Text Tuesdays – New Prose – “Three Of The Hardest Words” – A Blue Lines Blog Four Week Wedding Series

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A Smile, Adult, Atlanta, Best Man, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bridgeport, California, Connecticut, decision, Forest Hills, Friends, Friendship, Georgia, Harlem, Heart, Hockey, Husband, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia Walker, Los Angeles, Love, Marriage, Matrimony, New York, New York City, poetry, Prose, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Smile, Text Tuesdays, UNC, UNC Chapel Hill, United States, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Walnut Creek, Wedding, Wife, Words

10/19/15
Was it your smile that got me?
That fateful day when our eyes met,
The beginning of us, with years to develop,
Moving forward in an unknown direction,
A future California dream,

When did everything change,
Separated by the United States,
Our affection matured by travel and distance,
To lead us to this day,
The Californian dream,

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – ” A Request…In Your Honor” – A Blue Lines Blog Four Week Wedding Series

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1994, 2015, Adult, Atlanta, Best Man, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bridgeport, California, Connecticut, Forest Hills, Georgia, Harlem, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia Walker, Los Angeles, Marriage, New York, New York City, poetry, Prose, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Text Tuesdays, UNC, UNC Chapel Hill, United States, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Walnut Creek, Wedding, Words

10/6/15
It began with a request,
Not like when I asked you,
As an adult, who had to fall to grow again,
You asked me in a mature phase,
I was flattered, to give back to you,
For your special day, and your special time,

New 30 Day Song Challenge – Day 17 – A Song From Your Favorite Album – Joi Gilliam – “You May Die” from Outkast’s ATLiens

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1996, 2010, A Song From Your Favorite Album, Andre 3000, Andre Benjamin, Andre Patton, Atlanta, ATLiens, Big Boi, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Joi, Joi Gilliam, Key Yemaya Walker, Love, music, One Music Fest, OutKast, Pal's Lounge, Three Stacks, You May Die

I remember a friend calling, and playing “Elevators” from the album over the phone to me while I was in Bridgeport, Connecticut since it was not being played up north. I also remember while working the 1996 Olympics, we found a cassette tape with songs that both made and did not make the album (showing up on the Soul Food, and Nothing To Lose soundtracks). The sound was extremely low, and the quality was poor, but as fans, we killed that tape.


The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

30 Day Photo Challenge – Day 9 – A Picture of the Person Who Has Gotten You Through the Most

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30 Day Photo Challenge, A Picture of the Person Who Has Gotten You Through the Most, Bentley Hotel, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bodine Hall, Bridgeport, Brooklyn, Connecticut, Day 9, Friendly's, Key Yemaya Walker, Milford, New York, Seeley Hall, TJ, Trini, Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidadian, Trumbull Mall, UB, University Of Bridgeport

My Trini Brooklyn, NY homegirl I met in college. Someone I have always been, and will always be able to talk to. It’s amazing I’ve known her for 18 years. Wow.

The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 5 – A Song That Reminds You Of Someone – BeBe & CeCe Winans – “If Anything Ever Happen To You”

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1994, 30 Day Song Challenge, A Song That Reminds You Of Someone, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Blue Lines, Bridgeport, college, Connecticut, Crestfallen, Day 5, If Anything Ever Happen To You, Key Yemaya Walker, Relationships, University Of Bridgeport

When I first went away to school, my mother told me that she was driving and the song came on. She had to pull over off the road because she just began crying. Though not a song that would be in my catalogue, this song will always remind me of her. And to counteract the “Song For Mama,” post, this was the song that was supposed to play.


The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

Blue Lines Blog – Love At First Sight – Blue Lines Chapter 12: Chance – Excerpt

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Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Blue Lines Chapter 12: Chance, Bridgeport, Buckhead, Bulls, California, Chance, Chapter 12, Chapter 12: Chance, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Christmas, Connecticut, excerpt, fiction, Gerald, Holiday, Kenneth A Suffern Jr, Kenneth Suffern Jr, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Lenox Mall, Love, Main Street, Michael Jordan, Mitch Richmond, MW, N.B.A., National Basketball Association, NBA, North Carolina, Photography, Prose, Romance, Sacramento, Sacramento Kings, Scottie Pippen, Tar Heels, Trumbull Mall, UNC, UNC Chapel Hill, University Of Bridgeport, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Westfield Trumbull

This Blue Lines excerpt is from Chapter 12: Chance. The scene takes place as our protagonist Key Yemaya Walker happens upon the antagonist Blue Hurt while he writes on a bus headed to the local mall. Though Blue Lines takes place in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina, the real life imagery starts with her chance meeting him on the bus, which was the public transit I and friends would take from the University of Bridgeport at the Main Street stop by our dorm Bodine Hall, to Trumbull Mall, now Westfield Trumbull. The mall used in the writing process was a amalgam of Trumbull Mall in Connecticut, and Lenox Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, or Buckhead rather.
As I always state, Blue Lines, is a piece of fiction that evolved from real events, places, and people, therefore elements of this selection, as well as the entire work contain real experiences, and events of the time period in which my manuscript takes place. I’ll be honest, looking over this selection, I may not leave it up, though the work is copywritten. Please enjoy, this early Christmas present.
Blue Lines Chapter 12: Chance

We got together, like, the first week of school and through this I have actually become accustomed to being alone. If he’s not at practice, he’s with his boys and the few times I see him, it’s always conversation about basketball or trying to get ass.”

“And the lack thereof doesn’t do anything for you two.”

“No,” she pursed her lips realizing that she had answered his latent question, “plus all the rumors,” she continued. “I confronted him and I know that he’s lying to me but I don’t care.”

“It seems like you keep mentioning that he isn’t around. Do you think that it would have been different if he was there and spent more time with you?”

Blue Lines Blog – Album Review – Watch The Throne – Jay-Z and Kanye West

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Album Review, Angie Martinez, Atlanta, Bad Boy Records, Beyonce, Big Daddy Kane, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Key Yemaya Walker, Lonnie Liston Smith, Marcy Projects, Myla Wyndham, New Jersey, New York, OutKast, Q-Tip, Ralph McDaniels, Sean Carter, Show & Prove, Shyheim, The Notorious B.I.G., Tracey Lee, Watch the Throne

It was a late fall day in Bridgeport, Connecticut listening to Angie Martinez on Hot 97 in New York. The days were short, and the sun began to set in the gritty northeastern city around 4 pm, just before the end of class, but making it very dark before dinner. Night I vaguely remembered from a childhood stint in New Jersey. At the time Wu-Tang still ran the local airwaves, along with Biggie and Bad Boy remixes. I infected the campus with the hometown sounds of Outkast, but this night, the light piano of Lonnie Liston Smith’s “A Garden of Piece,” wrapped this amazing opus from an unknown artist we had last seen on an appearance on Big Daddy Kane’s “Show & Prove.” Believe me I know, being a Wu-Tang fan from high school, I knew tracks they or affiliates, Shyheim, appeared on.

Again, I first heard the amazing “Dead President’s” which eventually accompanied the B-Side track, “Ain’t No,” closed out my tenure in school up north, as I thought I was listening to another underground regional artist the likes of Tracey Lee, Akinyele, etc. my homegirl waited, as I affected, sat and listened to the entire track, likely penning something as we most likely left her room, my hideout, before eventually landing at Famous Pizza.

Later, he would release an album, I heard that Biggie had appeared on the track, and my friend Myla Wyndham who was a buyer at Tower Records told me he was coming to the store. As a good friend and I attended, we walked past the empty table, scanned the album, laughed and then waving to her, I left, knowing I would see her during another visit. Little did I know.

Beginning school again in Atlanta, I befriended a pure Atlanta resident, who would play, “Reasonable Doubt,” nonstop. It was then that my appreciation grew for this unheralded artist. At this same school, I would meet the same girl that our conversation consisted of, the obvious as Reasonable Doubt played in her car as she dropped me off at Marta.
“Do you like Jay-Z?” I tried to break the ice.
“Yes,” she simply stated.

This Should Be In Your Playlist:Music I Like – Artist Joi Gilliam & HotHeavy&Bad Download Link

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Aaliyah, Angie Stone, Atlanta, Big Gipp, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Bridgeport, Coko, Connecticut, Da 5 Foota, Dallas Austin, Dawn Robinson, Devon Lee, Dungeon Family, Earwax Records, En Vogue, Erykah Badu, F.Y.E., Freedom, Freedom (Theme From Panther), Freeworld Records, Georgia, Goodie Mob, HotHeavy&Bad, Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam, Jill Scott, Joi, Joi Gilliam, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Kriss Kross, Lisa Lopes, Lucy Pearl, Mario Van Peebles, Mary J. Blige, MC Lyte, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Monica, Music I Like, OutKast, Pal's Lounge, Panther, Pastor Troy, Patra, Pittsburgh Steelers, Queen Latifah, Raphael Sadiq, Rowdy Records, Salt-N-Pepa, Sam Goody's, Star Kitty’s Revenge, Sunshine & The Rain, SWV, Tennessee, Tennessee Slim Is The Bomb, The Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome, The Pendulum Vibe, This Should Be In Your Playlist, TLC, Trumball, xXx, Yin Yang Cafe, Yo Yo

It took quite some time to gather the right thoughts to make this post. Joi Gilliam, Joi…Joi is virtually the best artist that for some reason the masses has not heard of. Now what do I mean by that? You’ve heard her music often, but you may have not known it. Not to compare her, or to say that she created a music movement, but before you (music listening public) had Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, etc., there was Joi.
In 1994, before I left Atlanta and Georgia I first heard the Tennessee born daughter of Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback “Jefferson Street” Joe Gilliam, Joi’s, classic, “Sunshine& The Rain,” on community radio in Atlanta (“urban” radio stations here would not play Hip-Hop, nor anything thing that was not a national R&B standard, therefore Atlanta natives Outkast, and non-MTV songs by TLC, or Kriss Kross (given for effect) would not make it to local radio). As I often discovered with independent radio, I would find a new song, but it was highly unlikely I would find out who the artists was. Armed with this tape recorded song, I pumped this unknown artist all the way from Atlanta to New York and Connecticut.

Luckily, Joi’s work was released and I remember walking into the Sam Goody’s F.Y.E. concept store in Trumbull mall and seeing the new release wall, and Joi had her entire placement of her debut, The Pendulum Vibe, there. Not knowing that this was the artist I had been bumping, I was always inclined to try out new music, even without having heard it (I returned home after my 2 years in Bridgeport with over 1K CD’s of music, all catalogued in a notebook). Well I picked the CD up, and saw the title “Sunshine & The Rain,” I felt like I had won the lottery, first I had a full length album of an incredible artist that I only had previously had a partial taped song, and a real artist was given the opportunity to put her work out. I walked around that store, until our group left clutching the $18.99 compact disc until it was time to check out. I dropped the disc into my Sony Discman on the way back to campus, and had my first true magical experience with her music. My life was changed. I own, 3 copies of the album, and have purchased copies for friends before it went out of print.