#spencer williams

[roses-in-hollywood]

“I’m the star! I’m the big shot around here! Nobody tells me what to do!”

Francine Everett in Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA (1946)

[marypickfords]

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (Spencer Williams, 1946)

[mortalpractice]

not the want but the wanting of the want,

the ugly choice of it. my small desperate face

repeating. hello. hello.

—Spencer Williams, TRANZ

[citizenscreen]

June 28, 1951 marked the CBS debut of “The Amos 'n' Andy Show,” Television’s first Black sitcom. #OnThisDay

Pictured are the show’s stars: (1951–53). Spencer Williams (Andy), Tim Moore (Kingfish), and Alvin Childress (Amos)

[thefriedvoid]

The Blood of Jesus (1941) dir Spencer Williams

[ukdamo]

I wake at dawn to glimpse my barren chest and speak to the children I won’t birth.

Spencer Williams

My two delicate hums.

My pair of soft assemblies.

My want is a canary rattling the morning’s thin frame,

the steady breath of droplets following months of bad weather,

two small plates dismembered on the hardwood.

Despite evidence, I think love should indent the self in some way.

My breasts, the swollen lunch of mosquitos.

Sometimes,

the crave is too much for one body.

I take my woman pills with an apathetic edge because I’m brutally aware

of what they won’t fix.

My imagined daughter. My imagined son.

Please forgive my circumstance.

[smokefalls]

Even in the present, a ghost story always turns toward the past. It has to. A ghost is a matter of memory. A haunting is unfinished business. A reminder.

Spencer Williams, "Sight Unseen" from It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

[cbjustmusic]

“Basin Street Blue” featuring Catherine Russell at the SFJazz Gala honoring Wynton Marsalis ______________________ Basin Street Blues Songwriter: Spencer Williams

Now won't you come along with me To the Mississippi? We'll take a trip to the land of dreams Blowing down the river, down to New Orleans

The band is there to meet us Old friends to greet us That's where the line and the dark folks meet A heaven on earth, they call it Basin Street

I said, Basin Street, Basin Street Where the elite always meet Down in New Orleans, the land of dreams You'll never know how nice it seems

Or just how much it really means Just to be, yes, siree, in New Orleans The land of dreams where I can lose My Basin Street blues

Now, you're glad you came with me Down the Mississippi We took a trip in a land of dreams And floated down the river down to New Orleans

Where to, Basin Street, Basin Street Where the elite always meet Down in New Orleans, the land of dreams You'll never know how, how much it seems

Or just how much it really means Just to be, yes, siree, yeah, New Orleans The land of dreams where I can lose My Basin Street blues

[kwebtv]

From the Golden Age of Television

Series Premiere

The Amos 'N Andy Show - Kingfish Gets Drafted - CBS - June 28, 1951

Sitcom

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher and Bob Ross

Produced by James Fonda

Directed by Charles Barton

Stars:

Alvin Childress as Amos Jones / Narrator

Spencer Williams as Andy Brown

Tim Moore as George "Kingfish" Stevens

Ernestine Wade as Sapphire Stevens

Johnny Lee as Algonquin J. Calhoun

Amanda Randolph as Mama (Ramona Smith)

Nick Stewart  as Lightning (billed as Nick O'Demus)

Jester Hairston as Henry Van Porter

[oldshowbiz]

Comedian Spencer Williams 

[marypickfords]

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (Spencer Williams, 1946)

[pacingmusings]

Seen in 2023:

The Blood of Jesus (Spencer Williams), 1941

[archive-poetry]

—Spencer Williams, I wake at dawn to glimpse my barren chest and speak to the child I won't birth

[x]

I wake at dawn to glimpse my barren chest and speak to the children I won’t birth.

Spencer Williams

My two delicate hums. 

My pair of soft assemblies.

My want is a canary rattling the morning’s thin frame, 

the steady breath of droplets following months of bad weather, 

two small plates dismembered on the hardwood.

Despite evidence, I think love should indent the self in some way. 

My breasts, the swollen lunch of mosquitos.   

Sometimes, 

the crave is too much for one body. 

I take my woman pills with an apathetic edge because I’m brutally aware 

of what they won’t fix.   

My imagined daughter. My imagined son. 

Please forgive my circumstance. 

About this Poem

“I wrote this poem after meeting my friend’s beautiful and perfect baby for the first time. Later that evening, I got a little (a lot) wine-drunk at a bar and started rambling about how badly I wanted kids of my own someday. While my companion was in the bathroom, I messily scrawled the third stanza of this poem on a bar napkin and later found it crumpled in my pocket while doing laundry days later. I decided to finish the poem sober!” —Spencer Williams

[thefriedvoid]

The Blood of Jesus (1941) dir Spencer Williams

[l0caltiredgirl]

when i want fluff/angst fics and all i’m getting is smut

the struggle is real