quotables: soul mate

quotables: soul mate

soul food: k'naan 'take a minute'

...and any man who knows a thing knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all...

soul food: k'naan 'take a minute'

a thousand [and one] hills

a few weeks ago, i was listening to zoe chace interview ms. lauryn hill on NPR. it appeared as though ms. hill was back: performing again, talking about recording again. i took to twitter and facebook and tentatively shouted it from the various virtual mountaintops. my prayers to the gods of music had been answered: ms. hill is back. i had no idea, at the time, that on her journey back, she would show up in my proverbial back yard. a little over a week ago, i was standing backstage at a concert that i had dreamed of attending since i was about 17. as the announcer began his introduction, i stood next to ms. hill as she climbed the steps to take the stage at the pan african dance festival in kigali, rwanda and i had myself a moment, y'all. i suddenly snapped out of professional organizational mode and fully realized what was happening. ms. hill was back. and she was here. in the land of a thousand hills. if you had told me 15 years ago that this was even possible, there is no way i would've been able to fathom it. but a few brilliant people with a vision and relentless determination made it happen! and i bore witness.

this is the exact time negrita's brain realized what she was witnessing.

...read more here...

a thousand [and one] hills

soul food: k'naan's bang bang

K'Naan & Adam Levine : Bang bang (2010)


yeah, i know a lot of hardcore dustyfoot philosopher fans that this video is going to give pause.
but i'm digging the imagery and the execution. dopeness.

soul food: k'naan's bang bang

linkitude

friday = awesome. it usually means i do some writing as well, but...well...my back is raging against me for God knows what, so i'm going to posts links to some food for thought that i've come across over the past week and then go lie flat in a darkened room. (shout out to the fug girls for the friday link idea)

• jina moore takes on the white reporter's burden in africa. i just started following her on twitter and then realized she had emailed me ages ago inquiring about a flat for rent. ah, small world. (jina moore)
  

• this is africa is looking for bloggers, vloggers, and coolhunters! where do i sign up? (this is africa)
  

• was just explaining black hair politics to a friend the other day, then came across this great article in clutch about the politics of hair in south africa. (clutchmagazine.com)

• and, lawd...bassey ikpi, like, TOTALLY GETS ME. i love her recent piece on the constant struggle of learning to let go and stop missing: emotional hoarding. (bassey's world)

• okayplayer (my first interweb home...ah, 1999) has launched the hugely impressive okayafrica! (okayafrica.com)

• the pan african dance festival in rwanda is on the world wide webs: official site, twitter, facebook, and blog.

• and, finally, a little bit of canadiana awesome: k-os interviewed by my SHAE sister, tastykeish on societyHAE & shad k profiled in the globe and mail.

happy friday, y'all!!

linkitude

soul food: john forte's 'your side'

so, even though i STOPPED watching the world cup after ghana was ROBBED *pause for effect*, i'm still listening to the awesome soundtrack. here's a gem that i cannot stop listening to: (via CoffeeBreakDMV)

soul food: john forte's 'your side'

la la la: when a song says it better than i can

la la la: when a song says it better than i can

quotables: going further

"Push yourself beyond when you think you are done with what you have to say. Go a little further. Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of the beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that something strong comes out… I give this advice out of pure experience. Go further than you think you can."

Natalie Goldberg
(via Jody Watley: Style File)

quotables: going further

quotables: writing

"My advice to writers just starting out? Don’t use semi-colons! They are transvestite hermaphrodites, representing exactly nothing. All they do is suggest you might have gone to college."

Kurt Vonnegut (Armageddon in Retrospect)

via Danyel Smith

quotables: writing

quotables: dreams.

came across three quotes today that spoke to me (and reiterated so much of what i've been thinking/talking/dreaming about, of late):

'no amount of security is worth the suffering of a life chained to a routine that has killed your dreams.' ~ unknown


'you've got to follow your passion. you've got to figure out what it is you love--who you really are. and have the courage to do that. i believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dream.' ~ auntie o. (aka, oprah winfrey)


it is never too late to be what you might have been ~ george eliot

quotables: dreams.

remembering the magic: michael jackson 1958-2009

one year ago, when we heard of michael jackson's passing, my sister said that since she was a child, she'd always wondered where she'd be when that news came. today, everyone is remembering where they were when they heard. i first heard the news on twitter. michael jackson rushed to the hospital. cardiac arrest. a little while later, news of his death hit and my immediate reaction was complete denial. part of me is still in denial, i think. how can someone whose music is so interwoven into the fabric of so many lives be gone, just like that? i kept waiting for someone to announce that it was, indeed, a hoax. that it was yet another rumour flying out of control. but as the hours passed, and i stayed up all night on twitter...more confirmation poured in. i still could not fathom it. it was too big and too shocking to comprehend, somehow. it's like the child in me was stubbornly refusing to acknowledge what was happening. plugging my ears, and shutting my eyes, and shaking my head vigorously until it all went away. it wasn't until the televised memorial service that it started to sink in. michael jackson was gone. michael jackson, who had always been bigger than life. michael jackson who--even in my adulthood--never lost his magic. he was more than a man, more than an artist. he was a beautiful spirit, whose influence cannot be ignored. his impact is felt every single day, all over the world. he transcended race and nationality. he was music. he was dance. he was style. he was artistry. he was a true entertainer.

he was the best. simply. and he always will be. he is my first memory of truly LOVING music. thriller was the first album i memorized all the lyrics to. 'thriller' is the first video that enchanted me and made me fall in love with dance. that red leather jacket is the first item of clothing i remember obsessing over. he's been gone for a year, and his absence is palpable. it's a void that i'll always feel and that will never be filled. we have lost a master, a legend, a true work of art, a powerful force. and that is something that cannot be denied, despite one's personal opinion of the man. it's just fact.

i still cannot accept the fact that he's gone. i wish i could thank him for all he meant. i pray he felt the love more than he felt the mockery and the fear and the misunderstanding. i hope he knew he was loved. i hope, in the end, his gift was more of a blessing than a burden.

rest in peace and power, michael jackson. i love you as much now as i did when i first laid eyes on the thriller cover and declared that you were my boyfriend for life. there will never be another.

...gone too soon...

remembering the magic: michael jackson 1958-2009