what's up world -- chillin' at the studio right now, gettin' a couple of things done before i head out the asian american arts alliance house of fame gala tonight -- honoring mtv's suchin pak, elle magazine's joe zee, 30 rock and weeds' maulik pancholy, saving face's alice wu, and visual artist tomie arai -- dj boo on the 1's and 2's and hosted by yours truly -- so gonna be a lot of fun tonight -- reception jumps off at 6, program at 7 -- you can still get tickets at the door, so for more info, check out: http://www.aaartsalliance.org :)
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let's see rewinding back on this week -- just did a workshop over at harlem children's zone yesterday where we dipped a 'lil bit 'lil bit into writing poetry and breaking down drake and trey songz' "successful" to explore what it means to be successful -- some folks were saying that rappers rap about all the same things (money, weed, sex).  some folks were saying that's because that's real life, and other people were saying it's because it's fantasy --

i know for me, i was mildly obsessed with the song this summer -- and at first i was like it's so whack, they're talking about all the same bullshit (money, car, clothes, ho's) -- but when i really started to listen to it not only the words, but the beat and the feeling of the hook -- it's so freakin' sad.  like how you gonna write a song about being successful that sounds like you're so depressed?  which is when i really started to listen to it -- and the layers: confusion, pain, frustration, apathy, all in the song -- this question -- is this what i really want, why do i want it, is it really getting me anywhere? 

and who says commercial music doesn't have anything to say?

i asked the youth to send me a few of their favorite artists and entertainers in advance (beyonce, queen latifah, raven symone, keyshia cole, trey songz, nicki minaj, kanye west, oprah) and made this little grid of a few of their biographies from 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25 years of age -- i think what struck me most looking that stuff up, was not only how long "overnight successes" usually have been working in the industry -- but also, how much more incomplete the biographies of young artists are than more mature artists -- it's like the further that an artist gets to being established and "successful" the more confidence (or space? or desire?) there is to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, the relevant, the irrelevant -- or maybe it's just the more justification for every detail of their personal lives to be on public record. 

also, the whole piece about the link between mc's and actors -- like we were talking about how nicki minaj went to laguardia performing arts high school (the high school that "fame" is based off of) -- and how many mc's are actually playing a role vs. themselves in their rhymes.  other rappers with early acting training include people as drastically different from each other as tupac to mos def -- so what's real or what's not real -- for some artists -- may not even be the point.  

but what is real is what happens when each of us turns off the radio -- with someone else's melodies lingering on our tongues, basslines in our ears, somebody else's words riding inside of our mouths -- and we have to confront the consequences of our lives as ourselves.

also went to kristina wong+alice tuan+soo-jin lee's apacunt panel at the 2nd asian american theater festival this sunday which was wild and woolly fun complete with hand-sewn genitals as props and the thorny conflicts between performance academia, working performance artists, and personal life all in a madcap semi-improv fake conference panel --

read applications for the next round of hedgebrook applicants with lots of other fantastic hedgebrook alumni (my co-reader busha rehman and i being the slowest, ah hem, most thorough or maybe easily distracted of all of us, ha!). checked out the hip hop theater festival's events on graffiti with masters like part one and carlos rodiguez (mare 139) in the house -- booty-shaking at moe's with natasha diggs and the gold diggaz on deck which was fun and rewinding back to last tuesday -- the fundraiser for the survivors of the typhoons in southeast asia at nightingale's (thanks hanalei!) -- 

blessings,
kells