What a weekend!!

I share my birthday with Dr. King. Growing up it was always cool to tell the kids at school this bit of trivia. My wife spoiled me taking me by gathering the troops to accompany me at my favorite restaurant, buying me an x-box and new travel bag, and just being the best wife a man could ask for:)

On Monday, I was the poet chosen from the MLK marade(marade= march and parade joined as one word) to share poetry in front of tens of thousands of people. It was a humbling experience. Watching people march for something, holding signs and protest banners on Immigration, Gay rights, police brutality, and of course ending the wars were all popular themes. There were prayers and candles lit for Haiti. Native drums led the group as the American Indian Movement sang songs in American Indigenous tongues, reminding us what America really looks like. It was beautiful. Children were there. Elders were there. The spirit of those who came before us was strong.

Later that evening, I had a show with The Original Woman and Ayinde Russell at the Colorado School of Mines. Reading poetry to a bunch of Engineering students proved to be a difficult task, but we got the job done. The organizer of the event told us that the student body at the Engineering college was not used to "thinking outside the box", but if you are a good communicator, and a good performance poet, you break those barriers by choosing material that speaks to the "human experience". It was fun. We discussed Dr. King and his legacy, as well as how what we do relates to an ongoing sense of responsibility and social activism.

Last night I attended the first class of an eight week acting workshop taught by Anne Penner. She is an accomplished actor and teacher, and I learned that we share the same talent agent at Radical. The class seems like it is going to be very useful in sharpening the blade of acting as a craft, and I am looking forward to the next 8 weeks. They say as an actor, you should either be working, or taking a class, so since I am not doing any theater, or anything else with a time commitment, I enrolled.

I left the class a bit early as I had one hell of a show scheduled with Suzi Q, Lucifury and Ayinde Russell at CU Boulder. It was another event around the Dr. King Holiday, and we blew the place apart!!! When we get paid the big bucks, we bring a DJ with us to hold down the set, and further set the mood of what we do as performance poets. The crowd was with us the whole time, were very responsive, and we all tried some new things out on stage. Lucifury and I did a couple of duets to mix up the energy, Ayinde and Suzi sang a bit, and we were able to dialogue about life and politics with the kids after.

It was a good weekend.