Another one of my ex-girlfriends got married over Christmas break.

That makes three exes who are married now.

WTF.

What is going on? I'm not even in position to THINK about marriage. Damn.

Why yes, the week of my 25th birthday is the perfect time to have a quarter life crisis!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Habari Gani

Edit: Bringing it back for 2011. Happy Holidays. 

I'm the least jolly person you'll ever meet during holiday season.  Its not like I don't want to celebrate the birthday of Baby Jesus or spend time with my family, it that I could do all of that without a tree and watching "It's a Wonderful Life". The secular celebration of Christmas doesn't even seem that exciting to me either. Secular Christmas feels like Las Vegas (lights, excitement, magic & $$$) boiled down to a day. Over the past 10 or more years, I've realized that the commercialism and the pressure of having to "be excited" for Christmas is stressful to me.

Its just that I don't get all of the hype. People get rubbed the wrong way by the fact that I don't particularly like exchanging gifts and holiday text for friends, family and strangers. And as a kid, what mattered most was toys and the mystique, so when all that vanishes and you're left with getting gifts you either a) don't want or need or b)the giver shouldn't have bought, you start to notice how backwards a lot of the attention is. Does it make it a good Christmas if you got the gifts you and your family wanted? What if you're like me and you really don't want anything? Is that bad? I have more questions than answers really when it comes to my non-conformity. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be one of those have a holly jolly Christmas free of

Feastivus is starting to look pretty good to me.

Top Ten Playlist

10. Tyler, the Creator - Yonkers
9. Big Sean - My Last
8. Random Ax - Random Call
7. Frank Ocean - Novacane
6. J. Cole feat. Missy Elliot - Nobody's Perfect
5 Beyonce - Party
4. Danny Brown - XXX
3. Bad Meets Evil - Fast Lane
2. DJ Khaled - I'm On One
1. Jay-Z/Kanye West - Niggas In Paris

This is a strictly Rap/R&B playlist. If I were going to include anything from Rock music, I'd have to add the Foo Fighter's "Wasting Light" and take a shot in the dark b/c the entire thing was pretty damn good.

Ending the Year Stong

My friend Terrell (who has a blog he's working on) agitated me into working on my blog today. I hadn't really gotten a chance to update my readers on my life since November, and even in my previous updates I really didn't give a proper update.

In November, I went to San Jose, California for a 5 day national community organizing training hosted by the Industrial Areas Foundation. The highlight (or lowlight) was that I missed my first flight and caught the ire of acclaimed Organizer - and my employer - Ernesto Cortez.  I learned a lot about what it takes to build positive relationships and what is needed to challenge leaders to shape and develop our communities.  After the training, I flew back home to work on my first action in Baton Rouge.

Me and my younger brother Aaren during Thanksgiving Break.

Immediately following that action, I finally got to return home to Detroit to see all of my wonderful friends and family. I got to enjoy everything that a Midwestern boy would love to do during a beautiful November weekend.
My alma mater, the University of Michigan played its arch-rival Ohio State in the fall classic and we came away with our first  victory in seven tries. I also got to see my "middle school crew" as we celebrated my friend Shaina's birthday. I even mixed up my friend circle's a bit and brought alone my "best female friend from college", Christina to party with us.


But the highlight of the weekend was the Jay-Z & Kanye West "Watch The Throne" tour stop in Detroit. Me and my friend Terrell lucked out by having floor seats that were literally right in front of the stage. There were a lot of our friends who were at the show and "Watch The Throne" was the hottest ticket in town. Not only was Jay-Z & Kanye's performance electric, but we had better seats than some of the celebs that we saw in attendance. The only things I would say I was disappointed in was that the concert started two hours late, a guy tried to fight me because I asked him to sit down because he was blocking me by standing on the chairs and they did seven encores of "Niggas In Paris" (after hearing a song that many times, I no longer want to hear it on my Ipod or the radio).  Otherwise it was dope.

When I got back to Baton Rouge, it was right back to work. I went to a training seminar in Austin, where the topic of discussion was centered around John Casey's "Pagan Virtues". Our conversations focused on Aristotle's definition of pronesis & practical wisdom and what virtues ultimately make a good leader. While I appreciated the conversation and the opportunity to develop a different theoretical framework to understand leadership development, I must say that I was incredibly intimidated on an intellectual level for the first time.

Our conversations continued in New Orleans this past week, as organizers from across the Southwest got together to talk about what does it take to build political judgement. Unfortunately, I got to this meeting late because of car issues and received more flack from my executive director. The final blow (which could potentially affect me getting home for Christmas) is that the breaks on my car completely blew out and I was forced to spend $900 on new breaks, tires, and the maintenance. :(

Baton Rouge is getting better. I am meeting people and I am starting to have some semblance of fun. All in all, with everything bad and the struggles at figuring out how to be a good organizer, I am excited for the New Year for the first time in a very long time. I look forward to spending it with friends and my loving family.

Big Business Wins Again

I'm back in Detroit this week, home for the holidays, and what would any holiday be without sales?

Yes, it is the time of year where we are expected to spend exorbitant airlines rates to travel home to see our friends and family. Spending time with family no longer includes well wishing and sharing fond memories; it is buying the newest and hottest toy or electronic as a gift. And of course, the traditional holidays - Thanksgiving & Christmas - have been replaced by bastions of consumerism in "Black Friday" and the 26th of December (which I like to call "National Gift Return Day").

And while you can argue that this rampant consumerism is all in good spirits, I'd like to point out a few places that suggest this trend isn't harmless.

Early Morning Chaos:

There have been deaths at the hands of Black Friday stampedes in the past few years. I have witnessed fights by old women at Target for discounted towels. Just this weekend, a women waiting in line at Walmart was arrested for pepper spraying a crowd in California. There was even a gunfight at Macy's. All for what: Door busters? A $300 42 inch Flat screen that doesn't have a manufacturer name and will fall apart in 18 months?

We've been trained to believe that the economy and big business are static and forces of human nature. They are not. They are decisions and choices that are being made by the business interest. We live in a world where big business is king and takes what it wants because we allow it to do so.

And its newest acquisition is the Occupy Wallstreet movement.

Over the weekend, my friend Christina ran into this rift on the Occupy movement designed as an advertisement for Black Friday shoppers to camp out.

 

The use of Occupy Wallstreet motifs is particularly ironic because one would argue that the Occupy's message of increased corporate responsibility plus the calling for an answer to the debt and wage crisis are the antithesis of Best Buy's attempt to drum up more frivolous holiday spending. And while this isn't the first time that the virtues of the Occupy movement have been appropriated by business interest as a marketing ploy, it being used during the holiday season - at a time when many Americans are still financially struggling - makes me question what are we really celebrating.

And unfortunately, the answer seems to be that we are celebrating the almighty dollar.

Si se Puede!!!

I've been busy in the last few weeks and I apologize for not getting back to you all. I promise I'll do better in the coming year.

Most of you are aware that my life off line is of an Organizer for a national community organizers network in Louisiana. My life consist of individual one on one meetings with prospective leaders of congregations and community groups, research meetings with local stake holders and gatekeepers, evening meetings with teams of leaders eager to organize, out of town seminars on becoming a better organizer, and action events designed to get a reaction out of elected officials.

The central tenets of Community Organizing revolve around the idea that real systemic change can be created by organized power, which is A) organized money and organized people. My job primarily has been to organize people around their self interest and personal values.

After months of engaging leaders around issues that matter to them, there have been two actions completed that have revolved around the interest of the churches that I work for: the repair of a local bridge in a Black community in Baton Rouge & the repair of a Historically Black cemetery.

Here is some of the press on the Bridge.

Here is a press clip of the Cemetery clean up (with yours truly in the photo gallery).

Finally, here is a clip of the ribbon cutting with Mayor Kip Holden & Council women Ronnnie Edwards.

Unlimited Potential In A World of Infinite Possibilities

You'll never know how hurt I am that I didn't do the speech for the 2009 Black Celeb graduation at the University of Michigan. I wrote a speech, competed, but never got a chance to find out if I would have been selected. There are only a handful of people who've seen me do the speech, and fewer who've read it.

Take a look and imagine what could have been.

We Made It! Congratulations UofM Class of 2009, we have officially made it. But it is not just that we made it through our trials and tribulations at this prestigious university, but the fact that in this feat, we each have added to the rich history that African-Americans continue to make in this world of infinite possibility. As we stand here in the footsteps of history, I want to remind everyone that tonight it is our individual dreams in the face of struggle and self doubt that allows us to expand the opportunities of what is truly possible. A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Boston, Massachusetts; the former stomping grounds of Malcolm X, and the place where the American Revolution began. As I traveled throughout the city taking in many of the sites of American history, I was in awe of the spirit of American democracy and what its promise must have meant in the minds of its founders and our ancestors in bondage. As my sight seeing tour approached the Boston Harbor, the very site of the Boston Tea Party, I noticed a modern symbol of our unlimited potential in the face of struggle and oppression. At this site where Crispus Attucks died for American freedom while chattel slavery was practiced throughout the thirteen colonies, now stood posters of the first African American President. The election of President Barack Obama and our triumphs today are based squarely on the dreams of our ancestors and the potential we have in spite of the despair we may face. The history of African-Americans in the United States can be defined by our collective struggle for acceptance and our dreams of equality. Our people struggled before they were taken from the continent of Africa and struggled against the brutality of slavery in the new world. While Blacks the world over fought to be recognized as human beings, they knew that one day a change would come.

Today, as we sit here in the Hill Auditorium, it is our duty to become that change and inspire those who follow behind us. And while we may not know what the future has in store for us after we leave the University of Michigan, we do know that our struggles have prepared us for achievements far greater than even we may imagine. Our struggles for the past four years have prepared us for the coming victories of our individual endeavors. We struggled to get up for 8 A.M. language classes, we’ve struggled to make Michigan Time walking from the MLB to Dennison. We’ve struggled on all of those cold, -15 degree days. We’ve struggled with Financial Aid, Financial Holds, Academic Holds, and Library Holds all while trying to hold on our dream to graduate. We’ve struggled to see the finish line from the start of Freshmen year to the end of that third year, that forth year, that fifth year, or for some of us beyond. And throughout this struggle, we’ve went to Poetry Slams, made and lost Facebook Friends, laughed through “Images” shows and cried on the night Proposal 2 passed. And let me add, that when our first Black President of the United States was elected, not only were we in the streets celebrating that night but in class bright and early the next day. We’ve partied on Sunday nights and woke up just in time for Monday morning classes because we didn’t have any more unexcused absences.

And even through our struggles, we’ve learned from our mistakes in order to persevere. And now Class of 2009, we’ve made it to this moment! Yet this moment does not mark the end of the story but the beginning of a new chapter. It has been these struggles and the strength it took to overcome them that have prepared us to create the possibility to challenge the present and enrich the future. It is our dreams and potential that moves us closer to the infinite possibilities of what lies ahead. It is the dream of a boy from the Eastside of Detroit to become a lawyer and work to develop communities, the dream of a girl from Syracuse to become an audiologist and provide health care to the millions of people uninsured, it is the dream of a boy from a small town in Michigan that aspires to make blockbuster films, and to all of us who know where we’re going (and to those of us who don’t) that seek to change the world in which we live and we now stand in the moment to do so. As we prepare to go our separate ways I ask that you use the inequity of the past & present to power our dreams and light the paths towards the futures.