Pic of the Day

Neil Rafferty for Statehouse

Well, here’s some slightly good political news during what is proving to be an otherwise very bleak week in American politics…

After a tough primary followed by an even tougher runoff, a former U.S. Marine and openly gay man running for a House seat in Alabama’s 54th district has just won his party’s nomination.

Neil Rafferty announced his bid for a seat in the Alabama House back in February of this year.

The seat is being vacated by Democrat Patricia Todd, the state’s first gay legislator, who announced in January that she would not be seeking reelection.

Yesterday, Rafferty won the Democratic runoff election, receiving 2,531 votes, or 67.12 percent, of the vote. His opponent Jacqueline Gray Miller, an environmentalist and marketer, trailed behind him at 32.88 percent.

So how did he celebrate his runoff victory, you wonder?

By going to a bar, of course!

After the results came in yesterday evening, Rafferty, who works as the director of research and development at Birmingham AIDS Outreach, took to Facebook to invite his friends and supporters to celebrate with him at Crestwood Tavern, a local dive bar.

But today it’s back to work for Rafferty. He needs to prepare for the general election in November, where he will face off against Independent Joseph Baker.

Pics of the Day

Busy, Busy

Last night, I spent the evening doing class work for the online museum studies class that I am taking. There were a lot of readings this week and we didn’t have as much time to work on them because the original links were dead, so we had to wait for the new links to be posted, I spent the night reading about family visits to museums. So anyway, I was up late doing homework last night,

Pic of the Day

A Tempest in a Teacup

A Tempest in a Teacup
by A. Van Jordan

Prospero

Assume, just for a moment,
I am denied a job
in the factory of my dreams
under the fluorescent lights
of a porcelain white foreman.

It’s orderly and neat.
I feed my family.
No one questions my face.
I raised my son in my likeness,
so he would never go unseen,

bobbing on a wave of expectation,
I set in motion with my back
put into my work, praying
for my country, blessed
with more of me, never worrying

about those who might die,
or those who did, trying
to stir a storm, trying
to stand where I’m standing.

About This Poem

“This poem is part of a series of poems in which characters from The Tempest become composite characters who wrestle with the tensions around how we talk about race today, particularly when that talk is gendered. Prospero represents the older, straight white male who fears the cultural shift in America, without seeing the benefits of that shift both for America and even for himself.”
—A. Van Jordan

A. Van Jordan is the author of four poetry collections, including The Cineaste (W. W. Norton, 2013). A professor of English and literature at the University of Mich

Pic of the Day