Incredible...

Definitely an amazing, amazing week for me in so many ways. Because it's fresh in my memory, I'm going to start off with how I spent this afternoon.

You may or may have not heard of the great Black Arts Movement poet Sekou Sundiata. He was at Stanford in the winter of '05 through IDA, and I took his class as a freshman. He also produced two shows at Stanford: "Blessing the Boats" and "51st Dream State," and for his premier of the latter I got to reunite with him. I could probably say that he was the first teacher to really have me approach poetry analytically, from both the writing and performance standpoints. Because of Sekou, I take poetry seriously. I was very, very sad to hear a couple of days ago-- to my shock-- that Sekou passed away last week.

At the Bowery, a legendary NYC poetry club, there was an amazing tribute for him this afternoon. It was a truly moving experience with the most incredible cast of characters appearing to honor the great poet. Suheir Hammad and Beau Sia, two of the greatest spoken word artists in the business, graced the stage. Sitting (literally) right next to me, however, was the incomparable and legendary Amiri Baraka, one of the fathers of the the Black Arts Movement and the founder of the Black Repertory Theatre. I was a little too shy to talk to him, but he performed a beautifully eloquent eulogy. I had the unbelievable honor of gracing the same stage as Baraka and Hammad and performing my piece "Model Minority," which was written for Sekou's class, in Sekou's honor. All in all it was a beautiful event, and I rode the subway back with Luis Rivera, Sekou's old friend and contemporary, who invited me onto his radio show if I ever return next year to New York.

So that was this afternoon.... Before that was my competition in the Harlem youth poetry slam, which finally concluded this Friday. Originally I had intended only to attend for research purposes (much of which detailed on my last entry), but I ended up performing and advancing to the semifinals, and then even the final round. I didn't win, but I really developed some great relationships with my fellow poets; I think I'm no longer just some newcomer dweeb, too-- like, the poet community now knows that I can hold my own. It was really an honor to be a part of that, and also to interview a poet from the competition for the research.

Then there are the Urban Word workshops... really great stuff. In our thursday workshop, a major activist/performance artist talked to the students about globalization, and eventually he led us through a writing exercise in which we were supposed to describe our consumer habits. Then, the punch line: he had us walk out of Urban Word and perform these pieces in front of McDonald's, both to disrupt the social norms via performance and to protest the grander mechanics of capitalism. A very interesting sight to behold in many ways: on the one hand, talk about an incredibly liberating experience for the teen poets. But on the other hand, I did notice that the male poets dominated the scene, with the women poets rather reluctant to share their work, and when they did, they did so quietly. The issue would appear in an interview I would conduct later with a different woman poet, in that she said that as a woman, she feels like she is being compared to the other woman poets, whereas "guys can just spit."

Currently reading my Victor Turner. Real good stuff.

Anyway, here's Takeo signing off. Take care, y'all.