Joe Patterson
Bio
Hi I'm Joe Patterson. I am a writer at heart who is a big geek for film, music, and literature, which have all inspired me to be a writer. I rap, write stories both short and long, and I'm also aspiring to be an author and a filmmaker.
Stories (471/0)
Black Cinema Celebrates: Cree Summer
As African Americans we often talk about the importance of celebrating Black voices. If you come from the 80’s, 90’s, or even the early 2000’s there is no way that Cree Summer was not one of your most memorable voices of Black entertainment culture.
By Joe Patterson29 days ago in Journal
Black Wings: A tribute to CeeCee Lyles
During Black History Month we always take time out to acknowledge the biggest and brightest Black men and women of the world’s history. Whether it’s the heroes of civil rights like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks or creators and innovators like George Washington Carver and Madam CJ Walker. Often times there are a lot of heroes who make big impacts that go rather unnoticed to the general public. Sometimes such individuals are responsible for moments and actions that do not warrant a lot of attention from the general public, other times there are people who are a part of big moments in time, but were overshadowed by the moment itself. One such person is CeeCee Lyles, she was one of the heroic flight attendants aboard United Airlines flight 93 during the September 11th attack.
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Journal
No Love Lost
“Love. It is something we all want and most of us believe we have it once we have found that special someone that we don’t wanna spend a single second of the day without. The feeling we have with this special person is a rush of a high that is nearly impossible to put in words. We are floating on cloud nine as we sail this love boat, but sometimes that love boat isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. My name is Antoine Goodman and I wanna tell you my story of the love I didn’t lose.”
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Fiction
Love Without A Limit
“Hi. My name is Jabari and I wanna tell you a little something about my best friend, her name is Mya. Today is her 30th birthday and we have been best friends for 25 years. As I walk to her doorstep to pick her up for our friend date, I’m reminiscing on when we first met. We were five years old in Ms. Leckie’s kindergarten class. I stole one of her goldfish at snack time and she crushed my gram crackers out of revenge. We both ended up losing recess for the day and Ms. Leckie made us spend the week working together in class until we started getting along. Next thing you know we were the best of friends and were inseparable from that moment on.”
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Fiction
Malcolm Lives
So today marks exactly 59 years since the great Malcolm X took his last breath. The reason why he took that last breath doesn’t really need to be explained. We already know the deal: he was assassinated by his enemies because they knew he was a threat to the instability of society. You know how the evil people who run this circus called earth operate, they want a control cycle of chaos underway at all times and anyone who dare seeks to be an individual and interrupt that controlled chaos will be dealt with as such, brother Malcolm was one of history’s greatest examples of a ripple in the dirty river we call earth. But who exactly was Malcolm X and why did so many powerful forces feel that he needed to be eradicated? Well let’s take a brief look back through history.
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Journal
Love Thy Neighbor
Clifton Washington is a 60 year old Black male living in the inner city. He is on the way home to his neighborhood riding the city bus. “They say the grass is always greener on the other side.” Clifton thought. “I wonder how true that is?” Clifton thought a lot about the ups and downs in his life as a Black man living in the Black community. In this moment he was angry because the pain he watched one Black man give to another. “He shot that poor boy in cold blood, another young brother. He had a future ahead of him. Places to go, life goals to accomplish and it was all taken away from him at such a young age.”
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Fiction
Young, Black & Gifted
The date is February 20, 2024 and today would have been the 34th birthday of Rodney Dickens. If you’re wondering who exactly he is, well he was one of three Black pre-teens from the Washington D.C. school district, including Asia Cottom and Bernard Brown who were all selected to attend an ecology conference that was hosted by National Geographic in Los Angeles, California in September of 2001. They were all selected for this prestigious, yet educational field trip because they were all very smart. Unfortunately they never made it to the conference because on the morning of September 11, 2001 they boarded American Airlines flight 77, which was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. as part of the 9/11 attacks.
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Journal
- Top Story - February 2024
Love Thy SelfTop Story - February 2024
Kareema walked through a field of flowers with a big smile across her face. All her life the hardest thing for Kareema was learning how to love herself. After 25 years she now believes that she has discovered the secret to self love and she is ready to share it with others.
By Joe Pattersonabout a month ago in Fiction
Madiba Day: A tribute to Nelson Mandel
February 11th is one of the most important days in the history of mankind. It was on this day 34 years ago that South African political activist Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years of being locked up for his effort in fighting against the oppressive institution of Apartheid in South Africa. This day would mark a new beginning not only for Nelson Mandela, but for the rest of the world as a whole.
By Joe Patterson2 months ago in Journal
Bob Marley: The Hero I Didn’t Know I Had
So it’s 1996 and a three year old me has been awakened in the middle of the night by my own screams because I just had a nightmare. My mother comes to get me out of my bed and carries me downstairs to sit on the couch while she either cleans up or is putting up the Christmas tree for the holidays. She also has the stereo playing loud to where you could hear it throughout the entire house. With so much music that she loved, the first choice of what she was listening to was definitely Bob Marley, her hero who inadvertently became one of my heroes.
By Joe Patterson2 months ago in Journal