Know Hope

This is why I'll be pulling the lever for Senator Barack Obama.

the black beat 2.0

kicking beats across the colorline = blipster heaven

Am I White?

Of course not! But after a trip to Food Town with friends as I picked up some stuff for my housewarming, I kept getting teased for my "white" tastes. I guess brie and hummus isn't what's hot right now in the streets. Then upon taking a quiz by the makers of Stuff White People Like
I discovered that I'm 50% white based on my tastes and hobbies. My friend Andrei however, contends that the number is actually somewhere closer to 89%.
While the fact of my blackness is unquestionable, a sista does like indie bands like Wilco, the cult hit "Arrested Development", and reusable grocery bags. However, I think this makes me less "white" than transcendent in the spirit of none other than Senator Obama. Or to get less lofty, it simply reflects my '90s, multi-cultural childhood, with a group of friends that looked like the cast of "Ghostwriter". Moreover, Stuff White People Like is really more like, "Stuff, Young Urban Liberal Professionals Like".
So instead of hating on my crazy urbane tastes, recognize the blipster toughness. Real recognize real.

Respect due

I know that (most of) ya'll have already seent this joint, BUT each time I watch it remains as fresh and inspirational as it was when it first aired last Sunday.

To those of us who were ready to let ol' Colin go off into pasture, he wasn't gonna go down like that.
Its a new [political] season, indeed

Trying Times

These are the times that try a sister's soul...
The market is melting, and we all know that when the country catches a financial cold, people of color and the poor get pneumonia. The punditry keeps talking about Wall St. vs. Main Street, but what about whats going down on Malcolm X Blvd where the people live? Crown Fried Chicken can't sustain you forever, and the local check cash might shutter their doors. Then what?
Let me just try to do my job out here in the trenches, water the seeds and inspire them to be life-long students. The ivory tower always needs more inhabitants.

Help a Brother Out

How can you say no to that winning smile?
Helping this brother out for a few hours, after work, after school or on your precious weekends could mean a world of good for our nation. If you're like me then you probably get bombarded on the daily by email blasts from the good people at MoveOn, the Obama campaign and messages from his most visible surrogates. But, instead of quickly hitting delete, read through them once again, make your own coffee this week and donate your Starbucks cash to the campaign. Better yet, go to your momma house, where you can use her line for free and make some calls on the good Senator's behalf. You'll be so glad you did.
This is our moment, lets make it count and make the people proud by helping to get Brother Obama elected.
For more information on how to get involved in the campaign, check out http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer/

See you at the phone bank!

Got You All In Check

students be aware, I got ya'll all in check (education style) like this classic banger by Busta Bus

Love Light In Flight

Another superdope gem from the best who ever did it, Stevie Wonder(ful).

The lyrics are pure Sunday night.
Make me feel like paradise
Give me what I'm missing
Send me to the highest heights
Take me up and away

Who else but Stevie could get it right? Bad 80s clothing, set design and all.

better business boro

I'm living trendy on pennies. Now that I'm officially a working woman, with bills and taxes to prove it my finances are a constant worry. Teaching public school doesn't pay nearly as well as it should, and after coming out of a paycheck-less summer (TFA doesn't pay for its training Institute but it does offer up some start-up grants and loans), my money was particularly funny.

Things were looking a little dire for a while until my homegirl and I decided to go into business. As a cash-strapped grad student at NYU she understood the plight of the broke urbanette. So, being the enterprising young sisters that we are, we got to work, literally and made buttons.
We were slinging pins of positivity, after turning my apartment into a mini-sweatshop we took it too the streets and set up shop on my uncle's stoop and sold our wares. Standing out there in the hot sun, trying to look friendly and not too desperate, I suddenly felt an increased respect to all those brothers and sisters out there, peeling oranges, selling water, drawings and handbags. They're just trying to make an honest buck and I really can't knock their hustle. It's all part of that enterprising American spirit. My business partner and I did pretty well, selling much of our merchandise (the Obama pins were snapped up with the quickness). However, unlike many of the folks out there on the frontlines of the street corners across NYC we have choice. Selling our stuff on the street is a side job used to supplement our incomes and not the source of it.

We expect the folk to work, to pull their weight and earn their keep. But what happens when that old model of street hustling is fading? What comes in next? As Congress tries to get our nation though this economic purgatory, my folk on the street will be rolling up their stuff in their blankets and keep it moving. On to the next corner. Its a living, indeed.