The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American.

With its leaves so rich and heavy with elation and its crimson face made brighter with visions of divinity the shadow of a certain rose looks just like an angel eating light.

President Obama appears to me to have elevated and implemented the artist-activist concept to the role of empowered servant-leader.

In your hands winter is a book with cloud pages that snow pearls of love.

Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.

His [Ben Okri's] work poses very serious questions for the twenty-first century. Among them: To what extent will we allow the indefinable dynamics of something called "destiny" to maintain grief and horror in the world? How hard are human beings willing to fight to achieve and sustain justice, equanimity, or joy? And should progress be called such when it devours what is best within the human spirit?

Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.