Last Night's (8/1/08) Fundraising
On the bus traveling down a long and lonely road in New Mexico I write you all about yesterdays' fundraising efforts. As mentioned in the previous blogs we a very low on funds and each day finds us working harder to make enough money to get to the next spot. We had hoped that we'd make enough money before the trip so that we could focus on working with communities and performing. However, that wasn't the case. In reality we were only able to raise a fraction of the amount that we needed for this trip. When we realized our situation back home it wasn't a difficult decision to make. Go anyway! Go because we will learn more than any classroom could ever teach us. Go because men, women and children are waiting for our words. Go because some of those children will be inspired by our having gone, words or lives. Go because if we do not go and reach out to these communities and help out... who will? Go because our words have the power to create and we as a people must finds ways to do just that in order to counteract the destruction that exists in our world. That's why we spent all of yesterday fundraising. To continue what we've set out to do.
We picked up Jenny (Decora's Queen) in Phoenix the other and set out to to Whole Foods. Whole Foods is an organic foods supermarket that has been donating food to us along the way. Decora had called and the one in Phoenix was nice enough to set us up with a bag of groceries. PB&J here we come! After we picked up the food we headed towards the YMCA we had been at the previous day getting a workout to keep ourselves fit on this journey of ours. There, Graham had spoken to someone about a teen event happening the next day. The organizer of the event said that it would be cool if we came out and had DJ H20 spin with a possibility of a performance to raise some funds.
When we got to the YMCA we set up and DJ H20 started to spin. In the meantime Decora and Jenny headed towards something called First Fridays. First Friday apparently attracts tons of people for various art displays, street performers and vendors. Decora found a good spot for us to set up and we headed over there after the event in the YMCA. Larry and his family came too.Larry is the Couch Surfer that put us up for two nights. Couch Surfing stems from a website (couchsurfing.com) where people connect online and stay at each others places instead of going to hotels. The idea is to save money and also create an interaction where one can learn from each other by "interacting with the locals". When we got to the area where First Friday is held it was packed full of hundreds of people. Decora was there and he guided us to park in front of an art gallery called Inn Studio. The artist's name is Michael David Little and he had some great work on display. People take houses and display their art all throughout the house. It was a pretty cool concept and the streets were lined with other artists doing the same.
We learned that we only had a half hour before the noise ordinances went into effect so we had DJ H20 setup his equipment right in the bus. With one of the speakers blasting outside. While he spun on the ones and two's I hyped the crowd and mentioned that we had CD's for sale and were accepting donations. Crowds surrounded the bus before DJ H20 and I could even set up the equipment. They were all checking out the bus and trying to figure out what was going on. DJ H20 did an amazing set and we both had intermittent crowds surrounding the bus while he DJ'd and I lured them over on the mic. We made some more donation money while there and sold some merchandise as well(CD's and Shirts). The cops came around at 10pm (time noise ordinances went into effect) and told us we had to shut down. We did as soon as we could because there was a "Couch Surfing" party going on a few minutes away. Larry had put us on to it and we figured it could be another fund raising opportunity. Indeed it was. This house was PACKED full of people. Apparently it was a bday party for one of the people that lived at the house and word got around that there was a Hip Hop group from NY soon to be rocking the mic. The DJ there (DJ Noah) was off the chain and soon after we got there he passed on the equipment to DJ H20. He had the people dancing and groovin to his mixes while I (and on occasions Decora) reminded the crowd that we were accepting donations. A couple of hours later we got the crew ready (I gave a shout out to Free while on the mic because she was sleeping on the bus) and had the crowd movin with a couple tracks. While that went on I woke up (accidently scared her too) Corina who helped out by passing around the bucket and collecting money. After our performance we took some showers at that house and got back on the road. This time to New Mexico.
-Latin
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Time Is Tight!
Time is Tight...Simple Update (As soon as time allows I'll write detailed ones)
We're in a reeeeaaaaaaalllllyyyyy nice house on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. We're trying to see if we can set up an event for tonight to raise some money to get to the next spot. It's been a tough couple of days money wise and the Arizona heat doesn't help much. The minute we entered Arizona the sun came down and said ; Hey guys...I'm going to be ticking you off the whole time you're in this state...How do you like them apples? Since time is tight and we're all on the grind I'm going to write a basic update of what's been going on. Don't worry (Monica) I'll write a detailed update soon.
So we made it to San Antonio and met up with Monica. She has one of the most beautiful spirits that many of us have ever met. Not once in the time that we met her did she not smile or have an indestructible love for life. She works with the South West Workers Union (a 20 year old Organization that was created to fight for the rights of teachers and has grown to be an organization that works hard for others) under Ruben and introduced us to him so that we could stay at his house. He has a large house that wasn't as hot as it was outside (which all good with me). As soon as we walked in he welcomed us and let us know about his home's Mexican style plumbing (C=caliente H=helado). Soon after Monica re-arrived with some of the best breakfast burritos I've had. For those of you that don't know...Tex-Mex food is the bomb. During breakfast Ruben taught us an extensive After breakfast we all found a spot to chill out it and relaxed until we had to head over to our workshop.
Monica came by and picked us up so that we could head to our workshop. Actually we followed her in our bus. She stopped by the South West Workers Union office to pick some things up and we were back on our way. When we got to the venue Ruta Maya we found a basement packed full of youth. We presented our "Hip Hop and Poetry Save My Life" workshop and had a great time with this particular group of youth. The kids were wise beyond their years and threw out issues that they were seeing in their communities with no problem. When we did one of the techniques we teach (bubble technique) they immediately blurted out phrases that youth their age should not have to be concerned with. Phrases and words like police brutality, poverty, gentrification and others flew through the room we were in with the power of ancestral knowledge. Later on we learned that many of these youth are very involved in their communities working hard to stand up for the rights of su gente. After the workshop we had a few hours to rest before our performance that night.
The performance was at a venue called Cafe Latino. It was a packed house and some amazing artists vocal and musical artists like Vocab and Bombasta blessed the outdoor stage. We performed our set and dealt with some sound difficulties (mics kept giving off feedback) while at it we rocked a live crowd and had a great time doing so. There was an awesome party afterwards that had us all dancing and enjoying ourselves. There was a guy that liked the event so much that during the party he came up to me and said... You guys were awesome. Dude! Your like coffee...I wanna just drink you up! To which I politely answered thank you and slowly walked away lol.
The next day we had an outdoor performance in Hondo, Texas. the stage was setup on a long trailer and it was under the stairs. After the event there in Hondo we headed straight to El Paso which was a loooong drive. At El Paso we were greeted by Monica's beautiful family. The love and warmth that Monica had given us was granted to us by her family as well. In El Paso we realized that we had no money and needed to do so some fundraising. We were fortunate enough to get a couple of events where we made enough money to get back on the road.
This is a quick update to let you all know where we are. Hopefully if we get more time I can write a more detailed one soon. Thank you so Monica and her familia for being the warm beautiful people they are and for making us feel at home from the moment we met Monica to the moment we said good bye. Much amor para ustedes.
-Latin
We're in a reeeeaaaaaaalllllyyyyy nice house on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. We're trying to see if we can set up an event for tonight to raise some money to get to the next spot. It's been a tough couple of days money wise and the Arizona heat doesn't help much. The minute we entered Arizona the sun came down and said ; Hey guys...I'm going to be ticking you off the whole time you're in this state...How do you like them apples? Since time is tight and we're all on the grind I'm going to write a basic update of what's been going on. Don't worry (Monica) I'll write a detailed update soon.
So we made it to San Antonio and met up with Monica. She has one of the most beautiful spirits that many of us have ever met. Not once in the time that we met her did she not smile or have an indestructible love for life. She works with the South West Workers Union (a 20 year old Organization that was created to fight for the rights of teachers and has grown to be an organization that works hard for others) under Ruben and introduced us to him so that we could stay at his house. He has a large house that wasn't as hot as it was outside (which all good with me). As soon as we walked in he welcomed us and let us know about his home's Mexican style plumbing (C=caliente H=helado). Soon after Monica re-arrived with some of the best breakfast burritos I've had. For those of you that don't know...Tex-Mex food is the bomb. During breakfast Ruben taught us an extensive After breakfast we all found a spot to chill out it and relaxed until we had to head over to our workshop.
Monica came by and picked us up so that we could head to our workshop. Actually we followed her in our bus. She stopped by the South West Workers Union office to pick some things up and we were back on our way. When we got to the venue Ruta Maya we found a basement packed full of youth. We presented our "Hip Hop and Poetry Save My Life" workshop and had a great time with this particular group of youth. The kids were wise beyond their years and threw out issues that they were seeing in their communities with no problem. When we did one of the techniques we teach (bubble technique) they immediately blurted out phrases that youth their age should not have to be concerned with. Phrases and words like police brutality, poverty, gentrification and others flew through the room we were in with the power of ancestral knowledge. Later on we learned that many of these youth are very involved in their communities working hard to stand up for the rights of su gente. After the workshop we had a few hours to rest before our performance that night.
The performance was at a venue called Cafe Latino. It was a packed house and some amazing artists vocal and musical artists like Vocab and Bombasta blessed the outdoor stage. We performed our set and dealt with some sound difficulties (mics kept giving off feedback) while at it we rocked a live crowd and had a great time doing so. There was an awesome party afterwards that had us all dancing and enjoying ourselves. There was a guy that liked the event so much that during the party he came up to me and said... You guys were awesome. Dude! Your like coffee...I wanna just drink you up! To which I politely answered thank you and slowly walked away lol.
The next day we had an outdoor performance in Hondo, Texas. the stage was setup on a long trailer and it was under the stairs. After the event there in Hondo we headed straight to El Paso which was a loooong drive. At El Paso we were greeted by Monica's beautiful family. The love and warmth that Monica had given us was granted to us by her family as well. In El Paso we realized that we had no money and needed to do so some fundraising. We were fortunate enough to get a couple of events where we made enough money to get back on the road.
This is a quick update to let you all know where we are. Hopefully if we get more time I can write a more detailed one soon. Thank you so Monica and her familia for being the warm beautiful people they are and for making us feel at home from the moment we met Monica to the moment we said good bye. Much amor para ustedes.
-Latin
El Paso We Love You!!!
El Paso helped us get back on the road.
I'm on the bus across from J-man and Corina. Their working on Corina's computer. Cuttz just woke up and is scrambling for whatever food and drink he can find. Graham, Free and Decora are sleeping while DJ H20 drives. We're officially in the desert. The heat is beating down and I'm trying to stay as hydrated possible. We're on our way to an event in Phoenix, Arizona after having spent a few days in El Paso. Originally we'd planned to perform in Juarez and then drive down to Chihuahua, Mejico. Due to extensive flooding caused by heavy rainfall in Juarez the event had to be canceled. In addition, we'd run out of money for food or gas. So inevitably we decided to do some fund raising in El Paso to help us get moving forward. Monica (our San Antonio, Hondo, Juarez and El Paso connection) hooked us up with a place to stay (her brother's house) some food and pretty much anything else we needed. With her help we were able to book a couple of last minute events (DJ H20 dance parties and short performance) that made us enough money to get back on the road. Local organic food shops donated some food too.
Our first event was at the Percolator in El Paso. There we hosted a dance party and short performance. As soon as we were done we headed to another venue called the Black Market. DJ H20 tore it up with both sets. He was even dancing in the DJ booth at both venues. Decora stood outside where he asked for donations for the DJ while we had a table set up inside selling CD's and accepting donations as well. Overall it was an amazing night and couple days that had us all coming together trying to make dinero to get us back on the road.
-Latin
I'm on the bus across from J-man and Corina. Their working on Corina's computer. Cuttz just woke up and is scrambling for whatever food and drink he can find. Graham, Free and Decora are sleeping while DJ H20 drives. We're officially in the desert. The heat is beating down and I'm trying to stay as hydrated possible. We're on our way to an event in Phoenix, Arizona after having spent a few days in El Paso. Originally we'd planned to perform in Juarez and then drive down to Chihuahua, Mejico. Due to extensive flooding caused by heavy rainfall in Juarez the event had to be canceled. In addition, we'd run out of money for food or gas. So inevitably we decided to do some fund raising in El Paso to help us get moving forward. Monica (our San Antonio, Hondo, Juarez and El Paso connection) hooked us up with a place to stay (her brother's house) some food and pretty much anything else we needed. With her help we were able to book a couple of last minute events (DJ H20 dance parties and short performance) that made us enough money to get back on the road. Local organic food shops donated some food too.
Our first event was at the Percolator in El Paso. There we hosted a dance party and short performance. As soon as we were done we headed to another venue called the Black Market. DJ H20 tore it up with both sets. He was even dancing in the DJ booth at both venues. Decora stood outside where he asked for donations for the DJ while we had a table set up inside selling CD's and accepting donations as well. Overall it was an amazing night and couple days that had us all coming together trying to make dinero to get us back on the road.
-Latin
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