czvasser

Author: czvasser

As a kid, I grew up in Morrisania, in the Bronx and learned to grow food in the Crotona Park victory garden. That ultimately led to a green career including 20 years at the Bronx Zoo and more than 30 years in non-profit management. I learned to cook at my grandmothers knee before I was 10 years old and still love it. My love basketball and I referee boys, girls High School Varsity and recreational basketball. I write, I write, I write. I was an English major with a thought of going into journalism. Hmm, but I still write everyday.

October 27, 2016February 23, 2017 czvasser Afroticity

Mrs. Rosenthal

“We need to teach the entire spectrum of Black history, not facially connected highs and lows. We must teach and learn how to deal with pain and how to develop paths to progress.” – CZV

I giggled with some of the other 6th-grade boys when red-headed and nailed Mrs. Rosenthal pledged, hand on her collarbone. She couldn’t place it over her heart without cupped distortion. Mr. Webber, memorizing faces, quickly quieted us down. The consequence would be whacks with a ruler and a call to our mothers otherwise. Our class was special today. We were performing a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. I would recite an excerpt from his I Have a Dream Speech at the podium. My mother didn’t come. She never did. Who knew MLK would be murdered two years later.

Tightrope: pictured-Ruby Bridges protected by Federal Agents spent her first year in an integrated school in a class by herself taught by a new teacher because everyone else in the school refused.

October 27, 2016February 23, 2017 czvasser Afroticity

The Red or Blue Pill Election

The world has already been negatively charged by the 2016 election. Racism, sexism, religion bashing, lying, war have all been politically embraced. Voting, at least, will give you a choice. Your actions after the election can make America better. Become part of a social change group that has a political agenda. If you are not putting people in positions to speak for you, who will; Pathological Politicians, Borderline Sociopaths?

Our lives are affected by politics based on economics and protected by conveniently applied laws. Where are you in this crazy quilt? Be one of the patches that makes a difference?

October 24, 2016February 23, 2017 czvasser Fried Chicken, Handstands

Remembering

“Lynching is an extrajudicial punishment by an informal group.”
No, lynching is a crime against humanity.

The grand wizard
buys the boys a beer
and they laugh
over the poor polaroid
covered with blood and crime

There is no final resting place
FRP frp frp frp frp frp
He must walk the earth
rattling fetters in the
symphony of slaves
in which so many play

They never found the car
the one he washed and loved
I had a water pump and friend
in that gone baby gone

Did he say see you soon
before he strode into castration
or did salvation come lynch like

God and the good ole boys
keep the secret while secretly
mom and dad die

After three days
did he roll away the rock
and rise while she watched
are the bones still broken
in some unholy hole
did night things rip and scatter
what poor man was left

There is no day or place
remembering
I do.