Charles issues a warning to the social media public. He offers words of caution to #cancelsocialmedia between now and November 3rd. As he explains in the video, there will be tons of (dis) information all battling for the most precious real estate we own. Take a listen if you like.
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TOAS Podcast: Cancel Social Media
Parody: White Man’s Burden 2020
Fellow humans:
Do not be alarmed. It’s just a parody of the classic poem by Rudyard Kipling. Updated for our present time. Enjoy. (or not)
Charles L. Chatmon
Author, President of Chatmon’s Books
TOAS Podcast: The Opinions Expressed……
This is my first try in years of starting a consistent podcast for your peeps out there. Just like my blog on another site, I hope to provide you with my perspective on issues on various subjects. I do hope you enjoy what you’re about to listen to.
For this first entry, I explain that those of us who write, speak and watch this medium every day, are engaging in an opinion-based medium unless our subject or point is supported by indisputable, reliable sources. Please take a listen. Thank you.
(TOAS = Thoughts on a String)
I’m an Author, Not an Armchair Activist
In our last episode, we mentioned that as an author, nothing else should be expected of me rather than what you read in my books and to keep the discussion there. I prefer to speak about the imagery in “Take a Minute and Pause” in the Voices of South Central than to discuss endlessly about the subject matter in the book. I’m trying to sell it to you, the reader, not to start a rant outside of the pages of that book as many armchair activists have done online.
Armchair activists. If you have a Twitter and Facebook account, you too can play this game by constantly posting what’s wrong with our world and society that spirals out of control. However, as an author, my job is to tell you what’s going on in this world and that’s by talking about the themes and topics in the things I’m passionate about. This may offend a great deal of friends who are already posting current news and/or opinions from the philosophers or great men and women of influence in the past, but newsflash: your ‘fans’ are interested in YOU, not the postings of an anti Obama tirade. Yes, you may appeal to your fans who are just as interested as ‘freeing the sheep’ but unless you talk about your book, the same book you put an effort to produce and eventually publish, then outside of that circle, chances are the gains to attract new readers will fall short.
Look, if you’ve read my posts this far (over a thousand) then you know on what issues I stand and where my heart lies with the subjects that concern me the most. But I am a poet and author who speaks on life’s foibles, not an armchair activist who posts something on social media which eventually will be pushed further down in the news feed within a manner of seconds. If any reader wants to know who Charles L. Chatmon is, I have a website, an updated bio, even a guestbook if they want to maintain in touch (and I do suggest you sign the guestbook, smile) with me. Chatwrites2@yahoo.com is my email address. The one thing I am not nor will ever be, is an armchair activist. I have good speaking ability, but not of the legendary quality. I have stood behind a pulpit and preached a sermon twenty years ago, and while my gift of writing may be used as a ‘bully pulpit’ on paper and on screen. My job as an author is to share with you, the reader what I wrote in my published books and keep a dialogue with you in this forum about future appearances, etc., rather than recreate the Civil Rights Movement here. As I said last time, better and greater men and women than I can succeed in that task.
In a forum like this, a blog (how many folks continue to read blogs anyway?) it’s my responsibility to provide content that reveals my thoughts and feelings. You, the reader must decide if future visits here are worth your time. In a past article, I referenced websites such as the old Black Voices and Net Noir where folks had their say about Presidents Clinton and Bush, touched on the same issues as Black people we’re still going through and yet…..those websites are closed, shut down. So our armchair activism really didn’t account for much, did it?
Social media is all the rage right now, but as an author it is my hope that it doesn’t take away the human factor in going out for book signings and/or events such as the L.A. Black Book Expo. It’s created a monster in that everyone, everyone has an opinion, an agenda, a cause, a mission, you name it, everyone’s on the internet distracted from the things that matter including ‘pulling out of thin air’ philosophies that make no sense at all. Personally, I will continue to use my social media pages to post important news stories while focusing on the book scene. I seriously doubt my tirade to the president, congress or even Shoe Shine Boy will make a difference. The machinations of men will continue to grind with or without an insightful and conscious probing post. Perhaps those memes of Kermit the Frog sipping some tea while telling you whatever is none of his business will make our ‘leaders’ quake in their boots. An author shouldn’t waste time dealing with foolishness like that, nor he or she should encourage it.
Reminder: I’m an author, not a world leader, revolutionary or armchair activist. I write books and articles, not social policy.
Charles L. Chatmon
Author, President, Chatmon’s Books
I’m An Author, Not A World Leader or Revolutionary
I’m an author, not a world leader or revolutionary. I write books and articles, not make strirring speeches which fire up the soul or go out in the campaign trail. Yet somehow, in this world we call the internet, it seems anyone can assume the mantle of ‘saving us’ by posting quotes from social role models, etc. It is far too easy for someone like me (and you have almost one thousand examples of this) where I use my talent to ‘influence’ others on what’s happening in the world and my own observations of it.
There comes a time when I try to heed what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:12 ”But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.” (New American Standard) So if the wisest man who has ever lived can make a statement like that and if writing (of books or anything is endless), then perhaps our minds are ‘worn out’ by constantly offering every opinion, every personal agenda, every point of view we hold in our social media, without knowing we’ve built a ‘fan base’ who reads and absorbs all of this – and yet we are writers.
If you have a moment, google some famous authors you know and admire. Look at their websites. If they have a social media account, look that up too. See how they interact with their fans, watch how they respond to each criticism or praise. They don’t spend time ranting about drama they have or will never control, don’t go on about the conspiracies we’re force fed to believe, the authors I’ve seen interact, keyword – INTERACT – with their fans and answer every question given to them, Maybe they offer a remedy on chicken soup, but they stay within themselves and speak their minds about a current event of the day, but not required to answer all of life’s questions in their posts. They’re human, just like you and I.
Therefore, I think it’s laughable to think even I as much as I’ve shared a lot of my personal thoughts and opinions (it is my blog you know), I have to assume the duty of a wise sage, a soothsayer for my readership. They can buy my books and look at my poems to see where I stand which is always up for debate. I also tried to offer opinions on the writing business and the changes happening before our eyes. It’s tempting not to ‘stay within oneself’ and pretend that I’m some ‘leader’ who’s leading our race towards the mountaintop. Better and greater men than I have the ability to encourage, influence and inspire the multitude. I’m not nor will ever be that person. Again, I’m an author, not a world leader.
Charles L. Chatmon
Author, President, Chatmon’s Books
I Love My Father, And Here’s The Reason Why
He was there at the beginning; I was there for him at the end.
Note: I wrote this piece on another blog years ago. It’s appropiate to share with you now in honor of my father, Charles L. Chatmon, Sr who passed from this earth two years ago. This is a challenging day to hold on to the positive memories, the good times we shared. I often say ‘submitted for your (dis) approval’ as a nod to Mr. Serling, but I hope you folks reading this understand the effort. Thank you.
-Charles L. Chatmon
There’s a lot of sounding off by our black women these days towards black men.
They reveal hurt, disgust, disappointment and certainly a lot of pain.
The women say there are no more ‘good men’ out there and as much as the few men try to insist there are, the women continue to refuse.
But I would like to talk about the one true man I know, he’s someone I’ve learned a lot by walking in his footsteps, holding his hand and hugging him whenever possible.
My father.
Let me share this with you and I hope you understand what it means to be a true man, because desiring a man with a tool in his pants pales in comparison to what’s in his heart, his soul, his all. Years ago, my father approached me with some disturbing news. After a visit to the doctor, he was told he had six months to live. As anyone would react after hearing your life will end in a number of days, he broke down and cried. I should know because I broke down with him on that day back in 1992.
However, my father rebounded and with the help and love of a supportive wife and son, he attended counseling sessions at the hospital with a group of other individuals diagnosed with the same affliction. He poured out his heart, sharing his fears yet willing to go through chemotherapy to beat the disease, or to slow its progress. After the dreaded six month period, my father was the only one, the only one who continued to attend counseling while the others, passed on.
I’m sure we in this woeful generation are so fixated on our material needs, our sexual wants, and trapped in the vain fortress of our egos that we fail to realize what the true measure of a man really is. It isn’t sexing up every woman he comes across, it isn’t about the size of his hands or his tool, it’s not about the six figures and the toys that come with it, no, hell no. It’s about what you have inside, a willingness to look death right in the face and tell it to back off, there’s still more living to do. I wish I could tell all of you the times my father would return from the hospital completely worn out from chemo, not willing to go through with it any further, or going to the hospital for repeated visits and finding out someone in your class didn’t make it to see one more day. No, we’re too busy cussing each other out, pointing fingers and indulging in foolishness to learn this lesson. This is what a true man is, this is what he’s made of. It’s just a damn shame we refuse to see it even when we should.
I can say after six long years of battling his disease, my father’s illness is now in remission and continuing to live his life for as the Lord allows him to live each day. Learning from this experience and even drained of all the support I had to carry for three people, my father, my mother and myself. I learned during that time that death does call each of us and when it’s our time, we must adhere to it. However, we all have a spirit to fight, to resist, to delay the inevitable because there is still more living to do.
So the next time anyone dare says a black man is full of…..you know, I can only look at the one man who laughs at all that, who didn’t have time to listen to all that emotional verbiage but focused on what was truly important; living out the rest of his days and winning a round over death.
The true, ‘good’ man is my father.
I, as his son, am proud to know and be a man just like him.
I love him, and always will. That’s a true man to me.
A Message to the Graduates of 2019/2020
Although he did not get to share this special moment with the graduates of 2019/2020, author and teacher Charles L. Chatmon has special words for them as well as a piece of helpful advice and encouragement for their future.
Good luck graduates! A pleasure to share one part of the journey with you. Here’s for better adventures ahead!
Charles L. Chatmon
Author, teacher and President, Chatmon’s Books
Poetry Night, Part 3
In this edition of Poetry Night,there are a few poems for your viewing and listening pleasure.
First we would like to present, Bang! Bang!
Next, The Divided States of America
Third, there is a reason why The Fire Still Burns
The Tears of a Mother
Last, a piece that will no doubt provoke a reaction, but much needed for our times: I Am A Man
Thank you for your support over the years of poetry and conscious pieces to be heard. Please contact us if you have questions.
Charles L. Chatmon
Author, President: Chatmon’s Books
Literary Speak Interview
This is an interview for Literary Speak for KPAS Channel 56 in the beautiful city of Pasadena, California. (2007).
I had the pleasure of sharing the interview with the ultra-talented author Margo Candela (More Than This, good-bye to all that). If you have time to spare (with this pandemic, I’m sure you do) Take a look at this interview moderated by C. Debra Thomas. I believe you will enjoy what you’re about to see.
Charles L. Chatmon
Author/President, Chatmon’s Books
Adding My Two Cents
Hey folks,
I posted this on several of my social media feeds yesterday. I wasn’t looking for likes or follows. That wasn’t my intent. I wanted to show a solution to all of the negativity surrounding us recently. I only hope the message below shows that and begins to lead to a better way for all of us. I love you all. Take care.
Charles L. Chatmon
President, Chatmon’s Books
