED AND LIMITLESS…

WE MADE THINGS

THE WORLD LOVED


BY D. VOLLIN






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3 comments:

  1. jordanbooze1November 20, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    You know I like this and the reason that I like this is because it teaches you.... it opens your eyes to many possibilities but it also shows how that they can't be taking away. It tells you reach high don't let go of your dreams and don't fall into stereotypical category that they put us black men and women in

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  2. Bigdaddy BluesNovember 20, 2011 at 7:25 PM

    Jordan, I wrote this to lament the loss of so many wonderful things that black Americans have created and just left to die... our culture has degraded and we have become a people who live like cats and dogs on the street... Ghettoisms have ruined our culture and bought it down to the gutter... the gutter has won... the black inteligentsia has lost...

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  3. Bigdaddy BluesDecember 1, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Im working on another poem with a similar theme... it comes to me in spurts but not quite finished yet...

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