Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Spot Welcomes Ced Hawkins Nov 4!
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| Ced Hawkins 'Alcohol Follows The Water' |
Born in Brooklyn, and raised between New York City and Atlanta, Georgia, Cedric was blessed to have the influences of southern funk and gospel coupled with the emerging sounds of hip hop in the mid eighties. "As a kid growing up in New York, my mother took me to see Broadway plays, musicals and dance companies all the time." "This lead to me becoming interested in the arts early, and with all of the resources available in the city, she was able to push me in various directions."
Cedric showed musical abilities at an early age, playing drums at four, and by seven picking up the piano and guitar. He was also a member of the prestigious Billie Holiday Theatre Company, performing in several off-Broadway productions including "The Bed-Stuy Story", and "And the sun god said that's hip". "The music that I was exposed to in New York was a mixture of the classic records in my mother’s collection (Ray Charles, Sinatra, Odetta, Wes Montgomery, and Quincy Jones), to dance, pop, and rock which included Queen, Billie Joel, and obviously Jimi Hendrix, and Zeppelin”. "Living in Atlanta allowed me to get into funk, soul, gospel, and rock through my discovery of Parliament, Earth Wind and Fire, Al Green, and my biggest influence, Prince... "All of these artists including Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, and Sly Stone, have all served as the blueprint for how I learned to write and produce songs." In particular, artists like Prince, Stevie, and Rick James, who all produced and played the majority of the instruments on their albums, which I still do today." Cedric has worked as an engineer, and/or producer on projects with Parliament, Silk, and the Ying Yang Twins, as well as artists that he is developing for his own Trifacta Entertainment, Inc. imprint.
As a music executive, Cedric is CEO of the Trifacta label, and one of its chief creative forces. "As a label, my goal is to restore some of the luster associated with hip hop and R&B." "So many companies now are just concerned with the bottom line, and in my opinion, are willing to sacrifice quality for quantity in respect to generating profits for their companies." "At Trifacta, we feel if we make the best music we can, and promote it properly, we will inevitably succeed." "Great music has, and always will sell itself."
-Cedric Hawkins
Alcohol Follows The Water. . .
The rain fell from the evening sky, as black as the night the drops reflected. A few drops fell into the glass and blended with the liquor. Ced made a few circles with his hand, stirring the drink absentmindedly. He was thinking of a melody. The drums rolled around in his head and the bass notes of the coming storm gave him an idea. He shook ashes from what was left of a cigar on the porch and walked back upstairs, leaving the rain to finish singing its song so he could go to his studio and do the same.
The last bedroom on the right wasn’t exactly a world class music studio, but the music didn’t know that. As far as it was concerned, it was the best studio in the world. In actuality, two antique chairs flanked a television set with the sound turned off. A couple of candles and incense were lit, and Ced sat on the edge of his bed, humming to himself. Instead of a woman, he shared his bed with a couple of guitars. A dresser across the room served as a workstation. The computer screen was dancing to the music coming from the monitors that sat beside it. Colors flashed across it, showing the various waves and data bits that to most looked like that indecipherable neon code from The Matrix. To Ced, it all made sense. The album was almost done. He stood up and stretched. Now it was time to do the vocals. He was ready.
Bo Diddley never got a chance to work with Tupac Shakur. Dr. Dre, though he loved “old-school” music, was just a thought when Otis Redding died. And Jimi Hendrix never had the opportunity to jam with his best and brightest pupil, Prince Rogers Nelson. But if things were different, and all of these men could have the ability and circumstance to be in the same space working together, then the result would be Alcohol Follows the Water.
Musical trends, like fashion, comes in waves. There was jazz in the 20’s, swing in the 40’s, rock and roll in the 50’s, acid rock and funk in the 60’s, disco and classic r&b in the 70’s, new wave in the 80’s, and gangsta rap in the 90’s.
Now, in the 21st Century, the music landscape has changed, though much remains the same. There are still phases when the people want to dance, and others when they want to bob their collective heads and just listen. Some music is for listening to alone with a glass of whatever you like (Vintage Wine), and others are for making love to. Sometimes you just want everything to be quiet so you can hear yourself scream (Radio Silence). And at other times you find yourself on a beach in California watching the locals do their thing while you daydream (She Walks By).
With the debut of his first solo release, Alcohol Follows the Water, the artist known as Ced takes us on a funky, rocking and soulful journey through the ghetto on the way to Oz and beyond.
The rain fell from the evening sky, as black as the night the drops reflected. A few drops fell into the glass and blended with the liquor. Ced made a few circles with his hand, stirring the drink absentmindedly. He was thinking of a melody. The drums rolled around in his head and the bass notes of the coming storm gave him an idea. He shook ashes from what was left of a cigar on the porch and walked back upstairs, leaving the rain to finish singing its song so he could go to his studio and do the same.
The last bedroom on the right wasn’t exactly a world class music studio, but the music didn’t know that. As far as it was concerned, it was the best studio in the world. In actuality, two antique chairs flanked a television set with the sound turned off. A couple of candles and incense were lit, and Ced sat on the edge of his bed, humming to himself. Instead of a woman, he shared his bed with a couple of guitars. A dresser across the room served as a workstation. The computer screen was dancing to the music coming from the monitors that sat beside it. Colors flashed across it, showing the various waves and data bits that to most looked like that indecipherable neon code from The Matrix. To Ced, it all made sense. The album was almost done. He stood up and stretched. Now it was time to do the vocals. He was ready.
Bo Diddley never got a chance to work with Tupac Shakur. Dr. Dre, though he loved “old-school” music, was just a thought when Otis Redding died. And Jimi Hendrix never had the opportunity to jam with his best and brightest pupil, Prince Rogers Nelson. But if things were different, and all of these men could have the ability and circumstance to be in the same space working together, then the result would be Alcohol Follows the Water.
Musical trends, like fashion, comes in waves. There was jazz in the 20’s, swing in the 40’s, rock and roll in the 50’s, acid rock and funk in the 60’s, disco and classic r&b in the 70’s, new wave in the 80’s, and gangsta rap in the 90’s.
Now, in the 21st Century, the music landscape has changed, though much remains the same. There are still phases when the people want to dance, and others when they want to bob their collective heads and just listen. Some music is for listening to alone with a glass of whatever you like (Vintage Wine), and others are for making love to. Sometimes you just want everything to be quiet so you can hear yourself scream (Radio Silence). And at other times you find yourself on a beach in California watching the locals do their thing while you daydream (She Walks By).
With the debut of his first solo release, Alcohol Follows the Water, the artist known as Ced takes us on a funky, rocking and soulful journey through the ghetto on the way to Oz and beyond.
-James E. Barron III, Thurs. Oct. 8, 2009
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Show of the Week- Verbal Ink
FOR THE BEST IN SPOKEN WORD, HIP HOP, R&B, COMEDY AND THE TOMMY BOTTOMS REPORT...TUNE IN TO VERBAL INK...THE MIDDAY FIXX!!! CALL IN SAY WHAT'S UP, SPIT A PIECE, OR JUST LISTEN! THE CALL IN NUMBER IS 646-929-2212!!! THE JUMP OFF STARTS AT 12PM EST!!! THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUCEMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR MAN...ERYK MOORE!!!
Vote 2010: Why are Mid-Term Elections Important?
Vote 2010: Why Are Mid-Term Elections Important?
By Paulette305
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Folks, there are elections all across the country on Tuesday, November 2 and THEY MATTER.
Many of us believe that we are fulfilling our ‘civic responsibility’ by voting once every four years. Only about 20-30% of all voters participate in mid-term or local elections, that’s why corrupt local officials continue to do absolutely nothing for the majority of their constituents. Imagine, in some towns less than 100 people out of 10,000 registered voters vote! Because of this as little as 100 people can put corrupt politicians in office! Since the majority of the community did not vote for the corrupt officials they are not accountable to the citizens of their community. But believe me, they are doing what’s good for themselves and their friends who voted for them.
We’ll see important elections for Governor and important Mayoral elections and we should be focused on them. Plus races for City Council, State Legislature Judges, Sheriffs and other positions are also up for grabs.These elections might not receive as much publicity and hype and may not seem to be as ‘sexy’ as the Presidential elections but they are more important in many ways.
These elections will affect our daily lives: Raising fees throughout our cities and towns, raising property taxes, hiring teachers, hiring police officers, hiring firemen, funding our schools to make them more effective and fighting disparities in our criminal justice system are all determined by the City Council, Commissioner’s Court, Sherriff’s office and by local and state judges yet we ignore these elections.We should gladly spend time in lines to make sure our votes are counted in our local elections.
Even though President Obama is the leader of our country and the leader of the Democratic Party, once he authorizes monies to go out to our states, our Governor and local elected officials are the ones who decide HOW to really spend the monies.
Our President is VERY important but our local elected officials are the people who distribute Federal funds once they receive them. They can decide to allocate these funds in a meaningful way that helps communities-at-large or they can decide to waste the money they receive from the federal government to serve their own and their buddies, allies and followers personal agendas.
In order for President Obama’s policies to be effective, we need local politicians in office who have a similar vision.
Know which local politician(s) in your community will do the most for you and your family. Share this information with your neighbors and friends and please make sure everyone in your household go out and vote and make sure each person takes a friend with them to the polls.
We cannot sit idly by and watch a few 'non-thinkers' take over the political system and then we will have to live with their decisions – that is CRAZY! What about what WE want. It seems to me that those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know. If ‘thinkers’ do not unite and make our voices heard we will all have to live with the decisions that the ‘non-thinkers’ made and it will be our own fault.
Keep your eyes on the prize — vote on Tuesday, November 2 and Early Vote if it’s an option in your state!!!
Peace, Love and Understanding!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sign the Petition to Free The Scott Sisters!
Read the following petition to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Click on the link at the bottom to fill out Petition!
September 14, 2010
Dear Governor Barbour,
Jamie and Gladys Scott – the “Scott Sisters” – have been incarcerated in Mississippi for the last 15 years for an armed robbery which, according to court testimony, yielded $11. They have consistently denied involvement in the crime. Although neither of the Scott Sisters had a prior criminal record, they were each sentenced to an extraordinary double life sentence.
The presiding judge in their trial, Judge Marcus Gordon, has a history of racially biased rulings, including granting bail to the KKK murderer of the three civil rights workers: Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.
Furthermore, Jamie Scott now has lost renal function in of her kidneys and cannot survive without a transplant. She has suffered repeated infections and been hospitalized due to unsanitary prison conditions. The Department of Corrections will not allow tests for kidney compatibility even though numerous volunteers have come forward.
Given these serious concerns, we ask that you:
1) Grant a pardon or commute the sentences of Jamie and Gladys Scott to time served, and
2) Grant Jamie Scott a “compassionate medical release” given the serious medical condition she is facing.
There is no greater form of violence than injustice. Please review this case and bring justice to the Scott Sisters who have suffered excessive incarceration for a crime in which their participation is questionable.
The tragic case of the Scott Sisters
**we will keep you updated on this case. As of today I haven't found any significant developments**-Paradyme
The tragic case of the Scott sisters
Published Apr 29, 2010 8:21 PM
Anyone who still believes that the U.S. is the most democratic and just country in the world has only to examine the shocking case of the Scott sisters to be disabused of that erroneous notion. While this case is becoming more and more well-known by word of mouth, mainly on the Internet, the 16-year-old case has never received the national and international media attention that it so richly deserves. The facts of the case will explain the reason why.
 Gladys Scott |
Who are the Scott sisters?
Jamie and Gladys Scott are African-American sisters who lived in the small town of Forest, Miss., when they were arrested on Dec. 24, 1993, on a charge of armed robbery of two Black men. The amount involved in the robbery was $11 and nobody was injured. In October 1994, both sisters were found guilty and received double-life sentences. They are not eligible for parole until they spend at least 20 years in prison.
Their sentence is very reminiscent of the life sentence, without the possibility of parole, given to the martyred Black Panther and Soledad Brothers prisoner, George Jackson, in the early 1960s. Jackson was convicted of stealing $70.
 Jamie Scott |
Three teenagers, who eventually admitted that they had committed the robbery, recanted the false testimony they gave during the Scott sisters’ trial. These teenagers stated before the judge and jury that they were forced by local authorities to implicate the sisters, with the promise of a lenient sentence. Even the robbery victims said that the sisters had nothing to do with the robbery. Neither Jamie nor Gladys had a prior record before this outrageous conviction and life sentence.
At the time of their arrest, conviction and sentencing, Gladys was 19 years old and pregnant with her second child; Jamie was a 22-year-old with three young children. Their children are being raised by Jamie and Gladys’ mother, Elaine Rasco. Despite having to move to Florida due to years of emotional stress, Ms. Rasco remains active in fighting for her daughters’ freedom.
The state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have refused to hear the Scotts’ appeals. Since being in prison, Jamie has developed almost complete kidney failure due to poor diet and inhumane prison medical care. She is receiving irregular dialysis treatments and has gone into shock numerous times. If it were not for the pressure and local attention that community, legal and political activists have put on the prison authorities, Jamie Scott could have easily died.
How to get involved
There is a growing grassroots movement to broaden awareness around the Scott sisters’ case, including a letter-writing campaign demanding that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder release them. The campaign also includes getting petitions signed and getting press releases sent to local, state and national press on the case.
The Scott sisters’ case has put another human face on the constant racist repression that is woven within the very fabric of U.S. capitalist society. In an Aug. 19 article, Jamie Scott wrote: “The injustices that have occurred are patterns within this county and their police departments. This type of injustice and exploitation has been done to many African Americans who have lived in this county for many years. They have been very successful in destroying many lives.”
Jamie continued: “This is a time we show Americans what really occurs in most small towns in the state of Mississippi. We are convinced that once this chain of events is exposed and unraveled, the events that occurred, the lives that have been destroyed, the pain and suffering the citizens of Scott County have endured; everyone will be utterly amazed, astonished and compelled to assist us in our plight for freedom.”
Go to freethescottsisters.blogspot.com to read Jamie’s entire article, find out more information about the case and get involved.
Spotlight on Robert Frost
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| Robert Frost (1874-1963) |
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Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.
Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "My Butterfly," was published on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The Independent.
In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White, who became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death in 1938. The couple moved to England in 1912, after their New Hampshire farm failed, and it was abroad that Frost met and was influenced by such contemporary British poets as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves. While in England, Frost also established a friendship with the poet Ezra Pound, who helped to promote and publish his work.
By the time Frost returned to the United States in 1915, he had published two full-length collections, A Boy's Will and North of Boston, and his reputation was established. By the nineteen-twenties, he was the most celebrated poet in America, and with each new book—including New Hampshire (1923), A Further Range (1936), Steeple Bush(1947), and In the Clearing (1962)—his fame and honors (including four Pulitzer Prizes) increased.
Though his work is principally associated with the life and landscape of New England, and though he was a poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time, Frost is anything but a merely regional or minor poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.
In a 1970 review of The Poetry of Robert Frost, the poet Daniel Hoffman describes Frost's early work as "the Puritan ethic turned astonishingly lyrical and enabled to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world," and comments on Frost's career as The American Bard: "He became a national celebrity, our nearly official Poet Laureate, and a great performer in the tradition of that earlier master of the literary vernacular, Mark Twain."
About Frost, President John F. Kennedy said, "He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."
Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January 29, 1963.
A Selected Bibliography
Poetry
A Boy's Will (1913)North of Boston (1914)Mountain Interval (1916)New Hampshire (1923)West-Running Brook (1928)The Lovely Shall Be Choosers (1929)The Lone Striker (1933)From Snow to Snow (1936)A Further Range (1936)A Witness Tree (1942)Come In, and Other Poems (1943)Masque of Reason (1945)Steeple Bush (1947)Hard Not to be King (1951)
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
October by Robert Frost O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes' sake along the wall.
Taken from http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
Being a Strong Black Woman Can Get You Killed by Laini Mataka
After a successful career as a Jazz musician Wanda Robinson changed her name to Laini Mataka and released several publications including Black Rhythms for Fancy Dancers, Never as Strangers,Restoring the Queen, and Being a Strong Black Woman Can Getchu Killed. Her work has been include in a number of anthologies including Sisterfire, 360 Degrees, In Search of Color Everywhere and Day of Absence.
I would like to highlight "Being a Strong Black Woman Can get Getchu Killed." This book keeps is place as one of my all time favorites. A book that changed my writing as well as my perception of the world.
The title poem from this collection has been plagerized and vanderlized all over the internet for years. It drives me crazy when I go to poetry sites and see it listed as "unknown", see the wording changed or someone passing it off as their own.
Here is the link so you can read the poem yourself and also preview the book. In my opinion it is a must have. -Paradyme
Click here to read a preview of "Being a Strong Black Woman Can Getchu Killed!"
The title poem from this collection has been plagerized and vanderlized all over the internet for years. It drives me crazy when I go to poetry sites and see it listed as "unknown", see the wording changed or someone passing it off as their own.
Here is the link so you can read the poem yourself and also preview the book. In my opinion it is a must have. -Paradyme
Click here to read a preview of "Being a Strong Black Woman Can Getchu Killed!"
Maya Angelous papers made public at NY Library.
Maya Angelou's papers, including Clinton poem and notes, go to library
NEW YORK, N.Y. — More than 300 boxes of Maya Angelou's personal papers, including letters from Malcolm X and James Baldwin and several scribbled revisions of the poem she wrote to celebrate President Bill Clinton's inauguration, will be made public at a New York library.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture plans to announce the papers' acquisition this week.
Angelou, 82, said she sought out the Harlem institution — a research unit of the New York Public Library — as a home for works that include notes for her acclaimed autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and the 1993 inaugural poem "On the Pulse of Morning."
Angelou said Tuesday that she revised the poem about 10 times before getting it right.
"I had to continue to go back for the melody of the language," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"People all over the world use words; the writer comes along and has to use these most-in-use objects, put together a few nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives ... and pull them together and make them bounce, throw them against the wall and make people say, 'I never thought of it that way.'"
The Schomburg Center said the poem's draft is in one of nearly 350 boxes containing personal and professional correspondence, drafts, handwritten manuscripts and fan mail. It said that it has barely skimmed the surface of the material and that processing it will take up to two years.
"This is the essence that covers her literary career," Schomburg director Howard Dodson said.
The deal was sealed after a two-year negotiation, said Dodson, who has known Angelou for 20 years. He declined to reveal the terms.
Deciding to put her collection at the Schomburg was a "no-brainer," Angelou said.
"It is the principal repository in the world of literature and affairs for, by and about African-Americans, in particular, and Africans anywhere in the diaspora."
Angelou, who has homes in Harlem and Winston-Salem, N.C., said her many scribbled drafts are proof of how she can agonize over her writing.
"I want to write so well that the reader is 20 pages in a book of mine before she knows she's reading," she said.
For example, a typewritten draft of "On the Pulse of Morning" shows that she changed "Welsh" to "Irish" in the line: "The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh."
Angelou is the author of 31 books of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and children's books, as well as a cookbook scheduled for release in December. She has won three Grammys for her spoken-word albums and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her screenplay and score for the 1972 movie "Georgia, Georgia."
The collection contains manuscripts, typescript, proofs or galleys for a number of her published works, including "A Song Flung Up to Heaven" and "All God's Children." It also has correspondence with writers Marshall Davis, Mari Evans and Chester Himes; photographer Gordon Parks; and jazz singer Abbey Lincoln.
In a six-page letter written Nov. 20, 1970, Baldwin — the author of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Native Son" who died in 1987 — begins with the salutation "Dear, dear Sister," and continues: "I didn't know how much I needed to hear from a solid, loving funky ... friend."
"This is a truly remarkable human being," Dodson said. "The life record that she's created, especially as a writer, is of great significance ... not only of the times, but as an understanding of ourselves as human beings."
In a July 11, 1964, letter, typed on letterhead from the University of Ghana, where she was teaching, Angelou told Malcolm X: "Malcolm, I'm sure that we have not had a leader like you since the dead days of Frederick Douglass."
Five years before the publication of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Malcolm X foretold her literary success.
"Your analysis of our peoples (sic) tendency to talk over the head of the masses in a language that is too far above and beyond them is certainly true. You can communicate because you have plenty of (soul) and you always keep your feet firmly rooted on the ground," he told her in a Jan. 15, 1965, letter.
In terms of scholarly relevance, Angelou said she hoped some of her papers would show that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were "were not demigods."
"Both those men were good men, strong and courageous, but they were men," she said. "I hope that in my papers people will find evidence that some of the people they would like to sit on pedestals were just like them, and so each of us has the possibility of being effective in changing our world, even if it's just the world around us."
The Schomburg archive also contains the papers of Malcolm X; Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche; singer Nat King Cole; "A Raisin in the Sun" playwright Lorraine Hansberry; and tennis great Arthur Ashe.
___
Online:
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Waiting for Superman Official Trailer
I can't wait to see this film. I think it could definilty be impactful on our society if it was done right and if we take the time to listen. -Paradyme
Tonight 10/27 on The Spot "What does it take to be a successful Indie Artist"!
Tonight on The Spot at 10pm est we will be discussing the ins and outs of being a successful indie artist while staying true to your vision. Click here to go to show page.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Spoken Vizions Magazine is on the Move!!!
October 25, 2010
SpokenVizions Magazine is on the move!!!
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