The highlight of the festival, which was sponsored by Art Sanctuary, came with the bestowing of the Lifetime Achievement Award to iconic poet Nikki Giovanni (pictured with Kahlaa, below).

Kahlaa, a star student at Masterman School, a star midfielder for the Anderson Monarchs soccer team and a superstar here at Mighty Writers, delivered her poem with her patented pluck and style.

And here is Kahlaa’s poem:

I’m from the chalk writing in my backyard.
From the blooming flowers in my garden.
I’m from gigantic tree, that snows during winter.
The stones in my neighbor’s garden,
That I pick sometimes to get a worm.

I’m from pink walls of my kitchen.
From the tabby cat, the cutest thing!
I’m from the bean pictures of a weird creation.
From don’t pour that juice you’re clumsy.

I’m from the cute side of the family.
From the fasting in the fall.
From the Thanksgiving roasting at grandpa’s.

From the family gathering after graduations.
From visiting grave sites of our loved ones.

I am from those moments.
A family that everyone sees.
A wonderful family tree.

]]> http://www.mightywriters.org/2010/06/kahlaa-cannady-represents/feed/ 0 http://www.mightywriters.org/2010/05/mighty-quote-of-the-day-106/ http://www.mightywriters.org/2010/05/mighty-quote-of-the-day-106/#comments Sun, 02 May 2010 10:40:06 +0000 Tim Whitaker http://www.mightywriters.org/?p=20190

“The conscious mind is the editor, and the
subconscious mind is the writer. The joy
of writing when writing from your
subconscious is… thrilling. When you’re
editing, which is your conscious mind, it’s
like torture.”

—Steve Martin

Extra: Steve Martin performing “King Tut”
at the New Orleans Jazz Festival last week.

A Black History Month Series

Born: Kenneth Gamble, 1943, Philadelphia
Leon Huff, 1942, Camden, NJ

Occupation when working together: songwriting

The roots of their partnership: Gamble and Huff date back to the Romeos, a late-’50s group that included keyboardist Thom Bell, who would become an important arranger at Philadelphia International. Gamble also ran a record store while Huff did session work for Phil Spector among others.

Their sound: Mostly Kenny Gamble wrote the lyrics and Leon Huff came up with the music, but there’d be exceptions. Huff: “For instance, I think Gamble was the one who came up with the ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ chords that he showed me… whatever needs to be done we can do it.” Together they created the Sound of Philadelphia, known for its lush orchestrations, grooving saxes and memorable lead voices atop satiny group harmonies. Gamble and Huff have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records and were the creative team for the Philadelphia International record label. Their career output of over 3,000 songs places them among the most prolific songwriters of all time.

First Gamble & Huff hit: “Expressway to Your Heart,” by the Soul Survivors.

Ten Gamble & Huff songs we’ll never forget: “Love Train,” “Me and Mrs. Jones,” “The Love I Lost,” “I’ll Always Love My Mama, “Bad Luck,” “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” “Wake Up Everybody,” “Backstabbers,” “Cowboys to Girls,” “Drowning in the Sea of Love.”

Kenny Gamble quote: “Love was our message.”
Leon Huff: “The best thing about our message songs is none were written with anger.”

Why they’re historic: Made Philadelphia the soul music capital of the ’70s.

WHYY Radio: The Sound of Philadelphia (click the “Love Train” album cover).

A Black History Month Series

Born: June 22, 1941

Where: Philadelphia

Died: November 9, 2006

College: Cheney State, 1964

First job: WDAS radio. (Bradley covered the ‘64 riots.)

Career: Covered the Vietnam War for CBS News, where he was wounded in 1973. First black White House correspondent for CBS News. In 1981, became “60 Minutes” correspondent, where he stayed for 26 years, covering over 500 stories.

Memorable “60 Minutes” stories: Interview with Timothy McVeigh, sex abuse in the Catholic Church, the Columbine High School shootings, the Mississippi murder case of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

Awards: Emmy Award (19 times), Peabody for African AIDS report “Death By Denial,” Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Paul White Award, George Polk Award for Foreign Television and Lifetime Achievement Award from National Association of Black Journalists.

CBS colleague Bob Schieffer on Ed Bradley: “Ed Bradley was the coolest guy I have ever known… People just loved him. Ed always had a kid with him, a godson or someone’s child. God knows how much money he gave away to charity. He was the softest touch in town.”

Passion: Jazz. In Philadelphia, on WDAS, Bradley occasionally did stints as a jazz disc jockey, making $1.50 an hour spinning records by Coltrane, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. Later in his career, he hosted “Jazz at Lincoln Center” on NPR.

Quote: “For me to be able to stand up in the Khyber Pass and say, ‘Boy, here’s little Butch Bradley from West Philly. Alexander the Great passed through here 2,500 years ago’—God, I mean, that’s a kick!”

“Cry Baby,” Janis Joplin, Toronto, 1970

Mighty Writers, 15th & Christian

••••••••••••••••••••••

Philadelphia Student Union Podcast here.

A list of the top 10 Irish literary masterpieces of all-time (compiled by Niall O’Dowd, publisher of IrishCentral.com) is quickly becoming a bit of a Twitter/parlor guessing-game sensation in writing circles.

Check how your own favorites—Yeats? O’Neill? Beckett?—compare to the IrishCentral list here.

And if that isn’t enough leather elbow-patch malarkey for you, check out this Guardian list of Frank Delaney’s top 10 Irish writers of all-time.

Mighty Writers read all the time.

But one particular Philadelphia writer we know reads everywhere she goes—and even as she goes.

She doesn’t just read on buses and trolleys, in cabs and on planes, but as she walks to places too. And somehow she never bumps into people, or telephone poles or parking meters.

“You get a sixth sense where things are after awhile,” she says to those who ask, and many do.

We thought of this Mighty Writer when we saw this NYT slide show of people reading on the subway.

Moral to this very small story: Always carry a book. You may find yourself breaking it out in the most unexpected of places.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

If you’re a basketball fan, good chance you know the name Tracy McGrady. In hoop circles, they call him “T-Mac.”

McGrady is a a seven-time all-star and plays for the Houston Rockets. Like everyone who plays in the NBA, he makes many millions of dollars a year.

But what makes McGrady different than his millionaire colleagues is something he did in 2007 after he heard about the challenges kids from Darfur were facing in refugee camps. He went there and allowed a film crew to shoot his visit.

The resulting documentary—called “3 Points”—probably didn’t turn out exactly how he expected. It focuses tightly on McGrady and the changes he himself went through as he toured the camps, starting as an NBA star who thought building a pool for kids would be a gracious gesture to the dawning realization that the needs of the refugees are far more profound and ongoing than his reach could handle.

It’s a well told story, worth the hour of time it takes to watch, so the next time you need a break from that book you’re reading, click here and check it out.