busy producer man/busy performer man: reflections of April

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As always, I've been keeping busy. Coming off of the production of Guante's "Concious Is Not Enough 2011" free mixtape and ongoing production of "Heidi Barton Stink's new album (lots of new work here! verses, beats, and more and more great songs from this invigorating collaboration), I hit April with a bunch of shows and speaking engagements.

the 7th: Heidi Barton Stink's Birthday Double Rainbow show at Cause with a slew of good people and performers. CHECK. It was pretty awesome. Felt really good about my set and had a lot of fun seein' Heidi roll out some of the new pieces we're working on for her latest and greatest album coming out later this year.

the 16th: Upward Bound/Trio SJ Conference at Normandale - CHECK. Keynote and workshop WENT SPECTACULARLY. Met some brilliant students who had a lot fun and really ran with the workshop material. It was beautiful to connect with a room of some 700 brown students and to have the chance to facilitate a more intimate workhop afterward.

ALSO the 16th: Equilibrium at The Loft; CHECK. Wow. Just a truly special event. Best spoken word event I've been to in a seriously long time, if not ever. CLASSIC, really. Packed house and just bursting with top notch people and poetry. I'm so honored to have been a part of it. I presented some new work (a poem) mashed up with rap and song. I was feelin' it to say the least. Bao Phi curates poetry events like the finest mixtapes.
EQ: Spoken Word at the Loft presents Tomás Riley and Sham-e-Ali Nayeem

the 21st-23rd: Patrick's Cabaret with Dameun Strange as our other worldly duo Strange Perspective at the The Somewhat Sci-Fi Variety Show - CHECK. We had a blast with these artists! SO many fun, clever, smart acts. Some weird stuff too, but we love it. The dance was phenomenal. Dameun and I got all theatrical and even enlisted the help of some of the dancers to help coordinate a ring of fire so to speak, timed with our performance. Many thanks to all the artists and most of all Arturo Miles who organized the whole thing.

the 30th: at Capitol Hill Magnet/Rondo Elementary. Lead the closing ceremony for this great day of service, social justice and open dialog with reflective questions and performance. Good, and kinda shy group of kids. Proud of the ones who stood up and spoke to their inspiration and the things that matter to them about their experience. A good handful represented well and I felt great about our interaction and the time I had to contribute to their learning and whole event. Big Ups to Larry Lucio and Youthrive.
PEACE JAM

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