Was The Night Before Christmas ( and all through the hood) A Daniel Carlton Joint

Harlem Christmas

By Daniel Carlton

It was the night before Christmas

All through the hood

Things were type quiet

You could say all good

The crack fiends were chilling

The weed heads and alkies too

It was so chill

Like the whole block took medicine for the flu

Windows were blinging

With colorful lights

It was like being in Times Square at midnight

The kids sleeping hard

But keeping their cool

On none of their mouths could you see any drool.

Dreaming about X boxes, dolls, and play stations too

Don’t Dreaming make the world feel brand new?

My shorty who is as fine as can be

Was looking flavalicious delicious

Hanging lights on the tree

I was about to give a hug you know, get me some love

When I heard this sound on the fire escape above

I grabbed my bat and ran to the window

Somebody is trying to get hurt messing with my flow

I looked up and saw this dude who was big like fat Joe

Or was it a pimp?

I kept hearing ho, ho,ho

Below on the street was a raggedy ride

I must of been tripping

It looked like it could fly

It was tagged up with some crazy names

Like dancer and prancer and does that say Rick James?

I needed a closer look to see what was up with this dude

But my Grandma would pop me if she saw me being rude

Then he looked at me with bight shiny eyes

I could tell that it wasn’t because he was high

He had on a red suit that looked real nice

His white belt was so big -on me- it would wrap around twice

His beard game was smooth

His sideburns were tight

Something about him was chill

Not looking for a fight

Then it hit me

I swear that it did

I hadn’t thought about him since I was a kid

He said “I see that you recognize who I am”

Then he rubbed his big belly full of mac and cheeses, fried chicken and ham

“ It’s good to be back in Harlem

This much is true”

“The Schomberg, Apollo, and Lenox Avenue too.

I,ve got to get over to Slyvia’s and get some soul food for my boo.”

“But first it ‘s time to pass out these gifts”

“The folks of Harlem need things that uplift”

“I can’t give out apartments that people can afford.

Somebody better get it together before they become null and void”

“I can’t teach the children how to read

Recognize that in your house video games aren’t a need”

“A book is the way to travel real cheap

You don’t even have to leave your couch and the stars you can reach”

“Everybody in life wants to have fun

How does that work if you have a gun?”

“Parents when they take time with young ones

Become the youth’s connection to the sun”

“Kids need to be kids

They’ll grow up soon enough

They’ll find out that without love

Life can be rough”

“Love has to work like a two way’s though

Or you’ll find yourself in a hole face down and covered with snow”

With that said I have to bounce-you know time to go”

“Ho, Ho , Ho”

He was gone like a ghost.

Without leaving toys his presents were still the most

The gift of knowledge was what he dropped

If we use them and share them

Harlem can’t be stopped.

Brother can you paradigm?: Revaluating my relationship with"White" America

I need to qualify what I am saying in this blog dear reader before I make one single point about the title of this post . When I say "White America" I mean the historical force that created Jim Crow to dismiss the humanity of my ancestors, the need for a civil rights movement, and conditions that in many cases require almost super human abilities to rise above. My paradigm for so long needed fortification obtained through knowledge of the struggle and achievements of my people so that i could learn and teach others about the conditions of being black in America. Langston Hughes, Malcom X, DR. King, The Black Panther Party, Richard Wright, Maya Angeleou , Chester Himes, Lonne Bennett Jr, W.E.B Dubois, Mary Mcloud Bethune, and many other writers of color helped me in trying to make sense of a country that in many cases "Bell Curved" and rejected us simply for our melanin. Ironically my white third grade teacher (Mrs Kent) is the person who introduced me to Black authors. I am forever greatful to her for giving me the gift of counciousness . She looked at it as a positive thing to do for a kid who was struggling even at that tender age for role models that could affirm him in a way that showed him the intellectual achievements of the American stepchild . I Too Sing America indeed. She also taught me through her caring and action that there was not a monolith group called "White People", but that there were(and are) people who did not subscibe to the ideal of White Supremacy. She planted the seed in me that allowed me to process a world around me where White privlige was taken for granted by people who implied that Black people should get over slavery and move on. Until I went to college , Black History was relegated in my all Black and racially mixed schools to Slavery, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, and the" I Have A Dream" speech. Mrs Kent was the opposite pole of those teachers later in my experience who dealt with us Black students with so much subcouncious or intentional bias. There is a quality that reminds me of Mrs Kent in all of my non Black friends. It's not that they are giving me Black literature or anything like that; It's that our friendship has not been shaped or blocked by racial bias. Because American life has been so harsh for so many Black folks in my lifetime, it has been hard for me to belive that I haven't just been incredibly blessed to have non predjudiced whites in my circle. I don't deny the amazing progress that has also happened in my lifetime. Black Americans have succeded in almost every aspect of American life. It's the paradox in the paradigm( or is it?) But it has seemed to me that whenever we have hoped for or believed in full participation of the American idea, some event has thrown a cold bucket of water into the melting pot. It's been particulary hard to believe when capitalizing on White fears of people of color(Willie Horton starring as the Black Boogeyman) has been the trump card as an election strategy. It clearly didn't work this time( Reverend Wright as The Angry Black Boogyman).
Do I believe that all of these stereotypes have gone the way of the Dinosaur? No, I don't. I do believe that Obama tapped into a consciousness of folks of all colors who are rejecting the old way. The oppostion was clearly about a lot of the status quo. Black folks alone didn't elect President Obama. Clearly the American public was smart enough to recognize the real call for change. I am ready to believe that young people in particular are not operating from the old paradigm. Their numbers are added to the numbers of all Americans who are finally ready (I hope) to judge a man by the content of his character
President Obama won. A Black man as President of the United States is cause for a major paradigm shift. I honestly did not think that he would win. Of course I voted along with other Black Americans with a sense of pride in terms of the long hard journey that produced his candidacy, but I never believed that enough White Americans would see the content of his character as opposed to the color of his skin.
I am ready to let go of my cynicism . Although , I am still a strong advocate for teaching and learning about the history and reality of our struggle, I am ready to let go of my assumptions that only exceptional White folks care about our common humanity. I am ready to believe in "change" Are we ready for the shift? So far , so good.

One Nation Under A Groove or Songs In the Keys Of Your Life

One Nation Under Your Groove.
I have had the great fortune of seeing/hearing a lot of live music being played by some of my favorite artists or groups over the past few months including Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Clarke , Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Living Colour, The Family Stand, Esperanza, The Black Rock Coalition's Tribute To Prince, Sergio Mendes, Al Green, The Roots, Dianne Reeves, Raphael Sadiq, Dionne Farris, Me'shell Ndegeocello,and Danielia Cotton,Zapp Mama (and many more). The music for me has been manna from heaven. Music Sweet Music has touched all of our lives in so many ways. I can't imagine a day without a song in my heart. Can you? I mention Summer 08 because It was the first time in years that I had both the time to go and the acts that I wanted to see all in alignment. Now that the fall is here( and my birthday near) I have been reflecting a lot about the huge role that music plays in my life. My schedule ( or budget) is not as flexible anymore. This means that I'm back to the Cd's on home system rotation-or through my headphones during long commutes on the subway to different Teaching Artist gigs Although I have 30 gigabytes on my Zune, I still play a lot of the same CD's over and over again. Clearly these cd's are comfort food for my soul.
I'm curious about other folks favorite albums/cds. Here are my top 10 in no particular order:
What about you? What are your top 10 of all time?

1 Innervisions - Stevie Wonder "Don't You Worry Bout A Thing, Living For The City, Higher Ground, Golden Lady, Visions, Mista Know It All, All Is Fair In Love, Too High, Jesus Children Of America.- Every single song is a classic. The album was hope and despair all rolled into a higher force

2 Plantation Lullabies - Me'Shelle Ndegeocello Funky , deep, melodic , lyrical, hard, and soft

3 Mothership Connection - Parliament P Funk Uncut Funk The Bomb- Chocolate covered freaking habit forming Milky Way. We Want The Funk!

4 Moon In Scorpio - The Family Stand - In my universe this would have been #1 " Was I too funky? Should I go pop? Excuse me for trying. Mind If I rock? All across the nation, I hear plantation radio." Sandra St Victor is the Mack Diva for real.

5 Purple Rain - Prince " Let's Go Crazy"." Darling Nikki,"" The Beautiful Ones" "When Doves Cry" e.t.c The title song still moves me

6 What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye This music is still relevant and sounds great all of these years later.

7 Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On ? Hardcore Jollies/ One Nation Under A Groove-Funkadelic O.K I'm cheating a bit here ; these are actually 3 different albums,but they collectively embody all that I loved about these brothas with guitars, synths, and George Clinton's James Bown, Sly, and Jimi's propensity.

8 Talking Book - Stevie Wonder . Is he really blind? His heart sure isn't.

9 Pride - Living Colour - It's a collection of many of my favorite Living Colour Songs from their first few albums.

10 Band OF Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix- Jimi got back with the brotha's on this one. You can hear it!

Ok , I did say 10 , but that is almost impossible.

11 Songs In The Key Of Life / 12 Aquemeni ( Outkast) 13 Fufilingness First Finale 14 3+3 ( The Isley Brothers) 15 Black Music ( Chocolate Genius) 16 Heijera ( Joni Mitchell) 17 Introducing The Hardline ( Terence Trent D'arby) 18 Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite ( Maxwell) 19 The Score ( The Fugees) 20 New Moon Daughter ( Cassandra Wilson)

Let's face it ; Miles and the Roots would take another 5 places .

I'll stop here.
Please share yours

Kudzu, Mon Amour: joe the plumber

Kudzu, Mon Amour: joe the plumber

Black Music Summer O8 The Children OF Funkadelic and Jimi's Band Of Gypsies/ Black Folks with Screaming Guitars ?

"If Music Be The Food Of The Gods Play ON"
Man , what a summer of live music for me and all of the lucky music lovers in NYC. Seeing all of these live acts and their genre bending or pure soul essence made me reflect on what a blessing it is to live in this particular time and place of sonic freedom coupled with audiences created by seemingly unlimited access to their cosmic slop via the internet ( youtube, myspace, facebook, twitter, i tunes, e.t.c) and word of mouth. This reflection was also triggered by a twenty something woman who couldn't understand why I thought that the afro-punk festival was unique and essential for black kids who wanted to fly their freak flags high. Her position was (is) that young people today don't have apartheid walls around the music that they enjoy. " If we like it, we listen to it." The color or style doesn't matter" She said with the conviction of someone who doesn't even keep physical cd's in her home. Do I agree with her that the walls have fallen down? Not really. I do believe however that she knows her generation better than this born in the sixties man ever will. Plantation radio is still programmed by the keepers of the tradition . Genre radio is the norm not the exception. With that being said, I have not gone to one concert this summer that wasn't filled with multi colored,/culture knowledgeable fans who loved the music as much as I did. All of the artists that I speak of are Black (albeit different genres). A little background here:
As a little Kid in Harlem and Upstate New York in the 70's , it was all about Soul Music. The Jackson Five(later the Jackson's), Aretha, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Curtis Mayfield , The Temptations, Barry White, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Taylor, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Ojay's The Motown Canon, Natalie Cole, and too numerous to mention other purveyors of Classic Soul were the soundtrack to all of our lives. I used to wear my mom's 45's , eight tracks, and lp's out. I would create my own radio station by recording songs on my tape recorder. I would introduce them by recording my version of D.J voiced interludes . The songs lost a bit of crispness because they were filtered through the stereo speakers and my cheap microphone. No matter, I was THE SOUL MAN. Issac Hayes didn't have anything on my hot buttered soul. There were a lot of messages in that music also. I truly believe that they helped to shape my burgeoning social consciousness. Dig this lyric from my favorite elementary school song by Timmy Thomas (I think) " You may not have a great big Cadillac, diamond in the back, sunroof top, digging the scene with a gangster lean, gangster whitewall tv antenna sitting in the back. You may not have a car at all, but remember brothers and sisters-you can still stand and talk. Just be thankful for what you got" OK maybe that 's not the best example, but it was simple enough for me. I couldn't drive anyway( but I sure could talk) In all seriousness Stevie, Marvin, Curtis, The Main Ingredient, and many others were singing about the hopes and dreams through a 70's microphone that smelled of incense and visually took the place of a Black Power fist. We loved our sweet soul music. I assumed that the White Folks only liked their own music. We had posters of Pam Grier . They had Farah Fawcett Majors.
And Then we moved to Texas right as I was entering Middle School. The Soul music station went off the air at sundown. What was a hip young brother to do for his music fix? Why , I discovered the "white music" Elton, Pink Floyd, Traffic, James Taylor, The Stones, The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Heart, and all of the other extended jams found on FM. One night the sound that would blow all of the cobwebs out of my mind came through the cheap speakers like a personal present from GOD- JIMI HENDRIX. Man, all of the music prior to that was just to prime my ears for the truth. Funky , hard, bluesy, and otherworldly are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what it all meant to my virgin ears. I wanted to walk and talk like this man. I wanted my fingers to produce magic like his did by merely touching a guitar string. I wanted to drink out of the same well that created my super hero. I wanted to wave my" freak flag" in the faces of all those plastic businessman trying to judge me. I smoked weed to just to hear the" wind cry Mary". I belonged in Electric Lady Land even if I wasn't "experienced" "Not necessarily bold, but beautiful ", "Just Ask The Axis" . Even though he had been dead for years I was so eager to share my newfound rockstar ; I tried to share him with my fellow new teens only to be told that it was " White Music". I learned to keep Jimi to myself. One day my cousin Karl turned me on to the music of this Jimi sound alike. His name was BootsyCollins. Whoa! This dude was no shower for a week funky! This dude was chitlins before they were cleaned funky. This dude was Hendrix for the black masses. I ate it up. Working my way through Bootsy, I discoverd the sound and movement that along with Hendrix defines me to this very day>Parliament/ Funkadelic. They had radio songs, so you weren't ostracized for listening to them. . They had concept albums that took me from my Texas which was full of rednecks, ignorance, guns, violence, Jesus everywhere, and kids who thought that I was weird , all the way to space and the bottom of the ocean." P Funk, uncut Funk, The Bomb" Afronots, Dr Funkenstien, members of a chocolate covered milkyway , Sir Nose D'Void of funk, and all kinds of Freak flag wavers dominated this universe. Other funk came to me through them ; the Ohio Players, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Confunktion and all types of groove masters dominated my earholes. Parliament had the hits, but Funkadelic and their funk mob guitar army turned it out! Two words-Maggot Brain. They out soloed the "white" boys. Sadly it all came to an end for them all too soon. The Mothership flew off and left me looking around for the next guitar carrying Moses. He came not a moment too soon. His name was Prince and he was Funky! Rock Funky. Freaky Funky. Soft Funky. It's like Hendrix had an a.d.d son. I was at the alter of Prince quicker than you could say dancemusicsexromance. Purple Rain made him huge, but those of us who loved to knock down the barriers, loved him like a brother, sister, friend.
There have been many people throughout the years that have appealed to many cultures, but these were some of the few folks of my youth who really opened my eyes and ears to so much more. Maybe one towering person or group is not needed to open our minds anymore. There is so much music to access both past and present. I still believe that it is still more of an anomly than not to hear Black folks straight rocking out. I love Living Colour, but when have they ever been played on both urban and rock radio. I dig this woman named Daniela Cotton who can rock with the best, but I still believe that most folks would still consider her to be "White Music" I saw 3 of the most amazing bass players of all time ( Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten) last week in concert. The audience was more white than anything else. Raphael Sadiq was mostly Black folks when I saw him in concert a few days ago. But these may not be the rule. When I saw Al Green at Carnegie Hall with Dianne Reeves, I was fascinated by the interracial balance of the sing along crowd. Other concerts have shown me the same.
Is my 20 something friend right? Have we come to the place where music is just music? Is it the arist that you identify with as opposed to their race . Hip hop is consumed by Black and other youth in the same quantities now. That certainly wasn't the case when hip hop was young. When I saw the Roots at The Apollo Theater, I was sandwiched between Whites. Do Black kids today need a Hendrix or a Prince to show them the way to a bigger world? Do White Kids?