It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others. ?Virginia Woolf 'The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.' Robert Louis Stevenson 'Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.' ?Henry Miller '?Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.' ?Vladimir Nabokov Writers and poets. Composers and griots. These entities inhabit the same sacred space on this, the sixth offering from Lenora Zenzalai Helm, I Love Myself When I'm Laughing, and then Again When I'm Looking Mean and Impressive. Her formidable arsenal of vocal jazz abilities derives inspiration this time from Helm's love affair with writers fiction and non-fiction (Zora Neale Hurston, Donald Neal Walsch, Alice Walker), speechwriting (Robert Kennedy's 'Ripple of Hope' speech), poetry (Rudyard Kipling, Sam White), biography (Gene Santoro, Ross Russell), and of course, musical composition and songwriting (Ellington, Coltrane, Mingus, Joni Mitchell). Less formerly trained writers also figure prominently, emanating from the African American oral tradition which is known to pass stories and knowledge to the next generation of seekers and believers. Two fellow Chicagoans, jazz griot Donald InchPoppaInch Meade, and Helm's maternal grandmother, a pioneering entrepreneur and cosmetologist, Helen Graine Faulk. Helm speaks fondly of the two; the former, an octogenarian who has total recall over personal conversations and events in encounters with legendary jazz musicians, the latter, now deceased, a powerful influence in her commun