Shot Taken, a poem adapted to audio for: Lost and Found
Picture this, waiting for days, at too young of an age to drive or even walk to a store to buy milk. Drunken haze, becomes the way that you remember every day, past the age of single digits, because, well, daddy did it. Imagine, beatings, too brutal to want to remember, still being memories, because it’s the only answer you have when someone asks you to talk about something in your life, that meant anything… many of these individuals were never even given a chance. When moving from county to state lockup is synonymous in one’s family to a promotion, or high school graduation, what choice or chance did that individual have? I am not pointing fingers. I am not calling people bad mothers, fathers, or members of society – that helps nothing, and no one. I am simply asking a somewhat rhetorical question, to shed light on the fact that in this world, things are not fair. Cliché as it may be, we have to take off our lenses of judgment, shed the ideas of class, and see socio-economics as a great divider, instead of signifier. We are trapped hating each other, and subsequently leaving many of our fellow-men and women devoid of even the very chance at something other, than this, than nothing.
How much freedom are we entitled to?
It seems to be measured in gun barrels,
Chain link, links, cuffs, and boots,
Shined, spit, shined, again,
Pitch-black mirror of a reality stomped into us
Hidden from ourselves we become
Phantoms without the opera
No notes, or words.
we can’t escape the silence
Bred into us, born of us,
Taught as law,
As a lack of rights, civil or otherwise,
Truth is
Some of us are enemies before we are born,
Empty.
shell casings, the aftermath of a shot already taken,
missed, and forgotten.
We dream definitions of what we are supposed to be,
different from that of what we are expected, forced, and known to be,
we
are brilliant beside the comparative bullshit and nothingness.
reality being, we are beautiful,
Nothing less.
Nothing short of amazing,
But proverbially short on confidence, self-esteem, the rent,
A day late,
And a dollar,
Stolen.
listened to – not!
Hear me here!
We are the shot taken
Missed
Forgotten
Mark made, dirty
If you think so,
Put us away, send us home, hang us by the thousands, send us back
But
miss us.
When only memories, you will
make us
Remember why we love
what we came from
Instead of what we’ve been forced to become.
I want not of this
This name,
this legacy of what has been made
Instead of what could have been
Beautiful.
Because beauty
Is subjective, and this subject is tired,
Beaten, not broken,
Burnt,
But
Believe me –
There is more here
Than bargained for,
Songs yet to be sung,
Pens for poems to come
Snake backed with native tongues
And you will hear me then.
Hear us then.
Here we are, were, and will be
Forever.
Forgotten to some,
but memorably beautiful
to those that matter.
Jason Carney: Southern Heritage <– Amazing Poem!
Today we worked with 7th graders at Mountain Mahogany Community School. @Hakimbe wrote a curriculum to confront and talk about racial diversity, and racism in our lives’. We have been working with these young people to talk about things: stereotypes, racism, discrimination etc. @Hakimbe did the heavy lifting, and I have made cameo appearances, nevertheless, the students really shined today. Today we had a slam that used “cover” poems about race in the 1st round, and original works in the 2nd round. The work that was generated, was nothing short of incredible. Today’s experience speaks to the reality that we underestimate our children: what they are going through, what they’ve experienced, and the questions they have about the world around them. Today those questions were posed, those experiences shared, and growth – happened! I was so very luck to be a part of this! While I was watching brilliance take place, I was reminded of this poem: Southern Heritage, by Jason Carney. I met Jason once. He is a compassionate, caring, and incredible being. He is obviously, judging from this video, also an amazing poet, and an enlightened father. As I post this, it is with the hopes that any parents who click on this tonight, will share it with their children, and talk about it afterwards. We live in a hurtful, judgemental, and sometimes scary world – but it is things like today, and words like those that are in this poem, and in the poems of those amazing 7th graders, that bring one word to mind about our future – HOPE! Enjoy!
Honored to have made a difference…
Check the testimony below, by local school teacher Genny O’Herron, Thanks Genny!
A statement of appreciation for the work of
Carlos Contreras and Hakim Bellamy
January, 2012
As teachers we experience professional development in many capacities: workshops, inservices, trainings of all types. But I have always found that my greatest inspiration and learning comes from simply watching other masterful teachers. I have made it a point to do so in schools throughout the country. So when I first watched Carlos Contreras in the Voces Summer Program, I was deeply moved and impressed by what I witnessed, by what permeated that learning environment: trust, risk-taking, connection, compassion, expectations of excellence—from Carlos towards his students and amongst the youth. Months later when trying to design and implement a new seventh grade curriculum that incorporated expressive arts as a platform for understanding systems of oppression, particularly racism, it was an honor to collaborate with Carlos and his partner Hakim Bellamy. It has been an even greater privilege to watch them bring poetry alive for students in the service of social justice teaching.
Carlos and Hakim are educators who make space for the real. By this, I mean they draw from a complete and contextualized American and global history, they respect the complicated and affective experiences of their students, they model both vulnerability and the power of speaking one’s truth, and most brilliantly, they challenge students’ perceptions (of self and of the world). They expand young people’s critical and creative thinking by what they share—their poetry—and by what they help students tap in themselves through the engaging activities and writing prompts they facilitate.
It is no surprise that students respond so enthusiastically to Carlos and Hakim’s educational work. What has surprised me is how instructive it has been for me as a teacher. Particularly as a white teacher.
Scholars spanning from W.E.B DuBois to Gloria Ladson-Billings have critiqued the large establishment of white middle class women in the field of education, and many of us being critiqued sincerely try to reach, support, defend, inspire, and thoroughly educate all of our students. Less of us are willing to look at deeper issues of racial justice that need attention in our schoolhouses. Still fewer of us have effective strategies to address the racism that our students experience and our institutions perpetuate.
The day Carlos and Hakim worked with a group of students in the Courageous Conversations class at our school, a white student told one of the students of color that he did not find Black women attractive. Needless to say, this microaggression was painful and upsetting to the student of color. I was asked to address the incident by his homeroom teacher, and feeling insecure about how to offer support, I immediately recalled the poetry writing that the students had just done with Carlos and Hakim. The students had been paired and encouraged to write about a conflict. This student had been working on a rough draft about racism, but he and his partner were having a hard time identifying a realistic conflict. I suggested that he consider writing his poem about the real-life incident that had just happened and consider performing it in front of his class when they showcased their work. The student who had been insulted by his peer’s racial insensitivity did not end up writing such a poem, but two things happened. First, by framing it as a possible poem, in talking with me, he was able to share a wide range of feelings. I’m guessing that if I had just asked him directly, “So, how are you feeling about this,” there would not have been the opening to process the experience with such depth and vulnerability. The poetry prompt-as-strategy, in that case, became a spontaneous, safer way to vocalize what he was going through emotionally and cognitively. Second, the student asked if he could work on this poem (when he originally felt passionate about writing it) with the partner he had been assigned to work with in class. In approaching this white student the concept of being a white ally was explored. The concept of microaggressions and unconscious racism were explored. That student was invited into a new consciousness, which did appear in a persona poem he wrote and shared with his classmates about being an African-American student. I don’t believe that either of these experiences would have transpired had I not just witnessed the poetry lesson that Carlos and Hakim had led and directly applied it to the situation at hand. And while these two incidents may seem insignificant, they were important trust-building experiences that have enabled us to have harder, more honest conversations about the racial dynamics at our school. One experience builds upon another. The foundation was laid by Hakim and Carlos.
I am guessing that I am dong what many teachers do after Hakim and Carlos are guest presenters in their classrooms. I find myself frequently saying, “Remember how Hakim invited us to think about it this way … Remember how Carlos talked about it that way.” Both men have an incredible gift for inspiring transformative learning. It is obvious with the students; my note of appreciation is to emphasize that it is for teachers as well.
Courageous Conversations is the name of the class that Hakim and Carlos so generously participated in creating. I am mindful of the Latin root for courage, cor, which means heart. Essentially courage means to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. I can think of no better way to describe what I have seen these two exceptional educators empower students to do.
With gratitude,
Genny O’Herron
Life In Park, a new VIDEO thanks to Visceral Media Group
Thanks Angelo Mitchell and Visceral Media Group, for this beautiful video. This is “Life In Park,” one of the tracks off the new Lost and Found Project: Lost and Found Journaling an Open Mouth, produced, mastered and built by the mad man himself @Dilesmusic courtesy of Visceral View Entertainment. Thanks Diles! Thanks Angel0! And, thank you all for watching… this is me… for you, enjoy!
Occupy NM Legislature, Marchuleta Productions
Thanks to Marchuleta Productions for this Occupy NM Legislature video that beautifully captures all angles, from the Tea Party to the Dems, to the we don’t know what we are, but we are here… This is the voice of the people. Thanks Mark and Marisol – beautiful!
Just Humbled and Honored to be included!
And the 2012 Honorees Are…
Creative Bravos Award Recipients
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque
Matthew Greer
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sanchez
Emerging Creative Bravos Award Recipients
Tim Nisly
Carlos Contreras
Young Creative Bravos Award Recipient
Sofia Resnik & Mikala Aragon-Sterling
People’s Choice Award Recipient
Voting is open through 11:59p on January 26!
President’s Award Recipient
Will be announced with the People’s Choice Award Recipient!
About Our Honorees
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School
Media Arts Collaborative Charter School (MACCS) is the first public school to be chartered by the State of New Mexico Public Education Department. MACCS opened in September 2008 with 9th & 10thgrades and is now at full capacity with grades 9-12. The school is committed to using 21st century digital media and information technology to engage students and facilitate proficiency in core curriculum courses. MACCS fosters creative thinking and media literacy while focusing on project based learning, thematic units, student presentations and exhibitions. Advanced Placement, Dual-Credit courses and internship programs enhance the school’s academics and make MACCS a highly recognized public school of choice.
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque
Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque was established in 1987 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UNM College of Fine Arts and with the National Institute of Flamenco. Since then, Festival Flamenco has bridged Albuquerque with its Spanish roots by realizing the intersections of antique Gypsy articulation, Spanish classical expression and contemporary American inflection. Distinguished as the most important and longest standing flamenco event outside of Spain, Festival Flamenco is a true celebration of cultural exchange and of course, flamenco. The National Institute of Flamenco is proud to bring world-class artistry to Albuquerque for 25 years. The festival attracts over 5,000 workshop participants and theatre patrons making it one of the country’s most unique arts and cultural events generating $1.2 million in economic impact dollars each year.
Matthew Greer - Artistic Director, Quintessence
Matthew Greer serves as Quintessence’s Artistic Director. Since 2003, Greer has served as Director of Music and Worship Arts at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, where he directs several choirs and oversees a comprehensive music program. At St. John’s, he founded the highly successful “Music at St. John’s” concert series, and “Thursday Evening Musicales,” an annual series of benefit concerts for Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. In recent years, he has conducted performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. In 2011, Matt organized “New Mexico Sing for Peace,” a special concert featuring 245 musicians and commemorating the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. In addition, Greer has lectured on and conducted the music of Brahms, Bach, and Copland. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Greer holds degrees in Music and Theology from Trinity University and Boston University.
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez - Director of Education, National Hispanic Cultural Center
Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez has – since the beginning of 2002 – been the Director of Education at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, where she manages multidisciplinary education and outreach programs for teachers, students and the community. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and French, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Education from UNM. Shelle’s professional background spans 25 years and includes private tutoring, classroom teaching, university instruction and research, teacher training, distance education, community arts instruction, community-building and project management. She is committed to arts and cultural education with special attention to collaborative programs, community connections, youth programs and celebrating the power of individual creativity. To indulge her personal creativity, she makes things and writes; her book, Crossings, was co-written by Catalina Delgado Trunk and published in 2008 by National Hispanic Cultural Center. Shelle is married and mother of two boys.
Tim Nisly - Founder and Curator, TEDxABQ / Chief Operations Officer, Rio Grande Community Development Corporation
Tim Nisly is the Founder / Curator of TEDxABQ and the Chief Operations Officer for the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation. As COO, Tim built the South Valley Economic Development Center’s commercial kitchen into one of the largest commercial kitchen operations in the country; works with small businesses on business plans, financing, and marketing strategies; and is currently developing a network of community kitchens around New Mexico. As Curator of TEDxABQ, Tim works with dedicated volunteers to find the Southwest’s most extraordinary ideas and people, which are then presented in a full-day TED-style conference to over twelve hundred New Mexicans. Tim has been a Quality New Mexico certified examiner for 2008 and 2009, a board member for the Rio Grande Valley Farmer’s Guild, and is the co-founder and past president of NetImpact Professional. He’s studied at University of Edinburgh in Scotland and holds an MBA from UNM’s Anderson School of Management.
Carlos Contreras - Teacher, Gordon Bernell Charter School / Poet in Residence, MDC / Host, NHCC Voces Program / Collaborator, Urban Verbs
Carlos Contreras is a two time national champion performance poet and local educator, who leads writing workshops in the adult jail facility at the Gordon Bernell Charter School. He also plays host to the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Voces Program, and he was a participant in the NHCC’s National Latino Writers Conference 09’. A member of 8 spoken word poetry teams at the college and professional level, Contreras has used spoken word as a tool for personal growth and community advancement. He has visited more than 35 elementary, middle, high school, and college campuses throughout his poetry career. He has also been the guest of and is currently the poet in residence at a correctional facility (MDC). Contreras is an English major. He currently creates alongside Colin Hazelbaker and Hakim Bellamy as part of Albuquerque’s Urban Verbs, a Hip-Hop influenced experimental theatre adventure.
Sofia Resnik & Mikala Aragon-Sterling - Co-founders and -publishers, Fraise Magazine /Students, Amy Biehl High School
Sophia Resnik and Mikala Aragon-Sterling are in 11th grade at Amy Biehl High School and the co-founders and -publishers of Fraise, a magazine that focuses on fashion, design and community resources. Sofia and Mikala write, photograph, design, layout and finance (largely through ad sales) the full-color, professional-quality publication, which took shape when the girls could not find the magazine they wanted to read and so decided to make their own. The result of a two-year collaborative partnership, supported by Amy Biehl High School’s electives programs, issues one and two of Fraisewere sold locally in limited runs; issue three is in the works – outside of school hours, as an independent project. Sofia and Mikala are both aspiring designers (Sophia in architecture and interior design; Mikala in fashion), honors students and volunteers.
About the Selection Process
The public was invited to submit nominations for the Creative Bravos, Emerging Creative Bravos and Young Creative Bravos Awards. Complete nominations were reviewed and rated by a Selection Committee comprised of creative community leaders; those individuals, businesses, organizations and events with the highest scores are the 2012 recipients. A President’s Award recipient will be determined by the President of Creative Albuquerque’s Board of Directors. A People’s Choice Award will be determined by public vote, open through 11:59p on January 26, 2012.
The Creative Bravos Gala Celebration & Awards Ceremony
will take place on Saturday, March 24 at the
Albuquerque Museum of Art & History.
Get your tickets now.
To Busy For My Own Good, So, Busy YOUR good… ;)
Here is what is what, what is going on in my life this week:
Jan 26th, 6pm, Rio Rancho, NM Loma Colorado Library “Social Justice Slam” This is a FREE event, it is a “safe speech” event like the lot of those hosted at the library. We will have kids in the house, so little ears, mean no bad words – it is however a Slam that comes with prizes and snacks… come support CHS Slam folks!
Jan 28th, Doors Open @ 8pm, Warehouse 508: OneBeLo from Binary Star, Urban Verbs, Adept, and surprise spitters from the crowd I’m sure! $10 and $15 tickets at www.holdmyticket.com Student, Teacher, and Friend rates available email me: soothxsayer@yahoo.com
Feb 7th, Jazzbars with @Hakimbe: at the Jazzbah 2nd and Gold, check out www.hakimbe.com for details
“Symptoms of the Blues”.. ElenaOrtiz – StaffWriter
Symptoms of the Blues-
If I was a blues singer,
I would only sing love songs.
Caressing the crowds with my coffee roasted repertoire,
I would swing along easy to the rhythm of the song,
Like the pulse of human heartbeats.
I would be Elvis singing
“Love me tender, love me good.”
By the time I was nine,
I would know as much about love as June Carter did
When she fell in love with the dark mystery of a man whose heart was
A highway to his self destruction.
She fell for his lips—
The way they curled around his hand-rolled cigarette like a rose in full bloom.
Johnny never had to explain himself to her;
She just always knew.
Their love was a jukebox filled with sunken melodies:
Slow, burning, and incomplete;
Because every blues singer knows that
Complete is just a synonym for ending,
And the beat must go on.
If I was a blues singer,
I would be like Ray,
Writing my bars beneath cardboard coasters,
Claiming they came in handy when holding a heartsick song and
Its glass of liquid medication.
But I know liquor never fixes the problems,
Only numbs the symptoms
Leaving the sorrow to care for later,
Because Ray sang to me about it.
I would know more than Billie,
Who only knew of love that hurt
In the blue blossoms and sore limbs the next day kind of way.
That’s why she kept searching and singing in late-night smoky ballrooms,
Hoping that maybe she would spot the
Right one through the curtain of
Sparkly blouses and half-empty glasses.
She never gave up.
All she wanted was someone to sing goodnight tunes to
And maybe someone to help her carry the failures she’d been collecting
Like her mom collected dusty vinyl records.
That’s how she knew that the perfect man had to
Be out in a jazz bar watching women in long evening gowns
Sip liquor and swing rattling hips
Until men’s eyelids leaked
Dewy diamonds of desperation.
If I was a Blues singer,
I wouldn’t be scared of failing,
Of feeling like I’m less than nothing
Because that’s the place
The good songs grow from.
I would only sing about love
To do what love sick
Songbirds have for me:
A broken heart is a tune that we all have to dance to,
But when you feel like there is no beat left in your bones,
No rhythm left in your limbs,
I’ll still be here singing.
Just Breathe, a poem for my Grandfather…
We push ourselves,
sometimes beyond the possibility
of responding to what is inside of us
because, aside from us
there are others in need.
Helpless, or of less help than we can be
to them
limits stretched,
nearly to the point of breaking,
near collapse…
My grandfather’s lung
fell under the weight of 80-Plus years
of unconditional love. My grandmother,
his better half, for more than half their lives
in need of his constant care, ironically sits
at his hospital bedside
as his family confuses itself
with the possibility of losing themselves
collectively,
with the loss of
one
man.
His lung a grapefruit
baseball size or so -
worth of working, the other carrying the
load,
symbolic of the last 10 years or so:
bathing
feeding
loving
her – my grandfather struggles to breathe
and I think maybe it’s not his lungs at all…
Sitting here, I know
he must be going crazy
on the inside, wondering what is going to happen
if he just so happens to
leave first,
you see life really isn’t about him, to him
it’s about her.
Lucille and Felipe sounds like something out of a movie
when you let it roll off your tongue,
when you let the film roll in your brain
when you hear the laugh track and press replay.
We play witness
to the most incredible measure of meaning in the world
when we see them
side by side, IV’s and EKG machines
but all they see,
is each other, thankful for another day of being able to see
each other.
My grandfather and grandmother
are two fresh breaths of air
simple and calm
responding to what is around them
with a steady understanding of what has been
what his happening and what will be.
I see,
My grandfather, sporting a hospital bed
but still telling jokes because he knows
that even now, with a fist worth of working on one side of his chest
that as long as he has
Lucille at one side of his bed,
home or otherwise,
that everything will be alright,
because all we can really simply continue
to do in life is to try and breathe…
Whatcha' Sayin?