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Luxury Awaits
Believe You Can Achieve Amazing Things!
Anyway, a few hours before the deadline I managed to submit a shorter version of The Revolution Ain’t on Blu-Ray. (link to my You Tube vid- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHjZ6yV6io) Why was it shorter you ask? Well, because that piece is originally 5 minutes long and the submissions had to be under 3 minutes. Geez, editing the poem was like deciding which of my vital organs I wanted to keep. I took out 2 minutes of the poem, recorded it with my Canon Cyber Shot and posted it to You Tube. I thought I was pretty fly too, but unfortunately as fly as I was, I didn’t make it on the show. 😦 Yeah bummer! But my submission was one of the top five so I get some kudos for that right?
Getting that submission done was a lot of work but what I really wanted to say is nothing is in vain when you believe in what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s not all about the win but the journey and what you gain or give along the way. And for me, who knows, there’s always Season 3 🙂 As a bonus for being in the top 5 submissions I was interviewed for the Luxury Awaits article copied below. My first official interview! Whoop whoop! The original article can also be found on http://luxuryawaits.com/lifestyle/submissions.aspx?nav=Scroll
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read it! Your victory is my victory. My victory is your victory. Our victories give empowerment to the people!
Kimeko “Chick Under Construction” Farrar…. That really tickles me LOL
Verses & Flow Luxury Awaits
One of the most exciting aspects of putting together the second season of LEXUS Presents Verses & Flow has been the submission process. Thousands of potential participants sent in their very best performance pieces to versesandflow.com before the May 15th deadline, with each poet displaying their own unique style and love of words.
There were a few artists that stood out among the many who submitted, like Adam “Rage Almighty” Tench, who called the submissions rules “very easy to follow, even though it was torture trying to make sure I sent in the right poem. I wanted to be sure to include a piece that showed how good I was with crowds.” And that he did. The two year poet, who claims that going to a spoken word event with his cousin saved his life, submitted his ode to early motherhood with the piece “The Science to Loving A Pregnant Woman,’ or, as it’s more often called, “The Stretchmarks Poem.”
Finding inner peace was more important than finding a piece to submit for Willette-Angelic “Angelique” Palmer. The Manassas, VA resident called the submissions page “easy to navigate,” but found that it took the better part of two days to convince herself that she was good enough to toss her words into the ring. She finally exhaled, sending in her most poignant prose, “Nostalgia Sticks to Skin,” which is a war cry to abusive fathers everywhere.
Kimeko “Chick Under Construction” Farrar hadn’t even heard about the show’s first season, instead becoming aware of it after Season One stalwart Georgia Me performed at a venue in her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. “I got excited after hearing about it,” she remembers, adding that folks kept calling her to make sure she submitted. Farrar, who started writing and performing poetry soon after one of her mentors was shot and killed as part of a massive school shooting, shared what she calls her signature piece, “The Revolution Ain’t On Blu-Ray,” a universal piece about the need to read that has as much impact in a church as it does in a school.
Evrick “Tro’juan Soule” Henderson wasn’t sure what to submit after a friend told him about the show’s call for poets. “It was a challenge,” he recalls, saying that he wanted to send something folks could relate to, “nothing too heavy.” The Dallas native, who remembers the day he decided to take poetry seriously–Valentine’s Day 2009–and finds himself studying the parallels between rapper Nas and poet Langston Hughes, finally decided on the poem written in honor of his mother, “Letter to You.’
These are just a sample from the thousands that submitted for the second season. And while it wasn’t possible to welcome each and every one of them to the Season Two stage, their submissions are a bold reminder of just how vast and talented the spoken word community remains.
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For more updates on Season Two of Verses & Flow, including all announcements and features, please stay tuned to luxuryawaits.com and versesandflow.com.
My 100th Blog Post!! There should be an award for this!
100th Post!!
I’ve been dying to post the 100th entry to my blog but I’ve been so busy that my creativity has taken a leave of absence. Sometimes things don’t happen as you plan but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening exactly as they’re meant to happen. Where there’s a will there’s a way so please enjoy the attached video of one of my spoken word performances in celebration of my 100th post. Whoo-hoo!
The Revolution Ain’t on Blu-Ray is one of the first pieces I ever wrote and performed. I was afraid that my knees would wobble and my voice would crack under the pressure. But alas, I embraced the spotlight shining in my face and I haven’t looked back. When I listen to this piece it reminds me of why I even started this journey in the first place. There is still work to do, changes to make, and goals to achieve. Don’t be fooled by what you see or by what you’ve been conditioned to believe and accept. Dig deeper!
Poets Rock!!
Thanks for reading!
ChUC
Please click on the link below to view the video on my YouTube Channel (meko1908)…
The Movement: Poetry
We must stretch out our hands to help one another...
Hello All! I haven’t posted anything in a while, been crazy busy! I also haven’t posted any poetry in a long time but when inspiration hits a poet will pay $100 for a pen just to write out our thoughts or we’ll explode from the burden of our emotions. But instead of just writing I decided to use my webcam for the first time and record what I was feeling. Please click on the link below to view the piece. I hope it touches your heart because it definitely came from the heart. Be blessed friends, today and forever!
ChUC
Respect the Sacrifice…
Hello All! It’s February, the month of love and pro-blackness! 🙂 For me black history month is a time to reflect on the sacrifices made, both willing and unwilling, so we could have the freedom we currently enjoy. The freedom to love, the freedom to learn, the freedom to prosper, the freedom to express thoughts openly, and the freedom to be black and beautiful were neither automatic nor expected. Our ancestors took the thorns from their backside and used them to build bridges so we could walk over into greatness. For that, I am eternally grateful.
The poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall has always touched my soul, maybe because it speaks to the mother in me. It also has a way of slapping me out of my complacent and content moments. It reminds me that there is still work to be done because those who paid the ultimate price with their lives deserve much more from me, from you, from all of us.
Until our minds are as free as our bodies, we have not arrived. Keep fighting for the change you seek!
ChUC
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Ballad of Birmingham
Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”
“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.
The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”
Chick Under Construction - ChUC 