Way to Pray~Pass it Forward Day

12-1-10

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, tolerant of the weak & strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these"~George Washington Carver

Dear My Community of Friends & Associates, 


As many of you know, I returned to my beloved hometown of New Orleans about a year and a half ago in the hopes of rebuilding and revitalizing my career in fabric art and writing Just as the city of New Orleans goes about its revitalization, I have been able to take many positive steps in the hope of accomplishing my dreams; while at the same time, we both have had serious negative reversals that have stalled our attempts at revitalization.  Although it is difficult for me to take this step, I am writing to you in an appeal for financial help.


Shortly after my return, I lost a large amount of critical funding when a patron suffered some economic setbacks. Like so many of us during these hard economic times, our ability to rebound from these setbacks has been extremely difficult.  My own ability to rebound has been hampered by health problems that necessitated two abdominal surgeries within three weeks of each other late summer/early fall.


I have already been helped through the generosity of several supportive, generous friends and organizations who practiced wonderful acts of kindness by providing transportation to appointments, bringing food during my postoperative recovery and helping me keep my utilities turned on & sanity going.  As I proceed down the road toward recovery and wellness, I have tried to repay my community by becoming involved in some volunteer opportunities and to reconnect with fellow artists and clients who have supported my work in the past {mention any seminars, workshops, gallery exhibits, networking events, etc}; as well as to actively seek commissions and pursue job opportunities.


I have also been very fortunate to have a patient and benevolent landlord who have allowed me to stay in my apartment as I attempt to generate my own income.  Although it pains him to have to do this, my landlord has given me notice that I must pay him at least half of my rent arrearages or vacate my apartment by January 1, 2011.  I realize this is a business decision he must make and hold no ill will toward him. He has been more than kind and helpful toward me; in fact, all most unheard of in these critical times we are facing as a nation...


Today, December 1, 2010, is Pay It Forward Day. In honor of this day, could you find it in your heart to help me remain in New Orleans and continue to pursue my dreams by sending a call out?  I am not asking for any of you that I would not do for someone else & have done in the past...


I do although understand the power of a ripple effect that can occur on the Internet & more then that the power of humaneness & even more so the power of prayer..


When one is thinking out of the box creatively to find real, constructive, in real time ways to make the necessary adjustments in order to thrive, well sometimes you simply have to reach out...  


This Wandering Moon has made her way back home and would prefer not to wander anywhere else for the time being!  


 I do not take any of this lightly.  


This is not an easy task to do to put my pride & dignity forward in such a public way, but I am determined to turn things around with all I have in me to do thus.


I will keep getting up and doing all I can do my part, this I can assure you...


 With sincere thanks to all of you, 
Moon

"If you planted hope in a heart today in any hopeless heart, If someone's burden was lighter because you did your part, If you caused a laugh that chased a tear away, If tonight your name is mentioned when someone kneels to pray, Then your day was well spent." ~Unknown

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

It sticks to you...

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever and many animals died because of the cold.

Some porcupines, realizing the gravity of the situation, decided to group together to share warmth.

This way they were better covered and protected; however - the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After a while they decided to distance themselves one from the other and soon after they began to die, alone and frozen.

So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together.

They learned to accept the little wounds that were caused by these close relationships, in order to benefit from what their companions offered.
It was this way that they were able to survive and thrive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationships are not ones that bring together perfect beings, but are instead ones where individuals learn to live with the imperfections of others and can still accept the gifts they have to offer.

Way to Geaux Ah ha Ha Ha~Emotional aerobics

I think humor does wonder for our well being, a form of emotional aerobics.

A friend sent this to me this morning that so tickle my funny bone:

"I urgently needed time off work, but I knew the Boss wouldn’t give it to me. So, I decided to act “crazy”, than he’d tell me to take a few days off. I hung by my knees from the ceiling and made funny noises. My co-worker, (not the smartest in the bunch) asked me what I was doing. I told her I was pretending to be a light bulb so the Boss would think I was crazy and give me a few days off. A few minutes later the Boss came into the office and asked “What do you think your doing?” I told him I was a light bulb. He said “Clearly you’re stressed out. Go home and recuperate for a couple of days.” I jumped down and walked out if the office. When my co-worker followed me, the Boss asked her, “Where do you think you’re going?” She said, “I going home too. I can’t work in the dark.”