So Fresh and So Green | Madam Toussaint on Going Green, Art, Hip Hop, and Politics

Photo Credit: Gale Library

Ordinarily I enjoy the plethora of Black History Month programming, but this year I haven’t seen much around, even on PBS. Is our new president somehow to blame for this?

Anyway, I used to get upset wen I would see programs about all kinds of other folks during February and I’ve done my best to balance the lack of Black programming out this year. Here we are on the tail end of this month but I’m going to go ahead an interrupt it for these 5 white folks that I think are worth listening to anytime of year in no particular order. (more…)

Far as I know here you’re in trouble. Where it says about 30% are unemployed. That’s why I’m working hard to get this surplus food here.

Some of you say to me ‘Well I’m not like you. I’m not a congressman. Uhhh I haven’t had education. Uhhh I haven’t got work…Uhhh…’ But you’re a human being.

And do you know what you’ve got?

You’ve got in your hand the power to use your vote and to use even those few cents you get from welfare to spend them only where you want to spend them. ~Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the congressman who represented Harlem between 1945 and 1971. He was also the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.

While in congress Powell headed the powerful Education and Labor Committee which managed to pass a record number of bills including public school desegregation bills and bills that made lynching a federal crime.

At a time when congress can’t seem to get anything progressive passed it is that much more of an impressive feat that Powell was able to accomplish what he did while the country was still so racially polarized. (more…)

Photo Credit: “The Garvey Marchers” by Madam Toussaint

To be learned in all that is worth while knowing.

Not to be crammed with the subject matter of the book or the philosophy of the class room, but to store away in your head such facts as you need for the daily application of life, so that you may the better in all things understand your fellowmen, and interpret your relationship to your Creator.

You can be educated in soul, vision and feeling, as well as in mind.

To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man; to spiritually regulate one’s self is another form of the higher education that fits man for a nobler place in life, and still, to approach your brother by the feeling of your own humanity, is an education that softens the ills of the world and makes us kind indeed. ~Marcus Garvey on education

One day in Harlem I walked into this march to commemorate Mr. Garvey on his birthday in August last year. These people all seemed really proud and committed. Here’s why… (more…)

Photo Credit: “A Mutual Endorsement? by Madam Toussaint

Recent assessments of President Obama’s first year in office have left the right still harshly critical and pretending they’re being thrown off a cliff every time they see him on TV. While the left is pissed because of some of the moves he could have made but didn’t. Some supporters are still waiting to exhale and giving the new president more time.

How come none of us took the time to rate ourselves for President Obama’s first year in office? Can we take time to acknowledge the things we did right? Aren’t there things we could have handled better? (more…)

Still, as a lifelong representative of hip-hop, I really am bothered whenever the drum gets treated like melody’s stepchild.

My major beef is that when this anti-drum bigotry rears its ugly head…it usually stems from an assumption that melody is the prime determinant of musicality, the core element of music to which rhythm is always secondary.

And it’s largely due to this perception of rhythm as subordinate to melody that hip-hop has so often faced an uphill battle to earn respect as a legitimate musical form.

I’m sure you can all recite the hater’s anthem by heart: “How is that music? It’s all just drum beats and talking, they don’t even sing!”

And this bias infects heads inside the culture too, as reflected by (more…)

I do holistic healing and health.

I’m in the process of getting my license for holistic consultation and prescribing.

I grow my own herbs, dry them and bottle them.

I’m learning from trial and error as I go along. With my first child I made some mistakes with the holistic stuff.

Puma my daughter she’s my second child, they’re both vegan vegetarians, organic babies from birth, natural births at home.

I guess I’ve grown into being a vegan vegetarian. I’ve been a vegetarian since high school, 1989. ~Erykah Badu on holistic healing, 2008

According to Van Jones this woman has been a Black woman who has been “green” for years, but we in the Black community would never call it that. Jones is the former Special Adviser at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and green jobs, Founder & President, Green For All and a Black man.

Here’s a new joint from this green Black lady called “Window Seat” courtesy of potholesinmyblog.com and my twitter fam soulsupreme. I just can’t get this one out of my head. Feels like she’s going back to the sounds that made her famous. Time to get some radio airplay again huh?

Src: A Brief Conversation with Erykah Badu…

Hip-Hop will never be what it once was, there’s no getting around that.

It began as a form of expression that was of us, for us, and by us in many ways that it will never be again.

In today’s world the ideal hip-hop product is not one that rings true for those who shares the artists’ experiences, but one that provides a vivid, cinematic fantasy for those who will never share the experiences conveyed.”
~Jay Smooth

Above is an excerpt from a post called “Rumors of our Death…” written by Jay Smooth and posted on his blog hiphopmusic.com on April 24, 2003. Yeah that’s right, 2003. That’s crazy to me for 2 reasons:

#1- Jay Smooth has blog archives that go back to 2002. His older posts have links to other sites that have long gone, a testament to his longevity in this field. Could he be the G.O.A.T. of the Hip Hop blogosphere?

#2- There have been “Rumors of our Death…” since since 2003 worth writing about in terms that are still true today. Nothing’s changed in all this time.

There were rumors of our death way before 2003 too. We could debate a lot of things here but according to Jay Smooth’s hiphopmusic.com “If you think Hip-Hop is dead, don’t click here.”

Word up!

Check out the “Rumors of our Death…”. The whole post is a quotable.

This song is from way back in 1994 when Common was Common Sense. Is this song sexist? Another debate for another time….

Here on sofreshansogreen.com we’re in the middle of Black History Month Quotes and Jay Smooth Quotes Week. I’m interrupting the latter to bring you the words of Harry Allen as part of my response to comments on my post about Tavis Smiley ending his State of the Black Union address.

I made some glowing remarks about journalist Mr. Allen the Media Assassin in that post. For me, what those panels are missing are voices from persons like Harry Allen, Rosa Clemente and Jay Smooth.

Anyway, I have a lot of respect for Mr. Allen and his intelligence. He’s is considered by some to be the only Hip Hop journalist…ever, cause he’s that dude. So rather than actually posting the love letters to Harry Allen’s brain that I will never send him with some quote, I’ve decided to post this instead and this is why. (more…)