SHE heART RISE UP!

Greetings Beautiful People!
Two events that I would be honored to have the present of your presence at 1. An all women art show going down Saturday 26th that I am apart of...we just confirmed along with myself Milani and Dyanamic that Chinaka Hodge will be rawking the mic. and 2. PRECITA EYES art show at Wonderland Gallery in SF. Flyers and more info below...

RSVP (here)

RSVP (here)

Im so honored to be shareing mics with the likes of Chinaka Hodge, Orukusaki, Cio Castaneda, DyanaMic. These two events would not be possible if it wasn't for Mercedes (TRES MERCEDES) and Eli (FREE) two artists themselves working to let the community see some beautiful creation (we) Put our heART into...

LOS RAKAS!

If you dont know, LOS RAKAS is one of my favorite groups bringing a plethora of sounds and lyrics to keep my heart beating to their musica. THE GROUP is composed of DUN DUN (RAKA DUN) aka PANAMA and RICO aka FILTHY RICH (RAKA RICH). With origins from Panama and Africa their sound is World Music, Hip Hop and everything in between. They rep hard for their homeland and the BAY AREA, and it is an honor to know them and I hope work with them soon on many levels. CHECK THEM OUT on MTV2, Youtube and anyother music source. They are on the Up! and yet still so active in the community.

MEChxA de UCB invites our student of color community at Cal to be part of the bridge between the hood and the university with a lunchtime program featuring art by and for Bay Area young people demanding HUMAN RIGHTS for our people

there next event:

LUNCHTIME @ LOWER SPROUL

UC BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

delicious plates of Xicana cuisine!

LOS RAKAS LIVE ON STAGE

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS RAPSTARZ

++ surprise acts TBA this week!

REVOLUTIONARY TRIVIA FOR PRIZES BY XOCHITLCEIVE: FLOWER OF SELF DETERMINATION

MEET AND GREET WITH THE ARTISTS, AUTOGRAPHS, MERCHANDISE AND POSTER SALE feauturing XOCHITLCEIVE (xochitlceive.com) and DIGNIDAD REBELDE (dignidadrebelde.com) FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE

Come thru to enjoy the show, meet + support local artists, share a plate with us, and build relationships with representatives from orgs connected to Cal putting work in the community at the grassroots level.

SPREAD THE WORD AND BRING OUT YOUR FOLKS. This will be an opportunity to kick it and get to know each other as we move towards May 1st, 2010, when we come together demanding migrant rights, workers rights, student rights, human rights to LAND AND LIFE.

To get on the speaking program or request a table for your org, email MEChxAdeUCB@gmail.com

La unión hace la fuerza

Unity is strength

1love!

...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?

Fresh Lady Spittas

Anybody who was there on Sunday at Lukas for the dopeness of female spittas needs to let anyone who thinks there ain't no more female emcees know, they are truly trip'n. This past Sunday was fresh, I went out to support Ms Dom Jones herself and witnessed a star studded performance. Rawnken the stage with covers as well as an orinal song off her project coming out soon 'Keys to My Heart.' With Isis G, Krystle Azul, backing her up, Dom put on a lovely sho showing that she can command a stage vocally, and then along with Talia Talor, Melina Jones, and host Ms. RyanNicole, Dom blessed the mic got the crowd hyped and lyrically spit pure freshness, proving that Lady Spittas can be Champions in the hip hop arena.

The crowd was live, with everone feeling these ladies lovely energy. Dom and Do Dat also did a cover with there own swing to it 'show 'em what ya dont got.' And some of it was captured through the lense of a talented producer and photographer who goes by ID. For all those that were not able to be in the building or wanna check out these black and white flicks that capture some of the magic, here ya go:

Photography (c) from ID
check him out at
www.flickr.com/id510

2 fresh events to not miss

Im super excited about this FRESH STEPS which will feature the homegirl DOM JONES and maybe some guest appearances from other folks in the OaktownFinestSongBirds&spittas crew (shhhh) It goes down this 3rd Sunday @ LUKAS in the Town that is where I will be found...
The second event that's going down in the Town I am just as juiced for, the songstress herself Isis G...

These 2 events are going to be FrESH!!

Oakland in Blue

Its good to be back in the bay and get to see homies rawking stages that I'd usually be missing. Eveywhere I look I'm hearing fly song birds and dope Emcees from Siaira Shawn, Dom Jones, Jennifer Johns, Hopiespitshard, EYEASAGE, BambU, Mystic, Amani, Isis G, and Do DAT...The bay got talent there is always a new event being put together thats lovely and its beauituful to see folks getting Down in the Town. This Sunday will be no exception its going Down, I cant wait! Do Dat himself is having a listening parting for his new album OAKLAND IN BLUE, Come and expect to be in awe of dope flows and a new sound of Jazz and Hip Hop blended in a splendid way. Come check get a lil taste of this DOPE DEPUT ALBUM OAKLAND IN BLUE gaurenteed to be HELLA cool.

the place to BE

BAY AREA---->AIR LOUNGE ms. SIAIRA herself will be performing this is the place to be Monday night. Siaira Shawn is singing new material from her upcoming e.p. "The Outsider Inside" Which what I have heard I love. She will also be singing Happy Birthday to you Leos. I cant wait with this song bird on stage you know its gonna be good music. Come Thru!

if your in LA come thru!!!!!

OFF THE BOOKS------>>> MYSTIC (oooweee im excited) I am very inspired by this fellow Towny songstress as you might be able to tell from some previous posts, so come thru and check it out.

We all We got

...Pow Wow'n in the LBC...

Below is my sis Can'Dace Good-Speed, Georgina Sancez, and myself this weekend at Long Beach State's 39th Pow Wow, Georgina Sanchez-of the Chumash tribe, I am honored to know this amazing woman. She is a writer, story teller, teacher, activist and much more. Some people just shine light on anyone they are around and she does this well.

SATOGOLD- LES ARTISTES

from ill-literacy.com: ILL-EVENT in SF: 10/7 - Santogold @ the Fillmore-You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why: Saaaaaaantogold is coming to town! After touring opening for Bjork and Coldplay, the dopest human chameleon finally headlines a set in the Bay, along with Mates of State, Alice Smith, and Low VS Diamond. Everyone who isn’t allergic to neon sunglasses should be there.))))

SATOGOLD

straight from her myspace page:
Santogold is a survivor of a half century worth of living along musical evolution’s most cutting edges. The only live act that can boast of having out-aged Barbara Bush, having outlived Mr. Miyagi and out styled Liberace, Santogold is here with future flavor.

Already receiving weighty club rotation and airplay in urban Afghanistan and downtown Beirut, Santogold is the first act of the century to boast a post-war following on the International Space Station Mir. Following a live performance broadcast from three thousand miles off the Cape of Good Hope last June, inmates at Leavenworth Penitentiary received Santogold with a celebratory confetti parade. Just another first for the modern super group that knows no bound.

Composed of absolutely no members, Santogold is also the first musical outfit capable of claiming the planet’s broiling collective consciousness as their front woman. Longtime collaborator, singer and songwriter Santi White says of her work with Santogold, “We began trying to write pop songs to sell, which made us depressed, so we started writing songs for ourselves instead.” The results of that self centered conceit is the songwriting work heard for the first time on the full length self-titled Santogold album, released in 2008 on Downtown/Lizard King (US) and Atlantic (UK).

As unmastered tracks leaked over the internet this past November, the request lines of radio stations from Miami to Hanoi began freezing with a flood of calls from listeners eager to hear the new Santogold sound over their frequencies. From his radio show in the United Arab Emirates capital city of Abu Dhabi, Michael Jackson (the King of Pop) played what Santogold snippets he had been able to pirate from a bootleg MySpace page dedicated to the group. Days later, BBC Radio One reported that the unreleased Santogold debut was heard blasting from the iPod shuffle of Libyan ruler Moammar Qaddafi as he entered an international summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Recognizing the urgent need to address the uproarious buzz, Santogold released the following statement through their label reps : “The response to our unmastered songs has been both premature and phenomenal! We were happy to hear that the children of Darfur have found hope in our melodic interpretation of life on the battlefield of love! We’re hoping that each and every 20-something from downtown San Francisco to central Mumbai will also learn something from our work! And to the people dropping no-knock fire on old ladies in Atlanta: shame on you! Santogold ain’t with that shit!”

The trajectory of such early successes leading to newfound political clout is nothing new for Santogold, whose debut album, though half a century in the making, is sure to rock glass pipes from the Lincoln Memorial to Buckingham palace. The flavor of the gold is guaranteed: Santogold!

Click here to listen