Uppity-Negro.com

Or, as a subtitle to this post, "People have lost their damn minds!"

Aaron would have turned 41 today. And it upsets me that I can't figure out what he'd be doing now. A new decade, a new beginning--?

He'd certainly have mentioned the senseless killings and shooting spree that took place in Tuscon over this past weekend.

Last year on this blog, I asked that donations be made to certain groups--see the Aaron's 40th Birthday post for details. And this was before finding out the nation-wide extent of the earthquake damage to Haiti, which began a year ago. Please, please consider making donations to any of the groups named below, or to any of the groups helping Haiti. Or donate to a group carrying out work that you care about. Last year, I made donations to Hollywood Unites for Haiti, the charity group founded by Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis; to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund; and to RAINN.

As I've said before, feel free to write me with any questions.

If you use any of the various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to talk about this, use the tag #aaron41.

P.S. I see that the New York Times has an article, Cyberspace When You're Dead, from January 5, 2011, which I'll be reading later on...

P.P.S. And of course there were errors throughout today, one of the few days I actually point people to the blog. Of course...

Posted by Val at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Today, January 12, 2010, would have been Aaron's 40th birthday. It's now been over five years since he died. All I can ever think of is everything he's missed (from the ridiculous to the sublime) -- including our cousin's daughter born just weeks after he passed away, sister Karen's sometimes national byline, Mom's church messages and play appearances, seeing UK's Doctor Who return with good special effects and the Buffy and Angel comic books, which are pop culture things we would have enjoyed together.

To celebrate Aaron's 40th birthday, I had the idea of donating $40 to a charity or nonprofit institution in his name. Aaron sometimes volunteered his time, helping in homeless shelters. One group my mother works with through her church is South Suburban PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), which would be grateful for a donation in these times. My mother also helps with her church's contribution to the annual CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) Walk event. Five years ago, when we held a memorial on this date -- on one of the coldest nights Chicago could come up with! -- we were at Chicago's Women & Children First Bookstore, where we unexpectedly received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Chicago's Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense Center.

Or, if money's tight -- and these days it's tight for everybody -- there's the idea of spending 40 minutes reading about some of the things Aaron talked about on his blog -- like Buffy, Angel, or Doctor Who -- or Noam Chomsky, political science, linguistics, black American history, Aaron McGruder's Boondocks comics and TV show (Aaron would have loved the TV show!). Expand your mind in a way that reading Aaron's blog helped you to do.

Or, if this is your first time here, feel free to read the blog!

Feel free to write me with any questions.

If you use any of the various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to talk about this, use the tag #aaron40.

Posted by Val at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Monday, January 12, 2009, would have been Aaron's 39th birthday. It seems only yesterday, on the Sunday of Super Bowl 9, that I went into labor. As you can imagine, the doctor was not happy. Especially when I arrived at the hospital and the labor stopped. He was not born until the next day.

There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of Aaron especially as we approach the inauguration of Barack Obama. As we went through the seemingly endless presidential campaign, I longed to hear his comments, especially when Sarah Palin entered the scene. Can't you just imagine his comments on that piece of work?

And so as we prepare to observe Aaron's birthday, I invite you to share your favorite Aaron story. Everyone who knew him, either personally or through his Blog, www.Uppity-Negro.com, has a story.

We wanted to give everyone a chance to say something, but have the option to have it shared publicly or sent to us privately. In any case, share your story by sending an e-mail to memoryofaaron@gmail.com and let us know if you want it to appear on the blog or if it's for our eyes alone. You'll notice comments are not open for this entry, for that reason. But trackbacks are! So if you want to share a story about Aaron and write about it on your own blog, be sure to reference this entry so we're notified of it via trackbacks. Or just to make sure, send a note to the e-mail address above with a link to your blog entry.

So, happy birthday, Aaron, from your Mom, and from your sisters, Val and Karen, and all of your fans. And share those stories!

Twitter #uppity-negro39
Blog Tag uppity-negro39

Posted by Val at 10:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

So in September of last year, I wrote to Brian Andreotti of the Music Box Theatre and told him about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing-A-Long that the IFC Center in New York was doing--an audience sing-a-long to a screening of the musical Buffy episode, "Once More, with Feeling"--and asked him, "Any chance of this taking place at the Music Box??" Brian wrote me back the next day, saying, "I love the idea. I'll check it out." And so this week the Music Box Theatre will be having that Buffy Sing-A-Long as one of its Friday and Saturday midnight movies!

Aaron really enjoyed that episode, so it's kind of fitting that this "Once More, with Feeling" Sing-A-Long will be premiering on Friday night. Friday would have been Aaron's 37th birthday!

So I'll be there at the Music Box Theatre at midnight (and maybe Saturday night, too; I haven't decided). It's definitely something to sing about :>!

Posted by Val at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's only been two years since Aaron died, but it easily feels like twenty. I know I feel at least twenty years older since September 2004.

The thing I hate most is how this changed my identity, how I'm now that girl that used to have a brother, that girl that doesn't have a brother anymore. And Karen and Mom both still feel that too, feel that way pretty chiefly. No one ever tells you about that part. It's just not who you want to be.

But blah blah blah, enough about me. How's everybody else doing? Drop a comment here or write to me directly.

Continue reading "And tomorrow starts another ten years since you've been gone" »

Posted by Val at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

It seems like only yesterday that Aaron was in the back yard, laptop on top of a barrel, cigarette in hand and coffee cup near by. He is writing a blog entry for Uppity-Negro.com. It could be on any of the events of the day or a personal tirade on the world in general. But it is not yesterday, it's now been a year. There is not a day that goes by that we don't think about or miss Aaron. Some days it’s a smile as we remember one of his antics and other days it’s tears as we realize that he is physically gone forever. But in our hearts and mind’s eye he will always be with us.

And so we stop to say "Thank You." Thank you for the cards, the letters, the phone calls, the e-mails, the flowers, the words of encouragement, the food, the prayers, and your continuing support. At the memorial service, it was a comfort to us as friends shared stories and remembrances from Aaron’s life. Please keep us in your prayers and Aaron in your memory as we go forward.

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4

Posted by Val at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, to begin with, Aaron Hawkins (1970-2004) created this blog and web site, Uppity-Negro.com, in 2000. Before that, in 1998, he created the Stone Cold Jane Austen web site, which originally was published via Earthlink, but has been moved here to Uppity-Negro.com intact -- along with the infamous El Gecko!

Above is one of the last pictures taken of Aaron (courtesy of TranceJen) before he died on September 3, 2004. Aaron... desperately hoped the next world held better hopes and dreams for him, and he didn't want to wait any longer to find out if it did -- who among us hasn't felt at one time or another that he no longer has anything to offer this world? As with most other truly brilliant men, his genius was a double-edged sword; the sharp intellect that powered his lively and often shredding wit also nursed a deep and, unbeknownst to us, growing despair within him about his life, a feeling that we'd all assumed was long behind him. We were wrong. Aaron's death was confirmed for us on September 8, 2004.

But Aaron was wrong, too. The pain experienced by our family was absolutely immeasurable, as you would expect. It will never die. But what we couldn't have known, and I don't think Aaron could have possibly guessed or would have even believed, was how his death would affect the so-called "blogosphere" as well. I expected that Aaron's friends who had blogs and, conversely, the blogs of those he considered friends, whether he'd actually physically met them or not, would express grief at his passing. But having one of the oldest blogs on the Internet, combined with having one of the oldest blogs by a Negro/black/African American, combined still more with his having one of the longest blogrolls known to man (and I exaggerate here only slightly!) caused his death to have a ripple effect all over the world (and I exaggerate here not at all). I still thought I knew the size of the grief when Red Herring contacted us, but I was completely floored by the other media outlets who contacted us, including the Chicago Sun-Times. I had my own selfish reasons for wishing Aaron was still here--I loved him, he loved me, he was my brother and best friend--but it was becoming clear that there were hundreds (thousands?) of people who felt the same way, whether they'd personally known him or not. Could a man whose death caused so much sorrow for so many people really be someone who no longer had anything to offer this world?

Aaron touched the lives of so many people, a gift he took for granted. It's kind of like in the movie, It's A Wonderful Life. Like Jimmy Stewart's George had no idea, I think Aaron was likewise unaware of how special that really is and how special he really was. As difficult as getting over my own initial shock and grief have been, it's also been wrenching to hear from old friends and classmates of Aaron's, who had lost touch with him, but, for whatever reason, found themselves thinking of him, blithely did a Google search on his name, and were delivered here, and find out for the first time the stunning news of his death. Very real tears have been shed for this man in all these months after his death and I know that there will be still more. He just wasn't a forgettable person!

Mostly, I consider myself blessed to have known him at all.

P.S. Find out more about Aaron at the September 25, 2004 entry, Message from Jessie, Aaron's Mother.

Also, see Aaron's unofficial FAQ from his December 20, 2003 entry, A.I.: His hate is real. But he is not.

And, see the "thank you" letter that appeared in the October 1, 2004 Chicago Sun-Times:

In appreciation

Thank you for the wonderful article ["Fans flood Internet with grief at blogger's death," news story, Sept. 17] regarding my son, Aaron Hawkins. We have been amazed at the impact Aaron's blog and his death has had on the Internet. We cannot begin to express our gratitude to his many readers for the expressions of love and support we have received since his death. I only hope that he knew how much he was loved and respected and how much we all miss him. Again, thank you for the wonderful article. We will continue his blog, uppity-negro.com, as a tribute to him.

Jessie Cunningham,

Homewood

Posted by Val at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Remember to send any complaints, requests, questions, or concerns to Val.

Continue reading "One Step Closer -- The Blogroll!" »

Posted by Val at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello, all! Yes, a brand new professional installation of Movable Type was necessary; an attempted upgrade did not go well. I'm in the middle of importing all of Aaron's messages from the beginning of the blog (June 2002) on. I'd import them all at once, but I had some trouble with that. Pretty much the Movable Type system is able to handle one month at a time -- which is pretty much about all I can handle, as well!

Turns out the real problem wasn't so much my inexperience with Movable Type as it was this domain's host's experience with stating that I had (and was certainly paying for!) a certain amount of site storage space but actually only allotting not much more than a third of that. It caused all sorts of problems in trying to "rebuild" the site after the upgrade and miscellaneous code changes. Once I found out it might be a space problem and I wrote to the host, pretty much their response was, "Our bad! OK, you have it all now. Bye!" This, after spending minutes/hours/days wondering if I hadn't somehow completely destroyed the site forever?!? Yeah, thanks a lot!

The old pages are still on the site, under their original addresses, and are also in this new version of the site under the new archive date-descriptive directories.

In time, all the messages will be back. For now, though, kinda consider the site read-only (unless you have a TypeKey account). And stuck in a time warp. Thanks, everybody.

Posted by Val at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)