The Reading Room will host a Book Swap on Saturday, May 11 from 4 to 9 pm. The private nature of reading will be turned over to become public in this participatory event designed to encourage conversation about reading. Swap out your discards for something new while enjoying cocktails and micro readings every hour on the hour by local literati. Shay Youngblood micro reading at 5pm.  The Reading Room is located at 3715 Parry Avenue in Dallas, TX. For further information: Karen Weiner 214 952 4109        www.thereadingroom-dallas.blogspot.com

When I heard about the explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the first thing I did was call my people in Boston to make sure they were okay. They were, but I was nearly speechless with sorrow…again. On 9/11 I was living in New York when the twin towers fell. I arrived in Tokyo 10 days before 3/11. This morning I woke up to the news that there had been an explosion in a town called West, Texas. I got a call from my people across the country and around the world, wondering how close I was to the blast. I explained that this town was where I had stopped many times to get gas, take a bathroom break and buy delicious kolaches to snack on. It’s about 2 hours from where I live, the halfway mark on the road to Austin. “I’m safe.” I said

When tragedies occur we immediately think of our loved ones who may be in harms way. When they are safe we give thanks. For all the people who lose their loved ones it is an unimaginable heartbreak. Our collective grief binds us all. Today I am remembering the friendly faces and outstretched hands offering me a fresh from the oven golden delicious kolache in the tiny town of West, Texas and give thanks for those who are safe.

My play Shakin’ the  Mess Outta Misery has life on YouTube. Do you want to laugh out loud today? Here are two brief clips from recent productions. They are about 9 minutes each.

Jubliee Theater – Ft. Worth, TX   “Bus Scene”

Afterthought Theatre – Denver, CO  “Prayer Meeting”

Nine of my titles are now available as old school, physical books in the Amazon Create Space e-store. Most of them include a short author’s note. Titles include my opera novel, Winter Prophet, plays Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery and Talking Bones and re-prints of my novels Black Girl in Paris and Soul Kiss with a new cover by Annette Lawrence.

click here to go to the store

new book cover by Annette Lawrence

Confession: I’m a book junkie and a library groupie. So, what could be better than having a new book published? Having 9 books published! I’m late to the party, but I’m ready to dance. As of today 9 of my books are available through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. It was a bit scary, I was more than a little ambivalent and it was empowering. Ultimately I believe self-publishing will allow me to move forward with exciting new projects inspired by my life-changing, amazing four-month adventure in Japan. More on my Japan adventures in the coming months.

Click here to buy books for your kindle

My novel Black Girl in Paris will be coming to the big screen (someday)!  Film director and NYU student, Kiandra Parks contacted me about making a film inspired by BGIP. She impressed me with a black and white short she made. In the summer of 2012 she began filming in Paris. Tracey Heggins, one of the Amazonian Vampires in the new Twilight Breaking Dawn movie, is one of the featured actors. I’ll keep you posted on any new developments in the project.  Monique Wells blogged about it. Check it out:

Entre to Black Paris

During 2013 I’ll be at the Dallas Museum of Art regularly talking with visitors about their art experiences. I’m working on a collaborative art project based on the responses. Stop by and tell me a story during the museum’s Third Friday Late Night Event.

Here’s a link to my brief interview on the DMA blog.

DMAeducatorblog

When I was asked to introduce Nikky Finney and Paul Muldoon for the Arts & Letters Program at the Dallas Museum of Art, I asked myself, how do you compress a 30 year friendship into a two minute introduction? “We were girls together” was our first thought upon seeing each other after many years. Nikky Finney and I met in Atlanta in the mid 1980’s in Toni Cade Bambara’s bright yellow living room as part of the Pamoja Writer’s Workshop. Nikky gave me pointers on how to deliver a poem and impressed me by having Nikki Giovanni as her mentor. By the time she won the 2011 National Book Award for her collection of poems, Head Off and Split, she had spilled a lot of ink in her dedication to poetry. I met Paul Muldoon once. We had dinner together with Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton where he teaches. My friend Veronica Chambers invited me to a reading there. I knew he wouldn’t remember, but I knew at the time, it was a moment to mark. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, “Moy Sand and Gravel”. Nikky and Paul were each commissioned to write a poem inspired by an art work in the DMA collection. Listening to two masterful poets was a great way to celebrate National Poetry Month. Lucky me, I topped off the evening sharing a meal of Spanish tapas at Sangria with the poets. Sublime. Marking delicious moments.