to move up and down
Be-Side
The Home of Hakm's B-Side e-alter ego...his auxiliary brain or external hard drive...
Poem written for Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program Interview Segment
“Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor.
Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself
To a cause, to your principles
To the people on whom you rely
And who rely on you in return.”
-Senator John McCain
Hero (for Poet Laureate of Albuquerque)
I’ve heard of God
Washing feet
But never writing poems
Even the Bible
Was written by man
God?
Was more of a performance poet
More about people
Than paper
More about practice
Than pens
And though God gets angry
And sometimes screams
She’s no slam poet
Not so big on ego
So in love
with nature
(And it’s androgynous qualities)
That Apollo found laurel’s sacred
And fashioned them into crowns
To king the meek
Poets & Heroes
Laureate means glory
We be the dispatches
That announce the victory
We be beyond
The Parliamentary Poet Laureate
Of Canada
With alternating terms in two languages
We before
We be
Four
Officially recognized languages
English, Spanish
AND Spanglish
Plus we speak
Sheet music
Written for the
Conquistadores’ trumpet
Before the conquest
Conjure constructs
As though our words
Carry the DNA
Of La Raza Cosmica
Our tongues
Should tie people together
Like the rope
Of Pope
Cause the revolution’s
Inside of us
But most of all
We have to meet two requirements
To be servants
And to be continually inspired
The people will admire
Us finding it
And in refinding it
And refinding it
And we’ll feel like a hero
Every time we write it
But it is us
Not the writing
That we should be striving
For them to admire
But alas
Every laureate will strive
To satisfy
The Roman Philosopher
Inside of us
As Pliny the Elder said
True glory
Consists in doing
What deserves to be written
In writing what deserves to be read
Hakim Bellamy February 22, 2012
The Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program is sponsored by Escuela del Sol Montessori,
a 501(c)(3) organization in Albuquerque, NM.
Your donation is tax deductable.
All Donors of $50 or over in 2011 will be listed as a Founding Sponsor/Collaborator.
GIVE THANKS to Ronica Innergy Reign Brooks for being a bad arse vocalist, “well-tasted” journalist (if I do say so myself ;) and “fashionista” diva. Her positive energy is contagious, so she writes this block to share her light with the world. I am humbled to be one of the people she finds inspiring. I ALSO hope she works with me on a track soon. Introducing Roots Revival Musical alum and new family member, Ronica Innergy Reign Brooks and her “baby” Vizion 9 Enterprise “The GET SOME Movement.” Support positive artmakers of color by reading and sharing Vizion 9 (Click on the photo above to be shapeshifted to the blogosphere) Thank you!
Last Night at Jazzbah Presents JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends…circa 1920 (The Roaring Twenties meets the Golden Age of Hip-Hop). We hope to see you next month! March 6th Jazzbars.
“Old Knowledge, New School. We teach you how to do the math.” - Jazzbars
Special Thanks to the 2bers, Leah Black, Darbstar, Artha Meadors, Zack Freeman and the crew and staff at the Jazzbah!
*Don’t forget the 2bers CD Release at the El Rey Theater on April 7th, D.I.G. I’ll be your humble host that evening.
The Roots Revival Musical team was on KASA/FOX2 on Monday promoting this weekend’s three show run of Roots Revival. Find out more about Roots Revival (originally written, scored and cast in Albuquerque for Black History Month) and other Black History Month events at the NM Black History Month Committee website. For the price of admission the show also includes the art exhibit, FOUR + 1. The FOUR + 1 Art Exhibition curated by Ben Hazard and Tom Lark equals five professional visual artists – FOUR African Americans who live, work and show in New Mexico and 1 African artist who lives in Ghana and shows exclusively in Albuquerque. All three nights of the Roots Revival run (February 3rd-5th) will include the FOUR + 1 and be catered for the $20 entry fee.
Friday, February 3, 2012 8pm Show – Hosted by the Links Albuquerque Chapter
JAMBO CAFÉ
www.jambocafe.net
The exotic locale of Lamu Island, off the coast of Kenya, with its Swahili fusion of European, Arabic and Indian influences, is at the heart of owner-chef Ahmed Obo’s spirited cuisine. It was there, in his mother’s aromatic kitchen, that Ahmed mastered his homeland’s unique gastronomic delights, beginning a culinary adventure that would ultimately lead him to Santa Fe, New Mexico where, in August, 2009, he fulfilled his life’s dream by opening Jambo Café.
Saturday, February 4, 2012 8pm Show – Hosted by the Buffalo Soldier Motorcycle Club Albuquerque Chapter
ZEA Rotisserie & Grill
www.zearestaurantabq.com
Zea Rotisserie & Grill is a lively neighborhood restaurant serving locals & visitors alike a variety of tasty, innovative dishes in a fun & casual atmosphere. The menu at the Zea Rotisserie & Grill features rotisserie meats that have been spice-rubbed and roasted in the French rotisserie oven. Zea proudly serves quality foods with a Southern flair.
Sunday, February 5, 2012 2pm Show – Hosted by the Order of the Eastern Stars, Albuquerque Chapter
Mr. Powdrell’s BBQ House
www.mrpowdrellsbbq.com
Good Barbeque doesn’t just happen by accident – it takes time. And our family owned restaurants have been serving the best barbeque in New Mexico for over 4 decades. We pride ourselves not only on our delicious, finger-licking food, but also on our excellent service. Our restaurants provide a down home experience from our family to yours.
AN ASSORTMENT OF HOMEMADE DESSERTS EVERY NIGHT BY RAVEN RUTHERFORD, BLACKBIRD PIES
Blackbird Pies
Raven Rutherford, Owner
Poem Commissioned for the 2nd Annual Anti-Racism Day at the New Mexico State Legislature.
The Pits - by hakim bellamy
The unique thing about lies is
They only go backwards in time
A fabrication about the past
Can be corroborated
But when you make up
Your future
They call it a dream
So would I be lying
If I told you
The Constitution
Was cut from
The same cherry tree
George Washington forgot
To lie about?
Or would I be sleeping,
And only call the Constitution
A liar
If I were awake?
But we’re going to
Talk about
Dreams today
We’re going to pretend
That the day you lose
Your faith in people
Doesn’t feel like a broken heart
A bad day
Waiting to happen
So inevitable
I’ve marked it on my calendar
Already made time
To nurse my son’s soul
And eat gallons of salt
His first day of school
The first time someone calls him a…
We’re going to dream
That martyrs
Don’t die for nothing
That people don’t go
To jail
For the crime
Of their skin
That the sound
Of a prison door
And a heart
Unlocking
Sound the same
We’re going to visualize
The luxury sedan
Apple Pie man
Three-piece suit
On the outside of the vehicle
License and registration in hand
Being asked
“How did you make your money?”
“Who did you hurt to get this?”
K-9 sniffing his car
For privilege
We’re going to
Picture profiling different
Picture profiling non-existent
We’re going to imagine
A blood money economy
Not founded on the backs
Of cotton-pickin’
Native, African, Mexican
Hyphen
Any American
We’re going to imagine
We’re gonna John Lennon
We are going to invent
Words that don’t exist
Like “Race”
And erase racism
Until we don’t have to be
“Anti” anything
We want words like
Love-ism
In it’s place
Because I’ve never seen
People love each other apart
They’re usually
Loving each other back
Together again
We’re going to fantasize
The color of my son’s skin
Pretend it was a nightmare
That states had laws
On the books
That made it illegal
For two people
To make a miracle
The complexion of Jesus
As brown-olive as Muhammad
We used to think down
But now?
We’re gonna think up
A world that would never
Dream up legislation
That would stop us
From making love
Though we live in one that still does
We gonna masquerade
In our great-grandmother’s star-spangled gown
Dress up as the country
We said we’d be
Instead of what we were
Because a country that lives in black and white
Will never be able to dream in color
We’re gonna fake it
Like the Cherry tree
That birthed
The parchment
That bore the Declaration of Independence
That born our country
We’re gonna pretend
That THAT tree
Did not bear strange fruit too
Like the Bill of Rights
Does not have blood
On
It’s
Roots
We’re going to pretend
Our founding fathers would be crying
At the revelation
That what they wrote in 1776
Was fiction
Not fact
That the Constitution
Is being used
As a short story
And not a contract
We’re going to dream today
That all men are created equal
And we’re gonna pretend
That we hold these truths
To be self-evident.
Copyright Hakim Bellamy January 25th, 2012
Delivered at the New Mexico State Legislature Roundhouse Rotunda, Commissioned for Anti-Racism Day
I give thanks with humility to Barb’s life partner, Mary Ellen Broderick, for allowing me to be a part of Barb’s “Celebration of Life.” Barb’s baby, the Democracy for New Mexico blog, is still up and running thanks to Mary Ellen and is still the biggest platform for progressive political commentary and analysis in New Mexico.
Champion for Barbara Rose Wold - by hakim bellamy
I’m not going to start off
By calling her a “Champion”
Not because she wouldn’t like it
Though she probably wouldn’t
But because it would in accurate
She was
The person
Who put the winners
In check
I don’t know
If they yet have a word for that
Person
So from here on out
That person will forever more
Be referred to as
“Barb”
Barb?
Movements don’t need Champions
Until it’s over
What they need
Are fighters
For when shit is on
The need lighters
For when it’s dark
Because the places
Where those who would do us harm
Like to do business
Could use a little sunshine
Like we do
When it’s raining percentage points
From the Dow
The Sun of Sam
And We the People
Are the sacrifice they make
To the only god they know
But Barb?
You tried to tell them
That they were following the wrong Tao
That we’ve never seen money worship people
Only the other way around
You tried to tell us, Barb?
That we can’t fix this Great Depression
Lying down
Even though it’s STILL raining Euros in London
Cats and dogs in Albuquerque
Bears and bulls on Wall Street
And asses and pachyderms in D.C.
Puddling
Pooling money
Like water for Elephants
You tried, Barb.
Tried to remind us to write poems like this
Cover stories that matter
And write blogs like fists
In the airwaves
Like a champ
Like we can be our own
Like we know
That it IS
The election, itself
That separates the people from their candidate
That they will promise us the world
If we deliver them the state
That the campaign is like the first date
And the middle of the second term
Like our 20th anniversary
You reminded us
That one day
Our winners will call us whiners
From the school of
“You must doing SOMETHING right
If the Right Wing extremist don’t like you!?”
And you shared that me on more than one occasion
So I guess that makes me the pupil
Cause I’m just like you
And they’ll ask
Why am I talking to you
NOW, Barb?
Because.
To take on the responsibility
Of giving this many people
Voice
You had to be
One hell of a listener
And at times
It seemed like
The only thing bigger
Than your heart
(And the slightly larger sleeve
That you ironed it onto)
Was your ear
And even
From where your body rests now
I’m certain you can hear us
Better than some of the people we live with
The incumbents we get stuck with
The people WE picked
The uncontested and the untrusted
That get to run unopposed
Cause WE ain’t running
You’re ears worked better
Than every last one of’em
From City Hall to Santa Fe
From Washington, D.C. to
Santa Fe
And they can’t believe the shit we live with
As New Mexican
Workers
Labor
Natives
Asians
Brown, Black
And differently-abled
As poor whites
And Occupationists
Who’ve made Occupying our Occupation
As children
Immigrants
Women
Veterans
Lesbian
Bi, Transgender
Queer, straight and Gay men.
AMEN!
And you lived it.
Can’t speak to us anymore
From that side of the finished line
But you can still
Make us feel
Like someone is listening to us
Barb!
I won’t
Call you a champion
But I’ll call you
Soon.
(c) Hakim Bellamy January 12th, 2012
In loving memory of Barbara Rose Wold (May 5, 1948 - December 18, 2011)
First performed publicly at “A Celebration of Barbara Rose Wold’s Life at the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Union Hall on January 12, 2012.
JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends
By Justin De La Rosa (Published in the Local-iQ on Wednesday, December 21st 2011)
This won’t just be nights of people in a dark room, snapping their fingers along to a walking bass line while some guy with a goatee and beret makes incomprehensible analogies. It will be nights of soulful selections by some of the Duke City’s best poets and hip hop artists who know their foundations are in ’50s jazz.
“We don’t bridge the gap between hip hop and jazz, we eliminate it,” Bellamy said.
JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends
119 Gold SW, 505.243.5299
$12 (2 shows)
jazzbahabq.com
UNM Afro-American Studies Program Celebrates 40 years in Documentary
Premier escreening at UNM Student Union Building Theater with founders as panelist
Albuquerque, Nm – 40 years agothis academic year, the University of New Mexico (UNM) was dealing with thesame turmoil the rest of the country was regarding race in America. Thedocumentary that the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs willpremiere at UNM on Wednesday, November 9th artfully presentsAlbuquerque’s place in the Civil Rights Movement.
Not solely thepurview of the southeastern United States, the struggle for full inclusion andfull representation was alive and well on the campus of the University of NewMexico in 1968. The documentary tells the history of the founding of Afro-AmericanStudies (Now two separate entities presently called Africana Studies and AfricanAmerican Student Services) at UNM from the perspective of the two studentswho initiated it (Barbara Brown-Simmons, J.D. and Sam W.D. Johnson, J.D.), UNM’sfirst African American Homecoming Queen (Ms. Mary Sue Gaines), UNM’s firstAfrican American Dean of Students, and the first two directors of theAfro-Studies Program (Dr. Charles Becknell Sr. and Dr. Harold Bailey.)
Dr. Harold Baileyis now the Executive Director of the New Mexico Office of African American Affairswhich acts Executive Producer on this documentary. “During the 1970’s there wasa student movement at the University of New Mexico that influenced change, andpromoted diversity and inclusion,” says Bailey. ”The documentary providesinformation about the Black Experience at UNM during that time and reflects thededication and commitment of those students responsible for the foundation oftoday’s program.”
Thefeature length documentary premiere will begin at noon in the Student UnionBuilding Theater. Admission is free and the event is co-sponsored by UNM BlackStudent Union and UNM African American Student Services. There will be a paneldiscussion after the screening with the student founders, first director andfirst associate dean of students. For more information visit www.oaaa.state.nm.us or call505.222.9405.
40th Anniversary of Afro-American Studies
Run time: 60minutes
Executive Producer: Dr. Harold Bailey, New Mexico Office of AfricanAmerican Affairs
Director: HakimBellamy
Cinematographer:Darryl DeLoach
Premiere Screening: Wed. Nov. 9th @ 12pm UNM Student Union Building Theater
Talk At Ten Interview: River Is The Road Festival (Radio interview @ KRTS Marfa)
Many thanks to my friend and mentor Eileen Torpey and Bett Williams for putting on an amazing film festival in Marfa, TX. Drift 2011 was amazing and I am sorry I could not be there in person, only in artistry. At the 17:00m mark, they discuss my Videom, recorded and premiered at the Drift 2011 Film Festival. Thank you Eileen and Bett!
Click the pic to find out more about the FREE GLOBAL FIESTA on Saturday that is part of !Globalquerque! New Mexico’s Annual Celebration of World Music and Culture. Your host will be MC “Me” (AKA Hakim Be) from 10:30a - 4:00p. I could go on and tell you more, but why?! There’s the pic…just click. See you Saturday!
