Yesterday brought news that rocked the world of art and culture. Two African American giants, one of art and one of music, are gone, fallen to COVID-19: artist, art historian and curator Dr. David Driskell, and jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. In today's Thoughtful Thursday we pay tribute to these great men. Dr. [...]
It's Thoughtful Thursday, and boy could we use some poetry to distract us right about now. Poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets, asked its membership to suggest poetry to help us cope and give us courage. Four of the many poems suggested are featured below. "Alone", by our beloved Maya Angelou (1928-2014), reminds us that we [...]
How is all this family togetherness working out for ya? It's Thoughtful Thursday, and we figured you and your children might need some comic relief. Here are a few wonderfully wicked poems by Shel Silverstein (who authored The Giving Tree). They were included in Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls, a book of poems about ill-mannered boys and girls, compiled [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday brings poetry of hope, strength, and a mother's love. It's (still) National Women's Month, and these three powerful women poets give us some much needed optimism, inspiration, and mothering "realness" to help us cope in these bewildering times. Poet, teacher, saxophonist and vocalist Joy Harjo (b.1951), a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, offers a hopeful [...]
March is Woman's History Month, and in celebration today's Thoughtful Thursday features two powerful poems by two artistic powerhouses: Toni Morrison and June Jordan. Toni Morrison (1931–2019), while best known for her critically acclaimed and prize winning novels, wrote one volume of poetry, Five Poems (Rainmaker Editions, 2002), which features poems alongside illustrations by Kara Walker. The first of these poems, [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday is dedicated to the award winning poet Kevin Young (b.1970). Kevin, whose work has been featured in many Thoughtful Thursdays, is the poetry editor of the New Yorker and the director of New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Prior to that he was the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and [...]
In today's Thoughtful Thursday we will hear from two wise women poets: Anne Spencer and Audre Lorde. Anne Spencer(1882-1975) was a Harlem Renaissance poet and civil rights activist. Though she lived in Lynchburg Virginia her whole life, she maintained close friendships with many Harlem Renaissance writers, including James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and her home [...]
Today is Presidents' Day, (which happened to land this year on George Washington's actual birthday), and Friday was Valentine's Day, so we are offering a two-for-one Thoughtful Thursday this Monday. Yep. You're welcome! For our Presidents' Day offering, here are two wonderful poems composed for Presidential inaugurations: "On the Pulse of Morning" which Maya Angelou (1928-2014) delivered at President [...]
To say that this week has been a tough one for Democrats is an understatement. The President is acquitted, turns his State of the Union address into a campaign ad for his "Comeback Tour", gives an avowed racist the Medal of Honor, and sees an uptick in his approval rating. Meanwhile, in a effort to flex their brand new [...]
We are still reeling from the tragic loss of basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven other passengers on that helicopter flight. For today's Thoughtful Thursday, rather than presenting more poetry to soothe our collective pain, we offer inspirational quotes from the man himself. Taken from interviews over the years and his book "The Mamba Mentality", his [...]