:: epic birthday in NY highlight reel ::

I took to the skies...



In search of my destiny at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe...



My birthday wish was to slam there...



But not only did I slam...I WON!!! And was invited to come back for the Friday night slam and New York showed me soooooo much love, that I ran out of chap books!



I can't wait to go back!

+O+ KrisDeLaRash

When Emo Kids Grow Up.

So, I have no qualms about admitting... I was a TOTAL emo kid in high school.

For those of you that didn't know, my name KrisDeLaRash actually comes from my high school garage [emo] punk band, Rash Minority, which I started with two of my good friends, Isaac (awesome guitarist and collaborator) and Alberto (drummer of the local legendary Razacore band, Intifada). I was looking on MySpace and found our old page, listened to some of our old music. (if you're curious, be my guest, just remember were 17 ) We definitely were a GARAGE punk band, cuz those recordings were straight up done in a basement, but it still makes me feel some kind of way.




But...what is it about rocking out with a live band, belting weighty lyrics? Poetry and Hip Hop...love 'em. But this girl right here, was born to rock.


(at Carver High School's Battle of the Bands)


So, I got to listening to some of the great emo songs of my time... (if you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen my #whyimstillanemokid trending topic) and I realized just how heavily influenced my songwriting and poetry are by Emo music.

Funny, I was trying to explain it to someone the other day. What is emo? Emo is just a short term for "emotional". Emo punk is rock music that usually touches on topics a little deeper than "I hate my parents and conformity" lol.

It's music about your feelings but it also goes hard! So, if you'd like to delve into the amazing, jolting, lyrical world of Emo Punk, here's 5 songs you can check out right now, that I genuinely believe are some of THE BEST EMO SONGS EVER (err...my favorite ones anyway) -- Lyrically and melodically!

1. Jude Law and A Semester Abroad - Brand New
2. God Called In Sick Today - AFI
3. The Recluse - Cursive
4. Blue Channel - Taking Back Sunday
5. Understanding In A Car Crash - Thursday

I don't wanna jinx it, but I can see Rash Minority coming off of hiatus at some...time...soon...

Many a splendid thing

On a 60-degree day in November,

I got some great news...

I'VE BEEN CASTED IN DePAUL UNIVERSITY'S 2010 PRODUCTION OF THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES!!!


If you ask me nicely, maybe I'll tell you which one I'm reading...

To celebrate, I caught up with my boy Flow, and we hit the Little Dragon concert at the Double Door! Easily one of the best concerts I've been to this year -- and it was FREE.99! Yukimi Nagano was amazing, sounded better than the recordings. Where they do that at?


The band was amazing, had the whole spot throbbing all the way through their 20-minute encore. Little Dragon is not to be slept on.

Minneapolis Mini-blog

Minneapolis was the Bees knees. The kliff notes?

Me and CasMercedes rocked the house:



The Twin Cities have the awesomest/tackiest/sexiest community of drag queens ever ;)



The Lungless Ladies and the Dimpled Custodian of The Default Project are the host/esses with the mostest-es and I'll love them forever, just you see.




Minnehaha Falls gave me my sanity back in the form of beautiful autumn foliage!



:)



-Kris

Return.

Current Mood: Happy
Listening to: Don't Forget To Breath by Bitter:Sweet

Hello blogworld,

It's been too long.

I've had a roller coaster of an autumn. But I'm still here.

September was like a breath of fresh air. Finally, a little more structure after a free-form, organic summer, which I needed. I'm taking some exciting classes too. One class in particular, Performance of an Urban Space has been stimulating me creatively on a level that no other class ever has before.

One particular assignment got me talking about my grandmother's garden because we had to write about a place we were fond of in our childhood, one that holds particular importance to us even now. This is what I wrote:

Her Hands

Tender and tenacious
her unyielding hands
planted fields of lemon balm
and chamomile
for a south side backyard paradise
that concrete slabs
and urban fences
could not inhibit.

There were holes there...

Soil punctured for air
where serpents stealthily
coasted past elephant ears
and newly sheared pink rose bushes...

There were strawberries there...
Boxed beneath the shrouding vines
for homemade wine.
They sprouted white
and ripened red
just in time for snacks
when school recessed.

But the best...

the best were the raspberries,
seeded and sour,
flowering on a bush by the garage...

But time,
neglect
and weeds have made that all
a mirage.

I remember the beehive by the plum tree,
sitting like a Christmas gift under it...
I'd unfold my arms and feel the earth move with wonder.
If we were heard saying bad words or talking back we'd return to it
To pick a switch for which my grandmother
used to reprimand
with her tender and tenacious hands...

I learned love
where it was not always simple
or quiet
or soft
but always beautiful.

Today,
I wonder if
her dutiful work
has long departed.

..................................................

This quarter will be over just in time for Thanksgiving. Then break and then just 2 quarters from my Bachelor's!! I'm keepin it together! I'm so close. So close...

Anyway, September I went to New York for the first time ever in my life! Me and some friends hopped in a car and drove to NY for a few days and it was just the kind of road trip I've been dying to go on.

And it was not without it's road trip drama. We had trouble with the trunk of the car on the way while laying over in Ypsilanti, MI. We were visiting my girl CasMercedes' dad, the great jazz musician Buster Wiley! He gave us a much-needed morale boost. First, he called around asking friends if they could help fix it. Then took us to some friendly local mechanics. But no luck.

Then he makes another call to a friend.

So we start on the road to meet his friend. We pull into this pretty ranch with a big trailer and a large car shed. Out comes a handsome, charming man in his black stetson with an air gun (similar to that of No Country For Old Men). He blows off the lock and our luggage was freed!








Who was the man in black stetson? Son of the famous Jackie Wilson (you know the guy that Elvis Presley stole his moves and performance style from? the famous soul singer that gave us "Lonely Tear Drops" And "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher"), Jake Wilson. Of course he told us to call him Uncle Jake, and so we did. We sat and chat, he gave us peppers from his garden, and showed us around his ranch. It was such a great pre-cursor to the trip.

...............................................................
New York was a blast. There's a great video here of me performing in the subway with my friend Joshua Torrez. You can check it out here:



................................................................

While in NY, I had a great falafel from Mamoun's, shopped 125th St, saw the Apollo Theater, chilled in Marcus Garvey Park, had drinks in the famous Lenox Lounge (where Billie Holiday used to sing), hit Union Square, and of course, Times Square where we ran into the soul brother Bilal!










Ahhh. Yes. Twas an awesome trip.

And now I'm on my way to Minneapolis where me and CasMercedes will be performing for an event called Women's Work. It's at the West Bank Social Center, Friday October 23, at 8pm right above the Nomad Pub. If you're in Minneapolis, I can't wait to see you tonight!

Til then

and til the next time I remember to blog,

Love::KrisDeLaRash

So, what's with the band-aids Kris?

Oh, you mean these?




Well, it's pretty simple actually.

When you don't take care of yourself and let the stress get to you, your body sometimes says in the famous words of Miss Sofia, "HELL NO."

And that's what happened to me standing on the Chicago brown line platform. I was waiting for a train when it all caught up to me, and believe me, I've learned my lesson.

I don't know though. I kinda think the Transformers Band-aids are a good look, no?

:D

Long time no see

Okay, I've been slackin on my blogging, but I got plenty of experiences to chronicle.

But first... Only 17 days away...


To see the event on facebook click!!!




Savior-Faire is rapidly approaching and now we have a promo video (via Chelcie Porter-Contreras of Luckwings Photography) to wet your appetite for the event.



You can RSVP HERE!!!

And you can also find out about updates and the artists featured at Savior-Faire by following along on Twitter

And while you're on twitter, don't forget to follow me :)

on the sadistic matter of dating...

Actually, I'm not going to say anything about dating because I don't believe in internet beef or digital warfare. It's not for me, or mines. But to anybody out there thinking, "We'll see about that"... don't fuckin test me.

I've recently had the pleasure of meeting a most talented photographer (and just an all-around positive person) by the name of Chelcie S. Porter-Contreras of Luckwings Photography. She is also coordinating Savior Faire: A celebration of GLBTQ Art, Music, Fashion and Performance. Savior Faire will be taking place August 28 and 29th at Quennect Four... and guess who's one of the featured performers!

Yes, that's right. Yours truly :)


Check out Chelcie's work HERE

No, wait... There's more.

The Taste of Chicago is just hours away which means so is YOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS LIVE at the Taste of Chicago! The line up is sick (and not just because I'm on it). I had my humble beginnings with Young Chicago Author's Youth Poetry Slam (the largest in the Midwest) called Louder Than A Bomb. That's where I first met some of the incredible artists like HBO Def Poet Kristiana Colon, Deja K. Taylor of Russell Simmons "Brave New Voices", and FM Supreme who's shared the stage with Hip Hop greats such as Kool Herc, MC Lyte and The Clipse -- that will be performing all throughout the Taste of Chicago Festival on the Fun Stage located at Jackson and Columbus.

Look for me at the Fun Stage reppin YCA on July 2nd at 5pm!



RSVP and CHECK THE SCHEDULE on Facebook NOW!

Cerebral

Yesterday, I had a series of conversations with people, friends. And I came to two realizations that I feel like I should share, although they aren't new or original.

1. The next stage in human evolution must be the moral evolution, and power structures that try to force morality inhibit that evolution.

2. We need to know love to know God, and to know love, is to be understood.

Abstract, I know.

To begin, the moral evolution is not a new idea. I was referred by a very intelligent and worldly brother to a number of other sources that inspire this train of thought, but it came to me first when watching the movie "Waking Life" which I would suggest to anyone that is still puzzled about where I'm going with all of this.

In the movie, an animated scientist recounts the many stages of human evolution, from the biological sense to even the Industrial Revolution -- "evolution of populations, not individuals"-- At the speed of evolution, there could be a new revolution in our lifetime -- the moral evolution. (View the excerpt below)



The need for this moral evolution is obvious. It is, at this point in history, more and more crucial because the results of domination and oppression have everything out of whack. If you don't believe me, take a look at every land that colonization and/or imperialism has touched. The same structures that have perpetrated the genocidal horrors of colonization and imperialism (and slavery) are the ones that legislate "morality."

I won't define morality here. I will say that as a Communication major, in my studies, I've come to learn that whether we are genetically predisposed (a natural born conscience) or socialized (taught through world interaction) to be moral beings, the part of our brain that makes us feel bad when we've done something wrong, or feel good when we've done something for someone else has cannot be an anomaly of evolution. The fact is, we need each other. Not only are we social beings, but to meet our daily needs of food, water, and shelter, we need other people --think of what all goes into the production and distribution of those needs at a basic level (The farmer who produced the food, the truck driver or train conductor that tranported the food, the stock boy that presents the food, and the cashier that sells it to you, etc.).

That we would evolve to treat other people well, is not such a strange idea. Humans are social beings. A scientific study found that babies die in isolation (in fact, they had to stop the study because of the infant deaths). We need contact, we need other human beings. Philosophically, we desire to be understood which is essentially why we communicate. But obviously, that can be difficult. So many of our relational conflicts result because we feel misunderstood, and so many of our relational heights are the result of feeling truly understood. We connect to certain songs, poems, movies, speeches, etc. because they evoke a feeling, a familiar and unfamiliar one. Unfamiliar because it is outside of ourselves, but familiar because there is understanding there... a connection. When we feel understood and appreciated, we are loved. And to know that feeling, the intangible phenomenon of love, is to know god, and because we are all capable of loving, we all not only are in some measure, gods and goddesses, but we are also capable of this moral evolution.

My Summer Reading List...

READ WITH ME

So, I started my summer reading today with Enough by Juan Williams (written before America elected its first black president), which has a foreword about the famous "Poundcake" Speech by Bill Cosby... you know, the one where he came extra hard at poor black people?

This was not before I woke up and saw a speech on worldstarhiphop.com by an 11 year old boy about why no one should use the "n" word.

I dunno. I must say, between the little boy's speech and Cosby's diatribe, I found myself wondering why I use the word. I have friends that refuse to use it, and even shudder when it is uttered by others. I have other friends that use it here and there when the occasion "calls" for it. There are those I know that use it regularly in their vocabularies without any regard.

There are a wide range of opinions about this issue from the Bill Cosbys of the world to the brotha on the block. Some argue that Nigga is different from Nigger (and invented by Hip Hop), others call it a reclaimed word, but my stand is this:

Freedom of Speech was one of the few things this country (founded on racism) actually got right. Banning a word is silly and a little too Orwellian for my taste. It would not be fair to just ban one. You would need to also ban other historically degrading terms. I won't enumerate on what some of those are, but they are as dehumanizing as the N word. And even if those words could be banned somehow, it would deny agency to such communities that have "taken back" such words. For example, the Dyke March Chicago is a grassroots organization/event where the LGBTQ crowd( several of them being of color) fosters empowerment through activism despite the historically and even still painful words

Furthermore, debates over whether or not people should say the "n" word serve as distractions from the real issues affecting the black community, such as the achievement gap in education, HIV/AIDS rates, Heart Disease and Diabetes (due to poor diet choices), and of course, the disporportionate number of blacks in prison.

Could we do something about these things then start burning scrolls?

Iono... What do YOU think?