I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, A Review

"I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO" -- There were seminal moments in my teen years in which, through literature, my spirit was profoundly awakened to the inescapable truth that I am a writer. One such moment was when I read James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time." I realized that, as an African-American gifted with the capacity for creative writing, I am obliged to chronicle the experience of black people in America, to roundly dispel stereotypes, to dare speak my truth, and with stout heart, step out from the laborious, burdensome shadow of inequity. It was the following words that did it for me. "Well, the black man has functioned in the white man's world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar, and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations."

Last evening, my spirit was reawakened to the extraordinarily brilliant mind and irrepressible creative spirit of James Baldwin. A friend and I watched the documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," voice over provided by Samuel L. Jackson, with a script in Baldwin's own words. It was based on a book the prolific writer never completed, "Remember This House," recounting the assassinations of three of his closest friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, I too Iived through each assassination, while still a teen, within the same era of time of my having read "The Fire Next Time." Each sliced my heart, indelible scarring remaining. This documentary touched me deeply, in ways I was quite unprepared, but welcomed. My spirit often twitched, shaken like Heaven and Earth at their foundations. I have so very much more to do, to write.

Black or White, in light of everything that is going on today, a country's reawakening, if you have not seen this documentary (on Netflix), I humbly entreaty you to PLEASE take the time to watch it. We were blessed that James Baldwin walked among us, a precious chronicler whose voluminous creative expressions persists as much more than mere echoes from the past, but clarion calls to become educated on truths, and punctuated with beautiful posits on how we can finally, truly, move forth.