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A Weigh With Words!!!

NEW DOCUMENTARY PUTS D.C. YOUTH IN DIRECTOR'S CHAIR WHILE PUTTING WORDS IN THE HOT SEAT

WASHINGTON (August 8, 2007) - One Common Unity in association with Straight, No Chaser Productions presents A Weigh With Words, the first film from the ongoing "A Nu View" program.

A Weigh With Words is a documentary film project which calls upon the community to reflect on how language has been and could be used as a tool for conflict or compassion. Featured in the film is a diverse collection of locally and internationally known activists, artists, academics and politicians. The list of contributors includes civil rights icon Dorothy Height, DC Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, recording artist Raheem DeVaughn, author and rhetorician Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, scholar and poet E. Ethelbert Miller, and hip-hop legend Darryl "DMC" McDaniels. The film was produced by the non-profit organization One Common Unity in association with Straight, No Chaser Productions, and will screen for one night only at the Regal Cinema-Gallery Place in Chinatown at 7pm on Wednesday, August 22 nd, 2007. Accompanying this screening will be a panel discussion with the filmmakers as well as a screening of the critically-acclaimed documentary Invisible Children.

A chief component of the production crew for A Weigh With Words was a team of six DC high school students who were selected to participate in the pilot project of "A Nu View", One Common Unity's youth film-making program. The youth shadowed the filmmakers during the production process and were active in every aspect of the film's production, including conducting all of the interviews. Each student was required to complete an essay detailing memorable production experiences, as well as reflections on the power of words.

"This film has potential to have a profound effect on the hearts, minds and actions of those who see it," offers producer Charneice Fox of Straight, No Chaser. "The youth group has had a chance to meet and interact in depth with prominent community leaders and celebrities, not to mention the fact they've contributed to the production of a film that will be seen by their peers, elders and one day their children. It's a tremendous opportunity for a select group of 10th, 11th and 12th graders and we're all excited to have been able to work with them. We hope to do something similar with a different group next year."

The film's focus on how words are used is timely in light of recent controversial gaffes on the part of several high-profile figures, including radio personality Don Imus, retired star athlete Tim Hardaway, university administrator Ralph Papitto, and actors Michael "Kramer" Richards and Isaiah Washington. The film presents an open dialogue on the many topics brought to the fore by these individuals' comments such as race, class, homosexuality and gender identity. The film also explores the issue of censorship versus free speech as it relates to hip-hop culture and homophobia.

One Common Unity (OCU) is a member supported non-profit organization whose mission is to nurture sustainable, caring communities through innovative peace education, arts and media. Since 2000, OCU has been producing community events and offering alternatives to violence and creative outlets for artistic expression.

Straight, No Chaser Productions, a multimedia organization offering consulting and workshops, has written and produced a number of films that have been screened in film festivals across the country. Their award-winning drama Multitude of Mercies, selected as part of Black Entertainment Television's Rap-It-Up Series, has garnered a Cable Positive Award.

A Weigh With Words was underwritten by the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and benefited from support from a number of local businesses and community-based non-profit organizations. Tickets are available at Busboys and Poets, Java Green, and online at www.OneCommonUnity.org.
Contact: Charneice Fox, Program Director, A Nu View, (202) 390-1081 or charneice@onecommonunity.org

Shout Out!! DC WritersCorps Youth perform at GALA, July 27,28

Shout out!!

co-directed by quique aviles

&

sage morgan-hubbard

D.C.-area, Black and Latino youth explore

race, culture, and identity through original poetry,

monologues, dance, and music in a

multi-dimensional vision of home.

july 27&28, 2007



-two shows only-

These shows are free from youth under 18!

¡No se pierda esta exploración sincera y poderosa entre

jóvenes de dos razas!

gala hispanic theatre

3333 14th street, nw

call 202-234-7174

www.galatheatre.org





Shout Out! is a collaboration between GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Paso Nuevo program, DC WritersCorps, Spoken Resistance, and the Theatre Lab Shool of Dramatic Arts. The project is made possible with the support of the Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs, the U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice, the Lynch Foundation, and the Beckner Fund.

Happy Birthday, John William Coltrane!!!

from El Segundo to Georgia.....

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I meant to post this before my vacation July 5th-14th, but sometimes it be's like dat. The blog was originally inspired after listening to the July 2, 2006 installment of Breath of Life
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So i am preparing for a vacation to the Sea Islands and Savannah, i begin my usual travel packing procrastination, so i jump on the web and start checking out some of my favorite and least favorite blogs and such. While doing that i end up on site i don't visit every Monday (when they update their site) like i should; the site Breath of Life (website by Kalamu and Mtume ya Salaam), these brothers really break the music down.
In this week's installment they are dealing with 3 artists/group as usual, two of which mark very distinct musical movements in my life; A Tribe Called Quest (Bonita Applebum-Hootie Mix) and Dizzy Gillespie w/ Chano Pozo (Manteca-the 1957 version). I am not going to try to get into a deep discussion about these artists, Kalamu and Mtume have already done that, but I just wanted to talk a little about how these artists impacted me in a serious way.

Before I start though I have a confession to make I have not always listened to Rap and Hip-Hop music, compared to some of my friends I am a late bloomer . I was able to make up for lost time once i got started; but i was more involved in punk, hardcore, etc. Additionally my dad is a jazz musician so "the music" has always been a part of life.
I honestly say (if my 31 year old mind serves me correctly) that listening Tribe (and Big Daddy Kane) was one of the first I was jus like "yeah, I can really get into this" and no feel like i had to have a particular kind of gear or uniform on, no posturing, that it was not only ok to be "abstract" but it was cool to just be you. That is something that i had mostly experienced with in the punk community, so hear some rap cats express it really got me amped. Click here to read more

intersections

A few weeks back i went with some friends out to Bedford, Pa for a Juneteenth Celebration, who would have thought there would be a Juneteenth celebration in the middle of the Pennsylvania mountains.
On the way wayback we stopped through Harpers Ferry where John Brown's Raid took place and we check out Storer College. Storer was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia founded in 1867 read more here.

All in all it was nice weekend ( i am going somewhere with this i promise).

So yesterday, i am reading E-NOTES and Ethelbert calls his readers attention to an article in the post about Clifford Brown, affectionately known as Brownie. I became interested in Clifford Brown when i found out much of an influence to get clean he was on Trane and the impression (pun intended) that Brown left on him.
Now many us young jazz cats (or young lions, as we are sometimes called) tend to be Miles men, sometimes Terence Blanchard or Freddie Hubbard and maybe even Lee Morgan ( I am on a Lee Morgan kick right now), but Brown was such an important musician at the time which he arrives on the scene; but i will speak on that later. Anyway, I read the article and toward the end it talks about the details surrounding Brownie's death. It turns out that Clifford Brown died in a car accident among those same mountains that I was celebrating Juneteenth in. Thinking about this started me to writing a poem, i am still working on it so i am not going to put it up here yet, but I thought it was significant enough to talk about, because it is moments like that that make up the art in our lives, when your life intersects with someone elses in a way you might not have thought of, that creates and opportunity to produce something of beauty and perhaps even something to heal.
Anyway, I will put the poem up here when i done.
until the next...

Bones....

Poet and writer Geoffrey Philip Talks about the "big man’s game” of Dominos......nuff said

click here to read the story.

Some good thoughts on "the writing life"...

excerpts from this article by Margaret Atwood


What is writing for? Writers -- unlike dentists, bricklayers and other practical folk -- are always being asked why they do what they do; asked, in effect, to prove their usefulness. It's an odd question, because language and mathematics are the two most potent and useful tools human beings have ever invented.

Sometimes, as a writer, you forget this. You can get stuck; you can start believing in your own superfluity. As you crumple up the first paragraph yet again and heave it into the wastebasket, you may feel that you're living in a paper house and speaking into a void.

and

"...we said that writing, like sewing, took one thing and made it into another; and that writing, like sewing, was always for someone, even if that someone was yourself in the future. Writing was a way of sending your voice to someone you might never meet."

read the whole joint here

Resistance and Self-Doubt

Self doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are.
The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Steven Pressfield from The War of Art