Thu, 30 Jul 2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades XV

Pitch,
black and
dark as
the night,
the unknown
father of your
dreams,
the fuzzy figure
on the gray
margins
of myths;
broad and
bulging
forehead
pregnant
with placid
dreams of
a united
and
prosperous
Africa…

Pitch-black
as tar
or hot
steaming
coffee
into which
a maiden
white and
silken as
soy milk
is poured
and
chocolate
is made…

Black and
white tunes
of jazz
that gently
and
breezily
flow
through
the fluffy
green
fingers of
trees…

We come
from far
and
wide and
then bond
with time
and become
one as
kin and then
we merge
as a
clod
of
earth…

Broad
and
bulging
forehead
pregnant
with
wisdom
and
love,
love of
self
reflected
in a remote
other who is
not remote
at all,
but the self
removed by
time and
place…

Black and
white
deeply in
love
pulled apart
by time and
primal
loyalties
and
innate
desires
sown and
nursed by
the roots
of our
souls…

A bridge
between a
benighted
past and
a present
chock-full
of light
and
mirth…

7/23/09

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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The Obama Serenades XV

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