Fri, 09 Oct 2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades XXI

Gramps Stanley
was one darn
good
white
man;
understandably,
his one big
fault
was his earnest
desire
to forget
the past,
to forget
those days
when the sale
of black folks
to white folks
by both
black
and
white
folks
had just
given way
to the treatment
of black folks
as nothing more
than trash;
those days
when black
womanhood
wasn't worth
a dime,
and our
mothers and
grandmothers
had their
maidenheads
trampled
at whim
in the public's
eye,
and our
fathers and
grandfathers,
shorn of all
respect and
dignity,
got hanged
at whim up
oak and
elm
trees,
for merely
staring
with
subliminal
urge
Master Jones'
wench….

Gramps Stanley
was one darn
good
white
man;
save,
of course,
that curious
part of him
that mistook
make-believe
for the real
McCoy,
graphic memory
for that which
never occurred;
for the truth
of memory
can often be
too painful
for even those
who stood on
the side of
might
being
right
and thus
have little
to be miffed
or ashamed
about….

Gramps Stanley
was one darn
good
white
man;
except
he was hapless
to have grown up
in a time
when being white
and good
was too
scandalous
to be true
and cool…

8/10/09

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 XXI

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