International Women’s Day Benefit Concert-Female Reggae Headliners!

CHECK IT!! Saturday March 5th at Pier 23, Reggaegyals.com will be hosting the 2nd Annual International Women’s Day Benefit Concert, featuring all Female Headliners….here’s an interview I did with Nora and Sarah from ReggaeGyals and two of the headliners:  Queen Makedah and Irae Divine…hear what they have to say…

Reflections on love and lovelessness…how do you define genuine love?

In this audio piece I combined reflections from Chapter 1 of bell hooks’ book “All About Love” and a vox pop I did with students from Rudsdale High School in East Oakland, I asked them “What does love mean to you”…check it!!

Mami, Mami

Photo by Rocca Duchicela

As a current apprentice with the First Voice Media Apprentice with KPFA’s Full Circle show, I produced a commentary about being a single mother.    Take a listen…

1st day

So I’m very impressed that this place that i’m in-which for now i don’t know where it is-but why does it have computers?  where did they come from?  I’m so confused but i’m not really in a rush to find out why i’m here-i’m enjoying myself for the first time in a long long time.  I like myself here.  I hope this is not a dream.

Today after playing cards with Eb.  We walked around the Rincon and I saw old and young and all in between.  People were teaching each other and learning from each other.  There was a circle here and there of people making music, people knitting, people building things, people in the fields.  I’m told that everyone is responsible for working the fields or basically being part of making food and when they are not doing that they are in various workshops gaining other skills, if not doing that then they are guiding a workshop based on the skill that you bring.  There is such beautiful discipline but it doesn’t feel rigid and oppressive but rather enthusiastic and empowering.

Right now I’m getting ready for the community dinner-we all eat our main meals together.  And dinner is the most festive meal, everyone looks good and contributes.  And after there is a roda where people play music and dance.  I’m so excited.

Dreams

I had the dream again last night.  It’s the same thing everytime.  I end in this pool of water-naked (of course) and with my eyes still closed i can hear this beautiful music.  I’m disoriented so I don’t know where it’s coming from or even where I am.  All I see when I open my eyes is brightness, then slowly i see colors–vibrant yellows and purples and reds and blues.  Then I see music notes flying in the air like smoke, that’s how I know i’m dreaming but at the same time it feels so real.  Then as I slowly realize what the hell is going on that I am alone and in the middle of nowhere…I reach for my green beads…the ones I always have on me or near me and they are gone.  All I can do is run, RUNNNNNN, RUUUUNNNN as fast as I can…but I don’t know where.

This is the second time this week.  I don’t know what it means, but i’m dying to find out.

Thoughts on Halloween

I walk outside and it’s the “right” fall feeling.  Leaves on the ground, I can’t help but walk on the leaves just to hear them crackle beneath me.  It reminds me of going back to school, walking home with my friends in elementary school–being loud and laughing at anything really.

Anyway I walked past this halloween festival this sunday and I just sat down and watched the activities because I started to wonder what is this obsession with ghosts, monsters, or for others dressing up their alter ego for a day–it’s almost like this holiday gives them a type of permission to dress in a way they never would on any other day.  A time of masks…

I never really got into the halloween frenzy and I really think it has to do with the idea that I don’t like masks and I don’t like seeing other people being masked.  I want to see people for who they are and I want people to see me for who I am.  Everyone is okay with having a day of masks, i wonder why there isn’t a day of truth or of being unmasked.