Mixtapes.
Quality.

Honduras

In a month and a half I'll be traveling to Honduras for a month. It will be the first time I travel somewhere solo and meet up with people I do not know. The organization posted this blog so I got an idea of where I'll be staying. The pictures that are below I found on Facebook from other volunteers.

I think the trip is going to challenge me in a great way. I'll be responsible for teaching youth about HIV/AIDS. Although I work with kids all the time, I'm having to educate myself adequately about HIV/AIDS. The program sent us a packet of information that we need to learn, and I'm excited that I'm learning so much in the process.

His album won't be out for another year, supposedly May 2010.

"Open up your heart and you will understand me, fall into the music and let yourself go..."

Song of Myself --Whitman

A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms

For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf

lady in blue
one thing i dont need
is any more apologies
i got sorry greetin me at my front door
you can keep yrs
i dont know what to do wit em
they dont open doors
or bring the sun back
they dont make me happy
or get a mornin paper
didnt nobody stop usin my tears to was cars
cuz a sorry

i am simply tired
of collectin
i didnt know
i was so important toyou'
i'm gonna haveta throw some away
i cant get to the clothes in my closet
for all the sorries
i'm gonna tack a sign to my door
leave a message by the phone
'if you called
to say yr sorry
call somebody
else
i dont use em anymore'
i let sorry/didnt meant/& how cd i know abt that
take a walk down a dark & musty street in brooklyn
i'm gonna do exactly what i want to
& i wont be sorry for none of it
letta sorry soothe yr soul/i'm gonna soothe mine

For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf

lady in green

now why dont you put me back & let me hang out in my own self

Brave New Voices--Alysia Harris

Very powerful.

Brave New Voices--Josh Bennett

I don't have HBO anymore, so I'm having to survive on the videos that are posted online. *sad time*



Live version that I found of when I first heard it.

Two days ago there was a shooting across the street from the school where I work. Since I'm there for the after school program, I missed the events of the day, but got the aftermath. I drive up to the school and there are at least 10 police cars, crime tape, and neighborhood members standing around watching what's going on. Oddly enough I didn't have any sense of fear, maybe caution, but not fear. I find out later that there was a quarrel in the street, and a guy was shot two times in the chest.

Where it relates to my life...
The kids I work with saw the shooting. It happened around 11:30 AM, when the 2nd graders were having lunch. They saw the man being shot through the windows of the cafeteria, and they know both the victim (who died) and the gunman. At the age of 21, seeing someone shot would have a huge impact on me, and I can only imagine what it feels like when you are 7 or 8.

The school went into immediate lock down. Everyone had to sit in their locked classroom with the lights off huddled in a corner. Unfortunately, this is the life of which these kids have become accustomed. Shootings, arrests, drug deals, police searching their homes, etc. And no, I'm not stereotyping or making generalizations, because I have either seen these events first hand, or had a child at work tell me about their own personal experiences.

Although they experience such turmoil and stress at a young age, I love when they can be kids, smile and have a great time.