Joyce E. Davis's Blog

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Atlanta, if you have not seen the award-winning documentary on Alley Pat, the outrageous radio host who started in 1951 on the country's first black owned radio station Atlanta's WERD, as well as WYZE and WAOK, you are missing out! From his sparing with Hosea Williams to his unique local advertising, knowledgeable record spinning, skewering hypocrisy, and bailing out civil rights workers, he was such an authentic person. 

I remember my parents playing his a.m. radio show when I was in elementary school. He made you laugh, think and have pride about your community. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember when this type of local radio was vibrant and powerful. 

There are some great (and even hilarious) stories about the night before Dr. King died, Pat's trips to racist Georgia towns to bail out civil rights workers and his banter with his radio public. Even if you are not from Atlanta, if you appreciate soul, blues and jazz, and a wild personality who had some purpose in his mischievousness, you will LOVE this documentary: http://www.pba.org/alley-pat/. #BlackHistoryMatters #MouthOfTheSouth

#Enjoyceinglife

Atlanta, if you have not seen the award-winning documentary on Alley Pat, the outrageous radio host who started in 1951 on the country's first black owned radio station Atlanta's WERD, as well as WYZE and WAOK, you are missing out! From his sparing with Hosea Williams to his unique local advertising, knowledgeable record spinning, skewering hypocrisy, and bailing out civil rights workers, he was such an authentic person. 

I remember my parents playing his a.m. radio show when I was in elementary school. He made you laugh, think and have pride about your community. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember when this type of local radio was vibrant and powerful. 

There are some great (and even hilarious) stories about the night before Dr. King died, Pat's trips to racist Georgia towns to bail out civil rights workers and his banter with his radio public. Even if you are not from Atlanta, if you appreciate soul, blues and jazz, and a wild personality who had some purpose in his mischievousness, you will LOVE this documentary: http://www.pba.org/alley-pat/. #BlackHistoryMatters #MouthOfTheSouth

#Enjoyceinglife

Help! I need a book to read. I'm going on vacation and I want to be swept away. If I had my choice I'd finish Ntozake Shange's Some Sing, Some Cry, which I got about a third of the way into a couple of years ago before life interrupted. I loved that book, and was desperately looking for my personally signed copy, when I came across all these others (pictured above) that I remember like loving friends. Douglass' Women by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Tayari Jones' Silver Sparrow & Bridgett Davis' Shifting Through Neutral are a few others that left a lasting impression on my soul. 
Even though I read some of these novels more than a decade ago, they are stories I want to go on - characters whose lives I wish would not be so finalized. I still drag out reading the end of a book I'm relishing, praying it will never end, and having the nerve to be almost angry at the author when it does. All but one of these are works of historical fiction and have complex black women as leading characters. The writing is lush and literary - and as soon as I saw or thought about each, I remembered the decisions the characters made, its impact on their lives, and how those situations resonated with me so deeply that I felt connected and empathetic to them.

I only get to disappear totally into an engrossing novel about once a year, so I'm gonna be selfish with this choice. I don't want to read anything related to the news or my profession, or that's informed by social media or pop culture. I want to physically & mentally go away. So if you've got any recommendations for some wonderfully written historical fiction, I'd appreciate a heads up. Even if I find Some Sing, Some Cry, I'll be elated to have a list - and I may even try to get in a few more during the year! 
I'm thankful when talented writers share their gifts and I have nothing but gratitude for of all the authors highlighted in this post, including Kuwana Haulsey, Denise Nicholas, Margaret Cezair-Thompson, Florence Ladd and Rosalyn Story.  

Keep on Enjoyceinglife - it's incredible!

It was midnight when I decided to look for my copy of "The Vow," the fabulous novel written by my girls Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray and Mitzi Miller - because, of course, I must re-read it before the film adaptation "With This Ring" starring Jill Scott airs on Lifetime in about two weeks. 

After scouring every bookshelf in my house and even scrounging through at least five huge boxes of books I haven't opened in at least three years, all I could come up with was like every OTHER book these talented three wrote - from "The Angry Black Woman's Guide to Life" to their "Hotlanta" series and even Denene's first one "The Sistahs' Rules."


Sigh... So, with a nod to book publicist extraordinaire Gilda Squire's earlier Facebook post today, I'll be at a bookstore tomorrow happily purchasing another copy of "The Vow." Because my friends and their work are worth it.


Now, I did unearth a few finds that I could not leave in the boxes: Paula Giddings' "When and Where I Enter" changed my life in college. Just thumbing through the portions I'd underlined made me realize that revisiting this gem would definitely help me in my current book projects. "Reaping the Whirlwind" includes important information about my revolutionary grandfather - a passion project. "Mystery of the Dark Tower" by the talented Evelyn Coleman will be great to read to my big girl. And I was so intrigued by "When Washington Was in Vogue" when I received it a decade ago - as it was lost for more than 75 years before it was published - that I always knew I wanted to read it. Plus historical fiction is definitely my thing.


So, I hope you're starting off the year with some good reads - and some satisfying writing (if that's your thing). Here's to book loving and more Enjoyceinglife in 2015!

Sitting next to DeKalb County Sergeant Torrey Kennedy in his huge black SUV, I wondered why we were getting off the highway at Panola Road. This was the exit near the neighborhood where I spent the last few formative years of my childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

I'd soon learn that nearly every night - and I think this was a Tuesday - 30-40 young women are being sold for sex in a handful of low-grade motels that dot this exit. To say I was alarmed is an understatement.

"I don't know you. I'm not your pimp. I'm not your friend. I'm not a family member. I'm not using you. I don't want anything from you. My sole purpose, every day I wake up and put this gun and badge on is to help young ladies like you."

I was scribbling Sgt. Kennedy's words in my notebook as fast as I could. As usual I was recording with my iPhone and iPad, but I still don't trust technology 100%. And I certainly wasn't going to rely solely on any digital device as I reported my first investigative piece - especially when I recognized that the heart of the story I was there to get was happening right in front of me.


Sgt. Kennedy, an officer in DeKalb County's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, was trying to get a young woman sitting on a bed in handcuffs to trust him. She was being arrested on suspicion of prostitution and he was offering her the opportunity to enter into a program that could save her life. There were so many reasons she wouldn't even give him her name, and neither would her pimp who was also being arrested right outside the door of that seedy motel.

As I write in the piece published in the November 2014 issue of Ebony Magazine, all of this happened numerous times until about 3:00 a.m. The night I spent on this sting changed my life. There were upwards of 150 police officers from a dozen agencies making a concerted effort to catch as many people involved in sex trafficking as they could right down the street from where I grew up.


Nearly 30 years earlier, my family left our split-level ranch style home a few exits closer to Atlanta in Decatur, Georgia, to be among the first African-American middle class folks to move into this Lithonia community. I can remember there only being a gas station on the exit during this time when my junior high thoughts of a career in journalism were beginning to intensify. Since then I've written hundreds, maybe thousands, of articles and now there is a Walmart, Publix, Lowes, Ruby Tuesdays, and a nearly a dozen fast food joints in this neighborhood.  A few years ago, just two exits down, a sprawling mall sprung up that is frequented by a plethora of upwardly mobile Black residents - judges, doctors, celebrities and those who aspire to similar status.

I wonder if these professional African Americans know what is going on adjacent to their neighborhoods; that there are Black girls - many underage - who are being trafficked nightly. I was certainly blind to the fact.

But not anymore. My eyes were opened wide during this investigation that lasted several months. I learned that the issue is complex, I have a lot more to learn, and the people who are in this fight to stem the tide of sex trafficking in Atlanta - the epicenter of the epidemic in this country - are motivated by their belief that the lives of these girls matter.

Here's what I was up to circa 1988 at 17 years old - a few years older t han the  average  girl  that's being trafficked (age 12-14 in Georgia). Who could have known that  25 years  later -  just a short drive from the living room where these lovely memories  were made -  a hub would develop where  Black girls are victimized nightly by predators?
So I'm in this thing now, too. Because once you've been where I've been, seen what I've seen, learned what I've learned, you just can't step back. There's too much work to do. And everybody has to be involved. Everybody.

I'll be having this conversation periodically on this blog, via social media and through other opportunities. I'd love for you to join the discussion and get in the fight. Please share your thoughts on the article, what you know about sex trafficking, Black girls and sex trafficking, what you're doing to prevent girls from being trafficked, or how you're helping them out of these situations. Your stories are empowering. Your knowledge of resources to help girls is invaluable. So please share.

And stay encouraged. We can stop sex trafficking. We can save lives. Even if it's just through one action at a time.

#DoSomething #StopSexTraffickingNow #BlackGirlsLivesMatter

I am totally in love with a new opportunity I've recently accepted. I knew something was coming, but not in the way it showed up. This new thing feeds some of my most basic needs; those that never fail to stimulate me. I'm constantly challenged, learning at an accelerated pace, digesting tons of information, and being forced to make whip-fast decisions based on my experience and instinct about topics of which I will forever be passionate.

But right now I'm transitioning into the fullness of this bright, shiny new penny - and I've allowed this temporary ambiguous place to frustrate me to no end. I mean sometimes I'm so angry at the seemingly slow development of this new blessing that I find it hard to allow the things that usually soothe me to work. Trying to stay in a state of gratitude these days often takes concentrated effort.

I just wish the transition was over, it was six months from now and everything was all worked out. But soon come. My left-brain knows that. Yet somehow my Capricorn patience is nowhere to be found.


Listening to two interviews on NPR tonight with a new group called King and the incomparable Sheila Escovedo (Sheila E.) discussing her book chronicling her 40 years as an artist, a thought started bubbling into my consciousness. Hearing them discuss their creative process was just beautiful and stress relieving. I was inspired. To write.


Maybe this is it, I thought. I need to write. Not for my gig. Not for a magazine. But for me. I realized that I had not written a piece on this blog since April. And I've been blogging regularly in some way, shape or form for at least 10 years. And before that I was scribbling for decades in tons and tons of journals.

As I realized that I needed to get back to exercising this muscle outside of external deadlines, other revelations began to unfold. I have always been drawn to the newest thing in my life - sometimes to the point of near obsession. That's why I like social media, e-mail and even snail mail. Every post or open mailbox is an opportunity for something new (the holy grail for an information junkie). This new opportunity is no different. It's been frenetic days, late nights and lots of weekend work for several months now. And that's cool sometimes because I tend to thrive in those spaces.

But there are other dreams and priorities in my life for which I'd worked hard about a year ago to examine, distill and create activation plans. Some I'd began working on. While those ambitions are not new, I still love and want to pursue them.

During this transition and even when the ambiguity lessens with my new opportunity, I need to revisit my other important dreams - and reengage with those plans. The first step though is writing. Reconnecting with my first love is like going home, but there is a difference. Usually I'm so particular about Enjoyceinglife - taking time to get the right photos, videos, links, words, etc. I keep forgetting this is a space I created to challenge myself to write differently than I do professionally.

So this post started out stream of consciousness. And it remains that way - mostly. I mean I am still me, so I did spell check and add in a little extra here and there. But I just can't spend hours blogging these days. However, I do need to write for myself more often. Like Sheila E said about playing her drums, it's nourishment, like a plant being watered every day.

And I've been thirsty for months.

Keep on Enjoyceinglife. It's so rewarding.

Celebrated author, filmmaker and Spelman College professor Tananarive Due has done it again with the  Octavia E. Butler Celebration of Arts & Activism ! And it's all going down today - on the campus of Spelman College. But if you can't make it,  the 5:00 pm panel will be LIVE STREAMED via this link . The full schedule also includes a Black Science Fiction Short Film Showcase and Tales of the Conjure Woman, a reading with Tananarive and  Nnedi Okorafor, and a social justice talk back with Adrienne Maree Brown. 

The 5:00 p.m. panel includes award-winning authors Junot Díaz, Nnedi Okorafor, Dream Hampton, Adrienne Maree Brown, John Jennings and Bree Newsome. Several of these authors participated in a virtual speculative fiction writing workshop earlier. Here is a video of the workshop. 

And on a personal note, I have had the pleasure of covering most of Tananarive's fantastic events in the two years she's been the William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Humanities at Spelman. I've also had numerous conversations with her about everything from parenting, politics and natural hair to her incredible creative output in various mediums and the development of my own process around storytelling. 
I am beyond grateful for the time she spent with the Spelman community and with me. I will really miss her as she moves on to higher heights. 
So, if you missed any of her events over the last two years, here are some recaps below, most of which I'm proud to say I had a hand in producing. I'll add a few more through the end of the year to this space. Keep following Tananarive everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Website - because she's gifted and giving - a powerful combination! 
And I hope you're Enjoyceinglife because it's dazzling. 
Octavia E. Butler Celebration of the Fantastic Arts at Spelman College 2013

Video: Tananarive Due's Fantastic Spelman Experience

Let the Music Play: A DJ Spins Scholarship on Campus


Black to the Future: Era of the Artist-Entrepreneur: Blair Underwood


Photo Gallery: Octavia E. Butler Celebration of the Fantastic Arts

Video: Black to the Future A Conversation with Blair Underwood 

In Due Time: New Cosby Chair Brings Real World Experience to Class

Full Panel Video: Octavia E. Butler Celebration of the Fantastic Arts 2013

True Story: In the mid-90s, I lived in Brooklyn, right around the corner from Nkiru Books, where a pre-BlackStar Talib Kweli used to work. I'm sure I bought books, magazines, incense and jewelry from him, since I regularly patronized what was once the oldest African American-owned bookstore in Brooklyn.

On one of my visits, he gave me a mixed cassette tape and told me to check out he and his boy Mos Def. He asked me to let him know how I liked their flow. 
I never listened. 

In 2000, several years after they released their classic "Mos Def and Talib Kweli are BlackStar," they bought Nkiru and turned it into a nonprofit organization and center to promote literacy and cultural awareness for people of color. 

#MissedOpportunity #NeverFoundCassette #YouNeverKnowWhoIsInYourSphere

#LessonLearned

Here are some of my faves from these talented artists. Please share yours and keep Enjoyceinglife. It's dope.

"Definition" - BlackStar
"Get By" - Talib Kweli
"Ms. Fat Booty" - Mos Def
"The Blast" - Hi Tek and Talib Kweli
"Umi Says" - Mos Def
"Respiration" - BlackStar featuring Common

My daughter and her one of her besties made me proud as "The Michelles" in a Black History Month play at her school. Her friend portrayed First Lady Michelle Obama , who has been key to the nation's heightened awareness of good nutrition and wellness practices especially as it relates to childhood obesity through her Let's Move initiative. And she just made history unveiling new federal standards for food marketing to children that she played a role in bringing to fruition.


During the performance, my baby slayed with a firm salute to the audience as United States Navy Vice Admiral Michelle Howard , who has a slew of firsts under her belt:

Vice Admiral Howard was the first African-American woman to achieve three star rank in the U.S. Armed Forces and the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Rushmore. In 2006, she was selected for the rank of rear admiral (lower half), making her the first admiral selected from the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1982 and the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy selected for admiral. On December 13, 2013, she was nominated to become the U.S. Navy's first female four-star admiral and the first female to be nominated for the position of Vice Chief of Naval Operations.


The show, informed by Tom Joyner's Little Known Black History Facts, included everyone from early 19th century African military genius Shaka Zulu to Claudette Colvin , the first person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery several months before Rosa Parks.

Learn more little known Black history facts and keep in Enjoyceinglife!