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Update #6: The People's Inauguration: Poetry & Dialogue on the one-year anniversary of Obama's Inauguration
The People's Inauguration: Poetry & Dialogue on the one-year anniversary of Obama's Inauguration
kahlil almustafa, The People’s Poet and author of From Auction Block to Oval Office leads an interactive event combining performance poetry and critical dialogue commemorating the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration.
When: January 20th, 2010
Where: The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space
44 Charlton Street (on the corner of Charlton and Varick) New York, New York 10014
Time: Doors 6:30pm, Poetry & Panel 7pm
Streamed Live: www.MVMT.com
Go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/532616069 to Register.
Panelists include:
* Rosa Clemente - 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential Candidate
* Cindy Sheehan - author of "Not One More Mother's Child"
* Michael Skolnik - Political Director to Russell Simmons & Editor for GlobalGrind.com
From Auction Block to Oval Office Book CoverAbout the event:
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Obama's inauguration, kahlil almustafa, The People's Poet, leads an interactive session combining performance poetry and critical dialogue. Reading from his fifth collection of poetry, FROM AUCTION BLOCK TO OVAL OFFICE: 100 POEMS IN 100 DAYS OF OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY (MVMT Publishing, January 2010) kahlil explores the hopes, fears, contradictions and complexity which come with the election of the United States’ first African-American president.
Written in the voice of a young, African-American male, a romantic revolutionary, and an intellectual, these poems capture a nation teetering between danger and opportunity, cynicism and hope.
"kahlil almustafa’s poems are extraordinary in their political complexity and aesthetic sensibility. His language in From Auction Block to Oval Office is crystal-clear and the ideas are continually provocative."
- Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States
This event will be interactive. The panel will respond to the critical questions raised by the poems. Audience members will have the opportunity to create their own poems. Panelists to be announced. This event will be streamed live on www.MVMT.com
Some of the questions to be addressed:
* How do we create a space for people to express the ways Barack Obama has inspired them and create a space for principled criticism?
* Is this the closing of a chapter in the American narrative beginning with the auction block and concluding with the Obamas in the White House? Or is the narrative of African enslavement being used to promote the idea of America perfecting its democracy?
* It has been said that the Hip-Hop generation greatly impacted the election in 2008. How has the Hip Hop generation been impacted by the campaign, Obama’s presidency, and how will the Hip-Hop generation continue to be engaged?
The event is powered by the Mighty Mighty MVMT
Update #5: Quote from Howard Zinn
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Posted on December 31, 2009
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Update #4: Sample Poems: Days 1-7
Day 1: January 21st 2009
Along with millions
of other hope-
filled Americans
i tune into
America’s latest reality
television show: Black Prez –
From Auction
Block to Oval Office
Day 2: January 22nd 2009
Martin would celebrate
this victory and in the same
breath speak out
against injustice. i can
hear his voice trembling
comparing the bombing
of children in the West
Bank to Four Little
Girls in an Alabama
church. From the pulpit
he would say, keep
marching and WE would
listen.
Day 3: January 23rd 2009
the dolls are coming –
The Obamas – collect
the whole set:
michelle, barack,
the kids, the dog.
Limited time
offer. You could own your First
Family today.
Day 4: January 24th 2009
i hope Barack Obama’s presidency
will help my family accept my wife
Maybe they will be able to imagine
the possibility
of a genuine
Black/White love relationship.
Day 5: January 25th 2009
There is no memory
of firehoses in Barack
Obama’s DNA,
no memory
of women moaning
at the bottom
of slave ships. In
the crowds of millions
gathered there is
no evidence of my parents
ever being here. i am
a survivor who dares to be
a witness.
Day 6: January 26th 2009
Today i woke up with that
Barack Obama swagger
i kissed my wife
scanned the day’s news
hit my desk without missing a beat
greeted everyone by their first names
flashed smiles, shook hands
and dished out low-fives when appropriate.
i negotiated every encounter with
YES-but-how-‘bout-this
and got my way.
At the end of the day
i came around Secret Service picks
and shot jumpshots left-handed
came home
played with my kids
and made sure my lady
went to bed with a smile.
Day 7: January 27th 2009
This was no election
This was
a pep-rally
for imperialism
Update #3: January 20, 2010: The People's Inauguration
The President of the United States announced his decision to deploy 30,000 young women and men to war in Afghanistan. In response, MVMT is mobilizing 30,000 Motivated Vehicles to build themselves and their communities, here at home.
MVMT has implemented an action-based program to empower people to one, Grow Community First, two, Get Committed, by making individual and collective goals, and three, Get Organized.
We are claiming January 20th, 2010 as "The People's Inauguration." To commemorate this occasion we will be taking over the airwaves by streaming online live for 24 hours. We are looking for motivated individuals to join us now.
See you January 20th, 2010, "The People's Inauguration."
Update #2: The 100 Poems Process
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Posted on November 23, 2009
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29
Backers
$3,010
pledged of $3,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 20, 2010.
Pledge $3 or more Pledge $3 or more
For a $3 donation, receive behind-the scenes of the publishing process. Donors will also receive access to a reading streamed online of the complete 100 Poems series
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
For a $10 donation, receive a digital PDF file and behind-the scenes of the publishing process. Donors will also receive access to a reading streamed online of the complete 100 Poems series.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
For a $25 donation, receive an autographed copy of the Limited Edition first printing and behind-the scenes of the publishing process. Donors will also receive access to a reading streamed online of the complete 100 Poems series.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
For a $100 donation, receive an autographed copy and your name printed in the Inaugural Edition, and behind-the scenes of the publishing process. Donors will also receive access to a reading streamed online of the complete 100 Poems series.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
Backers of $1,000 or more will receive all of the above, a Private Reading in their homes and an autographed poster of the book cover.
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kahlil almustafa is known as the People’s Poet, whether for a mass rally of hundreds of people, a nightclub, church, university or a backyard family reunion. almustafa is the 2002 Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion and the author of four book of poetry and his debut CD CounterIntelligence. His collection of 15 years of poetry, Growing Up Hip-Hop, is used in classrooms from the elementary to the university level.
In 2008, he was selected by the Hip-Hop Theater Festival as a grantee of the Future Aesthetics Artist Re-grant (FAAR), funded by the Ford Foundation. He is also a recipient of The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) grant which receives funding from The Rockefeller Foundation's Cultural Innovation Fund. almustafa is graduate school candidate in the MFA Interdisciplinary Arts program.
almustafa recently completed the “100 Poems For 100 Days” project where he wrote 100 poems in the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency soon to be published in a collection of poems entitled, From Auction Block to Oval Office. In addition to writing poetry, almustafa also conducted Living Room Readings where he went into people’s homes and had participants to write “Barack Obama Inauguration Speech Remix Poems.” He uses poetry to engage with communities in critical dialogue.
