The Signified Anthem

Damn You Barack Obama

Darian Dauchan performs his Spoken Word Poem "Damn You Barack Obama, You Pretty Motha fu-ker" during the Urbana Team Slam Finals at the Bowery Poetry Club. May 2007

Here's to the power of rhetoric. Compare the use of repetition here by Dauchan with that of Rev. Wright's which has been in circulation of late. While their objects of "damnation" differ, each rhetor evokes possibility through the utterance. In each instance, the expression is used out of an evocation of love and toward an issuance of expectant hope and accountability on the part of the interlocutor. That's bad.

can it be?

Tracy gives me a bit of hope. How's that for black rhetoric?

inspiriation

Jake Shimabukuro

Welcome James!

You were born nine days ago. Gradually, the prospect of your arrival has shifted to the realization of your being here. Here's to the hope that anything done can be undone, or in the case of homo sapiens, that we are willing to put in the work to make this place more livable. Already in your lifetime, someone other than a white male is a serious candidate for president. Discussions related to the state of the natural environment are held in the popular media. You have a big brother.

Yet, there is still work to do. I'll do my best to do my part. Welcome!

baby bass

My friend Marcus recently scanned a bunch of photos from high school days. Thanks, Marc. I must be 17 or 18 in this pic, and at best had been playing bass for a year. Twenty years later, I'm still thumpin', though not as much as I'd like at the moment.

into the 6th 7

My father used to say that "life cycles in sevens." I've taken that to mean that each seven years is like a mini lifetime, a frame. It's been a good measure for me thus far, and as with any lens we look through, it has helped me make sense of the broad rhythms of my life. My fifth seven, years 29 to 35, were where I started to put some things together in terms of identity and my role on the planet. I know who I am and what I'm supposed to do. I'm pretty happy being me, though what I need to do to be "better than I was yesterday" are even more apparent. A more healthy balance between self love and self deprecation. More empathy without condescension. A better balance of pedagogy and practice. Relying less on social constructs of gender, race, class, sexual orientation and more on a situated understanding of what's going on.

Today, as I enter into my "6th seven," I reflect and realize that I have a pretty great life. I come from a loving supportive family. I'm in the process of trying to help recreate that for my own family. I have every reason to wake up in the morning with the attitude conveyed by my grandmother that "everyday is a good day; if you don't think so just try missing one." I'm surrounded by the love of my wife and son, and have another child on the way. I'm learning something new everyday, and putting in work to become a concerned intellectual who does work "on the ground" where people live (Eli Goldblatt says "from gown to town"). I'm healthy. I'm blessed. I'm embracing the next seven with more awareness than ever of how amazing this life is.