North Atlantic Books has donated Body Awareness as Healing Therapy: The Case of Nora by Moshe Feldenkrais and Mindful Spontaneity by Ruthy Alon for the event’s fundraising efforts which will go towards funding a month of rehabilitation for Angelita Vargas, spreading awareness of stroke prevention, and donating funds to the Shepherd Center of Atlanta, an organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of patients with brain or spinal chord injuries

If you wish to learn more about the event, please visit angelitavargas.com.

Mayan culture and electronics are not two things commonly associated, but the MCP Mayan Tzolk’in app might just change that perception. It delivers Energy of the Day messages based on authentic interpretations of the Tzolk’in calendar right to your fingertips.

The app differentiates itself from Mayan calendar apps because it interprets all 260 daily energies of the Tzolkin, specifically in the context of modern-day Western life. Others neglect to relate the 20 signs and the 13 numbers, but it’s important to study them together in order to “integrate the essence and meaning of each daysign with the essence and meaning of the number that accompanies it…the numbers do in fact influence the daysigns, and change the energy and power of each specific day.”

Another app, My Mayan Match, uses the Tzolk’in calendar to determine how compatible you are with the people in your life. “The Maya use the compatibility systems embedded within the Tzolk’in to determine all kinds of important life decisions: whom to marry or go out with, whom to befriend, who to work with, who to share your innermost secrets with, and, just as critically… whom to avoid.” This historically secret information is now available to anyone, so with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it might be worth a look.

What significance does the Mayan calendar have to you?

For more information on these apps, visit the Maya Portal, the most connected Mayan Calendar community on the net!

My goal since starting the second trimester is to fill my diet with pregnancy super foods.  These are the foods that are filled with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients important for your own health and your growing baby. These foods include berries, whole grains, legumes, sweet potatoes and broccoli, just to name a few. One of my favorite pregnancy super foods are lentils are also energizing which is wonderful in helping fight the fatigue of pregnancy. They are filled with protein, fiber, iron, folate, calcium and zinc, all essential to the healthy development of your growing baby.

Photo by Lindsay Ingalls

Red Curry Lentil and Vegetables, Serves 4

1 tablespoon coconut oil or canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups green beans, washed, trimmed and cut in half
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup dried red lentils
1.5 cups vegetable broth
2.5 cups water
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups lightly packed baby spinach

Heat the oil in a medium heavy bottom pot over medium- high heat.  Add the onion and carrot and cook for 5-7 minutes, until tender. Stir in the garlic and green beans and cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in the curry, salt and pepper and cook for one minute.  Add the chickpeas, lentils, broth and water and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20-25 minutes until lentils are tender.  Uncover and add the peas and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the spinach at the last minute and stir until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with brown rice or whole wheat pita.

Featured Image by zigazou76 on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

A prolific writer and poet, Irene published several collections of poetry including The Girl with the Stone in Her Lap with North Atlantic Books in 1976. Irene frequently wrote of rural life and her working farm upbringing with humor and stunning insight.

Irene is survived by  her daughter Julie Vickers of Germantown, Maryland and son Paul McKinney of Santa Cruz, California as well as by her five siblings.

What is it like to brush elbows with your literary idols? Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris took us back to the 1920?s ex-pat filled Paris and now Cecil Brown, author of Dude, Where’s My Black Studies Department?, I, Stagolee, and The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger

Read Part I of “A Real-Life ‘Midnight in Paris’ with James Baldwin” here.

Over the next weeks, Jimmy took me to many of his haunts. “In New York, I lived mainly in Harlem,” he said, “But in Paris I lived all over the city! In the early mornings, after the nightclubs, we went to Pigalle, one of his favorite districts.

The next night, I met Chester Himes, the author of If He Hollers Let Him Go. Next to Jimmy, he was my favorite writer.

Just before he took off for his home in St Paul de Vence, Jimmy invited me to visit him in the South of France. I couldn’t see leaving Paris. But a few days later, Marianne announced that she was going home. This was shocking news, and I didn’t know what to do. She wanted me to go home with her, but I wasn’t finished with my midnight trips in Paris.

Not long after Marianne left, I sat on the bed and wondered what to do next. A fellowship I had applied for didn’t come through. I called Jimmy and was pitching blues.

US Postal Service stamp commemorating Baldwin

“Well, baby, I ain’t no fellowship for you,” he laughed, “But you are welcome to come down here and eat a pork chop with me.”

It was arranged that I would take a train early in the morning and that I would arrive in St. Paul de Vence at around one in the afternoon. He sent me a telegram with his address and telephone number and instruction to call him when I arrived.

On the train I met a French girl, Michelle, who was also going to Aix en Provence.  At the train station in Aix en Provence, I tried Jimmy on the phone  and nobody answered.

I tried a few more times, I didn’t know what to do.  Michelle and I walked and talked and I tried the number again, all the time getting the strange feeling that perhaps Jimmy was not really serious about the invitation.

My new friend didn’t want to leave me alone, because my French was so bad, it would be like abandoning a child. Then she got the idea that we should go the swimming pool.  The heat was almost unbearable, and idea of cool water was inviting.  The sun was so hot and we had become sticky and humid. Somehow we got swimming suits and entered the public pool.

The pool was outdoors and it was filled with sun bathers.  I noticed two things at once. The loud speakers were playing Miles Davis’ tune. That blew my mind. I had always associated jazz with Black people in clubs. To hear Miles’ and not see any Black people opened me up.  It hit me as we entered that the music was so respected that they would play it in public!

The second thing was that all of the women had their tops off.

As Michelle settled down on the grass, she noticed the look on my face. I explained to her that American men are not used to seeing so many naked women. She said something like “poor things,” and took off her top. Was this not heaven?

She took my hand and we went straight to a hotel.

When we came up from air, it was dark. Once again, I tired to phone Jimmy. She looked at the paper I had written Jimmy’s number on, and realized that we had been dialing the wrong number.

This time, he came on the phone.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“I’m here! In Provence!”

“What Provence?”

“Is there more than one? I’m in Aix en Provence.”

“What the hell are you doing there?”

“Is that where you live?”

“I live in St Paul De Vence.”

I realized my mistake. Then I heard Jimmy laughing out loud. I hung up the phone, and I kissed my girl goodbye.

When the train arrived two hours later in Nice, it was dark.  Jimmy was waiting beside a big, black Mercedes. When I got in, a crowd greeted me with smiles and laughter. Seated in the back, I blurted out my story about the French girl and getting off at the wrong stop, and they all laughed.

“Welcome to the South of France,” Jimmy cheered, “See, I told you, you’d have a good time. We are on our way to a party!”

I felt as if I had entered into the world of Jimmy’s fiction, particularly Another Country. In that world of virtuality, you could be the ideal person you wanted to be.

Joséphine Baker in Banana Miniskirt, Folies-Bergères, Paris

I remember the famous black faces like Josephine Baker and Bobby Short I met at that party as if I were in a dream.

At one point, I was standing on the patio looking out at the lights sparkling in the dark from the Provence hills, I turned and saw Jimmy. He was dancing and then he saw me, and came over.

Passing a joint to me, he said, “I can’t wait to read about this in your next novel!”

When we got back to Jimmy’s villa around two in the morning, instead of going to bed, Jimmy went to his typewriter, where he would write until about seven o’clock. After he fell asleep, he would get up at twelve. He lived the life of a jazz musician, working at night and sleeping the mornings.

“Bonjour!” Valeria brought out a pot of coffee and breakfast.

I sat at the table under a thatch roof. Jimmy was at the head, Bernard on his right and Felippe on his left. Jimmy called it the “The Welcoming Table.” As Valerie served breakfast, Jimmy gave me a history of the villa. It had been owned, he told me, by the painter Braque. From where we sat, you could see the city of St. Paul up on the hill, shining like a diamond.

Stay tuned for part III next Thursday!

Featured Image by citykane on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

About the Author

Cecil Brown holds a PhD in African-American Literature, Folklore, and Theory of Narrative from the University of California, Berkeley. He has published a number of novels, short stories, screenplays, and journal articles relating to African-American literature and life, and has taught classes in literature and popular culture at UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, and other universities throughout California.