I have become increasingly concerned about you guys getting the necessary information to apply for grants so that you might apply.  Should you at least try out for the various grants/fellowships/publishing competitions out there, you at least give yourself the opportunity to increase your creative writing resume as well as give your self the opportunity to make your writing a lucrative entity.  Please apply and let me know if you get anything!

Creative Writing Grants for Women

1. Poets & Writers Magazine lists state and national prizes of $1,000 or more (or $500 writing grants with no application fee). Grants are available to writers of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Creative writing fellowships are available from the National Endowment for the Arts and are available only to published creative writers. A Room of Her Own foundation awards $50,000 to successful female candidates with creative vision. Mira’s List is also an excellent resource for women writers; this blog lists creative writing grants such as the Howard Foundations grants in poetry and creative writing; this grant awards $25,000 to individuals with at least one book in print. Poetry Magazine lists cash prizes that are available to poets who have been published in their journal (www.poetrymagazine.org). Wow! “Women on Writing” has a list of available grants for women writers, including mystery writers.
2. “News Wise” provides a comprehensive list of grants, prizes, fellowships and scholarships available to journalists covering a wide variety of beats. The Society of Professional Journalists awards $300,000 annually to individuals and organizations in the news profession. The Pulitzer Center offers travel grants to journalists reporting on crisis situations (pulitzercenter.org). John S. Knight Fellowships allow journalists to study at Stanford for a year. The Hearst Foundation awards cash prizes yearly in the form of contests for journalists, photojournalists, and broadcast journalists (www.hearstfdn.org). The American Journalist Review has a list of awards, grants, fellowships and scholarships. Search the database at the International Women’s Media Foundation for an up-to-date list of grants available to female journalists.
3. The Fund for Women Artists provides a list of grants for female screenwriters. They include grants for documentary filmmakers, TV writers, feature film screenwriters and more. “Women in Film & Video” holds annual screenwriting contests for women.
4. The Fund for Women Artists maintains a list of available grants and prize money to women working in theater. NYCPlaywrights.com also has a list of upcoming awards and contests for playwrights. Visit Playwriting Opportunities.com and search available grants by deadline dates. AmericanMusicals.com has a list of grants available to musical writers. The League of Professional Theatre Women gives five annual awards to women in theater.
5. Colleges and universities, literary journals, newspapers, magazines, TV stations and institutes offer information on local writing grants for women.

Journalism Grants for Women

Screenwriting Grants for Women

Playwriting Grants for Women

Other Places to Look for Writing Grants for Women

Individual Artist Grants

Organization: BC Arts Council
Program: Project Assistance for Visual Artists

Program description:
Assistance is available to professional visual artists for specific creative projects. One juried competition is held annually.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be professional visual artists with a minimum of five years experience, have had a minimum of two professionally curated exhibitions, have been residents of British Columbia for a minimum of 12 months prior to making application and must be Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents and not be full-time students. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.bcartscouncil.ca/programs/

Program description:
This program is intended to assist independent filmmakers, video artists, and new media artists with production of specific innovative, experimental and non-industrial works.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents and have lived in British Columbia for a minimum of 12 months prior to making an application, have final editorial authority over the proposed work, completed basic training as film, video or new media artists and may not be full-time students. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.bcartscouncil.ca/programs/

Program description:
This program is intended to assist professional writers with the writing of specific creative projects. Eligible genres include drama, fiction, juvenile, non-fiction and poetry.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents that have lived in British Columbia for a minimum of 12 months prior to making an application and have completed all basic training and be professional creative writers with a minimum of five years experience, and may not be full-time students. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.bcartscouncil.ca/programs/

Program description:
This program offers emerging, mid-career and established professional Canadian musicians in non-classical and classical music of all world cultures an opportunity to pursue their individual artistic development. Professional musicians include instrumentalists, singers, composers, arrangers, performers, singers/songwriters, choir conductors, orchestra and ensemble conductors, and opera stage directors.

Program eligibility:
The Grants to Professional Musicians program is made up of the following distinct types of grants: Classical Music Grants, which cover subsistence, project and transportation costs related to a program of work lasting from a few weeks to one year; Non-Classical Music Grants, which cover subsistence, project and transportation costs related to a program of work lasting from a few weeks to one year; Travel Grants to Professional Musicians, which give an individual musician an opportunity to travel on occasions important to his or her career. Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Permanent residents must provide evidence of their legal status. Applicants must have completed their basic training and/or be recognized as professional artists. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/music/

Program description:
These grants support independent professional Canadian critics and curators in their research, creative production and professional development activities in theory, criticism, analysis and curating in contemporary visual art (including fine craft and photography) and media arts.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They must have: completed their basic training (or the equivalent); produced an independent body of work; received the recognition of their peers through a history of public presentation of their work in a professional context; maintained an independent professional practice for at least three years. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/

Program description:
Project Grants provide support for research, professional development, production, networking and career development activities for professional artists and curators (for research only) making a contribution to contemporary fine craft. The project must be significant and advance the long-term artistic and/or career development of the applicant at a key moment in their career. There are three types of project grants, as follows: Research/Professional, Development, Production, and Career Development. Applicants may apply to only ONE of the above project grant types per deadline.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Artists must have completed their basic training in a fine craft medium (university or college graduation or the equivalent in specialized training, such as two or three years of self-directed study or apprenticeships). Artists must have completed an independent body of work and received the recognition of their peers through public presentation of their work, such as in exhibitions in art museums, public art galleries, artist-run centres and juried art fairs. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/

Program description:
Long-Term Grants provide support over a two-year period to established professional fine craft artists or curators (for research only) who have made a significant contribution to contemporary fine craft. The period of activity covered by the grant must have a series of opportunities in the fields of research, production, career and networking development. The program of work must be designed to advance the long-term artistic and career development of the artist at a key moment in their career. It must include at least two of the following activities: Research/Professional, Development, Production of a New Body of Work, Production towards a Confirmed Public Presentation, and Career Development.

Program eligibility:
To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You must meet Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who: has completed his or her basic training (university or college graduation or the equivalent in specialized training, such as two or three years of self-directed study or apprenticeships), is recognized as such by his or her peers, and is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if financially feasible.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/

Program description:
The Grants to Film and Video Artists program assists Canadian artists working with film and video as means of artistic expression. This program offers Research/Creation Grants, Production Grants and Scriptwriting Grants.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They need not be living in Canada when they apply. Individuals or groups of up to three artists working collaboratively on a project or a program of work may apply. Established, mid-career and emerging artists are eligible for Research/Creation Grants and Production Grants. Established artists, mid-career artists and scriptwriters are eligible for Scriptwriting Grants. For Production Grants, only directors may apply. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/mediaarts/

Program description:
This program provides support and assistance to Canadian dance professionals (individuals) to pursue projects involving professional development, research/creation and apprenticeship/mentorship.

Program eligibility:
Individual professionals can identify themselves as being in one of the following categories: emerging; mid-career; established; Aboriginal at all of the above levels. Professionals working in all world cultures and in a wide range of dance genres are eligible to apply for support. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/dance/

Program description:
Creative Writing Grants provide support to authors working on new projects in the fields of novel, short story, poetry, children’s literature, graphic novel and literary non-fiction.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They must be recognized professional writers who have had: at least one literary book published by a professional publishing house; or for fiction, a minimum of four texts of creative literary writing (e.g. short stories, excerpts from a novel) published on two separate occasions in literary magazines, recognized periodicals (including general interest magazines), or anthologies published by professional publishing houses; or for poetry, a minimum of 10 published poems is required; or for literary non-fiction, a minimum of 40 pages (10,000 words) of literary articles published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies published by professional publishing houses.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/writing/

Program description:
These grants support projects by practitioners, critics and curators of architecture, for the public presentation and promotion of contemporary Canadian architecture. The grants help practitioners to commission texts, photographs, films, models and other forms of documentation of their built projects. The grants also support critics and curators in research, writing, and other aspects of editorial/curatorial work leading to the production of articles, books, exhibitions and events on contemporary Canadian architecture.

Program eligibility:
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They must have completed their basic training and have a minimum of three years of professional practice. Their work must have been recognized by their peers: works built by practising architects must have been the subject of at least one article, publication or exhibition; critics must have at least three publications to their credit; and curators must have produced at least three exhibitions or publications. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/

Program description:
These grants assist Canadian artists working with new media or audio technologies as means of artistic expression. Grants cover artist’s subsistence costs as well as the direct costs of research, creative development and production of artworks created with new media or audio technologies.

Program eligibility:
Established, mid-career and emerging artists are eligible. Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They need not be living in Canada when they apply. Individuals or groups of up to three artists working collaboratively may apply. Further eligibility requirements may apply.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/mediaarts/

Program description:
Project Grants provide support for research/creation, professional development, production, networking and career development activities for professional artists making an important contribution to contemporary visual arts. The project must be significant and advance the long-term artistic and/or career development of the applicant at a key moment of their career. There are three types of project grants, as follows: Research/Creation, Production, and Career Development. Applicants may apply to only ONE of the three project grant types per deadline.

Program eligibility:
To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You must also meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who: has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions), is recognized as such by his or her peers, and is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if financially feasible.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/

Program description:
Long-Term Grants provide support over a two-year period to professional artists who have made a significant contribution to contemporary visual arts. The period of activity covered by the grant must have a series of opportunities in the fields of research/creation, production, career and networking development. The program of work must be designed to advance the long-term artistic and career development of the artist at a key moment in their career. It must include at least two of the following activities: Research/Creation, Production of a new body of work, Production towards a confirmed public presentation of your work, and Career development. Approximately 15 Long-Term Grants per year will be awarded.

Program eligibility:
To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You must meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who: has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions), is recognized as such by his or her peers, and is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if financially feasible.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/ 

Program description:
The outstanding literary talent which exists in many parts of the Commonwealth is making a significant contribution to contemporary writing in English. To encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin, the Commonwealth Foundation established the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1987.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/

Program description:
The Commonwealth Short Story Competition exists to increase understanding between and appreciation of different Commonwealth cultures, to showcase the rich diversity of the Commonwealth and to support rising literary talents.

Program eligibility:
Entries are open to anyone who is a citizen of a Commonwealth country, whether an amateur or professional writer. There is no restriction on theme, but the stories must be new, original, and of no longer than six hundred words (around four and a half minutes when read aloud).

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/

Program description:
The Commonwealth Photographic Awards is an annual competition open to amateur and professional photographers from around the Commonwealth.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/

Program description:
Every two years, under the Foundation-funded Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residencies, up to ten artists and craftspeople between the ages of 20 and 35 are selected from around 300 applicants to receive an award for travel and study in another Commonwealth country.

More information:
Further information on programs and eligibility available at: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/

19 Grants for Writers and Other Creative Types

Many organizations offer grants for writers to help them to complete their projects and education. What follows is a list of some of the available grants for writers and some details about each.  Please keep in mind, these grants are unsearchable. I found this information via research conducted online and at the library. Unlike our series on the various markets, I didn’t make any calls to verify any of these grants. However, as you can see, they’re all current.

1. The Haven Foundation - Stephen King’s foundation provides assistance to writers and artists who, through tragic events and no fault of their own, are unable to work. Awards up to $25,000.
2. Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting - Set up by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists this fellowship awards to authors who have previously earned less than $5000 writing for film or television.
3. Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation- Awards $1,000 grants to gay and lesbian playwrights and screenwriters.
4. Authors League Fund – Provides loans or assistance to writers who are in financial distress due to emergency situations.
5. Artist Trust - Their Grants for Arts pr gram awards up to $1500 to help fun artist generated projects.
6. Brown University – Awards a $45,000 fellowship to an established international writer or poet who is being creatively stifled in his/her homeland.
7. John Jones Literary Society – Awards $10,000 to help fund an unpublished writer who has a work in progress.
8. Kentucky Arts Council – Awards $7500 to three Kentucky poets or writers annually.
9. Library of Virginia Literary Awards – Awards three prizes of $3500 each to Virginia writers and poets who were published the year before.
10. Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers – Offers $35,000 to first time authors who are deemed to have achieved an outstanding literary effort and “suggests great promise.”
11. National Endowment of the Arts – Offers a variety of grants to writers.
12. Academy of American Poets – Awards and fellowships ranging from $1,000 to $100,000
13. The Furthermore Program – Grant to help fund non-fiction book projects  range from $5,000 to $15,000.
14. Demand Studios – Offers one $1,000 grant each month to help fund writing projects within their community of writers.
15. Pen American Center Writers Emergency Fund - Offers funding up to $2,000 for writers in need.
16. Voelker Foundation - Fly Fishing Fiction Award – $2500 for one outstanding fishing writer each year.
17. AAAS Science Journalism Awards – Pays $3,000 to outstanding science writers.
18. Arts Writers Grants Program - Awards $5,000 to $50,000 for a variety of writing.
19. Witter Byner Foundation for Poetry – Awards poets $1000 to $3000.

More resources:

• You also might be interested in this post at About Freelance Writing where Anne Wayman linked to blogs that make it their mission to report awards, grants and fellowships for writers.
• C. Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers is the best online resource for learning about grants, fellowships and other awards for writers.
• Poets and Writers’ database is an amazing resource for anyone seeking funds.
• Michigan State University has something for everyone on this list of prizes, grants and fellowships.

I’ve also been exploring some writing markets this week. Check out:

• 75 “Write for Us” Pages
• 40 Freelance Markets Paying $100 or More
• 40 More Freelance Writing Markets Paying $100 or More
• 16 Greeting Card Markets
• 21 Poetry Markets

I just LOVE Hue-Man Bookstore. I love what it represents for me as a daughter of Harlem and an author. The warmness and welcoming spirit that envelopes you is not like anything I have every experienced; the feeling is one of inclusion, intellect…family.

“The Little Book Store that Does” has hosted many a celebrity book signing, and last evening they hosted Mrs. NeNe Leakes, of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” fame.

NeNe was a delight to watch as she answered questions and discussed various topics that took place on and off the show. She definitely makes you feel easy with her “around the way girl” conversation. She didn’t engage in the kind of conversation that would suggest her to be a chicken-head or ghetto, but in the sort that makes you think of your “street smart” sister or best friend who utilized her life experience to move her into a lifelong dream deserving of the spotlight.

My desire to be in this industry has allowed my path to cross with plenty a celebrity, and much to the chagrin of this little brown girl, I have had plenty an image shattered by what they were REALLY like. Fortunately, the same can be said for NeNe.

To be frank, I don’t think that NeNe gets a fair break because of how she is portrayed on the show. Being outspoken, of course there would be tons of footage displaying her in a negative light. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is she is the girlfriend you hang with after work, the sister who congregates with you in your mother’s house while you’re getting your hair done and eating chicken wings and French fries from the Chinese restaurant. She is the aunt that makes it out of dire situations, despite the circumstances she was born into.

In the back of the book store where readings/signings are held, NeNe sat at the authors table and tore down the invisible wall that exists between most authors and their readers. She spoke of the difficulties surrounding her fame and the reality of the infringement that fame takes on your life. Harlem loved her, and she appeared to love Harlem as both faithfully trudged out in the misty/rainy weather to meet.

I ran in close to 7, having gotten off work at 6pm and traveling in from down town Brooklyn. I knew since last week NeNe was coming and I was going to go home and go to sleep, but the closer the 3 train got to 116th Street, the more anxious I got to attend. I ran through the door, threw down my excess bags and grabbed my camera (I didn’t even get time to take those damned OVER POWERING lashes off, but I didn’t want to miss it). I grabbed a cab and caught NeNe mid-sentence answering a question posed by Harlem Radio. I raised my hands a couple of times and finally got to tell her (author to author) what an inspiration she is. The “no-nonsense, I do it my way” she has that inspires women like me every day.

“You’re a writer?” she asked.

To which I responded yes. She wanted to know if I had a ghost writer and when I told her that I wrote it myself, she curiously inquired about the cost of self-publishing and the subject matter.

Then she applauded me. Right there in the middle of HER signing, she congratulated me on having the courage to write and put out my book. She asked if I was interested in major publishing and I answered that I was but I wasn’t going to wait until someone made the discovery that I am actually talented. I told her it was the NeNe’s Leakes of the world (having their say), the Mo’Nique’s of the world (putting the joke elsewhere but on themselves), the Gabourey Sidibe’s of the world (showing the talent is not limited to a size two), the Velvet D’Amour’s of the world (who walked the Jean Paul Gautier fashion show in a size 28 – proving that beauty comes in all sizes), that women like me can pass the stars and grasp the moon.

Would you know in the middle of HER signing she told me she’d do everything she could to get my book out there? I walked out of Hue-Man feeling like most of us should, accomplished, heard…appreciated. More than any of those things, I know that granted the chance given by the Universe, I walked out with a new sister, new cousin, new confidant, but most importantly…a new friend.

If you haven’t already, check out her new book “Never make the Same Mistake Twice: Lessons on Love & Life Learned the Hard Way” by NeNe Leakes with Denene Millner.
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Make-Same-Mistake-Twice/dp/1439167303

I was only 8 years old when my grandmother would take me down to that wonderland on Horatio Street.  Not a toy store that one would expect an 8 year-old to be enamored by, but to the apartment of the screenwriter, Horton Foote.  We’d take that bus all the way down the long New York Avenue of which I could not remember by name.  I only knew when we’d turn the corner and the street sign would declare that we’d reached the block where writing royalty resided. 

My grandmother was a modest yet regal woman who had acquired the job as the cleaning lady for the NY apartment for the Footes’ when they were visiting from Texas.  This weekly ritual was one that my grandmother and I shared; the soul talk that existed between she and I; she’d bore witness to the affinity I’d developed for those marble note books and the way I’d stay within the lines, playing scrabble with my lexicon and being so hungry for words.  Mr. Foote’s place was always alive with words.  They floated off the air, bounced off the walls; they strengthened the floor boards. 

My favorite room, the one I’d beg to dust was the study.  There in the window were three Oscars, shimmering in the sun.  I’d spend hours in the room dusting them; too excited to eat the motzah ball soup grandma had made, too afraid to use the bathroom because at 8, this was surreal for me and I didn’t want the Oscars to disappear.  It was on my 16th visit that Mr. Foote walked through the door and observed this 8 year old moving this dust cloth across the golden plaque that read: BEST SCREENPLAY, HORTON FOOTE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

“You like that?” he asked scaring me so bad I nearly jumped out of my skin.  I nodded my head slowly, afraid that he’d be angry that I was handling what my young mind deemed to be his prized possession.

“It’s okay.” he said.  Then he smiled at me.  I immediately felt easy.

“You got these for writing?” I asked, excited that words could actually make money.  “Yes,” he answered.  “I’ve been writing for a long time.”  We sat on opposite chairs in the room and I told him I liked writing too.

“Do you, now?” he asked.  I shook my head quickly for the affirmative.  I looked quickly back at the triplets all named Oscar with a certain longing in my belly.

“I want to win one of those.” I said looking longly back at the golden men with their erect posture.  I turned back to see his encouraging smile.

“You can do it.  Just keep writing.”  He spent the next hour in that room telling me how he’d fell in love with writing and it had taken him to Hollywood and back. 

I had was blown away by him; by his adventures in writing.  I had begun leaving little poems and pieces around his apartment.  On days when grandma would have to go, I’d awake before her and be ready for the bus ride, just for the opportunity to leave another poem or letter. 

It was 9 years later when my grandmother had taken ill and unable to take the bus ride anymore.  I had gotten use to my connection with Mr. Foote.  He’d retired to Texas for the most part, his visits to New York had begun to trickle.  Going through my grandmother’s phone book, I found the number and address to my mentor.  I wrote him a letter telling him that I’d be honored to take over for my grandmother, to clean his apartment.  I scribed my contact information and my name and waited for what I was sure would be an enrichening experience.

Two weeks later, I received a phone call from Horton Foote himself.  The kind voice from my childhood floated through the telephone lines. 

“Hello, Renee,” he said kindly. 

“Mr. Foote?” I asked knowing what I was already sure of.

“Yes.” he said “I received your letter.”  

“Good.” I said “I just wanted offer my services to you since grandma is unable-“

“Renee, I think I am going to have to decline.” he said matter-of-factly. “You were never meant to be someone’s domestic.  You’re a writer, remember?”  I got really quiet and reflective on the little girl enraptured by those Oscars that gleamed in the window.  “Keep writing Renee.  You’re a writer.  Now, go bring me your Oscar!”

I was 17 then, and just like when I was 8, his presence, even on the phone returned me to the glory and wonderment of Horatio street.  Renee was back in Wonderland.  Everything I wrote from that moment on was my advancement toward the Oscar with my name on it.  He told me he wanted to hold my Oscar like I held his…

While watching the Oscars tonight, they did a memorial for those who have transitioned.  The air left the room as Horton Foote’s name flashed across the screeen over splashes of TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD, A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL & ONE FLEW OVER THE COOKOO’S NEST.  It took a moment to breathe.  My eyes filled with tears at the realization that I’d never be able to physically put my Oscar in his hands.  I never got to say goodbye.

Mr. Foote,wherever you are, I am still writing…and I am going to keep that promise, you will get your Oscar with my name on it… 

From the bottom of my heart and with everything that’s within me, thank you for calling me a writer…

It has taken a while, but the time has come…

My new book, which is being published at 11:59PM on 12/31/09 (but will be made available for purchase by 1/2/10) is finally done.  The book cover is above for your viewing pleasure and I implore you all to go out and get this book.  I did not think I could do better than “Lock, Stock & Smoking Metaphors,” but “ENAMORED” transcends anything I have ever done.  I truly believed I was possessed by love.  This book is what happens as a result.  It retails for $15.00 and you can order this on-line.

Love & Light,

Renee Michele

After close to 2 years on the air, we are elevating.  I have given classes on air, homework, grant information as well as invaluable critique.  So many of you have developed books, released CDs performed on shows as the confidence within your own work has increased.  Now I’d like the world to know what you’ve been doing.

June 2010, I will release an anthology entitled: “The Language of the Living Room.”  The Book/CD compilation will include the works of poets/spoken words artist that have had any interaction with The Living Room.  All entries should be submitted by 4/30/10 at 12 midnight, EST.  Entries will be notified by 5/15/10 if you have been selected for publication.  There is a $10 entrance fee for up to three poems in written form (should not exceed 20 lines each) and $15 for audio entries (which should be submitted in MP3 format). If you wish to submit for both audio and print, the cost is $25.00.

Both your entries and fees can be paid to: thelivingroomatbtr@yahoo.com.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.  ~Don Marquis 

Every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven fresh duties at its back.  ~Charles Kingsley 

The easiest thing to do – is nothing.  No one can make you do what it isn’t in your heart to do.  Second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year…get the picture?  Time too has a dance card that’s quite full.  She will not wait for you to take her hand.  Trust that she has other suitors.  There is too much putting off until tomorrow what you can do today.  How often have you put off your dreams, your vacation, your children, your spouse…yourself?  Most among us are only dedicated to the wrong things.  We habitually get up and pour ourselves the huge cup of negativity we’ve been brewing all night.  Then first thing in the morning, after a long night of having the audacity to dream, we stamp it out with a hot cup of pessimism flavored with excuses.  It is not enough to dream it.  Dreaming is the beginning of the process, but in order to make things tangible you have to follow through by making the steps toward obtaining it.  The only way a flower grows is when it is nurtured and fed.  Water your dream garden; in the end, you’ll have your pick of dreams…weed out procrastination or it will become your nightmare… 

“The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.”  ~Author Unknown

“There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.”  ~Tom DeMarco  

“You may delay, but time will not.”  ~Benjamin Franklin 

“Someday is not a day of the week.”  ~Author Unknown

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”  ~Eva Young

“Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.”  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

“The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery.” Fredrick Douglass

Lawd does misery LOVE company!  Think of it.  You are on the right track. You’ve been so for some time.  I’m here to tell you, some won’t like it.  They will do everything they can to get you to dismantle peace.  DON’T DO IT!  All of these things come so that you can be made better, stronger.  Everyone needs something.  It has been my experience that Misery will call you on your phone, in the middle of a storm and want you at their home to be entertained.  Honey, let me tell you!  Misery does not care whether you want to come or not, her persistence at your being their only benefits her.  She will cook for you and put out all her greatest dishes: 

• Hopelessness with a side of despair
• Deep fried betrayal
• Honey Barbequed Bad News, and of course
• Porterhouse Pain

Talk about spiritual indigestion!  Then she watches and waits for the results of her culinary skills to take effect.  That’s where her power lies, in your reaction.  Do one of two things:  Don’t go over her home or take a package of Pepto-prayer.  It will save you…every time!

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.” – Anonymous

Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies or illegal abortions – and unwanted children living in misery.””Anonymous

 “Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it may be compared with the misery of others” – Samuel Johnson

Renée Michele Breeden

 The news broke of Michael’s death and I remembered. It was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time. It was the year that I transitioned from nine to the rounded age of ten, two digits…

I was in St. Matthews, South Carolina, staying with relatives. I had heard my mother speak of the word most of us are now well aquatinted with: foreclosure.

Foreclosure, whoever he was made my mother make the choice that would break the bonds of childhood far before I was ready to loosen my grasp. From day one, I knew this was not to be the South Carolina that greeted me in my mother’s presence. My sister took my brother and I there, delivered like junk mail and dropped there into the arms of uncertainty.

From the moment that my older sister left, the air went out. I never imagined myself in a bag, and that someone could be exhausting the air. Wow.

What was supposed to be the pinnacle of my childhood ripped away trust. For one year, eight months, three weeks, and two days, my childhood was crushed under the foot of incest. The violation of night ripped into the daily existence of screams that went unheard, and fell on the eyes of closed lids. No one heard the violation contained behind a bathroom door in a 3 bedroom ranch house on Tucker Mill Circle. Everything was a blur then. I don’t remember much. There were few joys.

1.The burning of the garbage: We knew burning of the trash would give the heat we needed
to make Peppermint Scented Mud Pies. It was the last little bit of childhood I had.

2. Motown 25: Everyone waited that night. Every other performance meant nothing. We, my
extended family and I. My cousins, my aunts, my molesters – all of us. The noise stopped. The
air was still. Michael took us to another planet. It must have been the moon, because that was
the first time he moon walked while he was singing Billie Jean. I knew then and there I would be
a performer. I was gonna sing too. People were gonna love me too.

The tears fell down my face. It was the only night in which the violation stopped. For that night only, Michael saved me from them, from my male cousin molesters and many nights thereafter from myself. Music & Me and Ben reverberated in my ear drums as I listened to Michael’s child hood falsetto under the house on a old school tape recorder. Whenever his voice streamed into the space around me, the air would return for the duration of the song. It didn’t matter what he was singing, whether it was him arguing with Paul McCartney over who I really belonged to, or whether he was convincing the world to drink Pepsi with his brothers during the Victory tour. He kept me sane. His songs didn’t keep me from going on long journeys inside of myself, but they definitely kept me from staying gone. They stopped me from going inside and locking the door. Michael Jackson put the key up for safe keeping.

The return from South Carolina resulted in me never returning to the place of my violation, but Michael was a constant companion. Everyone idolized him. I had it all, the jackets (Beat It & Thriller), my socks and glove with the silver and white threads to make them look as though they were rhinestones. Everyone wanted a piece of Michael.

I didn’t believe it. Text messages flew in from everywhere, proclaiming Michael’s demise. The tears filled up in the wells of my eyes and streamed down my face. Besides the incredible sense of loss I felt, I also felt like the others. The others are the people who kept taking from him and never gave. I felt so guilty. I took my sanity in him and he was so tormented. By his father, his face, his fears. He walked a road searching for a childhood that he was never allowed to have.

I walked to 125th Street and sang every Michael song that fell on the lips of his fans. I stayed out there until 3 am, but even that didn’t seem enough for the give back.

When they called him a child molester, I thought to myself: how could they call him a molester, when he kept me sane as a child being molested? What a toll it took on you Michael. For that, I am deeply sorry.

The bible says we gotta come to God like a child, and I know God was there to greet you. I know it. No one was more child-like, loving and as pure in his spirit as you. All that genius that lived in you; All of God’s answers to and for the world weaved beautifully into your songs. Thank you Michael. You beautiful, gifted, tormented instrument of God’s peace. For everything you were, for everything you became, thank you.

You saved me. When others stole my trust, you returned it, beautifully wrapped in your songs…
As you once told me when I was a ten year old woman…you Michael are not alone…

There is some place where we make sense.  Some place where the reality is an illusion, and all the things now invisible to others is now visible…outside of our hearts.  In this parallel universe, you are loving me outside of the wall you have created to shield yourself…you are no longer afraid; you are bold in your actions…as bold as your heart has been in the secret of this place.

I know joy.  It courses through my veins.  I am stronger, because in this universe, light years away from the delusion of pain, you are unafraid to wrap your arms around me…you allow me a respite in joy…in peace…in love.

I truly believe time to be moved along by our common belief in it.  There is a place, existing now where we are joy.  There is a moment existing where we are happy.  As of now my love, I am trapped here in this parallel place; waiting to love you…