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Sunday, July 31, 2011
thegang:thee satisfaction lookin’ flyyyyyy.
Friday, July 29, 2011
We Who Believe In Freedom: Rest and the Rest of Us (On Intergenerational Leadership)
How hard it is to sleep
in the middle of life.
-Audre Lorde "Electric Slide Boogie"
Greetings loved ones,
I woke up this morning at 5am in thunderwashed Detroit listening to Sweet Honey singing Ella's Song. Y'all know the one. We who believe in freedom cannot rest... And in the chorus I hear generations of insomniacs ready to be healed. In a city grieving the death of the soul shocking heart shaking poet David Blair, a hard working teaching artist who died of heat stroke less than a week ago, where I just witnessed the Historical Designation committee of the city council unanimously affirm 96 year old Grace Bogg's home as a historical sacred place, I am thinking about the possibility of rest.
In my former life as a workaholic I took this song very literally, if not intellectually, then certainly through my actions. No rest. I said to myself as I pushed through repetitive meetings back to back without eating. No rest. I said to myself as I flew city to city with nothing green to eat in sight. No rest. I said to myself as I woke up at 3 in the morning to post yet another update for my students. I'll rest later, I assured my complaining heart, lungs and spirit. You know...when freedom comes.
I now know that my self-abusive belief in freedom was passive. I thought freedom would just show up, like a gurney I could pass out on when I was spent and overspent for justice. But as my brilliant sister-comrade Yashna says in her beautiful "why we can't wait" essay for self-care and healing justice. Being unjust to our bodies by ignoring our own needs, being unjust to each other by perpetuating unsustainable modes of work in our organizations and initiatives, does not serve our mission of justice. As MLK wrote, from jail, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So where is the justice everywhere? Where is the freedom that Ella believed in?
Now I listen to Ella's Song like a black feminist poet ancestor worshipper. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Meaning freedom IS the opportunity to rest. Rest is a manifestation of our freedom in the present, not in a future that we'll be too tired to notice. Remember that Ella Baker, unlike many leaders within our movements, trusted a bottom up movement led by a mass of people, not one self-sacrificing leader at the top. Remember that Ella Baker actively mentored youth to take up the work so that elders could collaborate and rest. Ella Baker was too socialist for the NAACP because she believed in sharing the sacred work of freedom, an act the requires an intense amount of trust in each other and in our alignment with the working of the universe. The secret of my going on is when the reins are in the hands of the young folks... Though Ella Baker laments in a letter archived at the Schomburg that she could scarcely could find two weeks to take a sabbatical that her community funded her to have...the principles she stood for show us how to BE the healing in Ella's Song. To sit the hell down and be whole in order to move together again.
Engaging in the intergenerational work of the Mobile Homecoming Project has taught me that intergenerational trust is not the default mode of our organizing. Not by far. I am learning from OG QBG's who have pushed their bodies to extreme limits. Who have taped together their broken hearts after being exploited, let down, abused, sold-out, and betrayed within the work. Who have a million more reasons than I ever had to banish trust, to resign themselves to the fact that they will always be the ones picking up the pieces, sacrificing everything, taking one million for the so-called team. In these very real conditions, facing the trauma of long-term organizing in an unsustainable society and movement culture, it is hard for trust to grow. It is hard for elders to share skills, relinquish pieces of control and truly collaborate when they are traumatized and tired.
And I have witnessed first hand that there is nothing more healing than the miracle of finally being able to let go and be present to the reality of our SHARED brilliance, the salve and salvation of knowing that we were never in it alone and never have to be. That the work is bigger than us the work is abundant, the work has infinite physical and spiritual hands on it. That this work can actually be a restful place, a place of rejuvenation, a reflecting pool of understanding and shared committment across generations and other forms of difference.
We who believe in freedom have to be as intergenerational as Ella, believing in the long haul by believing in each other. Which is exactly how freedom comes.
With infinite love and a profound willingness to share the work....
QBG Lex
P.S. Speaking of sharing the work....every project of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind, Queer Renaissance, Queer Station and the Mobile Homecoming Project is looking for interns and collaborators to share the work! Email alexispauline@gmail.com especially if you are a student seeking academic or service credit or an interactive independent study with Sista Docta Lex. More details here: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/collaborate/
P.P. S. Speaking of REST...apply for a residency at Queer Station a new dream come true in Atlanta, GA for collaborative living on the miraculous terms of your inspired work!
http://web.me.com/queerstations/Queer_Stations/Home.html
P.P.P.S. Speaking of rejuvenation...save the date for RE:GENERATE an intergenerational wellness retreat on Saturday, Sept 3rd (and speaking of rejoicing be sure to be at the QBG cookout at House in the Park) both during Black Gay Pride/Labor Day Weekend in Atlanta, GA
P.P.P.P.S. Speaking of miracles and trust...contribute to Alexis's dream-come-true-trip to visit Gloria Joseph and commune with the spirit of Audre Lorde in St. Croix at http://alexispauline.chipin.com/praise-the-lorde-st-croix-dream-trip
everyone who donates get their own dedicated poem by Lex based on Audre Lorde's The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance!
in the middle of life.
-Audre Lorde "Electric Slide Boogie"
Greetings loved ones,
I woke up this morning at 5am in thunderwashed Detroit listening to Sweet Honey singing Ella's Song. Y'all know the one. We who believe in freedom cannot rest... And in the chorus I hear generations of insomniacs ready to be healed. In a city grieving the death of the soul shocking heart shaking poet David Blair, a hard working teaching artist who died of heat stroke less than a week ago, where I just witnessed the Historical Designation committee of the city council unanimously affirm 96 year old Grace Bogg's home as a historical sacred place, I am thinking about the possibility of rest.
In my former life as a workaholic I took this song very literally, if not intellectually, then certainly through my actions. No rest. I said to myself as I pushed through repetitive meetings back to back without eating. No rest. I said to myself as I flew city to city with nothing green to eat in sight. No rest. I said to myself as I woke up at 3 in the morning to post yet another update for my students. I'll rest later, I assured my complaining heart, lungs and spirit. You know...when freedom comes.
I now know that my self-abusive belief in freedom was passive. I thought freedom would just show up, like a gurney I could pass out on when I was spent and overspent for justice. But as my brilliant sister-comrade Yashna says in her beautiful "why we can't wait" essay for self-care and healing justice. Being unjust to our bodies by ignoring our own needs, being unjust to each other by perpetuating unsustainable modes of work in our organizations and initiatives, does not serve our mission of justice. As MLK wrote, from jail, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So where is the justice everywhere? Where is the freedom that Ella believed in?
Now I listen to Ella's Song like a black feminist poet ancestor worshipper. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Meaning freedom IS the opportunity to rest. Rest is a manifestation of our freedom in the present, not in a future that we'll be too tired to notice. Remember that Ella Baker, unlike many leaders within our movements, trusted a bottom up movement led by a mass of people, not one self-sacrificing leader at the top. Remember that Ella Baker actively mentored youth to take up the work so that elders could collaborate and rest. Ella Baker was too socialist for the NAACP because she believed in sharing the sacred work of freedom, an act the requires an intense amount of trust in each other and in our alignment with the working of the universe. The secret of my going on is when the reins are in the hands of the young folks... Though Ella Baker laments in a letter archived at the Schomburg that she could scarcely could find two weeks to take a sabbatical that her community funded her to have...the principles she stood for show us how to BE the healing in Ella's Song. To sit the hell down and be whole in order to move together again.
Engaging in the intergenerational work of the Mobile Homecoming Project has taught me that intergenerational trust is not the default mode of our organizing. Not by far. I am learning from OG QBG's who have pushed their bodies to extreme limits. Who have taped together their broken hearts after being exploited, let down, abused, sold-out, and betrayed within the work. Who have a million more reasons than I ever had to banish trust, to resign themselves to the fact that they will always be the ones picking up the pieces, sacrificing everything, taking one million for the so-called team. In these very real conditions, facing the trauma of long-term organizing in an unsustainable society and movement culture, it is hard for trust to grow. It is hard for elders to share skills, relinquish pieces of control and truly collaborate when they are traumatized and tired.
And I have witnessed first hand that there is nothing more healing than the miracle of finally being able to let go and be present to the reality of our SHARED brilliance, the salve and salvation of knowing that we were never in it alone and never have to be. That the work is bigger than us the work is abundant, the work has infinite physical and spiritual hands on it. That this work can actually be a restful place, a place of rejuvenation, a reflecting pool of understanding and shared committment across generations and other forms of difference.
We who believe in freedom have to be as intergenerational as Ella, believing in the long haul by believing in each other. Which is exactly how freedom comes.
With infinite love and a profound willingness to share the work....
QBG Lex
P.S. Speaking of sharing the work....every project of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind, Queer Renaissance, Queer Station and the Mobile Homecoming Project is looking for interns and collaborators to share the work! Email alexispauline@gmail.com especially if you are a student seeking academic or service credit or an interactive independent study with Sista Docta Lex. More details here: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/collaborate/
P.P. S. Speaking of REST...apply for a residency at Queer Station a new dream come true in Atlanta, GA for collaborative living on the miraculous terms of your inspired work!
http://web.me.com/queerstations/Queer_Stations/Home.html
P.P.P.S. Speaking of rejuvenation...save the date for RE:GENERATE an intergenerational wellness retreat on Saturday, Sept 3rd (and speaking of rejoicing be sure to be at the QBG cookout at House in the Park) both during Black Gay Pride/Labor Day Weekend in Atlanta, GA
P.P.P.P.S. Speaking of miracles and trust...contribute to Alexis's dream-come-true-trip to visit Gloria Joseph and commune with the spirit of Audre Lorde in St. Croix at http://alexispauline.chipin.com/praise-the-lorde-st-croix-dream-trip
everyone who donates get their own dedicated poem by Lex based on Audre Lorde's The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Photo
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I See you Alice. #booskie. #blackgirlsarefromtheFuture....
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via New Model Minority by newmodelminorityarchive on 7/27/11
I See you Alice. #booskie. #blackgirlsarefromtheFuture. #mambuBadu
too fly!!! they were in Philly for the Roots picnic..originally from D.C./MD area..Aminata (on left) wears American Apparel top, H&M jeans, Retro Jordans (3's), G-shock watch, earrings from a Harlem vendor. Allison wears H&M top, Urban Outfitters sweater, Uniqlo leggings and Toms shoes, earrings from an Etsy vendor.
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#blackgirlsarefromtheFuture and if you KNOW me you know why this...
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via New Model Minority by newmodelminorityarchive on 7/27/11
#blackgirlsarefromtheFuture and if you KNOW me you know why this fit is particularly relevant.
I just want yall to know Flo Jo was a bad ass!
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Kameelah Rasheed: Artist Blog: Collective (R)evolution
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via New Model Minority by newmodelminorityarchive on 7/27/11
Kameelah Rasheed: Artist Blog: Collective (R)evolution: #SupportThis.
Along with all the founding ladies of Mambu Badu, I'll be showing a four prints from my time in Meadowlands, Soweto at the Collective (R)evolution show at The Fridge on Friday, July 29. Please come by and support this fundraiser for the DC Youth Slam Team!
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One more from Doreen Southwood Summer 11. I can’t help...
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via le coil on 7/28/11
One more from Doreen Southwood Summer 11. I can't help myself.
(via missmossblog & miss milib)
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TW: Graphic images, discussions of rape, violenceCrisis In The...
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via The CFC on 7/28/11
TW: Graphic images, discussions of rape, violence
Crisis In The Congo: Uncovering The Truth
Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth explores the role that the United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century.
Support the completion of the film: http://congojustice.org/take-action/
Sign The Petition:http://www.change.org/petitions/fully-implement-public-law-109-456
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CrisisInTheCongo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CongoCrisis
Congo Resources: http://friendsofthecongo.org
This is long but there are really useful historical bits here.
I had a hard time with it though because:
- only one black woman speaks and not until we are a third of the way in and only about rape
- there's a discussion of greed but the overall message is not anti-capitalist
- It really frustrates me when oppressed people have to prove their worth through comparisons and folks interests in other things i.e. "if you care about the environment you should care about what's happening in the Congo."
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011
"The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District was in 1...
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via The CFC on 7/27/11
"The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District was in 1989. Wimberly says the...Things you can do from here:
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"The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District was in 1...
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via The CFC on 7/27/11
"The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District was in 1989. Wimberly says the...Things you can do from here:
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Here’s some video of the Dojo Collective’s first art...
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via i am elizah // blog on 7/27/11
Here's some video of the Dojo Collective's first art project from the city. Had a great time working with the City of Atlanta, Wonderroot, & Living Walls. I come in around 7:53 mark….more footage and pictures to come.
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How did i miss this?
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Atlanta Music Scene Coming Back: The Chronicle Reunion
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via The Crunk Feminist Collective by sheridf on 7/26/11
Please understand that before there was crunk there was The Chronicle; before there was Bone Crusher there was Lyrical Giants; before there was India Arie there was Donnie and Joi, before Janelle Monae there was Edith's Wish. Atlanta was bursting with musical creativity and at the center of the live music scene was a band called The Chronicle.
I have been privileged to grow up in Atlanta with the National Black Arts Festival for what seems like a lifetime. If you have not experienced it you need to make arrangements immediately for 2012 because the visual arts exhibits, the dance performances, the theater, the parties, the markets, the films, the people, and the concerts ohh the concerts are not to be missed in Hotlanta in July.
But this year was special. This year there were two events that transported me back to Atlanta, circa 1994, the summer leading to my sophomore year in college. For nearly a decade Jason Orr brought Black Atlanta together to vibe through every sensory outlet of our collective bodies through the Funk Jazz Cafe. People came from all over sprawled out "Atlanta" and stood in line for hours without knowing who was going to perform. It was electric. Orr, a creative genius, developed a phenomenal documentary about the state of black music over the last two decades called Diary of a Decade. He premiered his documentary at the NBAF film festival to sold out audiences who not only watched the two hour flic, but stayed for the post-film discussion. We left the film like we had been to a Funk Jazz Cafe event, drenched with nostalgia for an era we have been trying to explain since it ended. 
The film chronicles amazing performances by Jill Scott, Dionne Farris, Omar, Me'shell N'degeocello, Goodie Mob, Bilal, Doug E Fresh, Janelle Monae, and sooo many more folk who in the early days jammed to the legendary house band, The Chronicle.
In the late 1990′s Yin Yang Cafe was the place to get your true caffeine every Thursday night via The Chronicle. It was an open mic night, there was no rehearsal…all improvisation…live music flow…dancer's heaven. And we danced like we might fall out if the music stopped. Bone Crusher and, comedian, Zooman were the hosts and they didn't let just anyone get on stage.
This year the NBAF featured The Chronicle Reunion after nearly a decade. The original members Billy Odum, L-roc Phillips, DJ Kemit, Phil Davis, Avery Johnson, and Lil' John Roberts pumped out hits, like "The Rock Song" that only Yin Yang Cafe (now Apache Cafe) regulars would know. All I know is I couldn't move my neck or talk for days but I felt like a burden had been lifted by the end of the night. It was the spiritual experience–the release–I have been looking for since 2005.
Both Funk Jazz Cafe and the Chronicle presented artists like they were already stars and you just didn't know it yet, like singer/songwriter Donnie (The Colored Section) and Joi (Star Kitty's Revenge). In true form The Chronicle presented artists like lyricist Kev Choice out of the Bay area and my favorite of all, a true "wildchild," Phillipia, who was so bad ass that The Chronicle ended up handing their instruments over to her band to close out the night at Apache Cafe. You know you bad when one band brings you up to play with them and you bring it such that they relinquish the stage to you and yours.
Now youtube can never recreate the feeling of being there, but it can give you a taste. So here goes…
I'm just relishing in the fact that the Atlanta Music scene is coming back and on Wednesday night I will be rocking to Phillipia at Centennial Park for the Wednesday WindDown. If you're here I urge you to be there. I'll be the one with the big hair bobbing back-n-forth in the front. Give Thanks.
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Monday, July 25, 2011
The Sexual Fluidity Project
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via freedom fighter. on 7/25/11
I'm making a documentary focused on sexual fluidity and the broad range of sexuality. Tumblr users express a wide range of opinions and I hope to get as many of you to share your views as possible. I have created a series of questions related to sexuality that I would like answered in a video or audio submission. My goal is to get a wide range of answers that I can edit into a full-length product. If you or any of your followers want to participate, please come visit the project: http://sexualfluidityproject.tumblr.com/
I'd appreciate the help, and hopefully this will be something positive for the LGBTQ community.
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Friday, July 22, 2011
this SO looks like my friend in dc.
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Hail to the…Naw!
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via The Crunk Feminist Collective by wpeeps on 7/22/11
So Summer's Eve has a new marketing campaign for their line of "feminine" washes and deodorants called "Hail to the V!" And, just to be clear, that "V" is for vagina! If you visit their website you can take a quiz to "ID the V" and get your hands on a "Vagina's Owner's Manual." In case you thought this was some kind of corporate altruism, you can also learn more about Summer's Eve's products which, after you take the quiz and read the manual, you will know you need to keep "Lady V" on the right track!
Wait! I think I'm hallucinating so I hit the refresh button… No, this is for real. In a world of sub-par sexual health education I'm all for some public knowledge sharing about women's reproductive health. And in a world that denigrates women and routinely uses "pussy" and other vaginal references to indicate somebody's lack of courage or general inferiority I am all for shouting out and offering a big up to the vagina. But this campaign is neither educational nor complimentary; it's sham. A sham masquerading as education, homage, honor and respect.
Take their commercial "The V" for example, in which a properly ambiguously female and European voice-over tells us "It's the cradle of life. It's the center of civilization. Over the ages and throughout the world, men have fought for it, battled for it, even die for it. One might say it's the most powerful thing on earth!" First, it sounds like the marketing team for Summer's Eve just finished reading some of the vintage works of Brother Cleaver (All Hail the Power of the Pussy!!!). Second, the honor that Summer's Eve asks us to bestow upon our All Mighty Vagina is that of cleanliness and not just any cleanliness but one that smells like a
What exactly does a "Delicate Blossom" smell like anyway?
"Delicate Blossom" or "Morning Paradise." In other words, your "wonder down under" stinks and you need to fix it! This, of course, panders to the same old ideas that the vagina is inherently unclean and its processes are also unreliable and suspicious. Bringing to mind "dirty" words like discharge, yeast, bacteria and menstruation. Of course, they do offer a scent called Naturally Normal but who the hell said all our "normals" smell the same. Not to mention the very idea that you can somehow bottle and sell normality!
Finally, to call "it" the most powerful thing in the world and to talk so romantically about its supposed influence and power ignores the very real ways women find themselves marginalized and made vulnerable at the site of "it". How women access adequate health care, navigate sexual assault or the threat of sexual assault, the right to have an abortion, the right to have a baby all demonstrate the ways in which the mistreatment of vaginas has nothing to do with how clean they are but with where they are situated in the matrix of power, privilege and disadvantage. But this commercial, this campaign would have women believe that all we need to do is tap into the Power of the P, most quickly done through washing it with Summer's Eve, and, like Beyonce says, we could run the world! Pause…Side Eye! So yes, let's talk about what it means to recognize, honor and respect our vaginas! But let's not allow that conversation to be tethered to the sale of products. Let the conversation be about what feels good, what feels right, what feels necessary and what feels healthy. Until then, as my homegirl Tiffy Rose said when she saw these commercials, "Hail to the Naw!" Summer's Eve, you can keep your faux celebration of my vagina right along with your overly-perfumed washes, spray deodorants, cleaning towelettes!
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Big Freedia is the truth! Full Stop.
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so-treu: everyday. every. damn. day.
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jerriizmz: LOVE TRANSCENDS DECADES! ourafrica: One of the most...
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via guerrilla mama medicine on 7/21/11
LOVE TRANSCENDS DECADES!
One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
This is Africa, our Africa
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011
train. south korea. light.
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Girl Thank you. Because all I could let out is an #ummp. and a...
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via New Model Minority by brooklynmagic on 7/20/11
Girl Thank you. Because all I could let out is an #ummp. and a #ummhmm.
#ummp.
I don't really know what to say except I love the expressions. I like to think in the bottom picture Tyler is thinking "Damn. I'm a fucked up mysogynist. I can't believe I'm standing next to Erykah Badu! Look everybody! I'm standing next to Erykah!"
and her expression is all like. "Yeah. I'm standing here but that's not a co-sign on your fuckery."
[image description: four pictures of Erykah Badu and Tyler the Creator of Odd Future seemingly delighting in each others company. He more so than she I'd say. End image description]
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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blackandkillingit: Photo by Bohemian Soul...
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Monday, July 18, 2011
#QuirkyBlackGirlsoftheDay? blackandkillingit: @blackandkilling
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Ladies First (and Only)?
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via my best friend gayle by summer of sam on 7/18/11
Last week, Single Ladies accrued the most internet buzz it's had since the premiere, and it wasn't because viewers still find it hard to believe that there are that many straight people in Atlanta. (Or maybe that's just me.) Series executive producer, Queen Latifah made cameos on the last two episodes, appearing as Sharon Love, main protagonist Val's (Stacey Dash) former college roommate. As a teaser for last week's show, two weeks ago Love, a television personality, admitted to sleeping with Val when they were college roommates. Unfortunately for Val, the admission came while Love was mic'd and on air. Then last week, Love visited Val's boutique, offering following insight:
"It turns out being gay is fabulous. My Twitter is all atwitter. I have six new Facebook fan pages. And for every sponsor that's fallen out, I've gotten two more. Who knew? Being gay is the new black."Yes, Sharon, I suppose it is. Such a minor plot point might not normally cause such an internet stir. Yet folks have speculated about Queen Latifah's sexuality for practically her entire career, and Latifah's role in Set it Off as hyper-butch, bank robber Cleo notwithstanding, her remarks as Sharon Love mark the first moment that the queen has seemingly embraced (the idea of) the gay. QL's brief appearance on Single Ladies has left many of us wondering if Sharon Love may be a foreshadowing of what real life announcements may come. Does Queen Latifah intend to officially come out soon? October 11 is just around the corner.
I'm more interested in a public apology for Bringing Down the House and forcing us to endure Common as the romantic lead in a movie than I am about Queen Latifah confirming some shit we already know. And I suspect that QL might only admit that she's been scuba diving in the lady pond like she was looking for Nemo if, in fact, she could pull a Sharon Love and turn such public confirmations into some lucrative lesbionicness. We're still waiting for our black Ellen, I guess. Sheryl Swoopes is on the back of my almond milk carton. Shout out to Wanda Sykes, but that voice is nearly Talib Kweli-esque. And although she did ride the "I sleep with chicks" wave until it crashed into a talk show and increased publicity, frankly she never had the pre-coming out cache of Degeneres--or Latifah. Furthermore, Sykes' situation is hardly analogous, and can't necessarily serve as a good measure of what Latifah might gain--or lose--should she choose to come out. It was--and still is--pretty apparent that Sykes has very little interest or investment in a black audience, and seems to nearly exclusively appeal to a white and gay one; QL, on the other hand, through her early days in hip-hop, starring role in Living Single, and the fact that she hosted last year's BET Awards, has a sizable one and may have some concerns that coming out will alienate black audiences who are presumably more homophobic than others.
So perhaps Sharon Love is QL sticking her proverbial toe in the water. With Whoopi Goldberg as perhaps the only precedent to QL's Hollywood popularity, there's a lot at stake. Maybe our e-responses will help gauge what more, if anything, QL may say. If rumors of their break-up are untrue, perhaps Dana and Jeannette can become the black gay version of Barack and Michelle. Maybe black gay America may soon have its own first couple? Next thing you know our favorite Cover Girl is on the red carpet holding hands with her lady talking about adopting babies. Don't hold your breath, though. QL's may counter her Single Ladies cameo with a string of appearances wherein she returns to being annoyingly heterosexual, as is her wont.
We'll see.
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Friday, July 15, 2011
Happy and ‘Blackful’: A Mini Playlist
Sent to you by moya via Google Reader:
via The Crunk Feminist Collective by jalylah on 7/15/11
Maze at Wingate Field (Photo Credit: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn)
I dusted up my Keds something terrible Monday night. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly opened the 2011 season of Brooklyn's Martin Luther King Jr. concert series and I two stepped until my calves cramped. I arrived early enough to get beat down by the late afternoon sun and ate up by the bugs attracted by my all natural insect repellant. The concerts, in their 29th season, are free and the lines are accordingly stupendous. A young man with cornrows hawked ice-cold water to those of us waiting for the gates to open. A middle-aged woman with a blond crimped weave, maybe fourth in line, shooed away a photographer, pleading, "I got warrants." I struck up a conversation with the three people more eager than her. They told me they had been posted up since morning. I'd like to think I have a bit of their enthusiasm. I passed on a ride from Harlem and took the subway to arrive early enough to secure enough spots in the limited seated section for all of my people.
The concerts are a 'blackful' experience to poach from the poet and professor Elizabeth Alexander. They feature artists that we love like Stephanie Mills and the Whispers, who I saw a few years back, or recently departed Teena Marie who performed just last summer after a downpour and The Mighty Sparrow, the Calypso King, who will perform this August. The shows begin with a prayer– we put God first–the national anthem and our anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which we do. It's populated with a good deal of what Theodore Huxtable termed "regular people."
Maze took the stage in signature all white– I'd like to say linen, but I wasn't close enough to confirm–to a warm ovation. They were polished, present and attended the moments well. All of them. "We Are One" got me out of my seat early. I looked at the moon and raised my index finger up as I learned is customary for the number. During a brief interlude, Beverly spoke of the band's Philadelphia origins, their original moniker (Raw Soul), their mentor Marvin Gaye and misadventures in brokeness and love. He also confessed to once holding some bitterness at their lack of critical recognition–not even a BET honor–that is now subsumed by this peace, "You can have the awards or the rewards."
I left lifted. "Golden Time of the Day," "Happy Feelings," that sweet sepia anthem "Before I Let Go" amongst others gems from their catalogue had put me in a good space: my mind tuned to good thoughts, my ears tuned to good things. That you would do the same, I'd like to share a little of the happy blackful sounds that have been in my rotation.
"Love Me Instead" Melinda Camille [Download]
Connecticut native Melinda Camille is an American Idol veteran but don't be dismayed. Her 2010 debut, Pure Imagination, is not middling R&B. She's closer to Tiombe Lockhart than Tamyra Gray and her understated delivery recalls neither big-voiced beloveds JHud or 'Tasia Mae. This record wins at hello. It's opening line Camille sings with a side eye but no caricatured sass, "Why you tell me life is like a box of chocolates when really what it is is what you choose to make it?" And then she goes in on bougie black girl scripts. I work out of the same bag. I can understand it.
"Cupid" Lloyd [Download]
This effortfully self-styled thug is bubblegum at heart and his best. "Cupid" makes me want to pop my Trident Splash extra loud, maybe even click my Keds-clad heels. Sweetness has been my weakness since before The Good Girls (Where are THEY now?) and Cupid's is punctuated with a booty shake-breakdown that makes me want to do squats, lunges, get my weight up and prove a low end theorem or two. But mostly it makes me want to hold hands.
"Here We Go" Beldina [Download]
The dreamy Donald Glover, rape obsession aside, has worked with this black Swede. Thank the diaspora for ever stretching its tentacles, on this occasion from Kenya, because Beldina Malaika heartens the lithe dance music in which the Swedes specialize. My only complaint are the excessive weave tosses in her video. Maybe she was attempting an homage to Whitney's "I Want to Dance With Somebody" video. At any rate, "Here We Go" is a great warm up for all manner of whimsy and tomfoolery.
"I Need It Just As Bad As You" Marcia Hines [Download]
I was digging for an episode of my radio show, There Ought To Be More Dancing when I encountered this Boston-bred woman of Jamaican descent (cousin to both Colin Powell AND Grace Jones). She migrated to Australia in the seventies where she is kind of like a big deal, I mean, Queen of Pop stature. After a spell in musical theatre–Hines starred in the Australian tour of "Hair"–she debuted as a recording artist with 1974′s Marcia Shines on which "I Need It Just As Bad As You" appears. It's all the way funk and she's all the way authentic about her sexual desires, her partner's failure to meet them and her subsequent outside dalliances. She's unapologetic about her wants and, like Betty Davis stateside, opened up expressive possibilities for Black women's sexuality that our brutal history and its continuing legacies too often harness. I find listening to her quite useful as I try an open up my armor of upstanding black womanhood.
Bonus Track: "Golden Time Of The Day" Maze [Download]
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