So you didn’t make it to the biggest party D.C. has seen in decades and you were hoping to score some juicy details about all the galas and freezing with the crowds of people on the National Mall? Look away then. Look away. What you are going to get right now are the mellow details of my week here in MD/DC during the inauguration. I do think that I am getting old. (Well I am, but…err…)

I arrived at BWI on Thursday, January 15th and had absolutely no intentions of hitting the cold pavement around town. I was still getting my game plan in tact and trying to figure out who I might see in the city and who I was going to miss. Prentice was in town, so he became a strong possibility, where as the chances of seeing Chinyere became decreasingly lower and lower. Ronnie was also in town, but with a large gang of folks from SF. I wasn’t banking on seeing him much. In fact I never saw any of my friends in town, but I didn’t exactly go out of my way to attend all the events on their calendars.

By Friday, January 16th I had my agenda pretty much carved in stone. It would have been like pulling teeth to get me out for anything other than I had mentally prepped myself for and luckily with all the chaos I was left in peace and quiet.

It was Saturday, January 17th that I not only decided to step out of the house here in Gaithersburg, MD, but I actually had to. First engagement was my long awaited booking signing at the Borders Express at the Westfield Mall in Wheaton. The store staff at Borders Express were all super nice and were pretty much expecting me to show. (I love it when they’re waiting!) I arrived a few minutes early to setup my table and set out the Lorna Doone cookies. Just as fast as the cookies were flying the books seemed to be moving too! (The excitement!!!) It felt a bit weird standing and talking about my work for once and not somebody’s hip new cell phone. It felt… It felt… Liberating! And so at the end of the day the staff was very impressed with my sells, although I was hoping to sell them all. (I set high goals.) At least they invited me back if I’m ever in the area again. So it was good in brief. (Mucho thanks to anyone who swung by the store who might also stumble along to my blog.)

Later that day it was off to see Adele at the 9:30club. The show was sold out and her performance was mesmerizing. I mean I was truly mesmerized. I always find it funny how hearing a song live can change the whole game. There were a few tracks that I liked, but didn’t hit me until I saw her sing them live. Now I can’t get Daydreamer out of my mind. That woman is magic!

Photo: NotCot

Saturday had Manifest Hope written all in the galaxy and in my cards. Thanks to the Obama Art Report I was able to stay tuned into several beautiful art pieces over the course of the campaign and continue to see how inspiring President Obama has been to so many. It would have been the creme de la creme to have been able to acquire some of the incredible art at the show, but I just didn’t have the funds to do it.

After purchasing five of the limited edition campaign prints my pockets were tapped and they’ll be even more tapped when I decide to finally get the pieces framed! It was a great feeling seeing Scott Hansen’s Progress print in two galleries in D.C. and knowing that I’ll have it up in my home as well. The joy, but back to the Manifest Hope show… This was incredible and despite the lack of art enthusiasts in the pictures taken by NotCot as a sneak preview – the place was buzzing when I arrived.


Photo: NotCot

This indeed was a trip highlight for me. I bypassed the big free concert in the cold for a smaller crowd of people in a nice warm art gallery.

On the MLK Jr. holiday the city finally saw snow flurries and I wasn’t at all enchanted by the soft white flakes cascading downward from the sky. If I never saw snow this entire trip it would have been a-ok. However, this isn’t the type of snow that created havoc. It sort of came and went, but it gave me just enough reason to stay inside until I had to go out for my training in Wheaton. Instead of peeping the inauguration like the rest of the folk who had flown into town I decided to jump onto a little Meetup.com promotion and make some cheddar.

In short inauguration day for me was full of joy, lack of sleep, and handing out these clever stickers to my fellow Americans.

After working my shift down by the Third Street tunnel where there were some issues apparently for thousands of ticket holders, I was too tired for any further exploration. I hot up a cafe then the metro and when I got back to the house I hit the bed, HARD. I did wake up to catch a little of the action I had missed earlier on TV, but I only lasted two hours before I feel into deep slumber once more.

The next couple of days were uneventful. I stayed in tackling emails and applying to this gig and that gig. Now that all the inaug hoop-la is over it is time to get back to work. I fly into Tampa tomorrow.

Good night all.

You are invited!

Please join me for this special event. Bring a friend, a family member and warm smiles. I will be signing copies of my recently released children’s book titled, Isaac and the Bah Family Tree. The event details are as follows:

When: Saturday, February 7th from 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Where: Sisters Uptown Bookstore
1942 Amsterdam Ave @ 156th
Harlem, NY 10032

MTA DIRECTIONS:
1 train to 157th Street
C train to 155th Street
M100 bus to 156th Street
M101 bus to 156th Street

If you already have a copy of Isaac and the Bah Family Tree, please spread the word or pick up a copy for a friend.

Isaac and the Bah Family Tree has also been reviewed by Kam Williams most recently in the AALBC.

Check it out and see you there! Thank you soo much for all your support so far!

From Wikipedia I’ve found out these basic facts:
*Full name is Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887-June 10, 1940)
*National hero of Jamaica
*Born in St. Ann’s Bay, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica
*Remembered largely for the Back-to-Africa movement
*He was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)
*The red, green and black flag used by the UNIA was adopted as the Black Liberation Flag
*In September 1929 he founded the People’s Political Party (PPP), Jamaica’s first modern political party, which focused on worker’s rights, education and aid to the poor.
*As much as Rastafari’s regarded Garvey as a religious prophet, Garvey never identified with the Rastafari movement. He was raised Methodist and later became Roman Catholic.

I also found a number of poems written by Garvey on this site dedicated to Marcus Garvey. I read a few, but it was his Vision of Niagara that I found most interesting. Having recently visited the same spot he speaks of I think of how similar and how different both of our thoughts were about the misty magical falls of nature.

For the time being I think I’ve fed my mind with a bit more facts and tid-bits than I previously knew about this historical figure touched on by many rappers and more commonly reggae artists. So when the red light sways perhaps my mind will be ticking and thinking next time.

“One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States… A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn’t stand it anymore… I felt liberated in Paris.” - Josephine Baker

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of Josephine Baker and as badly as I wanted to travel to France to search and explore the country that won the heart of Josephine when the U.S. only shunned her away, I was unable to make the trip. I was 10 years old when I first learned about Ms. Baker. Although it was actress Lynn Witfield who portrayed the amazing woman in the Josephine Baker Story I knew that I had fallen in love. I fell in love with her spirit, her courage, compassion and talent. At 10 I wanted to be Josephine Baker. I wanted to know more. France was something I knew of first because of Josephine. If there was any mention of it before in my lifetime I must have forgotten. Her provocative stage performances in the film had my tender eyes bulging from my head. I wanted to dance in banana skirts, amuse crowds and later fight for equality and serve in wars. While she is more commonly known for her seductive and playful stage manners, I remember Josephine for everything that she was…

For those who have yet to fall in love with her I suggest reading her incredible story and watching the same film that my parents allowed me to watch at such a young age, but forever impacted my life… Maybe it will be this year or the next, but it will certainly be sooner than later that I head across the pond to retrace the steps and dance a dance for Ms. Baker.

Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

What’s up with that? For the longest I’ve wondered if it is due to lack of interest, funds, or opportunities… I still haven’t a sure answer. From visiting various African American museums across the country I started to find that blacks seemed to have traveled more in the past than they do now. Much of that may have been traveling to escape slavery or to seek out equality, but even then travel extended far beyond the physical movement of simply placing one foot in front of the other to get to paradise A or exotic place B. Blacks seemed to have traveled more in thought. They fought. They pushed the envelop for what seemed impossible so that I could sit here today and speak freely about why so many blacks are only striving to push Escalades, dangle expensive handbags around their arms, or sit cozy in the warm embrace of their narrow-minded uncultured ignorance.

I’m not saying go splurge on a trip to Tuvalu because it’s going to make you a better all-knowing type of person. If you live in Georgia perhaps you’d like to consider visiting Omaha to go to the birth site of Malcolm X or even just to see how the regular everyday folks in Omaha – black, white or Latino, do how they do and what they do. Or how about this…Open a book! READ!

Perfect? That I am far from being, but each day this Black History month I plan on learning just a little more than the day before about my beautiful people and culture. And as this month moves on and into the year I hope to inspire someone out there to do something just a little different in their lives.

If you find something you beg to differ with above please share. If you feel me give me a shout too or just give me a shout…

Peace.