When The Rainbow Is Enough

I ended up attending a real good, free show last night at Roxbury Community College. A friend's daughter was in a 4-week theater camp, The Summer Arts Institute, for young girls and they staged their end-of-the-summer performance to a rousing applause. It featured both monologues, dance interludes, duet acting, and scripted readings. The young ladies were actresses, narrators, dancers, set designers, stage directors, and lighting experts. The show featured selections from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, and Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird among other original and student-produced works. Unfortunately, somebody got sick and didn't wuite make it to the restroom before vomiting on the steps. Oh well. We all take an L every now and then.

if we can make it to the corner bodega we can make it anywhere

a long, arduous week comes to a close. the entrepreneurship program was an outstanding success! there are several thank you cards and letters that I will need to get out this coming week to all of the peoples who helped out in some way. definitely a good look for what we're trying to do to change the game. the most intriguing part of all of this was that the students group consisted of a majority of Black males. in actuality, there were only two females. usually, with all the engineering and technology stuff I do, there are very few young ladies. but this time, it actually was very pleasing to see so many of my younger brothers in attendance. it a wonder that some kid who are truly young seem the most mature, while some of the older ones you can tell are already adrift in their thoughts. we had some really great business ideas, several of which may result in some real work being done very soon. all in all, a good time was had by all and i think/hope they enjoyed themselves. i left them with some heartfelt partings words to let them know that although they still didn't know me all that well, I had their backs. I definitely know hearing stuff like that goes a long way in a young Black man's development. As long as they belive in their own visions and make the most of the energy, resources, and heart, they can start dreaming and make them a reality. (but on a side note, those muthafuqas wore me the hell out!)

Escape through rhythms in search of peace and wisdom

Somedays I take the L to gel with the real world
Got on at 87th, stopped by this little girl
She recited raps, I forgot where they was from
In 'em, she was saying how she made brothers cum
I start thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected
How many dead folks this art resurrected
How many nations this culture connected
Who am I to judge one's perspective?

So I was sitting up in Uphams House of Pizza tonight building with some peoples brainstorming some alternative youth engagement initiatives. I was more of the outsider looking in because they were the ones with all the years of knowledge and experience. But it's definitely been a learning process recently.

So anyways, there were these two girls sitting up front. Both of them had young children in strollers. I noticed them when they came in but didn't really pay to much attention. They had orderde food and were waiting for their order while they talked & chirped to each other and to whoever was on the other end of the cell phone as the kids just kinda chilled out.

But I swear it was like slow motion when two more young sisters walked in and joined them, both pushing their own blue stroller. And in an instant, I said WTF to myself in a muffled wiff of both bewilderment and disbelief. This can't be life. It was as though I were watching a competition amongst them. I gave a look to the crew and someone else remarked that it was an eerie scene as though they were all guys and the strollers were their tricked-out whips. All four of them, eating pizza at the sub shop, chirping mad loud on their cells, while the kids all were sitting in the strollers with outstretched arms hoping they'd get lifted up.

Now I don't bring this up to bash the young ladies, but I am confident that none of them was more than 20 years of age. Do you. I recently earned a newfound respect for the art of not bashing or talking about anyone with malice. A brother who I think is a local hero dropped that gem on me a few weeks ago and it's been marinating in my mind ever since. But on the reals, it's bigger than youth violence. It's bigger than hip-hop. The problems thata ll communities face, not just the Black, Latino, West Indian, and Cape Verdeans one is a very real deal matter that is a mixture of all of the former melting pot that is the land of the free and home of the brave. But too many of those with the most potential are seemingly reluctant or afraid to attain their freedom - mentally, physically, and spiritually. So like I told this week's students; Start Dreaming.

Touch you in the mind like virgins on all fours

Flavor to the very last morsel
I don't force [it], shT comes natural
-Akrobatik

I had the extreme pleasure the last two nights of being thoroughly entertained and immersed in a sea of good music and it was so intoxicating that the feeling has me eerily fiending for more in a hazy daze in the middle of the night. The Roots came to town to do a show Monday night featuring Talib Kweli as a guest. Man....words cannot convey how good that show truly was. Kweli straight smashed shT. And he brought local hero Akrobatik on stage to an huge response and he killed it. The legendary Roots Crew lived up to their name as they always do. But this time was on some next shT. I remember one outdoor they did, but I don't recall being this open afterwards. It literally has left me almost speechless.

Yes, almost. Gotta wake up early again in the morning to hold it down for the shorties under my watch this week. They are learning all about entrepreneurship and what it take to take their interest from idea to concept to plan to business. With two days under our belt, now we get to do some field trips and have them hear from other folks. Some of them are further along than others, but they are a good group and have been fairly attentive and focused so far. But I'm noticing they have really taken quite a liking to the GarageBand software app. So I'm thinking I may have to take that signal and try and incorporate that into some kind of program during the school year.