Since the death of Spelman Sister, Jasmine Lynn c/o 2012, two weeks ago only blocks from Spelman’s gates I have been unable to shake thoughts of my alma mater and the senselessness of the crime. As today is a 13th day of the month (my favorite day to look within to make sure I’m still on the right track) I’ve thought a lot about my years at 350 Spelman Lane and its impact on my life.

Last month I was given the honor of presenting my newest Spelman sister before the community as we celebrated our local students leaving for college. For the occasion I was asked to speak on Spelman’s history and its meaning. What follows is the text of the speech. My heart remains “supreme and true”.

Good Afternoon,

I am here today to honor one of ours as she takes the next step on her life’s path toward all her goals and dreams. That next step begins at my alma mater, Spelman College. I’ve been asked to share a little of Spelman’s history and try to give some context to what lies ahead for my newest Spelman sister.

With only $100 and an invitation to use the basement of Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, missionary teachers from Massachusetts, opened the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary on April 11, 1881.

They had eleven students, all black—ten women and a girl eager to learn to read and write.

In 1882 while on a fundraising trip to New England, Miss Packard and Miss Giles were introduced to John D. Rockefeller. The next year Mr. Rockefeller financed the purchase of nine acres of land west of downtown Atlanta and five buildings. Prompting Miss Packard to change the school’s name to Spelman Seminary in honor of Mr Rockefeller’s wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller in 1884.

Later that decade the Seminary was granted a Georgia state charter. And by 1910 enrollment had grown from those first eleven students to 800 high school and college students and the curriculum included basic high school and college programs with specializations in teacher, missionary and nurses’ training.

In 1924 Spelman Seminary became a liberal arts college for Negro women.

Since 1987 it has been headed by three distinct African-American women. Two of which are Floridians. Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole served as President from 1987 to 1997 and hails from Jacksonville. Appointed in 2002, the current Sister President, Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum was born in Tallahassee. Thus, Floridians continue to play a pivotal role in the legacy of Georgia’s most distinguished institution.

Miss Bri Taylor: You are about to embark on a journey that is both a point of public pride for your family and community and a personal endeavor for yourself, both honored and historic. You will encounter young women very different from yourself while at the same time in surprising ways they will be the same. You will create lifelong memories and make life-sustaining friendships. You will face new ideas, new obstacles and challenges to who you are and what you believe about yourself and the world around you and it will not always be easy.

You will be introduced to an entirely new vocabulary. One that distinguishes between colors like Columbia, Carolina and Spelman blue. You will become all too familiar with the Spelman white dress, brown hosiery and black shoes; and you will learn what Spelman white is not: it is not eggshell, mother-of-pearl or ecru, but white—Spelman white. You will embrace green as the color of 2013 and the emblem of the Lamp, for light and guidance, challenging you and your classmates to strive to send forth your light into the world. You will learn more than anyone cares to know about the natural habits and environs of big cats—including the Clark-Atlanta Panther, the Morris Brown Wildcat, the Morehouse Tiger and the most regal of the species, the Spelman Jaguar.

Your speech with be littered with ramblings about convocations, Spelmanites, Spel-House, Club Woody, Abbey Hall, the LLCs. You will chat for hours about Fridays at Manley, your adopted Morehouse Brother and tons of Big Sisters that your parents may never meet. And most importantly, you will live the words “supreme and true”—a phrase that will take on new meaning and set the standard for the rest of your life.
Again, let me stress that it will not be easy. Yet, you will persevere because you have been chosen for your strength and intelligence and your promising potential to serve and to lead.

Sitting on 39 acres of prime Atlanta real estate and an endowment of more than $340 million, Spelman College (The crème de la crème of the “Black Ivy League”) continues to hold its own as one of America’s elite institutions. With students from 42 states and 25 countries and nearing 14,000 alumnae worldwide, wherever your life or travels take you, you are likely to encounter Spelman women by word and/or deed.

Throughout its 128 year history, Spelman College has remained steadfast in its mission of educating African American women for leadership and service. Forever “supreme and true.”

Miss Bri Taylor, welcome to the Sisterhood.

When I set up this blog a few years ago, I intended to use it to document my journey through the process of creating a “writing life”. What that meant at the time, I don’t think I knew. But in the process of hiring a writing coach I have thought more about what a “writing life” is to me.

I’m sure my “dream” writing life resembles that of many others: a successful writing career being one where you write daily and get paid handsomely to do it. It’s a simple idea . . . get up every morning, make it to the desk in pjs and armed with cup of your favorite warm beverage, turn on the computer and words begin to flow from your fingers to keys and appear the LCD screen in glorious resolution for hours (at least four if your aim is to be a disciplined, serious writer) or until your bladder or your empty stomach forces you out of the chair. Whether you allow yourself mid-morning, lunch or mid-afternoon breaks is up to you. But each and every day centers around “the writing” because that is what makes it a “writing life”.

While I know this description is accurate for many writers today, it is so far from what my daily routine was when I began this blog that the thought of a writing life seemed both impossible and hell of indulgent. After all, in today’s economy, you’ve got to write a few books before you get paid and even then the payday is not likely to support a writing schedule like the one outlined above (or at least in the way this novelist would like it to).

So what’s a girl to do? Understanding that a “writing life” is different things to different people, I spent this summer examining what it means to me and how it fits into my life as a full-time teacher/counselor/adviser, favorite daughter, favorite auntie, best friend, avid reader, life-long learner, genealogist/family historian, amateur photographer, master procrastinator.

The first thing I realized is that lots of things have to give. The first sacrifice . . . photography. I cannot maintain a photoblog and create the writing life I desire. Life-long learner . . . nice, but no more grad school ideas, visions of returning to law school, French classes, until after two novels are sold (how’s that for boundaries, goals, focus?) While television isn’t the distraction for me that it is for most (I almost never watch) I can get caught up in the news of the day, politics and sports info. Saying no to MSNBC, CNN, ESPN(s), C-SPAN(s), except in small doses. Next, family history. I cannot lose days, weeks, months at a time researching four family lines if I want to finish this novel in the next decade (maybe Book 3 will utilize that some of that research). The last and probably the biggest challenge to my writing life? Procrastination. I procrastinate because there are so many options cluttering my life (only a few of which are mentioned in this post). My answer (an obvious one) is to de-clutter. So, I did. I cleaned up and threw out all that wasn’t absolutely necessary to my life in the next 12 months. It’s a very freeing experience and I recommended it enthusiastically.

With everything organized I pulled up the novel on the laptop and began the revision. It’s been three months and although I haven’t written every day, I’ve thought about what I am writing and done other work to make the writing easier every day. Will this work? Is this a “writing life”? I don’t know. Check back in six months. If I’ve finished the revision, then perhaps it is working. Check back in a year. If I’m finished with Book 1 and lost in Book 2, them maybe I have created a writing life. Who knows. I was reminded a few weeks ago that “Writers write.” My guess is that writing is what makes a writing life.

Q

The latest on the Final Burn (what I’ve decided to call this revision of the novel since I no longer have a working title–that’s another blog post entirely).

This past week I worked on Part II–Miss Tia’s section. It’s 80 pages long and I’ve made my way through about 35. I’ve actually read all 80 pages of the section, but revised a little over 30. It’s tough because originally this was Tia and Turo’s story and all of the action went through them. Now it’s not. The story no longer starts with the two of them coming together which means I’ve got to get clear of the angle of her perspective and what is important to her part of the story. Yes, I’m stressing a little over her. Since the beginning Tia has been the most difficult for me to write. But today I went back to the Paris draft and began just reading it to see how her character developed. I hope to outline it tomorrow in hopes that it will give me the big picture and her singular perspective-both the forest and the trees, perhaps.

I’m also working with a writing coach as of last Friday. That should be fun. It promises to be work on a schedule. Our first critique/feedback/coaching session is September 9th. I’m working hard to be prepared.

I also handed over the newly revised Part I to three trusted first readers last week. I can’t wait to get that feedback. All I ask for is honesty. I need to know what the reader sees, thinks and feels about it from page 1. I’m sure they will give it to me straight.

That’s all for now.

Q

of this new commitment to writing every morning before work. The task is very simple this week: read the pieces of Part I and make a plan for the final burn. It sounds simple but at 5:30, I hit snooze. I could take snooze off that alarm setting, but I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll be more likely to just turn it off and go back to sleep. We’ll see. I did finally make it out of bed at 6:00 and that’s better than nothing. I read a re-tweet yesterday that said it best: “Writers write. Get back to work!” Amen. Now let’s see what I can do . . .

It seems like just yesterday I was trying to make time for back to back to back commencements. I was planning for a slow three months of summer with minimal commitment to not much more than a few strolls to take a picture or two. The months of May and June went well or at least the picture taking did. We took a few trips to Georgia for family get togethers and it was easy to find new and interesting scenes to snap.

Then came July . . . the good thing: I was back at it. Pushing through the end of the novel to see if I could make enough sense of the structure I imagined to pull it together. I wrote/re-wrote 30k in 30 days following the advice of Jacqui Lofthouse and began to see light at the end of this tunnel.

But then July wound down and so did my energy. I mapped out a plan for what I believe will be the final rewrite, but that’s about as far as I got. I’ve spent the last few weeks de-cluttering my spaces so that I’m ready for the first days of school (next week).

Yes, the summer is all but over. I’m not complaining because I have been productive. It’s just always sad to say goodbye to warm, sunny yesterdays.

Q

August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

REST in peace.

It’s been a very difficult day. Saying goodbye to a legend is always hard. With all the conversations focused on the best entertainer of all time, I decided to reflect on my favorite MJJ songs (today, tomorrow’s list might be different).

1. Rock With You
2. Man In The Mirror
3. Enjoy Yourself
4. Heartbreak Hotel (This Place Hotel)
5. I Can’t Help It
6. Butterflies
7. Where You Are
8. I Want You Back
9. Billie Jean
10. Got To Be There
11. Lovely One
12. Show You The Way To Go
13. Lady In My Life
14. Farewell My Summer Love
15. Break of Dawn
16. Never Can Say Goodbye
17. Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough
18. I’ll Be There
19. Liberian Girl
20. Who’s Loving You

A little over a year ago as I closed in on the completion of the second full draft of my novel, The Skinny, I stumbled upon a website of a writing coach name Jacqui Lofthouse. Her blog was interesting and her ideas about writing seemed to take writing serious, but also light enough that I didn’t feel like a total slouch for taking four years to get this novel done.

I read some of her advice and downloaded a free copy of the first five days of her eBook on writing. At the time, I was writing pretty hot and nearing the end of a long rewrite and looking forward to workshopping the novel, not writing. I finished the revision, entered it in the Emory Goes Novel contest and was named a finalist. I then workshopped the novel on the Cape and got tons of feedback.

Then August came and I planned to begin draft #3 but didn’t write anything. There are lots of reasons why: I wasn’t feeling well; I was confused about where to begin; it had been a long summer; the fall was busy; my day job was hectic; my house was loud; I was lazy–all excuses, all true. The fact remains that I didn’t write. In January I made New Year’s Resolutions. Number 1: Finish the novel. Nothing happened. I just didn’t write.

Honestly, the whole idea I beginning yet another rewrite was just too overwhelming. It was so much easier to do nothing, and so I did nothing. Then in April I started a photoblog to get my creativity flowing and of course, as always, that got me wanting to write. School ended last week and now All I have is downtime and while planning my summer I was flipping through an old notebook and I found the copy of Jacqui Lofthouse’s first five days. At that point I had nothing to lose. I wasn’t writing anything.

At least with her program I’d get 1000 words on the page. Yes, it might be bad. I was almost sure it would be very bad considering that I hadn’t written a word connected to the novel in a year, but last Thursday I started the quest to write 30,000 words in 30 days. I decided that if I put down 30,000 words on draft #3, in a months’ time I would be 30,000 words closer to finally finishing this novel.

I just finished Day 6 and I have more than 9000 words written. I’m simply free-writing and so I can’t guarantee that it’s any good, but it’s 9k more words than I had written last week this time and right now that better than any other attempts I’ve made in over a year.

I posted a word meter to show my progress and I’ll try to post frequent updates.

Q

Okay, I admit it. My blogging has been erratic, at best. I have lots of ideas but they never make it to the blog. But summer is almost here and I’ve been planning for the long days. I hope to take a writing class on structuring the novel–something I am still struggling with, and I’ve also dedicated the summer to taking better photographs. I have a 35mm film camera that’s been collecting dust and a digital that I just do know how to turn on. So, this is the summer to learn everything there is to know about pictures. And for the second time on a blog I am challenging myself to take pictures every day and post one for the world to see. I’ve even set up a photoblog at aminus3. Click here to take a look.

Q

Ray-Ray. No matter what the standings are, no matter what kind of streak the Cavs or the Lakers put together, the Celtics are still the team to beat. Everyone who knows me knows I love basketball and there’s no greater basketball player than the original number 23, the always amazing MJ, the always imitated, never quite duplicated Air Jordan. But, the star of Jordan’s latest Jumpman commercial–Become Legendary–the one and only, Ray-Ray added to his legend last night.

Jordan’s Bobcats were in the Garden and you never sleep on a team led by Jordan and Larry Brown and for at least three of the four quarters in regulation the Cats had the Celts by the clover and luck had left the building. But as the time ran down in the fourth, who found a way to put the ball in the basket? Ray-Ray. And then with time running down in the first overtime who nailed the trey? Ray-Ray. And even after a sorry looking air ball that didn’t even come close to anything but air and had me wondering what could have happened to make Walter Ray put up such a shot, who came through with a spot-up three from the corner with only 2.1 left on the clock in overtime no. 2? His name is Ray-Ray, Ray-Ray. (Ya’ll know I love that song . . .).

Hey, but it’s not just me. Paul Pierce knows it too.

“His confidence is through the roof regardless if he’s missed two, three, or four hundred shots in a row, he always feels like the next one is going to go in,” Pierce said. “I’ll proclaim Ray the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA that I’ve ever seen.”

His name is Ray-Ray, Ray-Ray . . .