sweaty haiku

luz and papi, a
mid-morning stroll, maya slung
nap while i mop sweat

or

luz and papi stroll
maya slung mid-morning, shade
sweat like dew-moist leaves

Black Man's Burden

(h/t to a 'friend of a friend' who emailed this link)

From the Boston Globe

Big Thanks

I just applied to law school thirty-eight minutes ago.

Big thanks to everyone who helped me with my personal statement: Marta, Marian, Omar, Jaasi and Debbie.

Big thanks to Rey, Ariana and Pam for their letters of recommendation.

Big thanks to everyone who encouraged me from day one.

Let the waiting begin!

A Lovely Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

First day as a Project Manager at CITI.

Obama - "Yes We Can" video

Props to Americablog. Props to the producers of this video.

Morsels

Courtesy of the U.S. State Department's america.gov site:
> the restored Lincoln Cottage, situated up the street from our home, is opening in February 2008. Years ago, I took an "1860 - 1960" tour of DC monuments led by Ed Smith of American University/the Smithsonian. At the Soldiers' Home, and Professor Smith told us how Lincoln's ideas on race were shaped by his discussions with Frederick Douglass at the Cottage. Basically, Douglass' rise from slavery to international abolitionist proved the lie of Black inferiority.

> Out of the mud blooms the lotus.

So there you have it: my hopeful nature shining through on a beautiful Saturday in January.

Toni Morrison Endorses Obama

I've been wanting to go back and read Morrison's original "Clinton is the first Black President" thing after the recent South Carolina debate and the whole SC primary bullsh*t. I never read it back in the day, and I'm tired of the moniker being bandied about seriously, when she could only (in my non-having-read-it-estimation) have been making a point metaphorically. Anyway, here's the relevant /snip/:

African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us."

For a large segment of the population who are not African-Americans or members of other minorities, the elusive story left visible tracks: from target sighted to attack, to criminalization, to lynching, and now, in some quarters, to crucifixion. The always and already guilty "perp" is being hunted down not by a prosecutor's obsessive application of law but by a different kind of pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards of those he breaks.
/snip/

So now I have this to chew on: Morrison's Obama endorsement - which poetically and pointedly rejects the Clintons. (For extra measure, let's let Christopher Hitchens chime in on the myth of Bill's affinity for Black folk).

What this means for me is something closer to home. I have a picture of me and Bill Clinton - the coup de grace: he's wearing a Stanford t-shirt - that I've kept for years. Until we had painting done recently, it hung upstairs in the hall. What to do? I dig the photo. But I'm increasingly down (have been since he was in office) about the actual policies and politics he pursued. And the prospect of him back in the White House makes my skin crawl.

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Obama

W.W.B.D.?

(What Will Billary Do?)

icy-hot

it was supposed to be a quick rub-down;
calves salved - not menthol fuming

your gas-taut lungs.
nor a fuming wife

sending me to shower and change
the sheets, lest we asphyxiate.

A restful, wakeful moment

Luz on my chest, slung Maya style;
Marta taking a well-earned nap.

Quote of the Day

About this: "These kids make Robert Downey, Jr. look like all he had was a little cold."
- Marta

Luz Antonia Graham Urquilla

Born December 29, 2007 at 10:40pm.

Amazing!!

Sista Souljah Redux

From Jack and Jill Politics

Nights like this

Me and my Boo, laid up...
D'Angelo docked, croonin' over
belly-rubs. talkin' to Baby Girl,
Urquilla-Graham

We have 23 days to go, folks! All the books and advice and doctor's visits and therapy have us at least a little prepared for what awaits. But little B.G.U.G. will show us what's up.

Excited, anxious, happy, together. Marta and I are enjoying this last phase of the next phase of our lives. Everything is everything!

Mortified

Apparently, I don't know how to use the spell-check function.

So...

B-a-t-t-l-e-s-h-i-p.

I stand corrected.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice

My wife and I are "playing Batteship" this morning; laptops back to back: Facebook, Huffington Post (yikes!), and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Thirty-two days till baby-girl "to be named" is due. Life is beautiful :)

Now that that's over...

I took the LSAT this morning at Howard University. (Not in Ernest E. Just Hall, as advertised, but in the Dental Building, as re-located). I chose a seat in the front row, right corner, figuring it would offer me less distractions.

In a bold violation of test center rules, I stowed my jacket, gloves, scarf and (black brushed wool) Kangol on top of the piano in the corner rather than under the desk with the gallon-sized Ziploc holding my pb&j, carrots, nuts-n-berries, and Penland water bottle. Unlike other, bolder violators, I left the cell phone at home. I have yet to ascertain whether Marta is at High Tea with the ladies (as scheduled) or at Virginia Hospital Center (as re-located). Now that I've both called and texted, I hope to find out soon.

The test itself came off as well as I could expect. My front row-right seat kept me from fixating on everyone else. Hewing close to the LSAT prep book strategies, I prioritized the questions that made sense to me in order to increase my score. I hit my targets

• 20 questions on each logical reasoning section
• 3 passages in reading comprehension
• 2 of 4 games
  

for each of the first four sections - I even got through part of the third game in Section III! Writing came naturally. Too bad it's not scored.

The reading comprehension at the end of the day was harder than at the beginning. Still, I finished three of the passages and "bubbled in" answers for the fourth. Not bad.

I am thankful for all the love, support and advice that prepared me to sit in the re-located test center this morning with an open heart and mind. I feel good.

Marta - I love you. We're gettin' there, baby!

The LSAT is Coming

Saturday, December 1, 2007 - the countdown is in effect.

The Truth

Was it Eddie Murphy who did a sketch about "President Jesse Jackson's Inauguration" - wherein he ducked and dodged throughout the speech to confound would-be snipers?

The truth ain't too far from fiction.

Downward Mobility

Depressing realities statistically confirmed. Thanks, Pew!

/lede/
Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.

/snip/
"That's a stunner," said Orlando Patterson, a Harvard University sociologist, when told about the Pew finding. "These kids were middle class, but apparently their parents did not have the cultural capital and connections to pass along to them."

Another reason so many middle-class blacks appear to be downwardly mobile is likely the huge wealth gap separating white and black families of similar incomes. For every $10 of wealth a white person has, blacks have $1, studies have found.

"We already knew that downward mobility was much more likely for blacks," said Mary Pattillo, a Northwestern University sociologist who studies the black middle class. "But this is an even bigger percentage drop than I have seen elsewhere. That's very steep."