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.