Skin is a distracting wrapper...

"Skin is a distracting wrapper to the flavor of a person’s soul."

(Directed to the Black skin versus White skin theology)

Imagine humans being able to eliminate the distraction of the physical skin and just be “gray” humans walking around on earth. We would then focus on an individual's true personality and characteristics. As a result, we would lose the concepts of black versus white and beauty versus ugly, but it would only be fit as karma to our historical affairs involving the discrimination based off of them.

So in essence, we would all start from zero. Everything before that point would be history. Then we could coin the issue of the black race versus the white race as an inferior and a useless level of thinking as a whole. Unfortunately, there would be no more significance for having pride in one’s race; cultures may still exist based off of location of a group of people and their trends, but race would no longer be a driving force behind that.

Note: I say “unfortunately” because I as an individual enjoy celebrating my race and culture. It is healthy to be involved with people you share common ground with to meet a common goal. Most of us feel it is necessary in order to function and collectively progress in this world.

On the contrary, I don’t believe in taking it to the extreme of saying my culture or race is better than someone else’s, because that would only lead to war. But the world would be boring without war to oppose peace, right? If everything was “good and peaceful” on earth, the thrill of media would not exist. So I do believe in the concept of yin and yang; it is necessary in order to keep balance in the world. But the historical matching of opposites to other opposites: positive=white and negative=black, has led us to our current way of processing everything. And personally I’d rather be an advocate of the peace found in totally denying that theology.

But back to the response of us “thinking gray”: After the shift in thought, we in our inquisitive nature, would dissect the matter and strive to find the root of that mentality to ultimately lead us to an answer or solution. At the same time, finding an answer may not be beneficial because if the human mindset remained the same when we switched from “black and white vision” to “gray vision” we would still want to find someone to blame and punish or shun to the death; causing an immediate divide in the thought of us starting from zero. But if we blamed ourselves as a whole for the problem we would not shun ourselves or go to the extreme of killing off ourselves; it wouldn't make sense. We would want our state of humanity to excel.

It is possible that we could press refresh and have a new beginning but only if we scrap our flawed ideals of the past while at the same time use them as a basis of what not to become again. Once fixed in that mentality, we humans would see each other’s souls for what they are, establish a mutual respect for each other’s diversity and finally know how to wear our skins correctly.

Nature in New York

Last Month, I performed along with Slam Nahuatl and other features at an event called "Nature In New York". It was a talent-packed show with lots of energy. Well the story behind this one was spur of the moment (like everything else in my life) but beautiful.

I was listening to a new found friend Chris Dunn perform a piece that he had 'no words for'. I listened to him perform the song and something moved me to read my poem to it while he was playing. I discovered that if I slowed down the pace that I read it at, it matched his rhythm. So I approached Chris after he got off of stage and asked if he would play that behind my poem while I recited. He happily agreed and we even got our friend Jamie to play the drum with us. So it was complete, his wordless tune finally had lyrics to make the song complete!
Here it is. Enjoy!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSVnG7-Hmv0

(Jamie, get well soon brother, you have more music to make with us!)

Nuyorican Poets Cafe + Soundbites

SO ever since January I've been practicing with my poetry team, Slam Nahuatl (pronounced na-what), for the Soundbites Poetry Festival held on Broadway in NY. On April 10th-12th, we competed against about 9 other teams, and we WON! Repping Richmond VA, we became the Champions of the first team competition (we were rewarded a nice lil amount of prize moolah too.)



Also, that Friday before the competition I got to perform at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.That too was an amazing experience for me, so I'll share it with you all:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U2FYujprFw

This is super late, but thanks Saul

Way back in January,

I posted up an illustration of Saul Williams.
Well, Mr. Tardust put it up as his Facebook profile pic for a little while AND shotted out my blog.
For a moment, I felt like I won the lottery;
only without the moolah...

SO if anybody doesn't know who this extraterrestrial is than check his work out at http://saulwilliams.com/

Your support is appreciated Saul.

Peaceeeeeeeeeee

Chronicles of Bobby

Here is documentation of my Space Research Installation Project. My idea was influenced by Mark Jenkins' Storker project from back in'06. My goal was to take it a step beyond his work by interacting with the tape sculpture instead of just observing others' reactions to it.
So here are the Chronicles of Bobby. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWYcfmkqoU

Portfolio Review...

On Monday I submitted my portfolio to the Communication Arts Department. I have made some great work these first two semesters, and I feel making it into the department will be the pay off for it all. So Please, keep me in your prayers guys!

In the meantime, here are some illustrations I've experimented with in the last couple of weeks!
Enjoy!

Waiting in Vain...

Okay.

So I was listening to my Bob Marley playlist on iTunes and it began to play "Wait In Vain" off of his Legend Album. Instantly, I found my self relating to most of the poetry in the first verse.
It was one of those, "YOOoooOoO YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH!" moments. So for the fact that we share the same first name and same thoughts, I felt obligated to share this.

I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love.

From the very first time I rest my eyes on you, girl,
My heart says follow through.
But I know, now, that I'm way down on your line,
But the waitin' feel is fine:

So don't treat me like a puppet on a string,
cause I know I have to do my thing.
Don't talk to me as if you think I'm dumb;
I wanna know when you're gonna come - soon.

I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love,

cause if summer is here,
I'm still waiting there;
Winter is here,
And I'm still waiting there.

*I don't plan on feeling like this for long ;)