Filed under: Blog
Street Sesame: Kekoa & Friends.
Watch it all on Facebook. Check it.
Filed under: Blog
Sumi, I stole your poem. Really, I just copy/pasted from your blog (http://soulinmyfist.wordpress.com/). Whatever it is, this Writing is necessary:
“Art was never about perfection.
Entertainment?
…now that’s something completely different.
Like families watching celebrities dance on TV
Instead of sharing their own creativity–
Making music, dancing, laughing, connecting together.
How I romanticize our ancestors!
It is this amerikan culture we live in that has poisoned our creative spirits.
I came to this conclusion after one night when I stepped on stage,
My child cried for me “mama mama mama.”
And I could not give perfection in my performance.
I could only give what I could give in sharing what I had to say,
Falling short of the expected grade A caliber.
This being the same reason why I am critical of slam poetry,
Where they want everything to be perfect:
Art no longer as art,
But art as entertainment.
Something that can be scored,
A competition,
Where somehow someone always has an upper hand
No matter what.
It is this amerikan culture we live in that has poisoned our creative spirits.
I cried that night.
I questioned myself “am i good mother? wouldn’t a good mother be at home with her child cooking and cleaning?”
I belittled myself “how dare you take that spot from an artist more worthwhile!”
I filled myself with doubt “you should give up writing, you have your priorities mixed up!”
Then someone brought to my attention
How few parents,
How few mothers,
How few single mothers,
Go up there
And spit their messages, their insight, to the world
In hopes of being heard.
How not normal it is for what happened to me
To happen,
Because we inadvertently disallow it,
How our society views creativity
Everyday creativity
In our interactions and relationships
As an anomaly,
Something that only the free spirited crazies and queers do
(You were in high school drama class too?).
All people can create,
Should create,
Because creativity is driven from our soul
And without it we are void of our true self.
Those who cannot access art
Because it has been paraded around
As an elite untouchable entity
Suffer and know not why
While arts education programs are cut
In our public schools.
Maybe the more not-so-perfect performances I have,
The better.
Because we will no longer expect entertainment
Desensitized by Hollywood and photoshopping and special effects and autotuning.
We’ll accept embrace demand art:
Fresh
Raw
Imperfect.
Because art was never about perfection.”
@Sumi: Thanks :]
