Poetry Workshop w/Tony Medina

Representing for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum...

The poetry workshop will be held on Saturday, September 22, 2012.  The workshop will run from 1pm to 3pm.

BE THERE!!!!!!

EVENT ---The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities

 

MARK YOUR CALENDERS!!!!!!

The Universal Negro Improvement Association, in association with the Social Work Student Organization presents....

The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities

 Film Screenings, Panel Discussion, & Book Signings

Presented will be a day of documentary trailer and film screenings, a panel discussion with participating filmmakers and authors, and a book signing with participating authors.  An extended Latino Heritage Month event, the Consortium will expose and enlighten all in attendance to the little known 'third root' of Latino culture, and become aware of Afro Latino issues and affairs.  A day of enlightenment and bridge building, the event is FREE to the public.

 

 accessible by public transportation:

Baltimore subway Metro to West Cold Spring Lane station; transfer to #33 bus to Moravia Rd.

#3 bus to East Cold Spring Lane; transfer to #33 bus heading to Moravia Rd., or walk down to Morgan's campus.

#19 bus to Moravia Road; transfer to #33 bus heading to Rogers Ave Station .

#33 bus heading either east or west, stops directly at Morgan State University's campus

Consortium of Afro Latino Communities

*In celebration of Black August/Afrikan Liberation Month, I decided to post an excerpt from my second book.  The article is titled, "Consortium of Afro Latino Communities".  Uhuru sase, y paz. *

"It's amazing how reality can come from fiction.  Just look at the effect that science fiction has had on modern technology.  Products and devices that were mere flights of fancy in science fiction of yesteryear are now modern marvels the some of us can't seem to live without.  As well as in the technological arena, that can also happen in the political arena.

The idea for the Consortium of Afro Latino Communities came about from an (unfinished) fictional piece that I've been writing.  The Consortium was developed as a means of regional consolidation to help uplift the various Afro Latino communities politically and economically.  The Consortium was to run along the lines as other organizations that practice regionalism such as the Organization of American States (OAS), The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), European Union (EU), and the former Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU).  The Consortium was to work in conjunction with other Afrocentric nationalist organizations throughout the Diaspora to help uplift all African descendents all over the glob politically, economically, socially, and educationally.  It was part of a greater blueprint from global Black power.

Considering the recent political climate that we live in, and organization like this is surly, and sorely, needed.  The various Afro Latino communities suffer from poverty, limited access to education, limited access to certain natural resources, political disenfranchisement and repression, and more recently, the theft of our ancestral lands by their respective government(s).  An organization like the Consortium can help us pool our resources together, and forward our progression in various social and political arenas.  We can create business cooperatives for trade and commerce, use our resources to build schools and other educational centers that will teach our children about their history, and amass political power to further our interests in the international political arena, influence foreign policy and investment in Africa.  We could be a force in international trade and travel, being able to work and pool our resources along with our international brothers and sisters throughout the Diaspora, all the way to the mother continent of Africa."

To read more of the article, please purchase a copy of Raise Your Brown Black Fist 2: MORE Political Shouts of an Angry Afro Latino at your local bookstore.

Back in Da Dayz (Reminiscin' From Way Back)

Felt like waxing poetic today.  Hope that you enjoy......


Back in da dayz...when early Hip Hop culture was a reality,
Instead of this corporately controlled commercialized fallacy...
Back when you were respected because of your verbal, artistic, and dancing skills,
And selling lots of records, or commercial acceptance from the mainstream didn't mean that you were ill...
The culture was in your heart, you felt it and you dealt it,
Now, you just wanna be ignorant and act hardheaded like a helmet...
FUCK rockin' Prada, Gucci, Hilfiger, and DKNY,
Stick to rockin' Mecca, FUBU, PNB, and Karl Kani...
Street dreams used to be made of these,
But now we suffer from a commercially controlled, corporate disease...
People like MTV and VH1 telling stories of our culture that are ALL wrong,
Profiting off of our genius and creativity; historically, always the same old song...
Our culture regionally represented, giving rise to the masses a voice,
Now being able to tell of OUR stories, now having an alternative choice...
No longer about Civil Rights, it's now about Power to OUR people,
Historically, always were we separate...and we DAMN SURE weren't equal...
The telling of our stories, the way things were in our hoods,
A new form of Black media or Black Press; telling it in a way that only the griots could...
Verbally, visually...displayed in some new dance form,
Even musically through DJs; these true hip hop elemental forms...
Back in da dayz...with graf artists, and breakerdancers that popped and locked,
Back in da dayz...when the only true hip hop beats were the DJ's scratch, and the Human beat box...
Bck in da dayz...when B-boys and B-girls could dress alike,
It wasn't about thug cats and hoochie mommas always lookin' for a fight...
Flattops, Fades, Gumbies, bald heads, and braids,
Hightops, waves, cornrows, Gheri curls; hairstyles that were all the rage....
Sweatsuits, hats, sunglasses, and then the baggy style,
Cross Colours, 8-Ball, Lees....yeah, names that you haven't heard in a while....
'86-'93 was the Golden Hip Hop era,
The music, the messages; that's when it was for real y'all!!
Cable television never had hip hop music videos on lock,
Religiously watching New York's #1 music video show, Video Music Box...
Back in the dayz, when WBLS and KISS-FM musically kept it real,
With DJs like Red Alert, Mr. Magic, and Kid Capri....yeah, y'all know the deal...!
Also DJ Chuck chillout, and local mixtape DJs that you know,
Always there to set the mood, helping to get the clubs and house parties ready to go...
Back in da dayz, during the times of my youth,
Back in da dayz, when the culture was foolproof...
Back in da dayz, when the culture was pure,
Back in da dayz, when the love for the culture was honest and sure...
Back in da dayz, in my youth looking back,
Back in da dayz....reminiscing from way back.


Kevin Sabio
a/k/a "Knowledge As Supreme"
(C) 2002

Fiesta Girl

A love story set to the pulsating beat of Latin Freestyle, and the smooth sounds of love poetry....


Alonzo Carrion has never been too lucky in love.  His relationships never quite seem to work out the way they do in the poems that he writes.  A talented wordsmith with a heart of gold, he just never seems to catch a break when it comes to love...

Enter Rita Lebron...

On a chance meeting during a night out with some of his boys, Alonzo meets Rita at a house party in the city.  Their attraction is instantaneous, and leads to a whirlwind romance.  Life and love have never been better for the two, falling for each other fast and hard.

But with the good...comes the bad.

Alonzo needs to prove, especially to himself, that this isn't just another rebound relationship.  Added to the fact...Rita has some skeletons in the closet of her own to deal with.  Will they be able to overcome the obstacles, and stay together? Will they be able to keep their love strong, and everlasting?  Or, are the obstacles and darkness just too much for their relationship to bear and survive?

Fiesta Girl
A Kevin Alberto Sabio film

Fiesta Girl (Oh, you're one of a kind)
Oh, Fiesta Girl (want you to be mine)
Oh, Fiesta Girl (oh, you're so swett)
Oh, Fiesta Girls (please be with me...yea)

The Adventures of Don Fiero Valiente

*narrating in my Peter Cullen voice*


Long, long ago.....in a galaxy far, far away...
Amongst a legion of warriors...stands ONE true hero....
He....is Don Fiero Valiente,
Defender of the weak, protector of the innocent...
A young Space Knight of humble Maroon origin,
He, along with his squire Joven Domingo...
Patrol the vast territory of Planet Caribe,
Under the leadership of El Rey, King Alejandro....
Armed with his sense of duty, honor, and justice,
He sets out to protect all of the people that inhabit Planet Caribe...
These...are the stories of....
The Adventures of Don Fiero Valiente!!!!


Idea that I had for an Animated series.   Even have a few episodes written down and protected! Combining Science Fiction with Medieval and Latino history and folklore.  And...did I mention that both the lead character and his sidekick are Afro Latino?  :)
Stay tuned!!!!

Blackout/Power Outage 2012

On Friday night, June 29th, a terrible storm ripped through the Mid Atlantic region of the eastern United States.  High winds, torrential rains, and lightning storms raged through the sky.  I was online when the storm initially hit, and didn't even hear it above the buzz of my AC unit, which I had JUST bought earlier that day.  Earlier in the day, it had been very hot and unbearably humid; there weren't previously any calls for storms that evening.  When my door keep flying open because of the high winds, I rushed to close the open windows that I had in my apartment, keeping the rain water from getting inside.  I then went back into my room, and continued my online endeavors.  I had finally finished up by about 10 minutes to eleven o'clock, shut down my computer, and turned off my lights, hoping to get a nice cool good night's sleep for once.

Then....the power went out at around 11:15pm or 11:20pm.

I was PISSED!!!!

My AC unit went out...then the lights from my clock radio went dark.

Okay...that's not normal.

My initial impulse was that I had blow a circuit with the AC unit, but quickly dismissed that when my clock radio went out.  Then I thought...maybe I blew a fuse just in my bedroom...?  I went into my living room, and tried to turn on the TV.

No dice...

I then went to the kitchen to see if my fridge was still working.
Nope....light was out.  It wasn't humming

Damn....I was caught in the middle of a blackout.  Without air conditioning.  In the middle of a heatwave.

F**K!!!!!!!!
@%#$^}|~*!!!!!!

Eventually, I was without power for about two days.  I had to suffer through the heat, and lack of access to food and liquids.  I had to drink tap water to stay hydrated.  My power finally came back Sunday afternoon.  Needless to say I was ecstatic.  Finally.....AIR!!!!!

I must admit...at the same time...I felt really demoralized after my power came back, looking at the aftermath of the blackout.   As a proud member of the 'conscious' community, and a community/cultural activist, I felt foolish at the level of powerlessness that I felt individually, and the utter unpreparedness of the so-called 'conscious' community overall.  We were totally ill-prepared to handle a situation like this.  Where were our relief efforts to save our struggling community members, suffering without power, food, and water? Are we even organized to handle such an event?  All we have to do is look at the example of Hurricane Katrina and Rita to see how unprepared we are to handle a natural disaster.

Is there anyone out there in the Pan Africanist/Black Nationalist community that has a contingency plan in place for an event such as this?  And, I don't mean an individual plan, just for themselves or their immediate family.  What sort of plans do we have in place to help our community if another (natural) disaster such as the blackout were to occur again?   Forget FEMA and the Red Cross; what plans have we developed to protect our people if such an event were to happen again, or any natural disaster?

Seeing situations like these arising just helps to reinforce the reason why a lot of people in our community don't really respect the 'conscious' community.  We spew all this rhetoric, and make all of these strong statements....but when a situation like the blackout arises...we're caught with our pants down just as much as the Average Joe.  We weren't any more prepared than the so-called 'unconscious' members of our community, at least, not on any mass scale.  We need to improve on that, and do more showing and proving.  I think that too many of us in the so-called 'conscious' community become arrogant and elitist just because we know a little something, something.  How about we start putting some of that talk into practical application?


Organize.
Strategize.
MOBILIZE!!!

Uhuru Sase, y paz