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, August 4, 2012


LABOR DAY



i celebrated strong arms and iron will

hands that built America
                                                                                              
men who answered, yes massa

knowing they were greater men

men who tired of oppression

choosing deaths deliverance

men who would not trade honor for life                                                 

i celebrated their labor

o’er fields now grown fallow

men who labored and died

laid to rest beneath these fields

each blade of grass a monument

to men who made this country strong                         

each sheaf of wheat, ear of corn, bale of cotton

each wrinkle of a tobacco leaf celebrates

the lives of my fathers and their struggle

lay silenced in the clay hills of this land…            

                                                                                                 
Written by David Vollin







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3 comments:

  1. Aaron BloodworthAugust 5, 2012 at 3:48 PM

    David I believe this IS the true meaning of LABOR DAY

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  2. Bigdaddy BluesAugust 15, 2012 at 10:22 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Bigdaddy BluesAugust 15, 2012 at 10:23 PM

    I focused on the struggle of black men but of course Labor Day is a struggle shared by men of all races and creeds who have labored for this great country we love and call affectionately, "America" our home the birthplace of such amazing culture and people... may it continue to prosper and illuminate the world forever!

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