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?