To blog or not to blog; that is not a question!

I said i would start a blog back in July 2007 when i stepped into the role of chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Africana Studies at UMass Amherst. I said it would be a great way for me to take some time to reflect on the work of leading a significant academic unit as i did it. I would have a running account of the highs and lows, the challenges and all the things that keep me interested in doing this energizing and enervating, but “necessary evil” of academic administration. I had said i would do it and here i am doing it six months later. And therein lies the tip of the tale: Being chair allows me very little time for me. When i am not representin’ or rappin’ or problem-solving or planning or putting out a fire or would-be fire, i am trying to do my own research and trying to meet deadlines usually already many months past due. And still all of that activity is not me-time. It is not me taking a moment to take a deep breath and to look inside or to look around and get in touch with what it all means, how i am really feeling, and to allow myself to express myself in freedom. If this blog can be a space of emancipation from mental slavery, then let it be so. Ah-che. /az