My school has changed soooo freaking much.   Dia de los Muertos article featured prominently on UT's mainpage?  say-what?! 

Get the book!

On Saturday I made the schelp up to Harlem - which on any other day besides Saturday or Sunday is a given as that's where my work at. But on this day it was my off day and as some of you know, it's my usual college football fanatic day. But when my dear friend gave me a call and was like come on up and check out Tavis Smiley, host of the popular late night PBS show and author of a new memoir - What I Know For Sure, I dropped those plans and made the schelp.
It's funny because when I got there the thought hadn't yet ocurred to me to actually get his book. I think this is 'cause I'm so pre-occupied with my own life: the show, the work, other stuff in my life (hmm... details perhaps?) that I was really in auto-pilot upon Kenyon inviting uptown. Pretty healthy way about going 'bout it all huh, Andre! As life what have it though, Mr. Smiley's talk woke me out of auto-pilot and my own insular world into the life, challenges and raw calls for human love of Mr. Smiley. Oh yes, he compelled me to get it together and snatch up What I Know For Sure (and while I was there... a couple of Octavia's I hadn't gotten yet)!

I found the excerpts he read about his childhood, growing up in the church, and one particular story of how he showed up to Indiana University on the first day of student move-ins with no dorm assignment, no fin. aid, and not a damn thing else but an acceptance letter - beyond inspirational - it was just down home fierce. I'm a sucker for storytellers as men like Mr. Smiley proved to me. I've already begun reading the book and I have to say his church upbringing definitely rang true in just how he carried the talk at Hue-Man Bookstore. In fact whenever he read an excerpt and as if we were back in his Pentecostal church in Indiana, he gave out the page number he was on and encouraged folks to read with him. Which made quite a spirited and engaged audience.

I was just plain gleeful and excited to have been there. After his talk and with a brain buzzed on a nice cup of coffee and thoughts and ideas ignited by the afternoon's event, when it was my turn to have my book signed by him all I could muster to say - in my best impression of a NYC star-dazed school boy - "I love your show, Mr. Smiley."

:)

I'm enjoying this book and really encourage other folks to go out and get it... like... NOW!

Yay.

Oh and p.s. it didn't hurt to have Dr. Cornell West in the house as Mr. Smiley's guest too.

Double Yay.

Much <3

De-Stress + Un-Wind =

When I get my phat fellowship paycheck l8r this month and in the midst of theatre artist-induced poverty and stress, this bad boy will be first on my purchase list:




She's going to be givin herself, roommates, upstairs neighbor and downstairs laundromat: soulFULL house (think Shelter meets the *old* WonderBar), dj homeschooling, maybe some Osunlade and a lil fresh underground Nina remixes - all from her South Slope BK Studio.

LISTEN OUT!

Don't call my boy a macaca! - says Sen Allen's Wife

a *hillarious* excerpt from today's Washington Post :

...Allen said her husband's love of history explains the oft-discussed Confederate flag that hung in their home in Earlysville during the first years of their marriage. It was one of many flags from around the world, she said, that formed part of the decor of their log cabin in the 1980s. She also said that was another era.

"I don't believe it was always a symbol of hatred," she said. "The African American community today has made us aware of that."

Asked about the hangman's noose that once hung in her husband's law office, she said it was displayed next to lassos and handmade chaps, reflecting her husband's interest in the Old West. The noose had no racial symbolism, Susan Allen said.

"What do you think they did out west to criminals?" she asked. "Since when is that a racist thing?"

However, the story of the noose and the flag has continued to inflame critics, particularly in light of recent charges from former classmates and associates that George Allen repeatedly used a racial epithet.

Toni-Michelle Travis, a professor of African American studies at George Mason University, said she sees in the senator a "pattern of unbelievable insensitivity to other ethnic and racial groups."

"I don't believe anyone who grew up and who has lived in Virginia doesn't understand that negative, hurtful, painful symbolism of the Confederate flag," Travis said.

The flag was taken down and placed in storage after the couple moved into the governor's mansion in 1994, Susan Allen said.

During their time in Richmond, Susan Allen traveled in the United States and overseas to promote tourism and also worked on health issues. She now serves on the boards of the Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, the regional Red Cross and other organizations. The couple has three children: Tyler, 18, a freshman at James Madison University; Forrest, 15; and Brooke, 8. The younger two attend public schools in Fairfax.

Allen said Forrest, a 10th-grader at West Potomac High School, has been called "macaca" repeatedly by classmates in the weeks since her husband used the term to refer to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent, unleashing a firestorm.

"He's a tough kid," she said. "We're a very close-knit family. We know what the real deal is. We know who George is."

Damn!

Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post has this "don't-get-it-twisted" review of Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker:

"But Whitaker and Sean Penn -- star of the similarly flawed "All the King's Men," almost already vanished -- probably get together in some small Sunset Boulevard club and drink the night away, complaining that movies in which they star as political demagogues and rogues of the first order turned out, upon delivery, to be about sensitive white boys..."

Hey everyone, sorry I've been like mad MIA on journeyintolight. : ( I'm remembering though when I started this blog, during my trip to Barbados in the summer of 2005. Oh, how would I love a vacation like that right about now.

My theatre work though has been all sorts of dreamy. A Love Like Damien's, the show that i've directed, had mad sold out shows, we got pretty good press from The New York Blade, not-so-good-press from Gay City News. After reading it my opinion of the GCN review: I thought well b4 this review came out that Phil's character could use a bit more fleshing out and took away from Damien's own self-destruction. Not to mention that right before this came out, Andrea was already working on this. It's interesting too cause even a couple black folks have come up to me expressing how they thought Phil's character was either too much of a punching bag or something else. Regardless, the actor who played Phil was funny as hell, nailed it... But u know whats so fucked up about all this... THE PLAY AIN'T ABOUT PHIL! lol. For the headline to be what it is and for me to be blogging about him really makes me want to address this issue cause for real, we should be focusing on black folks! So I actually am thinking this not-so-good-press is actually not-that-bad. What's W.'s motto? Spin machine baby! But after that clearly Mr. Robinson just went on a shady rampage with regards to his opinion about the movement. I *do* think that with our extended run at HERE's Dorothy Stage - the choreo pieces will have more room to be the graceful, spirited movements that they are. It's funny how things come full circle though, HERE is next door to GCN. ;)

on another front of my theatre work... so i've been awarded this kick ass fellowship where i basically get to do everything i want to do all day long: theatre! and get this, i'm gettin P A I D! yes, yes so dreamy. I'll try to keep folks abreast of my work with Freedom Train Productions. Right now I'm on blast, tryin to promote our Residency for Black Activist Playwrights. It's pretty dope. Highlights include: Workshop and Labortory for Play Development (directors and actors in house working on the script too!), monthly play reading series, and a freaking theatre festival! I'm goign to be all over the place, but in a good way.

I feel so blessed with regards to FTP and ALLD. yay.

alright, so i'm out.

much <3>