Thursday, December 31, 2009

.:OAKLAND IN BLUE::VOLUME 4:.

I am honored to just recently join the team of OAKLAND IN BLUE (Do Dats projects with FRESHVIBE MEDIA) They are amazing and I can't wait to see all of the visions and plans for 2010 materialize.

Niema herself and yours truly along with the homegirl and talented songstress Dom Jones interviewed about OAKLAND in BLUE! And performances by SIAIRA SHAWN!
Definitly a magical night with DAT as the HOST, with no further a do OAKLAND IN BLUE:

Oakland In Blue Listening Experience Series :: volume 4 from FreshVibe Media ® on Vimeo.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Lifted. Gifted. Creative Minds on the Grind.



this is a flyer im working on thanks to the homie Eli and my homegirl Nina Parks
Ima make this short. WRENAGADE PROMOTION will be in full effect very soon on another level and no repeats in design (i can't because I lost my computer) expect WRENassance collection of art, earrings, t shirts all of it anything and everything. I wont stop cause it cant stop.


MORE COMING SOON....

Thursday, December 24, 2009

this made my day..

This holiday season i have compared myself to the grinch a few times. Dont get me wrong I'm all smiles, i even sang a christmas song on sunday with the Homie Niema (after sippn on something lovely) and being serenaded by Siaira at Oakland in Blue i was even humming silent night to myself. But besides that i didnt really have to much christmas spirit. Could be a series of events that left me feeling without, or it could just be my way of recognizing that although i know things will all fall into place at the moment there is a lot still unsettled, before any celebrations can be done.
With that said im throwing away any negative thoughts for this lovely cup caken season and whole heartedly enjoy this christmas and holiday season (my family celebrates Hanukah, Xmas, and Kwanza) i got this in a txt from the homeboy Fire Thunder n'it made my day i found it funny...

http://twitpic.com/uz8p0

(Click to see)

Things are on the up!!!
I wont be blogging as much with less access to a computer but you can holler at me on twitter. Ok back to creating the last of my xmas presents...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Waiting on the Pre(sent) this Saturday

THE VIDEO FOR GRACE. By Producer Singer Free Styler Spitta and wonderful person Mr. Amani. I am looking forward to painting faces and watching magic be created. If you havent already heard his album heres a lil listen...

<a href="http://onlyiamani.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-on-the-pre-sent">Waiting on the Pre(-)Sent (Always Arriving) by :::iamani:::</a>

(Grace Video and many more from my talented Brother from another coming soon)

Keep Coastin

He is really giving it to us, from DRAKE remixes to original songs the Bay Area's own A-1 is coming with flows. It is inspiring to see such a hungry artist eager to hop on the mic. Each song I hear it seems like he out does himself. I really like the passion of his rhymes and the inspiring message. It the homie A-1 with Keep Coastin



also I really like the visual elements in the video, simple raw and definitely added to the song and brought that city flavor.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

...just one of them days that a girl goes thru...

Don't take it personal. Its just one of those days...

So I had a pretty bad day. My lap top got stolen out of my casa while I was at church...sucks! But any shit I got thru is my motivation to grind that much harder. I might be blogging less cuz ill have less access to a computer but no stolen lap top is gonna keep me down...

Saturday, December 12, 2009

GraceFul


Come join the fam of .:IAMANI:. and find your GRACE-
Video Shoot Next Saturday in SAN FRANCISCO...

send me your art made with love

In thinking of the new year I want to have focus in what I create and release, I want to walk in peace, and make art with love. One of the things that I want to do in the next year is have more art on this blog. I have a lot of current art projects in the works but nothing is done and I have been in on non sharing mood (i usually show process stuff all the time but i want to show it when I'm proud of it and its beautiful to me and nothing is quite there).

If your an artist and you want your art feautured please email me a small bio and pictures of your art work, any art shows/events your apart of that you are apart of to LOVE4ARTSINCE87@YAHOO.COM

One Love-Wren

(also friends please email me your address and you will get a custom print in the mail, i also always except inquiries for custom art work-even on a t-shirt-samples coming soon)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Freestyle Friday

I was scrolln thru youtube and wanted to post some freestyle videos. I wanna see more woman freestylen captured on video, cuz i've seen hella talent in freestyle sessions that wasn't recorded, and that is actually a new project of working onHavent done freestyle Friday in a minute but soon i will be posting videos of Bay Area spittas freestylen n coming with it, if your an emcee and you got a freestyle video you want me to post please email it to wrenonelove@gmail.com. Happy Friday Enjoy!

-Wrenagade


Orukusaki Freestylen



..The other dude sounded like an angry misogynistic ignorant comedian, while RukSak came wit flow rythym and style..

Lady Luck Freestyle





(w)renagade freestyle
sounds like it was pre written but i love this beat so i had to post..

his flows goooo!

2pac Freestyle


Bambu Freestyle



Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Lady Spitta Miss Hopie

San Francisco's own HopieSpitshard stays speaking on it! She makes fresh music (produced by 6Fingers) and speaks out on issies within the community (still keeping her sexy). Check out her website for daily posts, music and more. Can't wait to see what this fly Lady Spitta has in store:



Yummy coming Soon
Check www.hopiespitshard.com

Black Girls Rock...


yeah I said it...

'BLACK.GIRLS.ROCK' is the title of the beautiful and talented original:
RES
album
heres her video "Theres no way" via Lil Miss Nobody


Click the Pic Below to Download RES album
Black.Girls.Rock.


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

What does a feminist look like to you?

YOU CAN PAINT ME AS A FEMINIST BUT NO THIS WE COME IN ALL SHADES, SISTERS AND BROTHERS MAKING CHANGE, AIN'T AFRAID TO SHAKE GROUND AND REARRANGE, PROGRESSION IN THIS RECESSION AND AIM, LIKE A SHOT 'CEPT NOT VIOLENT, SPEAKING LOUD NOT SILENT, RESILIENT SOMETIMES MILITANT, PEACEFUL WITH MOVEMENTS THAT HAVE SEQUELS

WHAT DOES A FEMINIST LOOK LIKE TO YOU

YOU CAN PAINT ME AS A FEMINIST BUT KNOW THIS please don't put me in no boxes Im claustrophobic and that obnoxious, found round all people so put those labels down there lethal...

What is a feminist to you? Can she be feminine, can she be traditional? can she rap? can she paint? can she cook? can she think? can she dance? can she wink? can she wear a tight shirt and a short skirt? can she rawk a kangol with some hi top Adidas with a matching fit? can she sew or knit? can she get married? can she love? can she be white? can she look right? can she be black? can she laugh? can she be latina? can she be free? can she be asian? can she be amazing? can (s)he be a dude? can she be from the hood? can she be in the white house? the answers yes and than some, cause a feminist comes in all forms...



I just read Niema Jordans blog post over at "Twenty something Renaissance" and it inspired me to post this blog on What a feminist looks like. Gender Roles and Feminism is something i have written songs, poems, and even reports on, with a vision in my head that i wanted to tare down. I feel like a lot of people feel the Woman's movement is over but as my homegirl Wendy just pointed out to me it hasn't even been 100 years since women got the right to vote. Above is a slide show of images, some kind of random, but they all are feminists, some more controversial, some more famous, some are activists, some are arists, some are rappers, some are my friends, some are men, some are mothers, some are fathers, So make room for new images of what a feminist looks like this is my challenge to you...I'm sure I left some out. What is your view of feminism? Is it limited to people who are active or vocal about Woman's Rights, How has it changed over history, and how is it different amoung different cultures and races?

...The way we walk the way we talk!...

Love Cats:. 1O.ak Performing in LA.Getting it!

Oaktown Native Pride

Despite the view that native people are extinct there is a huge Native community in California and not just on reservations but in our very own urban Bay Area, Oaktown to be exact. From Pow Wows to sunrise ceremonies there are many traditional ceremonies that go on within this community, as well as new ones forming. This year for Thanksgiving I was fortunate enough to attend the Sunrise Ceremony at Alcatraz celebrating forty years since the TakeOver (a huge marker in Native American Activism). We ran into the folks that run the Native magazine SNAG. It was really fresh to hear them talk about how the magazine was formed and what they try to include, and dope that they support local artists and writers. In this economy it must be a struggle to keep an independent magazine running (with major ones dieing). I think it is really a testament to how hard they must work and that it is really for the love of it, which makes it even more dope.

They are having an event this friday that any artist should go to because there will be boards an paint to join in the art making. Please spread the word and come thru,
(the flyer features a Native aritst that is featured in the magazine)
There 6th issue of SNAG magazine features a article entitle "Free Leonard Peltier" :
by Joe Britton

In 1973, a shoot out between the F.B.I. agents and the AIM members took place at the Ogala Sioux Pine Ridge Rezervation. Two F.B.I. agents in separate cars followed a truck with about four AIM members in it because they were looking for a guy who had a warrant out and they thought he was in the truck. The agents followed them to the Jumping Bull property where more than a dozen AIM members were camped. The truck parked and the shoot out started.


About four AIM members were arrested and went to trial and Leonard Peltier was one of them. Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for 33 years and was recently transferred from Louisberg to Canaan Penitentiary. There he was attacked and was brutally beaten by other inmates. A protest was then organized in San Francisco about what had happened to him. The protest was to demand Leonard’s freedom and to have him transferred back to the prison he was at. He was transferred back to Louisberg and was named a hero in the Indian Community.

I think what took place at the Canaan Penitentiary was fixed by officers and the security guards of the prison. Peltier is now going up for parole and I think the system is trying to keep him until he dies. What happened I think was because he is going up for parole and because his people have not forgotten about him and will keep fighting until he is free or at peace. My personal feelings are that because Leonard Peltier is such a huge part of the Indian community they want to keep him locked up until we forget about him and the AIM is no more.

For me and my family to be able to participate in this event was an honor and we are very proud that Indians are still fighting for this individual. It is something that I would get heavily involved with and would put most of my time trying to stay involved. I’m very proud that my family was a part of the rally. It shows my little siblings what is going on in the community and to their people and what they could learn from events like this. Introduce other people to the problem and educate more about what is happening to native people in the prison system. Teaching the younger generation to stand up for their people, and trying to make a difference at the age they are at will make them stronger in the future, and get them more involved in their community events on helping our people out such as the the GONA {gathering of native Americans} and other native resources that help out our families.

Leonard Peltier going up for parole is a huge achievement for us who protested and for the ones that did not lose faith and stop fighting. We were not fighting for nothing and will not stop until he is free. There is still anger from what happened and feelings of racism and unfairness of color of skin. Anger of how many years he lost of his life because of imprisonment. In spite all of this, I think it makes young Natives today stronger and willing to stay together and stand up for their beliefs and their people.

This story by Joe Britton, 17, was featured in SNAG Issue #6. He is Washoe, lives in Hayward and is part of SNAG's workshop team.


Also if check out La Pena for Leonard Peltiers art it's been up for a while and its coming down soon so check it out
...

and check BIG DAN's new video via 38notes:





Whats Good?

Soldier of Love

SADE!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Cause everytime I'm around you want me

.:Rafael Casal DEBUT VIDEO:. GIANT:.


HIS NOTES ON THE VIDEO & SONG ITSELF:
On the day after I dropped my record, one of my students came jogging into my classroom (for a different class) and stopped at the door. He threw his arms up and said "Thank you for GIANT. really? REALLY?" or something to that effect. Until then, I hadn't played that song for much of anyone - I thought it was a bit too "out there" but I liked it and felt it deserved to be on the record. Its simplicity is powerful to me, and we felt we could give it a visual that did it justice. Most importantly, we had a story we thought we could tell, and we here at The Getback love telling stories with our music.


We shot this in 7 hours on a sunday, and stayed up all night editing. We tried so many different techniques and angles to make this work, and in the end we are just happy we could pull off this scale of project(get it, scale??).


It is a fun video to watch for the effects and concept, but there is so much in it to discuss. It continues this dialogue that we hope to provoke about men in transition. The idea of being a MONSTER. Of existing as the absurd, all the while walking amongst each other trying to cloak the incomplete. In this case, investigating THE GIANT. The ego, the superiority complexes and fluctuations in relationships that we all experience. As always, this song is another snapshot of a moment. an angle of humanity without the cloak, materializing through the towering imagery of a giant in need of resizing.


Enjoy,


R

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Oaktown Wrennasance: Oakland In Blue


Its Sunday night, I always get the Sunday night Blues, but Im feeling blessed (a lil stressed) but blessed to be alive Right Now, and in this place Right Here, in this (Pre)sent moment, where grace is all around me, and I Am in the company of some astounding folk, from Emcees, to organizers, singers and all around artistas, beautiful people. Please Check the events put on by FRESH VIBE MEDIA! Ya boi in the video (skip a post down) can be found hosting shows in Up Town and he gets Down with flows, captures by ID who goes (without moving) so in case you have been snoozing Wake Up and check out OAKLAND IN BLUE! this next show has one of my favorite singer/songer writer extrordinaire hailing from San Francisco and residing in Oakland Siaira Shawn...gaurenteed to be a beautiful show. I will be there enjoying the musica, lovely company and collecting emails, please come thru.

if im keeping it 100..


I have a lil girl crush on Ms. Paula Patton. It all started when I was in line at a record store to get Robin Thicke to autograph his album and she was behind me in line (as a sweet surprise which i thought was really cute) she stole my attention (over Denzel) in the movie De JaVu...an then there was her appearance in her husbands music video...it's been an ongoing thing since then.

I think she is an amazing actress and the roles she's cast in just keep getting better and better. I had mixed feeling after talking to folks about the translation from (the Book) 'Push' to 'Precious' but it didn't change the fact that I loved her on screen. I just saw some new photos of this fly girl that I wanted to share, it also goes along with a conversation I was recently having about the double standards of bi-sexuality between men and women. While women are repressed in many ways, we are free to explore our sexuality, admit our attraction to women, and we are never rejected by men and for the most part other women for doing so. But if a man does this he's considered not manly and lets keep it treal How many women want to date a bi-sexual man, or a man that's been with other men? Even in the crazy world of acting this one sided standard occurs: It was not such a huge shock when Alicia Keys or Paula Patton played roles in movies where they were bi or gay, but when a leading man like Will Smith or Heath Ledger plays a gay or bi-sexual man its a big shocker of course..

Here are some photos of the sexy Paula where she poses both femine and masculine:


There were other pictures of her in the more feminine poses but i wasn't feeling them as much. It was very obvious with the contrast that the girly ones were submissive poses and the tom boy ones are empowering (here hair was all messed up and she looked almost injured), whats up with that? not that I have never seen a powerful pose of a woman in a magazine but clearly its still normal and considered sexy to put women in these helpless type looking poses, which i don't find appealing at all. I'm not saying it hasn't improved but just trying to point out the ways we are subjected to these traits attrached to gender roles sometimes without even being aware of it...I think no matter what this girl wear she's beautiful and mostly because of her charisma, heart warming smile, and lovely spirit.

"I think movies do it better than any other form. A movie is painting, it’s photography, it’s literature -- because you have to have the screenplay -- it’s music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it’s a tragedy. A movie combines all those forms and forces you to pay attention for two hours with a group of people. And people aren’t as well-read anymore, so we share a common knowledge through movies" -Paula Patton




Here's the video of Lost Without You:

Heaven Knows...

Heaven Knows By MISTAH FAB

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://mistahfab.bandcamp.com/track/heaven-knows"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Heaven Knows by MISTAH F.A.B.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;g

MistaFabby himself at his best, speaking about the pain of loosing homies to the streets, finding strength to love people who may not treat you with kindness or love.


"I got love for a lot of people I could never see myself hating someone,I dont even hate the person that gave my father AIDS"

Thats a beautiful and positive statement to make. It goes along with the saying that I got from a service at east bay that; "No one is worthy of your hatred but everyone is worthy of your prayer"