Award-Winning Black-Owned Web Site Asks You to Be Part of a New Book

In 2007, I became a fan of the site http://www.todaysdrum.com/ which included daily articles about positive news in the African-American community. I was pleased to be featured in 2007 when I was casting for my play Shades of Black: a thought in progress which hit the stage in Baltimore, MD in 2008. I made http://www.todaysdrum.com/ my homepage, which kept me in the loop on news that often doesn't make the front page news on many mainstream publications.

Today's Drum has posted over 10,000 articles since its inception inMay 2006 and is linked to more than 400 web pages including AOL, and a few universities and high schools. Today's Drum won last year's BlackWebAwards for "Best News Site".

Today's Drum is publishing a book currently titled, President Obama, Just One Question.

Editors of the book are asking the public, "If you could ask President Obama one question, what would it be?"

Respondents are asked to leave their question in the comments section on http://www.todaysdrum.com/. It is also an awesome opportunity for you to leave your web site link on the site. At last check, over 100 individuals, from ages 8 to 70 years-old have already taken advantage of this opportunity. Selected responses will be published in the book.

Today's Drum Editor Keith Foxx calls this a wonderful opportunity to network. "The future is all about creative and strategic partnerships," he said.

You can go directly to the link by clicking HERE.

Dear John...

"$50 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts - all of us are for the arts," McCain said. "Tell me how that creates any significant number of jobs? After-school snack program is probably a good idea. Do we really want to spend $726 million on it?"

These were McCain's words in response to Obama's new stimulus plan that he talked about last night during a press conference. If you are reading this blog, you are either involved in the arts in some way or an adoring fan. So, McCain's words aren't probably the kind of thing you would like to hear.

It's this great Facebook group called Dear John... where members write letters to former presidential nominee John McCain to let him know that the arts is not only a significant part of the world, of life, of the universe, etc. etc...but the arts provides a significant amount of work to those who are artistically inclined...

You can join the group on Facebook by clicking here.

It's important that those of us who are working artists continue to proclaim very loudly that the arts is a very viable way to live. You CAN make a difference and a living as an artist. Like everything, it is all relative. With the organic nature of creating art (whether a song, a portrait, a piece of jewlery, etc.), being an artist relies on the initiative and drive of the person. There is probably no other occupation that delivers more blood, sweat and tears when it comes to seeking recognition or income, but, it is a lifestyle that is viable and should be respected.

If you missed his press conference, peep what you missed.

Dear History...

Saul Williams, the poetic tour-de-force we all know and love sent his email list his own thoughts on this historic day..read Tardust Liberated:

"We have overcome.

Except those of us now in Gaza. Except those of us whom police kill. Except those of us who are suspects. Except those of us whom the church hate. Except those of us damned to taste good. Except those of us held by fate. We are meeting in the capitol. Word is, freedom will not wait.
All that once was never shall be. All they could do won’t be done. All we sang of is now happening.

[note to self:]Must writenew songs to become…

...And so it was. Through the collective imagination of the people, the force of will and human potential, and an unflinching ability to hold himself to task, Niggy Tardust was liberated. His ability to see beyond the boundaries and obstacles of 'genre', 'race', and suppression, allowed him to encompass a grace and sound that embodied the all. All that had stood against him, now stood with him. All that had claimed a lesser harmony, now craved voice and resonance. He stood with poets, painters, dancers, students, children of the night who had transformed themselves into a million bright ambassadors of morning, and proclaimed,

“We declare declaratives and deny the official. Based in the landmark of the G-spot, we have overtaken ourselves and overthrown our forefathers. Let there be light within the light and let it answer to the name of Darkness. We are forever risen from the deadly: the anti-virus and the All Stars. Granted power by forces unbeknownst to us. Made in the likeness of kindness. We offer anger to the angry and fear to the fearful. We dance at our own funerals to forsake the mourners…

…This is no time to cry! This is no time at all! Here is the moment of the overlooked and the unforeseeable. We are the elected officials of the people: poets and artists. We are the declarative statement of the inarticulate, the irreparably damaged goods of the bad meaning good. We are the government! We are the government! We are the government!”

Visit his site here to share your thoughts