tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33759897736140971972024-03-13T11:28:36.112-07:00Dredlocks TreeWords and images by Kahlil KoromanteeK. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.comBlogger349125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-55451216269798873952015-07-07T14:44:00.000-07:002015-07-07T14:44:02.885-07:00K Workshops<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByaDLNdX6HI/UI2Xcbt6MJI/AAAAAAAAFQ0/FByEnf4V9ZI/s1600/kinblackandwhite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" oea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByaDLNdX6HI/UI2Xcbt6MJI/AAAAAAAAFQ0/FByEnf4V9ZI/s320/kinblackandwhite.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Besides writing books for and about hard to reach youth, and the parents and teachers/counselors who are trying to reach them, I also teach general life management skills and urban psychology. For those interested in having me come speak to their students or participants, the following is a list of workshops I've either done or are on-going--<br />
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<em>Message to a Youngblood - <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Life Lessons and</span><strong> Advice</strong></span> for Our Sons</em><br />
<em>Before You Fly Off - Life Lessons and Advice for Our Daughters</em><br />
<em>English Can Be Fun -- Helping Students Fight Their<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>Fear of Writing</em><br />
<em>Educating Urban Youth - When the Curriculum Doesn't Fit<br />Counseling the African American Male - The Audacity of Not Judging<br />Trouble Girls - Working With Female Teen Bullies</em><br />
<em>Single Parenting - <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Parent Stress</strong></span>/Peer Pressure<br />The Marginalized Student - From Identifying to Celebrating<br />Am I in the Right Major? - Learning and Developing </em><em>College Skills</em><br />
<em>Prison Bizness - Why Are So Many Black Men in Jail?<br />Teaching the Young, Gifted and Incarcerated</em><br />
<em>You Talkin' to Me? - The 411 on Conflict Resolution<br />Gay Youth - Counseling Them, Counseling Us<br />Beyond the Bling - Black Male <strong><span style="font-size: large;">Self-Awareness </span></strong></em><br />
<em>Black Masculinities - <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hyper-Masculinity</span> </span>in the Black Community <br />Love and Happiness - Developing a Relationship With Yourself First!<br />Creating Your Job and Finding True Purpose</em><br />
<em>Learning How to Better Manage Your Time<br />Wholistic Wellness - Creating a Positive Environment For Success<br />Writing the Autobiography - Leaving Your Written Legacy<br />The University Male Center - Challenges, <strong><span style="font-size: large;">Tools</span></strong>, and Leadership<br />The New Academic Advisor - A Different, More Wholistic Approach</em><br />
<em>Despierta! - How Culture Can Affect Academic Performance<br />Toxic People - The Art of Recognizing and Avoiding<br />Doing It Your Way - How to <strong><span style="font-size: large;">Self-Publish</span></strong> Your Book</em><br />
<em>Doing It Another Way - How to Create, Market and Sell Your T-Shirts<br />No Rage, No Guilt - The Difficult Process of Addressing Race-ism </em><br />
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<em><strong><span style="font-size: large;">K Books</span></strong></em><br />
Message to a Youngblood - A Conversation with Our Sons<br />
Before You Fly Off - A Father Offers Advice to His Teenage Daughter<br />
Before You Fly Off - Volume Two (Released July, 2009)<br />
The Dredlocks Tree - Prose and Poetry<br />
Throw - Images and Words (tba)<br />
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<em><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Recent Essays</span></strong></em><br />
The pro-FATHERS Project: A Proposal<br />
From Ground Zero With Love<br />
50 Means Reset<br />
The Color Complex<br />
One Drop of Blood<br />
How the Haitian Government System Works or, The Waiting Game<br />
Dear Oprah<br />
If I Interviewed Obama...<br />
The Writing Process: On Writing For and About Young Black Males<br />
When Doves Cry - The 2010 Haiti Earthquake<br />
Dancehall Music is Not Reggae<br />
When Dumb Wasn't Cool<br />
Bang, Bang. I'm Dead!<br />
Youth Participation in Neighborhood and Community Settings<br />
Letter to My Prez - Wyclef Jean for President<br />
The Other Writing Process<br />
How'You Like Her Now?-- The Makings of An Irish Rasta<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Youth Interviews</span></strong><br />
Naj<br />
If Life is a Dance, Where's the Music?<br />
Messengers of Lies: A Conversation with a Disillusioned Student<br />
Akasan: Rap and Hip Hop in the Haitian American Community <br />
Generation Entitlement: Where We Went Wrong With Our Youth<br />
What Are You Doing Here? - A Conversation with a Former Inmate<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Media Praise </span></strong><br />
NBC's David Ushery's <em>Debriefing with David Ushery</em><br />
The Daily News<em> Harlem Week 2012 issue</em><br />
Manhattan Network TV Show <em>In the Black </em><br />
Bronx Network TV Show <em>Smiling Through Tears</em><br />
<strong><a href="http://www.dredlockstree.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-dont-know-how-these-things-work.html">http://www.dredlockstree.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-dont-know-how-these-things-work.html</a></strong><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T785EkUT5M/Tsunc2gSRlI/AAAAAAAAEAU/SaIn072Er-8/s1600/FRONTCOVER6x9.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5677815869339747922" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T785EkUT5M/Tsunc2gSRlI/AAAAAAAAEAU/SaIn072Er-8/s400/FRONTCOVER6x9.jpg" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 267px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />My current project is on the overall development of young urban males of African descent; how parents can better relate to their troubled sons; their education and spiritual wellness; social identity concerns; hyper-masculinity and buffoonery; and how we can help them define and discover their purpose.</span></div>
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<em><br /></em><em></em><em></em><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><em>"Most books about us are about teaching us how to fit in. Your book helps us understand our rage </em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><em>and learn how to be ourselves </em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><em>in a world that has a problem with that."</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">--22yrld Tariq</span></em><br />
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For more info on workshops and book orders,</div>
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feel free to contact me:</div>
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Lifejak@</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">aol.com</span></em></strong><br />
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Thank you again for your support!</div>
K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-84423597481133470532014-10-29T15:53:00.000-07:002014-11-15T20:09:17.120-08:00How To Write a Book For and About Young Black Males, and Have It Actually Reach Their Hands?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7fTGoArL_OE/VFFZ5JlsfxI/AAAAAAAAGBw/uMfBtEKyzNg/s1600/jackie7%2Bface%2Bn%2Bcap2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7fTGoArL_OE/VFFZ5JlsfxI/AAAAAAAAGBw/uMfBtEKyzNg/s1600/jackie7%2Bface%2Bn%2Bcap2.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a>1. Write <strong>what they've been waiting to hear</strong>, not your doctoral dissertation or theoretical diarrhea. That may be easy formula to you but consequently boring to them;<br />
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2. <strong>Remember</strong> how it felt when you turned 14 and society no longer considered you cute and safe;<br />
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3. The ones you need to <strong>impress</strong> are the young males themselves, not your agent and not your ego;<br />
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4. Pitch to all publishers, not just African Americans. Because <strong>sometimes water is thicker than blood;</strong><br />
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5. <strong>Consider</strong> the frustrations of a single mother with limited resources and funds;<br />
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6. <strong>Don't forget the fathers </strong> who do pay child support but are still not allowed to see their children;<br />
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7. Don't forget to bring up <strong>Africa</strong> because self-esteem begins at the Gold Coast, not at the American car show;<br />
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8. <strong>Always </strong>carry a few copies on you to give away;<br />
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9. Choose a <strong>cover design</strong> that speaks their language, not yours;<br />
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10. Use your <strong>personal copy</strong> when life coaching students, doing workshops and mediating;<br />
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(Artwork by student, Jacquie Torres)K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-89240797159580454652014-10-26T11:41:00.001-07:002014-10-26T11:41:14.989-07:00Author & Educator Kahlil Koromantee<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SmNStVuy86c" width="480"></iframe>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-41376168064289304642014-09-28T14:41:00.003-07:002014-09-28T14:41:43.533-07:00Andrew Glover Program Honors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
If you've been following my work, you already know that I'm affiliated with a few youth programs throughout New York and D.C./Baltimore areas. This past Friday, the Andrew Glover Youth Program, an alternative to incarcerating convicted young males and young females, did something I hadn't seen before. As a way of thanking their advocates, both the staff and the youth themselves decided to place life-size photos of key individuals who help the Program's participants reach their personal and academic goals. I was blessed to have been named as one their trusted family members and I stay grateful not only for their visual shoutout, but also for the respect and love these kids showed me when I first met them two years ago. Young folk don't like bs. If they think you're just a messenger of lies, they let you know right off the bat and it's over. If you're a newby to urban realities but your intentions are good, they let you get it together. And if you've been doing this kinda' thing for decades because it's your calling and what you do best, they recognize it. Doesn't matter if they come from broken homes. Your presence and testimony to surviving obstacles gives them a blueprint to learning how to not define themselves according to their circumstances but rather to their passion for reinventing themselves. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avenue A and 9th Street </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right-- Divino Quinones, US Army; Dan Grisby, Volunteer; Tamara Sandy, Soup Kitchen Director; Chino Garcia, Community Activist</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O8lpwsvpuaM/U3ohMOX4F9I/AAAAAAAAFxo/uajmzMRzqbc/s1600/glover+art.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O8lpwsvpuaM/U3ohMOX4F9I/AAAAAAAAFxo/uajmzMRzqbc/s1600/glover+art.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The backdrop of this community tribute is a street garden called La Plaza Cultural</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosie Mendez, Councilwoman</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jan Hanik, Clemente Cultural Center<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The artwork on top of the fences was an added surprise. If you look closer, they're trash items that local artists turned into valuables....(amazing!)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-boD9SrEyulg/U3ojcrA6mbI/AAAAAAAAFyo/0RR7Vnv4otA/s1600/glover12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-boD9SrEyulg/U3ojcrA6mbI/AAAAAAAAFyo/0RR7Vnv4otA/s1600/glover12.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right-- Jan Janik, Clemente Cultural Center, Carno Pabon, Community Organizer; Miriam Reverand, Involved Neighborhood Mom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.K. Canepa, Ecologist; Chris Slow, Firefighter; Ray Turner, Personal Trainer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14OEadRReE8/U3okzUFAsiI/AAAAAAAAFyw/r3EoSCkyAjY/s1600/glover+k6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14OEadRReE8/U3okzUFAsiI/AAAAAAAAFyw/r3EoSCkyAjY/s1600/glover+k6.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right to left-- Tamara Sandy, Soup Kitchen Director; Chino Garcia, Community Activist; Orlando Rodriguez, Business Owner</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every community garden needs a wall to represent the neighborhood's values and aspirations. In this case, the residents are saying their heart is in it!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Makes you re-think of things you typically throw away, right?...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PKAEqVKkYOw/U3ol8TSuBMI/AAAAAAAAFzY/lcwI-LkunSI/s1600/glover+k+with+latino.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PKAEqVKkYOw/U3ol8TSuBMI/AAAAAAAAFzY/lcwI-LkunSI/s1600/glover+k+with+latino.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right-- Miriam Reverand, Involved Neighborhood Mom; myself, and Anthony Feliciano, Community Organizer</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside of the garden is a loud but quiet contrast to the city noise just outside the gate...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right--Hayan Kasem, Neighborhood Deli Owner; Carmen, Neighborhood Grandmother; Frank Morales, Local Priest</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right-- Frank Morales, Local Priest; Marttha Mobly, Headstart; Denis Barton, Homeless Coalition</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A passerby was taking photos of the fence and reading about each individual being honored. She was excited to see one of them still there, took a few of my biz cards then took my pic next to my pic which was a bit surreal to me, yet it felt great to be recognized when your haters refuse to even acknowledge you. It was a reminder for me to ig the haters and continue what I came here to do. And maybe that was the passersby's own role, to remind me of just that! </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork on the side of a bodega on Avenue A and 11th Street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-NYXfjojuE/U3os7T36dfI/AAAAAAAAF1g/R-alTNwomrs/s1600/glover+angel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-NYXfjojuE/U3os7T36dfI/AAAAAAAAF1g/R-alTNwomrs/s1600/glover+angel.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Founder and Director of The Andrew Glover Youth Program, Angel Rodriguez<br />
Program Coordinator, Jessica Hall<br />
Photographs by Pamela Crimmins<br />
Photo Project by InsideOut</td></tr>
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K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-4415354242936811332014-08-02T12:28:00.001-07:002014-08-02T12:28:24.869-07:00Black Men Matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-44496812523391268692014-07-30T01:17:00.000-07:002014-08-02T12:29:42.697-07:00Thank You<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>A simple but most sincere thank you is the best prayer.</em></strong></td></tr>
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<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-90064313412081739792014-07-20T16:31:00.002-07:002014-07-30T01:25:02.187-07:00Images 18: Everybody Needs One -- A Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A garden can be a small pot of basil on your window sill</div>
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or a botanical postcard right outside your door. </div>
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<strong>Be one with nature and be one with you!</strong></div>
<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-13667422476065132952014-07-15T14:11:00.001-07:002014-07-15T19:39:29.092-07:00Images 17 : Salem Lake, NCListen to Coltrane and feel at one with your self.<br />
Sit by a lake and be at peace with your choices.<br />
That's the meaning of happiness, to me.<br />
The knowing that you're on your divine path<br />
and therefore your choices are your familiar friends...<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V9eEPsFT5Ag/U8VF03NGAoI/AAAAAAAAF2Y/t81bOJawkEo/s1600/lake1.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three months from now, this same space explodes with autumn colors! <br />
But it's still beautiful to see the summer green covering the landscape.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PBRks_qzZOM/U8VGB3zc4mI/AAAAAAAAF2g/KQsmIog927M/s1600/lake2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PBRks_qzZOM/U8VGB3zc4mI/AAAAAAAAF2g/KQsmIog927M/s1600/lake2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lake seems to be calling on me to take a dip or maybe a canoe...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_MnDaKoFCnA/U8VGMpc9l_I/AAAAAAAAF2o/0knd4fOFyiA/s1600/lake3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_MnDaKoFCnA/U8VGMpc9l_I/AAAAAAAAF2o/0knd4fOFyiA/s1600/lake3.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And notice the baby blue sky. Nothin' like a Carolina sky!...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XBuvVdCFE9Y/U8VGvDJD3zI/AAAAAAAAF24/VavI_XOXG3M/s1600/tree+light.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XBuvVdCFE9Y/U8VGvDJD3zI/AAAAAAAAF24/VavI_XOXG3M/s1600/tree+light.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look up. See how beautiful it is up there,<br />
and from there where the ancestors help make a way...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HWRr5P_AlaQ/U8VHjaVehRI/AAAAAAAAF3Q/5sLkQWhjIBc/s1600/look+up2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HWRr5P_AlaQ/U8VHjaVehRI/AAAAAAAAF3Q/5sLkQWhjIBc/s1600/look+up2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like looking up at trees. They're art living...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77pfvMtH-V0/U8VHt8IPdrI/AAAAAAAAF3Y/W65HjCu2lnA/s1600/look+down+fern.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77pfvMtH-V0/U8VHt8IPdrI/AAAAAAAAF3Y/W65HjCu2lnA/s1600/look+down+fern.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look down too and notice the details living... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yHU_LpAHURM/U8VH4toda0I/AAAAAAAAF3g/yW71wJYQeTI/s1600/banana+leaf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yHU_LpAHURM/U8VH4toda0I/AAAAAAAAF3g/yW71wJYQeTI/s1600/banana+leaf.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Could tell you this is a banana tree up in Gonaiives or Madagascar,<br />
but it's an American weed grass that mimics <br />
the Carib and Southeastern Africa... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JbLpw9iqSgY/U8VID31rV8I/AAAAAAAAF3o/_h979Hkpnwg/s1600/barkend.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JbLpw9iqSgY/U8VID31rV8I/AAAAAAAAF3o/_h979Hkpnwg/s1600/barkend.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The underbelly of a fallen tree...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ky7XGfRic-U/U8VIOPwBwyI/AAAAAAAAF3w/I8cALP1LQkM/s1600/bark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ky7XGfRic-U/U8VIOPwBwyI/AAAAAAAAF3w/I8cALP1LQkM/s1600/bark.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Either another peace of art living <br />
or there's a squirrel in these parts with mad bite skills!...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UvQQwBhwdJc/U8V4mJ7iTJI/AAAAAAAAF40/9Y-4WQaNPXI/s1600/tree+snake.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UvQQwBhwdJc/U8V4mJ7iTJI/AAAAAAAAF40/9Y-4WQaNPXI/s1600/tree+snake.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I thought this was interesting. <br />
Branches not hanging from their homebase but clinging onto it...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ARrsG4q7xBo/U8V1oXNz38I/AAAAAAAAF4A/krbjexkuFLQ/s1600/duck.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ARrsG4q7xBo/U8V1oXNz38I/AAAAAAAAF4A/krbjexkuFLQ/s1600/duck.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't have a lake without ducks...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UrAv-XxwTdc/U8V1z-QHVCI/AAAAAAAAF4I/MJLh0V1aJY0/s1600/goose.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UrAv-XxwTdc/U8V1z-QHVCI/AAAAAAAAF4I/MJLh0V1aJY0/s1600/goose.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't have ducks without geese...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eNNzckD09Uw/U8V2MDx2SnI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/Z6i4ecNWoKg/s1600/IMG_0983.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eNNzckD09Uw/U8V2MDx2SnI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/Z6i4ecNWoKg/s1600/IMG_0983.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like that you don't see the fourth one til your eye makes a left...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0DpAOXX8V4/U8V5GYdA0SI/AAAAAAAAF48/kkI72od5eZY/s1600/crane+zoom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0DpAOXX8V4/U8V5GYdA0SI/AAAAAAAAF48/kkI72od5eZY/s1600/crane+zoom.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like a pelican...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xuuZxHJGALI/U8V5SBVHNEI/AAAAAAAAF5E/N7wU016UZOw/s1600/crane.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xuuZxHJGALI/U8V5SBVHNEI/AAAAAAAAF5E/N7wU016UZOw/s1600/crane.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like a pelican hiding in the marshes...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SHyevSPclYU/U8V5jQhPvJI/AAAAAAAAF5M/Xwi9Hb4N0v0/s1600/memorial.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SHyevSPclYU/U8V5jQhPvJI/AAAAAAAAF5M/Xwi9Hb4N0v0/s1600/memorial.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nobody/somebody til you look up what the Winston-Salem police found <br />
after a quiet canoe row found it first...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-koiTqbgLv28/U8WUyD5KMzI/AAAAAAAAF6M/sZiwbzWODko/s1600/salem+lake+death.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-koiTqbgLv28/U8WUyD5KMzI/AAAAAAAAF6M/sZiwbzWODko/s1600/salem+lake+death.jpg" height="320" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raphael was found drowned off the marshes back in 09. <br />
This after park workers noticed a capsized boat in the middle of the lake.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZpQ_hrF-bI/U8V5vnPRzWI/AAAAAAAAF5U/m9QrHg64vHw/s1600/memorial+flwrs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZpQ_hrF-bI/U8V5vnPRzWI/AAAAAAAAF5U/m9QrHg64vHw/s1600/memorial+flwrs.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raphael was an A&T State U graduate. <br />
Whatever went down and wherever he may be now,<br />
I said a prayer for him...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-afUON2_t4Dk/U8V6HiJ4aGI/AAAAAAAAF5c/Y17Qxy7rQPA/s1600/pathway.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-afUON2_t4Dk/U8V6HiJ4aGI/AAAAAAAAF5c/Y17Qxy7rQPA/s1600/pathway.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pathway to answers...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ay_6RDMBNmo/U8V6TGqY4MI/AAAAAAAAF5k/Z543cug_bBg/s1600/road.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ay_6RDMBNmo/U8V6TGqY4MI/AAAAAAAAF5k/Z543cug_bBg/s1600/road.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A roadway to questions...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_2E_vm5IWM/U8WE726sQ3I/AAAAAAAAF58/a0dWiEaHVCo/s1600/bench.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_2E_vm5IWM/U8WE726sQ3I/AAAAAAAAF58/a0dWiEaHVCo/s1600/bench.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But in the end, you still come back to you and your own path to walk,<br />
your own purpose to fulfill. If not this time, the next time around<br />
and again and again til you get it right.<br />
<em><strong>I'm getting it right!</strong></em></td></tr>
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<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-91760478791971838682014-05-19T07:21:00.002-07:002014-05-19T07:43:46.122-07:00CCNY 5th Organizational Behavior Symposium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="userContent">FYI-- Tuesday May 20, 2014 5th Organizational Behavior Symposium sponsored by The City University of New York - Center for Worker Education/CCNY @ 25 Broadway, 7th floor (by Wall St) 6:30pm - 8pm</span> K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-3468125713037045152014-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:002014-05-18T19:36:33.624-07:00Images 16: Peekskill at the Hudson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's something mysterious and yet so peaceful about a fog waking up a small city by the water.</div>
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I caught a landscape view of it one morning </div>
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and started shootin' away. </div>
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My photo-mojo was back </div>
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and it was feeling better than good!!! </div>
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<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-55824943903623899902014-05-04T08:25:00.001-07:002014-05-04T08:28:30.908-07:00Taboo Yardies Documentary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lu_Z95B6Z30/U2Y_9YwULnI/AAAAAAAAFuY/penlD2oRUos/s1600/23444_1214127115380_4630762_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lu_Z95B6Z30/U2Y_9YwULnI/AAAAAAAAFuY/penlD2oRUos/s1600/23444_1214127115380_4630762_n.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a>I'm not one to push rainbows on folk, especially when its agenda has nothing to do with pan-Africanism But I recently saw a film by Selena Blake documenting the murdering and raping of same gender loving people in Jamaica, and how the police actually help promote this type terrorism. But the violence goes even further than that/gets deeper than that. Parents are known to abandon their children once they find out they were bullied or raped to avoid talk from the community. Neighbors report to police who they even think might be homosexual to stay on the 'right' list and island officials add to the terrorism by equating same gender love with incest and bestiality. And then you got homosexuals themselves who beat up and burn their own so their communities don't target them. As difficult as it was to hear testimonies from lesbians who were gang raped by male thugs whose intention is to <em>fix</em> these women, as in 'corrective raping', and seeing the scars on their arms from self-inflicted knife wounds as their way of dealing with trauma unresolved; as painful as it was to watch scenes of young and older males being slashed by machetes and burned to death by their own communities simply for being homosexual, it was important for me to watch the damn thing and learn. </div>
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I found out that Uganda and Jamaica have a lot in common; that the common culprit behind these atrocities is Church indoctrination and the fact that Jamaica didn't get off England's titties until 1962 which answered my question on why this island and not Haiti? Not that my mother's homeland waves rainbow flags like American boys sag their pants. But we don't burn our brothers' and sisters' homes for being themselves. Matterfact, many of our vodun priests are two spirits. We say 'two spirits'. You say bisexual. All the other Carib islands have strong anti-SGL sentiments where it's still illegal for a man to love a man and a woman to love a woman, with the exception of St. Lucia where they will arrest you for being a <em>gay</em> man but not a lesbian. It's that type of double dealing that leads to undercover behavior. It's also a reflection of heterosexism at its best. </div>
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I also learned that White SGL tourists can go about their business freely as long as they avoid Jamaican ghettoes and that many of them own fancy getaway homes there where they're immune to the terrorism regular Black folk gotta deal with on a daily basis. Plus, Jamaica's Black well-to-do SGL's have enough money to look away and not help the ones who can't afford escaping ghetto life and ghetto mindset. And what's ghetto mindset? If you watch it from this perspective, you too will learn that after religious brainwashing, violence is at the root of insanity in Jamaica's poorest hoods. One brethren in the film said if two men get into a car accident, it's a cause for an all out fight with folk circling around them to see who'll win. But I've seen that ish in Cambria Heights and on Utica Ave. I've seen us go for one another's throats on subway trains just 'cause someone brushed by another and then all hell breaks loose which is not necessarily Jamaican, but for some reason distinctive of us-- Black folk.</div>
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A reminder of when things turned wrong for us in our experience as a people in these Americas helps us understand how terrorism towards us by European and Euro-American hands for so many centuries taught us how to do the same to one another. And the less informed we are, the more likely we perpetuate this legacy of self-hate, which brings us back to Haiti or rather, Ayiti. We were and continue to be punished for having the audacity to reject the white in the red, white and blue. Hence, our rainbow flag-- the red and blue. Are we starving? Of course. But we'd rather starve than go back to the tittie. Even today, the colonialists are threatening to stop sending monies to us that they originally stole from us for wanting to set up our own elections. The chaos you hear about and see is mainly in the capital, but they won't tell you that the rest of Ayiti is prosperous and beautiful. Folk in Port-au-Prince burn trees to sell charcoal for cooking. And those horrible stories of women being raped and boys selling their bodies in order to eat are real. But that's not our culture nor our national sport. That's just what happens all over the world where impoverished folk do whatever they gotta do to make it. Jamaica's having an identity crisis because there're folk there who want the harassing and killing of homosexuals to be their country's cultural pastime and national sport. If not, every Jamaican you know would be outraged. And some are, but only once they land on foreign soil.</div>
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But there's even more to this and the film director exposes it. "Let's talk about it", she says. "Let's have an honest conversation about homosexuality." Because at the core of her film is our hatred for effeminate men and boys. Because you can be a masculine dude who's into other dudes as long as you keep it to yourself. You can be married, have children, attend church and do that thing you do on the side, and it's all good. Just don't let us find out. And if we already suspect, don't mention it. So how does an effeminate bruh push his <em>girly</em> down and up his macho, especially if it means his life? For that matter, how does a transgender even survive in the heart of wickedness, whether it's Jamaica, Uganda or right here on the Ave? I don't know about you, but I think it takes big <em>cohones</em> for a dude to walk in a neighborhood not made for his kind with heels and lipstick, head held up high and a box cutter under his wig. Now, that's gangsta!</div>
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If I sound like the docu had a personal affect on me, it's because it did. I'm guilty of judging <em>the girls </em>and I can't let my readers confuse my being private with being ashamed. THIS ISH IS WRONG ON A PURE HUMAN LEVEL and I'm sharing this with you to help this sista' put the word out. </div>
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On another level, I wanted my next youth support book to have more depth and I found it in the dark with my notepad and pen scribbling as much sense I could when one writes in the dark. Every book I've written so far is strictly from an observer's perspective. Can't do that this time around. I'm in. And I think by me being in and not just of it will give my book more meaning. Might piss off some folk, but that's what happens when you tell the truth.</div>
K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-28342975936983931532014-04-30T13:22:00.000-07:002014-04-30T21:27:31.145-07:00Reach Higher and Within<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>I write books that I can't find</strong> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">and it's with my motivational books </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that I help young people channel their energies </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in a positive/productive way while also</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">assisting parents and educators </span><span style="font-size: large;">reach them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is my offering to you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The charge of doing my part </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">in finding solutions </span><span style="font-size: large;">to a national crisis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My understanding is that we want to save </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">our sons and daughters. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What better way to do so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> by first working on our selves </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">so that our approach as guardians and teachers,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">counselors and advisors,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is not based on formula already proven ineffective </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">but rather practical means </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that empower our youth </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> to reach higher and within.</span><br />
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K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-11457872264024149702014-04-20T07:53:00.002-07:002014-04-20T07:53:53.926-07:0011 Dumb Things American Africans Do:<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Being shocked whenever a gross collective dis happens to Black folk and fussing about it for days and months as if we just got here</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Waiting for The Messiah or President Obama to come solve all of our problems for us</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Voting at the Presidential level but not at the Primaries where it really counts and not demanding more from our local politicians</span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Hating one another based on geography, skin color and post colonial training</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Avoiding counseling or therapy to avoid getting out of victim mindset</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Expecting Euro-American psychology books to define and heal you </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Focusing on race-ism and not living and loving, so much that the only thing we talk about is race-ism</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spending more energy on hair, accessories, reality shows, car rims and sports rather than on what our kids are learning in school, getting involved in community meetings and personal/collective accountability</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Confusing street culture with Black culture</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Celebrating an entertainer who sexes and urinates on a minor, purchasing the video to then sell it to others who will sell it as well, while calling gay marriage disgusting</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">Following religions and traditions that were used to enslave us.</span> </span></span></div>
K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-3927173716023007902014-04-20T07:18:00.001-07:002014-04-20T07:19:38.019-07:0011 Dumb Things American Europeans Do:<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Asking a Black person if you can touch their hair and touching it before they say no</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Looking behind you when a Black person, especially a man, is walking in your direction when he’s the one who should be scared, considering your collective track record</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Assuming that your definition or standard of beauty is the ideal norm </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="color: white;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Assuming that the majority of welfare recipients are lazy, no good single Black mothers when in actually it’s Hassidic Jews who hold the highest stats</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Assuming that the Black person doing work in his garden is the hired help and not the homeowner</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Not understanding why Blacks are behind economically and in health while unwilling to find out why</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Not checking your relatives, friends, neighbors and teachers on their race-ism so as not to lose your status in the family and community</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Saying Black people should just get over post slavery trauma </span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Dating Black because of our sexual appeal and not our sense of originality and resilience </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Teaching Black children to glorify everyone but their own and then punishing them for misbehaving</span> <br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Debating whether or not race-ism exists while benefitting from race-ism</span></div>
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K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-65288485776246702242014-03-05T08:26:00.000-08:002014-03-07T00:00:56.167-08:00At the Bean Runner<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RkNlDbBtjEE/UxgBLv1rRTI/AAAAAAAAFtg/j5VB20GxbaM/s1600/oversized+front+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RkNlDbBtjEE/UxgBLv1rRTI/AAAAAAAAFtg/j5VB20GxbaM/s1600/oversized+front+cover.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a><span class="userContent">I'll be reading some of my poems in <span style="font-size: large;">Peekskill, NY</span> this Thursday at the <span style="font-size: large;">Bean Runner</span> with up and coming young voices. It's good for the poetic libido to peace with the younger ones. <strong>They keep us on our feet and we keep them from forgetting</strong>.<br /><br /> ps-- one of my students, Rajiv Mahadeo did the book cover design</span>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-51885165727090829542014-03-02T08:55:00.002-08:002014-03-02T08:55:44.712-08:00Spirit of a Man<span class="userContent"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_53135fc1a49d85215822608">
Not sure why exactly some of us despise Ayanla Vanzant to the point where we accuse her of exploiting folk who seek emotional healing. When you ask them to elaborate they can't explain their position, just contortions of the mouth and hands that add <span class="text_exposed_show">up to nothing. Like a person who tells you they don't like so n so, and when you ask them why they just shrug their shoulders/make a lemon face but it adds up to nothing. These are the same Black people who won't accuse Maury povich and Jerry Springer of exploiting yet they call out mothersista. My guess is that these are the ones at the family table who are more afraid of <strong>DOING THE WORK</strong> than keeping appearances, doing the work than perfecting their masks; more threatened by doing THEIR work than lifting the community.<br /><br /> My other guess is that <span style="font-size: large;">we've gotten so good at being victims that we don't know how to be victors</span>. It's such a foreign reality to so many of us that we'd rather stay in complain mode rather than actually doing something about our condition. That's why traditional Church is more appealing to them because they get to blame their crashes on the Devil and do away with <span style="font-size: large;">accountability</span>. Unless your pastor/minister encourages serious introspective/looking at our role in our predicaments, you're just filling space/not using space; existing/not inspiring even your self.<br /><br /> I was first introduced to Ayanla when a sistafriend suggested I read 'Spirit of a Man'. I was just entering my 30s and still full of rage. Rage towards my parents. Rage towards White people. Rage towards Black people. Just a walking time bomb. Like so many emotionally scarred young men who were told to suppress their feelings/act like you got it all figured out on the outside, <strong>I was imploding</strong>. What ayanla's book did for me was first explain my rage to me because often times you're <span style="font-size: large;">too in it to see it</span>. In a period where male bashing was the trend, mothersista honored my manhood and lifted my spirit; gave me specific keys to doors that I needed to open in order for me to rid the rage and find peace in my life. In a way, <span style="font-size: large;">she helped shape the way I write my own help books</span>.<br /><br />Look, I'm not trying to tell you who to go to for your drink of water. But let's at least look at <span style="font-size: large;">why you'd reject fresh clean water over dirty laundry</span>. Our haters hate us for our ability to rise above their insecurities. The hater at the family table hates you because they can't break/can't steal/can't comprehend your amazing connection with the ancestors. When I don't like someone, I'm specific about it-- she brings me drama, his energy's toxic, she confuses women's empowerment with male disempowerment, he thinks Black power is hate power. Tangible things that I can put in my hand and show to you. Maybe even get rid of them with you.</span></div>
<br /></span> K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-83797600288072480582014-02-20T13:37:00.002-08:002014-02-20T13:40:48.436-08:00Westchester InterviewI recently had the pleasure of meeting Westchester Living Arts Show host, Jackie Suarez. She interviewed me about my earlier books and how they came about, my current male advice book and youth agencies I'm affiliated with. Enjoy!<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/Pv3ajRUmGfc">http://youtu.be/Pv3ajRUmGfc</a>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-29187762109833762172014-01-20T13:03:00.004-08:002014-04-21T04:49:36.908-07:00The Thing About Grace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Now that the <strong>Nelson Mandela</strong> hype is over, your young brain cells most likely forgot all about the significance of both his transition (we don't die, we change form) and his legacy. Your school teacher or college prof might have added him to their lesson plan, what with all the media attention on the 90yrld global icon. The same media who once considered him a terrorist for speaking against the mistreatment of Black South Africans; as in <i>I invade your home, call it mine and implement a system where you need a pass to get to one room to another and back just to keep the house that's no longer yours expendable, and then have you locked up or murdered if you got a problem with that.</i> If you're fortunate enough to be in a classroom that pushes education/inspiration rather than indoctrination/subjugation, a productive discussion on what Apartheid was about and what Mandela's legacy means to people of African descent, to the world at large and to you specifically then you know what it means to be informed/empowered. Because<b> the more you know about your collective and individual self, the closer you are to your purpose. </b>But with social consciousness comes social responsibility. And what made Baba (father) Mandela so special to all of us is the fact that after being unjustly imprisoned for so many years then released due to tremendous global pressure and consequently the end of Apartheid, <b>the man made the decision to not retaliate</b>; to not signal a go for a major racial war against those who understandably deserved to be punished for their role in the terrorizing of Back people in their own land. While this form of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">ultimate courage</span> is admirable or simply strategic since the objective was to advance South Africa, in the first place and not drown the country into racial armageddon, die hard superBlacks wanted to see blood if not the total removal of European control as in <i>This is our nation. It was always ours until you stole it from us and therefore all of our resources ought to be controlled by us, not you. </i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The thing about grace</span> is that it doesn't get the kind of attention a low down reality show/<i>tweet all your friends cos episode 3 is on tonight</i> does. Humility is quiet that way and yet loud if you stop to notice it. Somewhere in the Mandela hype was his ex-wife/assumed 'terrorist 2' Winnie Mandela. Some of us think she went too far with her bull horn. Some of us think Nelson was soft for coming out of prison pushing <em>Can't we all get along?</em> But pushing a racial riot and getting nothing out of it in the end but more bloodshed isn't being hard. More of the throwing of stones onto burning bullets from children's hands might be an amazing story to re-tell but, at this point of the book, no longer effective. And Winnie staying by her ex-husband's new wife to help her stand as the current sitting wife wasn't being soft nor was it a photo opp to help change the minds of her doubters. Takes a certain amount of class to show grace in the face of your haters; takes spiritual enlightenment to turn a dis into an honor. I know this from watching my own haters become the <span style="font-size: large;">pedestals to my victory</span>. This is why Winnie can smile today after years of terrorism pushed on her and her children during the earlier days when the shackles of Apartheid showed no signs of letting go. </div>
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Fast forward to today as we take a min to honor the legacy of <b>MLK</b> not only for what he's done for Black folk in America, but for all oppressed peoples. To consider the <b>Civl Rights Movement</b> only a Black thing is to ignore all the good folk from other skin hues and other nationalities who helped make the Movement move, so when we take offense at the latest groups looking to get their movement moving by adding <b>MLK</b> to their feet we forget that the child being neglected by his mother is part of civil rights; the vet who needs a job is civil rights, the homosexual athlete who got pushed off his team is civil rights, the Rasta wanting to be left alone so he can do his thing is civil rights, the elderly man who's being evicted from his home and needs back up he don't have is civil rights, the transgender woman getting harassed on the subway and not being able to find an apartment is civil rights, and our sons who have to tolerate po-po terrorism on a daily basis and waiting to see how the new NYC police commissioner defines <i>professionalism, courtesy and respect </i>is civil rights. </div>
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Bro. Malcolm would say <b>human rights</b> cos each person has the right to basic and decent civility. <b>The new generation might place more attention on cash n flash than on social consciousness, but my generation helped create that by dropping the ball.</b> We got comfortable and caught up with shows like Dynasty and Dallas, and put away our dashikis and fros. Nothing wrong with teaching our children how to make that legal money, but we forgot to tell them to hold on to their culture. <b>We forgot to tell them to hold on to their natural hair</b>. Civil/Human rights can't fix that, but googling the past can.</div>
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Not living in the past, but learning from it/honoring those who paved the way for us to simply be and take it to the next level, not lose the level altogether.</div>
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Tomorrow, your teachers won't mention Dr King. Your parents won't continue discussing his role in the on-going holocaust of African peoples. That's if they even brought him up. And your favorite stores will move on to the next hype-- Valentine's Day and like the soda bottle on a factory belt, you'll wait to be told what flavor you should be be/what label to put on while the movement waits for you to move. These are complicated times and <b>having grace</b> is necessary for the conscious to navigate murky waters. Otherwise, there's nothing to teach, nothing to leave behind but she said/he said and stay tuned </div>
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for more nothing.</div>
K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-29180448847978508552014-01-12T09:50:00.000-08:002014-01-17T11:27:05.814-08:00The Wind is My Mother<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Been off the grid for a long min. Parenting your parent is a curious process.<br />
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Part of you resents having to stop <br />
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your everyday preoccupations in order to play the responsible adult child. Part of you gladly/affectionately welcomes the new normal. Most caregivers find their position somewhere in the middle of that process, in between the old photographs and cherished memories now lost in a vacuum called dementia. We first noticed it when mom stopped tending to her vegetable garden. Her energy wasn't the same. She lacked the pull it takes to grow beautiful/plentiful tomatoes, egg plants, peppers, mint and basil in her own backyard. Her body became frail. She wasn't eating as much and her thoughts were somewhat irrational which in turn made her actions suspect. She was still mom, or auntie, or grandma, or good neighbor but the smile was fading, the face was changing; not just aging but changing. We could see it in recent photos; that look an Alzheimer's patient has when they're smiling about nothing, their eyes wondering off somewhere past the here and now.<br />
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I've bee re-reading <i>The Wind Is My Mother</i> by Bear Heart. Books are great like that, in the sense that you can read them several times and each time discover something new about the message/about yourself. In the beginning chapters, Bear Heart says you don't ask to be a medicine man<br />
; it's just part of your calling/who you are and what you came here to do. It got me thinking about playing the caregiver role. How it first calls you to action with a thousand responsibilities poking at you until it finally becomes part of your everyday life. You don't ask to be Power of Attorney. It's inevitable. The armor simply waits for you to put it on. It doesn't care how exhausted or in control you are or think you are of the situation. This was part of the journey all along, and you either pass the role to another and miss your chance or Represent.<br />
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Sometimes the wind isn't my mother but my ancestors, recent and past, guiding me/directing me. They tell me what my mother no longer can say for herself and make ways out of nothings. And sometimes I think the dis-ease is more about having one foot in the next life and the other right here where it all doesn't make sense anymore, and the people no longer recognizable except the songs remembered and the feel of a strong but loving voice you call your son. To be the one person who's able to help mom keep her emotional balance while navigating both realities used to be a burden but now an honor. It takes time, depending on the seeds planted earlier on. Because it's true what folk say-- What you give is what you get back. I never resented my mother; just her disappearing acts. And she never resented me; just my poor choices. We're more alike than not. Something I discovered recently in my handwriting and in the way I enter a room, with poise and purpose. I may have my father's free spirit, but I'm learning that I'm mother's son. And it's an honor.<br />
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<br />K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-10880539500951335462013-10-16T13:12:00.001-07:002013-10-16T13:12:11.644-07:00Next Stop: Life Skills Coaching <span class="userContent">I'll be life skills coaching some of our suns next Saturday, Oct. 26 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY. If you know of any teens and/or 20soms who need life coaching, please don't hesitate to have them attend this day long workshop on empowering young males and guiding them to productive choices. </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="userContent">When a parent says Thank you for saving my child! You smile a thank you back smile cos you know you're doing exactly what you came here to do!</span><br />
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<a href="http://empowermegnep.org/what-we-do/brotha-2-brotha/">http://empowermegnep.org/what-we-do/brotha-2-brotha/</a>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-43263891209234896702013-10-06T11:46:00.001-07:002013-10-06T11:47:15.255-07:00Right Now, It's a Jail...<span class="userContent">"Our youth don't see dropping out of school as a failure. They actually see leaving a broken system as freedom. Our job as progressive educators is to bring freedom to education. Right now it's a jail."--From my next youth motivational book; release 2014.</span><br />
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<a href="http://superbizzee.tumblr.com/post/63288694609?og=1&fb_action_ids=10153332645250444&fb_action_types=tumblr-feed%3Apost&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210153332645250444%22%3A521073137970235%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210153332645250444%22%3A%22tumblr-feed%3Apost%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D">http://superbizzee.tumblr.com/post/63288694609?og=1&fb_action_ids=10153332645250444&fb_action_types=tumblr-feed%3Apost&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210153332645250444%22%3A521073137970235%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210153332645250444%22%3A%22tumblr-feed%3Apost%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D</a>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-43447356086455191832013-09-29T04:54:00.000-07:002013-09-29T04:54:00.567-07:00Yo! Baltimore <span class="userContent"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_5248143a9448f2f99677802">
"Mr. Koromantee, it gives me great pleasure to give your book a big THUMBS UP! I have worked in the Baltimore City Public School System for many years and have found very few if any books that have addressed the issues (with answers) the wa<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">y your book does. I am now an Employment Advocate at YO! Baltimore, Westside and can honestly say that our members are really enjoying reading this very insightful and interesting compilation. It has touched these young men where it counts, in their heads and in their hearts. Thanks for a great read!"-- Stanley Smith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</span>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-25914679744255469382013-09-01T12:09:00.002-07:002013-09-01T12:13:55.206-07:00Show Your Colors, Not Your Ass!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every year round this time, Carib folk from and around Brooklyn, NY take over Eastern Parkway to celebrate the annual <strong>West Indian Day Parade</strong>. I used to go as a child when the Parade was a gigantic/awesome gathering with floats showcasing each Caribbean flag/music along the sidewalks filled with on-lookers and food n souvenir vendors who, in turn, showcased the matching flavors. I stopped attending when the event became more of a dangerous place to be caught in, what with gangsta wannabe's turning it into an excuse to shoot at one another. It became something both residents and visitors tolerated, until NYPD decided to curb the ra-ra. Now the floats pass through Crown Heights and down to the plaza circle with a more controlled threat of violence in the air. Efforts by po-po to be friendlier to the natives also helped. But it backfired last year when Blue was caught on video sexually fraternizing with some of the floaters and then bragging about it, even using racial tags to add to the insult. <strong>But no one talked about the insult that the men and women had already put on themselves</strong>. </div>
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Maybe I'm just getting older. But <strong>I want more from us</strong>. Too much compromising of what Black pride looks like. I know. What's wrong with just having a good time? Nothing, if you consider a good time bending your back forward to let another dry fuk you for all to see, or cheering a 5yrld girl for gyrating her privates in front of grandma. Or better yet, a group of males bumrushing a female to show what they do when the lights are out, while the female drunkenly grins at the mere spectacle of it all. <strong>If we're okay with teaching our daughters and sons that showing your ass is showing our pride, then let's not act surprised when non-Family members don't take us seriously. Older boys, especialy, who use our flags as gangsta face masks are not expressing Caribbean pride but emulating gang mentality which have nothing whatsoever to do with forward movement, but everything to do with misguidance and identity crisis</strong>.<br />
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I'm bringing this up cos I'm wondering if <strong>we're at a crossroads in defining our collective pride</strong>. Those who see a parade as an opportunity to display their flags and colors, and those who see it as a chance to wile'out. Reminds me of the debate over 'gays' who see pride as exhibitionism and those who'd rather push with their clothes on. I'm just sayin...<br />
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Look, I'm not trying to force my words on you. And from a photographer's standpoint, the more outrageous the fun, the more interesting the shot. But <strong>I'm celebrating my West Indian pride by remembering our Maroon, Yoruba and Taino heritages, the meaning of the conk shell, and the fact that Ayiti gave the rest of Carib and Latin America the blueprint for independence</strong>. Our West African traditions still show in our ways, food, and parade costumes like the one here representing the Devil. <em>Devil Man</em> is called upon by painting the body either blue, red or black; sometimes mud, but the one color is smeared from head to toe and the horns add to the drama. This is all part of the Jab Jab, an offshoot of the Parade that actually occurs before sunrise. The idea is that the Devil walks through town warning people about not paying for their wickedness. It's all mythology, of course. But the myth got hyjacked by marchers who sexualized the character (FYI-- The island of Grenade is considering banning the sexually provocative 'devil man' from their carnival, while supporters are siding with freedom of expression). <br />
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The full coloring of bodies or <em>tarring</em> began as a form of <strong>collective protesting when male slaves smeared themselves with tar, mud, paint or molasses so their masters wouldn't recognize them</strong>. As in, <em>I'm stealing the very molasses I'm forced to cultivate for my keeper</em>. Colonized French called it <em>Jab Molassie</em> while Black Brits named it the <em>Jab-Jab</em>. All of that got lost with the rest of the old folk tales, with some grown men who do recall and make sure we don't completely forget. Even the ones who paint themselves green or purple, who are just doing it cos they saw someone else do it, somewhere in their psyche they know it's a form of beautiful protest.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4TiPI-yJPU/TmU2w_RhNgI/AAAAAAAAD9E/-pgSvgMwlSo/s1600/thumbnail.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648981522852689410" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4TiPI-yJPU/TmU2w_RhNgI/AAAAAAAAD9E/-pgSvgMwlSo/s400/thumbnail.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 300px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 294px;" /></a> <br />
Sometimes on-lookers gotta wait between floats cos the gaps can be a block long. That's when some of us show their ass the most! All that jump off space and liquor to join you, until the next float comes or police regulates. The beauty queens try to get some of the attention by waving at the crowd, the way Queen Elizabeth waves at her subjects or how Marie Antoinette looked like she had a following but in reality didn't. Most times on-lookers remember the crowns. These times we wanna hear the noise and skip the symbols. I like to watch the White politicians try to look like they belong while hurrying to get the fuk outta there! <strong>Makes me laugh to see what someone will do to get a vote that's already taken for granted, but expected</strong>.<br />
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Ayiyi (Haiti) usually comes last. We're the final reminder of West Indian marching. A militaristic forward two-step that can be very intimidating to newbies and euros, but as familiar as DNA to those who honor their West African ancestry. Not everyone can get in on the whip cos you gotta do like the doubledutch girls be doing when they're ready to jump them ropes. You gotta prep yourself, keep your legs sturdy and feet ready as you wait for the right second to add yourself into the mix. Come in at the wrong time and you get pushed back by overwhelmed arms or aggravated elbows, unlike in doubledutch where everybody gotta start over on account of you. (And everyone in the neighborhood will know it!) Here, there's no stopping for you. You either know what you're doing or don't, but <strong>the Ra-Ra gonna keep moving with or without you</strong>. Our way of calling on the first Shango to push the French out from us. Our determination to withstand the tides of imperialism and global economic punishment for having the audacity to <strong>stand for something</strong>; for believing, still, in a free, self-reliant Black nation, even if crime lords and egotrippin government officals in Port-au-Prince are blocking progress.<br />
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So I'm gonna sit this one out. But I do find it interesting that the word <em>RaRa</em> made it from Gonaive all the way to Crooklyn; that it started as a march through Haitian villages and now a jump off. Stop that ra-ra means <strong>stop acting out</strong>. Keep the RaRa moving means <strong>cultural pride</strong>. We're at a crosssroads in defining pride. And I want more from us.<br />
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rhNy8XhOk4&feature=fvwrelK. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-18967271142503433812013-08-15T10:43:00.003-07:002013-08-15T10:45:03.161-07:00The Secret<span style="font-size: large;">"The secret</span> to living a life of peace and fulfilliment is more than meditating and deeper than doing what comes natural to you. It's part of it. Like me <strong>writing help books for young people is my purpose</strong> or you following your own instincts/your spiritual guides. But the key to creating happiness is being mindful of your thougths. Because <u>your thoughts decide your feelings, your feelings decide your actions and your actions decide your outcomes</u>." <br />
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Excerpt from my current book, <em><strong>Message to a Youngblood.</strong></em><br />
(photo by Marton Apai)<br />
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K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375989773614097197.post-44710948110737631982013-08-14T22:46:00.004-07:002013-08-14T22:46:47.860-07:00New Book Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="userContent"><strong>Finally working on the manuscript to my next youth motivational book</strong>. Spirit is doing her usual <em>say this/say that/leave this in/take this out</em>. And just like my last book, I'm adding illustrations to match the chapters. Here's a sample student artist, <u>Jackie Torres</u> submitted. Gracias, hermana. Much appreciated!</span>K. Koromanteehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13633908356380887949noreply@blogger.com0