May » 2010 » RIOT IN THE SKY

Adventures in Los Angeles pt. 1

What up fam! My bad for being off the bloggyblog, but there’s so much going on in Los Angeles I can’t keep up. So far, it’s been an amazing trip—bombdiggity weather with bombdiggity company. I love all my Californians!!

I arrived Saturday morning, settled in at my girl Tiffany’s pad (thanks for letting me crash!!), then got the grubbery on with some delicious lunch she prepared (thanks you Tiffany and Trader Joe’s, y’all make a dope team!!). After lunch, my first stop was Blick’s art store, where I picked up 8 Montana cans then headed straight to Venice Beach to get my paint on. We don’t have gorgeous beaches or many legal walls in Boston, so I made sure I hit the Venice Art Walls up while I was here.

Madd windy—look at those leaves fly!!

Don’t be fooled by my outfit, it was cold as shit at Venice Beach! Sultry summer hasn’t quite hit the coast yet (clearly I missed the memo, damn). It was windy the whole damn time and the big ass holes in my t-shirt weren’t helping—I had a current running through me. I painted characters of two of my favorite men (artist/friend/mentor/colleague/bigbro/bodyguard/roaddawg/soothsayer/etc.) SWAT and Problak. I love these fools so much it’s ridiculous. These men taught me everything I know about painting and more. The original sketch had a character of me between them with the middle finger up…but after 4 hours of teeth chattering and blue fingers, I was SO GOOD! Done and outa there!! Plus, I was down to my last cap. Saturday night ended with a bombass sushi dinner and watching Blue Planet and falling asleep to Rupaul’s Drag Race.

Sunday, I hit up my favorite daytime party in Los Angeles: The Do-Over. Sangria, beer and BBQ! This is where I had the pleasure of dancing to the grooves of DJ AM before his passing. I highly recommend it as a spot to check out for anyone in the area. Sunday night was none other than the LOST SERIES FINALE!!! I cried so bad. I won’t throw up any spoilers for people who are still catching up. I’m not one of those.

Monday night I went to visit Kat Von D’s shop! I heard she got a waiting list of FOUR YEARS. Cot damn. That is hella fucking tight. I’m just thinking about how dope it must be wake up everyday and do exactly what you love…to the point where you got a FOUR YEAR WAITING LIST?!?! She is the fucking shit! And an inspiration to me.

As much fun as I’m having here, I have to remind myself that this trip is first and foremost business, vacation is second. UCLA invited me back to do a tribute to Janet Brown. The Community Programs Office is the center of student activism and student empowerment on campus—it’s like the rebel headquarters, where I was heavily involved in for all 4 years of UCLA. The performance is tonight, so I’ve mostly been prepping these past few days. This will most definitely be the most personal showcase of mine yet—between UCLA homecoming and sharing in honor of my mentor, Janet Brown, I feel a lot of pressure to make it…worthy. I believe in the power of words, but sometimes words aren’t enough. How do I convey everything I want to about Janet to people who both know her and have never known her? This will be far from a “performance”. I’m not trying to put on a show for anybody. My most important goal is to connect people in the room with Janet’s spirit.

Wishing everyone a blessed and beautiful day. More Los Angeles stories coming soon. XO.

Revolution running in my ears

There’s a back-to-back revolution bumping in my headphones:

These albums make me hella happy to be alive right now. Buy them today!! I’m madd amped to see Nas & Damian Marley in a little over a week at Jazz Reggae Festival in LA!! What up West Coast!!

Janelle Monae performs “Tightrope” on Letterman

I only watch programmed television on one occasion: Lost. TUESDAYS 9PM EST ON THE DOT I NEED SILENCE IN THE BUILDING!! Everything else, I just record or catch streaming. Then as soon as I heard Janelle Monae was performing live last night on the David Letterman show, I had to drop everything to watch that too.

Janelle Monae is freakin’ unbelievable. Her voice. Her feet. Her eyes. Her grace. Her music and performance in this video makes me feel a little more…human. She sets a standard of artistry, innovation and dignity I aspire towards. YAY MONAE!

Noisettes cover “Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve”

Madd elegant and edgy. Jockin’ her style.

Untitled.

I’ve been posting a lot of irrelevant shit lately. Not true. I try to keep it relevant by posting things that pertain to my interests and/or disturbances. But I’ve been keeping you all out of my head because quite honestly, I’ve been a little out of my head. I’ve been clicking away less at the keyboard and running my pen more through my notebook. I’ve been filtering through my thoughts and reflections in the journal so it’s less blabbery and more bloggery here. So far, I think I’m failing.

In six days I’m hitting the west coast again!! YEA. I’m going back to the City of Angels for a few performances and this time, I get to stay for a bangin’ TENS days. OH BOY. After living in Los Angeles for four years, I love and appreciate it more every day that I’m not there. You know how the saying goes, “Don’t know what you got til it’s gone!!” Cot damn.

In prepping for my trip, I’ve been writing/editing/rehearsing and watching a grip of LA INK!! Buck yea. I think in another lifetime I’d wish I was Kat Von D…or at the very least, I’d be a part of her gnarly ass tattoo family. I think my favorite character on the show is Khoi Nguyen. He’s Vietnamese!! WHAT UP! I’m also a fan of Nate Fierro. He just seems like someone I’d get along with. Let’s see if I come back from this LA trip with a new tattoo. Holla.

New track from M.I.A., XXXO

New track from M.I.A.!! She never ceases to blow my mind. In this case, it was her genius strategy in releasing Born Free before leaking this new “club” track. Timing is everything. LOVE HERRR.

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A Planbook to Change THE WORLD. WORD.

Peep this ish!! This is an excellent planning resource from the Education for Liberation Network and NYCORE for folks who are social justice educators.

Check out my homegirl, Ms. Fullon, and other educators sharing comments on the book. Makes me wish I was back in the 12th grade, yadidameeean!!! I got homies in music videos and homies in ed-promo videos. All the right friends in all the right places. No homie bias.

Planning to Change The World: A Planbook for Social Justice Teachers 2010-2011 from Social Justice Planbook on Vimeo.

Dreaming, Believing & Voting: Support Ruby Veridiano!

The pursuit of happiness is easier said than done. Going after your dreams takes an incredible amount of faith, confidence and courage. Sometimes, all the planning and strategizing in the world isn’t enough to secure your dreams. And that’s the catch-22—”security”. Some people work one situation trying to get their “dream” situation in order, so that they CAN cross over. While this may work for some, realizing dreams to the fullest IS that leap of faith. It is being confident in your talents to trust it will serve you right. It is having faith to believe in that which you have yet to seen. It is acting on the courage to risk losing everything, to attain that which you’ve never had.

How do you know you are meant to fly if you never jump?

And I don’t care how good you are, nobody makes it to the top solely on their own. Whether it’s with the guidance of mentors, money from trust funds, support from community or love from family, we reach our highest selves when we believe in ourselves and when others believe in us too…and in this case, believing is voting!

Help my girl, Ruby Veridiano, achieve her dreams of becoming Alicia Key’s head blogger for I Am A SuperWoman—where she will continue to inspire and uplift women worldwide. Ruby is a writer, speaker, educator, media personality and my twin soul.

Ruby & I soaking up sunshine above the Hudson River:

For more photos from our adventure, click here.

Just like voting for your next president, you gota make an educated vote! Don’t just vote for the gorgeous dame because I told you to. That’s almost some dictator Hitler status. Voting is simple. Read Ruby’s blogs here, vote and comment! Take a peek at the other contestants and you tell me who you would want to be Alicia Key’s next head blogger to represent women’s issues and empower young (and old) beauties everywhere. The male sci-fi writer, the gossip blogger or Ruby? Hmmmm…ain’t life full of tough ones!!

Anida Yoeu Ali’s “1700% Project: Mistaken For Muslim”

Watch this insanely dope video now and then find out more about The 1700% Project!!

Readership Hit List: Ken Mochizuki

One of my many goals off my To-Do List in life is to write children’s books about the Asian American experience. Coupled with my goal to further Ethnic Studies research, I want to filter knowledge and revolutionary ideas through different forms of writing—the scholarly, the bloggery and the elementary. Most people don’t get a chance to discover Ethnic Studies until college—if it’s EVEN available on their campus. And with bills like Arizona’s SB 1070 trying to eliminate Ethnic Studies completely, our nation is in danger of wiping out a diversified perspective of American history, which would disallow the voices of ALL to ring freely.

I was happy to discover Ken Mochizuki, an Asian American writer who has created a few books about the Asian American experience already.

This one is about World War II when the United States government incarcerated over 110,000 Japanese Americans (citizens and all) in internment camps.

This one is about the philosophies of Bruce Lee!!

I have lots of ideas for what kinda children’s books I would write about. I want to write one about Vincent Chin, so the lessons from his brutal and race-motivated death will not be forgotten. I also want to write one about when I was younger and I brought Vietnamese left-overs to school for lunch and I was so embarrassed because it made me “different”. I want to make a “touch and feel” book about different types of hair textures (with real human hair!) to show the diversity and beauty of different cultures. And the list goes on. Got a book idea? Hit me!

Little Asian girl poppin’ on TV!!!

There aren’t a lot of things that move me on TV these days, but this commercial had me jumping out of my seat with excitement!! Check out the little Asian girl dancing and doing the damn thing!!!! SO FREAKIN’ cuuute, I LOVE HER! She looks so strong, so confident and so proud. This girl is hella reppin’—she’s fly, Asian, beautiful, a fierce female on TV and the best dancer of the crew without a doubt. She is my new idol, I want to meet her so bad.

Another thing I love about this commercial is that it shows a beautifully diverse group of young girls being young girls. They’re dancing, being playful, being expressive without looking like mini sluts or male-alluring Bratz. The Asian girl is even a little chubz, which is so beautiful because it sends the message that no matter what size or what race you are, you bedda work it and work it proud!! Our children are growing up way too fast; they barely get to bask in the innocence of childhood. Too many messages today (Barbie Dolls, music videos, Teen sitcoms) encourage young girls to fit a certain role, squeeze into a particular shape/size and to center their existences at becoming the object of male attention. It creates the false impression that the ability to entice boys is utmost fulfilling and “empowering”. This commercial embraces different races, different body types and different styles of dancing to show that everyone is beautiful. So revolutionary, I dig it.

I LOVE MOMS WORLDWIDE

This weekend is Mother’s Day and also my mom’s birthday!! I’m knocking out one gift for both days with a painting.

Show all the mamas in your life some love and gratitude. Thank your mom for giving you life, and also thank all the moms you know for being moms in this world. Where would the world be without MOMS?!?! There would be NO world, that’s what! Which means there would be no world without women. Cot damn, we women rule. (Well, I guess there would be no world without men too, and everyone in between…but chukno…)

Here’s a Song for Mama:

+++ +++ +++

One of my favorite verses about women, from Tupac’s Keep Ya Head Up:

You know it makes me unhappy (what’s that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it’s time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up

David Choe says, Fuck You

Lately I’ve been reading up on American artist of Korean descent, David Choe (current Juxtapoz feature). There’s a lot to say about David Choe’s style and art, but what I grab most from him is his recklessly adventurous life as an artist. He lives with no inhibitions (or so it seems). He says, Fuck everybody and Fuck what everybody thinks, because he is still going to do whatever the fuck he wants. I love the mantra and can’t say I haven’t heard it before, but believing is easy and applying is the hard part. But as I’m reading more about David Choe and the risks he’s taken with his life and his art (which are more so one in the same), I see how much his art has flourished and how fucking successful he has become. My self-doubt and my own fear are my greatest obstacles. While I’m starting a painting, I’m already thinking about how people will judge it. Will it be good enough? Sometimes I don’t want to draw because I think it won’t be good enough. I’m still getting comfortable with showing people all my best work and all my worst work. I have a tendency to filter just the “good ones”, but that’s so unfair because I know I’m doing an injustice to myself as an artist if I can’t show all my sides as a human being—including all the imperfections and weak areas. It’s something I’m working on. I’m done stalling. Someone once told me, It takes more time to talk about doing something than actually doing it. In the words of David Choe, “If you’re going to try, go all the way.”

Erykah Badu breaks it down on Mo’Nique

It’s not easy being Erykah Badu—not that I’d know what it’s like to be Erykah Badu. But Erykah Badu is like a goddess living among humans—and that must be a challenge. It takes incredible strength and endurance to be a badass beauty like Erykah Badu who challenges gender roles, stereotypes and societal expectations of the woman. You gota hold your ground against much resistance. She is fierce, talented, bold and fearlessly speaks her mind; while society can respect and admire strong women, society doesn’t always want strong women. Strong women aren’t easy to control or manipulate. Strong women can think for themselves. Strong women check other women and other men on their bullshit. And who likes getting checked??Probably nobody. But hey, somebody’s got to do it.

Everything Erykah Badu speaks on in this video touches my heart and soul, but I’d have to say my favorite is at the end…when she’s talking about drummers and drumming camp. YUP! Watch the video to find out more:

What if the Tea Party were black?

The question is simple: Do we perceive mostly white folks’ anger over whatever topic/issue differently than we would if it were people of color?

Don’t get confused like Jenny Beth Martin in the interview. We’re not talking about WHAT the issue is or WHO the issue affects. We’re talking about PERCEPTION. People keep talking about a “color blind society” and insisting that we live in a post-racial era. People argue, “I’m not a racist!” and then go on to do/say racistly-inclined things. We must expand our consciousness of racism in order to understand how racism functions in American society—meaning, racism isn’t just about intention. Racism draws upon perception. The difference between intention and perception is self-awareness. When you call somebody the N word or a chink, you are intending to offend. When you see a group of black men from the inside of your parked car and reach for the car lock, you act on perception. Racist ideas and images of people are perpetuated every day through the media, thus we internalize the racism without knowing (“intending”) and this ultimately influences our perceptions. This is how people become conditioned to carry out dominant ideologies. So how do we challenge the racism perpetuated from external sources and confront our own internal perceptions? Question the messages you consume and be fully aware of your self and the judgments you put out into the world. How do you distinguish between human nature and human conditioning?

Apply for the Summer Activist Training (SAT) 2010!

To all my Californians and beyond, apply for the Summer Activist Training program taking place in the Los Angeles area on July 8-11, 2010. Deadline application is Friday, May 21!

Summer Activist Training is a dooope dope weekend intensive program that develops strong leaders for the community. They equip participants with the critical knowledge, skills and resources for community organizing and direct action campaigns to create real social change. When I was in LA, I was a program participant in 2007, and then a co-coordinator in 2008; I DEFINITELY recommend the program. You go through a weekend of workshops, connect with forward-thinking individuals and go deep into the community connecting with multi-ethnic, multi-cultural organizations working on issues from immigration, environmental justice and more. Spaces like SAT are so critical to the continuous growth and development of our communities by building new leadership. We gota keep spreading the seeds!! And let’s be real, ever since Obama came up, now everybody wants to be a community organizer. Being down with the movement has never been cooler.

Sponsoring organizations include:
- Chinese Progressive Association – SGV
- Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance
- Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress
- Pilipino Workers Center
- South Asian Network
- Southeast Asian Community Alliance
- Thai Community Development Center

Letter from the Committee:

The annual Summer Activist Training program (SAT) seeks your help to identify and recruit candidates for this year’s training. SAT was founded in 1993 to provide young Asian Pacific Islander Americans an opportunity to learn valuable skills in community organizing and direct action campaigns. This program brings together like-minded APIAs to help create a community of young activists and organizers, many of whom go onto work in various community-based organizations and unions. This year’s training will take place July 8-11, 2010. If you know of young Asian Pacific Islanders with an interest in community organizing and social justice, who plan to be in the LA area or can make a trip of it, please encourage them to apply!

Summer Activist Training (sat) has been working with young leaders for years to build solidarity and equip them with information and the know-how to further their work toward positive social change and justice. The sponsoring organizations seek to build a network of young organizers and activists in the greater Asian and Pacific Islander community with skills in outreach, organizing, and direct-action campaigns.

Now in its 17th year, SAT provides an introduction to a wide range of experience in mobilizing people, coalition-building, raising public awareness, and addressing issues impacting oppressed and disempowered communities. sat and graduates of the program continue to make a mark on the APIA community; many alumni have gone on to work in various community-based organizations and unions. We hope you will help us recruit the next generation of APIA movement leaders.

To find out more and the online application, click here.