Sunday, April 10, 2011

Website and TEDx

I finally have a website. Check it out at www.bobbylefebre.com. My homegirl Gia Valverde created it for me, and I am excited to finally have somewhere to direct folks for basic info about me.

The highlight of the year for me, thus far, was speaking at the inaugural TEDxMileHigh event held on 4/7 at the Ellie Caulkins Theater. If you are not familiar with TED events, you should be! This event gathered 20 of Colorado's top thinkers, doers, and innovators to "give the talk of their lives around ideas worth sharing". I was humbled to share the stage with such talented individuals see the list here http://www.tedxmilehigh.com/speakers/. I spoke in front of a 1700 person, sold out crowd and finished to a standing ovation. I very rarely get nervous before performing anymore, but this event made my palms sweat. I performed shortly after Colorado's Governor, John Hickenlooper spoke, and boy was it a good feeling! I will post the video as soon as it is available.

Memphis, Shows, and other stuff.

Once again I write in shame that I was unable to manage this blog as much as I should. 2011 has treated me kindly thus far. I started the new year off right by spending New Year's Eve in N.Y.C. with my wife and two of our closest friends. Upon returning home, I worked on a commercial for the Gates Corporation's 100 year anniversary. I was able to work with friend and actress, Sonia Justl, and Tom and Ben Kimball of Kimball productions. They are all such wonderful people, and the shoot was like hanging out with friends. I was in rehearsal for a short film tilted, "Flame Dames", which highlights the strained relationships gay men sometimes have with their straight women friends. The film should be finished this spring; details to come.

January is always a busy month in Denver for Martin Luther King Jr. day celebrations, and poets stay busy! I was able to share the Colorado School of Mines stage with Ayinde Russell, Suzi Q, Jovan Mays, and Amy Everhart. Whenever you get a group of talented, funny, poet-friends in one room it is a riot! I featured for the kids of South High School in Denver, tried out new material, and was blown away by the student talent.

At the end of January I found myself at the University of Memphis for a show I shared with Kelly Tsai of Brooklyn, NY. I was super exited to share the stage with Kelly, and we were both exited to eat some good food, see Graceland, as well as the Civil Rights Museum. Prior to our show, I ate some bomb BBQ chicken! Our show was fun. The kids were not very familiar with performance poetry, but everyone had a good time. After the show, we visited Beale St., which was pretty cool. The blues was blaring out of the loud speakers, but Montell Jordan's "This is how we do it" was blaring even louder from a nightclub that had like four people in it.....weird.
In the morning, we ate at the world famous "Arcade Diner", two blocks away from the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated. It has since been turned into the National Civil Rights Museum. We visited the museum after breakfast. It was heavy and somber as expected. There is a reproduction exhibit of the room Dr. King occupied the night prior to being killed, and it was surreal to actually see that. The museum predominantly focused on African American Civil Rights struggles in the South, which makes sense due to location and context; however, I was a bit shocked that there was no mention of other marginalized groups movements that were happening simultaneously. The title, "National Civil Rights Museum" suggested to me that the museum would focus on the entire country's struggle for civil rights, but it was beautifully unnerving nonetheless.

We breezed through the Museum and found our way to Graceland. Graceland is as iconic and pop-cultury, as it gets. It was fun, and Elvis was a pimp.

I watched the Superbowl in a hotel room in Kokomo, Indiana. I ordered take out wings and pizza, and frowned at the Black Eyed Peas halftime show. I performed at the University of Indiana the next day. The crowd was awesome, and it was a quick trip. I found myself at the University of Wyoming performing at the Good Mule Conference, which focuses on sustainability and environmental activism.

I am a board member and chair of entertainment for the La Raza Youth Leadership Conference, so that has kept me busy in February and March. I also started grad school at the University of Denver, and so far that has been going well!

See y'all soon!