Summer Concert Series: "Thursdays in the City" Starts August 3

Plainfield's Annual "Thursdays in the City Summer Concerts" series is scheduled to begin this coming Thursday, August 3rd, at Plainfield's City Hall Plaza, 515 Watchung Avenue, starting at 7:00 pm. The concert series will kick off with Flavuh, described on its website as a "neo-soul and r & b cover band who blend diverse musical influences into a tight groove, feel and sound...." 

The following Thursday, August 10, the series will feature the amazing Brick City Soul Collective, led by James Gibbs III on trumpet and flugelhorn, Cliff Kee on bass, Mike Parker on keyboards, Stan Luke on drums, and Sabriya Williams on vocals. 

On Thursday, August 17, Cocomama will be in the house. This group of women is described on the band's website as "...a virtual United Nations of women, the members of Cocomama hail from five countries on four continents." 

The final concert, scheduled for Thursday, August 24, will feature a Rhythm Revue as the Plainfield Plaza transforms into a dance floor with DJs spinning! Bring a lawn chair and a friend to hear some fabulous and eclectic music! 

Click on the image below to print out the entire series!

Summer of Darkinboddy: The Project Continues!

Wherefore, Darkinboddy? 

It is July...and every July brings me to the commemoration of the NYC Draft Riots, the worst riots in American history. The aspect that I write about has to do with the children of the Colored Orphan Asylum, which was burned on July 13, 1863. Several readers have asked me why I haven’t posted in The Darkinboddy Chronicles, my multimedia/varied arts (including baking!) weblog project which ran from 2013-2015—and which is still in development. Well, I have been working on a number of related projects—which will come to fruition soon—and which I hope will please the Darkinboddy fans out there.

I have not had a great deal of time to write—I am working on that aspect of my life—shifting my priorities to reflect self-care, completion of personal projects, and fulfillment of external obligations. I keep a daily journal (I have done so for the past 20 years), through which I work out my ideas in writing fragments, poem lines, drawings, etc., and sometimes I read back a month or two of entries to see what I viewed as important then. What has been coming to the forefront consistently is writing about the completion of two short story drafts—they are near completion, but I just keep procrastinating. A theory of procrastination is that it is based in fear—I will see about that.

One thing that I should say, though, is that between full-time employment as an English professor at Essex County College, my work as a councilwoman in the City of Plainfield—which usually comprises about another 20-25 hours a week, and other volunteer projects/obligations/responsibilities, there is a lot to juggle. I guess I must become an expert juggler! 

Anyway, thanks for all the support you have given me—I am doing my best to bring a couple of pieces to fruition before the fall semester begins—and also to figure out how to successfully work on projects even in the midst of other work—that is the key!

All best,

Rebecca

Land on the Shore - Sustenance for the Weary Soul

For a while now, I have been going to the Toshi Reagon and BIG Lovely Annual Birthday Celebration in January at Joe's Pub in New York. Toshi Reagon is an artist whose music cannot be easily categorized, because she flows through so many genres--I will just say that her music follows a Black tradition of social protest in music. The song I have uploaded, "(I'm Gonna) Land on the Shore," is one that she originally recorded in 1997, on her album titled Kindness. She sometimes sings it at the annual celebration--it is one of my favorites. Her mother, the legendary Bernice Johnson Reagon, also recorded this song back in 1971 (reissued in 1986) on River of Life: Harmony One. One of our greatest civil rights heroes, the late Fannie Lou Hamer, also recorded the song, which is on the album Songs My Mother Taught Me, originally recorded in 1963 and re-released by Smithsonian Folkways African American Legacy Series. I think that you will be moved by all three renditions.

Bernice Reagon Johnson

Fannie Lou Hamer