Mourning Vincent.

A dear friend and believer in freedom, passed away last week. I first met Vincent at an Anti Racist Organizing Committee meeting while I was a undergraduate and Vincent was getting his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. In my last year there, Vincent pushed the-powers-that-be to let him teach an English course entitled "Healing the Black Homoerotic Body." Anything that Vincent did, was further proof that he was his own super-human rallying us all to believe that we all were as well. Putting that English course in the course schedule left no doubt in any of our minds.

You changed my life, Vincent. And I promise to continue to draw upon and share with others your spirit and memory.

This is a memorial note, I left on Reginald Harris's blog.

On Wednesday 9/12/2001, a couple of poets speaking fire shook a little bookstore off of South Congress in Austin, Texas. One of those poets was Vincent.

I can't say that I remember his exact words, but I do remember the spirit that he evoked: passion, anger, love. Vincent was always on the front lines of art and activism, whether it be to protest W.'s re-election as Texas Govenor on the steps of capital or at open mics at Gaby and Mo's, he was there alright, with fire and spirit, shaking the earth.

You are my brother, Vincent, who I have always looked up to.

Love,

Andre

p.s. Any NYC ppl who read this, please contact me (andre@freedomtrainproductions.org). I'm going to have a small re-memory of Vincent in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn soon.