it sounds like good food.

THIS JUST IN!!!  The Muhammads are going on their first vending experience in New Orleans. The city will never be the same! We are doing this  soul vegetarian, jamaican, coco-inspired smoothie, mashup thing. It's gonna be bananas. We are excited. Unlike some past vending adventures- we got mo' help this time.  

Fam from Detroit came down- 5  of them just happen to be here. Our siblings ranging in age from 5-19yrs old-it's on sun. The best part is that the event will be part of the MAAFA Celebration. Gotta pay attention to spirit y'all. We were just in Hope Community Credit Union minding our own business, opening up our savings account to save for our trip to the continent. You know getting our ujamaa on, and BAM! there goes this vendor application- and we know we gotta do it. Last night, we had a 90 minute family meeting with the 10 of us, and everybody was up for it- so we doin' it. 

Oh and by the way, the Baba and the boys made it on a flyer......... Rest in Uhuru Sean..... We have to ensure that all the babies are taken care of ... Lil Mama knows. Her video, L.I.F.E. is hard, can't believe we just said that. But it is- what can we say she suprised us!

a few of her favorite things.

Oyin Handmade

So what's good my peoples! We sure is happy to be back home. We have been sitting on our porch, doing yoga in the backyard, making art on actual canvas (we'll show u those @ a later date), and sewn the 1st "babygirl" dress for our baby butterfly-using the fabric that great-grandma gave to us at her naming ceremony. 

If you have hair you need to know about Oyin Handmade- its the best product she has ever used in her hair.Oh and the creative partner, Pierre Bennu has one of the illest children's mix tape on the planet along with other genius art for your ears selections! Can we get a copy bro? 

Without further ado.. 

Ki's favorite things list: Spring '08 

1. Oyin Handmade

2. Coconut Craze Soy Cream

3. Demeter Fragrances- Pomegranate

4. Strawberries! Strawberries! Strawberries!

5. Santogold (ya think?- scroll below)

6. Klean Kanteen

7.  Cloth Diapers

8. DWELL magazine

9. Sacred Altars 

10. The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County

P.S. oh yeah a favorite video

look out for us in the crowd

dave chapelle block party 2004 that's us right here ^=amazing!

What's good Fam!!
Well, we are in New York right now. We did everything we said we were going to do in the last post. Except Dance Africa. Today, we are buying the Dance Africa tickets for the Saturday night show. Last night we saw "Passing Strange" on Broadway. Lots of Black folks on Broadway huh." Go out and buy your ticket right now-THE BEST MUSICAL PLAY WE EVER SAW! In speaking with our artistic elders we are told that Stew has been doing his thing for a minute- Black Rock ain't nothin' nu. Gotta get that score.

Since we have no TV at home the boys go bonkers when they get to Grandma's house. Oh and sometimes their Dad- still got a thing for crap TV- "The Real World" is so exploitative, but I still took invaluable time to watch that crap. We all got things to work on huh. Ethiopia knows something about that- we saw this beautiful film, "A Walk to Beautiful"- woman go thru alot (words from my mom in her jamaican dialect- peep the use of woman for plural) this movie will make you reflect on how people can be so beautiful and not know it.

Oh and speaking of Black women- we just copped Santogold and Estelle yesterday fresh voices in music and tight production. Until next time... here's a poem Asad wrote in NYC transit.. oh and by the way we are so over throwing bows getting all five of us and a stroller on the bus. "You saw us coming down the bus aisle carrying a baby and a stroller so of course the wheels are going to hit your leg if you don't move buster." New Orleans we miss you- see you in a minute. We hope to see you too- look out for us in the crowd!

Thinking of the God
yoga mat prayer mat
pieces of intimate unknown
relaxed poses and arabic slogans
a quiet rah ra
this world ain't all belly full ha ha
incense burning walks in the park
la la la la la la lah's
or
maybe it is
or can be

cause i'm working to see my babies get married
be a daddy
it's lonely not walking
in the shoes of just a baby daddy
or living the life of a middle class black
turning my back and turning up
the volume in my headphones
tuning out the echoes and ghosts in the ghetto

cars don't make me a happy camper
taking flight to the suburbs in the woods
ain't moving on up
moving on up is more like moving on out of this country
connecting to ancestral memory
jumping ships and climbing fences
living off the land
instead of eating out of the palm of the man's hand
seeing your future in the culture of lines
that translate to
war time and made up governments

this ain't no "i'm loving it" fake behind commercial
crap
slapped in the face of the
masses masking massacre

YOU AIN'T NEVER TOO OLD
TO BREAK FREE, THINK FREE, EAT FREE, RUN FREE
WE MAKE IT UP AS WE GO
DEPRESSION HITS TRYING TO PERFECT
THIS ABSTRACT LIFE
THIS GOOD TIME
TRYING TO CREATE THE PERFECT MOMENT
WITH STALE RECIPES AND A SCRIPTED SPEECH
DICTATING A SCRIPTED LIFE
HAND ME DOWN OPPRESSION

PASSED DOWN

generation to generation
tongue in cheek
belly full starving artist generation

WE NEED TO EMERGE OURSELVES IN WATER
OR TEARS
find ADAM
(pEACE bE uPON hIM)
AND THE TREE IN THERE SOMEWHERE
SIT IN THE GARDEN
FACE EAST>
AND GIVE THANKS IN PERFECT SPEECH
FOR MAKING YOU WORTHY.

I see u baby..

congo square, new orleans --photo taken by Lil Bit of www.oddbutcomplete.com

The family has decided not to cook for 2 weeks! We are going raw and live, meaning blending, juicing, soaking, and fresh! It has been quite an experience. First, we felt energized, and on Day 3 not so much folks- can you say drained and sleepy. But, we found out from our homegirl Sala that things only go up after that. As Furqan says, "We are at the beach!"- mostly because we have been sipping on the most delicious coconut water straight outta the young coconuts, and using the coconut meat for fruit smoothies. Our friends recently set up an online network for Black folks who are vegans, vegetarians, fruitarians, and raw foodists- check it out.

We have great news! We just booked our tickets to touch back home in the NYC. That means we can go to Dance Africa, hit up SoHo, get some "cooked" rice and peas at Grandma's house, and see the broadway smash "Passing Strange." We also would love to see you if you're around!

We are excited about creating our master plan to go back home for real for real. The people have spoken, and Insha'allah we will be planning our trip to Ghana for 2009! We definitely need to set up the separate travel savings account. By the way do you know anything about conscious banking?


Everyone in New Orleans has been talking about Jazz Fest. We have been talking about music too- but mostly about Santogold, whose album dropped on Tuesday. Thanks to our friends at NME we can learn more about the "happy" place Santi's music comes from. WATCH.

For Sean.. For Jada.. For Justice!!!

Sean and his beautiful daughter Jada


I thought I had something to say, something to write that was going to be beautiful- like this very day marks the 5th year in our marriage (which it does). But that seems small in the big scheme of things. The major headline, the major call from the mountaintop is that we want justice, we want reparations, we want a change. Today, Sean Bell's killers got off. What do we tell our young people? Do we tell them to go out and vote? Go to college and change this madness? What do we tell them? You can be Malcolm and Martin too. The Honorable Marcus Garvey was treated like he was nothing when he was deported back to his home country of Jamaica. Do we move like we were told to? ...forever?

What I do know is that we have to invest in our young people, and make them fearless for a cause. It's going down right now! It's nation building time- you ain't know?

Go to this site for more information and updates on actions that are happening in support of Sean Bell.

Jada and Black children all over the world are watching us closely.

Hello Brooklyn!

So it's been a minute, but we've resurfaced. This is an offering, a look into what goes on in our minds. It's five of us. That's 25 different relationships we got going on under one roof. We make due.

Since we left, we have been productive. Today, we were featured speakers at a neighborhood potluck to assist in starting New Orleans 1st Food Coop. Exciting stuff right! After that we rolled over to this loft space, to run the ticket table for the New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival. We saw some good flicks. One called "In Solidarity" beautiful flick. Inspired us to get passports, yes I am sad to say we don't have passports. If we did we would probably be living overseas right now.

Just got word that the Central Park Summerstage Lineup just came out. We're trying to do a weekend trip to see Santogold on July 20th. We will be in your neck of the woods sooner then that though-so stay tuned in.

This post would seem not to have anything to do with Brooklyn, except for the exceptionally fly mural we got behind us from our going away party at Harriet's Alter Ego. They got exclusives (DJ Clue voice) over there. Check them out. And also check out some more pictures from DeJeanne, the amazing photographer and fellow Hamptonian of No Posing 4 Photography. Clearly, Furqan memorized that name in this joint she took of us! Until next time.