Happy Earth Day Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on 17 August 1887. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in August of 1914, in hopes of uniting all Afrikans of the diaspora under a geo-political umbrella.
Garvey's life and words would serve to inspire generations, Leonard Howell and El-Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcom X), to name few.
Short and sweet. Salut!


Big Youth "Marcus Garvey


The Black Disciples "Marcus Garvey"
Dub by King Tubby & Errol Thompson

Documentary on UK Hip-Hop "Bad Meaning Good"

Found this while looking for footage to chop-up for a presentation on ladies and the Hip-Hop process. Dope short by Time Westwood for BBC on the rise of the UK Hip-Hop scene. Originally aired on BBC circa '87 featuring acts from the UK and US scene. Dig the piece on fly girls, the Cookie Crew.
Big ups!

When Sun Comes Out

I was introduced to the otherworldly sounds of Sun Ra around the age of 10. Long long long time ago. I did not think of it then, but would later wonder how my Belizean father had encountered such seemingly random Americana. Anyway, the first record he played was Atlantis. Before the first track, "Mu" finished I was hooked.

Fast forward nearly 10 years. Playing ball at JuCo. Digging for records is all but dead to me. I sit in a smokey, cramped basement as we listen to the former Zev Love X and Otis Jackson Jr's debut opus, Madvillainy. As the disc plays through and the room gets foggier a little more than halfway through the album I here a familiar voice. "OhShit! He sampled Sun Ra!' The rest of the room looked at me with the, 'Yea he did... Umm who is Sun Ra?' I said some about jazz and Space is the Place but I was not there anymore. I was Kabbalando, connecting with the source. The incurable itch was coming back.

Sun Ra has a musical legacy that spanning roughly forty-odd years. An exhibition at UPenn's Institute of Contemporary Art, titled: Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968, highlights Ra's philosophies, paintings and unpublished works of poetry. Displayed works cover a span of 14 years during which Ra and The Arkestra were based and deeply connected to the Afro-Futurist movement in Chicago. The Institute will also be screening the film Spaceways, by Edward English.

The exhibit runs thru 2 August.

Space is the Place, scene 1: