Revised for a new Year,new Decade New Time

 I originally wrote this 3 years ago when a whole segment of my life was upside down, crawling sideways and going where I did not know.  


I know now.

Windows~JHM photo©07

New Tomorrows

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©07

Revised11-10

Do you need to set eyes on what no longer sighed?

But chose now to prance across the tango waves?

My private audience for the new tomorrows...

Began yesterday.

It first started when the moon blared a not so tender farewell...

To what beckoned it there before the nigh?

The disclosure began before I knew what was happening

Nor could I stop it even if I had known how to

 I did not know how prepared I was for …

New Tomorrows

(At first)…

I grasp although tired

Tried

Tired

I could not see but I held on anyway

Though I did not know where I was going…

At that moment,

 I tap danced in a first light of new activation

No longer in a blissful ignorance

Or a sedentary agitation

But a luscious filled solitude

That no longer needed to be alone

So were my prayerful thoughts...

I pranced in a roundabout in an air of my delights

Blissfully bothered with what I have the sense to hear.

It did not matter if it seemed foolish to others

Or if I embarrassed anyone who was not invited to this promenade…

All those things…

All those things

All those things

Swollen in my belly that I wore for three long years…

Three long years…

Have been banished to the land of nevermore.

With no passport to return

For a time and a time and a time no more

All rights reservedJHM11-27-10©

Arrival Still photo~Isabel Wilkerson

If the Mountain won't come to Muhammed...

Mustard Greens photoJHM ©10

I read in our local paper that the Lower 9th Ward's Sankofa Community Development Corporation announced the opening on November 20th,2011 of their Sankofa Farmers Market!  I strongly encourage people to support their effort since in the Lower 9th ward Community there is no supermarket & the pioneers who have come back to re-establish their homes in this community have to travel great distances for simple things we take for granted.

I see an irony for me as I am fortunate in the sense that I can leave my home & in 5-7 minutes can access 5 supermarkets and in 10 minutes the local Wal-Mart and yet 20 minutes away the residents of this community have to travel great distances for the aforementioned markets.

So as the adage goes: "If the mountain won't come to Muhammed, then Muhammed must go to the mountain".  I say way to go to this group in still yet another venture forth by creating this farmers market so the Lower Ninth Ward + their neighbors, Bywater, Arabi,Upper 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish,Fabourg Marigny, & Treme + others could access fresh produce and other products locally grown.

I personally plan to support them with my dollars and volunteer in whatever way I can,some of which will mean traveling past the supermarkets I have easy access to and going downtown to do my part.

Kohl Rabi photo JHM ©10

About Sankofa Farmers Market: 

www.sankofafarmersmarket.org 

The Sankofa Farmers Market was developed in response to the requests of community members for access to fresh vegetables and fruits for sale at the market. You have asked for a farmers market where you can have direct access to home grown produce. The farmers market will operate every Saturday and will offer seasonal, nutritious produce and locally caught seafood. We will accept the EBT/SNAP benefit card, credit cards, debit cards, and cash. We hope to build a viable market for both vending and shopping to thrive with healthy nutritious food. 

This farmers market will be a year round outlet for local farmers and fishermen to vend their goods in accordance with state and national goals, as well as to provide a social outlet and neighborhood meeting place for families and seniors. We are working in peer partnership with marketumbrella.orgfor consultation with technical information, regular evaluation, and the appropriate market management trainings. We believe that adding EBT access, along with a strong marketing campaign and weekly retail outlet presence, will accomplish the following: increase fresh food accessibility to low-income customers, increase sales for our farmers and fishermen, increase economic and community development in the Lower Ninth Ward. 

The Sankofa Farmers Market will be the 2nd farmers market in the city to have EBT access. This market will also be the only farmers market, not only in the Lower Ninth Ward, but also in communities adjacent  to the neighborhoods, including the Upper Ninth Ward, Gentilly, Arabi and St. Bernard Parish.

Swingin' Notes: American Jazz Museum to Present...

The Note Illustrated ~ A Swingin’ visual of All Things Music”

 Charlie Parker Monument

Photograph of Parker Monument~ JHM All rights reserved©10 

I delighted to announce that The American Jazz Museum has invited me to participate in their February/March 2011exhibition: "The Note Illustrated~ A Swingin' Visual of all Things Music"

Hosted by the Buttonwood Art Space.

According to their website: "We the Buttonwood artSpace – an art & artist display and sale gallery complete with custom framing service!  Located In Kansas City Missouri, atop historic Union Hill, our space is provided to us through the philanthropic dedication of Jon & Wendy McGraw and Buttonwood Financial Group, LLC. Though the tireless efforts of the staff of BFG, and the leadership of a voluntary artSpace board of directors, Buttonwood artSpace has come to symbolize a quality community display space.  We routinely host four to five “First Friday” Opening nights per year, are a member of the Crossroads Art District, and offer the artSpace free of charge as an event space to non profit organizations".

Buttonwood artSpace located on the historic Union Hill area of Kansas City, Mo. www.buttowoodartspace.com

My last tie with the American Jazz Museum was in 2007 when I had a solo show called "If Jazz was a Color?" 

The Sounds of the Men

©98 Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney art

So I am delighted to kick off or re-emerge after my medical "Sabbatical" with the Museum.  If you have never been you should go!  This is the home of Charlie Parker & Count Basie...  Although they like to claim that "while New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, jazz grew up in Kansas City"... 

Well we like to say we sent it up the river to 'em!

See images below of the Museum

 Greg Carrol,Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum perfoming.

If Jazz was a Color?

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney 

©97

I f jazz was a color, what color would it be?

Blue as in 'mo better?

Cobalt, azure teal,

Sapphired, indigoed midnight sky?

If jazz was a color..it'll fire up red hot!

Cinnamon salsa.

Mustard tinged lavender lace.

Improvising multiple patterned hues & blues.

RHYTHMS!

Effortless blacks & whites!

Shading with elegant brocades, smokey velvet

(Coltraned)...

Billie, Sarah, Duke.
Fly a way Bird!

Groove on Wash- ing- ton!

No Kenny G here!

Miles awake, 

Miles high!

Miles wide

Colors erupting like a Cannonball!
 If jazz was a color....
The color would be what the eyes see...
Blue!
Mo betta, yeah

All rights reserved ©97JHM

Well Hello!

Photograph All rights ReservedJHM©08

Well Hello

(And welcome back)

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney © 07

I found you, at last.

For awhile I lost you and did not know where you had gone to.

Somehow I lost me & looked in all the in the wrong place

That were simply not the in the right spaces...

When in actuality you were not far away. 

Just waiting for me to look up and in the right direction to see you

And knowing that you had not abandoned me was a good thing.

But indeed had I let you down?

I am beside myself to have you back

All the places & times I said I searched for you in them were not bad ...

Just not the right ones because I was heading left for it was the right time.

And it took a ant, a little ant that trigger me to see that you were so near...

So very dear to me.

All rights reservedJHM©07