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Our Artists II

Give until you can give no more.

Each time your give, you give away a piece of yourselves until you disappear, burn out, forget how to survive in this incarnation--almost like a silent, unintended slow suicide.

Is the talent a curse or a blessing? You feel (maddeningly) compelled to express your view of the world...you think. But is it really how you want to alter the world--your vision of a better version of the world? Who else sees and understands your viewpoint? You are either a mad(wo)man or a silent lunatic, roaming around in your head.

Dumb it down, lower your lofty standards so they don't think you've gone insane. But dumbing it down increases your own insanity. So you straddle the mundane and the outstanding. Comfortable in neither world. Stressed to share. Stressed to not share.

Go inside and create expansively and wildly. Blur reality. The blurred is either heaven or hell. Does it become heaven when you ground yourselves in your current reality or is it, in fact, hell? Too much reality spoils the germination and blossoming of transformative ideas and feelings. The seemingly impossible and stupendous has to decrease its vibration to permit current inhabitants to grasp but a small part of the revelation. But then the artist forgets the epiphanous ideas or spends too much time re-interpreting to self and for others the unexplainable, the mysterious. Therein is the continual conundrum of the creative mind. We all have one, it's just exists in a larger percentage in the artist who devotes his/her entire lives to the pursuit of art than in others who don't.

Cherish the artist. Your "crazy" work today will transform the world tomorrow. Your "interesting"/"accessible" work today sets the table for tomorrow but impacts marginally in the present.

A world/life of contrasts:

solitude vs. popular acclaim

follow the byzantine path of self-thoughts vs. immersing yourself in the world

focus vs. being expansive

demanding vs. listening

humility vs. arrogance

play to the monied crowd vs. being true to self and the voice within.

Impossible.

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Our Artists I

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WHERE WILL MAYOR ADAMS TAKE US?

Mayor Eric Adams is a man of contradictions. He's a former cop but the founding member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. He's a vegan…who eats fish. He's a Democrat who was a Republican from 1997-2001. He was a State Senator and the Brooklyn Borough President but looks to wield freely executive branch power as the CEO of NYC. He accepts money from developers but claims to champion victims of gentrification.

It's going to be a rollercoaster. "Because I'm the Mayor!" will be his weekly refrain when asked why he decided on a particular course of action. There's no nuance to his game. He could also easily say, “I'm in charge [like on the streets as a cop], and I am the judge, jury, and executioner.”

Lots of shooting from the hip emanating from City Hall for this administration. Who's coming at him first? The left, the Police “Malevolent” Association, the media, the NYS Attorney General, other elected officials? Will they take turns praising Mayor Adams when he boldly proclaims cops must live within New York City and then excoriating him for re-instituting stop and frisk type policing with hundreds more cops on the street?

Our heads will be spinning. He's everywhere. All over the news. On the streets, not holed up in City Hall. I do like the boldness. Just don't get sloppy. I am weary of middle-of-the-road/progressive-ish politicians trying to make their enemies their friends—to the exclusion (while taking for granted) their base.

Our heads will also be shaking—in anger or agreement, but we'll be paying attention.

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Sneakerella | Official Trailer | Disney+

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Sneakerella | Official Trailer | Disney+

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Mottley to Amanpour: A lot of us that are going to be affected before Sh...

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Listen/purchase: Zephyr by Steph Richards

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Janelle Monáe - Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout) (feat. Various Artists)...

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VICE-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, holds the view that reparations is a process rather than an event

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A fun interview about my book, Six Days in December: My Father's Journey Home.

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"Ha ha ha. We know we know."

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"Is this how we do it?"

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Eighth dimension

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wha??!

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Olde skool NYC

From today: A mosaic of buildings in #Midtown_South, #Manhattan. This view is temporarily available thanks to the demolition of several buildings on West 29th Street. https://www.instagram.com/p/CQFLZa3DinW/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Brunch on ice in Fort Greene.