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Be-Side
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From NY to NJ to NM … beats, bards & baked goods in Santa Fe
A night of poetry with a pair of world traveling hip hop scholars at the home of the Big Pun Waffle
for immediate release – What happens when you put together a native New Yorker with an affinity for baked goods (bordering on obsession) with a hip hop theater expert and a poet laureate? You have to go to Momo & Company at 5:30pm on Friday, May 24th to find out!
New York native Leslie Thompson is one-half of the genius behind Santa Fe’s only gluten-free bakery and Boba Tea bar. With a menu that is as entertaining as delicious, Leslie is known for flavoring the names of some of her lunch and menu breakfast items with her love for hip hop culture. Thompson’s relationship with hip hop is not limited to her naming of her newest breakfast item after the late, platinum selling, Latino, hip hop pioneer Big Punisher; she also is a good friend of renowned hip hop theater director, choreographer and scholar Daniel Banks, PhD.
A Santa Fe resident, Banks has served on the faculties of the Dept. of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and is currently on the faculty of the M.A. In Applied Theatre at City University of NY. The co-founder of DNAWORKS and co-director of Theatre Without Borders, Banks has worked extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having directed at such notable venues as the National Theatre of Uganda (Kampala), the Belarussian National Drama Theatre (Minsk), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Hip Hop Theatre Festival (New York and Washington, D.C.), and the Oval House (London). Banks and Thompson had been conspiring to put literature in the air for some time at Momo & Co., however it would be the intersection of another Northeasterner that set their plan into action.
Banks met Hakim Bellamy in January of 2013, after years of hearing about each other’s shared interests in hip hop and theater in New Mexico. Shortly after Bellamy returned from South Africa, the two met at a Littleglobe Creative Transformation Workshop that Banks was co-facilitating. A Littleglobe affiliate and New Jersey native, Bellamy is also the inaugural poet laureate of Albuquerque. Weeks later, Banks and Bellamy met at Momo & Co. to become better acquainted. Out of that meeting, Bellamy, Banks and Thompson decided to bring every “New” state except for New Hampshire together.
On Saturday, May 25th at 5:30pm Momo & Co. will host a reading of the two authors in Santa Fe. The reading is free to all those who attend and the bakery will remain open with Thompson’s addictive, yet gluten-free confections for sale. Banks and Bellamy will also be signing books underneath the New York City subway signs that adorn the bakery walls. Though Banks will be reading poetry from his soon to be published collection Shades, he will have copies on hand of his recently released Hip Hop Theatre anthology titled Say Word!: Voices from Hip Hop Theater for the University of Michigan Press (available in Santa Fe at Garcia Street Books). Bellamy will read from his new book, SWEAR, by West End Press and distributed by University of New Mexico Press (available in Santa Fe at Collected Works). Both men will host a Q&A and book signing after the free reading.
A week ago, CakeSpy Undercover (ireallylikefood.com) “secret-shopped” Momo & Co. and reported: “While eating gluten-free may be a necessity to some, it need not equal suffering – for anyone. So it makes me so glad places like Momo and Company exist.”
Bellamy, Banks and Thompson feel the same way about poetry. No suffering needed.
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contact Banks (daniel@dnaworks.org) & Bellamy (tirods@gmail.com) for Interviews & Inquiries
New event added to my schedule. You won’t find this under the “What’s Next?” tab. I get to introduce my sister Jessica Helen Lopez, who gets to interview Jimmy Santiago Baca, AND YOU GET TO WATCH IT!
Get your tickets here at www.KiMoTickets.com or call 505.886.1251 to order by phone.
ONE MORE WEEKEND LEFT TO SEE THE 2011 TONY AWARD WINNING, PULITZER PRIZE WINNING, OLIVIER AWARD WINNING CLYBOURNE PARK IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO!
Get Tickets HERE!
See reviews by Broadway World and the Albuquerque Journal!
Join us at the Historic Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe! - hb
I am proud to be recognized by the New Mexico State Legislature on the floor of the State Senate, thanks to Senator Tim Keller. I am equally proud to be part of the International Day/Asian American Day at the State Legislature festivities…where politics and poetry play nicely. Thank you New Mexico!
Work - by hakim bellamy
(Edited via performance at TEDxABQWomen in Albuquerque, NM on December 1st. The full text is below. This poem will be published in my forthcoming book “Swear” by West End Press in March 2013)
WORK
I
There are few things more difficult
than getting lipstick
out of a blue collar
for a few things
we work
work like
lipstick on a blue collar
like three jobs
and the sex
we still can’t afford
to have
like a sex worker
fancy feet fantasies
of strawberry toes
dipped in fondue faces
while we rest
in the heel of society
I will never
let him have my feet
of running
kicking
and standing
instead of lying down
II
That pill
drug skid marks
down my esophagus
after kicking
and screaming
‘cross my tongue
awoke
took my longest finger
out of me
at 6 o’clock
erected it
to twelve
and shoved it past
his sleeping nose
there is nothing sexy
about eye sockets.
when the perpetrator
sleeps over
it’s date rape
whether the patron
paid
or not
III
my arms
are longer than his sentence
rivet strong and smooth
sometimes
for fastening
the maturation of
baby boys
to Maybe Men
other times
for the quickening
of the removal
of his sternum
from my bosom
maybe baby
maybe not
these arms
do not belong to him
they are open
to me
IV
My ankles
were pregnant
with desperate housework
when I collared him
lipstick I did not recognize
perfume I did
but did not blame her for being a victim
did not blame my hands
for refusing to wash
anymore of his fucking shirts
did not blame god
for leaving my daughter’s father
and his patriarchal paycheck
for putting my baby girl
on my back
putting food and shelter
on my shoulders
making my living
off my ass
my brain
cannot be judged by its cover,
my complexion, nor my circumstance
not where I clock in
or clock out
I have a degree
in sociology
and survival
and only one
is coming in handy
V
My daughter
is my body of labor
a woman now
born from my rib
pushed from my pelvis
apple of my Eve
I named her “Eden”
she has nested with serpents
seen me
serve leg, thigh and breast
to a tapeworm society
that cannibalizes its women
she’s seen
my serviceable body parts
removed
used to fill their holes
she’s seen my heart overlooked
cast plate-side
like a gizzard
she’s seen them
eat me
from the inside
out
VI
she barely remembers
my housewife days
of not lifting a finger
to her father
and him
putting himself
where ever he wanted
his fists
as hard as he wanted
and I chose
bait instead of bitch
I chose pussy
instead of prison
because I rather teach her
teach her
that there is dirt
underneath every French manicure
that working girls
get their ass kicked for a living
that’s a choice for some
less of a choice for others
but so is getting your ass kicked
for love
for life
teach her
the difference between sale and sacrifice
is the cost and the price
like the difference between
pay equity and fair wage
teach her the difference between
high risk career
and poor life choices
that either way we have rights
even when they put their palms
over our voices
I taught her that
I’d rather give the street
what her father repeatedly took
even pride
what she learned from me
is the value of her body
for better or for worse
she learned not to stay for bullshit
like “relationships take work”
work takes work
and work consists
of whatever a body
is obliged to do.
Rainbow Soldier a Chick-fil-A or a Chick-fil-A billboard near you. - hb
KASA - Nikki and Kristen talk to Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy, who shares an excerpt from the official poem he wrote for the New Mexico Centennial Celebration. Hakim also talks about what inspired him to be a Poet, his musical background and Songwriting endeavors, and how you can keep up with him. Check out the Face of Fox blog on KASA.com to read the Centennial Poem in its entirety.
Much love to Kristen Van Dyke for making this interview appearance happen and Nikki Stanzione for being from JERSEY! And a shout out to the Face of Fox Elias Gallegos for hosting the poem, in its entirety, at his blog at KASA.com.
The official poem commissioned by the City of Albuquerque for the New Mexico Centennial Celebration, delivered on the Main Stage at the Summerfest Centennial Celebration on June 16th, 2012 before Los Lobos and after Robert Mirabal.
To: New Mexico
From: Hakim Bellamy
100 Years of Corridos: A song for the New Mexico Centennial
In the 1st chapter
Of the Gospel
According to Anaya
Rudolfo writes
“All of the older people spoke only Spanish,
And I myself understood only Spanish.”
In English
Bienvenidos Albuquerque
I myself
Understand only English
In Dine
We speak many languages
But mean the same thing
And manana
Will be more of the same
Familia
Food
Fiesta
Forever
Come on and sing along
We’re going to
Familia
Comida
Fiesta
Forever
For 100 years B.C.
Before the Commodores
Before Lionel Ritchie
And for a 100 years more
We’ve farmed
Feasted and fixed cars
We’ve moved people
And mixed razas
We’ve got an appointment
With the curandera
As soon as we leave the doctors
A lust for livestock
Like chupacabras
Afraid of God
And the inexplicable
Dinosaur fossils
So in love with space
And the people who live there
That we speak Chewbacca
The 47th state
Admitted to the Union
We might as well have been The Moon
…of Endor
To our forefathers
With the oldest
And highest
State capital in the country
People on both coasts
Should look up to us
Instead of wondering
If they have to exchange their money
Before coming
Yes,
Dollars is our official currency too
And though
We don’t have much of it
Money can’t buy cultura
Our History Book
The King Alfonso Version
Is a canon
Of wars and peace
A Bible
Of you and me
That was written in Madrid
By missionaries and mestizos
We are men of magic
And women of wizardry
Who speak in spell and song
Wing words
And fly them like a flag
All yellow
Between red and green
Like a traffic light
Like the state question is
Hurry up
Or slow down
Never stop
All of the older people sung only corridos
However,
In those corridos…
Me?
I only heard gospel
Maybe it’s me
Maybe it’s a stage
But every time
I hear the clap of thunder
It sounds like a blessing
Every time
I hear the pitter, patter
Of the rain
It sounds
Like a round
Of applause
And even the monsoon roars
“Encore”
And the flash bloods
Flood
Our hearts
With love
One hundred
New Year’s Eves
Of trying to puncture precipitation
Where the sky never dies
And the clouds wear bulletproof vests
Where we perpetually live
In the shadow of a hot air balloon eclipse
We are not a city
That speaks “Good Morning”
We are a city that speaks
Mass Ascension
Like Grandpa
Only spoke Spanish
While he was drinking
Buenos Dias
Like Grandma
Only spoke Latin
When she was praying
Buenas Noches
Where water
Is so sacred and scarce
That we pot it
In puddles
On our flat roofs
Pool it
In vestibule stoups
Of steepled temples
Where pigeons swirl and roost
Pond it
In mountaintops
On our not-so-flat horizons
We bottle it
In our bodies
And set fire to it
In our forests
Where it sounds like
Acequias babble “amen”
And bosques
Smell like baptisms
Where the rain
Doesn’t speak any language
It only understands dance
And sometimes
We miss it so much
We need TWO rainbows
To promise us
It is coming back
After thousands of years
Of owners
For this little piece of hacienda
It’s been us as tenants
Together
Roommates for the past hundred
Call it a trust
Call it a Zia-shaped symbol for eternity
Over our right ring finger
Call it the interconnectedness of cultures
Call it married to each other
Speak now or forever hold your “chisme”
We are
Actions speak louder than wordsmiths
Storytelling rituals
We don’t speak Project Runway
We Cowboy Cosmopolitan
Urban Traditional
Where our children
Dare not say or see
Cucui or La llorona
But are lucky
Santa speaks Spanglish
And has a sweet tooth
For leche y biscochitos
Where birthdays
Are miracles
And each one
Has a spirit
Holy Spirit
Or patron saint
Where we celebrate
100
Today
In the beginning
The Greatest Spirit
Created America
And the earth
And it was
Bueno
I don’t speak perfect English
Barely even speak passable Spanish
But it’s okay
Because there is no such thing
As “perfect English”
Except for the word
Nuevo Mexico
© Hakim Bellamy June 12, 2012
Warehouse 508 hosts Centennial Celebration for Youth
Hip Hop benefit celebrates 100 years of youth culture in Albuquerque
Albuquerque, NM – In all one hundred years of Albuquerque’s existence, citizens under the age of 21 have been present. From pushing agricultural plows to pushing buttons on smartphones, youth have been a critical and contested part of Albuquerque’s growth. At times, the youth culture in the Duke City has been both disdained for “loiterboarding” (loitering and skateboarding in public spaces) and desired to attract parents that are attached to commerce that would create economic development. In this context, local visionaries and a Bay Area hip hop artist have decided to include a “tween” demographic in the hundred-year party, on their own terms.
At 8pm on Saturday, June 16th, Warehouse 508 will host the “Be the Change” Tour featuring San Francisco based hip hop activist Dregs-One. Also traveling with Dregs-One from the Bay, are hip hop artists L-roneous, Patience & DJ Beats Me. Albuquerque-based, multimedia hip hop theater troupe, Urban Verbs, will open for the Bay Area contingent at the benefit designed to raise funds for youth arts programming in Albuquerque.
According to Dregs One website:
“Hip hop started out as a way to organize and uplift the community – with a mixture of civil rights and creative expression, Dregs One is an artist who is doing just that. And as an influential emcee/producer and a community organizer in the movement, he ‘can’t help but be aware.’”
With a passion for justice and a dedication to rapping about issues that plague inner-city youth like homelessness, drug use and violence while sampling artists such as Sade and the Doors, Dregs One is changing the world with his mic and turntables. So much so, that Dregs is donating his performance in Albuquerque so the entire $8 cover goes towards reaching the $2000 goal that nonprofit Warehouse 508 hopes to raise in order to increase their youth programming in the city. The enterprising activist has even started a Kickstarter to raise his own travel/lodging funds for the Southwest tour that includes a benefit for the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development in Tempe, AZ.
From his interview freestyle featured on Feministing to his “Wake Up Report” documentary on community issues, Dregs One aims to inspire Albuquerque youth to “vote with their feet” and pack this event that will send a message to Albuquerque. “Young people have been in Albuquerque for one hundred years,” says event organizer Hakim Bellamy. “Young people will be here for one hundred more, so we need to make sure their social and cultural needs are met.”
Pre-sale tickets for this all-ages show can be purchased at www.warehouse508.org. This event is made possible by support from McCune Charitable Foundation, the Lumpkin Family Foundation, American General Media, the Local-iQ and the Weekly Alibi.
You can share the Facebook Event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/242513005857282/
