Be-Side

(Hear) by the River: Reflections of Albuquerque - Portrait of...

Fri, 18 May 2012 06:42:38 -0600

(Hear) by the River: Reflections of Albuquerque - Portrait of Hakim Bellamy

Hear By the River is a digital mural that introduces the many characters and communities that give Albuquerque its unique flavor. The mural is located in the heart of downtown Albuquerque in the Convention Center and was commissioned as part of the 2012 New Mexico Centennial Celebration. Created in collaboration with Working Classroom, The School of Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Museum of Mexican Art, this matrix video wall is a joining of a strong mural tradition in Albuquerque and new digital storytelling techniques.

Like what you see so far? Please, donate here: workingclassroom.org/donations/

Lead Artists:
Mark Anderson, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Eric García, The National Museum of Mexican Art
Michael Lorenzo Lopez, Working Classroom

Working Classroom:
Quela Bruch, student apprentice
Alejandra Carmona, student apprentice
Carlos Gabaldon, student apprentice
Aron Kruchoski, student apprentice
Lizbeth Miscles, student apprentice

I am continually grateful to this community for allowing me to...

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:59:00 -0600

I am continually grateful to this community for allowing me to be the vehicle for which “artistic creation” and “dreams” have been given a prominent presence in the media. Now, (the business part) if you are a foundation, philanthropist, angel investor in social entrepreneurship or a venture capitalist…PLEASE contact me. I peddle in dreams and I specialize in making them come true…preferably for others…and if I am lucky, for myself.

Thank you Adrian Gomez and Pat Vasquez-Cunningham of the Albuquerque Journal.

You can click through the picture to the story at ABQJournal.com or you can read the article text below. - hb

VIVID DREAMS

by Adrian Gomez

Hyper-creative. Dreamer. Passionate. These words are what Hakim Bellamy uses to describe himself.

“I’m an idea factory,” he quips during a recent interview. “I have the visions, but it takes an entire group of people help me fulfill these visions. Other people have venture capitalists. I’m a dream capitalist.”

Bellamy, a New Jersey native but an Albuquerque resident since 2005, was on April 14 named Albuquerque’s poet laureate, the city’s first.

With the announcement the Duke City joins the ranks of Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Santa Fe as cities with poet laureates. There are also 42 states, New Mexico being one, that have state-level poet laureates.

“It’s a big deal and I take the honor very seriously,” he says. “There’s an opportunity for me to set the standard with this position. I have the honor for two years and I have to just get going.”

With the addition of poet laureate, Bellamy has to balance a few other titles with it — community leader, visionary, writer and dad.

“I feel like I’m always going, but that’s a good feeling to have,” he says. “There’s always time for my poetry at 3 a.m. when the entire world is quiet.”

Bellamy’s first task at hand is bringing poetry into the public schools.

“My goal is to make poetry matter to people and places it doesn’t matter,” he says. “We have to get children involved with poetry at a young age just so they experience it.”

One of Bellamy’s goals is to have poetry included in more city activities.

“I want more people to be comfortable with consuming poetry,” he says. “I want to get local businesses involved in putting poetry out there. Maybe go to your favorite eatery and see a poem posted at the front.”

Bellamy also wants to instill that fact that everybody’s life is interesting.

“I talk with kids and they think that there is nothing to say about their life,” he explains. “But each life is unique and interesting. That’s what makes this world great. You can grow up in the same town or household, yet have a different view to life.”

While Bellamy is proud of the honor of poet laureate, he admits there was a point when he wasn’t going to apply. He was asked to be part of the committee that chooses the winner but declined.

“There was a point when I felt because I wasn’t a native New Mexican, I didn’t deserve to apply,” he says. “I talked to my friend Carlos Contreras about it and then I started getting calls from other poets encouraging me to apply.”

Bellamy says the process was rigorous and detailed.

“There were so many parts that I wanted to get it all done correctly,” he says.

Don McIver, a member of the organizing committee for the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program, says after the rigourous application process, there were six complete applications. The Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program celebrates poetry by offering a resident poet who makes meaningful connections, honors and serves our diverse community, elevates the importance of the art form, and shares poetry with Albuquerque residents.

“Hakim is a great choice for poet laureate,” McIver says. “Not only is a he a good poet, a good performer, but he understands the public role a poet laureate must play in service to the larger poetry community and Albuquerque.”

Bellamy is certainly no stranger to the poetry scene in Albuquerque, and it all started after he followed his then-girlfriend to the Duke City.

He is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at the University of New Mexico.

He has been published in various anthologies in Albuquerque and is the co-creator of the multimedia hip-hop theater production “Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater.”

“When I moved here, I wanted to immerse myself in everything,” he says. “Seven years later, I’m still immersed in all of it and I’m still enjoying myself. I miss the ocean at times but now I’ve got mountains.”

Bellamy says he got interested in poetry at a young age and credits his parents with the influence.

“They were reading Gil Scott-Heron and listening to Sly and the Family Stone when I was growing up,” he says. “But then as I was growing up, I started listening to more hip-hop and rap and loved the words of A Tribe Called Quest and bands like those. They were rapping and giving me a glimpse into their life without the profanity. I was instantly hooked.”

As Bellamy moves forward with his new position, he hopes to positively represent the city.

“It’s going to be a lot of work, and raising money for functions is the biggest challenge,” he says. “The truth is that it takes a lot of people to help me balance everything that I do and I am grateful to have them in my life.”

In addition to Bellamy taking on this new responsibility, he also will keep his day job as the strategic communications director for the Media Literacy Project at Albuquerque Academy.

“The job helps keep the academic side of me intact,” he says. “I get to delve into creating curriculum for future students, and that’s an amazing feeling.”

Congratulations and Acknowledgment from the Senate of the NM...

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:55:54 -0600

Congratulations and Acknowledgment from the Senate of the NM State Legislature…to be shared with the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program (APLP) organizing committee and founding sponsors. It was you, not me, who made the Albuquerque poet laureate a possibility! You, who made me feel like I’ve done the impossible. Thank you APLP organizing committee for your dedication, work and persistence. Thank YOU, Senator Tim Keller, for initiating this recognition. Lastly, we also thank the Senate of New Mexico’s 50th Legislature for following suit.

-Hakim Bellamy

Albuquerque Poet Laureate

"Literacy Test AKA The New Jim Crow" is published by Counter Punch!

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:50:00 -0600

"Literacy Test AKA The New Jim Crow" is published by Counter Punch!:

(Written for the Librotraficante Caravan Press Conference in Albuquerque in response to the ban of books & ethnic studies in Arizona.)

Photo by Wes Naman/Naman Photography Click the pic to link...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:33:12 -0600

Photo by Wes Naman/Naman Photography

Click the pic to link through to the article at www.local-iq.com

Be boys?  B-Girls be present.  Past and future . Dance up a revolution of record proportions.  Wrecking rotations.

— Hakim Bellamy, “Forty-Fives”

By Mike English

Poet laureates. Old white men. Robert Frost in a snowy field. Starched suits and ties. Women wordsmiths in tailored dresses, clutching podiums. Albuquerque’s new poet laureate breaks that mold — shatters it, really, then dances on the pieces.

Hakim Bellamy, 33, Philadelphia native and New Mexico resident since 2005, was recently selected to represent the Duke City as its first-ever official poet laureate. Bellamy’s two-year tenure started April 14.

It’s a development that lands Albuquerque in league with cities like Boston, San Francisco and even Santa Fe — all municipalities that recognize the cultural significance of poetry by naming a poet laureate. And it’s a title Bellamy accepts with humility, as well as the determination to serve his colleagues and community by doing all he can to raise the profile of poetry in the city over the next two years.

“I’m a poet in the service of Albuquerque now,” Bellamy said in a recent interview with Local iQ.

Most would say he’s been that ever since he arrived in town. Bellamy, who works a day job as the strategic communications director for the Media Literacy Project at Albuquerque Academy, is a two-time national champion in the poetry slam scene, and helped lead the Albuquerque Slam team to a national title in 2005. He regularly works with children and adults by conducting poetry workshops and presentations at schools and community organizations.

You’re just as likely to see Bellamy in front of a group of South Valley fourth graders, or promoting the work of a community-focused nonprofit via social media, as you are to see him on stage performing his own poetry. It’s an impressive combination: a dynamic, engaging performer and wordsmith who cares deeply for his adopted hometown and works for the well-being of others who live here.

“I love Hakim,” said Don McIver, longtime Albuquerque poet and member of the organizing committee for the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program, the organization that chose Bellamy as poet laureate. “I find Hakim engaging, warm, willing to speak with conviction, yet diplomatic.”

What’s more, McIver said, Bellamy is a talented spinner of verses. “As a poet, he’s keenly in tune with rhythm and how the flow of the poem can help/hinder an audience’s interpretation of it,” McIver said. “As a performer, he’s got a great stage presence, is at ease and open.”

Bellamy said he got his literary, artistic and performance skills from an upbringing of “artistic militancy” provided by his parents Edward and Carlease, who pushed him to attend everything from tap and flute lessons to performances of The Nutcracker. The family’s collection of records (Gil Scott Heron, Sly and the Family Stone) and books opened a world of rhymes, sounds and ideas.

His first forays into word-craft were rhymes over beat tapes that he and friends shared back and forth. “That gave us a love for writing, a passion for language and voice,” he said. Then he saw Def Poetry Jam on HBO, and there were “these cats making it big time doing exactly what I do.” Bellamy’s path began to take shape.

When a girlfriend pushed him on stage one night to read his poetry at a Philadelphia event, the response from the audience was immediately positive. While he resisted the compliments, “At that point, I was like, maybe I could be a poet,” Bellamy said.

The girlfriend moved to Albuquerque, and he followed. Bellamy showed up at an Albuquerque Slam event at the Golden West Saloon one night in 2005, competed and won. Soon he was a key member of an Albuquerque Slam team that would win a national title. His path was set.

Now when Bellamy shows up at events around town, what he often hears is, “You’re the poet dude.” It’s a label he embraces, but as poet laureate, he wants to stimulate a discussion and raise the profile of poetry in Albuquerque. That’s his primary goal.

“I want to challenge notions about what poetry is and what a poet is,” Bellamy said. “Being the populist I am, I want more people in the game.”

Hakim Bellamy

Albuquerque Poet Laureate

hakimbe.com • abqpoetlaureate.org

Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque’s Acceptance “Thanks” “I...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:35:00 -0600

Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque’s Acceptance “Thanks”

“I don’t think I ever wanted to be a writer,” said June Jordan, by many accounts the most published African American writer in history. “I thought I was a poet, very early on. And I thought I probably stayed a poet. In other words, the writing I’ve done other than poetry came much later, and I’ve never thought about myself other than a poet really. No matter whether I was writing libretto or a political essay or even the one novel that I put out here…I was a poet doing these things. Rather than now I am a journalist or now I’ve become a librettist. No, I was just a poet doing these things.”

In a history of marginalizing achievement by people of color, years of saying Langston Hughes or June Jordan are Great American “Black” Writers…rather than just Great AMERICAN writers…I commend Albuquerque and just want to acknowledge the moment in that context. Deeply honored to be able to tell my grandchildren that I wasn’t just the 1st BLACK poet laureate of Albuquerque…I was the first poet laureate of Albuquerque.

And I’m fortunate, not because I am 33 years young and have been given this recognition of Laureate that some people write their entire lives for. Phillis Wheatley became the first African American poet published in 1767 at age 13 for her poem “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin.” That, is young. THAT’s an accomplishment.

I am humbled, by Albuquerque’s ability to see me as a musician, an actor, a scholar, a journalist, a playwright and an organizer, but at the and of the day, like June…I’m just a poet doing all these things. And that is what makes this particular appointment so special to me. The root of everything I do in this community grew from planting my shifty, shaking legs on stages at poetry slams. Sitting my butt in seats at readings by some of the best poets in the world, two whose company I share today (Mary Oishi and Damien Flores). I’ve been allowed to share the stage with some of the biggest New Mexico legacies, poets recognized by the literary canon and the ivory tower, and that opportunity, privilege, and mentorship has put me in the position to fill these shoes of unfathomable size.

I am blessed to be here with you this morning, while my youngest brother, Tyler, kicks off his third season as a professional soccer player in Los Angeles and my only son, Kaylem, kicks a soccer ball at his 3rd soccer game ever in the Northeast Heights. My middle brother, Rasheed, who shares my love of poetry and Kaylem. My surrogate blood brothers of dream and ink, Carlos Contreras and Colin Hazelbaker. And of course God and My parents Rick and Carlease, who are wholly responsible for what Albuquerque has had to put up with for the past seven years. To my other son, Tobey, who I’ve forced to sit through way too many a long poetry reading. And to the mother of my boys, Tracey, who literally gave me to Albuquerque.

This is not an acceptance speech, as much as it is a thank you. When my Fairy Slam Father, Don McIver presented me with the news. I wasn’t my usual, annoyingly animated self. I was relieved. Joyed, like I had left my all on track, given everything to the steeple chase and I was finally crossing the finish line. And though this appointment is just the beginning, the launch of an opportunity to serve. I had the ecstatic relief, like that of my Mother calling me and telling me that her plane has landed safely. The opportunity to deflate a bit. To bask in THIS moment of thanks that my City has extended me. All the time away from my son, my partner, my studies and myself, have not gone unnoticed. So I’m extremely humbled and thankful, for the “thank you.”

But by accepting this position, I have a job to do. Sure, there’s the ambassadorship of this position that tasks me with representing all you. From form poets to freestylists, first poem to fifth book, real loud to real quiet, real long to real short. White, Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, Other, LGBTQ, “I & U.” And I do. That’s the vow I exchange with you. However, my larger duty is less about OUR poetry, more about theirs…more about how we make poetry matter in the lives of people it doesn’t already matter to. Because we already know that poetry doesn’t just help us value each other and the world around us, it helps us value ourselves. And every person, every voice, in our city, is valuable. I think the Laureate’s job is to remind us of that, and I can’t do it alone…never could…so I’m going to need your help.

“Pour dire tout, il faudrait savoir toutes les langues,” says Ranier Maria Rilke. To say everything, one would need to know every language. And I confess, I do not. My Spanish is horrible, and my English ain’t too good neither. However, I will do my best to solicit poetry from every willing tongue. I’m less concerned with how the poetry sounds or looks or what it wins or loses, I’m more concerned with how it makes us feel. To me, good poetry makes us feel. Some think it foolish to think we can better our world with poetry, however when you consider poetry simply as a way of sharing each other. It doesn’t seem too farfetched to believe that we can at least make our community better by knowing each other better. So Mr. Mayor, Centennial Poet, current and former Santa Fe laureate, esteemed selection committee, founding sponsors, family and friends. Thank you for recognizing that I’ve given up a lot to get here…and I accept, with no reservations, the challenge of giving up more. I love you Kaylem Mikah Bellamy and I love you Albuquerque.

Thank You.

Blow on Trayvon Martin: A Conversation with the New York...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:21:00 -0600

Blow on Trayvon Martin
: A Conversation with the New York Times

(Listen to the audio of me reading it at Soundcloud above the pic.)

The “boying” of Black men
Knows no age

This is ageless
Been happening for years

There is no graduation
From skin color
Grades won’t get me out

In prison
At best
Straight A’s get “Good Behavior”
“Good Boy”
Not a guarantee
Not justice

As it should
In February
His mother
Will place
18 candles on a cake
That will wax
Smoking entry wounds
Down to the plate
As she celebrates both
The month he was born
And the month
He became Black History

And he
Was Black History
Made history
Red, white and brown
Or otherwise

Timeless
Like the “boying” of Black Men
There is no legal age
Only legal limits
The right to booze
Smoke or check a square
Never made him more a man
Neither did White neighborhoods
White shorts
Or White women

From O.J. to Trayvon
Brother Journalist
Asks America
If we made progress
Like O.J. and Trayvon had Anything
In common

Born the year
Of O.J.’s acquittal
17 years since
His trial
And Zimmerman’s lack there of

Brother Journalist
Wasn’t pointing out
How the crimes were different
He was pointing out
How we isn’t

Is this another O.J. moment for America?

Do we need another poll
To tell us that
Being Black in America
Is different than being white?

To tell me
That most Blacks
Think that George Zimmerman
Is guilty of a crime

To tell me that
We ain’t “boyz”

To tell me
That I believe
That he would have been arrested on the spot
If he shot a White person

Ask Plaxico Burress, Gallup Poll!
A Black person’ll get arrested for shooting they damn self!

The only time we get polled
Other than to tell us “We don’t count”
Is when we get sent to polls
That don’t count us

O.J. and Trayvon
Were as common
As their single mothers
Who believed they could work enough jobs
To love their Black sons
Away from jail and death

That’s where the commonalities end.

Trayvon knew he was different
The Retreat At Twin Lakes in Sanford
Didn’t even smell the same color
As the cocinas in Miami Gardens

When he visited Dad
And Dad’s fiancee
In her gated community
He stood out
Like O.J. Simpson
On a high school football practice field

Trayvon was different
He was never a boy
Playing a man’s game
He learned he could never
Outrun his race

Cause it doesn’t matter
How fast you can run
Only how fast you can run … with a ball

George Zimmerman didn’t need a white Bronco to avoid arrest
All he needed to walk
Was his white skin

Was the boy with the candy
Given the same presumption of innocence
As the man with the gun?

“These guys always get away,” he said
Before he Stood Trayvon’s Ground
Stratling the
Finally quiet
Teenage body
Slumped
Beneath him

Bloody gloves didn’t get the job done
So now,
It’s bloody hoodies

Use words like “Neighborhood Watch”
To let us know what time it is

So I tell my Black son
“Trayvon’s birthday cake
Only had a couple more candles than yours.
Now he’s gone.
Put out like a fire hazard…

But remember what he looks like

And know that he got killed
For hanging out.”

And his neighborhood was the noose

Our country has been strung out on race
Since the Summer of 1919

1995
“If he wasn’t guilty, why did O.J. run?”

2012
“If he’s not guilty, why is Zimmerman A.W.O.L.?”

“Well,
Why did Trayvon run if he was innocent?”

Because that’s what we do
The price we pay is so high
We couldn’t afford to sell out
If we wanted to

Not even O.J.

Due process
And Do Karma
Are as different as
O.J. and Trayvon

America is the same
As O.J. and George Zimmerman
Just different colors…

Yes,
Gallup Poll
I want to put George Zimmerman in a box
Not because he’s dead
But because he is broken

I want to return him
To the America he was made in

I don’t want a refund
I want service

I don’t want corrections
I want justice

Because you made
George Zimmerman, America
So only you can fix him

And there will be less O.J.s
And there will be less Trayvons
And we’ll all be different

But at least
At Least…

We’ll all be treated the same.

Copyright Hakim Bellamy April 11, 2012

Read the New York Times article “From O.J. to Trayvon” by Charles Blow here.

"Love Song" by Hakim Be currently being workshopped @ The Typing Tank Online Literary Magazine

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:30:29 -0600

Love Song.

By Hakim Bellamy Visit his website by clicking here.

Writing love songs
Makes one think less
About the sex
They wish they were having

Breath
Hot, heaving, heavy
And relatively unused

Sits frustrated
And lonely
In lungs
Waiting

Waiting for a chance
To make it

Beautiful music

Make out
A way
Escape
To its preferred destination

Behind her ear
The condensation
Humidity of hym

Waiting
To wail
Against walls
And neighbor’s sense
Of what’s decent

Only the sex starved
Distaste the sound
Of human’s feeding off
Each other

My breath
Is waiting

To mate with music
In order to sound
Less desperate
More romantic

Because love songs
Make one think less

About the mornings
We give in to
Too easily

The nights
We no longer
Keep for ourselves

Our bodies
We find easier
To give to work
And worry
And war

Than to
Our partners
And wants
And love

Love songs
Make us
Think less
About sex

More about
The world
We put between
Our souls

That can’t
Get any closer
Than they are
When we’re not clothed

The practice
Of pushing poems into
And pumping poems
Out of one another

Get scrapped
Like every art
When budget cuts
A comin’
And us
Uncomely

Our sheets
Musicless
Resembling
A poet’s
Blank rage

You used to
Sing everyday
And that’s something
The love songs
Can’t replace

We slave
For everything
But love
These days

And that’s a shame

I long
For the days of
Sex-fest in bed
Where we forgot to eat
And fucked
A whole day
Off the end of the week

Now
All the things
We forget about
When we’re having sex
Are what we remember
And forget about
Having sex…

So I’m up late
And burning sole

Lighting lyrics instead

Keeping my
Art beat
Beating on
Your porch

Til you return
To the rocking chair
Of our relationship
And we share
Our bodies
Under the light
Left on for you

Your ear
To the vault of my heart
Tongue to belly
Unbuttoned
And unlocked

In my chest
You’ll find
A pile
Of unpublished
Songs
On fire

Next to
A metronome
Maintaining the
Rhythm of the last time
You let go
You went soul
Damn you could blow…

In the key
You forgot.

Making love
Is an art
Passion
Is not a plan
It’s a priority

There’s no
Love song
More seductive
Than “I
Want to Fuck you
Right now…”

Tomorrow
Can wait
Until we finish
Worshipping today

We are promised
To each other
Though
Tomorrow is not

There is no
Amount of sleep
That can make tomorrow
Feel better
Than the sleep
We can lose
Right now

Make longer
The enjoyable
Ride of our lives
By two
Horizontal hours

There’s nothing
We have to do
Tomorrow
More important
Than who
We aren’t doing
Right now

I don’t want
To have time
To write songs
About why
I have time
To write
Love songs

Unless you
Are singing again…?

I’d rather
Be having sex
To think less
About the songs
I wish I was writing

About the love
We’re never too tired for
The love
We never get tired of
The love
We keep on re-writing
In lyrics
All over her body
In lipstick
All over my body
In liquid
All over our bodies

Evaporating
And re-writing
Waking
And re-writing

And
Re-writing.

Visit The Typing Tank at www.theypingtank.com

2bers & Urban Verbs tomorrow @ 7pm! 1st 40 in the door get FREE Album Donwloads from Urban Verbs!

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:16:00 -0600

2bers & Urban Verbs tomorrow @ 7pm! 1st 40 in the door get FREE Album Donwloads from Urban Verbs!:

Thanks to my man Artis Jackson at Nightvision for posting a blog on the 2bers DIG Album Release Concert & Benefit tomorrow at the Historic El Rey Theater in Albuquerque. Urban Verbs just announced that the FIRST 40 FOLKS IN THE DOOR WILL RECEIVE FREE ALBUM DOWNLOADS BY ALL THREE MEMBERS OF URBAN VERBS! #BOOYAH

Just as the feeling of being appreciated never gets old, there...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:23:00 -0600

Just as the feeling of being appreciated never gets old, there is no such things as “over doing it” with the practice of humility and giving thanks. Thank you Weekly Alibi readers and thank you Albuquerque. You don’t just encourage me to do what I love, you allow me to do it.

In the company of Levi Romero and Mary Oishi (two poets I look up to and am inspired by), I am thrilled to be considered “Best Poet” beyond the box (limitations) of slam poetry AS a slam poet. Thank you for doing more than accepting me, Albuquerque. Thank you for celebrating me. I thank God for you everyday, Burque. I am humbled and privileged to enjoy the mutual crush we have on each other…I hope it lasts forever. xoxo

Go Green. Go “Be”. Or as the saying...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:31:06 -0600

Go Green. Go “Be”.

Or as the saying goes…”Once you go ‘Be’, you never go back!”…or something like that.

Support New Mexico Businesses (BEyond POETry LLC), Artists (me) and 4 year old offspring (my son)…BUY LOCAL!

And for the “old school” types who still only have a CD player in their cars…we are working out the details of having 2nd run of these “sold out” CD at Talking Fountain in Albuquerque.

Making a Scene.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:17:21 -0600

Making a Scene.

Behind the scenes.

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:13:46 -0600

Behind the scenes.

for immediate...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:44:00 -0600

for immediate release Contact: Collin Troy 505.803.5210

BURQUE MUSIC LEGENDS BUILD COMMUNITY THROUGH MUSIC:

2bers album release concert to benefit local charter school,

civil rights organizations

Albuquerque, New Mexico—27 March 2012—On Saturday, April 7th at the Historic El Rey Theater, 2bers will release their new album DIG. Proceeds from the album release concert will benefit the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School, Equality New Mexico, and the Albuquerque Center on Peace and Justice.

Never too young to be legends, the Burque hip hop pioneers have been innovating the community’s music for over ten years and now they plan to innovate the community itself.

By partnering with nonprofits, they are creating the opportunity to bring their community-centered art to a new, like-minded audience. This DIY (Do-It-Yourself) model is not simply a “buy local” mantra (though that is encouraged); it is a “give local,” “party local,” and “live local” concept that creates community rather than profits off it. “We’re trying to take things to new level,” says Collin Troy of 2bers, “not only for ourselves, but for the city itself.”

“Hip hop music has been a positive force in our lives and it still is for emerging generations” says Troy. “It’s a resource and tool to create change and our job as artists is to be an example of how hip hop can be a community resource.”

The April 7th album release concert at the Historic El Rey Theater will open with a full theatrical performance of Urban Verbs: Hip Hop Conservatory & Theater. Feature performance by veteran bands La Junta and Zoology will follow, along with New Mexico’s all-female percussion band, Mala Maña. This is an all-ages event. Doors open at 6:00pm. Tickets are $7 student/$10 pre-sale/$12 day of.

Learn more about the 2bers at www.2bers.com

###

Librotraficante Press Conference and Reading, March 15, 7pm,...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:28:07 -0600

Librotraficante Press Conference and Reading, March 15, 7pm, National Hispanic Cultural Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Amanda Sutton

Albuquerque Cultural Conference

505-400-3898

amanda@westendpress.org

ALBUQUERQUE—On March 15, a caravan of self-proclaimed “book smugglers,” calling themselves “Librotraficante,” stops in Albuquerque en route to Tucson, in protest of the recent ban on Mexican-American literature by the Tucson Unified School District.

Houston writers Tony Diaz and Liana Lopez, hosts of the radio show “Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say,” have teamed up with other concerned writers to plan the caravan route, which stops in Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque before staging events in Tucson over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

In each city on the route, Librotraficante is working with local organizers to set up “underground libraries,” which will house copies of each banned book on the TUSD Mexican-American Studies reading list. In Albuquerque, Los Jardines Institute will house the underground library. Attendees to the March 15 event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center are encouraged to bring books to donate or to buy books onsite to be donated.

The Librotraficante caravan includes Dagoberto Gilb, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and a host of local writers who will join in for a press conference and reading 7pm, March 15, at the NHCC. Media are invited to attend both the press conference and the reading. Librotraficante has already been featured on Democracy Now!, New York Daily News, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and dozens of other regional newspapers and radio shows.

Readers for the March 15 NHCC event are: Dagoberto Gilb, Tony Diaz, Zelene Suchilt, Gabriel Carmona, Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Levi Romero, Margaret Randall, Andrea Serrano, Mary Oishi, Tanaya Winder, Hakim Bellamy, Richard Vargas, Gary Brower, Tony Mares, Cathy Arellano, and Bill Nevins.

NOTE FOR MEDIA: Albuquerque media are invited to join in the press conference at the NHCC, 1701 4th Street. Please convene by 6:30 in the NHCC library. For details, contact Amanda Sutton via phone or email: 505-400-3898 or amanda@westendpress.org.

more info: www.librotraficante.com

on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Librotraficante/140350906082782

We’ll keep it short, simple and sincere this year,...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:16:40 -0700

We’ll keep it short, simple and sincere this year, Albuquerque (Local iQ readers in specific ;). THANK YOU! This always means a lot, and I am certain it is more about “what I do,” than “what I write.” As it should be, as Pliny the Elder said:

True glory
Consists in doing
What deserves to be written
In writing what deserves to be read

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am humbled to be able to do poetry in a city where the fierceness of poets in this city make it a great place to “do” poetry. - hb

See the rest of the 2012 Smart List Winners here.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:39:00 -0700

(for Christina Kent Early Childhood Center) - by hakim bellamy

When I grow up
I’m going to make believe
That I can be anything
That I want to be

Maybe even be President
Of the whole wide world
I can be the first President
That is an American girl

I could even be a pilot
And give all my friends a ride
They’ll say, “Can we see your plane?”
And I’ll say, “Sure, it’s parked right outside!”

I could be a lawyer
And fix all the broken laws
OR I could be a Veterinarian
And fix all the broken paws

Maybe I’ll own a circus
And have a huge elephant named “Tiny”
Or maybe be a clown
And help people find the smiles inside them

Maybe I’ll be an athlete
And win every race
Or maybe I’ll be a cosmetologist
And paint every face

Then again, I like money
Maybe I’ll own a bank
Or be a marine biologist
In the world’s largest fish tank

Maybe I’ll be a cook
Cause I sure like to eat
Or become a studio engineer
Because I like to make beats

A stunt car driver in movies
An animator of cartoons
There’s so many things that when I grow up
I think I want to do

It may start out as make believe
But I can make it true
It starts with ABCs and 123s
It starts right here, at school

Which reminds me of a great career
Perhaps the most important profession
I can teach people how to turn themselves into
ANYTHING THEY WANT TO BE

It’s like being a magician
That teaches lessons

So one day when I become a poet
And I’m on Broadway starring in Rent
I’ll thank the wizards & witches
For the magic that I learned at Christina Kent

Written for and read to my 4 year old son’s class at his pre-K on March 9, 2012

March is Women Makin’ History Month a Jazzbah!

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:12:00 -0700

Jazzbars w/ Hakim Be & Friends will be “front-woman’d” by Donne “The Wychdokta” Lewis

A bar is a measure of music…Whether it be the bars on the sheet music of a jazz musician or the hot 16 of an MC, every generation measures itself in song. Every month at Jazzbah, a few musicians and a poet or two will give you another moment to remember…We don’t bridge the gap between Hip-Hop and Jazz, we eliminate it.

On the first Tuesday of every month at Downtown Albuquerque’s newest jazz club, hip hop’s genetic precursor and future are on display. Jazzbah Presents: JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends is a throwback to the era of jazz poetry from which hip hop emerged. Flirted with by the likes of T.S. Eliot and E.E. Cummings; conceived by Black poets in the 20s; and maintained by Beat generation poets in the 50s, jazz poetry has been said to be reborn in hip hop music and at poetry slams.

Tapping under the tutelage of Diane Walker, Buster Brown and Savion Glover; Donne “The Wychdokta” Lewis will be co-hosting Jazzbars this month with Hakim Be. Using foot, voice and verb, Lewis is joining the March line up for Jazzbars to make sure Women’s History Month does not go un-“funkdafied.” A former member and contributing choreographer to DC Tapestry (a Washington D.C. based dance company); Lewis has performed at the 930 Club, The Smithsonian Museum and at Capitol Hill on stage with the late Ray Charles.

Joining “The Wychdokta” is her long-time collaborative partner Stuart “Fish Out O Water” Smith. Percussionist, guitarist, accompanist and dancer, Smith practices many styles “creative martial arts.” “I’ve played for and with international phenomena in the world of dance and music,” says Smith. “Flamencas from all over Spain and Central and South America, Hoofers (tap) from NY, DC, to Chi-town through KC to LA. Swing on djembe, hip-hop on the floor, Bularias on concert toms, Mozart on djun and goncoqui.” Smith has been accompanying university level modern dance classes for over a decade, as a result Jazzbah will remove a few tables to accommodate Smith’s open invite to the dance students at UNM!

The final “& Friends” request from Hakim Be was extended to bassist Eric Owens. Since the age of 14, Eric Owens has been playing in local clubs and bars. No stranger to the road, Owens toured with Quincy Street Records underground alternative band New London for four years. Then he joined southern rockers Six Gun Overload and opened for acts like Foghat, Nazareth and Molly Hatchet. Adding to the dance floor theme of March Jazzbars, Owens says, “Life in the pocket is where it’s at. If I don’t see butts moving and heads bouncing I’m not doing my job!”

JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends: Women Makin’ History Month will take place at the Jazzbah on March 6^th for two shows (7:30pm/9:30pm). Chef Pacheco will be on fine dining and Master Mixologist Denial Gonzales on “sizzurp” duty. As always, tickets are $12 for both shows. FREE w/ valid student I.D. Baseball hats are a no-go, this is cultura with white tablecloths. -hb

Make sure you let us know if you are joining us Tuesday March 6th for 7:30pm and/or 9:30pm shows at our Facebook Event Page!

Some burn books. Some ban them. We traffic them. And we need...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:13:10 -0700

Some burn books. Some ban them. We traffic them. And we need your help. ARIZONA NEEDS YOUR HELP. Sunday, March 4th @ 7pm Outpost Performance Space $5. Read the Huffington Post report on this national effort to get Arizona to WAKE UP!

Celebrate or Criticize? #LiveYourLegacy

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:22:59 -0700

Celebrate or Criticize? #LiveYourLegacy