The original Batcave was a basement apartment a few blocks down from Memorial Stadium. It was the first time I lived without roommates: it was glorious! I’m no one’s playboy, but the extra privacy and freedom loosened me up alot. Out of the Greek life, I was content to ‘serve out my time’ before heading […]
“That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day…” – the Joker, the Killing Joke I had been biding my time for three years to get back to a point where I could follow my true ambition. My grades were fine, I was in a grad school training program; as […]
There was no history of Greeks in my family (too country) so I was something of an open book. The first day on campus I met a Greek…kind of. I was just walking around and saw this cat with a cane. He was one of the first black people I saw so I said, ‘What’s […]
Out of the other black guys in my dorm, one was from Kansas City. He was from the Missouri side, but he loved sports like me. We were on the same floor, so would meet up in our floor lobby to watch Sportscenter. That’s how it started. Now I’m not one of those big ‘I always […]
My people will never let me forget this, but I was um, a little less friendly and approachable when I arrived in Lawrence. Fists balled up. Chest poked out. Hardcore scowl. Every shirt I owned was black, one even had ‘Danger – Educated Black Man’ printed across the front. One kid I met that week […]
If my father was my benefactor, my biggest fan in the family was his brother’s wife, my godmother. My father is very laid-back, which is where I get it from. My aunt was the one who would stick up for me (all of us really) if someone was bullying us. I chuckle at how many […]
I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X when I was 16 years old. The pages are turning yellow, but I still have the paperback version I bought half a lifetime ago now. In nearly every chapter, there was something in it that struck me like lightning. I flip through these pages now and see […]
I can remember with clarity the effect Roots had on me the first time I watched it. Awe, shock, pride, anger. I cried pretty good the first time I saw the scene where they whipped Kunta Kinte until he said his name was Toby. I was one of the first in my family to be […]
I subscribe to the theory that relationships are like investments: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. I’m not going to reveal all the various forms of physical and sexual Kryptonite I have a weakness for, but I will say this: I’m a man. I’m reminded of an old […]
My earliest memories of the movies were from the summers in Salina. The local theatre would play these Sinbad serials as matinees, and we’d all ride our bikes home afterward and play out in the street. Pirates, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, what have you. E.T. was the first ‘Hollywood’ movie I remember seeing at the […]
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