If this was a video game, we could just turn off the console and start the day over and Yao would never have this injury. Unfortunately, this is real life, and my favorite NBA player is out the rest of the year with a fracture in his foot. Below, please find a photo of him making a face that illustrates how every Rockets fan feels right now:
Monday night I had the privilege of performing at Virginia State University in Peterburg. It was my first time performing at an HBCU, and I can’t think of a better situation. It was part of much larger event, and I was awed and honored to be a part of it.
The man with the plan was the man who always has the plan, and that’s Shaggy Flores. A word about fellow UMass alum Shaggy: he is the classic East Coast Puerto Rican hustler. He is constantly making things happen for himself, his fam, and his friends. You want to know what hard work looks like? Look no further.
I haven’t seen him in a couple years now, but when he called with the opportunity to do up VSU alongside himself and the inimitable Queen Sheba, I had to jump at it. Straight off a plane from Cali, I stumbled around Richmond for a few hours, randomly letting jetlag catch up with me, peacing out mid-conversation a few times. Eventually VSU staff set me up in a lounge area where I slept solid for a couple hours.
It was real pleasing to see the turnout at the event. For a relatively small school, folks really came out for it. I’d like to think it had to do with my presence…but more than likely it had to do with the presence of respected scholar and activist Bill Strickland, who went off the head during his keynote address about corporate crime and the hypocrisy of the current administration, and it was all take-no-prisoners style. To boot, when he found out where I live, first thing out his mouth was “The fuck you doing in Brookline?” Man I only wish my poetry performances could be half as ill as his keynote address was.
Oh and bigs must go to Iota Phi Theta Fraternity at VSU for their presence at the event.
Anyway, that event was itself a lead up to an opening reception for an exhibit entitled “Hateful Things” featuring relics from the Jim Crow era. Racist imagery and artifacts from the days when racism ran rampant and unbridled across the country, like the 90s. Not just the 1890s either. Seriously. We know the shameful history of America, and I don’t consider myself blind to the reality of that kind of hatred at all, but even I was shocked to see how recently some of those images were created. 1980? 1992? 1996? 2003???
Damn.
Anyway, Shaggy and his family, Keisha and Orixa, were nice enough to put me up at their crib in Richmond for the night, and I flew out the next morning and headed straight to work. It’s been a busy and tiring past week yall, which is why it took me until Thursday to write about what went down Monday. But damn if it wasn’t worth it.
I’m looking at my schedule and it looks chilled out until March, when it kicks into a higher gear. So hopefully I can catch the Blue Scholars next week when they stop through the Bean. See everybody there.
Bao, Kiwi, and myself hit up Southern California for the first time together at the most recent stop on the Beats Rhymes & Rice tour. UC Irvine played host.
Logistically, this might have been the most convoluted collection of schedule details we’ll ever have to deal with. Bao flew into LAX, rented a car, and picked me up when I landed in Long Beach. Kiwi came into Burbank and drove down to Irvine in his own rental. Not to mention the fact that we all three stayed in different parts of Los Angeles County with various friends or family, plus we had to make sure to get together with our boy Daren Mooko of One Of Agency, who’s been our agent from the minute we conceived of putting the whole tour together. Crappity crap!
The students took care of us real good. Allowed me to borrow Kristen’s guitar for the show and gave me a place to nap before it got started. Actually, I think I was still napping when the show started because these folks started ON TIME. I’ve never seen nobody – definitely not Asians – start as promptly as the UCI heads did. I was telling friends in the area not to worry about getting there until closer to 8:00, even though the start time was listed as 7:00. I guess I’m an idiot because by like 7:02, Kiwi was spitting the first joint of the evening.
I was also mildly shocked by the on time start because Jana and Jesse were just chilling and talking to us five minutes before the show and they weren’t freaking out at all. A lot of the time, you can tell when the show is about to start by how hectic the student organizers start getting. None of that this time.
I think the combined factors of a somewhat chilly night and outdoor show kept the crowd a little smaller than what Facebook had led us to expect. It was cool though. I usually get nervous about outdoor venues because a lot of us have had difficult situations with sound or passersby in the past. But the crowd was all love, repping Irvine well. Oh, as well as San Diego, because a few people made that drive to check out the show too. Say word to Cali freeways! (more…)
And the hits just keep on coming…
The background is as follows: this past November, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri laid off all Southeast Asian interpreters at the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. The reasoning was that these translators only come in handy when there are clients who speak “not so commonly encountered foreign languages.”
Of course, there was no thought given to the fact that having native Southeast Asian language speakers on staff at DHS might actually help build trust between the department and the people they serve. Hiring private translators might get the job done on the surface, but it shows that there’s no investment in helping Southeast Asian communities in the state. From what I gather, folks at DHS know this and wanted to keep the interpreters on, but the governor’s budget cut them out. So many youth activists in Rhode Island - many of whom are affiliated with the dope organization PrYSM - criticized the move as racist.
To clarify: I don’t think anyone is saying the governor laid off people because of their race. I think the feeling is that by choosing not to have Southeast Asian language speakers on DHS staff, it shows a lack of care for the thousands of Southeast Asians in the state. And I think there is a reasonable way that the state’s executive branch could respond to that criticism, but…well…read for yourself:
I think they have mentors who are much older than them who are training them up. You know — how those terrorists have kids blow up, you know, Benazir Bhutto and so forth? You think the kids thought of it? I don’t think so.
Rhode Island First Lady Sue Carcieri
First of all: wow.
Secondly: there are so many faulty assumptions in these four sentences, it’s almost like the comment from another planet. I don’t actually know where to begin…but I will try:
1. Just to get it out the way, I never heard any indication that Bhutto was assassinated by youth?
2. The statement completely ignores the issue at hand! Instead she attacks the people who dare have an opinion counter to hers.
3. There is always an assumption that youth who refuse to accept whatever information they are spoonfed by people in power are actually brainwashed. Sorry ma’am, you got it backwards.
4. She calls them terrorists!
5. When asked to apologize, she refused and then said she expected an apology from them!
Anyway, it’s not even a surprise that people in power feel it acceptable to disrespect the powerless. What’s more: she actually turned it around and claimed that she is the one who is offended!
