FOR THE BROTHAS: CULTURE AND INTELLECTUALISM: February 2018

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...

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

A GENTLEMANLY VALENTINES DAY

Gentlemen, Bigdaddy Blues wishes you the warmest of times on this day set aside for love... I always remember this verse I wrote many Valentines Days ago and on those times when I was blessed to be in love I recited them to see if they fit.

"My heart and soul are whisked away,

By my lover his love on Valentines Day..."

This year I have written a collection of special Valentines Day poems. This is a special Valentines Day for me because I am in love again... I hope that you will take time to read through the poems and I hope they will move you to think more on love...

The collection is called "A GENTLEMANLY VALENTINE" please view it at:

http://twenty-firstcenturylove.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-gentlemanly-valentine-poems-from-2018.html

CHEERS!

BIGDADDY BLUES