Just got home from this. It was both overwhelmingly beautiful and heartbreaking. I’ve been struggling a lot lately as to the acknowledgement of my indigenous roots. I realize that to claim my native ancestry from the position I occupy is both an act of combatting genocide, and also possibly problematic. If I have never been officially affiliated with the Mohawk tribe & Iroquois nation and benefit from their continuing destruction as an East Asian/white American today, to call myself one of them feels to me, well, oppressive. At the same time, some of my ancestors were Haudenosaunee-Mohawks who inhabited this land before Europeans arrived. To cast them from my memory/identity feels, well, oppressive. This is far from the first time I’ve come into conflict within my own identity, but I don’t want this post to be about my personal issues.

I want to give thanks and praises to all the indigenous people around the world (I was reminded this morning that we’re all indegenous to somewhere) for surviving despite the countless efforts to erradicate their existence. Our world has been headed in a frightening direction for so long, and I have found that those who remember the ancient traditions, customs, and cultures their ancestors come from, are able to recall community, love, justice, their relative insignificance and are better able to respect and humanize others. I tend to believe human beings who have not internalized the role of colonizer or are working to unlearn their own colonization, possess access to a peace of mind that most of the time seems so painfully ellusive. I’m still tryna get there myself.

Today I found out that the first “Thanksgiving” was put into order by the Governor of one of the first colonies of Massachusetts. The feast was put on to celebrate the massacre of 700 indigenous men, women and children. No “Indians” were present at the first “Thanksgiving.” After informing us of our USAmerican history, the speaker noted, “these lies hurt all children just as much as they hurt our babies.” I believe if white babies are told the unarmed truth from jump, they will not only be alarmed but will be f*cking angry. I believe this because children are not adjusted and adapted to the f*cked-upededness of the world in the same way that we adults are. In the same way I have developed an aquired taste for the literal poison that is whiskey, the same can be said of hegemony and oppression. Poison can taste/feel like freedom.

I came home with a heavy heart full of gratitude. This morning I was reminded that as Cornel West says (yes, Ima be quoting him for some time to come-so get used to it =P) “never allow your own suffering to blind you to the suffering of others.” Today was so beautiful because it was an act of revolution. It was a community that has for hundreds of years been targeted for destruction, coming together to remind the nation/world that they shall remain and endure. Today I am filled with gratitude for their loving themselves so openly despite the centuries of hatred, theft, rape and murder waged upon and against them.

Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind… every person can have a good heart, a heart big enough to change the world! The Great Spirit wouldn’t give us something we couldn’t handle! Know that you yourself are essential to this World. Believe that! Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this World.

Did you think you were put here for something less?

-From White Buffalo Teachings

In search of paidea.

Masashi

p.s.

[sister wake showed me. =)]


[a master pedagogue & a sophomoric student]

I recently read a Celtic proverb that states, “You must do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” Real. F*cking. Talk. My Jichan/father’s father was a Kibei who was born in the United States and received his education in Japan. He was a gifted gardener who after being drafted by the U.S Army out of the Japanese American Internment Camps was deployed to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been dropped and the war officially declared “over.” He was a gifted gardener who after seeing the death and destruction of the land of his ancestors from the position of an occupier, chose to dedicate his life to being outdoors and using his hands to create art in nature and make the world look beautiful. My Grandpa/mother’s father, “Bop” was a Scottish American student/educator of Theology and practioner of Liberation Theology. He used the life and words of Jesus to address the suffering of those most aggregiously affected by poverty and oppression.

My grandfathers had vocations rather than occupations. They didn’t seek a career but rather a calling. I am eternally grateful to come from such deep and abiding roots and I dedicate this piece to them. Read the rest of this entry »


[CLICK PICTURE for FREE Download!!!]

These dudes have been on their motherlovin’ GRIZZLY for quite some time now…AND THE DAY OF REDEMPTION IS AT HAND!!!

Adriel Luis, Nico Cary, & Dahlak Brathwaite collectively make up super-funkbringer-poet-emcee-sanger-spokenword-super-group, iLL-Literacy. Know about them, listen to them, be inspired by them, support them, and love them. These dudes work their arses off, are gifted, brilliant, humble, and able to harness their musical-artistic chi and reverberate it through the speaker in ways that are as cool as Clyde Stubblefield drumming for James.


[Adriel, Nico, & Dahlak of iLL-Literacy]

Everything is iLL-uminated,

Senbei

Proof that autotune can make anyone a musician.

littledragon-01-big1
[Little Dragon: Time travelers...]


[Little Dragon - Blinking Pigs]

It was over 2 weeks ago, but seeing Little Dragon for the second time at SF’s The Independent was one of the dopest music experiences I’ve had in a long, long time. I’ve been in a weird limbo with regards to artistic expression and working to figuring out the best medium to express myself through, that not only doesn’t add to oppression, but works to confront it. At the same time, I want to ensure that I am able to find a middle ground in which I can express raw emotion that flows from all people, without being too calculated and thinking too much. Its a search for a funny balance of thoughtfulness and the pure, sometimes ugly, funk that secretes from my heart.

What I witnessed the night I attended this concert was my shero/Haafu-sister/celeb-crush Yukimi Nagano do just that. It was wild to see her (and her incredible band) grow exponentially since a year after watching them for the first tme. I think for me personally, it felt dope to see a mixed race Japanese heritage artist fully shining and repping their weird, goofy self to the utmost extreme. The first time I saw her, she was shy, reserved, and to me, very culturally “Japanese” (if you wanna get all ethnic/racial essentialist out here =P), but this time, homegirl was en fuego. She had new dances, was calling out the crowd and was feelin the sh*t outta herself! Her growth and progression as a musician was fresh to witness. It made me feel hopeful.

yukimi
[put that in your pipe and shmoke it, gregory alan mitchell =)]

I think something that has helped me come to a place of peace I haven’t experienced for some time, is that I’ve begun to be comfortable in knowing I will never find a place where I am completely comfortable. And when I think about it, I don’t believe anybody ever is completely comfortable (maybe certain circles of rich, white, hetero, men?) even if they are monoracial. I’m beginning to feel that a solid, unchanging identity can never be found in race and racial politics, regardless of who you are. Race and identity are both far too fluid to lock one’s claws into whilst never feeling unsettled (feel free to debate with or challenge me on this). Everything is impermanent and discomfort and suffering are part of the human condition. In their own way, LD remind me to acknowledge this fact, and I take comfort =P that Yukimi seems to have found a way to take pride in and enjoy her art, despite what the world throws her way. In other words, I’m tryna be a more little-dragonish myself these days (as most of us prolly are =P).


[Little Dragon - Swimming]

Little Dragon sounds like elements of everything I loved about music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, while producing a sonic boombap that makes the future look bright and sound like it has just arrived.

Little_Dragon_album_art

BUY MACHINE DREAMS!

Sen

p.s. LD’s keyboard man, Hakan Wirestrand’s beard aint nuthin’ ta f*ck wit’! If my genetics allowed me to do so, I’d grow my sh*t like that asap! =P


[18 Mighty Mountain Warriors - Illegal Immigrants]


[The Pinky Show - "How to Solve Illegal Immigration" (HELLA funny!)]

Happy Thangstaken to all my fellow illegal immigrants (whilst not really knowing how to wrap my head around the continuing genocide of indigenous folks, the fact that enslaved African heritage folks didn’t first arrive here of their own free will, and that the U.S. continues to profit from these facts today =T).

Giving Thanks,
Masashi

mos-def


[Mos Def - Quiet Dog Bite Hard (right-click and "save-target-as" to DL)]

Black Dontae’s latest album, The Ecstatic is real smoove-like. As much as I think he’s a talented singer, I’ve missed his lyricism since Black on Both Sides, something awful. This is just a little sample of his latest freshness to 2-step to on another manic Monday.

U stay classy(?) internets,
senbei


[2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards - DJ Premiere conducts "The Cypher"]

Talented lyricists are an endangered species.

arundhati roy


[DemocracyNow Interview w/ Amy Goodman pt. 1]
Read the rest of this entry »

westside


[Cornel West w/ Tavis Smiley on Music]

Music at its best…is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us–beyond language–to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial
heights of our silence.

-Cornel West

His autobiography, Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud just came out. Cop it HERE!

Working my hardest to live & love out loud,

C

p.s.

[Cornel West w/ Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow]