jazzy

i stumbled onto a jazz band rehearsing this evening in a cafe i support because it is independent and black owned and NOT the new starbucks on 118th and 8th ave. i walked in to buy a chai as i waited for some people who define the term colored people because the only time they know is cp.
i asked if i could sit because it looked like there was commotion and i was told there would be a rehearsal going on, if i didn't mind. so i sat and i pulled out my book, jazz by toni morrison (oh so appropriate, right?) and began to read while they hooked the mics and tuned the bass and adjusted the levels of sound. and then the singing began and the words on the page danced away and the book dropped to the table and my toes started tapping and my eyes closed and i started to smile and the vocalist said "cut" and tossed this line to me- "you are making my day right now you are so making my day."
for once my anal desire for punctuality from all people in my life was assuaged as i, in a new move, actually enjoyed waiting for a colored person. ;)

free jazz tomorrow night at 6 at tribal spears gallery and cafe, 117th and 8th avenue, harlem.
***

now, of course, i am reading and i am blogging and that means i am going to share an excerpt with you because this wouldn't really be me if i didn't.

I have stood in cane fields in the middle of the night when the sound of it rustling hid the slither of the snakes and I stood still waiting for him and not stirring a speck in case he was near and I would miss him, and damn the snakes my man was coming for me and who or what was going to keep me from him? Plenty times, plenty times I have carried the welts given me by a two-tone peckerwood because I was late in the field row the next morning. Plenty times, plenty, I chopped twice the wood that was needed into short logs and kindlin so as to make sure the crackers had enough and wouldn't go hollering for me when I was bound to meet my Joe Trace don't care what and do what you will or may he was my Joe Trace. Mine. I picked him out from all the others wasn't nobody like Joe he make anybody stand in cane in the middle of the night; make any woman dream about him in the daytime so hard she miss the rut and have to work hard to get the mules back on the track. Any woman, not just me. Maybe that is what she saw. Not the fifty-year-old man toting a sample case, but my Joe Trace, my Virginia Joe Trace who carried a light inside him, whose shoulders were razor sharp and who looked at me with two-color eyes and never saw anybody else...Is that why he let her scoop the melty part from around the edges of his pint of ice cream, stick her hand down in his salt-and-butter popcorn.
(p. 97, jazz)

kinda like the love song the jazz lady sang

acoustic

lupe and matthew santos doing "superstar." h/t to dork magazine.

"teach me how to live!"

~quote from neighboring feist concertgoer to me, post-show. my brother thinks it was the afro that made me her role model. :)

yeah, so the feist concert tonight at the hammerstein was pretty amazing. pre-tty great. she has a puppeteer! and she sang all the right ones- "so sorry," "brandy alexander," "my moon my man," "sealion woman," "1 2 3 4," "i feel it all"...the list goes on. my brother asked me if feist is "indie rock" and i had to admit that i have no freaking idea what her genre is called, but that all i know is that she is good. period. so here is "so sorry," one of my fave feist songs for you:


the camera work is not the best on the video, but it's ohsoclose to the actual performance i saw tonight that i can't post another. oh, also, she maybe-sorta-kinda suggested that stephen colbert should be our next president. that was good :).

sukh aur dukh ki kahani

the title of this post is also the title of a show i saw yesterday at the culture project as a part of women center stage. "sukh aur dukh ki kahani, a journey of love, risk and loss," brought on a sense of unknowing and/or not understanding was part of the entire process at the show yesterday. andolan, a non-profit founded by and for low-wage south asian women workers, brought five women together to tell their stories of struggle and to empower themselves through performance. the result of their own self-explorations is a powerful show that exposes the truth of the variety of immigration and u.s. living experiences of south asian descent. i think (and i know in my own experience as an imperfect and often ignorant person) that south asians often are placed in the model minority pool along with east asians. it is very rarely (if ever) that we see s. asians portrayed as financially struggling unless the movie or film is actually set in s. asia and the character is a beggar or servant, or it is wartime. in u.s.-set movies/t.v. shows/novels, south asians most often suffer from being overlooked in the professional sector, or are mocked for accents and cultural differences, but there is, as far as i know, no real portrayal of low-wage domestic workers of south asian descent. south asians are also often seen as legal immigrants, not illegal ones.
"sukh aur dukh ki kahani" explodes all of those stereotypes. there are four languages spoken in the show- english, bangla, hindi and marathi, and of those languages the director only speaks english. two teenage interns provided translation for the women across their language barriers, and the show was created by the women across their differences to speak out against violence. at the beginning of the show the director made a point to welcome the audience to fully experience the discomfort of not understanding, and to try to connect to the emotion in the women's performances without full translation. key phrases and words were displayed on a screen in english, and the program provided basic english translations for the five stories shared.
in the q-and-a, one man asked whose stories the women were sharing, and whether or not they were written collaboratively. it was explained that all of the women were sharing their own experiences, and the courage it took for them to get up in front of all of us became all that much clearer. to speak of being in the country illegally, to speak of escaping from your abusive former employers' home, to speak of losing two infant children to hunger in front of 100 strangers is, i'm sure, terrifying, and the grace and strength the women brought to their words was beautiful. andolan will be trying to take the show other places in the future, so keep your eyes open. they also take donations, so if you're looking for a place to share your resources, check out the website.
i thought of this poem by audre lorde as i left the theater yesterday, so i'll share it with y'all~

the brown menace
or poem to the
survival of
roaches

Call me
your deepest urge
toward survival
call me
and my brothers and sisters
in the sharp smell of refusal
call me
roach and presumptuous
nightmare upon your white pillow
your itch to destroy
the indestructible part of yourself.

Call me
your own determination
in the most detestable shape
you can become
friend of your own image
within me I am you
your most deeply cherished nightmare
scuttling through painted cracks
you create to admit
me into your kitchens
your fearful midnights
your values at noon
into your most secret places
hating
you learn to honor me
by imitation as I alter
through your greedy preoccupations
through your kitchen wars
through your poisonous refusal
to survive.

To survive.
To survive.

(1973)

one of these days

from joy the baker. coincidence? i think not...

i'll be there

ART IN HARLEM: black president

art & performances hosted by bre and damond haynes

Sunday May 18, 2008
12-6pm

12 W 130th Street, #3

bring food and drink!

rvsp, please contact: artinharlem@gmail.com

formally instituted in november 2002, art in harlem is a collaborative effort to showcase the works of upcoming and established fine, graphic, decorative and performing artists. artists and their admirers gather at the space in harlem for
art, performance, music, food and spirits.

the idea behind art in harlem was to offer a comfortable, laid back open space in order to provide a clearinghouse for new artists, as well as established ones.




this event happens in my hood! i went to the last one and really enjoyed it...and my friend jackie lives there!

put it on the calendar...

yum.

sunday lunch. "tuscan inspired tomato and white bean soup." good stuff.

the surface of the moon is like:

grooving to your favorite DJ!

(insert booty-shake here) (this was our ItAG warm up tonight, and it swept aaaaaaallll the demeaning crap of my workday away...)

***

i was having a completely shitty day today until i got to ItAG tonight. to quickly give you a sense of what the last 7 weeks have been like...our goals:

*What do we want?*

We want ideas. We want resources. We want inspiration. We want to share
ideas. We want to be challenged. We want to be stimulated. We want engaging
dialogue. We want to use what we learn. We want to understand
theory/practice.

We want to talk about classroom management & negotiating roles. We want
positive & constructive dialogue without denying experience or truth. We
want to know, where are all the males?

*What do we need?*

We need common threads. We need resources. We need active listening. We need
real conversations – with respect, love, and safe space. We need to be open
to ideas, each other, difficulties, and discomfort. We need to find purpose
in education. We need to negotiate the bureaucracies. We need to be a part
of a larger support network. We need realistic application with limited
resources.

*Why are we here?*

We want to get involved. We want to continue prior experience. We want to
share best practices with like minds. We want to empower classroom though
social Justice. We are here to figure out how to negotiate the gap between
politics/intention and practice. We're angry (and there's reason to be.) We
want to look at the works. We want pure enjoyment. We want to reinvigorate
ourselves in practice. We want to talk about empowerment & be a part of
history. We want to analyze the dangers and risks and conflicts
(generational, institutional, cultural…). We want to understand the
potential for symbiotic (reciprocal) relationship between student/teacher.
We want to grow and continue being fighters for our students.


to find a beautiful space in which you can let go is a blessing. NYCoRE did that for me this winter, and i am, like i am so often, very thankful. i've made new connections that touch my heart, and i feel fulfilled. now i just need to throw a party and get everyone together! :)

oooh mr. cupcake, you're so yummy and misshapen!

final messy product. mm mm good!

so i decided, as my sunday afternoon challenge, to do a remix on us vs. food's buttercream quickie.

for my version, i decided to try to make cupcakes and use a minty dark chocolate in the cake. i used the same buttercream recipe (um, SO easy and light and tasty)! the choice of the cupcake "format" was...an interesting one, considering the fact that i don't own a muffin pan. you will see the folly of my decision to "wing it" manifest itself soon enough :). join me on this culinary journey...

i could smell the coffee, mint, and chocolate flavors all at once...

i should have found a freaking muffin pan. but hey, the shapes give the "cupcakes" character, yes?

this is the one freaking cupcake that turned out the right way...

these are some of the ones that didn't...

mmm, vanilla buttercream...

a few notes on the final product:
the cupcakes are moist and super-chocolatey, and the mint flavor really shines through. my friend jackie was delighted with the mintiness, and the buttercream is a nice, not-too-heavy accompaniment. also, the crazy oval shape feels all gourmet and shit, right?

thanks, us vs. food, for the great idea...

lake jewelry

i received my latest etsy purchase in the mail today, and i have to say, i am pleasantly surprised.

i love buying handmade and supporting independent artists/artisans, but buying from etsy is risky...sometimes it would seem that the artist used a "magic" camera while photographing their goods, and created an image that is completely unlike the product i receive in the mail.

lake, though is a different story. the blossom vines earrings i ordered arrived, and are just as beautiful as i hoped.

yay!

check out etsy for more cool finds...

VDay/ my sister is fucking awesome

i got one valentine's gift today, and i have to say that it's better and more unexpected than any other gift i've received.

a little background: i, being a complete and utter idiot, managed to deafen myself early last fall by misusing q-tips. i had a wax blockage, people! i couldn't hear! i had to go to the clinic and the doctor banned me from using q-tips ever again! pathetic, yes?

anyway, now you will understand my awesome gift...

siblings rock. :) happy valentine's day, my friends.

this won't make me look good,

but i'm okay with that. i LOVE these cards. very pretty cards that say pretty funny/not so nice/ kinda sweet things. they remind me of a card i sent sonj once regarding a lack of emails... :) and while you should totally buy paper cards, since i'm all about mail and pretty things you can actually feel, you can send JunkMail Greetings as e-cards too! cool!

check out JunkMail Greetings!


image courtesy of hatemailgreetings

tonight

things that rock about today

1. today is the day after the second meeting of my ItAG (and the first that everyone attended). we played games from "games for actors and non-actors," introduced ourselves, and started to get a taste of what we all bring to the super-positive, awesomely radical educators' table. i left at 9:15 feeling radiant and expansive, and exhausted. good talk about good books is like crack to me, without the horrible post-hit crash :).
2. my promotion (as lukewarm as i felt/feel about it) was announced at work today. it's good to have it finally out in the open. it's also good to have a great officemate to make sense of it all with.
3. restaurant week dinner at amalia with heather and nicole. FAB! from caldo verde to balsamic-glazed short ribs to warm chocolate cake with vanilla foam and caramel ice cream, fancy dinner was worth every single penny. add the pinot/cabernet/syrah blend to that, and you've got near-perfection. good eats and good conversation-- a great way to end a wonderful 48 hours.

what's up next in this oh-so-blissful week?

• a pan-african literary forum reading at the new school tomorrow featuring our friend c. n. adichie
• maybe first fridays at the bronx museum?
• maybe first saturdays at the brooklyn museum?
• maybe a kinda silly obama-love event at piano's on thursday?

i dunno. but having to decide between this many awesome choices is priceless.

weekends are for goodies

my marble banana bundt cake, ladies and gents. with chocolate chips for extra kick!

snacks for a sunday afternoon

if you were to happen to stop by my apartment this coming sunday afternoon, you might be able to score a slice of a marble banana bundt cake.


you've been notified. do what you will. :)

sometimes the wonderfulness of friends astounds me

i feel so lucky to have my friends sometimes. today one of my older, wiser friends and i had a chat. nothing too intense-- she set me up to visit a school and then we rode the train downtown together from 231st street up in the bronx. we were interrupted by calls to our cells and random silences. nothing special, yet the insights i gained from her are infinitely valuable. i trust her opinion, and it wasn't until i was sitting next to her in her car this morning that i realized i had so much to ask.

i don't know what i would do without friends like her. and i'm grateful to my time in new york if only because my first job here gifted me my relationship with her and with another friend, chris. having women whose footsteps are just the right size and shape for you to follow is really nice. and to have role models that aren't so far away as to be inaccessible is what my mother would call a blessing.

feeling thankful.

favorite new feel-good show

how to look good naked, on lifetime!

when the guest today said, "i am going to try to love all of myself, as i am," i realized that there is nothing i like more than carson's new idea for a fashion show that guides women to a new sense of self-perception. it's not your usual makeover show- the women are not put through major workout regimen or given tips for hiding their rolls, nor are their senses of style dismissed. he helps them see themselves differently by looking at themselves from a different perspective. then he buys them a sexy outfit or two and challenges them to do a tastefully nude photoshoot. as usual, joy finds herself crying more often than not. :)

this is SO much better than queer eye!

oh, p.s.: yaya's got a job! go yaya, lifetime needs you. and raven symone. and queen latifah. and tamera mowry?

what i'm doing at work today

working on my book wishlist for the new year. here's a taste:

1. the best american nonrequired reading, 2007. (ed. by eggers)
2. the book of other people (ed. by ZADIE!)
3. ake: the years of childhood (soyinka)
4. but some of us are brave (ed. by hull)
5. a poem traveled down my arm (walker)
6. in search of our mother's gardens (walker)
7. scattered hegemonies: postmodernity and transnational feminist practice (ed. by grewal and kaplan)
8. decentering the center: philosophy for a multicultural, postcolonial, and feminist world (ed. by narayan and harding)
9. feminism without borders: decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity (mohanty)
10. third world women and the politics of feminism (mohanty)
11. wizard of the crow (Wa'Thiong'O)
    

"pack just one bag, plus the guns. i'll make pancakes."

"terminator: the sarah connor chronicles" is on fox right now, and it's pretty freaking awesome.

there's something about sci-fi that joy just absolutely loves...maybe i'll reread my octavia butler collection this winter...