Into Darkness: Remembering Poet, Musician, and Community Activist David Blair

Blair Performing Carl

I cried the first time I heard poet and slam artist, David Blair or Blair perform his persona poem “Carl” in the voice of the black character Carl Carlson from The Simpsons (ironically voiced by Hank Azaria). In the poem an employee at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant draws a black N on Carl’s locker.  It starts off, “I was drawn here” and ends “I was drawn here” and in between dissects what it’s like being black in a predominately white community using brave language. Brave is an appropriate word describing Blair’s poetry, also politically passionate, fiery, provocative, and necessary. Maybe it was Blair’s syrupy-rich voice, his to the point delivery, and bearlike stature that had an impact on me. Maybe it was that I knew he was gay and because he was a black gay writer I could see myself in that poem. Whatever it was he had the same effect on so many people.

The National Endowment for the Arts said “his stunningly evocative renderings of (Emily) Dickinson’s work are not to be missed.”

Jay Connell, author of Eat This City said “Blair is awful. Not in the way you’re probably thinking, though. When you see someone that talented it’s hard not to be reminded of how mediocre a lot of other things are. Every single time I’ve left a Blair show, I’ve made a comment about how I need to see that guy more often.”

Blair Performing Being Black in America

He performed throughout the world after winning against 54 four-member teams at the National Slam Competition with his team, Team Detroit (which included Ben Jones, Aurora Harris, Becky Austin, Michael Ellison, Judah, and Scott Klein) in 2002. At the competition Blair performed an Italian madrigal. I would have loved to have seen that performance or have seen Blair perform in Paris next year. Blair passed away on Saturday, July 23, 2011.

“Because I’m black and gay, the black gay community means a lot to me as a writer, artist, performer and as a listener,” Blair said.

He meant a lot to the black gay community, the slam community, the Detroit community, so many communities.

Image by Preston Rhea

He described himself as a black, queer writer, and musician. His poetry was heavily influenced by his music. A style called urban folk with an urgent rock feel. He performed with a band called The Boyfriends. Blair was on vocals and played the acoustic guitar along with Leah Woods (Vocals, Clarinet), Ken Comstock (Double Bass), Chris Winter (Drums), Markita Moore (Trumpet), Scott Stone (Drums), Dale Wilson (Electric Guitar), and Nicole Varga (Violin, Viola). Their most recent album, The Line, “was released in 2010 on Repeatable Silence Records. Blair, as a solo artist, and with The Urban Folk Collective, self-released more than seven records in the last ten years.” The Urban Folk Collective, Blair’s first band, a 5-piece band “blending many different styles from folk and blues to jazz, hip-hop and funk.” They performed shows with “Stevie Wonder, M. Doughty (Soul Coughing), Michael Moore, Tribe 8, Niagara, Reggie Gibson, and Harold McKinney.”

Blair and The Boyfriends Performing Freedom Calling

For six years Blair worked at The Chrysler Plant is Detroit where his work suffered. When he quit, he entered into a state of creativity overload, churning out poems, spoken word pieces, music, a one man show called Burying the Evidence performed in Detroit, and an experimental theater piece called The Walking Project, which had a two-week run in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. One of those poems written during that time is appropriately titled My Time At Chrysler which talks about how his work suffered.  My Time At Chrysler ends:

I traded in my Chrysler body
for the body that you now see before you
I know it’s not quite as sleek or as young as it once was
it still gets me to where I need to go
puts me on a new road
points me in a new direction
where the light beams
and the mind dreams
and life seems to go on forever

Blair’s life will go on forever in the minds of the people he inspired, that loved him, and on YouTube. Check out more of Blair’s performances below. Little Richard Penniman Tells It Like It T-I-IS is a favorite. Rest in peace Blair.

Recommended Reading and Listening:

The DVD World’s Greatest Poetry Slam 2002 featuring Blair, Shappy, Becky Austin, George McKibbens, Benjamin Jones, Celena Glenn, Michael Ellison, Sekou (Tha Misfit), and Shane Koyczan Taylor Mali from the 2002 National Poetry Slam in Minneapolis, MN showing both the team and the individual competitions.

The DVD Slam Safe II featuring Blair, Taylor Mali, Lizz Straight, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Simone Beubien from the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach FL.

Blair and Boyfriend’s The Line Album. All the songs were written and produced by Blair with Chris Pyle, Josh Antonuccio, and Dale Wilson.

black lgbt artsy event: orlando: june 5: books and brunch literary workshop @ orlando vista hotel

Books and Brunch, Orlando Black Pride

June is the official Pride month. Each week there seems to be a Pride celebration happening across the states. Orlando Black (gay) Pride is May 31 – June 5. The event I’m most excited about is Books and Brunch, hosted by Kat Williams, host of Sipping On Ink radio show (Blog Talk Radio). Books and Brunch is a literary workshop featuring G. Winston James, Fiona Zedde, Cheril N. Clarke, Spoken, Ortis Randolf, Sherry Michelle, Skyy, and Kat Williams.

Kat William’s Sipping On Ink Interview With Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

Event Description:

Kat Williams will be moderating a discussion on writing and how to get published and each of the featured authors will talk about their experience getting published. Guests will have the opportunity to chat with the authors and purchase books for signing. The event is a teleseminar. If you can’t be there you can see it as it happens at Orlando Black Pride.

Fiona Zedde On Gender/Race/Sexuality For black./womyn.:conversations

Location: Orlando Vista Hotel, 12490 Apopka Vineland Road

Date/Time: Sunday, June 5, 2011, 11am-2pm

Price: Only $20 entry and brunch or $10 entry only (The brunch will include: Mimosa, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Chicken & Vegetable Kabobs, Home Fries, Texas Rice, Caesar Salad, Rolls, and Coffee)

Go out and meet all the authors. Tickets for the event can be purchased www.orlandoblackpride.eventbrite.com or www.orlandoblackpride.com. Please purchase in advance as space is limited.

janet mock: 21 century woman

Remember the name janet mock. she’s about to the next literary giant.

A friend told me to go to her blog, Musings On Love, and read the first entry. It reads … “You have until the age of 28 to decide between his dreams or yours,” a girlfriend of mine warned while having drinks last night. “You’ve got two years … I was having a carefree evening fueled by rounds of alcohol and predominantly light conversation. This girlfriend, who’ll remain anonymous, said based on her experience (tied in with her own regrets as an over-accomplished single woman in her mid-30s) in a nutshell that there’s no such thing as having it all and specifically if I want to be with Aaron, I have to give up my dreams to support his.” The entry is dated Sunday, September 13, 2009 with the tags gender and relationships. Those few sentences were beautiful and made me want to read more. I did and entered Mock’s life. Mock is a writer and editor for People.com, interned at In Style magazine, received an MA in journalism from New York University, and is dating a very handsome man. In all a perfect life, what every woman wants. The death of Tyler Clementi forced her to reevaulate her life and come out per se. Mock was born in the wrong body. Her new memoir, Fish Food: A Memoir, unveils the story of a girl “who sacrifices nearly everything to become the person she knows she’s destined to be.” Mock grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. She transitioned freshman year of high school with her family’s support. Her book is yet to be released.

Click here to read the article published on her in Marie Claire (June 2011 issue) by Kierna Mayo.

Check out her It Gets Better video below:

It Gets Better – Janet Mock Reveals Trans History

black artsy event: los angeles: tonight: 5/19/11: spit – urban mic night @ the kickback lounge

Yolo Akili Performing Are We The Boys We Want

Come out LA and snap yo fingers.

SPIT, an urban open mic night is happening tonight at The Kickback Lounge in LA from 7-10.

The special featured guest is Dorothy Randall Gray, noted author, lecturer, and spoken word artist. Gray’s book, “Soul Between The Lines” will be available for sale. She conducts transformational writing workshops at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Jair “The Literary Masturbator” of Oakland will be performing as well. Jair’s book, “Touch…Poems and other writing of Love, Erotica & Sensuality” will be available for sale as well. He also has a spoken word CD available “Confessions of a Literary Masturbator.” With royalties from “Touch” Jair donated money to help poet and spoken word artist Yolo Akili produce his one man show. Sign up ends at 7:30 to get onstage. The event is sponsored by In The Meantime.

Keith Bloomfield via Flickr

Event Information:

Where: The Kickback Lounge, 4067 W. Pico Blvd. LA CA 90019 (Parking at the Catch One)

Date: Thursday, May 19, 2011

Time: 7:00p.m. Networking/ 8:00p.m.-10:00p.m. Showtime (Participants must be signed up by 7:30p.m.)

Price: Free/Donation at the door

For more information on Dorothy Randall Gray go to her facebook page and for more information on Jair “The Literary Masturbator” go to his website.

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• happy endings and mic stands (victoryates.wordpress.com)
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• black lgbt artsy event: new jersey: may 7: out, loud and proud v @ new jersey performing arts center (victoryates.wordpress.com)

E. Lynn Harris’s new book, No One In The World, will be released June 7th

E. Lynn Harris’s impact on the literary scene is still felt after his death.

Fans of Harris’s books who are craving more can get more with his new book, No One In The World, which was co-wrote by RM Johnson. Johnson wrote The Harris Family, The Million Dollar Divorce, and Why Men Fear Marriage.

“This is the book E. Lynn and I have been planning on writing for five years, and thankfully, we finished it,” Johnson said. “We couldn’t wait until the day came to share this with all of you–our beloved friends. That day is fast approaching. I hope you enjoy it.”

The review is below:

Cobi Winslow, a handsome, well-educated district attorney, knows nothing about the life of his estranged twin brother Eric Reed, a career criminal raised by the foster care system. Following their parent’s death, Cobi searches and finds his brother in hopes to regain lost years. Soon thereafter, Eric’s former prison cell-mate, Blac, becomes entangled in the twins’ lives. Trouble quickly follows.

Meanwhile, Cobi navigates the pressures of society as he lives a life in the closet. The stress comes to a head when he learns that in order to inherit the wealth of his father’s estate, and save the struggling family hair care business, he must marry a woman before the age of thirty-five. The seemingly impossible task becomes more difficult when Cobi’s sister suggests paying Austen Greer, the once successful, wealthy and extremely independent business woman to be his wife. After losing everything in the recession, in order to survive, Austen must consider the indecent proposal.

Eric discovers Cobi is gay when he stumbles upon his brother during an intimate moment with a handsome senator. After promising Cobi secrecy, Eric entrusts the discovery with his ex-cell-mate, Blac. Blac endears himself to Cobi, in hopes of securing a $150,000 loan from him to pay back a debt racked by cocaine sales.

As the clock expires on Blac’s efforts to pay his lethal debtor, and Cobi’s attempts to save the family company, rash moves are executed, family and friendship bonds are tested, and life altering sacrifices are made.

Click on the link to pre-order your copy of No One in the World: A Novel (See all Multicultural Romance Books).

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Notes on Shoe Shine Boxes: Another Essex Hemphill poem

Image via Wikipedia

HOMOCIDE: For Ronald Gibson by Essex Hemphill

Item:
Ronald Gibson, 20, was found shot to death in the 2700 block of Arizona Avenue, N.W. Police said Gibson was wearing a dress and high-heeled shoes at the time of his death. According to Homicide Det. Lloyd Davis, Gibson, also known as “Star,” hung out during the past two years in the area near 14th and Fairmont Sts., N.W., an area frequented by drag queens who solicit sex for money. Detectives say they have no suspects and know of no motives in the case.
 The Washington Blade, 1/8/82

The poem – HOMOCIDE: For Ronald Gibson by Essex Hemphill

Grief is not apparel.
Not like a dress, a wig
or my sister’s high-heeled shoes.
It is darker than the man I love
who in my fantasies comes for me
in a silver, six-cylinder chariot.
I walk the waterfront/curbsides
in my sister’s high-heeled shoes.
Dreaming of him, his name
still unknown to my tongue.
While I wait for my prince to come,
from every other man I demand pay
for my kisses. I buy paint
for my lips. Stockings for my legs.
My own high-heeled slippers
and dresses that become me.
When he comes,
I know I must be beautiful.
I will know how to love his body.
Standing out here on the waterfront/curbsides

I have learned to please a man.
He will bring me flowers.
He will bring me silk
and jewels, I know.
While I wait,
I’m the only man who loves me.
They call me “Star”
because I listen to
dreams and wishes.
But grief is darker.
It is a white dress
that covers my body.
It is a wig
that does not rest gently
on my head.

E.N.D

Published in Blacklight Vol. 4, No. 4

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Essex Hemphill: Brother From Another Planet

The first time I heard Essex Hemphill‘s name was in the documentary Black Is… Black Ain’t by Marlon Riggs. His poetry was interwoven into the documentary beautifully. Hemphill began writing at age 14 and studied English at the University of the District of Columbia.

Not only was Hemphill a poet but also an activist for equality and gay rights. In 1980 Hemphill outed himself during “a poetry reading at the Founders Library at Howard University. From the mid-1980s until his death, Hemphill became perhaps the most well-known Black gay male writer in the United States since James Baldwin,” according to Dr. Wilfred D. Samuels, General Editor of A Gift of Story/Encyclopedia of African-American Literature.

Watch When My Brother Fell Performed by a D.C. Native

Hemphill “first gained national attention when his work appeared in the anthology In the Life (1986), a seminal collection of writings by black gay men. In 1989, his poems were featured in the award-winning documentaries Tongues Untied and Looking for Langston.” In 1990 Hemphill finished compiling Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, started by Joseph Beam. Beam died to AIDS-related complications in 1988. Brother to Brother won a Lambda Literary Award. Hemphill later published Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (Plume/New American Library), which was awarded the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award in 1993.

Hemphill’s poetry is in the new anthology, Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (See all Poetry Anthologies), edited David Groff and Philip Clark (Alyson Books). Their have been readings from the anthology in San Francisco, D.C., and New York. Other poets anthologized in Persistent Voices are: Melvin Dixon, Chasen Gaver, Jim Everhard, Tim Dlugos, Reinaldo Arenas, Tory Dent, James Merrill, Paul Monette, and Joe Brainard.

“Persistent Voices is more than a catalogue of strong poetry by poets who were equally strong (in many ways),” Bryan Borland, an Amazon reviewer wrote. “Persistent Voices reminds us of the importance of poetry, of its place in society and of how it creates a degree of immortality. It teaches us, again, of how, with pen and paper, the truly persistent voices of these men and woman continue to be heard, to change lives, and to touch souls.”

Hemphill’s poetry is immortal. His poems have appeared in Essence, Black Scholar, Callaloo, Obsidian, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Advocate, and numerous other journals. His poems Dear Muthafuckin Dreams, Where Seed Falls, and American Wedding are in the anthology. In American Wedding Hemphill says:

They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.

A powerful statement.

Watch Justin Vivian Bond Performing American Wedding

At an event titled Take Care of Your Blessings curated by Black Gay & Lesbian Archive Project, rare and unpublished manuscripts of Hemphill’s were featured. “Hemphill left three projects uncompleted: Standing in the Gap, a novel in which a mother challenges a preacher’s condemnation of her gay son who is suffering from AIDS; Bedside Companions, a collection of short stories by black gay men; and The Evidence of Being, narratives of older black gay men, which he had been working on since the early 90s in order to satisfy his curiosity about cultural and social history before the term “gay” entered popular usage.” Hemphill died in 1995 to AIDS-related complications.

One of my favorite Hemphill poems is The Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts. Read The Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts below and watch two YouTube performances of Hemphill’s work.

Starting Over: My journey as a writer

Maya Angelou Reading Still I Rise

Reading Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise made me want to be a poet at 14. I wrote silly poems, kept in a 3-ring binder, and read them to anyone who listened. By the time I started college, at 18, majoring in English (Poetry, Creative Writing, or Journalism) wasn’t an option. Computer Science was an option. Why I don’t know? I knew how to surf the web so I guess I thought Computer Science was the perfect major. Intro to Computer Science was the class I dropped fastest in college. The class was taught by an African man with a thick accent. For the first twenty minutes of class I thought he was teaching Swahili. After class I tried to read the book. It was like reading a foreign language. Circuits. Performing simple calculations. Systems. Programming. Those words were Swahili, meaningless to me. I went into panic mode. What major do I choose now? I chose Psychology. Psychology equals research and writing. I had papers due every week. My earliest lessons in “how-to write” came from my psychology instructors. One lesson that has always stayed with me is “Give Them What They Need” or make every word deliberate and on purpose.

Copyright rsepulveda

It wasn’t until after graduating from college that I thought about writing as a potential career. I was living in Ann Arbor, working at a library, submerging myself in reading “good fiction” and “good authors.” Shelving books one day on the third floor I discovered the “How To Write” section. I pulled one off the bookshelf. Two years later I started writing The Taste of Scars.

A “good job” moved me from Ann Arbor to Jacksonville. I got the opportunity to teach part-time at a career college and slowly walked away from the “good job.” A year in I was promoted to full-time and never went back to the “good job.”

Fast forward a year. My boss and I at the career college got into a heated argument. She told me she was changing my position from full-time to part-time. I told her thanks but no thanks and verbally submitted my two weeks notice. Not even two hours later I was unemployed. Since that day (up until March 2011) I devoted almost every waking hour to editing my book. I started to see life differently. Every hour I was at work, doing work that didn’t make me happy, I lost an hour to do what really made me happy, writing.

To all the high school seniors graduating this year. Don’t major in computer science because you think it’ll pay the bills. Major in life. Found out what really makes you happy. I took me a long time to figure that out.

Recommended Reading:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (See all Biographies & Memoirs by Ethnicity & Nationality)

Gather Together in My Name (See all African-American & Black Biographies & Memoirs)

Nikon D3100 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens (See all Digital SLRs)

Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure (See all Health, Mind & Body Books)

Work Your Way Around the World: A Fresh and Fully Up-to-Date Guide for the Modern Working Traveller (See all Job Hunting & Career Guides)

Read the poem that changed my life below.

Toni Newman Interview with DJ Baker about LL Cool J and Eddie Murphy and other Celebrity Clients

Image via Wikipedia

DJ Baker interviewed Toni Newman today on his 900th show, the Da Doo-Dirty Show. The Da Doo-Dirty Show is the longest running LGBT urban daily syndicated radio program on the internet. In the interview Toni Discusses her life on the street in Harlem and many of the clients she had as a transgendered prostitute including LL Cool J, the smooth rapper, known for licking his lips during concerts and interviews.

Click on the link below to hear the interview. The link goes to Podomatic.

The Da Doo-Dirty Show is an hour long. To skip to Newman’s interview scroll to 56:40 mark or listen to the whole Da Doo-Dirty show. In the show DJ Baker discusses:

• Celebrity Apprentice and who goes home
• Who’s joining the X Factor
• Will Smith playing a slave in a Quentin Tarantino “Spaghetti Western“
• Oprah’s OWN Network
• 50 Cent canceling his headphone line
• Gay-bashing outside a Texas Gay Club
• And out music news

Toni Newman Interview Discussing LL Cool J, Eddie Murphy, Brian McKnight, and many others (This is the interview link)

If you like DJ’s radio show  also check out his late night show below.

Porn Allowed to be Watched at LA County Libraries

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A man watching porn online at a Los Angeles library sparked a major First Amendment right’s debate leading to the L.A. City Council approving porn to be viewed in the city’s libraries.

The L.A. City Council voted against installing porn-filtering software for the 72 branches within the public library system on Tuesday April 26, 2011. City libraries will make computer monitors more difficult to be seen by “moving computers to [areas] where they cannot easily be seen by someone standing behind” computer users and installing dark “privacy screens.”

“If we could maintain the level of privacy without compromising security, I think we’ll find a win-win where no one can sue the city for violating their First Amendment rights,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, a member of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee. “At the same time, we have to be cognizant that there are certain characters that don’t have the best judgement in their behavior around children, around families in our libraries.”

“The library system receives two to three reports per year of Angelenos using computers to look at porn,” said City Librarian Martin Gomez.

Martin Gomez described “the incident at the Chinatown Public Library” in detail to council members “when patrons told librarians that adults and children waiting in line to check out books could see an individual viewing Adult Entertainment content on a computer.”

Even though library patrons can view porn they aren’t allowed to watch child porn, porn with minors under 17, or “engage with other patrons while viewing pornographic material.”

The debate over watching porn in public libraries is a huge across the states. In New York it has reached fever pitch. The faith-based group, Morality in Media, has called for New York Public Libraries to block porn stating “allowing patrons to watch internet porn on library computers is illegal.”

“There is no First Amendment problem in blocking porn at libraries. They have an obligation to protect children from pornography,” said Patrick A. Trueman, president and CEO of Morality in Media.

New York Public Library officials understand that seeing porn being watched by another patron maybe offensive however it’s a right protected by the First Amendment.

“Customers can watch whatever they want on the computer,” said Brooklyn Public Library spokeswoman Malika Granville.

In April a library patron waiting to use a computer at the Brooklyn Public Library punched out another patron he saw watching porn. The attacker was charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and harassment.

Will Los Angeles and New York’s policies set precedence in other states like in Washington where library patrons are kicked out for watching porn.

Caster Semenya and IAAF approves new rules on hyperandrogenism

IAAF’s new rules and regulations for all international competitions went into effect May 1.

800m Women Final – World Championship Berlin 2009

The name Caster Semenya caused war in my office. After saying Semenya looked like her ex-boyfriend my co-worker, a black female, said Semenya looked like a cute monkey. I told her we black people cannot call other black people cute monkeys or monkey anything. For the next three months my co-worker would make “Lion King” references out of the blue and fell out on the floor laughing.

Semenya, a South African middle distance runner, won the women’s 800-meters at the 2009 World Championships held in Berlin. Her time 1:55.45 made her the fifth fastest women in the world. The current record holder is Jarmila Kratochvílová from Czechoslovakia. Women in the 2009 championship protested Semenya’s win raising questions about cheating and potential steroid use because of her lean, muscular frame.

When the story broke Semenya’s gender was questioned. Many comments on blogs read like “she looks like a man” and “it’s not fair for a man to run against women.” The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) required her to take a gender test then publicized the results.

Caster Semenya’s Mom interviewed

The results revealed she was a woman, a special woman. Semenya doesn’t have a “womb or ovaries,” she has undescended or internal testes, and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female,” according to the gender test.

Semenya’s story is reminiscent of Samukeliso Sithole’s story. Samukeliso Sithole, a Zimbabwean athlete, won several gold medals in women’s events. In 2005 Sithole was arrested and charged with impersonating a female. At her court appearance Sithole insisted she was “born with both male and female sexual organs and a traditional healer had made the penis disappear but it had since regrown. The penis returned because the healer had not been fully paid for his services (see Born This Way (Special Edition)).”

Semenya’s Homecoming After Her Win

“Six witnesses, including two doctors, told the court that the athlete was not a hermaphrodite, after which he admitted to being a man. He was jailed for four years in 2005, but was released in December 2007 after serving part of his jail term, for good behavior.”

Image via Wikipedia

The bigger question is gender. If someone believes they are female are they female? Though the stories are similar they’re very different. Caster Semenya’s birth certificate says female. Gender tests show she’s technically both female and male however Samukeliso Sithole was born a man and identifies as female.

According to IAAF Semenya could be allowed to compete against women however Sithole could not. “Females in question” will be allowed to compete provided they have “androgen levels below the male range (measured by reference to testosterone levels in serum)” or if their “androgen levels are within the male range but offer no competitive advantage from having such high levels.”

Additional Reading:

1. Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah’s Book Club) (See all Family Saga Genre Fiction)
2. Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture
3. Black Venus: Sexualized Savages, Primal Fears, and Primitive Narratives in French (See all Movie History & Criticism Books)
4. Further Adventures of The Dialectic of Sex: Critical Essays on Shulamith Firestone (Breaking Feminist Waves)
5. Transgender Warriors : Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman (See all Transgender Books)
6. A Transgender Diary – Special Edition

Capoeira: A beginner’s guide and what to expect

Capoeira is everything the mouth eats. — Mestre Pastinha

I am a master that learns, and a student who teaches. — Old capoeira song

He was Brazilian, black hair in a ponytail, shirtless, and dancing. I stopped across the street to see more. His bare feet black from the dirt. The triple backflip, I didn’t expect. The crowd around him grew swallowing the two hand drummers (djembe) sitting down on the grass. Somewhere someone had a tambourine. People in the crowd chanted. I realized they were with him. They had on white too, the chanters. It was the first time I saw a capoeira performance. Capoeira is the Afro-Brazilian dance form that incorporates self-defense techniques. It was created by slaves in Brazil as a way to practice martial arts without it appearing to be martial arts. In Madame Sata Joao Francisco dos Santos as played by Lázaro Ramos uses capoeira in one of the films best scenes. The film, Only The Strong, starring Mark Dacascos, introduced the states to capoeira.

Copyright Wikipedia

The dance martial art is easily identifiable by its “quick and complex moves, using mainly power kicks and quick leg sweeps, with some ground and aerial acrobatics, knee strikes, take-downs, elbow strikes, punches and headbutts.”

I decided to take a capoeira class at Washtenaw Community College. The class had five students. We practiced outside the hot dance studio on dewy grass.

The Afro-Brazilian music playing created an intense mood. The main instruments used in capoeira are the berimbau, atabaque and pandeiro.

We started with ginga, the most basic movement of capoeira. All capoeira movements derive from this dance-like fighting position. The most important concept to remember in capoeira is keep your movements fluid. We followed into cocorinha and negativa. In cocorinha you go low to the ground as a way to escape a kick. Squat, knees to the chest with feet close to the ground and lean on one hand for support. You can drop into the negativa from the ginga. You have one leg bent and your weight should be balanced on the balls of your feet. The other leg is stretched with the toes pointing to the side. Out of a degree of difficulty (1 being easy/5 being hard as h#ll) this movement was hard as h#ll.

How-To Go Into Ginga Tutorial

How-To Go Into Meia Lua Pressa & Cocorinha Tutorial

After embarrassing myself, being unable to follow the pattern of movements, the instructor took me aside and gave me personal instruction. We executed Au, a cartwheel and moved into Armada, the standard standing spin kick. He was worse than my personal trainer. Me crying, didn’t matter. Me shaking, didn’t matter. He was more concerned with form and proper execution.

Two hours into class, sweating more than anyone else, legs feeling like I’ve squatted 550 lbs, biceps twitching, I quit and watched my classmates in wonder. Though this was my first class, they had been coming to the class three days a week for five weeks.

Many community education programs (at junior colleges or community colleges and after school programs) and private studios offer capoeira classes to the public. Sign up and get an intense physical workout.Your abs will be poppin’ like Lil Mama’s lip gloss after about a month.

Classes

• In Los Angeles (Silver Lake) you can take classes at United Capoeira Association – $25 for unlimited classes
• In San Francisco you can take classes at Capoeira Brasil San Francisco/Formando Aranha – $30 for 1 month beginner’s class
• In NYC (Manhattan) you can take classes at Capoeira Brasil NYC – $20 per class

Tips:

• Be prepared to workout
• If you stick with it use sports tape to prevent blisters on your feet. Capoeira is performed barefoot
• Drink lots of water and eat before hand. You’ll need the energy
• Wear a bandanna or headband. You’re going to sweat hardcore
• Be prepared for anything
• Bring loose fitting pants, a white t-shirt, and water

To learn how to do go to Au Cortado ExpertVillage‘s channel on YouTube.

Author Spotlight: Toni Newman and I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman

I first heard about Toni Newman from a press release from BlackNews.com. Newman was promoting a play about escorting and S&M. What stood out in the press release was a small sentence on her book, I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman. Then Newman popped up on my favorite website Crunk and Disorderly.Today I logged onto Facebook and saw Shahid Manning interviewed Newman on his show “Interviewing Hollywood.” Interviewing Hollywood is an online show featuring controversial and up-close and personal interviews with talent in Hollywood.

In the interview they talk about Newman transitioning from a Play Girl male model to a full figured woman, hormone treatments, prostitution, homelessness, life as a black transgendered woman, Isis King from America’s Next Top Model and celebrity clients, and she names names. The is NSFW. See the interview below:

Interviewing Hollywood’s Interview with Toni Newman Part 1

Interviewing Hollywood’s Interview with Toni Newman Part 2

Interviewing Hollywood’s Interview with Toni Newman Part 3

For my controversial and up-close and personal interviews with Manning’s “Interviewing Hollywood” show go to his website MSE Foundation. At the website you can see more of the incredible work they do and become members to get news and interviews before anyone else.

Book Blurb: “I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman is the true story of Toni Newman’s transformation from an internally conflicted male to a proud, pre-operative transsexual,” according to Newman’s website. “Born the eldest son into a strict Christian family, Toni reveals knowing early on in life that she “was a different bird born in the wrong body.” With crisp detail, humor and compassion, Toni tells her story of being a “sissy boy,” a scholarship student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, a NYC prostitute, an LA dominatrix, and finally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help her transsexual sisters in need.”

Image via Wikipedia

Musical to Watch: Baby It’s You! in New York starring Beth Leavel and Dionne Warwick Lawsuit News

A Sneak Preview of Broadway’s BABY IT’S YOU!

Baby It’s You!, the original Broadway musical, received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Beth Leavel who plays Florence Greenberg, creator of The Shirelles, told Broadway.com “My agents called [me] at 8:32a.m. and it’s been a whirlwind since. I was hoping that Baby It’s You! would be represented in some way during the Tony season.” Leavel has been previously nominated for her performances in The Drowsy Chaperone, Mamma Mia!, and Elf.

The musical is the true story of Florence Greenberg, a Jewish housewife from New Jersey, who teams with black songwriter and producer Luther Dixon creating one of the greatest girl groups of all time The Shirelles. The Shirelles “were the first major female vocal group of the rock and roll era, preceding Motown as a crossover phenomenon with white audiences,” according to their wiki page. The Shirelles top hits include Soldier Boy, Baby It’s You, Dedicated to the One I Love, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Foolish Little Girl, and Mama Said. When Greenberg signed the 60s pop group she started the independent record label Scepter Records, becoming the music industry’s first female powerhouse. Her label featured such iconic artists as The Isley Brothers, The Kingsmen, Chuck Jackson and Dionne Warwick. Warwick subbed for Shirelles members Shirley Alston Reeves and Doris Jackson when they took a leave of absence to get married.

The Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Live, 1964)

Baby It’s You! opened at the Broadhurst Theatre and is directed by Sheldon Epps, most known for directing TV shows Smart Guy, Sister, Sister, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Girlfriends, and George Lopez. Starring alongside Beth Leavel as The Shirelles are Christina Sajous, Erica Ash, Kyra DaCosta, and Crystal Starr Knighton. Universal Music Group and Warner Bros. Theater Ventures are the show’s producers. Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, the dynamite team behind Broadway’s Million Dollar Quartet, created the musical which features pop and rock ‘n’ roll classics such as “Dedicated To The One I Love,” “Duke Of Earl,” “He’s So Fine,” “It’s My Party,” “Louie Louie,” “Mama Said,” “Shout,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Twist and Shout” and many more!

Soldier Boy by The Shirelles. Copyright Affendaddy

It’s not surprising Leavel received a Tony nomination. The New York Observer said “the performances are fantastic, sometimes heartbreakingly beautiful, and the acting is topnotch.”

Dionne Warwick, Beverly Lee, and Chuck Jackson are the surviving members of The Shirelles. Recently, Warwick appeared on Celebrity Apprentice and uttered the famous phrase “You’re a coward,” to Nene Leakes storming off the show. Now Warwick is suing the producers of Baby It’s You!.

According to the Associated Press producers of Baby It’s You! face a lawsuit by Warwick, Chuck Jackson, Beverly Lee of The Shirelles who allege that the show uses their names and likenesses without their permission. “The lawsuit also includes two now-dead members of The Shirelles — Doris Coley Jackson and Addie Harris Jackson. The filing in New York State Supreme Court seeks unspecified damages.”

“They did get taken advantage of, and now they have to watch and live through it a second time,” said Warwick’s lawyer Oren Warshavsky. “It’s terribly disappointing to see it happen again.”

Celebrity Apprentice: Dionne Warwick Board Room Fight

Celebrity Apprentice: Dionne Warwick

The Significance of Objects: When I kinda met playwright August Wilson

Wilson Reciting “Poem for my Grandfather”

“Who’s this white man,” I said walking past August Wilson. It was 2001 or 2002. I can’t remember the year but it was on Morehouse’s campus. Morehouse College is an HBCU. I found out two years later I walked past the black literary giant August Wilson. He was smoking a cigarette outside King Chapel. There was this look on his face like he knew something awful was about to happen. Had I walked inside King Chapel five minutes later I would’ve seen him talking about his career to an auditorium filled with men in dress shirts and dress pants.

Wilson’s play “The Piano Lesson” debuted at King Chapel the next day. In The Piano Lesson Boy Willie and his sister Berniece argue about selling the family heirloom, a piano. Boy Willie, a sharecropper, wants to sell the piano to buy the land his ancestors worked on as slaves. Berniece wants the piano to remain in the family. Their family history, carved into the piano, shows their great-grandfather, his wife and their son when they were slaves owned by a man named Robert Sutter.

Watching the play on stage was an experience. The characters felt authentic. Wilson’s themes of spirits (Sutter), folklore, and the significance of objects in relation to the past was well executed.

The Piano Lesson @ Yale Repertory Theatre

Two of my favorite scenes are: the men gathered at the kitchen table reminiscing about Parchman Farm (Penitentiary in Mississippi) signing “Berta Berta” an old prison work song and when Doaker explains the piano’s history to Lymon.

Berta Berta Scene The Piano Lesson (Hallmark, 1995)

Doaker Explains the Piano’s History to Lymon:

DOAKER
See, now, to understand why we say that. To understand about that piano. Well, you got to go back to slavery time. See, our family was owned by a fellow named Robert Sutter. Now, that was Sutter’s grandfather. All right. The piano was owned by a fellow named Joe Nolander. Now, he was one of the Nolander brothers from down in Georgia. Now, Miss Ophelia — that was Sutter’s wife’s name – she fancied herself a player of the piano. Having taken it up when she was a little girl. It was coming up on their wedding anniversary. Sutter figured he’d get her this piano for a present. The thing with him Sutter ain’t had no money. But he had some slaves.

Wilson was inspired to write the play after seeing a Romare Bearden painting titled The Piano Lesson. Set in the 1930′s, the play The Piano Lesson is Wilson’s fifth Decade play. The Decade plays (or Pittsburgh Cycle) are set in a different decade to show the Black experience in the 20th century. The cycle includes 10 plays:

• 1900s – Gem of the Ocean (written in 2003)
• 1910s – Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (written in 1988)
• 1920s – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) – set in Chicago
• 1930s – The Piano Lesson (written in 1990) – won the Pulitzer Prize
• 1940s – Seven Guitars (written in 1995)
• 1950s – Fences (written in 1987) – won the Pulitzer Prize
• 1960s – Two Trains Running (written in 1991)
• 1970s – Jitney (written in 1982)
• 1980s – King Hedley II (written in 1999)
• 1990s – Radio Golf (written in 2005)

On October 16, 2005 14 days after Wilson’s death the Virginia Theatre in New York’s Broadway Theatre district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre making it the first Broadway theater to bear the name of an African-American.

True Colors August Wilson Monologue Competition @ the August Wilson Theatre

The Start of Dreams Trailer About the Kenny Leon and August Wilson Monologue Competition

 ”The Start of Dreams produced by Jennifer Gordon Thompson and directed by The Horne Brothers, is the story of award-winning director Kenny Leon bringing aspiring teenage actors to a Broadway stage in his annual August Wilson Monologue competition. In a new age where Arts Education is considered expendable in a declining economy, Leon is determined to use his celebrity and influence to expose kids across the country to the wonderful world of theatre. Featuring A-list actors like Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Phylicia Rashad, The Start of Dreams is packed with Hollywood’s elite weighing in on this important art form and what it means to humanity.”

Copyright Wikipedia

Unfortunately The Piano Lesson is the only Wilson play I’ve seen. The next play I want to see is Gem of the Ocean.

If you’re in Hartford, CT you can see the Gem of the Ocean at Hartford Stage May 12th, 2011 – June 5th, 2011 directed by Hana S. Sharif. The theater is offering an Open Captioned Performance a text screen to assist people with varying degrees of hearing loss as well as hearing audience members who might not catch every word during a performance.

Related Articles

• Samuel L. Jackson to make his Broadway debut as MLK (thegrio.com)
• Teen actors in spotlight in August Wilson Monologue Competition (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

flava works sues sizzle miami

Flava Works, Inc, the controversial black/Latino gay pornography company, is suing Sizzle Miami’s parent company. Dated March 9 2011 the court papers show ” Flava Works seeks to “recover damages arising from infringement of Plaintiff’s copyrights and trademarks in its creative works by the Defendants.” In other words, using “multiple images of its models for its website and email blasts, as well as a print publication, to promote Sizzle Miami last year.” Sizzle Miami is a black gay circuit party in Miami during Memorial Day Weekend which attracts thousands.

Phillip Bleicher with Tocarra Jones and Warren Bullock at FlavaMen Blatino Awards

Last year it was advertised that Flava Works would host a Hot Body Contest and Pool Party. However Flava Works moved to D.C. Black Pride according to a statement by Flava Works. Both Sizzle Miami and D.C. Black Pride fall during Memorial Day Weekend.

“The Flava Works models DeAngelo Jackson, Flamez, Baby Star and Ace Rockwood, who were slated to be part of Miami Sizzle, will all be attending DC Black Pride instead and will be available for autograph signings,” the statement read. “FlavaMen’s Hot Body Contest and Pool Party have also been made to fit the DC Black Pride lineup.”

“We apologize to all the fans who booked their tickets to come to Miami for this and other FlavaMen events during Miami Sizzle, but due to scheduling conflicts, we had to change venues at the last minute,” Flava Works Operations Manager Warren Bullock said. “We hope all our fans will be able to join us for a fun time in D.C.”

Flava Works relocated to Miami in 2006 after a very public report by the Chicago Department of Public Health was released concerning “a high level of sexually transmitted diseases” among the models of Flava Works most popular website Cocodorm.com. Other sites owned by Flava Works include PapiCock.com, ThugBoy.com, CocoBoyz.com and FlavaMen.com.

In 2007, Flava Works and Derrick L. Briggs partnered with Sizzle Miami for an open-forum discussion on “Online Hook-ups and Sex” which Atlanta blogger Darian Aaron attended and enjoyed.

“Sizzle Miami has a history of violating others’ copyrights and saying sorry later,” CEO Phillip Bleicher told JRL CHARTS, a gay film industry website. The company “used copyrighted photos of their performers Baby Star, DeAngelo Jackson, Matrix and Xavier Vega in order to increase its profits.”

“Dwight Powell and Sizzle, Inc. had no right to use our intellectual property to promote their products and services. By doing so it diluted our valuable trademarks and is causing confusion among consumers that believe Flava Works endorses his products. We filed this lawsuit as part of the overall process to vigorously defend and protect our copyrights and trademarks,” Bleicher said.

Sizzle Miami’s partner company Platinum Planning Group is owned by Dwight Powell and Luis Medrano.

In 2008, Flava Works won a copyright suit against DGSource, Gairoo, ISTackPorn, and internet forums for $350,000.

It is uncertain how the Flava Works/Sizzle Miami suit will turn out.

Caveat Emptor Administratio

Image by SimonQ錫濛譙 via Flickr

In between penis enlargement, Viagra, erectile dysfunction, and free iPod emails clogging up my inbox, I received a warm email from my student loan provider, the federal government. It seems I’m overdue on my student loan payment. My loan is in forbearance. The email must’ve been a mistake.

I called Direct Loan Servicing customer service to let them know they made a mistake. 15 minutes later Belinda picked up. Belinda, an older sounding woman with gray hair I imagined, asked for a long list of information. Address. Telephone number. Birthday. So on. Information that’s already on my account but I get why.

When I got a chance to talk I said “My loan is in forbearance.”

“The period ended,” she said.

“I didn’t know that.”

“It ended already. This is not new information. You knew this already.” Suddenly she knows me on a personal level. I moved from patient customer to her child.

Since graduating from undergrad my life was been continually spiraling into a episode of The Simple Life: Interns. Shifting from “this is not a real job” nightmare to a “what the hell I am wearing and why I am here” workdays. Fortunately I was accepted into my graduate program to avoid paying my uber-rich uncle. Uncle started calling when I dropped down from 3 classes to 1 class. He, knowing I have the gift of telepathy, failed to call me before my loan  was due. Wait, no. He called and left a message (supposedly) stating to call a forgettable person at a forgettable 800 number (see bullshit).

In the words of my favorite YouTuber Beeper246,”I don’t have it today and I won’t have it tomorrow. I don’t even know what I did with the d#mn money.”

“I wanna know do ya’ll harass all the bleep ya’ll give food stamps to and cash assistance to and Section 8 to. I bettered myself with my money. They just spending it.”

(repost from my old blog)

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NFL player Ayanbadejo continues to speak out in support of gay rights

Brendon Ayanbadejo Says Yes to Marriage Equality in Maryland

Back in March Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo teamed up with Equality Maryland and released a video supporting same-sex marriage.

“This should not be a subjective issue. Gay and lesbian couples want to marry for similar reasons as we all do: love and commitment,” Ayanbadejo said. “It’s time to allow them the opportunity to build a family through marriage. It’s a matter of fairness. This is why I’m asking Marylanders to join me in supporting marriage equality for same-sex couples.”

Ayanbadejo went on to say, “Having the freedom to marry means committed couples and children will have the same crucial protections under the law as other families.”

“Churches can always have their beliefs, but government is supposed to treat everybody the same, and that’s equal. America is supposed to be the land of the free but in order for this to be true for all of us, then we must have the ability to marry whom we love regardless of their gender.”

The bill (HB 175/SB 116) to legalize gay marriage died without a final vote “after supporters failed to find enough votes to overcome Republican opposition and misgivings by some Democrats in the deeply Catholic state. A final vote had been expected in the House, but the overwhelmingly Democratic chamber’s leaders instead withdrew it,” Brian Witte wrote for the Associated Press. “Opponents said the decision … was a victory for defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.”

Image via Wikipedia

Marriage Equality supporters expected the bill to pass. Had the bill been signed into the law it would’ve given “same sex couples in Maryland legal marriage recognition and protected the rights of religious institutions to handle issues of marriage however they see fit.”

In a new ESPNW column written by Jane McManus titled Can the NFL accept gay players? Ayanbadejo says:

It would be harder to exclude an all-star who came out than a player clinging to a roster spot. Just as players who have exceptional skills don’t have to follow every rule, a gay player at the top of his sport would probably not face as much derision. If someone is a great player, things become invisible.

In the interview Ayanbadejo talked about the backlash he received and the questions about his sexuality.

“It’s not anything I’m afraid of,” Ayanbadejo said. “If I have to put a cause on my back, I’m happy to do that.”

McManus article stated “in a 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project poll, Americans were found to have much more conservative attitudes about homosexuality than those polled in most western countries. At that time, just 49 percent of Americans said it should be accepted, compared with percentages in the 70-80 range among many Europeans and Canadians.”

“But attitudes have changed dramatically in recent years, and by late 2009, the Pew Research Center found 57 percent of Americans were in favor of civil unions for same-sex couples” McManus wrote. “There is a similar opinion change about gays serving in the military. While attitudes are changing, that change has not been felt in the locker room in American professional sports, including in the NFL. Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, who also has publicly supported gay rights, hopes players will feel comfortable enough to come out. Fujita said that more NFL players might be as accepting as he and Ayanbadejo, but reporters who cover sports rarely venture beyond asking questions about the game.”

“I honestly think more guys are like-minded, but no one asks these questions,” Fujita said.

For a straight Black NFL player in the hyper masculinity obsessed field to come out and support gay civil rights is amazing. The gay civil rights movement needs the support of more pro-athletes in the NFL and the NBA.

To continue reading the article go to ESPN‘s website.

Related Articles

• Film to Watch: Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness (victoryates.wordpress.com)

Film to Watch: Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness

Marriage Equality Interview Excerpt with David Wilson

Thomas Allen Harris‘ documentary, Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness, premiered at Aaron Davis Hall in New York April 26th. Harris’ film connects the Black civil rights movement with the gay civil rights movement for Marriage Equality. Marriage Equality, the documentary, “interweaves archival footage and photos with contemporary interviews to illuminate events surrounding the pivotal Massachusetts state constitutional convention on Same Sex Marriage which gave new momentum to the national same Gay Marriage movement as a Civil Rights issue,” according to Harris.

The documentary taken the perspective of communities of color stars Byron Rushing. Byron Rushing has been in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1983 (Ninth Suffolk district). A veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, Byron is dedicated to human and civil rights and sponsored the gay rights bill. One of the original sponsors of the bill were Barney Frank in the 70′s.

Byron took the campaign for Marriage Equality into the Black community, “directly challenging many religious leaders, and defining the right to Same Sex Marriage as a Civil Rights issue on par with the liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s.”

Byron Rushing @ Cambridge Rally Against Prop 8

Black, straight, and gay and transgendered civil rights ally, Byron was also the chief sponsor of the law to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Massachusetts public schools. He believes everyone, gay, transgendered, straight and oppressed, has the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The documentary was commissioned by Tribeca Film Institute’s ‘All Access’ Program in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Image by GC Media Hub 09 via Flickr

The director, Thomas Allen Harris, is an out and proud gay Black man, who was raised in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and New York City. Harris founded Chimpanzee Productions, Inc (I’m not a fan of the name) in 1992 and through the company produced and directed Marriage Equality the documentary. Other movies Harris has directed include: VINTAGE – Families of Value, É Minha Cara/That’s My Face (which aired on the Sundance Channel), and the Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela.

Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela Trailer

“Chimpanzee Productions utilizes a wide range of media, including video, interactive platforms, still photography, installations, performance, and film; to draw audiences into an internal and external dialogue that transcends the artificial barriers which separate people from each other and themselves.”

For more information on Marriage Equality screenings go to their website.

Listen to Thomas Allen Harris and Bryon Rushing on NPR on Talk of The Nation.

Big City Bright Lights: A tourist guide to visiting New York

Image by morner via Flickr

My first trip to New York, New York began with me being scammed right outside the airport. A college friend invited me and another friend, Mo, to the city and said that catching a taxi cab from LaGuardia Airport to Manhattan would be easier. From Manhattan we’d catch the subway to Jersey City, Jersey, where my friend from college lived. I didn’t have time to research bus lines or the train system. That was mistake #1.

The first green words I heard of New York’s fast-paced sound was “Where you goin?,” in a South African accent. The cab driver grinned. “23rd ST and 6th,” I said. “That’ll be $55.” I kept walking and accidentally bumped into a New York Airport Service Express bus attendant.

“Where you goin?,” the Spanish bus attendant said. “23rd ST and 6th.” “That’s near Penn Station. You can walk to it. It costs $12 one-way to ride the shuttle to Penn Station. How much was the other guy going to charge you?,” he asked. “$55,” I said. “You should have slapped him,” the bus attendant laughed, waving for Mo and me to join him on the magical-discounted ride, making us believe we were getting a deal. Mistake #2.

$12 sounded like a good deal.

The express bus has 6 main stops: Grand Central, Port Authority, Penn Station, Bryant Park, JFK Airport and Midtown Hotels (between 31st and 60th Streets).

I called my friend from college to ask if Penn Station was near, 23rd ST and 6th, where Mo and me were meeting him.

“You have to walk a couple of blocks.”

“Oh God no.” It was 20 degrees outside. 20 degrees in New York is colder than 20 degrees in Ann Arbor.

I hung up with my friend and asked the bus attendant exactly where the stop was.

“Penn Station,” he said.

“I don’t know New York. Where is that?”

“It’s the first stop. It’s easy.”

The bus attendant failed to mention we had to transfer to another bus. The express bus dropped us off in the November cold on a bustling street near 31st ST. True New Yorkers poured through us wide-eyed tourists. We non-New Yorkers Mo, me, and 10 other tourists, waited, cold and desperate for another bus to pick us up and head to Penn Station. We waited for about 20 minutes. The bus, more of a shuttle, arrived and waited 20 more minutes. The driver shouted at true New Yorkers pushing past him, bundled up, trying to hail cabs.

“Ride for a cheaper more comfortable ride,” he shouted, waving to the shuttle.

I watched amazed at how New Yorkers hurled themselves into traffic, in front of cabs, into harms way.

the beginnings of a terrorist attack gone sour

Riding through the city I felt a sense of “I-have-arrived” nostalgia. Though I had never been to New York I considered myself a native. The city always felt familiar like home or home away from home. That feeling dissipated by the end of the night.

My friend, a fake-New Yorker I learned, said to meet him in front of the world’s largest Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan (the area is called Herald Square). Manhattan was insane. People were on top of people. True New Yorkers avoid going to Manhattan during the holiday-shopping season unless they absolutely need to go or live in Manhattan. I couldn’t deal with it. We walked to the closest subway at 33rd ST.

We caught the Commuter train – PATH – Journal Square to head to Journal Square. The train runs about every 10 minutes.

On the Journal Square train to Jersey a drunk man and even-drunker woman almost hit me with a plastic Pepsi bottle playing drunk field hockey. A drunk college student fell asleep standing up on the train and almost fell on top of me. He got off. A drunk man groping and his girlfriend got on. The man must’ve elbowed me in the head at least 6 times. It wasn’t even 9pm yet.

I moved to another set and smelt something awful. When I looked down at my feet I saw a small brown shopping bag. It was half open. I looked inside it and saw something slushing around. It was vomit. Red, white, and corny. We all burst out laughing. Through laughing, my friend said, “Welcome to New York.”

take the a train

Tourists before you arrive to the city you should research The Port Authority of NY and NJ. It is essential to have a clear, if basic understanding, of the transit system before arriving in New York.

AT JFK

From the airport you can take the M60 bus, which picks up at each terminal right out in front of the baggage claim area at JFK. The M60 bus stops at Harlem-125th Street Station. From the Harlem Station you can connect to NYC transit, Subway: 4,5,6, and Bus: M35, M100, M101, and BX15 and connect to the PATH train that goes to Jersey City.

AT LGA

Several buses pick up at LGA.

The M60 bus drops you off at 116th and Broadway in front of Columbia University. From there you can take a bus, taxi or subway to anywhere in Manhattan.
Take the Q33 bus to Roosevelt Avenue-Jackson Heights or 74th Street and Broadway in Jackson Heights Queens. If you get off the bus at Roosevelt Avenue, you can catch the E or F trains into Manhattan. If you get off the bus at 74th Street, you can catch the #7 train heading into Manhattan. This train stops at Times Square where you can transfer for free to another train to take you anywhere in the city.

TIP 1: Buy an unlimited MetroCard. You save so much money between getting on and off the train and on and off buses. The fake-New Yorker didn’t know about that either. The MetroCard machines are at the airports.

TIP 2: If you’re flying during December or New Years Eve bring about 3 big overcoats, hoodies, and cardigans, and gloves, and hats. You’re going to need it. My bones were cold and I lived in Ann Arbor. During November the weather is milder but bring winter clothes.

TIP 3: Avoid eating at Dunkin Donuts. They’re everywhere and most are 24 hours. I gained about 40 pounds eating there.

TIP 4: Avoid eating at chain restaurants. Why go to New York and eat at Applebees. My favorite restaurants are Spices (in Chelsea and Manhattan), East of 8th (in Chelsea) and McCormick’s & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant (in Times Square. Yes this is a chain but you wouldn’t know it. The food is delish and it is pricey. Get an industry-type to take you.)

TIP 5: Pack hand sanitizer. Trust me.

Avoid being scammed by airport shuttles and insane ‘Taxicab Confessions’ drivers.

Price/Time Breakdown

• Taxi, About $20-60 not including tip, 50-55 minutes
• Subway/Bus combo, $2, 45 minutes (day), 60 minutes (night)
• Shared-ride van, $13-15, 50-55 minutes
• Express Bus (nothing express about it), 45-100 minutes
• Limo, $50 and up, 45-55 minutes
• Helicopter, $159 and up, 10 minutes flying time

Information:
Harlem-125th Street Station is located at 101 East 125th Street & 1818 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10035 (4.19 miles to Grand Central Terminal)

For a list of other options check out the website New York City Airport Guide.