Category: Poetry
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Harmonies and healing Frequencies: Musician Cinamon Blair carries On the musical legacy of her grandfather, left-handed Banjo & Guitar jazz musician Lee Blair
As I was recovering from the flu last week I decided to watch the documentary American Symphony on Netflix and it was absolutely heart-wrenching and timely and spoke to the incredible creativity required to survive a history as brutal and violent as American history. The story really reminded me of the healing and survival power…
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South Dakota’s Bazille is Wakinyan Cante Waokiya Wicasaon
Whether its the Bronx or the Black Hills, All Rap is Local I’ve always thought of rap as a form of folk music or street journalism such that it is a localized art form that springs forth from a specific community to define a specific time and place and the lyricist, a poetic scribe, shares…
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Reclaiming Lakota narratives & sovereignty: Hip-hop, graffiti art, creating lyrical medicine
Lakota graffiti artist, muralist and community organizer Derek “Focus” Smith has been challenging the power structure of the “Mississippi of the North” since the early 2000s bringing the power of graffiti and muralism to the Reservation and using his craft to tell the stories of Lakota history and encourage the youth. The art has taken…
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Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera: Hadestown
I’ve wanted to share about this album for a couple of years. The album, Hadestown, is the creation of folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell (who has released a more recent album this year, Young Man in America, which is awesome too). Hadestown was released in 2010 on Righteous Babe Records (Ani DiFranco‘s label), and I loved…
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Beats, rhymes, & life along the journey… & goodbye to Facundo Cabral
My good friend DJ Moonbaby was spinning some gems tonight and she inspired me to write a blog post and share some of the musical wealth with you. Some beats, rhymes and life to help push us through as we walk along this sometimes bumpy and unexpected road…Speaking of journeymen, I have to acknowledge the…
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Música Boriqua & Nuyorican love
Recently I saw the PBS special “Latin Music USA!” It was a great series on the origins and influences of the diverse styles of Latin Music in the United States. The episodes covering New York City had me reminiscing about my time living there in the late 90s. When I moved there for graduate school,…