Troubleman
robert lashley
- Location
- Bellingham, Washington,
- Birthday
- July 16
- Bio
- A semi finalist for the PEN/Rosenthal fellowship, Robert lashley often performs at Northwest spoken word venues and has helped Bellingham, where he lives, develop one of the nation's finest poetry slam scenes. He has had poems published in such Journals as Feminete, No Regrets, and Your Hands, Your Mouth. His poetry was also featured in "Many Trails To The Summit", an anthology of Northwest form and Lyric poetry. His full length book, Songs My City Taught Me, was published by Radical Lunchbox Press in 2009.
MY RECENT POSTS
- Review: Life Studies, By
Robert Lowell
April 25, 2013 02:35AM - Review:Things Of This World,
By Richard Wilbur
April 25, 2013 02:31AM - Go Tell It On The Mountain At
60
April 12, 2013 08:29PM - Life After Life After Death
November 06, 2012 04:12AM - Just Where Was The Love?
December 10, 2011 05:10AM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “No, let me rephrase
that: Pathological
sensitivity.”
April 11, 2010 02:28AM - “It's interesting that,
in your critique of the
article, you
didnt mention the
sen…”
April 11, 2010 02:27AM - “This is a good
series.
Neil, not a
soul should chide you for your
language.”
June 01, 2009 08:04AM - “Yeah, the M's made
baseball fun in the 90's. We
still have
Ichiro, though,
who…”
April 05, 2009 11:43AM - “Amen, man.”
April 02, 2009 04:31AM
Robert lashley's Links
Review: Life Studies, By Robert Lowell
Review:Things Of This World, By Richard Wilbur
Go Tell It On The Mountain At 60
Rereading Go Tell It On The Mountain, James Baldwin's most recognizable work of fiction, I kept going back to a paragraph in Toni Morrison's Eulogy of him; a part of a speech that exists as a work of literature in itself.
"You made American English honest - genuinely international. You… Read full post »
Life After Life After Death
LIFE AFTER LIFE AFTER DEATH
( this is a draft on an essay that I will send to DVSAS. It success will stand or fall if the candor I show here helps someone. I caution you because some of the details are severely, severely, severely triggering.)
.
Just Where Was The Love?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/02/showbiz/music/love-songs/index.html
( trigger warning)
What's wrong with Soul Music? I have a theory, and it doesn't have anything to do with how stupid and evil young black people are.
Fifteen years ago, Bill Clinton signed The 1996 Telecommunicatio… Read full post »
Why Questlove Screwed Up
　
Here’s what Jimmy Fallon and Questlove would have done if they had spines. They would have had Michelle Bachmann on, but have big Freeda and Katey Red-avatars of New Orleans’ Sissy Bounce music scene-to jam with the band in between breaks. Since Fallon has an affinity… Read full post »
Invisible Man: Joe Frazier (1944-2011)
On Black Men And Street Harassment In The Pacific Northwest
The street outside the Tacoma Art Place is a pastiche of history on top of history. The remade apartment complex above the building sits diagonally across a set of dilapidated building more than 50 years old. Under those rooms, three trendy Pho restaurants nestle the pawn shop where addicts like my… Read full post »
Trampled Gardens: A Response To Jerry Ward
http://www.nathanielturner.com/defenseofrichardwrightandotherwriters.htm
Professor Ward.
First, A mea culpa. I should have emphasized how Wright evolved in the mid to late 50's, his emphatic dismissal of Hemingway's perversely macho portrait's of Spain, his empathy for the… Read full post »
Review F.A.M.E, Chris Brown
In F.A.M.E, his 4th studio album, Chris Brown desperately tries to put back up a curtain. Slipping into his familiar veneer of club tracks, Michael Jackson samples, and disneyfied bad boy platitudes; Brown begs his fans to love him as they did before. Over and over the themes repeat,with more than… Read full post »
On The Book Of Rhymes
The problems with Adam Bradley's Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop? Where do I start? That the only references to female MC's are 2 sentences about Lauryn Hill, and one reference to Mc Lyte, Roxanne Shante, Sha rock, and Jean Grae? That there ar/… Read full post »
Mixed Unlike Me: A Response To Social Psychology Quarterly .
http://www.newswise.com/articles/biracial-and-passing-as-black
This kind of dark, dense human symbology( in which social
scientists use the examples of a few to make broad, sweeping
statements on many) not only does absolutely nothing constructive
for race relations, it's spits in the face of people w… Read full post »
Let me begin this review of Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls with a personal statement: I have 15 people (relatives, close friends, writers) in my inner circle with strong thoughts about Tyler Perry. Six of them swear by him, nine of them hate his guts. Though I stand firmly in the lat/… Read full post »
Review: Slumberland, by Paul Beatty.
Although Slumberland, Paul Beatty’s third novel, is set in Berlin, it has none of the aesthetics one thinks of when they talk about African American Expatriate fiction. The Protagonist, Eugene Sowell (AKA DJ Darky) is a witty, sardonic cad who spins records around Berlin and has none of the pai… Read full post »
Writers Notebook: Sista Souljah.
Midnight, Sista Souljah’s new novel, embodies both the ugliness and narcotic like appeal of black nationalism. It’s hero, a 14year old killer/ex drug runner/gang lieutenant, functions mostly as a cipher for Souljah’s opinions on racism, islam, the role of women and “the jew&rd… Read full post »
A Polemic against Reparations( Response to Bakari Kitwana)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bakari-kitwana/id-john-hope-franklin-wan_b_183656.html
As a black man in America, I can tell you ugly stories of racism, but subtle and no so subtle. I can tell you stories that happened to me as recently as last week. I will not, however, sacrifice my perso… Read full post »
25 Years Later: Why Marvin Gaye Still Matters.
On Chris Brown, Black Macho, And The Endless Pyrrhic Victory
If you could find a primary reason for soul music’s appeal, it would be in how much it derives from history and myth. The contrasting, esoteric concepts surrounding the black church have created a million interpersonal storylines that read like newfound greek mythology; with dramatic the… Read full post »
To Those Who Don't Think Steroids In baseball Are Important.
Don't think of fair play in sports, because that idea is fatuous and romantic.
Dont even think of the art and beauty of a hitter like Henry Aaron, who weighed the size of a large soccer player ( 179 pounds) when he was hitting his home runs.
What I… Read full post »
On Juan Williams' Cheapshot Against Michelle Obama
With the production of his groundbreaking documentary on the civil rights movement, 1988's’s Eyes On The Prize, Juan Williams obtained a lot of capital as a writer and public intellectual. He quickly spent it by getting into several sexual harrassment lawsuits at the Washington post. Williams s… Read full post »
Villanelle: The Homeboy's Guide To Surviving A Drug Spot.
be smart, among the crystal corpse arrival
be tough among the fire and fires past.
expect no peace or mercy, just survival
keep swiveled head when all heads blow in vial
know, among the ruins, you come last
be smart among the crystal corpse arrival
give them nothing that you consider… Read full post »
Why Emily Dickinson Is Dope.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15393
It's an allusive minaret of a poem, with a deceptively simple surface language, written in a clear prose free from extravagant syllables. But beneath that lies a gorgeously vivid lyrical montage of the final, fleeting moments of life, writte…
Villanelle to a Brother Who Doesnt Deserve a Villanelle
Your son shermed to death in makeshift car
His loss was felt but yours was felt the more
Don’t be a dad tonight, go to the bar.
His momma cries and prays to morning star
Praying that he reach celestial shore
Your son, shermed to death in makeshift car
Forgive us… Read full post »
Song of a Tacoma Sewing Circle
brothers of the delta and still darkened corner
sisters of the dust and south Puget basin
come, receive this slender thread
mothers! Fathers!
healing, wounded daughters
sons to communities and sons to the abyss
join to receive this slender thread
come, my city, to weave
and love, and talk
and Create
in worl… Read full post »
On Jennifer Hudson.
As the 90’s culture wars have faded and hip hop has become even more white, male and republican, a new set of stars have come up from black radio. None of them have been bigger(or made a larger impact on popular culture) than Jennifer Hudson. An American Idol finalist, she out-sung,… Read full post »
Bill Maher
Danielle Patrick
Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Salon.com