The Person Who Bothered Me This Week: Dennis Rodman

Dennis Rodman has been on my mind lately. I remember when I was in high school a black man was killed by some white supremacists in Texas. One of my cousins claimed Rodman sent money and condolences to the victim’s family. I don’t know if this kind act can truly be attributed to Rodman, but just hearing a rumor that he did that gave me some respect for Rodman.

Last week, I watched ESPN’s documentary Rodman: for Better or Worse. It’s part of their 30 for 30 series in which they profile various athletes and teams. Anyway, I DVR’d the program and was half-watching it while lying on the couch dozing off when I heard a white woman being interviewed. This woman is someone close to Rodman, the matriarch of a family Rodman lived with when he was an adolescent after his own mother kicked him out of her house. Anyway, the white woman being interviewed said Rodman didn’t like black women, which disappoints me. What have black women ever done to Dennis Rodman?

I did a half-assed search on the web a few days ago to see if Rodman had publicly slurred or dissed black women. I found an article online from years ago in which he told a magazine that black women wouldn’t date him when he was poor. But is that a good enough reason to dislike all of us, especially considering that many white women probably wouldn’t have dated a poor version of Rodman either. The white woman in the 30 for 30 documentary openly admitted to calling Rodman the n-word when she grew angry at him, and Rodman said himself that growing up in Oklahoma in a white community he was often slurred and mistreated by whites. So why would he turn around and say that it’s black women he doesn’t like?  In the other part of his magazine interview, he claimed dating white women as an NBA player is popular, which we know already, but why turn against black women? The other thing he said is that dating white women brings something different, which makes it sound like he is aroused by taboo or fetishism, which is well within his rights, but it still doesn’t explain why no love for black women is given.

Anyway, I don’t like him anymore.

Orchard Keeper Writer’s Residency

I had the pleasure of staying for one week at the Orchard Keeper farm this summer. My time at the orchard was my first residency, and I spent it in the hills and mountains of northeast Tennessee near the Cumberland Gap. Though I wasn’t as disciplined as I would have liked to have been, I did get quite a bit of work done. The orchard is the perfect place for solitary writing time. No wifi. No tv. Just me and my computer’s word processing program. Needless to say, I felt a little lonely at times, but the solitude was perfect for my writing. Denton Loving, the man who owns the farm, was welcoming and super helpful. If you’re looking for a residency or a retreat, consider applying to this one.

orchard trailer
This is the trailer where I stayed.

 

My Favorites

I’m an English teacher and have also worked at a public library, which means people often ask which authors and books I enjoy. I have a penchant for Southern fiction, working-class literature,  and African-American literature. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite works:

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

Big Stone Gap by Adriani Trigiani

“The Shipfitter’s Wife” by Dorianne Laux”

“What Do Women Want” by Kim Addonizio

“Scheherazade” by Richard Siken

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

The Color of Water by James McBride

“Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin

“Ruby Tells All” by Miller Williams

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor

“When We Were Young and Confederate” by Jeremy Collins

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie

“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner

Saving Grace by Lee Smith

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

”The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri

“Nilda” by Junot Diaz

”Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff

“Time and Distance Overcome” by Eula Biss

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Maude by Donna Mabry

 

 

 

Welcome!

I’m a writer and teacher living in Tennessee, where I work as an assistant professor in the English department at Tennessee Tech University. I’ve designed this site to showcase my publications. I write fiction, poetry, and essays. Some of my favorite authors are Adriana Trigiani, Lorraine Hansberry, Anne Moody, Dorothy Allison, Rick Bragg, Lee Smith, Mildred D. Taylor, Robert Morgan, and Anne Rivers Siddons.

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