I have so much to say, and am at a complete loss of words.
I am feeling so much, and am completely numb.
It didn’t have to be like this, but I love you nonetheless.
You will be missed Danny, but never forgotten.
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Danny Angeline
Astro Black Ep 1: Destination Planet Rock (Excerpt), 2007
This is an excerpt from Episode 1 of Astro Black, a 4-channel video installation informed by the history and politics of Afrofuturism. Early hip-hop culture was heavily influenced by the intergalactic mythologies of Sun Ra and George Clinton, and Episode 1 seeks to draw out these connections. Set in 1974 in the South Bronx, the episode begins in a neighbourhood centre where Sun Ra is discussing his ideas about the intersection of myth, race and outer space. It is here that the three future originators of hip-hop – Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash – are abducted and transported across the galaxy to Planet Rock where they are schooled in the alien language of turntablism.
Dope.
Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper
A few days ago, the 2012 Pulitzer Prizes were announced.
This morning I decided to read the winner of the Feature Writing prize. It was awarded to Eli Sanders for his piece The Bravest Woman in Seattle.
Awarded to Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle (Wash.) weekly, for his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman’s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative. -The Pulitzer Prizes
I was a paragraph in, and tears were already welling up. I had no idea how it happened so quickly. There was no escalation of drama before the tear-jerker. It took place at the beginning of the piece and didn’t let up. I sat there and read the 130 comments after the story.
I knew by the tone given off by Teresa Butz’s partner that she would not of been able to stay anonymous for long, and I was right. I Would Like You To Know My Name was written by Jennifer Hopper less than three months later. The tears did not stop, and I read the 288 comments following her piece.
I was left reeling. The story and the writing took me places, showed me parts of people I didn’t think existed, at opposite ends of the spectrum. From love to hate, from pain to joy, from bleakness to hope, from being able to identify to unable to relate, from the unforgivable to forgiving. If you have the time, please, please read these two pieces.
Words escape me. Thankfully for Sanders and Hopper, they did not. One of the interesting points was the desire, motivation and determination of Jennifer to not let Teresa be forgotten. Between the award and response to the pieces, she surely never will.
NA Basic Text, 6th Edition
So I was sitting at a meeting a few months ago, flipping through the new edition of the Basic Text and saw something that made me stop and pause. The only changes made to the 6th edition were to update the personal stories in the second half of the book, to reflect the worldwide growth of the fellowship. The stories had never been changed before and in order to reflect the diversity of Narcotics Anonymous now, the fellowship chose to take out the old ones and put in new ones.
But as I leafed through those stories, something caught my eye.
Many of the new stories contain footnotes, and explanations. Some of them are hilarious and I wondered about the process of choosing which terms to be explained. There is something about NA explaining what a “Deuce and a quarter” is that is funny to me. So I thought I would just gather all the footnotes together. People have no idea that this stuff is now in our literature.
* “1.65 meters; 128 kilograms” (page 117)
* “A ‘deuce and a quarter’ is a Buick Electra 225.” (page 167)
* “‘Freshman year is the first year in high school” (page 176)
* “A Spanish idiom: Hacer una tempestad en un vaso de agua.” (page 191)
* “Fifty-one kilograms” (page 242)
* “Ninety-one pounds or forty-one kilograms.” (page 246)
* “Wairua is spirit.” (page 246)
* “Whanau is family.” (page 246)
* “‘The dole’ is government assistance.” (page 249)
* “Aroha is love and compassion.” (page 249)
* “Arohanui is big love.” (page 249)
* “‘Freshman’ year is the first year of high school.” (page 283)
* “‘Pharmacology’ is the science of drug action.” (page 286)
* “Yakuza is the Japanese mafia.” (page 293)
* “Informed the authorities; snitched (UK slang)” (page 328)
* “In 1990, there was a three-month-long armed conflict between the Mohawk Nation of Kanesatake and the government of Quebec in the town of Oka.” (page 339)
* “A parche is a close group of friends.” (page 356)
* “A barrio is a neighborhood.” (page 356)
* “Frisoles are a popular regional dish.” (page 357)
* “A high school equivalency degree” (page 375)
Know your literature.
Ish you’re talking