zutopia

07.11.07 imagine

Current mood: peaceful

its so dark out here in jersey at night.. the sky which i spy through the tall trees that surround this house and give shade during the day, is bright.. meanwhile on this balcony my laptop is the only light. i am home and staying in jersey with my great-aunt until my subletter moves out of my house uptown.. .i am here also to finish writing my thesis which would have been difficult with my two year old bro running up on me at my dad's in queens. i miss him- he seemed upset when i went by the house this weekend to visit, though when he went to the library today my step-mom says he asked for his shister.. i am a bit away, no longer 3000 miles removed, just 45 mins staying with aunt reesey in jersey. a beautiful 91 year old woman that gets up at 5 am each morning, walks to the track and comes home to work in the garden. it has been nice spreading the red mulch in the garden and as she says as we survey the yard each morn, 'its fabulous'. shes an amazing lady -- looking no older than 75, eating veggies, fish, and fowl, and tending to her immaculate house stocked with an amazing history. she an actress and is writing her memoirs of growing up in virginia, the battles btw her african and indian families, and life in the entertainment industry. a founding member of the negro ensemble company her credits include five on the black hand side, play misty for me, the wiz (on broadway, she was the good witch to stephanie mills' dorothy), sesame street (davids gandmother), cosby show (heathcliff's mom), smoke, sommersby, etc etc etc. a rich life she has had. she was who my mother lived wiith when she first moved to the ny from bermuda as a 17 year old. she not my real aunt.. she became friends with my grandmother when she was touring with the nec and visited bermuda circa '65. they remained friends and she would send her kids down to the island summers to stay with my granny, aunts and uncles.. so growing up she was like my moms mom away from her home, as well as the granny on cosby show and my ticket onto the set of sesame street where i discovered that big bird was a man-- who knew? not me.. in any case, shes taken me in while i complete my thesis and wait for my apartment to be vacated. i could say alot about my aunt reesey-- like how i fell in love with harlem spending days at her brownstone on hamilton terrace (sugar hill) as a kid, how i wanted to be on broadway cuz of seeing her in the wiz as a youngin, how as an eighty year old she enrolled in a screenwriting class at columbia, wrote a play about her inspiration, the first woman stand-up moms mabley, producing and starring in it, or how when we go to the local shoprite to get her bananas (and my cigarettes-- yeah yeah, i'm gettin enough lectures from her-- 'do people still smoke?') every black person in the store stops her and asks her to hold their baby and it still would not encapsulate her. she a GREAT LADY- and its weird how a ninety year old with wit and grace can let family secrets roll off her tongue whether youre ready to hear them or not. luckily i done did some growing of my own and while it aint easy - i take it all in. i gotz two and a half more weeks here.. to work in the garden, finish this thesis, and drink 'health wine'. ha! i'm just remembering how she used to sneak my bros and i sips of champagne when we were young.. yeah but she makes shit up and determining whats fact and whats fiction is oftentimes difficult yet she inspires me to imagine a world i dreamed of before i learned of its ills as i step back into it grown, yet faith-filled.

posted by z.a.k. @ 5:10 AM