Lately I’ve been identifying as a cosmosapien. Because I have more in common with the vastness of the cosmos than white folks and the colonial construct of gender. Cosmospian is a term coined by YoungNeverSleep and is connected to praxis of Pandrogyny (coined by Genesis P-Orridge), the conscious embracing of gender roles, sexual orientations, or cultural traditions so as to render the person’s original identity completely indecipherable. In short, it is a type of gender-neutral living being more akin to the OTHER… It is practiced by making one’s life (this brief existence) into an art form. Resisting the violence of conventional social norms and extending into our possibilities.

I’m interested in living in my own myth-making practice. Every song or poem you’ve heard from me is an external expression of an internal investigation. The verse is a great place to argue with thangs. And podcasts are a great place to share those long-form findings and processes.

I’m in deep gratitude for Mike de la Rocha inviting me to join him on his iHeartMedia Sacred Lessons podcast. Mike de la Rocha is a bestselling author and artist who is been doing incredible work in the community and criminal (in)justice system through his social change agency Revolve Impact and Tepito Coffee.

When I speak of conditioned socialization of masculinity in this interview, what I’m speaking to is the myth of hierarchy justified by gender norms we are socialized & essentialized into. Which is really just used for the division of labor, emotional or physical, which creates unhealthy patterns of relationality with us, the planet and other human beings (or unbeings).

I believe gender to be more of a gradient and spectrum than two fixed boxes. I believe that the social location of Blackness is a potential pataphysical manoeuvre and way of internally divesting from the paradigm of patriarchy. In other words Blackness as a starting point of liberation from gender. From this vantage point, I’m also thinking of gender as an ideology and not fixed to the anatomy we are born with. Specifically using this theory as a tool not just to liberate identities of those oppressed by gender, but rather liberation from the construct of gender itself. The gender binary is innately anti-Black. If we have liberation on our minds, we can’t be at the cookout with a side of hierarchical patriarchy. Our mission should be to unworld this world every chance we get, in every direction we can imagine. That begins with investigating ourselves and our conditioning.

I’m so grateful to be able to share this convo and hope it resonates with folks in these uncertain times.

Listen to my Sacred Lessons episode here:

https://link.podtrac.com/Sacred-Lessons-with-Mike-de-la-Rocha

Also, the worst thing about the heat is the inability to get a real full fit off. But if you wanna see me rap live this summer in a bad outfit, I will be barring out with the homies Saturday, August 22nd at the BLK MARKET POETRY oratory symposium.

RSVP for thee addy BLKMARKETPOETRY@Gmail.com . I’m on at 4 pm.

Peace,

-d

Laurenhalsey.fun

“I’m not real, I’m just like you. You don’t exist in this society. If you did your people wouldn’t be seeking equal rights.

You’re not real, if you were you’d have some status among the nations of the world. So we are both myths.

I do not come to you as a reality, I come to you as the myth because that is what black people are: myths.

I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors.”

― Sun Ra, Space is the Place

On March 14th, 2026 on the corner of 76th & Western (Right across from the Arco, iykyk) it felt like a Black holiday. The sun electric sliding across our skin, as we entered a highly melanated celebration of the opening of the sister dreamer sculpture park: Lauren Halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of South Central Los Angeles. Now mind you, this was the type of funktion if you came by yourself, a homie would find you. With a line winding across blocks, time gliding as you got to know the people in front, in back and beside you. It was a cultural reunion for many in the city. As soon as you entered the courtyard, you realized you had stepped into someone’s dream. A dream that has been crafted with care, and with you in mind. South Central’s own Lauren Halsey created both space & place of homage and memory specific to thee South Central Los Angeles that she grew up in (which is currently being gentrified and rebranded as “South LA”). Sister Dreamer is a love letter to the city and the soil that watered her; and a tribute that we get to inhabit, not just appreciate. The Sister Dreamer exists as a sculptural collage and maximalist celebration of our abundant muchness. A temple to us. A monument to community and our shared symbologies, signs and signifiers. Immortaling the often overlooked mythology of ordinary people in your neighborhood. You can feel these lyrical hieroglyphs are collected by someone who both knows and sees us.

^{(Lauren Halsey, The East Side of South Central Los Angeles Hieroglyph Prototype Architecture (2023) on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Photo via Dezeen)}

Lauren Halsey is a synthesizer of the futuristic and the ancient. The Sister Dreamer sculpture park remixes the possibilities and function of public art, architecture, and community engagement. The piece was made in NYC as a part of Lauren’s residency at the MET. She’s been envisaging Sister Dreamer since 2006 while she was in community college. Modeled after the Egyptian Pharaonic temple of Dendur, 20 years later we are standing in her dream surrounded by shrines of her family, both biological and chosen. The Sphinxes pay homage to the people in Lauren’s life that are her monuments, one being her mother, her brother, her cousin, and her life partner as the protectors of the space. These are all literal pillars of the community!

(Photo credit: Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Sister Dreamer exists as a third-space extension of Lauren’s nonprofit Summaeverythang Community Center, founded in 2020. Since opening, the sculpture park’s programming remains community-first, even making history like Juneteenth’s record-breaking longest Soul Train line, and activations by Sounds of South Central with Universal Music Group and Girls Make Beats, Susan Burton’s domino tournament, Line dancing with Sisters of Watts, community film screening of Dylongso with Cauleen Smith, and many more.

Sister Dreamer is an architectural intervention during the unrelenting gentrification of South Central. Lauren’s work consistently desegregates the gaze of fine art and communal memory-making. When looking at the glass fiber-reinforced concrete (stronger than traditional concrete) of over 750 engravings, I don’t see stone carvings; I see reflections of us, I see mirrors of our most whimsical and ancient way of being.

I first met Lauren in 2015 when we were on a panel curated by artist and fellow Los Angeles native Devon Tsuno. The talk centered the question “How do music and visual art spill into and influence each other?“ We connected over deep cut food spots in South Central, and the song Maggot Brain before the talk. High key, I have no idea what I said on that panel or how much our stories would orbit each other in the future (I later found out that Lauren graduated with a BFA from CALARTS in 2012, and 10 years later I would begin my professorial journey there in 2022). During our panel discussion, I recall Lauren describing her creative process as inspired by Parliament Funkadelic and the ever-changing rotation of communal collaborators. It was never one or even the same people behind each project, but it was whoever was willing and able to lend their time, energy, and gifts to the mission and the mothership. At the time, she was working on sculptures with her family and neighbors at her Grandma’s crib. I was inspired by the way she presented the depth of our density, and the vibrant stories stored in our ontology. I continue to be awe of how consistently her work answers the question every (Black) artist grapples with: “How do we mythologize ourselves?”

I am reminded while looking up at a Dodger blue sky from inside the oculus that there are so many incredible and talented people from where I’m from, but so few get the opportunity to express it. Lauren doesn’t just represent; she RE • Presents South Central to us, for us, and with us.

Stay tapped with everything going on at Sister Dreamer sculpture park at summaeverythangcc.org & Laurenhalsey.fun

P.s. It’s closed to the public on Mondays & Tuesdays.

-d

𝘾𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝘼𝙇𝙇 𝘼𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 🪐📡✨! I’m honored 2 be hosting thee 3rd annual Octavia’s Solstice — a celebration of the life, work, and wisdom of speculative fiction author Octavia Estelle Butler 🖤📚📖 on June 27 at ✨

A full-day festival with live music, dance performances, a futuring workshop, craft activities, revelations from the expansive OEB archive, and more +++

Get Your Tix Real Quick!

This year’s theme centers on “Parable of the Trickster”, the third unpublished novel in Butler’s “Parables” series. Our line-up engages the wisdom and research embedded in her notes on the unpublished novel. Maybe we are the ones who should finish the novel? How will you help re-write the future? Imaginative work is best done collectively.

This years celebration is powered by Urban Ecology Convservatory , curated by artist/designer and fiction writer Schessa Garbutt of Fire Brand Creative House, and co-sponsored by .

Octavia Butler is one of those writers that some would call a prophet. One of thee most wonderous world builders of our time has left us with so much. Even down to her notebook journals written to herself, she gave us pathways and portals filled with passion and intention to imagine our lives otherwise. With her daily dedication, she gave us 12 novels in her lifetime!

I’ll leave you with this quote from an essay she wrote, “Devil Girl From Mars”:
Why I Write Science Fiction:

Beware! All too often, we say what we hear others say. We see what we are permitted to see. Much worse, we see what we're told that we see. Repetition and pride are the keys to this. To hear or to see even an obvious lie again and again and again, is to say it, almost by reflex, and then to defend it because we have said it, and to embrace what we've defended. Thus without thought or intent, we make mere echoes of ourselves and we say what we hear others say.

-Octavia

Come through and celebrate her with us!

Get Your Tix Today!

-d

Dublab has been an essential resource to the Los Angeles music community since 1999! Dublab isn’t just radio; it’s culture.

Dublab is the archive for thee archive. My show/podcast Something Else airs every 4th Sunday of the month and it’s a sonic space outside of the algorithm to hold the stories and creative processes of some of my favorite creatives. I’ve interviewed April + Vista, Saul Williams, R.A.P. Ferreira, Cavalier, Novena Carmel, Yrsa Daley-Ward, and Terence Nance, and Ben Caldwell, just to name a few.

Pull up Friday May 29th – I’ll be hosting w/ V.C.R. the dublab 2026 Salon: All Frequencies Open @ The Airliner Address: 2419 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031 6p-12a.

Tickets are still available

Speaking of Ben Caldwell, we will be honoring him for his work as a visionary transmedia artist and educator, as well as a member of the influential LA Rebellion film movement and founder of KAOS Network in Leimert Park (which has been home to Project Blowed, Banannas, and Brass Knuckles).

As well as DJ Kerry, the cultural architect behind The Basement LA a cacoon for sonic authenticity and intimate connection. DJ Kerry has been curating space for queer and women-centered nightlife since the 90s.

Join us in celebrating and sustaining the of people that keep LA’s music ecosystems in rotation.

P.s.

SHHHHHHH

USE THIS LINK FOR TIX

TICKET LINK HERE

secret duo discount pack for dublab’s Salon this Friday at the Airliner all welcome. Includes (2) Entrances with (2) Complimentary Drink Tickets / $100 total.

If you can’t make it Tap in at DUBLAB.COM/SUPPORT and become a member today your support matters!

SUSTAINING MEMBER includes 2026 dublab merch gift + year-round perks

MAKING A 1-TIME DONATION to keep our signal strong together!

By buying a ticket or contributing an annual gift, your generosity powers over 200 artists on-air and in community, in ways both seen and felt.

• By supporting dublab, you support thousands of independent DJs and musicians around the world. Help us stay uncensored and free to listen to, anytime and anywhere.

-d

(photo by Hanna Leka)

Every time I leave the stage, people have questions about what I am wearing and why (sometimes even asking if they can buy it off of me). I believe every performance is a shared ritual, and every ritual should have regalia. The Booklet Proof Vest is my way of showing up ready for the ritual of performance. Weighing about 30 pounds, it’s as heavy as our histories. I see it as a literal workout as I get these words out.

As a conceptual art piece, The Booklet Proof Vest acts as armor and a visual way of sighting sources. The design was synthesized in response to the question, “How do I embody the words that have made me possible?”

I was inspired by seeing the work of Jamal Cyrus’ Africanimus_12469 (2006). I first viewed Cyrus’ the Africanimus_12469 at the ICA Los Angeles as a part of The End of My Beginning survey exhibition, which included more than 40 works made over 20 years. I left drenched in inspiration.

Chad Dawkins writes via Art Papers: “His (Cyrus’) works always indicate some internal conflict or reveal the contradictions inherent to our understanding of American culture. In Africanismus_12469 (2006), a baseball catcher’s chest pad is covered in paperbacks of Black Power literature. The books serve as an added layer of protection. Africanismus_12469 is paired with BPPGG (2016), a black leather jacket, labeled as having pouches of “unspecified contents,” hung behind a thin light-blue curtain. Both objects reference protection and coded adornment.”

I loved his piece so much, it haunted me, it felt like an alley oop I felt called to build on. What if we got more specific and modular? I went home and started dancing with the what if’s of 16 books the way a verse holds 16 bars.

In 2022, I designed The Booklet Proof Vest with the help of sewer and fabricator Ella Trimarchi. I needed a uniform as I set out to spread a more radical message (I almost called it the Wearable Word, but that felt too biblical). I wanted to wear something that spoke volumes before I opened my mouth. I set out to find a way to have a uniform that was signature yet versatile. I was inspired by the powerful series of 47 jumpsuits Andre 3000 wore back in 2014 during the Outkast 20th anniversary tour.

Why not walk through the world armored up with the writings that shape the concepts and ideas that are housed in the music? Each of the writers that I wear have given me the words to better understand who I am, what I am up against, and the lineage I am a part of. The Booklet Proof Vest functions as both homage and protective assemblage.

We are all living libraries. It’s important to make the Truth visible. In the midst of the surge in the banning of books and the erasure of archives, memory work is imperative to show our work. I mean the vest to be as confrontational as it is beautiful. It is also a statement piece about gun violence in the classroom. I might need to wear a vest teaching what I teach. I choose to arm myself with visible critical thought. As a professor and educator, I need protection in and out of the classroom as anti-intellectual sentiment continues to grow across our timelines & planet.

The Booklet Proof Vest is how I choose to mobilize language, drawing importance back to the written word and its power to shape us. The piece needed to be modular and ever-changing as each book we engage with changes us.

The books I chose to wear at my last performance were:

Tupac Shakur’s A Rose That Grew From Concrete,

Said The Shot Gun To The Head & Dead Emcee Scrolls by Saul Williams,

bell hooks’ The Will To Change & All About Love,

Kiese Laymon’s Heavy,

Zora Neal Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God,

Toni Morrison’s Beloved,

Kahlil Gibran The Prophet,

Amiri Baraka’s Blues People,

Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Mask,

Fariha Rosín’s How To Cure A Ghost,

Nafissa Thompson-Spires’ Heads of Colored People,

Robin D.G. Kelley’s Freedom Dreams,

aja monet’s My Mom Was A Freedom Fighter, and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing.

-d

I didn’t want to write about patriarchy

I wanted to say something like to be Black is to experience life in its queerest form

A traversing dance of transness done in its undoingeness,

I didn’t mean to echo Robin Wall Kimermmer in saying that English is 70% nouns and 30% verbs, which is great for categorization or ranking

But inadequate to describe living

so even the language you are reading this in sees us as invisible

I didn’t want to write that Words fail us

I wanted to write that we are all poems with hidden linebreaks

Feel me in the fault line

I didn’t want to write about gender roles

I did want to write about Blackness as a point of departure

pataphysical invitation to unpack our bags and let go of what no longer waters us whole

I wanted to write Something exciting, unabbreviated, uninterrupted, and unpartitioned,

Something that saw us as participants in our own collective liberation

I didn’t want to write about “the natural order of things”

I wanted to write something that plays in the dark

the swamp, fugitive place,

a mix of both land and water flowing

teeming with the thick stickiness of interpersonal entanglements

I didn’t want to write that my male socialization has been in opposition to collectivity this entire time

I wanted to write to tell you I live as a traitor

To the system that is invested in my self-betrayal

I wanted to say that gender ain’t nothing but anti-Black ideology

It’s not our stuff, so put it down

I didn’t want to say that it was heavy

I didn’t want to say that it’s the only training I’d had

I didn’t want to blame it on my conditioning

I didn’t want to say I’ve hurt people in the name of reputation in the name of control

In the name of being “liked”

I needed to write

I need to write about questions, the kind of questions that question if the choices we’ve been given are choices at all

I need to write about legibility

I needed to write about boxes

The kind of boxes that present personhood as fixed something that you fit in order to be seen

Not like a see-through box

No, a high value box yes

An Auction Block yes yes

I needed to write about who put those blocks, I mean boxes there

I had to write to tell you to check whatever box you want to check, but know there are more than two boxes, and those boxes were made by a system with Black folks exclusion in mind

I didn’t want to write that Black people function as personified labor

Valued for our bodies

Of work

I needed my pen to work

I had to

I had to write that I want better desires for us

I had to

I had to write that there is a difference between liberation and freedom

I want a liberation that doesn’t just happen to me; it happens to us,

I wanted to say, these oppressors make assimilation look like “freedom”

Take off the binary binoculars

I didn’t mean to write about Gender (again)

I did need to write to my people

I need my people to know that gender is not a universal inadvertent apolitical concept

I didn’t want to go on and on about Christianity’s role in natal alienation, which is the loss of traditions, languages and the unlanguable

This we-they distinction was first religious, later racial

I wanted to write more

More about the persistent resistance to repressions

I wanted to write about Yoruban societies featuring a social hierarchy based on age, not gender

I wanted my pen to spill over and over about spiritual practices and cultural cosmology,

Featuring feminine and masculine forces as neither opposed nor separated

What is isn’t always what was

I didn’t want to talk about gender is a direct device of labor distribution

I wanted to write more about this practice of self-determination.

The power of choosing your own name regardless of biological relations

self-fashioning built on resonance

I promise I wanted to write that isolation is no place for healing

I didn’t want to write about spectacle

I didn’t want to write that to perfect slavery was to “abolish” it.

When the spectacle is gone it becomes harder to see but more ever-present

I didn’t want to write about the Mans-o-phere as a Black hole located in the soul

I wanted to write about what is at stake

What is at stake is our aspirations

Who benefits from your beliefs?

I didn’t want to write that pursuing power through patriarchy when humanity isn’t afforded to you is reaching for your own poison

I didn’t want to

I needed to write

I needed to write to Black men specifically

We don’t own people, that’s colonizer shit

I didn’t want to write that where you have been conditioned to find your value in the fictional

Meaning fixed, which is stuck

Leaving you shunned

Feeling null

I wanted to write about our bodies

Our bodies As water embodied

as fluidly interconnected

Body

less singular, more dynamic, more vital

I didn’t want to write about The force of things.

That force that changed us

The trans atlantic transformations

That force that forced the function of Black people into objects outside of the rules of gender normativity

I wanted us to remember

Remember, you are on a ship

Although the ship looks like Earth, you must remember we are on a ship

I didn’t want to write that Patriarchy is the “ship” we are stuck on

If we can agree on that, then we can agree that this is not our home

I need to write

I needed to write that we must choose differently

Not because you have a daughter or a mother

But because you want a better world

There is a way out but we have to agree where we are in order to leave it.

To elsewhere

Step up

Tears can be staircases

I didn’t want to write

I needed to.

-d

April 12th we getting it off the porch! Songs as well as poems are where thoeries are housed, the poet and the artist are the how (the work mobilzes itself).

I’m writing you fresh off this Pisces new moon with an energy filling & spilling over and over in many directions. Excitement isn’t a solo endeavour. So I’m inviting you to join us as we share new poems, songs, and devotionals as a part of The Getty’s Poetry In The Garden🪴 series in collaboration with dublab.

(meet us under this collection of trees in the Getty Central Garden)

The event is FREEEEE when you RSVP HERE! (we go on early early 11:30 am).

The concept of the day is that each poet is paired with a composer, and I am excited to be in collaboration with thee soulful multidisciplinary recording artist, composer, violinist, V.C.R.

V will be bringing Memphis with her just as I’ll be bringing South Central with me.

Peep her lastest release as a vocalist/vocal arranger on this collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD.

After the poems make sure to spend some time exploring the new incredible PHOTOGRAPHY & The BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT show now on view at the Getty.

See ya’ll at 11:30 am April 12th!

-d

What makes a great rap verse?

I find that a great rap verse animates the unseen, while getting at something known or felt, but at times is beyond sayable. The pen is capable of carrying the power of a camera lens, and it is up to the wordsmith to pan, zoom, focus, light, cut, and provide the aspect ratios and depth of feel the listener will experience during the duration of a verse. The goal is to immerse.

If I was to break it down into a simple list it would go as follows:

1. A great rap verse animates the unseen. Does the writer help me see the feeling?

2. The use of the vignette.

3. Does it contain a lyric that haunts me? Usually, this appears as a philosophical observation.

4. Word choices

5. Imagery.

6. Intimacy. A great rap verse also brings us closer to it’s author in someway.

7. iykyk moment

8. A great verse acts as a carrier bag. What is the conversation its carrying? What is the verse a vessel for?

Another consideration is how the writer brings us in? A question can act as a portal or a mirror on the journey through the journal. I believe Armand Hammer (experimental Hip-Hop group consisting of E L U C I D & billy woods named after the enigmatic American billionaire industrialist, petroleum executive, and art collector who lived from 1898 - 1990) is approaching song-writing as literature. They are poets first and foremost. One of the many jobs of a poet is to clarify things. When I first heard Dogeared from AH’s latest record, Mercy produced entirely by The Alchemist I literally had to pull my car over to make sure I heard every morsel.

When imagery and stanzas caress the ear in a way that makes me want to see it on the page, it reminds me there’s a deeper way to engage with a song. It’s refreshing as much as it is challenging. In a time where I am hearing discourse around “Hip-Hop going back underground” there is a sound surfacing that feels like it’s been cultivated without the mainstream gaze. That’s how Black art works, in the dark. The innovations that occur outside the algorithm are invitations to what’s possible not what’s poppin’. (Also woods’ refusal to be photographed is awesome and lends itself to deeper lore while probably doing wonders for his mental health)

Another characteristic of a great rap verse is does it contain a lyric that haunts me? Usually, there is a line or philosophical observation that follows me home when I hear a writer engaging rigorously. The strophe becomes more than just words associating. What develops is a series of backstories that need revisiting as each line catches like a thready cardigan. I am always looking for that in a verse. I want to find a line that makes me want to start the entire song over. ELUCID (a lyrical giant in his own write) has that in verse one when he utters “Part of keeping your word isn’t saying much” *mic drops and feedback across generations*

[Verse 2: billy woods]

She finished her drink and looked at me inquisitively, asking

“What’s the role of a poet in times like these?”

I never answered, but it stuck with me all week

Riding the bus, fixing something to eat

Putting the kids to sleep, walking the streets at night, burning a tree

Drafty windows got me turning up the heat

Downstairs neighbor called about a leak

Makaela called, we talked til’ 3 in the morning

My agent called about touring

I dreamt of boats loose from their moorings

We’ll see if they’re sea-worthy, we’ll see

I took the 4 to Fulton, transferred to the 3

We’ll see what washes up on the beach

Galoshes on, he leaps into puddles with both feet on the way home

Bacon grease by the stove for frying eggs, hash potatoes

I’m smoking in bed, scrolling my phone

Novel on the nightstand untouched

Sleight of hand, past moments of dread

Spider-Man perched alone on the ledge

Mask off like Future

Rain sluicing through gutters

Lovers searching, the bar is dark

Cars double-parked, out-of-state license plates

Chin-ups on scaffolding, pull up (What’s happening?)

She said, “You got an answer for me yet?”

I said, “I’m still grappling”

A LOT of things stand out. Let’s start with word choices, that’s a key ingredient in seasoning the offering for the ears. The fact bro used the word galoshes and sluicing? You’re getting points there.

The true reason this is getting verse of the year for me is the question woods’ verse poses to begin with is a generative one “What’s the role of a poet in times like these?”, which is to say, what’s the purpose of art right now? What additionally makes this such a rich space to embark from is there isn’t a date attached to this question. The conundrum exists outside of time. The “times like these” is anytime we are hearing it. It’s an instant ellipsis. The rest of the verse is the living with the question. Spoiler alert, the role of the poet is to grapple with the times entangling our lives.

Then there is the imagery painted mid verse of dreaming of loose boats free of their moorings, before we are sure if they are sea worthy. The double entendre of seeing worthy and sea-worthy interests me. It also brings to mind Zora Neal Hurston’s quote as Janie from her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God “Yuh got tuh go there tuh know there.” There is no way of knowing one is ready for the vastness of life’s open sea of unknowns until you see if you are sea-worthy, we’ll see what washes up on the beaches of time.

Its about taking the image on a longer journey, you can table the image but what are the nuances and details that the table is made of? As listeners, we want to go with you. When woods double dollyshots us through his days and weeks, possibly months of wrestling with his restlessness.

The poet Tongo Eisen-Martin once said: “There are two kinds of poems

With parallell priorities:

1. When the poet is teaching us something.

2. When a poet is teaching themselves something in front of us…. an investigation internally externalized.”

The 2nd one is my favorite kind of rap verse. It’s unprescriptive on purpose but is purposefully getting at the root of something we all have hanging up in the attics of our subconscious.

A great rap verse also brings us closer to it’s author in someway. When wood’s writes

“I’m smoking in bed, scrolling my phone

Novel on the nightstand untouched”

I believe that is where we get the title of the song Dogearred from. I grasp that woods is eluding to the folded pages of a novel that act as bookmark, as well as the role questions play in our day to day lives. The questions that really stick with us, that haunt in the undercurrent of our lives. Those questions that keep us coming back, even as we wade through the doldrums of our routines.

Another characteristic of a great rap verse is an iykyk moment. Hip-Hop is highly referential, and the listener has to be well versed to fully appreciate the art on the many levels it operates on. woods weilds the occasion when describing the reflective stance of Spiderman when he is on the ledge with his mask off as well as referencing the song by the same name by Future, is truly a highlight not only because it’s fire without needing to rhyme, but also because it brings together imagery our minds haven’t associated with each other. It’s a literary head nod to the homies with that type of range of taste, experiences, and understandings (BLACK!).

Another attribute of a great rap verse can also unfold as a conversation of preambles. Another guide to listening to thoughtful and carefilled music like this is to ask yourself when listening to either woods or EULCID the question who or what are they rapping as? There are no hints, it’s just here we go, get to swimming! It’s not for everybody, but I think that is what made Hip-Hop so radical as an art(form). We lost the plot once the influence and investment from the white banking community shifted the aspirational priorities of writers who are trying to make a living in exchange for our stories. Our integrity takes a hit every time. Great art is not about how widely it can be consumed, but rather if it prioritizes the truth. And the truth is, we are all still grappling.

Dive deeper in their interview with Rap Plug Podcast innerview:

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist album 💿 Mercy is out now wherever you stream consciousnesses.

-d

On November 17th, I’m honored, excited & nervous to answer the call to perform with my band THE VIBRARIANS (Arty Johnson II & Jace Holmes) - as we share our gifts with our incarcerated siblings in the LA County Jail. Gratitude to Living Earth for connecting worlds. I hope to be a vessel for a message beyond myself.

Also, I’m proud to share new vibrations with ya’ll. OKRA [Osei Parker Remix] is out now wherever you engage with music. The photograph we used for the artwork was captured by Daniel N. Johnson the day before my birthday in Mexico City.

A song can be a photograph, sometimes candid, sometimes current. This is how my pen spoke in 2023, now reimagined and revitalized by vibration technician Osei Parker. I’m thankful to be creating alongside another great practitioner of soundscaping. I’m excited to show y’all more sonic sculptures and chisel new faces and phrases under the shifting moons. This song is a remix of an homage to my favorite vegetable. Okra was my passport into this paradigm. My mom’s auntie Genie told her to eat a lot of okra when she was pregnant with me, so when I was born, I gave my mother no pain. I just slid through with ease, slipped right out, ready for the world! The nurse didn’t even have time to put her gloves on or nothing.

Here is the download link if you want that live & direct connect.

Bless,

Collaboration can be a multi-directional trust fall. Sometimes it’s an ancestor that catches you. Sometimes you have no idea what journeys saying “yes” will take you on. All I knew was I was being trusted with my friend (and brilliant photographer) Alexis Hunley’s family archive! When Alexis first asked me to be the creative director for a project centering the life and artistic work of her grandmother ZZ, I was both honored and overwhelmed. It felt too intimate. I barely knew my grandmother growing up (She was in a convalescent home by the time I was 3 three). Maybe that’s not what the work is asking for though, you won’t know until you get into the thickness of the doing what the work will reveal to you about you. I want to be of service. I want to be a vessel for the most impactful ideas to run through. Sooo over the past 8 months we’ve turned 13 boxes into an interactive testimony through Alexis’ Grandmother’s archive.

I miiiiight even perform this new piece I been working on about my mom at the archival party…

Wait, have you ever been to an archival party before? Me either so we decided to throw one!

As the creative director of the CALL ME ZZ project, I am thrilled to announce our first official gathering Sep 27th 2 pm- 9 pm. CALL ME ZZ is a reimagining of how we remember our matriarchs as whole people. It’s actively confronting the natal alienation that keeps Black stories and storytellers out of the archive. It's a practice of celebrating and holding the stories of those that made us possible. Our matriarchs are the least celebrated people in our family yet when they are gone the impact is felt for generations.

On Saturday, September 27th from 2 PM – 9 PM, we’re turning memory into communion, archives into art, and taking time for intentional memory making.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Bring a friend, meet a friend, leave with new stories and maybe a new form of kindship.

CALL ME ZZ is rooted in truth-telling. The personal is always collective.

More Deets in The Deeptails:

• The launch of two limited edition CALL ME ZZ zines (1 Zine with each purchase of a ticket)

• An exclusive Oral History Listening Session + Workshop with Jordan Berkeley Brewington

• Access to DIY Archival Stations to help you start building your own archive IRL

• First dibs on food and beverages from our vendor Flavors From Afar

• one ( 1) raffle entry and the chance to win special prizes

• Ashley Younniä is on the decks—her curation feels like getting dropped into a love song power ballad, while being flipped into house music that makes your body wanna testify.

• Intimate Performance by South Central’s own Def Sound (me! lol). I'll be closing event with new songs & poems alchemising the moment.

📅 Saturday, September 27th
🕑 2 PM – 9 PM
🎟 ticket (zine included)

Secret Location revealed with purchase.

See ya'll Saturday the 27th!

-d

IT’S ALL CONNECTED!

Every genocide, every climate crisis, every executive order, every journalist martyred, every piece of stolen soil, everything is connected!

Fred Moten has a trilogy of impossible to categorize writings called Consent Not To Be A Single Being. I roll that title around in my mind, and it regrounds me in the understanding that there is a constellation of folks that make me possible. We are an assemblage of all that have come before us. We are each others keeper. Our survival will be collaborative, and I consent to that connectivity. Our care must be continued no matter the result.

In that spirit I’m writing to let you know I’m honored to be using my efforts & gifts to raise funds in solidarity w/ our Sudanese 🇸🇩 siblings. Its been 500 days of famine in Sudan so even if you can’t pull up in the physical please consider donating to the cause with the link below.

Get your tix HERE

Saturday, August 30th at the historic Miracle Theatre in Inglewood, CA from 2-10 PM.

PERFORMANCES BY LAUREN JAUREGUI, DANNYLUX, ZANIB,

XIUHTEZCATL, DORIS ANAHÍ &

SOUNDS BY JEREMY SOLE

POETRY BY YAZMIN MONET WATKINS, VIANNEY HARELLY

& HAMOUDI AHMAD

WORKSHOP BY ARTISTS AGAINST APARTHEID &

PANEL BY SUMMER OF RESISTANCE

I’m excited to perform our song AMEEN live for the first time with the incredible Lauren Jauregui!

More details: Funds raised will be directed to 3 non-profit organization that assist U.S. Migrants and families In Sudan. The two organiza1ons focused on U.S. Migrants are NDLON, an organization that improves the lives of day laborers, migrants and low-wage workers and CHIRLA, which works at the intersection of immigration law and employment law. For Sudanese families we will be working with the Sudan American Charity which provides assistance to needy families in Sudan by providing food and shelter to orphans & families and helps with the cost of health care & education needs.

Its the perfect way to end Black August. According to The Kinfolk Tech Foundation “Black August serves as an annual observance to honor deceased freedom fighters while fighting for political prisoner freedom and opposing the ongoing carceral system. Black August took shape during the prison uprisings of the 1970s, rooted in the resistance of Black political prisoners. With its origins written in the throes of San Quentin State Prison in California, where the likes of George Jackson and Ruchell Magee were once housed and became names that widely represent heritages of Black revolutionary struggle. The first Black August celebration paid tribute to both the ten years of prison militancy and the entire history of Black resistance which included maroon communities and abolitionist thought and prison uprisings.”

Let’s remember we are living instances of resistences.

See ya’ll on thee 30th!

-d

My love language is sharing so let’s get into it.

( 1 ) Sky’s Tacos - 5303 W Pico Blvd Suite #01, Los Angeles, CA 90019

Chef Barbara Burrell’s sassy sauce and original recipes will have you dancing in your seat! Anytime I am in Mid City I’m running the Sky’s vegan potato burrito without hesitation. Anytime someone is in from outta town I take them to this LA classic.

( 2 ) Akan Chief Glasses -

My brilliant partner in thought & in life Akiko Surai, has been thinking of gold as an ancestral conduit and sent me these photos of Akan solid gold chief glasses.

( 3 ) Satellite 📡 by Simone Leigh -

Speaking of transmissions, Simone Liegh’s sculptural offering from 2022 speaks volumes to me. It’s 6,000 pounds and 24-foot-high.

( 4 ) Open Mike Eagle’s new album Neighborhood Gods Unlimited -

It’s really an incredible concept record if you are into Sci Fi Afro alterative future art raps. Here’s what Open Mike says about it “Creatively it’s an excuse to build a slate of 3-5 minute serialized TV shows. There’s a 3-5 minute recurring sitcom, a 3-5 minute professional wrestling show, 3-5 minute dramas and news programs.

I wanted one of the dramas to feel like the movie Get Out or Sorry to Bother You. Stories that engage in big conversations around the trauma of marginalized folks, with a hint of magical realism. It really coalesced when I saw Boots Riley’s I’m A Virgo. When I saw a fully realized, grounded serial drama featuring modern black folks with a surrealist hook, I began to develop Neighborhood Gods Unlimited.”

Also this interview with The Rap Music Plug Pod

( 5 ) The Catch by Yrsa Daly-Ward -

I finished the novel last night! What a novela, Yrsa’s first fiction piece had my reading light running out of batteries it was sooo juicy. It’s about two twin sisters who meet their mother and she is the same age as them… (I can’t say more) The pacing is amazing and the story will put your imagination into a yoga pose.

You gotta read it, its really exquisite work! Also reading fiction before bed is actually the answer, I highly recommended that.

( 6 ) Mr. LMP by TRU -

A new album by the homie TRU! The young Leimert Park legend slides through w/ album containing no skips. This boy is a chameleon, so many styles he is a group lol. I’m honored to be a part of this project on a song called Grey (with trumpet playing by Brandon Samuels), its about loyalty and asks the question, “Where did all the real ones go?”

( 7 ) Rian Phin’s YouTube channel -

If you are into philosophy, personal style and contemporary fashion Rian threads together critiques and thought provoking questions that got me looking at my closet completely different. (in the most un prescriptive way)

( 8 ) Sims Poetry Library -

Yes, there is an entire library in LA dedicated to collecting and preserving books of poetry.

Its free and open to the public Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Also Saturday from 3 pm to 8 pm. 2702 W Florence Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90043. I went and got my poetic license thee other day.

( 9 ) The Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out experience -

As of today The Clipse have provided us with the Rap Album of the year. The “two real life brothers” re team up with Pharrell to do what they do best, coke raps and introspection. I love an artist committed to their themes, and this still feels like a progression after 15 years later. Both Push & Malice are technicians of the craft of rapping. The rollout is flooding the algorithm in a way we don’t see with Hip Hop anymore. Their PR and whole team deserves a standing ovation for how brilliantly timed and care-filledly synchronized everything has been. It feels in service to the work and considers todays landscape and attention spans while properly contextualizing the music to be as important as it is! This is not a review but I will say my fav’s from the project are E.B.I.T.D.A (which Akiko remixed the acronym to stand for EVERY BRICK I TOUCH DOES AMAZING), Chains & Whips, So Be It, M.T.B.T.T.F. , F.I.C.O. , and The Birds Don’t Sing. Most commerical music with big budgets is SO bad. It’s nice to be excited about bars again.

(10) Collectible Limited Design Original Black Paper Chair #1 Dolly by Vadim Kibardin -

I like expensive stuff & sitting so yea this piece checks those boxes.

(11) Gonna leave ya’ll with a Writing Prompt

-d

I remember we’re still conflicted… It’s been 10 years since Kendrick dropped to Pimp A Butterfly record that shifted the sonic landscape of Hip Hop & Jazz. I invite you to come out of your cocoon and join us for an IRL intentional relistening & revisiting of TPAB. I’ll be in conversation with brilliant Spelman professor Sequoia Maner, and author of the book To Pimp A Butterfly (Which was a part of the 33 1/3 book series) at my home away from home Reparations Club July 23rd at 7 pm.

The album is a poem within itself, meant to be experienced in its sprawling expansive entirety and not skipped, talked over or playlisted, So why not share that with ya’ll?

RSVP HERE before the event sells out!

Today some folks celebrate freedom, I find that liberation is far more appealing. They are far from the same thing. The freedom to consume and move without impunity seems to be what is on the menu as freedom. The real gag is the oppressors have made assimilation look like freedom. They have confused our collective goals by turning highly individuated social climbing and positioning into our north star. When liberation is the elimination of the systems of oppression on our everyday lives. That’s what I am interested in, the systemic unworlding to actually be liberated from this current paradigm.

On March 15, 2015 Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp A Butterfly was released. Hip Hop would never be the same. The year To Pimp a Butterfly dropped police killed 1,152 civilians. Ten years later we still catching fades with the state fighting injustices on every level. As they pass Billionaire bills and kidnap entire communities we need more art & music that reflects the urgency of the time. It also felt aligned to pay homage (there is something to be said about approaching a song with such rich existing metadata already). Although Kendrick himself is not radical in his politics or with his platform, the emotions captured in the song Alright carries an energy of conjuring that became a contagiously compelling battle cry. It wasn’t written as a political record but the people chose it, it resonated with those that needed it most. The time is continuously now though! There is an uprising rising up in us. What words do we need now? I hope this rhyme can also be a remedy.

GET YOUR PASSPORT & JOIN MY PATREON for the full song!!

Here is how I decided to pay homage. Hope ya’ll vibe w/ it.

Aligned aka Iight fka Alright 2025 Lyrics:

Hook🪝

I need a liberation that’s global

I don’t need liberation not a Mogul

I need a liberation that is total

I need a liberation ( ( UGH! ) )

I need a liberation that’s collective

I need a liberation of perspectives

I need a liberation for my ppl

I need a liberation that’s connective

**

I need a liberation free from isolation

Free from domination

Free from hibernation

Free from separation

Free from segregation

Free from legislations

(we gotta get) repetitious w/ the reparations

We need reparations

reparations

reparations

Freedom time!

Time aint waiting

Time aint waiting

VERSE 2:

Polyphonic logic

Kaepernicking n**** at the college

Kidnapping kids (at) graduations, even at apartments

diabolic dialect deconstruction of the topic

Muthaf*ckas really live at the mall!

Buy a life off the shelf can you live w/ the cost?

blood on our hands & we can’t wash it off

(Living w/ our) Life in the air like a prayer at the Mosque

Will you Chat gpt when the water is gone?

For every single person everything is urgent

Think we need a surgeon

Wretched Of The Earthling ( ah! )

Seeing through the curtain

Everybody hurtin

Everythings uncertain

If your heart is broken, then your heart is working

I was thinking bout my ppl through the wisdom of our rhythms

I was thinking bout the workers

I was dancing on the ruins

I was picturing a vision

It’s a revolution brewing

Passport been packed up N**** what you doing ?

(Hook)

-d

(photo provided by Alexis Hunley)

Listen, Sly Stone (rest in power 🕊️ ) told us There’s A Riot Goin’ On… Also learned over the weekend that the best use of a Waymo is an on call barricade. Revolution is happening right now, although I have been on a so so media hiatus I felt the need to be informed and in call & response with the moment. I’m going to drop music when my intuition tells me to. The shifts are happening quick. Remember immigrants are not your enemy. The governing class has declared war on its ppl. Its narrative warfare and its crucial we remember this moment as it happened. We are void tellers, truth telling the untold. Let’s remember & bear witness collectively.

Also this is a powerful resource from a friend and fellow poet Yesika Salgado.

When you see an ICE agent trying to disappear your neighbors :

1st - Film it on your phone (for as long as you can).

2nd - Ask the person being illegally detained their name “¿Cómo te llamas?”

3rd - Ask their birthday - “¿Cuál es tu cumpleaños?”

4th - Ask is there someone you want me to contact? “¿Hay alguien con quien quiera que me ponga en contacto?”

5th - Remind them not to speak without a lawyer - “No hable sin un abogado.”

Then contact the Southern California Rapid Response Network - Los Angeles - (888) 624 - 4752

Orange County - (714) 881 - 1558

CHIRLA (323) 353 - 1333

Stay vigilant beloved,

Lyrics:

Heaven knows I’m going straight to Zelle$

Heavy thought it could break the scales

You know the vibes

summertime On the grind like skating rails

owe you an email? what I owe myself?

Who gonna ride?

Every line got em hooked like bell

In my mind improvised thats an endless well

Every week whooping beats n**** get my belt

On repeat Fuck ICE break them jails

We gone Break those spells

We gone bring them hell

story got stories you feel me braille

We gone start that garden, we gon get that kale

South central with me everywhere I dwell

Going David Hammons at the HAMMER

More commas with the comrades off the grammar

Snappin at the campus like camera

N**** I’m the problem and an answer

What we talking bout practice?

Flipping words wordplay doing those Back flips

liberation? corporations never gon back this!

F*ck a label give it to the ppl all access

My heartbeat is an art piece

Keeping receipts

An arteest do not start me

(Of a )Different degree

Pusha-T of poetry

Every written’s a Key

A scale is a door

Kid Fury how I’m giving The Read

new forms

Swinging wisdom like a new sword

Brain storm brought the Thunder out like I'm Lou Dort

Really unannounced on they heels like shoe horn

We gone really change the world, diaper on a new born

Shit (🇺🇸) sticks

BOOM BINK!

gimme 6 ft

Do my own thang

Gotta big range

Gotta Pick me up full court

You aint with the whimsy & the Folklore

Every rhyme I recite is a whole course

(every) Syllables a syllabus I get silly with

With the silly wit

Resurrect w/ the rhetoric

They/them with the maythem

Yea I Get it in

Every pay stub that I rake up

Got my rate up

Got the game in the back taped up

N*gga wake up

Turn the bass up

Yummm Yummm Yummm Yea I ate up

Heaven knows I’m going straight to Zelle$

Heavy thought it could break the scales

You know the vibes

summertime on the grind like skating rails

owe you an email? what I owe myself?

Who gonna ride?

Every line got em hooked like bell

In my mind improvised, that’s an endless well

Every week whooping beats n*gga get my belt

On repeat Fuck ICE break them jails

We gone Break those spells

We gone bring them hell

story got stories you feel me braille

All the pain that I paint all the things I felt

South central with me everywhere I dwell

-d

Today, I don’t get to distract myself with task after task after task. There’s only one task that haunts me below the surface of every conversation. Only one task that demands I step into it. Looking inward and outward seeking a new now.

Listen, I don’t have to be logged on to social media to be tapped in. We have got to organize. It’s time to get unreasonable, its time to get into our trickster bag, and it’s time to reorient our relationships towards the long game. They are no longer listening to us, they are testing how far we will let them go, they are calculating who is a threat and straight-up disappearing folks. They, are the Beast. The Beast is our government and its time we starve it.

It has been less than four months of the TrElon regime and they are gutting public programs in new & disgusting ways everyday. Beginning May 5th they begin to garnish wages of folks who owe student loans (which is a direct attack on Black intellectualism) considering that U.S. student loan debt totals approximately $1.8 trillion, with about 43 million borrowers. The Beast can grab your paycheck, 100% of tax refund, and even 15% of your social security benefits. Debt relief is dead, and The Beast just moved to gut the Education Department - pushing $1.8 TRILLION in loans to the Small Business Administration. Five million borrowers are already in default. This hit lands thee heaviest on Black and Brown folks, draining wealth from our communities. For historical context, from 1976 to 2012 the average tuition cost rose 1,120%, faster than other product or service. I hate to calling education a product (this is how it is treated here). In 2011, for the first time in US history, State College funding was primarily from tuition paid by students instead of state funding. We are in the midst of an economic warfare. How are we loading up?

In the words of my brilliant and courageous former professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard “What job do I have if the students don’t have a future?”

This is a call to action for people that believe that the function of a government is to serve and care for its people! The way the government is being run, currently it has declared war on its people in the name of profit. The government is looking to privatize the right to exist. The Beast has no reason to listen to us, unless we starve it. We also have to acknowledge that the beast is functioning how it was designed, this country is run like a business by short sighted unethical corrupt CEOs. The Beast has no priority to change its profit driven policies, we have to remember this isn’t just “how it is” these policies are a choice. So like creator Dasia Sade shares in this beautiful video below, “America has sold itself out. We have been shifted from citizens to consumers.” And if the government is now a service provider instead of a resource allocator then they owe us nothing. So tell me when you get on the phone with the phone company when you have a disagreement about your bill or when you are unhappy with your service what do you do? You have to make a threat right? You threaten to not just leave that company but to take people with you.

This administration and the Beast itself have built systems that have pushed policies that sacrifice the public rights (aka public goods or access to quality of life) for profits, while we all suffer collectively. They are setting us up for failure on purpose. So my question is what do we have left to leverage against them?

It’s time to organize outside of a political party, outside of a religion, outside of social media, just.... outside. It's time to see your neighbor as yourself. If you aren't a millionaire already you won’t be one (also its a gross goal) its time to starve the beast. It’s time to understand that our government does not see it for us. In fact, it actively wants us dead.

There is the employer class and everybody else, guess what? We outnumber them. There is a way for us to take our power back.

I don't know if you can feel it, but the American empire is over, it's a wrap bb (they've had a good run). If empires were the NBA, the actions of this administration are proof that America is tanking the economy in hopes of a lottery pick. It’s betting on starving its ppl to privatize everything. Watch this conversation with Marc Lamont Hill & economist Richard Wolff as they break down the economics of the moment from a global standpoint.

Everybody’s having the same thoughts, the phrase “How are you doing?” is a loaded bazooka. The Beast desires to fill us with fear. What will it actually take for us to confront the beast? What will we do in this moment? What leverage do we have to stop the injustice? Any of us could be next.

Whatever we do, it must be a collective doing, whatever we do it can’t be one of us doing it. We’ve got to design a faith.

Our protest, our signs, our satires, our posts, and opinions as needed as it is, awareness has been raised, some of us have been woken up and can no longer go back to sleep, I want to know what are we going to do with all these feelings & knowings?

The one thing we have that this government needs in order to keep up its facade is our labor. It is our last point of leverage. They don’t care what we think. We must use every tool we have.

I believe that there is a poem brewing, there is a poem ready to be written by us.

A poem that braids back in the memory of who really is our enemy.

A poem to help us remember the power we possess.

That same poem that made those same rocks cry out loud Amethysts, urgently.

A poem that can put an end to a war, that stops a bomb in its tracks, that can halt these genocides, these inhumane acts, these mistreatments perpetuated by fear-mongers and oligarchs with absent spirits and callused hearts.

An amalgamation rooted in a radical tradition,

a spell, more powerful every time we recite it

a poem born that bends timelines circular, and re circulates good faith hand to hand mixtape never recorded in any history book

a poem that remembers us,

A poem that we must DO

A poem that revisits us

A poem that feels

A poem that heals

A poem that gives us new choices

Amplifies new voices

A poem that started as a murmur

A poem ready to take it further

A poem that yells us free

A belief

wilder than our ancestor's dreams

A collective action

A poem that shapes us into the necessary tactics that gives us the gift of a tomorrow and shared fewtures (I spell it this way because there must be more than one going forward).

This poem has to be a group piece. This poem has to be a strategy.

We have been hearing the very buzzy phrase of “general strike” but very few how's to go about it. I’m entering the chat, willing to get it wrong, because theory is lived right? After contemplating the ways that I haven’t seen a general strike spoken about, there’s no way I am not considering my own fragile financial situation in this. I’m no organizer or activist. I’m an artist trying to imagine a way forward. I’m using the tools that I have and I’m sending this out as a call to collaboration, because I know there’s so much that I don’t know. I don’t think this is “an original” thought, I am dissolving the need to possess an idea as my own. What I am presenting is a first attempt, a skeleton, a ruff, a demo, a sketch of an idea called STARVE THE BEAST.

The first step in starving The Beast is unifying on our list of demands. If we don’t know what we are risking our livelihoods for we will be shaken off of our square and manipulated out of our collective power.

If we don’t align on what our goal is, we will not sustain the willpower and collective discipline needed to withhold our collective labor across race & class.

I propose three simple demands (aka The Three Tenants or The Three Agreements lol), we withhold our labor for:

1. Universal health care:

There are 72 countries worldwide that provide public universal health care coverage to the majority of their populations. This includes countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. According to wikipedia, "Some programs are paid for entirely out of tax revenues. In others, tax revenues are used either to fund insurance for the very poor or for those needing long-term chronic care. In some cases such as the United Kingdom, government involvement also includes directly managing the health care system, but many countries use mixed public-private systems to deliver universal health care. Alternatively, much of the provision of care can be contracted from the private sector, as in the case of Canada and France. In some instances, such as in Italy and Spain, both these realities may exist at the same time. The government may provide universal health insurance in the form of a social insurance plan that is affordable by all citizens, such as in the case of Germany and Taiwan."

WHY NOT US?

In Africa, Burkina Faso provides universal healthcare to citizens through a system called Universal Health Insurance (AMU)—administered by two bodies, one for civilians and the other for the armed forces.

Brazil is the only country in the world that offers completely free healthcare for all its citizens. We have to make them give it to us!

2. Affordable housing :

This would mean fixed rent for the next eight years based on the condition of the collective economic debt this country incurred. I understand that corporations own a relatively small percentage of single-family homes in the US, estimated to be around 3-4% of the homes across the nation. Let's starve them too. Also, this could mean rent being reduced to the level of the wages of the people in that household. In other words someone should be able to work one job that pays for their rent. The rent should be determined not by the market but by the wages of a singular employer. We can no longer trust and believe in politicians promises that wages will be raised, while continuing to fight for a "minimum" wage increase. They won’t be raised to a level that allows for people to take care of themselves because of the exploitation model that is running us into the ground as capitalism eats itself alive. I wanna see it die in my lifetime.

3. Creative control over our personal taxes:

Let me define what I mean by creative control. Quite simply, I mean the ability to choose on our individual tax forms exactly where the money that is coming out of our pay check goes, there should be a bubble that says universal healthcare, education, roads, national parks, etc. YOU should be able to choose exactly where YOUR tax dollars go PERIODT. You should have the option to divest your personal dollars from the defense budget (in 2024 the American defense budget was $845 billion). The BEAST has shown us they cannot be trusted and are unfit to distribute the resources where their constituents desire for their money to go. They have also shown us that as a company and brand they do not have our best interest in mind, in fact they are actively betting against us with systems like Disaster Capitalism. They are running a scam and hoping we are too broke, spiritually broken to do anything about it. As a government who has deprioritized the well being of it’s citizens they are disqualified to do their job, so we stay home with a unified faith in one another with a counter collective movement that will change our material conditions.

———————————

I believe that these demands could change the trajectory of our lives and the generations to come. If we are gonna do it we better make it worth it.

Once we are aligned on our demands, the next step is creating a way for a strike to occur during such a precarious economic moment on a mass level. We need to create a surplus of funds & resources that allow people to stay home and still have their needs met. I’ve seen people do strikes, and boycotts (which a lot have worked in the past) but I’ve never seen an economic strategy used on a mass level across unions, state lines, and occupations that addressed creating a collective bag that is funded by us, used exclusively with the intent for us to withhold our labor.

I don’t think this is impossible and I’m fine with being naïve. We are at a point where nothing should be off the table, because they are taking the table, there will be no table soon. Whatever room the bargaining table was in I believe we are in the midst of being evicted from the building itself. Don't be discouraged though, there is no building without the people in it. The building is hallow without its people. We have to believe in our power and our impact. We’ve got to use our imaginations because The Beast’s fantasies become policies.

The first step in creating the collective bag is to organize us into a space where we can be transparent. That transparency gets down to getting real about our monthly expenses. What does each of us need to survive? Lets talk with eachother about our personal itemized expenses and break it down.

We have models like the Ghanaian Susu. Susu is a promise. A circle. A centuries-old system of rotating savings and credit, carried in the hands and memories of West African people, ferried through saltwater crossings into Caribbean markets, urban neighborhoods, and every place where the African diaspora has had to make a way. Known as susu, sou-sou, or esusu, it is simple in design and infinite in meaning: a group agrees to contribute a set amount of money at regular intervals; the whole is given to one member at a time, in turn, until every member has received the circle’s full embrace.

But susu is not only about money. It is about the way we keep each other alive when the world does not. In Ghana, where the word means “little by little” and “to plan” in Twi, susu is most often organized by women—women who have been shut out of formal banks but never out of vision. They gather coins not just for school fees or funeral costs, but to weave the kind of safety net no institution can offer.

Every rotation is an act of trust: I give today so you can build tomorrow; you give tomorrow so I can breathe next week. In its pulse, susu resists the logic of scarcity. It reminds us that wealth is not the property of an individual but the circulation of care.

In its simplest form, each member of a susu contributes a fixed amount at regular intervals. The collected whole is given, in turn, to one member, until each has received their share. “Little by little” and “to plan,” the Twi meanings of susu, speak to both patience and vision. The system is not indexed to interest rates or profit margins; it is indexed to the heartbeat of the group, to the knowledge that one’s own flourishing is tied to the flourishing of others.

For centuries in Ghana, susu has been a way for those excluded from formal banks—often women—to pool resources, fund business ventures, pay school fees, or honor rites of passage. It is economic strategy braided with cultural continuity, a refusal to let scarcity sever community.

For example, let's look at the raw numbers of what it costs you to live like food, utilities and rent, (the most bare bones basics) let's say that costs you $7,500 a month. Once you have your specific number, the next question is how much are you willing to put up and to invest in the three tenants of universal healthcare, affordable housing, and creative control over your tax dollars? We’ve been investing in the stock market and bitcoin, and all types of silly things. Why haven’t we invested in each other? How much would you pay for these three struggles to go away?

What are you willing to invest in the possibility of a new world?

Because times are tight (this is by design), let’s say that you have $1000 that you can add to that cause, that 1k goes in the pot that we all would have access to seeing who contributed and at what number for full transparency because some can give more than others. We will need a diverse pot in order to hold out and withhold. That means different contribution levels from all the different class echelons, we are betting on each other, we are betting on our fewtures. We are in a culture of GoFundMe’s and Kickstarters already. Mutual aid was the only way we got through the fires in Pasadena, Altadena, and the Palisades (being that the fire department was defunded and privatized). At this rate of inflation we can no longer afford to look at this as a recession. We are in the midst of a robbery, they are trying to empty our surplus which also hampers our ability to do mutual aid with each other, so before that savings is on zero, we’ve got to organize into the fewtures we want. Let's not go out silently. We don’t have to all be cool in order to organize. We have to recognize that most of our interpersonal turmoils are connected to the scarcity models that have done quite the number on us.

Once we know what number we can invest in The Three Agreements/Tenants, the next question is what role are you willing to play/what skills can you offer to the collective. In my case I could offer workshops, education, as well as my ability to cook for the collective.

If we were able to generally strike across the entire nation (I’m talking from students, educators, administrators, county workers, service industry, ball players, post office workers, I’m talking about every single person who pays rent anywhere and wants to see this world change) in the name of universal healthcare, affordable housing, and creative control over tax dollars for one month what do you think would happen? Even if we only get universal healthcare, would that not be worth it? How bad do we need it to get?

It’s time to get imaginative and maybe this has been done before, but I’ve never read that book, that article or heard of the movement. Put me on if this is happening or has happened. We need each other, I'm ignorant on a lot of things but I am inspired and I'm willing to learn.

If we don't have our needs met we will cross the picket line. This might even be an exercise in finding out what we need to pull this off even on a smaller scale.

The overall goal of the STARVE THE BEAST PROJECT is to create an infrastructure that organizes enough resources that gives people the ability to stay home for a full month and make sure we don't go back until our needs are met. I am interested in coming together with folks who also believe a government’s job is to take care of it's people, its now time to hold them accountable and organize towards our own collective liberation.

This is the beginning of a larger conversation. It’s time to look to each other, question the price of convenience, and cultivate inconvenient communities together.

All we got is us, all we got is now.

-d

Black bookstores are sacred institutions. I am writing you from a place of gratitude and with good news dancing on the tip of my tongue again… I have a story being published in the upcoming book all about Black bookstores titled PROSE TO THE PEOPLE coming out April 8th on Penguin Random House!

PROSE TO THE PEOPLE is a love letter to ALL the Black bookstores out there past and present! Some people don't know this, but the FBI has the largest collection of writings from Black authors in America. Particularly through the COINTELPRO program, which amassed a vast collection of files on Black authors and activists, including their writings, personal lives, and activities. (The FBI records, including COINTELPRO records, are now available through libraries and online databases like ProQuest). For this and any many other reasons Black bookstores always have been and continue to be critical centers of community gathering, reMemory, literary and artistic inspiration, and social and political unity and resistance. As an author of PROSE TO THE PEOPLE and Black bookstore owner Katie Mitchell puts in her introduction, “our resistance fuels our renaissance.”

PRE ORDER :

A Celebration of Black Bookstores (Pre-Order, April 8 2025)

PROSE TO THE PEOPLE celebrates and gives flowers to the prominent place of Black-owned bookstores past, present, and future across the United States.

I am honored to have a contribution in this collection. My piece is a heartfelt voice message transcribed into prose as I recall the way that my favorite book store in LA Reparations Club founded and run by Jazzi McGilbert, has played such a large role in my budding literary career as well as keeping me connected to community. Those that know me on a personal level know that if you hear from me it is most likely through rich and deeply layered voice message, so it only felt true to form to have one published in this collection. I won’t give too much about the story but I will say it includes good friend Fariha Rosín!

Thoughtfully curated by writer and Black bookstore owner Katie Mitchell, PROSE TO THE PEOPLE is an incredible cornucopia of essays, poems, and interviews by New York Times bestsellers and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Kiese Laymon, as well as writers Rio Cortez, Pearl Cleage, and many more journalists, activists, authors, academics, and poets that offer deeper perspectives on these bookstores' role throughout the diaspora. Complete with a foreword by world-renowned truth-teller poet, activist, rememberer, and new literary ancestor Nikki Giovanni. PROSE TO THE PEOPLE is a reader’s road trip companion to the world of Black books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

KATIE MITCHELL is a storyteller and bookseller. Katie lives, works, and writes in Atlanta,

Georgia. Her online and pop-up Black bookstore, Good Books, has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, PBS, and many other outlets. Katie is also a Dorothy Porter Wesley fellow.

S/o Katie for graciously including me in this beautiful work.

-d

Peace, just popping in real quick to invite you on Feburary 8th to support ‘listen to music outside in the daylight under a tree’ at montecillo de leo politi, located within Elysian Park. I’ll be playing a set as a part of a fundraiser for artists affected by the fires (its me, artist affected by the fires). The bill is incredible and sounds will be shared from noon - sunset! $20 suggested donation. I really hope to see & hug you there.

First of all it has been weirdly difficult to admit that I have been impacted by the Eaton fires as a resident of Pasadena for two years, while many have lost their homes, businesses at this time, and lives to these fires. We are navigating communal loss. It's beyond property loss, the Black community of Altadena especially have lost their archives, heirlooms and gathering spaces. This is unquantifiable loss. We are witnessing, grieving, and navigating being climate refugees in real-time. Just because you have survived doesn't mean you aren't affected. Competitive suffering is not something I am interested in. I am grounded in gratitude and I am counting my blessings but I'm not sure if its pride, survivors guilt, or overwhelment that have kept me from sharing even with myself where I'm at with things. I have friends whose families have lost everything. Truth is there is always someone doing worse than you but that doesn't mean you don’t need help or that you are "okay".

What we have normalized as "okay" isn't okay. I haven't slept in my own space since January 6th. So yea, I am currently displaced and the support of everyone who is tapping in with me via my Patreon is helping more than you could ever know! It is beginning to sink in just how percarious living in America during a climate crisis has become, and the gut-wrenching knowledge that we will never be the same post these fires. I'm not sure how we will alchemize this moment, but I am alive and safe. Currently the air quality in my area has become intolerable due to persistent smoke and ash, making it unsafe to stay indoors for extended periods or even step outside. Remember the AQI doesn’t measure lead, asbestos, chromium, dioxin because it is expensive to measure. All these toxins are floating in our air and you can’t smell or see most of them. The burn sites are still letting them off. If we get rain that may help, but just know is the AQI says “good” still stay N95 masked up its not measuring everything. Also, note that more people died from breathing the air after 9/11 than the people who passed because of the attacks. Compounding this issue, the tap water in my crib is currently unusable, preventing me from showering, washing dishes, or brushing my teeth. So yea, I am not able to return to my home yet. I am fortunate to have a community of folkx that love me and are willing to house me at this time as the Eaton fire is currently at 81% containment and the Palisades is at 52%. It is important to know these fires are raging because the land is so dry and the climate crisis is so dire that even when the fire has been put out at the surface the root systems continue to burn under the soil.

Its heart breaking to know this was all preventable, and thats why landback is the ONLY way forward. It’s time for indigenous stewardship and care for this earth.

~ Also, I wanted to share some resources to pass along to folkx you may know that need assistence at this time.

~ HERE is an extensive list of EMERGENCY & DISASTER FUNDS/GRANTS FOR ARTISTS of all kinds. Listed alphabetically.

~ Relief Support for Artists Impacted by the Altadena Fires by FORTHEFUTURE Relief Fund.

~ Also I released new music with Contour as a part of a mutual aid fundraiser Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires

~ Lastly, HERE is a link 2 GoFundMe's To Help Families Rebuild.

Much love, see ya'll Feb 8th.

-d

(photo by ANAKA)

I woke up no longer interested in platforming platforms that are not interested in our elevation. I dislike the ways that the algorithms are dictating my creativity and my relationship with my imagination. I want to be more prompted by my instincts. I want to be in better realtion with my instincts. Going into 2025 I have decided to prioritize the renegotiation of my terms and conditions with my self-worth and my relationship with my creative practice(s). As I embrace my independence, as a person and artist, I’m also embracing the beauty in the opportunity to choose how and when I do things. My gifts are requiring me to find more meaningful ways forward. Why am I putting my art in an ad space? I’m not a corporation. I go where I’m desired and Instagram specifically feels more and more like LinkedIn with memes. We all know Meta and Spotify are exploiting us but what are we personally willing to do about it?

JOIN MY JOURNEY ON PATREON

This should not feel like a big ask but it does. Why is that that? Because what I am doing is challenging our allegence to convience and consumption. Was our connection about the convenience? If I leave IG will you come with me? I don’t think that Patreon is the absolute solution but it feels less like surveillance. I don’t think what I do is for these platforms and I am done contorting my ideas to fit neatly and be engaged with in such a disposable way.

I want to become more comfortable asking for my needs and the current setup is unsustainable at this point in my practice. I want our connection to be less passive. There’s nothing casual about me. We are battling for a space where they don’t want us, why?

In short I have decided to divest from Instagram, Spotify, Apple all of it and release through Patreon and peer to peer sharing. Divesting doesn't mean disappearing but it does mean not using them as primary sources of distribution of my solo work.

‘“It seems to me that the artist’s struggle for his integrity must be considered as a kind of metaphor for the struggle, which is universal and daily, of all human beings on the face of this globe to get to become human beings. It is not your fault, it is not my fault, that I write. And I never would come before you in the position of a complainant for doing something that I must do… The poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don’t. Statesmen don’t. Priests don’t. Union leaders don’t. Only poets. “

-James Baldwin

As I begin to embark on new methods and approaches to making (not just in the realm of music but all types of creative experimentation) I will also need a new distribution system. I’m under no illusion that this new way will take more effort (from both of us), but the current way doesn’t inspire my spirit. I find that I’ve been devaluing myself in secret by continuing to pretend this is working for me. I no longer consent to engaging in the exploitation exchange of dopamine in exchange for my ideas. Let’s get more intentional. I don’t want to feed you to a feed. I’ve got to keep it real, depending on social media to stay in touch with people who have supported and shown interest in my journey is also negatively affecting my mental health.

If you are my friend or follow me on IG, Spotify, Apple Music or Threads Join the journey on my Patreon.

This is all an experiment. So as someone who opened this email and has supported me in this artistic journey I’m inviting you to join me on a new phase of my evolution as a paid or free subscriber on Patreon. It’s about supporting creative ongoingness not a product we have enough of those.

I was born to create, and I would love to co-create with you in a new space to be mutually invested in each other. I’m not going to go through the trouble of removing my catalogue or any of the posts, but I am no longer interested in participating in the game the way it is currently designed. It feels very dead behind the eyes to me. I don’t want to be prompted by relatability or make moves algorithmically. Music has gentrified the independent artist and if you do not have a marketing budget or disposable capital you are barred from reaching even the audience that you have secured with your own grassroots strategies. I’m done screaming in an echo chamber. I’m worth more than that. You’re worth more than that.

Most of the artists we know have had label backing that’s why we know who they are.

There are two things a record contract does in your favor; 1) it contextualizes you and your work & 2) It gives you a business loan in order to reach your audience within the marketplace. With the machine behind you, you are now given a short window to leverage this loan (also known as a budget) to put yourself into a cultural context that gives your “brand” staying power as you recoup the loan. So as an artist who is now properly positioned, if you are fortunate lets say you sign a two or three album deal, your job is to build trust with your base and leverage you’re audience you've been able to accumulate while having label support before going independent. Most artists never get to this point. For example, Kendrick’s first independent album away from TDE/Interscope was his latest GNX. Notice how the features aren’t really famous people (outside of SZA) he has the creative freedom to feature his community now.

What do you think Drake is suing UMG about? The tactics that all these dudes use to become a thing. He wants to topple and expose the payola tools used to make him the popular artist he is today because he lost a rap battle in catastrophic fashion. If he’s going down he wants the entire industry to go with him. Also consider Drake was about to get out of his deal after one more album so it makes sense for UMG to allow a once valuable asset to be publically devalued (taking nothing away from Kendrick, who won no matter what you think just based on his level of skill level and execution) What I’m saying is let’s get up out of here ya’ll. Don’t leave your ears and attention in these weird niggas hands baby.

For whatever reason I’ve never been exploited or seen as exploitable by a label, I count this as a blessing. With that blessing come a certain level of beautiful obscurity that I would like to see a broken system as an opportunity to lean further into my freedom. I've never had the proper context or funding for the marketing for my projects in the 15 years I have self-released music. What do I have? I do have 10.5 K followers on Instagram alone but where are they following me to? When have I given my audience, direct eye contact and said we're going over here!?! I don’t need to make “it”. I am “it”. I am who I’ve been waiting for. I just keep giving giving giving giving giving giving giving giving giving giving giving Meta and AI more shit to rip off in hopes that it is recognized in the market and gets me more work, and eyes on my gift. With that prompt in mind it has kept me from saying more and taking more time to experiment with my craft. I feel at my best when I am in conversation and I’m working with my audience in a more call & response way. To be real I haven't felt the connection I’ve once felt with y’all. So it’s time to change. I want to try new processes and become more practice than product-based. I just want ya’ll to come with me as I change and get better. I need to use what I have to continue creating from a place of integrity.

Now if we zoom out a bit further we also cannot ignore the direct connections between military funding of technology being used by these streaming giants. According to inthesetimes, In November 2021, it was announced that Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek’s investment company Prima Materia had invested €100 million ($114 million USD) in Helsing, an artificial intelligence company based out of Europe that assists in military technological ventures. According to Aljazeera The recent removal and subsequent re-inclusion of Mohammed Assaf’s song “My Blood is Palestinian” from major streaming platforms have sparked discussions regarding censorship, cultural representation, and the intricate web of geopolitics. The online uproar from fans and activists about the removal of Mohammed Assaf’s 2015 track “My Blood is Palestinian” from streaming giants Spotify and Apple Music seems to have quietened down, leaving many wondering what happened. What may have spurred speculation that the decision was politically charged was the popularity of a petition calling for the removal of anti-Israel content on Spotify, organised by Zionist advocacy group We Believe in Israel (WBII).

I don’t feel good telling you it’s on all platforms anymore. Maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe the goal shouldn’t be the masses. Maybe the future is more intimate.

-d

(this is an essay that still a work in progress…)

… The stage has become the safest laboratory for Black people to experiment with freedom and alternative identities. One could say it’s a space to practice fugitively that is also rewarded, the other space would be the cabaret (in more contemporary context we’ll call it the dance floor or stage).  Can art-making help free us? The key word is help. If you are an artist then it’s your life work to create time to find out. The creation of time to do this work is a creative practice in of itself. As my friend Aja Monet says “To be inspired is to be in spirit.” As with all creative endeavors the goal is to co-inspire one another and to further connect. In the spirit of performances the arts have aided in watering the lives of the wayward by granting physical and spiritual space to practice full-length personage. This is where the meeting of one’s true self and unlearning of the programming prescribed by a white supremacist, hetero-normative, and capitalist society takes place. I will expand on the idea of dance floor democracy and self making from the stage and call them interchangeably “the our space.” I advocate that “the our space” provides an area for ingenuity outside of survival as well as a platform for queering and exceeding the boundaries prescribed to Black life.

Portals of possibilities - Black women and Black queer folkx are the performers most vulnerable, heavily criticized and impacted at any stage of the current paradigm. In a later essay I’ll dive into a strategy of seeing Blackness as an entirely queer experience all together. For now I want to get into the nuance of performance as a beautifully lived experiment. One of our best examples of this specious praxis in living was Gladys “Mistah” Bentley a woman of color that performed and presented as a gender queer man who was a flamboyant ornate entertainer and womanizer,  Lanston Hughes once described as “A piece of African sculpture animated by rhythm.”¹ A charismatic entertainer Bentley performed as their unified full version of self and was anything but feminine and sang risqué songs at the cabaret about their sexcapades with women of color and white women alike. Only on the stage, was Bentley outside of the censorship and crosshairs of violence the world had prepared for them. Only on stage could they live in those multitudes and not only be celebrated and seen, but also paid for their range. Existing in the context of the 1930’s once Bentley decided to marry a woman the repercussions of the paradigm came flooding in. Bentley was punished for improvising outside of the script of heteronormativity, their insistence on existing loudly challenged the institution of marriage. A forced confession into being “a wife” in order to stay married was their only option. No matter how it ended a new wayward model for other ways of beingness had been documented. In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman defines Waywardness as a form of beautiful experimentation in ways of living. She writes, “This waywardness was a practice of possibility at a time when roads except the ones created by smashing out are foreclosed. The ongoing exploration of what might be when the terms had already been dictated.” There was nothing for these women to assimilate to so they lived as art. There is a common thread in these women’s stories that Hartman channeled for us, that thread of resistance and undefinability gives us a daring glimpse of freedom via the daily exercise of living from the outside.

Performance is quite an immeasurable thing.

The our space is where Black people learn to claim space in a world that has given them none. In these moments we begin to practice what Saidiya Hartman calls “An everyday choreography of the possible.”¹ Possibilities usually limited by the paradigm created by slavery which at its core is the system that produces a racial and gendered difference by imposing Social Death onto the dependents of slaves. As poetic as the finding of one’s voice in the cacophony of the limitations of one’s condition my biggest critique with art spaces and most stages is that most of them are not established by the people that they serve most (i.e. concert venues, educational institutions, gallery spaces, and museums). There are Black-owned “our spaces” but they are rare. It can be tricky to find out who is choosing the voices being the most platformed and why. How much of “the our space” is our space? How much of what we find to be legible Black art is minstrelsy? 

Humans are relational beings, defined by our entanglements with each other - in the words of Andre 3000, “I love who you are, I love who you aint.” Who you aren’t is as vital as who you are; the anthesis is as important as the self you are sitting with. We can’t speak about the stage without speaking about the minstrel show. It’s an old and current apparatus used as a rhetorical device created to divide and define the white self, as well as a way to consume and possess the Black folkx it otherizes. The minstrel show is a disgusting  and absurdly unfunny “what”, I want to get into the less obvious “why” by engaging with the documentary Ethnic Notions, the writings of bell hooks’ Eating The Other,and Norman Mailer’s White Negro. The visuals and writings give us a sprawling view of an inescapable relationship at play between the Black person, the white gaze, and the delusional framework which constructs the idea of Blackness as an object to be owned or consumed.

I find it important to understand that what we are speaking about is a paradigm: a paradigm with plenty of lived and very real consequences. The minstrel show is a divisive technology operating from a place of fascination, fetishization, envy, exotification, desire, and fear. Lorraine Hansberry uses her play, Le Blancs, to name the instruments at play here with the lines, “I believe in the recognition of devices as devices - but I also believe in the reality of those devices. In one century men choose to hide their conquests under religion and in another under race. So you and I may recognize the fraudulence of the device in both cases but the fact remains that a man who has a sword run through him because he will not become a Muslim or Christian or who is lynched in Mississippi [or Palmdale] because he is black- is suffering the utter reality of that device of conquest. And it is pointless to pretend that it doesn't exist - merely because it is a lie.” Although the paradigm isn’t one founded on the pillars of truth it is a paradigm that is affecting us in immeasurably violent ways. The knife made of lies still cuts you. You still bleed because of the reality the belief manifests.

The minstrel show was America’s first homegrown form of entertainment. At its peak in the 1850’s, it was instrumental in spreading the dehumanizing stereotypes of Black people. The characters of Jim Crow, Sambo, Uncle Tom, Zip Coon and the Mami figure were all used as rhetoric to continue the social positionality and slavery of Black people. The cognitive dissonance it takes to create and perpetuate the stereotypes of Black people as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, criminal or cowardly are lies being told on stages. These lies allow a society to perpetually and historically imagine Black people as not fully human. As long as Black people are not seen as people but instead characters, the minstrel show confirms and rationalizes violence and all its editorations of Jim Crow segregation. 

Blackface is a manifestation of desires with an undercurrent that runs far deeper than burnt cork and grease applied as makeup. Beyond the mask, this is a style of entertainment based on racist Black stereotypes that continue today. None of this has ended it has just been remixed and resold to us. If we can’t see ourselves how can we free ourselves? We are living in a commodity culture that continues to sell the idea of Black people to Black people back to the white consumer. Who chooses which rap albums get funding and which stay underground? This relationship is dependent on, as hooks says, “The consumption that must be understood as something more than what to buy, or even boycott. Consumption is a social relationship, the dominant relationship in our society [...] To establish popular initiative, consumerism must be transcended - this a difficult but central task facing people who still seek a better way of life.” The othering of Black people is fabricated in order to uphold an actualized system of a hierarchy of personage. The reduction of Black people into “personal metaphor” gives license to the white gaze and in turn white people to see Blackness as a backdrop of otherness. Within this framework Blackness exists within their relationship to it. I

n this paradigm, the Black other is consumed, eaten and forgotten; this is the way white America continues to operate. The forgetting is essential in keeping up the continuity of treatment. The forgetting creates delusion. The delusion enables the actions to never change no matter how conscious of the constructions of whiteness or Blackness the white person is. Trapped in the feedback loop we all feel chopped and screwed. This becomes what Amiri Baraka states as the “changing same.” These new editorations of the same operations of oppression are upheld by record companies, museums, institutions, Universities with the ever presence of police. The police are a buffer and the instrument of the State to install the violence that delineates human from unhuman. The fear of equal treatment is what keeps the policing of Black lives necessary. Which is why there is such a push-back in consensus of Black lives mattering. The white gaze lacks the imagination to comprehend equality because equality means the treatment, rather, the violence they have produced would be produced back on to them. 

The violence only places a low pass filter on the uprising. If we continue to pay attention to the low end we can feel why the filter is there - it’s there because the fear of inevevitable uprising “Since the Negro knows more about the ugliness and danger of life than the white, it is probable that if the Negro can win his equality he will possess a potential superiority, a superiority so feared that the fear itself has become the underground drama of domestic politics. Like all conservative fear it is a fear of unforeseeable consequences, for the Negro’s equality would tear a profound shift into the psychology, the sexuality and the moral imagination of every white person alive.” The danger of the empathic contemporary liberal mind has been dulled by the comforting committee-like chant of can’t, the can’t(s) can’t see defunding as an option only reform.

Henry Louis Gates, states in Marlon Riggs documentary Color Adjustment, “I don’t think that you can change 400 years of history, 400 years of the exploitation of Black people by white people and in the west did you can change hundreds of years of the representation of Black people and stereotypical roles just by having a prominent black man in a situation, it’s not gonna work that way images are one part of a larger formula of social behavior and you can’t give to them all of this importance that they will free us if only we can control them. They do not have enough autonomy to liberate us.” An image can only do so much. Nevertheless, it still exerts influence in shaping how we are perceived and defined. Representation is the entry level to change. If the images don’t re - present you then how else do you find yourself than in a stage of your own making?

This brings us to another corridor of the anatomy of “the our space”, a side a less controllable, a side a more visceral, the dance floor. A place we sweat through our troubles, find each other - a place we lose ourselves and find something else. I am intrigued by the democracy of the dance floor, especially growing up in the church (Seventh Day Adventist) and seeing how dance was called sinful and heathen. I never saw my mother dance but she spoke about it like a long-lost friend who hadn’t called in years. My mother gave up dancing in order to join the church. She spoke of it like it was someone else and usually with an undertone of longing. I know she misses it. Dancing wasn’t something I saw done at home. So I learned it in media and by just going out and mirroring others. Nobody is actually ever watching you the way you think they are.

In my mirroring process I was able to feel the the unspoken intimacy the dancefloor materially provides, it makes sense they would want to keep it from me. Hartman cites Chandler Owen’s essay The Cabaret as a Useful Social Institution Owens identified the cabaret as the only democratic institution in the United States. It was the sole institution not defined by Jim Crow and a refusal to embrace segregation. Owns writes, “The dancefloor was a movement against racism and has proven to be the single place capable of withstanding the violence and hatred of the race riot.“² The social space that the dancefloor allows for Black and all bodies to share and experiment with something scared. And because of that power it was something that had to be controlled. 

The unified yessing of the head nod, the legs directing the movies of your movement, the hips swaying like windchimes. Even if your limbs are uncertain your body is always glad you decided to move it. Theres a trust in dancing. The vibration that moves the body isn’t something that can be handcuffed, this is why it’s importance remains immeasurable in the framework of possibility that every wayward soul dances in.

Possibilities are more present in the remembering. Hanif Aduraquieb writes, “A country is something that happens to you. History is a series of thefts or migrations or escapes, and along the way new bodies are added to the lineage someone finds a place where they think themselves meant to be and they stop moving.” We never stopped moving. There is a romanticized fantasy of forgetting ever present in American history. This jogging of a countries memory is a marathon for most Black artists. How do you exercise a consciousness?

In the words of Margo Jefferson, “Any form of history that gets suppressed or repressed or erased out, comes back to haunt [...] What has to happen now is a discussion, an acknowledgement of this charged, complicated, [and] painful history.” Black consciousness is the constant calculus of re-remembering the “why” and the “what”, reconnecting the dissonance, it’s a full time re-memory of how we got here. The future will not be reimagined for us, a future where black trans lives are safe, our Black sons aren’t lynched,  and our Black sisters can rest. It’s exhausting to be so necessary.  Unfairly, in this paradigm the Black artists' resources and imagination are spent creating compasses, weaving chants into dance, songs, visuals, texts, poems, puzzles, and sculptures, as analogue logs of something being off. Like Bert Williams, the Black artist is signed into a kind of alchemy they can’t log out of. The user names may change but the passwords remain encrypted in us. There is a duty to navigate our ways back to realities we wish we could remember to forget.

This remembering will be collaborative. This is where the chorus comes in. The chorus is also a stand-in for the audience’s participation. We are interpolated as these women these chorus’ are the moments in which we step into these women’s lives. Hartman writes, “The chorus makes a plan and blueprint for an escape.”¹ The way black women must Jazz, must improvise, must play, must sing their song in order to see themselves, in order for us to be heard. This continuum of their story is how they are rewriting history in a time signature they hear before we can ever catch the beat. This is a riot, this is a dance floor that we are invited to witness and sing rebellion in unison. The power we conjure when we move in a concert as chorus is transformative every time it is sung.

The only way out of this paradigm that silences our collective experiences seems to be a wayward one. A way crafted by ones own inner compass. Our Space is a space for dynamic excess and to practice possibility. As freeing as that notion is I am still left wrestling relentlessly with the question if the stage or dance floor aka “the our space” are the only material places where blackness is acceptable within the white supremacist, hetero-normative, and capitalist paradigm? What are our options when our visions become collaborative?

Citation Page

1. Hartman, Saidiya. “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval.” W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 19, 2019).

2. Owens, Chandler. “The Cabaret as a Useful Social Institution”. The Messanger (August 1922).

3. Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” The Nation, 23 June 1926, pp. 692–694.

4.  Riggs, Marlon, director. Ethnic Notions. California Newsreel, 1987.

5. hooks, bell. "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance." Black Looks: Race and Representation, South End Press, 1992, pp. 21–39.

6. Mailer, Norman. "The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster." Dissent, vol. 4, no. 3, 1957, pp. 276–293.

*Taps Mic* DEAR LOS ANGELES!!! My last live show of 2024 is going up November 16th.
Running an experimental duo sound set with fellow polymath and my brethren from South Central TRU Sound (below is a sample of what bro is really on)

Big gratitude to Living Earth for the platform!
I know we all got a lot of energy feelings and emotions and its time to tighten up and find each other, the work is community right now. So join us and gather under a pepper tree next Saturday would love to see you.

ALSOOOOOO, my next speaking engagement will be at Scribble in Highland Park Nov. 12th at 7 pm for a coast-coast educational series program called Office Hours put together by the Rising Artist Foundation!

Office Hours, is a set of FREE educational panels for musicians and allied workers! RSVP HERE

UMAW aims to organize music workers to fight for a more just music industry, and to join with other workers in the struggle for a better society.

I believe in us, and our ability to be better than the conditions we were born into.

Let this moment bring us closer together. We need each other going forward to create the fewtures these mechanisms don’t see for us. Don’t accept the invite to the infight. We are our path forward.

I’ll leave ya’ll with words from Saul Williams

See you soon beloved,