Tag Archives: slavery

FMM 11 7 2025 The Greatest of These

“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike” ~ Maya Angelou. The recent visit of Hurricane Melissa to Jamaica has, in addition to the human suffering and devastating loss of property and agriculture, resulted in the destruction of the historic town of Black River, a town whose existence was noted on a map […]

FMM 8 8 2025 Take a Beat!

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~ Maya Angelou. There is something so peaceful about a house in the early morning, before dawn, before the neighborhood awakens.  It has always been a favorite time of day for me.  As a teenager I would […]

FMM 8 1 2025 Too much Noise out there!

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!” ~ Marcus Garvey. Last week we enjoyed a cultural event, attending a play written and directed by a local African American poet and playwright, Darius Daughtry.  This is the second of his plays that we have attended, and one of the most noteworthy […]

FMM 11 8 2024 Our Better Angels

“The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.”~  Saadi. I have no memory of this, but when I was quite young (our family was still living in England at the time), I stood in front of our black and white television and yelled: “Stop talking about Mr. McMillan!”  He was the […]

FMM 10 11 2024 Oh Canada!

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr. I have links with Canada on both sides of my family tree.  Many years ago, my great-grandparents (on my father’s side) decided to emigrate to Canada.  This was their second migration.  Earlier, shortly after they got […]

FMM 6 5 2020 Two Americas

“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” ~ Malcolm X. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When you want to be a writer, or even an author, you aspire to create a killer first line, an opening sentence […]

FMM 1 31 2020 Color your Perspective

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” ~ Elie Wiesel. This is my story, condensed, abridged, minimized, retold.  Picture an almost eight-year-old white girl (blonde hair, blue eyes) transplanted from grey rainy Manchester along with her entire family and […]

FMM 5 17 19 Shape Shifting

“Whoever you are holding me now in hand, Without one thing all will be useless, I give you fair warning before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different.” ~ Walt Whitman.   Story-telling is in our bones, in our genes, in our blood.  It is how we know who […]

FMM 2 9 18 Fusion not Fission

“Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world… Love, in fact, is the agent of universal synthesis.”~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I am not sure how old I was when I started dancing.  I have memories of entertaining one of my aunts with my version of ballet, self-accompanied (some […]

FMM 9 29 17 Zip-lining Away!

“The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. There are many beautiful places in Jamaica. The name itself is descriptive: Land of wood and water (Xaymaca was the Arawak name for the island). It is said that when Christopher Columbus […]