@ Mercury Lounge
217 E. Houston (@ Essex)
New York, NY | F to 2nd Ave/JMZ to Delancy
Only $10 for a whole lotta goodness!

A commercial spec for dear Demetrius Wren’s reel. Look at how my (real life) homegirls shine! What a great day in the sun. Pretty easy to “act” when you’re just hanging out with your lovely ladies. There is a lot of joy in this, and its blessed.

.

—-

I’m honored to be featured on this extremely important effort in response to an article bashing hip hop education. Featured on the remix of Rabbi Darkside’s new song alongside fellow artist/educators Mista Mayday, Hired Gun, Angel D, Farbeon, Rabbi D, Doron and Dyalekt, I can honestly say this is something I deeply believe in. The music is wonderful, too. And it’s free! Take a listen, and please do read Rabbi’s mission statement below!

THANK HIP HOP digital single now available for FREE download and stream from

http://rabbidarkside.bandcamp.com/

On May 4, 2010 an inflammatory, obtusely racist and derogatory attack was made against Hip Hop Pedagogy and Arts Education in the form of a right-wing conservative blog titled “HipHop Curriculum: Your Day in the DeeKline of PublicK SKoOL EdYOOKayshun” by Debbie Schlussel. The spark for her rage was the announcement of the 2010 Hip Hop Summer Institute and Teacher Training at the University of Wisconsin – Madison (her alma mater). The posting was met with 100+ eloquent, informed and inspiring responses from the Hip Hop community.

After watching the comments stream in all day, I opted to head to Prospect Park and craft an artistic response. What resulted was the song “Thank Hip Hop.” After writing and recording the original version I reached out to my comrades in Hip Hop Arts Education and we got together (across boroughs, state borders and oceans) to collaborate on the “Thank Hip Hop Remix.” The results of both are available HERE for FREE download.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

DOWNLOAD and TELL A FRIEND
It’s a free download, so grab it and pass on the link. The point of this is to continue having dialogue around the antiquated education system still in place in this country. The status quo largely relies on keeping the underprivileged under-informed, under the thumb and under the influence. Hip Hop has proven transcendental, and these songs are a reflection of its transformative power. Spread the gospel.

REMIX IT
Producers: this a call to you. The acapellas with BPMs for both songs are included as downloads. This page is a living monument to “Thanking Hip Hop” and I would like the tracklist to grow with your remix submissions. Email your remixes to rabbidarkside@yahoo.com for consideration.

SUPPORT HIP HOP ARTS EDUCATION
www.urbanwordnyc.org
www.myfreshprep.org
www.urbanartbeat.org

THANK HIP HOP
N’ah mean?

Thank you all for taking the time to check the tracks, read the lyrics and get hip to the politics behind it. Hope you dig it, and can take away something to think about, talk about or write about.

MUCH LOVE, RESPECT & SOLIDARITY,

RABBI D

.

Make You Do Wrong
DJ IRS, For Those Listening
Self-released | 2009

> Click here to hear/purchase the track.

Download show here (free)

Photos by Yarrow Lutz and you can view them all here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video directed by Maya Meissner & brokeMC.
Still photos by Maya Meissner.
Video by Morgan Paar.

Click here to view the embedded video.

–

If you’d like to read it here, so be it, minus Stewart’s kind intro:

Illuminating the Mundane
by Caits Meissner

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint Exupery (author of “The Little Prince”)

There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be
tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight.
- Gertrude Jekyll (famous British gardener)

Forward:

[Recently], I had the joy of bringing a workshop titled “Illuminating the Mundane” to a Richmond, VA slam venue. Having been birthed in the slam community, I find much value in the art of performance poetry. Having diverged from the scene to pursue poetry in its quieter form, on the page, and through music, I learned a thing or two about subtlety and the value of silence within word-based work. I’d like to share what I brought to these young, hungry poets. Before my note to the poets, you’ll find a journal entry written during the summer of 2008, when I studied under Yusef Komunyakaa during the Pan-African Literary Forum in Accra, Ghana. This dialogue has long stayed with me and informed my work since that life-changing two weeks under my favorite poet’s guidance. I hope you find the value in its translation to you.

–

The inspiration: Journal Entry July 8, 2008 Embracing the Mystery

One of the Nigerian students asked me last night, “Caitlin, how are you coping alone in that room with no TV or radio?” Funny. I hadn’t thought of that. My buzzing brain is so full of stories that at the end of the day all my heart longs for is to write. I can’t imagine watching TV here. Even music, as desperately as I love it, has little place in this experience. My iPOD sits in my bag, unused. My songs, instead, are the lilting accents of the Nigerian students laughing in the common room, the barking dogs in heat, the bull frogs and their incredible feat of throats. My own heart beat and breath.

Today in the workshop we talk about the function of poetry as a group (finally!) Yusef shares his thoughts on what makes a good poem. Notes below:

- Each line is important, each word. The word that falls right or left of a given word changes the music.
- Take out the extraneous
- Entry into the poem very important
- “Art is that which endures”- spoken by a friend of Yusef’s. This was a new way of thinking about poems for him. We write the poem for the moment, but we revise it with the intention of endurance (even if it doesn’t end up enduring.) “Time is always at war with other Gods”- a quote from an article in an Italian publication he read.
- Music of the poem in relation to the oral tradition
- the ear is a great editor. Think of language as music.

Tyehimba Jess shares that poetry, for him, is an opportunity to have his voice heard beyond his time on the planet. A way to share political ideals, though he is wary of preaching to the choir or creating a message without image. The image is extremely important, above all. Tonya Foster shares that a writer must discover themselves in the creation of the work, create an alternative space. She is interested in how poets use language to draw in different audiences. Refers to George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language.”

Yusef calls on Plato. In his ideal republic, Plato banishes the poet. Why? Yusef thinks the poet forces us to pose questions. By posing a question, the reader is already active. Being told a message is passive. Language is political and silence is political. The image is subversive because it keeps reoccurring in our psyche, it haunts us. Yusef believes a short statement can be inserted into a poem successfully, but only depending on what happens around it. Often poets think too much about the meaning of the line and not the music. Sometimes we don’t want to understand the poem entirely. We must be wary of poems as emotional advertisements, lacking depth and mystery. Embrace the mystery.

After the workshop, Tonya, Tyehimba, Masese, Mildred and I grab a bite before the evening reading. Masese tells us how he makes his Obokano, the traditional instrument he plays, specific to his village in Kenya. Amazingly, its all natural. A specific tree in the forest is used in its creation, a tree that is not used for firewood, except in the exception of elders and widows, since it is easy to access, close to the edge of the forest. If lightening strikes any given tree, this is the same tradition, it is left for elders and widows. The strings of the instrument are made of dried animal veins. The body, of hallowed gourds. Masese made his instrument himself in about a week long process.

–

The result: April 3, 2010 Caits’ Note to Poets:

Let the story of Masese’s instrument tell us a thing or two about patience. The process behind whittling an instrument to perfection, so it will play when you touch its body just right. Too often I see performance poets shouting their points, statement after statement inserted into their poems without using imagery or leaving much to the imagination. Rushing through lazy metaphors. Cramming as many words as they can into their mouths and the air outside their mouths and into our heads. LISTEN TO ME! I HAVE THE ANSWER AND I’VE FOUND MY SOAPBOX! Yawn.

Reading suggestions:

Here are just a few poets who do brilliant work in this vein: Check out what Neruda does with his incredible “Odes,” giving life to things as simple as olive oil, clothing and ironing. Roger Mitchell (one of my favorite poets) does unbelievable things in his exploration of everyday life. Erica Miriam Fabri turns lying in bed with a lover into an overwhelming journey for the senses. There are many others. Share your finds!

Click here, or on the photos, to see the full spreads. This is just a sample and out of order, just get you excited:

]]> http://caits.mvmt.com/2010/04/26/collaboration-with-seth-kushner/feed/ 0