Author Archives: blackskeptics

10:20

Posted on November 11, 2022 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson (short story excerpt) Hell or high water, he was gonna be sharp for his first day of work doing rent-a-cop duty at the bling bling palace on Fig and 8th. Hector stood in the downtown library bathroom … Continue reading →

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Meet the Characters: Rock ‘n’ Roll Heretic Rovers, Loners and Thieves

Posted on March 7, 2021 by blackskeptics

Rory Tharpe Blues-rock guitarist, ex-Pentecostal, ex-Jesus besotted singer, late 50s, death-obsessed, frustrated and blocked songwriter, fighting to hold it together for her band, finances, creative control and integrity, has struggled with alcohol addiction in the past but is mostly clean … Continue reading →

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Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic: The Life and Times of Rory Tharpe

Posted on January 31, 2021 by blackskeptics

Due March 2021 “Those white boys on the major labels would never give an inch to a Negro woman playing race music.” It’s the late 1970s, and ex-Pentecostal Black female electric guitarist Rory Tharpe navigates the cutthroat world of corporate … Continue reading →

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Ransack, Butterfly

Posted on December 23, 2020 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson From Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic: The Life and Times of Rory Tharpe, March 2021 When she was six, Sid cut open a radio to see if there were people in it. Disappointed by the sprawl of colored wires … Continue reading →

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Helter Skelter, 1978

Posted on December 9, 2020 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson From Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic: The Life and Times of Rory Tharpe On the toilet, Rory could make out the sounds of tentative gasps and grunts, demon beating, pint-sized exorcisms rising symphonic in the next stall.  Tan white … Continue reading →

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The Toast of Boise

Posted on July 19, 2020 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson From, Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic: The Life and Times of Rory Tharpe After years of being on the road touring, running down the known universe like a radioactive bloodhound, Rory had stopped checking miles on highway signs.  In … Continue reading →

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White Lady Coin of the Realm

Posted on December 26, 2019 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson (from Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic: The Life and Times of Rory Tharpe) They got up from their work stations to see the commotion outside the window, pressing into the pane, agitated, fingers hot and stiff as dynamite sticks … Continue reading →

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Lobotomy Wings

Posted on July 28, 2019 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson (From Rock ‘N’ Roll Heretic) There were things you could do with dead bodies that were most exhilarating. Things  Katy had only dreamed of as a girl, lusting after the medical instruments the white boys tinkered with at … Continue reading →

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Brian Wilson’s Pipsqueak Twang, 1964*

Posted on May 2, 2019 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson Got her first paying job at ten drying dishes in a tea shop, socking away the white lady proprietor’s bottom of the wishing well pennies in a jam jar. Dream was to buy a record store, own … Continue reading →

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$15 Motel Room

Posted on March 3, 2019 by blackskeptics

By Sikivu Hutchinson* Card watched the Little Rock lightning crack through the sky and took another bite of orange. Rind, sticky pulp, seeds and all. An acid plague in his buck teeth. Rind was medicinal, kept the doctor and the … Continue reading →

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