woke up with a pen in my hand.

i’ve been writing to him in my sleep again.

the letter opener is missing, his boyfriend gave.

no one else is there, there’s no one else to name.

woke up with a pen in my hand.

i’ve been writing to him in my sleep again.

Clareece 'Precious' Jones played Gabourey Sidibe

Rare Double Audience Honors From Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals Join Prix Du Jury from Deauville American Film Festival In Film’s Mounting Festival Decoration

Santa Monica, CA (BlackNews.com) – LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), the leading next generation studio, announced today that Lee Daniels’ “Precious: Based On The Novel PUSH By Sapphire,” has won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award was announced at the festival’s closing ceremony.

Daniels, who is currently in Spain where the film premieres at the San Sebastian International Film Festival this evening, provided a statement presented by Laurie May, co-President of the film’s Canadian distributor Maple Pictures, which read in part:

“First and foremost, I would like to dedicate this award to Cameron Bailey, whose support of me, and belief in my work from the beginning with The Woodsman, Shadowboxer and now Precious is unparalleled. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the Toronto audiences as well – this award holds such an important meaning to me because I made this film for every person out there who ever looked in the mirror and felt unsure about the person looking back. This is not an art film for a select few, this is a movie that I hope everyone can relate to. There is nothing more special than being honored by the public, by my peers.”  See more A.T.J.

Joe Drake, the President of Lionsgate’s Film Group, said of Mr. Daniels’ accomplishment, “From Utah to Canada, two places that could hardly be more different than 1980’s Harlem, audiences have seen what we saw in the film, what Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry also saw in the film — that thing that made all of us respond immediately by asking ‘How can I be involved?’ We are so thrilled to watch this response mount with each of the film’s festival audiences.” Daniels previously collaborated with Lionsgate on 2001’s Monster’s Ball, which he produced.

The film received the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award, and the US Special Jury Prize for Acting for star Mo’Nique at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, an extremely rare triple honor. It was also announced earlier this week that “Precious: Based On The Novel PUSH By Sapphire” was honored alongside “Sin Nombre” with the Prix Du Jury at the Deauville American Film Festival in Deauville, France.

Synopsis
Lee Daniels’ PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome.

Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

In Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard, and winner of three awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introducing Gabourey Sidibe.

Lionsgate in association with Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry present A Lee Daniels Entertainment / Smokewood Entertainment Group Production of PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, directed by Lee Daniels from a screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher based on the novel Push by Sapphire. The film is produced by Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, and Gary Magness. Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Lisa Cortés, and Tom Heller are Executive Producers; Simone Sheffield serves as Co-Executive Producer; Mark G. Mathis is Co-Producer; and Asger Hussain serves as Associate Producer.

Precious: Based On The Novel PUSH By Sapphire will open in select cities on November 6, 2009.

For more information, visit: www.weareallprecious.com

being a floridian i love oranges. my love for oranges grew in college. there were baskets of free oranges in the cafeteria. i’d take two. sometimes three. i’d eat them throughout the day. i think that’s why my hands are so rough. that’s the story i tell people. i never put on lotion. lotion is another thing to do to do. something that takes away from writing. i’ve been picking at cuticles and old scabs around my nails all day. i have all these things floating in my head. what chapter to edit next? does this line make sense? why can’t i find a publish? the always question – why can’t i find a boyfriend? all while i’m packing at my nails. when i’m published i can worry about lotion. i can’t now. i have to write.

london love ball by ellis scott

blogging is such a bore sometimes. it feels too much like a journal. but journals are not connected to the web. what i loved about blogging was the connection. to be connected to people. i don’t feel like i am connected so i stopped writing.

what i forgot was how this blog made me start back writing poetry. my favorite poem on here is unfinished. i have more to write.

i’ll start treating this more like a journal. a place to collect my thoughts.

each step. his face turns away from me.

it couldn’t be from anywhere else.

forever. to say. he turns sideways.

for now. he means.

i know forever is never forever.

can you handle me for now he says.

really miss sleeping beside you. stay safe.

r.s.

The novel by Sapphire

I was living in Ann Arbor at the time. A friend, who happened to be a drag king recommended I read Push. I had never heard of the book or the author, Sapphire. I loved the cover, brick red background, bold black letters, simple. The first page had me. Claireece Precious Jones, the main character, grabbed me by the hand and told me not to let go. I didn’t. Claireece is repeatedly raped by father and abused by her mother. “Poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed,” she finds a way out and tries to better understand her life as it is. Sapphire writes with such a beauty that is painfully vivid. I held my breath reading some of the pages.

I’ve been running away from Claireece’s, Eisha’s, Tameka’s, and Tyrone’s since I graduated from high school. Claireece could have been my neighbor when I was 8 or 18. She lives in the ghetto. My family lived in the ghetto at two very different times of my life. I am still running. Trying to escape the hardship that my mother and grandmother and relatives faced through writing.

I had no idea Push was being turned into a movie. Neither was it being directed by Lee Daniels. Lee Daniels is a outspoken gay Black writer, producer (Monster’s Ball), and director (Shadow Boxer) known for his crazy Maxwell-esque hair. I remember reading an article about him in Vibe magazine years ago about one of his current projects at the time. Two years ago I went to see the premiere of his movie, Shadowboxer with Helen Mirren, Mo’Nique, and Cuba Gooding Jr. in LA. I was excited to hear that he directed and co-produced Push.

Oprah calls Push the next Color Purple. I’m wondering why isn’t their more money behind this project. I haven’t even heard any bloggers talking about it. The buzz at Sundance was that Mo’Nique might be considered for an Oscar for her performance in the movie. Mo’Nique has developed a gainful relationship with Daniels and so has Mariah Carey. Carey plays Krystal in the highly antipated Tennessee, which Daniels produced. Tennesse is directed by Aaron Woodley. The movie was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and showed at the Urbanworld Film Festival.

Tennesse is the film that Janet Jackson gained weight for “and then had to drop out b/c they moved production. Sounds like bull to me. But it’s funny that they replaced her with Mariah, who isn’t gaining any special weight for it seemingly. Guess she’s big enough,” said sledwidge on IMDb’s Message Board.

Clareece 'Precious' Jones played Gabourey Sidibe

Push stars Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, and Lenny Kravitz. How did I not hear about this project? Claireece Precious Jones is portrayed by Gabourey Sidibe, a new actress from Harlem. Push is slated to be released later this year. Coincidentally, there’s another film titled Push with Djimon Hounsou and Dakota Fanning that has released last week. Hounsou’s Push is a Sci-Fi thriller about young kids with special powers.

Push is the recipient of the Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic, the Audience Award presented by Honda: U.S. Dramatic, and A Special Jury Prize for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best Trailer by the Golden Trailer Awards. It’s one of only three films to win both the Audience Dramatic and Jury Awards at Sundance.

Amazon.com Review

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. “Sometimes I wish I was not alive,” Precious says. “But I don’t know how to die. Ain’ no plug to pull out. ‘N no matter how bad I feel my heart don’t stop beating and my eyes open in the morning.” An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it

Daniels is currently working on two new projects. I can’t wait to see more from him.

Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean
Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey

Look out on a summer’s day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they did not know how, perhaps they’ll listen now

Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand

Chorus:
For they could not love you, but still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night
You took your life as lovers often do,
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night, portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.
Like the stranger that you’ve met, the ragged man in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama will allow gays to serve openly in the military by overturning the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that marred President Clinton’s first days in office, according to incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

The startling pronouncement, which could re-open a dormant battle in the culture wars and distract from other elements of Obama’s agenda, came during a Gibbs exchange with members of the public who sent in questions that were answered on YouTube.

“Thadeus of Lansing, Mich., asks, ‘Is the new administration going to get rid of the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy?’” said Gibbs, looking into the camera. “Thadeus, you don’t hear a politician give a one-word answer much. But it’s, ‘Yes.’”

The Obama transition team declined to elaborate on that one-word answer when asked by FOX News on Wednesday about a timetable for repealing the policy, which was enacted by Clinton after a protracted public debate. Obama officials also would not explain which lawmakers or Pentagon officials would attempt to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Clinton, who initially sought to overturn the longstanding ban on gays in the military, ended up enacting the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as a compromise that made it illegal for commanders to ask about the sexual orientation of service members, who were also barred from announcing they were homosexual. If a service member’s homosexuality becomes known anyway, he or she is expelled.

Clinton is widely viewed as having stumbled during his first days in office by getting caught up in the raging controversy, which detracted from the rest of his agenda. It is not yet clear whether Obama would face a similar debacle.

For years, Obama has said he generally opposes the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Last summer, he told a gay magazine he can “reasonably” see it being repealed. But that was a far cry from Gibbs’ unequivocal promise that the policy will indeed be ended.

The gay community is eager for a quick repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but fears it could be months before the new administration reaches a consensus with lawmakers and the military. Others think Obama could do it quickly, but is leery of the kind of fallout Bill Clinton faced when he tackled the divisive issue.

FOX News’ Carl Cameron contributed to this report.