Residential schools - In the name of the father
June 16, 2010 | Filed Under Black and White, General, Portraits | 3 Comments
From the 1870s to the 1970s, more than 150,000 children were taken from Aboriginal families and placed in residential schools – run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United churches and funded by the government of Canada. The purpose was to force the assimilation of native culture into white society by “killing the Indian in the child.” The children were deprived of their culture, educated in English and French and “converted” to Christianity. Many lived in substandard conditions and endured horrific mental, physical and sexual abuse by clergy, teachers and staff. Almost half died, some of disease, some of malnutrition, some medicated to death for resisting their captors. Others were murdered to dispose of unwanted infants and to prevent complaints by young women who were raped by their guardians. Thousands were buried in unmarked graves. The last residential school did not close until 1996. The Canadian government formally apologized in 2008. “The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons. “The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the Aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.” Phil Fontaine, leader of the Assembly of First Nations and a survivor of the residential school system, accepted the apology on behalf of all victims. “Memories of residential schools cut like merciless knives at our souls,” Fontaine said. — Poetry - In the name of the father.
A week before
May 2, 2010 | Filed Under Black and White, General, Portraits | Leave a Comment
“something careful is about to break
and it quivers like a thread … ” - Poetry: A Week Before
Modern Times
December 21, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General | Leave a Comment
So many Christians.
so little Christianity.
– Words Blog
72nd St. subway station
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos | Leave a Comment
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she’s like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.
Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Bob Dylan
The man in Columbus Circle
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos | 1 Comment
A man was dancing without music in Columbus Circle, shuffling in half circles and talking to the sky. The wind along 59th St. was cold and he wore a hood against the chill. His eyes pointed somewhere far away. “How much does it cost?” he asked. “Who wants to know?” he answered. “How long?” he asked. “As long as it takes,” he said. He laughed and whirled in the noon day light. Some people are truly crazy, others we just can’t hear. I know a schizophrenic man who talks every day to “voices in New York.” Half the time he makes no sense but there are moments that seem profound. One day, out of the blue, he said, “The light of eternity comes from my soul.” I thought of him in Columbus Circle, looking at this man’s eyes.
Coney Island - ‘Those sweet ice cream illusions’
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos | Leave a Comment
“All the soldiers
come to Coney Island to
say farewell and kiss the sea
and die the lovely lipstick death
of cotton candy vagaries
smacked across the evening sky,
and to taste one final time
those sweet ice cream illusions
that hang like fire in the
marsmallow wind and light
the infinite chasm of longing
that cradles the American dream.
From: Farewell to Coney Island / David Blaikie
‘A Coney Island kinda girl’
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos | 1 Comment
” … I have found myself sitting on the boardwalk or walking barefoot on the wet sand, where the waves break on the shore line, and poetry just ran through my veins. The fluidity from with which the thoughts and language would run through me felt like an intravenous drip of uncut magic. I’ve never really tried to decipher the mystery of the sand at Coney Island. Instead, I’ve accepted it and embraced it as part of the reason why I’ll always be a Coney Island kinda girl.” - Nikki-Jo Grossman, Coney Island Examiner. — Poetry: Farewell to Coney Island - David Blaikie.
Central Park at 77th St.
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos | 1 Comment
Why are there trees I never walk under
But large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1892
The Naked Cowboy of Times Square
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General, New York Photos, Portraits | Leave a Comment
“God, I want you to be the voice within my head…. You are the God who created every known and unknown scientist, inventor, carpenter, landscaper and doctor. You, God, are the architect of unlimited teachings. YOU God, I want so infused with me, that we are one.” – The Naked Cowboy Prayer Book.
Closing time
September 13, 2009 | Filed Under Black and White, General | Leave a Comment
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light. - Bob Dylan