Feelin' at Canal Room
"What's up my brotha?"
"Which way is West Broadway?"
"It's a good turn out, but I'd like to see even more donations out here."
"I know this is supposed to be a postiive party, but I need to talk about something serious right now."
These were words I took in last night @ the Hurricane Katrina Benefit hosted by Kevin Powell at The Canal Room. There was indeed a lot to take in and not just words: clothes, diapers, toiletries, pillows, linen, a shared human spirit that acknowledged somethings not wrong and i'm going to help make it right. Midway through the night, the organizers had to put a call out to the audience that they needed to score another 18 wheeler truck because we had brought so much. Check out the pix... do you see how big that sucka is?? And they needed anotha one by the end of the night cause the one that got filled up!!! Rosa Clemente then made this unforgettable request:
"Get your cell phones out right now and call 311 and tell Mr. Mayor that he needs to send city trucks to come to 285 West Broadway and pick up our donations and send them to Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, and Texas!"
Almost every black person I saw headin toward The Canal Room carried with them a shopping bag full donated items. Earlier that night when I stepped off the 6 train (debating whether West Broadway could actually be east of Broadway... yes I'm a dork.) a sistah with a bag as big and heavy looking as mine asked me, "which way is West Broadway?" With the help of yet another sistah, bag in tow, we found the spot.
Right now I'm reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, which imagines a future world where a young black woman and other displaced folks (due to violence, natural diaster, etc.) help each other and search for a new land, a new home. One of the more interesting twists of this novel is that the main character has hyperemphatic syndrome, meaning whenever she is near some one in pain she feels his or her pain as if it were her own. What if, right? What if?
Reading this novel now, has allowed me to be so much more connected to the energy thats out there right now, particularly from other blk folks saying that we definitely got to take care of one another... We gotta feel each other.
Yesterday, I called Uncle Bruce to check in with him. He told me that Auntie Renee, who is a Teacher's Aide in New Orlenas, was out at the job fair for HISD educators affected by Hurricane Katrina. The day before I was searching online for jobs for them to apply and I came this posting on HISD's site. Uncle Bruce, who is a New Orleans city bus driver, also told me that Renee called him from the fair and said that HISD is looking for school bus drivers as well. Telling me this he said, "That should make you feel better about us huh boy?"
"Me? I'm sure you feel better!"
There's still a lot of work to done though and many, many people are doing it not withingstand the very people of Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Returning to last night's event, Kevin Powell asked the audience to not let this stop with dropping off a bag of donated items. Thinking critically he went on to talk about all the poverty and racism that was and still is present in America (He cited MLK Jr.'s planned speech he was going to give before he his life was cut short entitled "Why America is going to hell.") and how all the isms: racism, classism, sexism, homophobia works in this country and all the poverty and homeless that we see every day in New York City streets and subways.
Powell also shared his awe and disbelief after someone recently told him that they had to turn off the TV because what they saw on it was too hard to bear. Though I do believe and understand why some folks, particularly ones with peeps who have not heard back from in the affected areas, choose not to watch graphic pictures of death, destruction, governtment inaction, I don't think this is to whom Powell was referring. He was callin out the folks who maybe don't have family or friends down in the Gulf States but who can watch superstars make a fool of themselves and suburban white teens prep themselves in their suburban homes but yet when confronted with reality tv that makes you feel, that confronts you with the reality of others, of our nation... can't bear them and prefer to stay in their own "reality."
Now I'm trippin on this shit: With vast technological resources like the TV, like the internet, phone, radio, when we turn 'em on, when we plug 'em in: Is its purpose to serve as a connector? Or an emotional, physical, spiritual disconnection? Humph. Ain't that something.
People in the audience were definitely feelin him on these points not to mention his praisal for Mr. Kanye West for his bold statement that W. doesn't care about black and poor people. One small, but power revolution he asked the audience to participate in is that, "when you see somebody, a homeless person on the subway, even if you don't have any money, acknowledge them."
Introspective at times, verbally affirmative at other times, the crowd gathered at the Canal Room, already having dropped off their donations, was all there, listining, giving, feelin'.
Light + Hope,
"Which way is West Broadway?"
"It's a good turn out, but I'd like to see even more donations out here."
"I know this is supposed to be a postiive party, but I need to talk about something serious right now."
These were words I took in last night @ the Hurricane Katrina Benefit hosted by Kevin Powell at The Canal Room. There was indeed a lot to take in and not just words: clothes, diapers, toiletries, pillows, linen, a shared human spirit that acknowledged somethings not wrong and i'm going to help make it right. Midway through the night, the organizers had to put a call out to the audience that they needed to score another 18 wheeler truck because we had brought so much. Check out the pix... do you see how big that sucka is?? And they needed anotha one by the end of the night cause the one that got filled up!!! Rosa Clemente then made this unforgettable request:
"Get your cell phones out right now and call 311 and tell Mr. Mayor that he needs to send city trucks to come to 285 West Broadway and pick up our donations and send them to Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, and Texas!"
Almost every black person I saw headin toward The Canal Room carried with them a shopping bag full donated items. Earlier that night when I stepped off the 6 train (debating whether West Broadway could actually be east of Broadway... yes I'm a dork.) a sistah with a bag as big and heavy looking as mine asked me, "which way is West Broadway?" With the help of yet another sistah, bag in tow, we found the spot.
Right now I'm reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, which imagines a future world where a young black woman and other displaced folks (due to violence, natural diaster, etc.) help each other and search for a new land, a new home. One of the more interesting twists of this novel is that the main character has hyperemphatic syndrome, meaning whenever she is near some one in pain she feels his or her pain as if it were her own. What if, right? What if?
Reading this novel now, has allowed me to be so much more connected to the energy thats out there right now, particularly from other blk folks saying that we definitely got to take care of one another... We gotta feel each other.
Yesterday, I called Uncle Bruce to check in with him. He told me that Auntie Renee, who is a Teacher's Aide in New Orlenas, was out at the job fair for HISD educators affected by Hurricane Katrina. The day before I was searching online for jobs for them to apply and I came this posting on HISD's site. Uncle Bruce, who is a New Orleans city bus driver, also told me that Renee called him from the fair and said that HISD is looking for school bus drivers as well. Telling me this he said, "That should make you feel better about us huh boy?"
"Me? I'm sure you feel better!"
There's still a lot of work to done though and many, many people are doing it not withingstand the very people of Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Returning to last night's event, Kevin Powell asked the audience to not let this stop with dropping off a bag of donated items. Thinking critically he went on to talk about all the poverty and racism that was and still is present in America (He cited MLK Jr.'s planned speech he was going to give before he his life was cut short entitled "Why America is going to hell.") and how all the isms: racism, classism, sexism, homophobia works in this country and all the poverty and homeless that we see every day in New York City streets and subways.
Powell also shared his awe and disbelief after someone recently told him that they had to turn off the TV because what they saw on it was too hard to bear. Though I do believe and understand why some folks, particularly ones with peeps who have not heard back from in the affected areas, choose not to watch graphic pictures of death, destruction, governtment inaction, I don't think this is to whom Powell was referring. He was callin out the folks who maybe don't have family or friends down in the Gulf States but who can watch superstars make a fool of themselves and suburban white teens prep themselves in their suburban homes but yet when confronted with reality tv that makes you feel, that confronts you with the reality of others, of our nation... can't bear them and prefer to stay in their own "reality."
Now I'm trippin on this shit: With vast technological resources like the TV, like the internet, phone, radio, when we turn 'em on, when we plug 'em in: Is its purpose to serve as a connector? Or an emotional, physical, spiritual disconnection? Humph. Ain't that something.
People in the audience were definitely feelin him on these points not to mention his praisal for Mr. Kanye West for his bold statement that W. doesn't care about black and poor people. One small, but power revolution he asked the audience to participate in is that, "when you see somebody, a homeless person on the subway, even if you don't have any money, acknowledge them."
Introspective at times, verbally affirmative at other times, the crowd gathered at the Canal Room, already having dropped off their donations, was all there, listining, giving, feelin'.
Light + Hope,
posted by Andre Lancaster at
8:01 AM
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