This spring the Cambridge Writer’s Workshop held their retreat in the vibrant city of New Orleans. The weather was amazing and felt like a breath of fresh air to all of the snow we had experienced in this unusually long winter. We stayed in a gorgeous two-story house across the river from the French Quarter in Algiers’s Point.
The retreat started with a night of games and fun during orientation which helped stir everyone’s creative side!
Classes for this retreat showcased: “Rasa: Emotion & Suspense in Theatre, Poetry, and (Non)Fiction” taught by Rita Banerjee; “What’s At Stake?” taught by Diana Norma; and a two-part course on both finding a literary agent and building a literary platform taught by special lecturer Natalie Kimber, a literary agent from The Rights Factory. The classes were as fun as they were informative and educational.
In our free time, we played a group game of Werewolf, sought out local food and drink, saw local sites, listened to jazz in the French Quarter, and most importantly wrote!
The 48-hour Writing Bake Off has become a staple of the CWW, and this trip produced some amazing work by our writers! As per the usual rules each writer had 48 hours to write around twenty pages of work while incorporating elements as chosen by the fellow writers. This Bake-Off needed to include:
Pastel Colored Houses
The Powdered Sugar from the Beignets
Gentrification
Trumpets
A “Big Easy” Attitude
“Widow-Maker” Trees
Here are some excerpts of what our writers came up with.
Gina Anderson “The Baby Sitter”
I kicked open the door. The creature looked like a Doris Day reject. It held the baby outstretched over the crib readying to extract its soul. “Unhand that child!” I demanded. I’m sure my command came out in a chirpy, garbled mess instead of low demonish.
The woman lowered her palm over the tiny chest of the babe, swaddled up in a blue blankie, as a threat. She opened her mouth up in an unnatural yawn and let out a low hum. The move shut the door behind me and blasted me against it.
The babe was silent. It made no moves to protect itself. This demon babe was rumored to have unimaginable powers. Did the creature stun it with some sort of ability unnatural to this realm?
Very well. If it was going to fight dirty, then the crutches and the pants were coming off. I quickly unwrapped my bandaged legs and feet, releasing my claws, but also thoroughly confusing the possessed creature. I picked up one of the crutches and detached one of the components that doubled as a stake. I only had two left and I only had two shots at getting it right.
The creature stretched the face of its possessed body in that yawn again, but this time it spewed a chemical mist. I coughed to prevent the toxic fumes from entering my lungs. Hey, I’m a birdie with delicate sensibilities. Damn it! These guys just kept upping the threats.
Adi Hernández “Untitled Bake-Off”
Julio had been off sleeping, reading, and doing just about god-knows-what those three weeks nobody could find him, and in-between it all, he would find himself staring out through the window hoping he would one day go back to what he thought he could remember life to be. Since the accident, since the weather that day long ago, since his brother’s death, he stayed in the upper room of a pastel house that had somehow managed to stay intact. He had been stuck there, paging through the same three books he hadn’t read in a while, but he was beginning to think, maybe a trip outside could spare him from having to read them all over again. They made him sick to remember again.
To remember his hometown in Managua, Nicaragua. To remember the days when he and his brother would simply drop the bags of groceries they carried home to run off to the beach at the sight of a glimmer of water. To remember the nights outside their home eating papaya and waving off the heat those summer days created. To remember his mama and papa spending nights together cooking for the rest of the family just before they would have “uninvited” guests over. To remember his brother’s laugh when he fell into the pond searching for the sea serpent that supposedly lived there. To remember them again, and to realize they were too far to offer any help like he knew they would.
“It’s what I get… I guess.” he thought to himself.
Deb Jannerson “Poems”
first sight
the only track in my discman’s 56-sleeve carrier that mentioned new orleans was about hookers.
i slipped the disc into its wide plastic mouth anyway, lit a funk ribbon between my ears as
the seventh-circle seraphim perched back from the trolley window, uninterrupted by its muffled bass.
removed from blood context, i offered myself to the necklace-strewn widowmaker branches, to the creaky car film-reeling academic excuses, to the jester-drunk women embracing on quarter corners.
agnostic phantoms marbled my barrier, warmth wet as a lover, leaned through anthony kiedis to hiss there is something here for you to find.
8/28/05
with two more weeks until the
begrudging unlock of the ivory tower, i
regressed into the house of the soot eagle
where i unset through the ticking, then
shattered offscreen.
in a vertiginous spot of mirror-image cruelty:
it really will be a canal street! the
sourdough words would not mix with
her fault-ridden lips.
my brain disappeared, impotent.
i had left its dormant shadow on
the opposite end of the interstate, and
almost expected it to survive.
Gary Zeiss “Thank You for Riding with Jesus”
I rode with Jesus the other day. Ten glorious, spirit filled miles. They were fun-filled, too. Yes, I was touched by the son of God himself, and sitting in the back seat of his 2014 Blue Passat (7EAD313), I felt as if I were being whisked away from all my cares.
Jesus asked if I believed in him. How could I say no? He was sitting there, in the flesh, right in front of me. He would move his hands and the car would turn. He would move his feet
and the car would accelerate or slow down. Of course, Jesus was right there with me, every moment of this journey.
Good thing I became a believer quickly. The 405 was in one of its usual crowding phases, and Jesus was pulling motorcycle like lane splits. Give him this — he could drive like hell. While I was in his holy presence, the day seemed to get brighter. It was if the darkness relented to the holy glory of dawn.
I definitely felt as if I was being touched by an angel — and not just any angel, but the big J. We got off the 405 at La Tijera.
Jesus laid on the horn at the driver in front of us.
No effect.
“No turn on red” I said, pointing to the sign.
“That’s for you folks, not the son of God!” he laughed, almost rear-ending the Explorer with Utah plates that was standing at the light.
I almost thought I heard him mutter a curse word or two at the careful driver in front of us. I knew just then, What Would Jesus Do in traffic? He’d be just like one of us — pissed off
at the slow driver in front of him, impatient, and ready to honk and curse at a moment’s notice. I felt very close to Jesus at that moment.
Matthew Bargas “Credo: On Truth”
“What is truth,” Pontus Pilate asked. The answer may not be as simple as most would think. In
this day and age of fake news and real news the question is just as relevant as it ever was. Our digital technology can fabricate anything, creat compelling arguments supporting or condemning anything anything, and who is to decide what is real and what is fake.
Aside from science and math, are there any universal truths, or are all truths relative? We hold these truths to be self evident? Really? What does that mean. If life liberty and pursuit of happiness are self evident why is there so much death and destruction, so much oppression, so much misery in our world. How about the divine right of kings? That ‘truth’ was believed by everyone centuries ago. Who knows what everyone will believe in the future?
And there is this excerpt from the song, Wonderful from the musical Wicked:
“We believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it history. A man is called a traitor or a liberator. A rich man is a thief or a philanthropist. Is one a crusader or an invader. It’s all in which label is able to persist. There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities. So act as though they don’t exist.”
Rachel Kurasz “Widow Maker Trees”
I ran into my house and locked the door. I was fine, I just drank too much, I told myself. The wind howled, branches were scratching at my door. I went to my bedroom and laid down on the bed hoping to get a good night’s sleep and deal with the hangover in the morning. The scratching sounds continued and sounded as if they were right at my bedroom door.
I was scared, I was drunk, and I finally decided I needed to say the prayer, fuck it, being foolish was better than ending up like that poor woman’s corpse.
“As I lay me down to sleep I pray…” Shit. “As I lay me down to sleep I pray…” Fuck.
The scratches grew louder.
“As I lay me down to sleep I pray…” I was so drunk and scared that I had completely forgotten the damn prayer. I kept repeating the first line over and over again. And then I saw it. I saw a small branch crawling through the space in the door frame. I prayed faster.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip full of fun, food, and productivity! Until next time, stay wonderful NOLA!
–Rachel Kurasz, CWW Media & Communications Intern
CWW Spring in New Orleans Writing Retreat – Recap! This spring the Cambridge Writer’s Workshop held their retreat in the vibrant city of New Orleans. The weather was amazing and felt like a breath of fresh air to all of the snow we had experienced in this unusually long winter.
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Friday
FRIDAY
Acts 23:3
Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
NOTE- the reason you see both Yoututbe and Wordpress videos on this post- is because every time I post anything about CCPD- for some strange reason my Youtube site gets hacked- and the settings are changed to private [where the public cannot view the video].
S.B. 4- https://youtu.be/1EdkjZGym6w
http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-Ah
.Caller Times sold out
.Cops not for it
.CCPD
.Austin TX.
.Was Judge Greenwell murdered?
.Guy Williams
.Sandra Watts
.Bishop case
.Chief Markle
.CWW [Brother Rey]
Exodus 20:14
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Cook- https://youtu.be/WkZg-7_Touk
http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-Ai
.Cook or Crocker- to be honest- not sure
.Code enforcement- unless you’re a cop http://www.caller.com/story/opinion/readers/2016/05/19/code-enforcement-applies-to-some-not-all/91517584/
.Herod
.Adultery is indeed a crime
.Kirk Stowers
1 Corinthians 7:9
But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Trump like me? https://youtu.be/4PvGpJ3soCE
http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-Aj
.Dirk
.Tennessee
.Trump n Comey
.The mechanic accused of rape and kidnapping
.Nueces counties special rating- number 2- in the U.S.A. !
.Joe McComb
.Loyd Neal [new stuff below]
Isaiah 41:2
Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Letter from CCPD- https://youtu.be/DOUhQ2rgm2A
http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-Ak
.Local news reported more gang arrests in C.C.- then ANY OTHER city in recent federal raids
.Houston has 7 more times population- only 40 arrests
.Corpus had 165
.Why?
.Corruption in Corpus Christi
.The letter from CCPD [read on video] states ‘we determined that the burglary of the gun and wallet- from your vehicle is unsolvable- therefore we will do no investigation’
.Huh? I have never in my life seen a Police department do this- ever!
.Just found the link- Corpus leads the nation! http://www.kristv.com/story/35418681/corpus-christi-leads-the-nation-in-gang-operation-arrest
.Internal Affairs knew!
.Solvability factor?
.Its his I.D. and credit cards and gun for heavens sake- solve it- do your jobs for once in your life!
.And don’t be criminal!
http://www.caller.com/story/news/crime/2017/05/11/ice-led-gang-operation-leads-hundreds-arrests-corpus-christi/101556642/
.Out of a total 1378 arrests made NATION WIDE- 164 were from Corpus Christi- that’s the number they don’t highlight in the article- more than 10 percent of the ICE arrests in this sting- nation wide- were in Corpus Christi- Texas.
14 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,
2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.
4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
NEW- Talked a little about the new law passed in Texas- S.B. 4. It permits cops to question people about their immigration status.
Most police Departments across the state are against it.
Why?
First- they have enough to do dealing with local crime- and to add a federal crime [Illegal alien] to their plate- is too much.
Second- the cops need the help of the Hispanic community in policing- and the result will be any immigrants- or even just Hispanic Americans- might be less prone to cooperate because of this new law.
In this case- I side with the cops.
I side with the Hispanic community- because they will be the ones who are targeted.
How many citizens carry around their birth certificates?
Or proof of citizenship?
I don’t.
So it seems like a bad law- to me- and to the cops.
So yes- we agree on this.
I also mentioned a few famous local cases that I talked about before.
A girl who accused a local mechanic of kidnapping her- binding her hands and wrist's- taking her to his mechanic shop- and raping her- threatening to kill her.
I watched/read the case.
The girl was out at 3 am- gave some questionable excuse why she was out- that seemed fake.
She never reported the crime to the police- until the next day when her mother asked where she was.
She was checked at the hospital and there were no signs of being tied up and bound.
The morning she left the auto shop- she walked calmly out- past the other mechanics- and did not scream for help- and after she left- did not call 911.
The evidence showed she lied about being bound- lied about being held against her will- probably lied about everything.
Yet- the local mechanic is in prison [I think for life?]
That's just one of the many cases that earned Nueces county the ranking of 2nd most corrupt county in the U.S.A.
And yes- the Trump story.
Trump has tweeted for Comey to be careful because his conversations with Trump- might have been recorded.
Sounds like my first [or 2nd] video!
Yes- we are alike.
And I talked about another case where a CCPD officer saw one of my friends outside Dollar tree- the cop asked why he was there.
My Friend told the truth ‘my girl is inside- buying dinner’.
The Cop assumed he was lying- then the girl came out- with dinner.
The cop responded in an unprofessional manner- and its possible the response has been recorded- and sent to the U.S. justice department for review.
So- that's it for now.
God bless all.
P.S. -why send stuff to the Justice Department? Because Nueces county has a history- Judges that don’t cooperate with the local politicos- are found shot in their judges chambers- that’s why [Tom Greenwell].
Note- I’m not sure of the officers name that I mentioned on the video- I said Cook- Crocker- But I want to make sure I have the name right. And that might be the wrong name. Either way- the incident did happen- remember we might have his voice on recording [or Sessions might have it by now? Along with Trumps recording of Comey!]
NOTE- I made the last video right before posting- and don’t have time to write any comments on that one- so you will have to watch the video to actually see the letter from CCPD [mailed right before I made the video].
VERSES-
Isaiah 41
King James Version (KJV)
41 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.
5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.
12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
21 Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.
26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.
27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
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Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Thanks- John.#
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