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Clint Smith @ClintSmithIII
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
I have a new poem in Auburn Avenue about the precariousness of memory when we think about the people we love who have passed away.

theauburnavenue.com/this-year-was-…
I’ve been writing a lot about my grandparents lately. Been thinking about my grandmother who passed & how difficult it is to access many of those memories now.

I’m also trying to be more intentional about the conversations I have with my grandfather before his memory slips away.
I think for too long I took for granted the stories & the histories my grandparents carried with them. I would read about things in books that they had experienced first hand.

I’ve said this before, but we often forget the best primary sources are sitting here right next to us.
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I’m always struck by ppl who express admiration for those like Douglass & Tubman while labeling policies that attempt to build a more just & moral society “unrealistic.” Do these ppl think abolishing slavery was widespread & popular policy proposal in the 19th century? It wasn’t.
The US had quite literally never existed w/o the institution of slavery alongside it. The first enslaved Africans arrived in 1619 & the US became an independent nation in 1776.

Abolition required imagining a country that had never existed, a radical reconception of the republic.
So when I see ppl who express admiration for something like the abolition of slavery, but who turn around & say that something like The Green New Deal is unrealistic, it seems to demonstrate a lack of understanding of how meaningful social change has ever happened in the country.
Read 4 tweets
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as the year comes to a close something worth considering is that some of the "we've never been so divided" narrative exists bc many groups of historically marginalized ppl are voicing concerns they have long expressed, but it's only now that certain ppl are beginning to hear them
if your analysis of our country never included the voices of women, immigrants, black ppl, indigenous ppl, the lgbtq community, muslims, or any ppl living at the intersection of those identities, then maybe it comes as a surprise that a lot of ppl are, and have long been, fed up
if you close your eyes for long enough some people can convince themselves that oppression is no longer there, but closing your eyes doesn't make something disappear, it just means you were choosing not to see what was right in front of you
Read 3 tweets
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True story, the summer of 2008 a friend brought me to the Nuyorican for the Friday night poetry slam & it blew me away. I had never experienced literature the way I did that night. After we left I turned to my friend & said “That was unbelievable. I think I want to be a writer.”
At the Nuyorican Poets Cafe I watched black & brown artists redefine the boundaries of what I thought poetry could be.

It didn’t have to be like Keats or Frost (shout out to Frost though that’s my dude). It could be about your people, your language, your life, your neighborhood.
It’s so important to have spaces where young people can discover & create art on their own terms.
Read 3 tweets

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BREAKING: Former President George H.W. Bush has died at age 94.
Tune into @MSNBC for continuing coverage
The Bush family has announced that the 41st U.S. president, George H.W. Bush, has passed away.
msnbc.com/brian-williams…
Read 34 tweets
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I got a couple of DM's asking me about character development and writing. I have a little time this fine morning. I'll put together a small #writing thread.

So, character development. It's just my approach. YMMV, but here's my path...
Character isn't built in backstory or aesthetic details. Backstory is there to help the writer, but the character development comes form CHOICES and CONSEQUENCES. The more a character makes CHOICES, the more the audience/reader will learn about them.
We understand someone's nature by how the react to things. We assess them based on the choices they make, and those choices, ideally, shouldn't be easy.
Read 11 tweets
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Today is the Jayanti of Ahilyabai Holkar, rated as one of the greatest queens of history, on par with Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth I of England. One of the wisest rulers of India, and a remarkable woman of whom we can be justly proud of.
Ahilyabai Holkar belongs to a league of great Indian women in history, like Rani of Jhansi, the Gond queen Rani Durgavati who took on Akbar, Kittur Chenamma, Rudramadevi and many more who demonstrated true Nari Shakti.
Ahilyabai Holkar, the daughter in law of Malhar Rao Holkar, the founder of the Holkar kingdom. Widowed at a young age, took over as queen, she takes her place in history among other great queens.
Read 35 tweets
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(1) A Spotlight On Andrew Lack.
(2) His full name is Andrew R. Lack. He was born on May 16, 1947.

bloomberg.com/research/stock…
(3) His father was an air-conditioning manufacturer.

nydailynews.com/archives/news/…
Read 390 tweets
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It's time for me to talk about something that's been on my mind for a while now.
With the fallout of Justice League's release, I think it's time to talk about DCEU fandom, and how it developed alongside the unraveling of WB's ambition for DC films.
Full disclaimer upfront: I am NOT talking about people who enjoy DC films, fans of DC characters, or anything like that. I'm friends on here with many people who like these movies. I'm talking specifically about the toxic folks who have ruined the reputation of DC fans.
You know the ones. The ones who sent critics death threats after bad reviews came in, who have harassed others for not sharing their opinions, who have formed conspiracy theories about Disney paying critics, who claim that people who don't like BVS "don't understand it".
Read 91 tweets

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