A moving blog August 17, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in News.add a comment
Hello readers few and far between.
I apologize for the want of posts in the past week or so. For various reasons, this poetic is under an indefinite hiatus.
I will continue to post super cool arts events and news on the second blog I manage: drepoetic. Please check it out to keep gettin your art on.
Thanks to all those of you who have dropped by every once in a while to check this blog out!
Best,
drethepoet
‘Picturing Politics’ exhibit opens Friday in Arlington August 11, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Nation, Visual Art.Tags: Arlington Arts Center, Politics, Visual Art
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At the Arlington Arts Center this August and September, Washington independent curator, artist, teacher, and critic Rex Weil will present a show focused on the intersection of politics and art-terrain that seldom seems to be explored by artists and galleries in and around the nation’s capital.
Picturing Politics 2008 will supply a corrective, examining a wide array of strategies used in the contemporary visual arts for addressing controversial issues and promoting progressive social change-all against the backdrop of a political landscape dominated by mass media.
PICTURING POLITICS 2008: Artists Speak to Power
Curated by Rex Weil
Show Dates: August 15 – September 27, 2008
Reception: Friday, September 5, 6:00 – 9:00pm
Location: Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA
Further exhibit details at the Arlington Arts Center website.
‘Mahmoud Darwish, Leading Palestinian Poet, Is Dead at 67′ August 11, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in News, Poetry.Tags: Arab poetry, Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poetry
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Abbas Momani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
From the NYTimes:
Mahmoud Darwish, whose searing lyrics on Palestinian exile and tender verse on the human condition led him to be widely viewed as the pre-eminent man of Palestinian letters as well as one of the greatest contemporary Arab poets, died Saturday night in Houston after complications from heart surgery. He was 67.
DJ Phatrick at Asian Art Museum, and APAture Runway tomorrow August 6, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Events, Fashion, Hip hop, Visual Art.Tags: APAture, Asian Art Museum, DJ Phatrick, Kearny Street Workshop
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Two events tomorrow night to whet your Asian/American arts whistles:
Matcha: Drunken Fist at the Asian Art Museum, SF, 5:00-9:00 pm
and
APAture Runway II at the Gray Area Gallery, 7:30-10:30 pm
National Poetry Slam Day One scores August 6, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Events, News, Poetry, Uncategorized.Tags: National Poetry Slam, poetry slam
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Apologies for the posting inconsistency in the last few days. I may not be able to post regularly in the next few days. Regular posts will continue after this Sunday, August 10. In the meantime, here are the top five team scores for the first day of the National Poetry Slam for all you sports fans. Kristian Knutson covers for Madison’s Isthmus: the Daily Page:
Nearly two-thirds of the 76 teams in the National Poetry Slam competed in their first bouts on Tuesday night at multiple venues throughout downtown Madison. The bout winners on Tuesday were Boston Cantab, SlamCharlotte, Austin Poetry Slam, NoCoast Writers Collective from Lincoln, Hayti Heritage Center from Durham, The City Slam from San Francisco, Chicago Mental Graffiti, New York Urbana Poetry Slam, San Diego Slam, New York louderARTS, Art Amok in Atlanta, and Denver Nuba.
The Milwaukee team also competed in its first bout, coming in second to SlamCharlotte and ahead of Phoenix and Boise in the first slam on the Evjue Stage at the Bartell Theatre.
The complete listing of scores is provided here by the National Poetry Slam, and the teams are currently ranked as follows:
TEAM Rank Score TEAM Rank Score New York UR 1 118.2 Decatur 3 114.5 Denver NU 1 116.8 Dallas DP 3 110.3 San Francisco 1 114.1 Fayetteville 3 107.6 San Diego 1 112.6 White Plains 3 107.4 New York LA 1 112.1 Columbus WB 3 107.1
Read the rest of this article at the Isthmus.
Weekend poetic fix: Flobots August 2, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Hip hop, Music, Poetry.Tags: Flobots, Hip hop, Music, spoken word
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Flobots is beyond the spoken word, beyond music, beyond hip hop, beyond poetry. They take the word to a whole new level.
Here is an unofficial, but very well put-together video by d9studios of “There is a war going on for your mind”:
Also check out the Flobots latest video, “Handlebars”:
Check these magical soundsmiths at flobots.com. Their album, Fight With Tools, is out in stores now.
Oh Luda … August 1, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Hip hop, Nation, News.Tags: Clinton, election, Hip hop, hip hop activism, hip hop convention, Ludacris, Obama, Politics
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Tailing on the Washington Post article this morning, Jeff Chang (on zentronix) brings us the buzz from the National Hip Hop Political Convention as hip hop heads and educators are all atwitter over Ludacris’s poor attempts to plug into the ’08 election hip hop hype (my emphases added):
The hum on the opening day at the National Hip-Hop Political Convention was that Ludacris had played himself. Badly.
Read the rest after the jump.
Rappers rubbin’ Obama the wrong way? August 1, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Hip hop, Music, Nation, News.Tags: election, Hip hop, Obama, rap, rap music
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Today in the Washington Post, “Rappers’ Shout-Outs Make Obama Skip a Beat”:
In the arsenal of the culture wars, rap music remains somewhat radioactive — and Barack Obama now finds himself exposed.
Avowed Obama supporter Ludacris on Wednesday released a freewheeling song called “Politics” in which he repeatedly praised the candidate — as well as himself, for having found a home on the senator’s iPod. But the Atlanta rapper also used a derogatory term to describe Hillary Clinton; asserted that John McCain should be in a wheelchair, not the White House; and declared that President Bush “is mentally handicapped.”
Gee, thanks for the endorsement, Luda!
Some of the Democrat’s most vocal (literally) supporters are sticking him with a hip-hop dilemma: how to respond to an art form that has a long history as a cultural wedge issue but whose fans and wildly unpredictable practitioners are a part of his base?
Hip-Hop Political Convention explores diverse themes & topics July 31, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Events, Hip hop, Nation, Resources and Programs.Tags: Hip hop, hip hop activism, hip hop convention, Jeff Chang, Politics
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Originally posted on zentronix by Jeff Chang:
Today, the National Hip-Hop Political Convention opens in Las Vegas.
Thousands are expected to attend the Convention, with some coming from as far as Colombia and South Korea yesterday for the opening b-boy battle, that featured a showdown between Las Vegas’s Knucklehead Zoo and the R16 champs, Gamblerz.
They will be discussing issues like the criminalization of youth, youth violence, the right of return on the Gulf Coast, media justice, sexism in hip-hop, economic justice, Black-Brown solidarity, global warming, liberation theology, and vote disenfranchisement. (I’m speaking today at an all-day symposium on the place of hip-hop in academia. alongside folks like Asheru, Byron Hurt, Marc Lamont Hill, and many others.)
Dozens of skills-building trainings around voter registration, lobbying, organizing, media, film making, and even krumping will be held, showing that the organizers draw no distinction between arts and social justice. Some of the best recent underground films on hip-hop–including “African Underground: Democracy in Dakar” and “Masizakhe: Let Us Build Together”–bring a distinctly global view of hip-hop to the event.
On Sunday Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney will give the closing address and the Convention will revise and update their hip-hop political agenda.
Keep your eye here for reports back over the coming days.
Poets gear up for National Poetry Slam in Madison July 31, 2008
Posted by Adrien Salazar in Events, News, Poetry.Tags: National Poetry Slam, Poetry, poetry slam
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This is more than just a hobby. This feeds your soul.
- Dasha Kelly, poet
In its eighteenth year the National Poetry Slam will bring together 84 teams from across the country and even Europe to Madison, Wisconsin compete for the national poetry slam championship title.
The slam this year is a part of the four day Lyrics on the Lake Festival which will include a series of writing circles, special poet showcases, and workshops on topics as varied as screen writing, publishing, and how to write a slam.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has some prepping poets speaking on the festival and slam in this back door preview:
“I call it verbal acrobatics. I call it entertainment, education, enlightenment or aggravation depending on what’s going on, but it’s definitely a room full of people who are in a moment together, and it’s electric,” [Dasha] Kelly said.
The Lyrics on the Lake Festival and National Poetry Slam opens August 3 and runs through August 9. Visit nps2008.com for a full schedule of the National Poetry Slam and other events during the week.
