Our Latin Thing (1972)

A fellow salsa lover lent me this movie and well... it's amazing. If you like salsa and/or awesome film making you have to see it. The whole movie is music, dancing and New York street scenes with very little dialog. In one review it is described as "a musical documentary of the Latin life style in New York City". It features a lot of salsa greats like Hector Lavoe and even some underground rooster fighting...
to watch the intro click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QnC5kMgCjM

ngugi wa thiong'o-- benefit for revolution books

Last night, I went to see Ngugi Wa Thiong'o speak and read selections from his autobiography, Dreams in a Time of War. Last year, I read his theoretical book on language, identity and colonization Decolonizing the Mind, it changed the way I understand my relationship to language. I was moved by his voice, both powerful and delicate, whimsical and deep. I was inspired by his stories; they transported me to another time and place, while connecting strongly to my present situation.

This was a benefit for Revolution Books a fantastic resource for literature and non-fiction that is changing the world, located on 26th street between 6th and 7th ave.

kalae all day-- "AFROMATIKNEOHIPPIEROCK​*​SOLEMUZIK" [album]

This bad young woman is bouta take the hip hop world by storm...

I met Kalae All Day at one of her all-woman cyphers, the Fem'Fetale jam sessions, down in the east village. She regularly brings together New York's best underground women MCs and singers.

Her newly released AFROMATIKNEOHIPPIEROCK​*​SOLEMUZIK is just that, with extra soul and a wide and clever variety of sounds, moods and ideas, unified with Kalae's vibrant personality. She's got more swag, honesty and love than anyone out cheer right now.

Inside all her humor and sparkle, Kalae speaks a strong feminist message. Finally! A rapper who's unapologetic about her female reality, addressing a wide range of issues (consumerism, exploitation, female solidarity, sex, family, identity...) with passion, integrity, insight and charm.

listen (free) or download ($10) AFROMATIKNEOHIPPIEROCK​*​SOLEMUZIK here

graff in greenpoint [pics]

(all pics by petra)

mobile graff-- trucks [pics]

character graff [pics]

uptown graff-- "it's just paint" [pic]

downtown graff [pics]

graff in wash heights--who is this guy? [photos]

l.e.s.-- street art [photos]

--all photos taken by petra--

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krs one-- boss freestyle & a millie remix [listen]

STOP THE VIOLENCE!!

check out The Teacher's newest stop the violence tracks:

the boss freestyle

a millie remix

up...up...up... the nypd

paulo freire's theories about oppressive systems illuminates this nyc subway ad:

"...the oppressed, striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or 'sub-oppressors.' the very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. their ideal is to be men, but for them, to be men is to be oppressors...the one pole aspires not to liberation, but to identification with its opposite pole.... in the example [of slavery] the overseer must be as tough as the owner--and more so." (freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed, 1970.)

our police system is directly founded on the overseer and slave hunter systems, which relied on 'free' blacks, poor whites and desperate native americans to control the slave population, out of fear of being slaves themselves, or out of compliance to the slave masters' ideology.

you can "rise further" if you keep your fellow people down.

same shit today in nyc.

super n [video]

a short film by alrick brown:

sic lic graff [photos]

from the 7 train in long island city, queens




--photos by petra--

NY times: underground movement

check out this article published in the NY Times:

"Talk About Underground Movement" by claudia la rocco, oct 12, 2008


in the summer i see lots of crews of young breakers on the A train all the time
often specifically for the 7 min uninterupted space/time between 59th and 125th st



this is a much better use of the subway
but still... get the cop dogs out of the subway

.
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the subway's a dj sometimes

my number one favorite thing about living in nyc
is that 30 seconds
when the A train stops
the doors open
and djembe drums, or a trumpet,
or the tapping of a tap
dancer's feet
mixes with the
young jeezy or al green
playing in my earbuds.