I AM TERRY HOWCOTT

There are bits and pieces of my core sprinkled throughout this site. I am a social commentator, willing dissident, community educator, a (lightly) seasoned professional and recovering-flautist. I am either an intellectual, or am long-winded until I score a coherent point. I am a campaigner for the authentic application of justice and ethics in a socio-political atmosphere that reduces such ideals, distorts their meaning and disguises their implications.

I am Black, proud, wholly Same Gender Loving, full in my womanliness and content with my well-roundedness. Being able to bring my whole self forth speaks volumes amidst a flood of dangerously deceptive media and social output that dictates I hobble and shuffle silently and in the shadows.

Who I am mirrors the quandary of many people - too “radical” for fence straddlers, too unapologetically Black for White “lesbians and gays,” too vocal for the politically docile, too openly critical of straight White racist behaviors and privilege, too openly Same Gender Loving for some Black folk, and too philosophically secure for Black elitists. Since winning is not an option in that light, I endeavor to freshen things up by generating a place where more Black people of every ilk can consider bringing their whole selves forth too.

My views and values emanate from inhabiting various socio-economic and intellectual dichotomies in child and adulthood. Ferocious reading seeded my perspective born from 1970’s Black Panther papers and literary deliverance by all the great Black interrogators. I was raised reading the words of the great activists and freedom fighters who not only wrote, but attempted to treat conditions in which Black people remain pauperized by a detached flick-of-the-wrist of the few.

DESPERATION WAS PREGNANT WITH CREATIVITY

www.terryhowcott.com is a culmination of ideas I have hauled around for the right moment. My supportive and gifted poet friend, Omari Barksdale was much the spark for this undertaking. All it took was his reminder that I had gifts beyond being a professional employment seeker. With that, the creation of this site is both an act of creativity and sheer desperation. I am at an instance where my past, present, and future have converged to a single place, facing one another like lost fire-trucks awaiting further direction.

My ancestors shine fog-lights along my path. Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells whisper cross-generational lessons that I should be innovative and help press the envelope for an authentic Black solidarity.

My resolve to move this project was also nourished by the examples of Angela Odom, of www.femmenoir.net and Glen Ford of www.blackcommentator.com. Both are great minds – and have been gracious to publish my writings, granting me chances to teach, learn, and experience broad response.

And lastly, I can not claim to be worth a thing unless I offer the communities to which I belong my few talents to help agitate for progress in a manner that is not full of holes - and that agitates against sameness.

ONA’ MISSION

The love-call of this site is to offer encouragement to people who might not know that they can to do great things. It is also an organic hub for activist solutions and rough and tumble ideas.

When a batter faces oppressive winds, she swings hard to hit her ball over the fence. Jumping a cue ball against the eight at the far end of the table requires a forceful stroke. The project’s aim is to produce cogent, vigorous, corner-turning engagement.

If successful, it is poised to serve as just another online center of cultural competence and social fitness. My position on inclusion is a strong element of that competency. Our community’s lack of reasonable, full inclusion based on attractional (or sexual) orientation leaves us all lacking in flavor. We need only stir all the seasonings in the pot toward a rich, savory product. On this critical matter of full participation, I hope to tease and fold Black communities together into the reader’s mind, exposing our unrealized strengths even to the most virulent naysayer.

I hope this site attracts more commentators, activists, academicians and just plain folk to help me impact this groundswell - this whirling disenfranchisement we are experiencing in our communities. I hope it satisfies the reader’s notions of genuine intellectual pursuit. And, I hope it satisfies the activist, sacrificial souls of Black folk.

Your thoughts and critique will make this space a living, breathing one subject to change and revision – as I am. Thanks for your visit, and I hope you’ll keep your good eye out on me.