fromthemouthofmoi

The moment you landed here, if you didn't give consideration beforehand, you became one of the Talented Tenth.  It is difficult to write about race without sounding as though what you really want is a bonfire burning bright, heaped high with all that you would really rather forget. Race is a difficult subject to navigate and always someone will take offense. It's inevitable but the risk is a necessary by-product of the potential clarity that can come from such discussions. I am not interested in pointing fingers but what I am endlessly fascinated with is what is at play when situation arise that are out of the ordinary to my life and others.  People of colour who call racists out on their behaviour are almost always then labeled as angry. There is a pathology in that and it is not in the person of colour. It is extremely difficult for one to see themselves as others do. Part of the phenomena of Whiteness is its invisibility, to others and to itself. Whiteness is a pri...

I am still struggling with a month old case of chikungunya and the house is being freshly painted.  I will be back when I have a space in a clean house in which to write.

The Women Does anyone remember Saturday morning Roller Derby when it was played by women and before men saw it as a chance to have a hard-on at 10am? Do you remember the helmets, the knee and elbow pads and the way they played? Those were some serious women. Those women were ready to take you down and out. They were fierce. I had never before seen women play or behave like that. They were women that I was a little nervous imaging myself getting in the way of. Hell, those women wore mouth guards. They were prepared to have teeth knocked out and were equally prepared to knock out their opponents and they did it working as a team. That's my kind of woman. That is how I feel about the women of Rap. The women of Rap are fierce and they demand our attention. Like their male counterparts the symbolism (hoodies, hand gestures) remains intact. These women know where they are standing. My impression with the early pioneers of Rap is that the women were surprised to be unable to get a seat...

Rap Goes Elsewhere It is better to die on your feet Than live on your knees. The hoodie travels the world  And everywhere it went it remained the same only changing to accommodate a new culture. To apartheid South Africa, Kwaito, to Tibet, Somalia, to China and everywhere it went it picked up momentum, everyone adding something, nothing taken away. It was reinvigorated and it's never going away. It is the music of the revolution. It's the advice our fathers never gave, it's the time our mothers never had, it's the sight for sore eyes. It's the travel plans we have yet never having any money, it's the truth: that united we stand. It's a spirit that can not be squashed, it's joy despite centuries of hurt. To South Africa with Mdlwembe by Zola and on to Palm Island Australia giving voice to the Aboriginal. Then on to Somalia born K'naan returning to The First Nations of America. Rap has traveled far and wide and wherever it goes it understan...

In all the years I have lived I have never asked anyone if they like rap music. In the same amount of time I have lost track of how often I have pointedly been told: I don't like rap music. This unsolicited information has been offered to me so many times that it became a source of curiosity to me. The only other genres of music I sometimes hear people claim not to like are jazz and classical music, less frequently, country music. I began to ask randomly why it was they disliked these various genres. With classical and jazz I was most frequently told: I don't understand what I am listening to. Fair enough, that can be taught and for some, music without words is daunting. With country it was too often perceived as the music of the uneducated and sarcastically for those that needed to pine over lost lover in a bar. But when it came to rap music folks just dismissed it, en masse, as not worthy of their time. This seemed odd to me as a singer and lay musicologist. Possibly because ...

June 24, 2015 Feeling the weight of 'more behind that ahead'. Belfast feels right as rain The impact of those 100 frogs upon my lips has me curled up in bed I want a tricycle with a basket up front I know I'm going to leave

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,  till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken,  f or you are dust, and to dust you shall return-- Genesis 3:9 Our revels now are ended. These our actors were all spirits,  and are melted into air, into thin air, and like the baseless  fabric of this vision, the cloud-cappd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,  yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant  faded leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on;  and our little life is rounded with a sleep  --The Tempest Act lV Scene I, William Shakespeare. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night--- Margo Channing THE DIRGE OF HEAVEN ON EARTH In this life you may have a loved one murdered. The murderer, you will learn, murdered for fun. You may be raped. Your heart will be broken. You will not recover. All your plans are destined to fail. You will have chi...