I had just completed a summer writing workshop for Black men commissioned by Southern University in New Orleans. Kysha Brown (now Ayo Fayemi-Robinson) wanted to know “what’s up with that?”. Where were the women? That conversation led to she and I founding NOMMO Literary Society–which I would sometimes half-jokingly say meant “no more of that literary shit”, our work had to be drawn from life experiences and not simply based on whatever co-called classic literature we might have read.

The beginning was right around Labor Day 1975. Ten years later, the rough ass, damn-near-killed-us, arrival of hurricane Katrina put an end to regular NOMMO meetings and widely disbursed us. People scattered. A decade and a half later, a good percentage of us still have not returned home except for short visits (you know, anniversaries, somebody’s birthday, a high school h0mecoming, or, more likely, the Essence Festival). Something common as a good, crusty loaf of French bread just can’t be found in the other 49-states–don’t mention a half&half oyster/shrimp po-boy dressed with pickles, lettuce, and tomatoes plus a dollop of hot sauce, accompanied by a Barq’s root beer, or a cold Jax beer on the side.

We met weekly on Tuesday evenings first on Brainard Street uptown, and then later in Treme. We held monthly public readings (the audience was always invited to contribute) at Community Book Center over on Bayou Road.

The regular sessions started off with an article or book that I selected (we once even read the entire of Leonard Shlain’s The Alphabet Versus The Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image). After taking turns reading aloud, we next briefly went over whatever business NOMMO needed to tend to including announcements of up-coming events in the city. Then, finally, members shared writings they had completed or were working on. Although we typically started at 7-pm, we sometimes did not wrap up until well after midnight.

We carried on for a full decade before Katrina blew us away. A number of us now have re-assembled and through the use of “Zoom” technology we will do a reading and have a discussion. This is open to the public. Be there or be. . .