Sept 5, 2010 (Labor Day Weekend)



Oakland Is Set to Get Its Pride Back This Year


After a six-year absence, the East Bay Pride festival will return to
downtown Oakland Sunday, September 5 during Labor Day weekend. It will
be renamed Oakland Pride.


Welcome to Oakland Pride 2010!
www.oaklandpride.org

Defying Gravity...

This past Thursday evening I got a chance to see one of my all time favorite singing groups, "Sweet Honey In The Rock". I've posted many times about them and their music so I won't go into too much detail, but just know I think they are the ultimate when it comes to performing music with a message as well as being entertaining.

On yesterday Friday I got to be a vocal workshop with one of the founding members Louise Robinson.


She had performed a full concert the night before and the group also had performed for school children on the morning of the workshop. Admittedly tired she gave so much of herself as a teacher and person in our workshop we all left floating, yes defying gravity.

It was a group of about 40 people. I was only one of the two men there but it didn't matter it was all about connecting to the "Beingness" of the experience. I met some amazing people and look forward to sharing with them in the future.

We used our bodies, our voices, and creativity to share ourselves as people and artists. The group consisted of singers of all levels and backgrounds but everyone shared in the experience.

After leaving I realized how much I love art, performing, and sharing. She really inspired me to continue on. I can't say I was having doubts but it's always great to get a nudge of inspiration and some confirmation that you are on the right path!

Black Panther Events: Los Angeles & Oakland...

I haven't gotten a chance to see this movie yet but I am glad it is getting more exposure. If you're in the Los Angeles area be sure to check this out...



41st & Central: The Untold Story of the LA Black Panthers will open Friday, March 26 for a limited, one-week engagement at the Culver Plaza Theatre in Culver City, across from Sony Studios. Tickets are $10.

This dynamic film won the Audience Favorite Award at this year's Pan African Film Festival. Originally scheduled for only one screening as the centerpiece of the festival ($30 per ticket), two additional screenings had to be added to accomodate the long line of folks who showed up. If you missed it, now is your opportunity to see this amazing historical documentary by filmmaker Gregory Everett whose father was a member of the LA Black Panther Party.

Come see former Panthers, Councilman Bernard Parks, Geronimo Pratt, Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown, Erika Huggins and others talk about the rise and fall of the Southern California chapter of the Party, the killings of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins at UCLA, and the early morning shootout between the LAPD and the Black Panthers in December 1969 and so much more.

Tickets: $10 per person with 3 hours free validated parking
Show times: Fri-Sun 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm
Mon-Thurs 12pm, 2:45pm, 5:45pm, 8pm
Group sales: check www.paff.org or www.41central.com
Culver Plaza Theater
9917 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA
310.836.5516
www.culverplazatheatres.com

Another Black Panther Event In Oakland, The Origin Of The Legendary Group...


Lil' Bobby Hutton Day

Come celebrate our 12th annual honor of the life and legacy of Lil' Bobby Hutton and the Black Panther Party, who defended our community from senseless police murders and poverty

Saturday April 10, 2010
2-5pm @West Oakland Library
1805 Adeline Street
Oakland, Ca

Potluck
Speakers
Students & Tutors (speed matching)
Lil Bobby Statue
$50 Poetry Contest
More Info Call: (510) 705-8810

Kobe Adds To His Season Of Buzzer Beaters...

He Misssed In Orlando Sunday. Did You Really Think He'd Miss Again??

Reflections?

Reflections?
By The Literary MasturbatorÔ

I truly do believe God is everything to all people…

My cynicism tells me that God does not care who wins American Idol, the Super Bowl, or Miss America…

My personal bias tells me God is a Lakers fan, because I’m a Lakers fan…

Maybe…that’s confirmation that whatever we are, God Is…

We are, all of us, reflections of an infinite Creator

Even those things we have labeled bad are merely the experiences of God, the expressions of God so we can better know and understand who God is…

www.myspace.com/theliterarymasturbator
theliterarymasturbator@gmail.com
http://theliterarymasturbator.blogspot.com
Copyright©2010 Jair

Oakland GLBT Roundtable Meeting...

This is a reminder that there will be an Oakland LGBT Roundtable meeting next Monday, March 8, 2010 at Oakland City Hall , 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Hearing Room 4 (2nd floor), at 5:30pm. Below is this meeting's agenda topics:



Needs Assessment Survey – The Survey Committee will give an update about the status of the needs assessment survey

Oakland Pride – East Bay Pride committee will give an update on the developments of East Bay Pride 2010

Immoral Dress Code – There will be a presentation about the historical context behind the 1879 passage of Oakland’s Immoral Dress Code. In addition, there will be an update on where we are in the legislative process of getting this “cross dressing” law amended in 2010.

The DC Community Center – Councilmember Kaplan Intern, Stephanie McLeod, will give a presentation about her trip to Washington DC’s LGBT Community Center.



As always please contact Ada Chan at 510-238-7083, or Achan1@oaklandnet.com, if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Death Sentence...

Death Sentence
by The Literary Masturbator™

What if never write another poem?

Would my words constipate in the bowels of expression?

A writer writes...

But am I a writer...a poet if I no longer put pen to paper? If I never use a word program on my laptop?

There are times when I feel like if you were to cut me, poetry would ooze from my veins like blood draining into a coagulated puddle of nouns and verbs

Adjectives would no longer be cells in my body bringing much needed oxygen to my brain

I'd be insane

Screaming similes, like obscenities in a straight jacket—locked in an asylum-curled up in the fetal position

Call 911!! Call 911!!

“911-What's your emergency?”

I CAN'T FEEL MY METAPHORS!!

EMT's would have to try and resuscitate me ...pressing those paddles to my chest

When you define yourself by an art form like poetry, when it's who you are

What would happen if that were taken away?

I'd feel confined like one of the Africans on a ship during the middle passage
My drums, history, and everything I knew...ripped from me, shackled-loaded on in the belly of a boat, surrounded by people I couldn't communicate with because we didn't speak the same language-because we're not from the same tribe...sort of like someone who can't pay their mortgage, talking to an investment banker...

I'd be like a slave...singing schoolhouse rock songs as if they were negro spirituals...coded messages to help me plan escape or rise up in revolt...

I'd paraphrase Patrick Henry--”Give Me Poetry Or Give Me Death!!”


You see poetry is love and life...

Compassion and hope...
Poetry is what I use to cope
I couldn't survive without it...nope

I couldn't be...me

It must be what it feels like to be sentenced to death...

www.myspace.com/theliterarymasturbator
theliterarymasturbator@gmail.com
http://theliterarymasturbator.blogspot.com
Copyright©2010 Jair