Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover

By D. Amari Jackson

This week, we reach into the b.a.SKET and pull out the compelling image of our ongoing struggle through the storm…

Fate brings forth the path of the future

swiftly past the glass of The Sandman

some might find the pathway confounding

shades of surrealism abounding

‘round this time the roads unravel

as faith makes claim to the road less traveled

from stern to bow the storm closes in on me

Conscience drives the path of the psyche

I thought about times in my life when I might be

charging down a different path than chosen

righteous wrongs convinced by those in

places less than justifiable

biased opinions come and go

like tall waves crashing back to an endless sea

Clarity steers the road of enlightenment

back to the path I forge as a soldier

while all around me I hear them laughing

The Emperor’s new clothes are baffling

yet womb to water reigns a life in flow

baptized from above and thus so below

as deep inside

Salvation claims its place in me.

–D. Amari Jackson,

Inner Sanctum

In Struggle For Equality, masterful, Indianapolis-based artist Mason Archie paints a poignant tale of perseverance as his valiant subject makes her way through the rough waters, determined, destined, and undeterred. Though alone, amidst a tumultuous sea, her wiry muscles steer the craft forward on her chosen path, through waves of challenge and inequity, toward the distant yet barely-discernible golden-rimmed horizon awaiting her.

Her drive and cool determination beneath the sun-tinged clouds give one the feeling that she, like the rest of us, is never truly alone.

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Amari Jackson is a creator, author, TV/web/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel, The Savion Sequence; creator/writer/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series The Book Look; writer/coproducer of the 2016 film Edge of the Pier; and current writer/coproducer of Listen Up! on HBCU GO/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.

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