to move up and down
Be-Side
The Home of Hakm's B-Side e-alter ego...his auxiliary brain or external hard drive...
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.”
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, 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.
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.
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 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.
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
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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
March is Women Makin’ History Month a Jazzbah!
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 6th 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
