Category: Uncategorized

This song is filled with themes of Afro-pessimism, social death and it narrates the black experience through classism. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7lw0Ovzq0

The euphoria that is experienced through dance, music and drugs in the funk scene and others does represent a physical liberation for the body that is psychologically tormented by systemic oppression. Dancing is the attempt to get the duppy out of you. The drugs are used for the purpose of self medicating to ease the mental pain and reach euphoric heights. It is also a used as an escape mechanism to numb the pain from the struggles of black urban life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISHLcdD1cE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9JLen8TTJg

This is a tough question because one person who was interviewed during Harlem Cultural Festival, Summer of Soul said that the festival was a distraction from keeping black people from burning down the city in response to the assisinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Bobby Kennedy, and Malcolm X. Considering how perilous the sixties were maybe tearing America city by city could’ve been a chance for us to rebuild it in a way that served us in much more wholesome way or not, who knows? Off the top of my head I would say that Freaknik created more social problems because what comes to mind is black women acting wild, but honestly I know that I’m being bias because I’m a male. The political creation of “black womanhood” was never based on respectability. Black women during slavery were victims of sexual violence, medical violence and they were primarily viewed as breeding machines as well as private property that belong to slave owners. Education has given black women a chance to gain respectability but only a black woman can speak to that truth, as a black man I know they still have to fight for respect in this world. So when a black woman expresses herself in whatever way she deems soulful or fun who can judge her?  Soul is an essence to be honored. One of the narrators  in this film  told her father that she doesn’t sing any blues after being invited to the festival. He responded by telling her that if she listened to their music she would hear every kind of music in their songs, I agree with this statement. In the spirit of carefulness I would say that events like Freaknik would create more social problems because it involves drugs and alcohol which can impair judgment that can lead to black women being taken advantage of through sexual violence. A while back I also saw how the release of past episodes of Freakniks was causing a lot of anxiety because black women who have attained respectability through education and careers didn’t want to be judged based off of one or two summers of their lives. The fear was that the perception of them could be viewed negatively by their employers, family members, or society at large thus making it a public shaming methodology. 

I like Sun Ra, he reminds me of the late great producer Lee Scratch Perry. 2 songs came to mind as I read Space is the Place. I can envision space being a place where we can break from radical suffering because our first abode was somewhere up there. Going back there has been very difficult and it is said that we are appointed to die once before we get there again. Is that true or do we go to space when we close our eyes and go to sleep at night? According to my dreams I’m somewhere that seems to be very real when my body goes into rest mode. I even have reoccurring dreams as if I’m supposed to finish a mission that wasn’t completed. The Bible has been distorted yes, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Enoch who was the 7th from Adam was taken up into the 10 heavens. He described them in great detail and in the tenth heaven which is the highest of all there is music that was so pleasing to the ears in that Enoch said was indescribable. Regarding Elon Musk it seems like he is trying to free his friends from the second heaven which is called Grigori. Our transfiguration cannot take place without a certain level of sufferation. Injustice thrives in this world and I feel like until we truly surrender to our inner space which is a mirror of outer space we will continue to be at Caesar’s mercy. We cannot graduate to the next level which is called Paradise without completing this level first. Our earthly bodies are crying to break free because of its limitations. One day we will all receive our heavenly body but in the meantime we need to do our best to fix this heaven first. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwiBBP-3srQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzLrRP8tzLs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-JmjBJAorU

I’ve been standing outside the venue for two hours now and the line extends up to 4 blocks north. My chance to get in finally arrives and its packed like a can of sardines inside. Many conversations are taking place all at the same time from people that you wouldn’t normally see having conversations outside of these four walls. There is so much chatter in the room that I wonder how can they even hear themselves speak, I say to myself  they must be professional lip readers. People have the look of excitement on their faces and the energy is good, similar to the feeling you get when the weekend arrives. The sigh of relief permeates the air and everyone’s friendliness provides us with a sense of collective security. One guy yells out Covid is long gone! and then I say to him don’t jinx us and we start laughing together. The band finally arrives on the stage and suddenly you can hear pin drop as the lead singer for bad brains hits the stage. He stares into the crowd with a for about 10 seconds straight and yells Rasta To The Bone!!! and suddenly the crowd erupts. The ground under shakes immensely and I start to wonder if I’m going to fall through the floor, I grab people to the left and right because I could feel myself falling as they smile as they jubilate. The looks on their faces make me realize that they are in a trance like state while throwing elbows at the same time and bad faith was rampant upon the faces of the attendees that looked like lawyers based on their attire. The crowd is filled with white, black, latinos, indians, asians and every other group of people you can think of. They were doctors who were still in their scrubs and lawyers with their suits still on. The anticipation of the concert was so overwhelming that they didn’t even bother to make time to go home and change out of their work clothes. Everyone at the concert forgot the politics of the ethnic groups they were placed in, whether it was white, black or other. Under this one roof social constructs and racial constructs ceased to exist. It was in that moment that I realized this wasn’t some regular concert, it was therapeutic session and church revival session mixed in one. I could tell that the releases they were having were cathartic because the joy on their faces was reminiscent of school children carelessly playing during lunchtime. Negritude filled the air and everyone was in unison with this sentiment. people were kicking the walls and punching them all at the same time, they were filled with the spirit of rebellion and if these people weren’t under this roof Babylon would be destroyed. It was an indoor riot by the residents that keep the engine of America going and I thought to myself if this is how they really feel we are all doomed. Then I realized that this was safe place to manifest the resistance they otherwise wouldn’t have the courage to showcase based on the fact that they had mortgages to pay and kids to send off to college. It was the scene of Zion in the movie Matrix where all the people were jamming, fighting invisible demons all at the same time. People faces encompassed a range of emotions, even sadness at times then I realized everyone hated their jobs and that authenticity was luxury that they couldn’t afford. Chaos was legalized and I got out of my head and jumped in the mosh pit and joined the fun. It was fun and it reminded me of the wild out sessions I had with my friends during Jouvert mornings that I attended yearly during our carnivals back home in the ST.Thomas. It was carthartic and Moshpits were the same event we have in the Caribbean, it was just confined to a small space but much more often than our yearly event. The physicality of this event made me realize that they weren’t really punching and kicking the wall, they were punching and kicking their employers, bad ass kids and rude clients that have been taken their work and duty for granted. I heard them screaming names of people who couldn’t all exist within that one wall so I knew I was part of an experience that was encapsulated in an unnamed emotion that is a mixture of joy and pain.