I just recently caught the video to Busy Signal’s “Nightshift/One More Night”, if you haven’t seen it press play.

Here is a crazy story I heard about. A Haitian family that survived the quake in Haiti, was relocated to Chile through one of their sons who lives in Chile. The son who is part of a Haitian reggaeton band, Reggaeton Boys, had connections with the Chilean Embassy in Haiti. They arrived in Chile on the 23 of January to only be in the middle of another quake on February 28th. While the family survived again this was another shock to them.

And if you were thinking what I was you must be wondering about a the Haitian Reggaeton group, I added a video on them to confirm things a bit.

It’s that time again. First Fridays at the Bronx Museum with Asho, celebrating Women’s History Month. Check out the details below…

First Fridays! At The Bronx Museum Presents:
KALALU Femme Edition: A lyrical stew for wordsmiths of all walks
Celebrating Women’s History Month
FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010, 6:00pm to 10:00pm
South Building – Lower Gallery
Admission: Free!!! No Cover!!!

Back by popular demand and following the success of last year’s all
female line-up performances, First Fridays! will celebrate Women’s
History Month with a program fully composed of words and sounds by and
for women.

KALALU is a signature event of The Zol Lab, a creative laboratory
where arts and media meet social justice.

Curated and Hosted by The Zol Lab.
Performances by Aracelis Girmay, Atiyya, Lah Tere, Lorelei Williams & Alkebulan Aya.

Beats By DJ Laylo
Live Painting by Crystal Chaparro.

illustration courtesy of Toofly. www.toooflynyc.com

Flyer Design by Cissa Paz www.weweproductions.com

The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street • Bronx, NY 10456
Or visit www.bronxmuseum.org.

Subway Directions: Take the “D” or “B” to the 167 Street/Grand Concourse station. Exit at rear of station, walk south along Grand Concourse two blocks. Or take the “4” to the 161 Street/Yankee Stadium station. Walk east three blocks to the Grand Concourse, then walk north four blocks along Grand Concourse to 165th Street. Via Bus: Take the Bx1, Bx2, or BxM4 Express to 165th St. and Grand Concourse

SHOW TIMELINE

6:00 pm Doors Open/ DJ Laylo Spins on the 1’s & 2’s

7:30PM Opening Remarks by Marinieves Alba/The Zol Lab

7:35 PM Performance by Lorelei Williams

7:55 PM Mari Intro/Aracelis Girmay

8:20 PM Marinieves Alba announces Crystal’s Work in Progress/Atiyya Intro

8:25 PM Performance by Atiyya

8:50 PM Performance by Lah Tere

9:15 PM Performance by Alkebulan Aya

9:40 PM Closing Remarks by Marinieves Alba/The Zol Lab

For more info on everything, check out The Bronx Museum’s official site.

With 2010 World Cup just 99 days away, ESPN has reopened an old topic about Joe Gaetjens the hero during the US victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. The article tries into kill all the misconceptions that were portrayed about Joe Gaetjens and show him as he truly was. In the movie “Game of Their Lives”, he was portrayed as a voodoo fanatic when he was actually Catholic. There are mangled facts about Gaetjens family origins and the English media trying to call his goal a fluke as well as his mysterious demise.

Joe Gaetjens was not Belgian. And his father wasn’t, either.

His name sounded Flemish. The Flemings are the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. Considering the tidal wave of Flemish immigrants that washed over North America in the 19th century, the assumption that Gaetjens was of Belgian descent held credence. But Gaetjens, in spite of the ‘-jens’ suffix, is not a common name in Flanders.

Genealogic research shows that Joe’s great-grandfather, Thomas, migrated to Haiti from Bremen, in northern Germany, where the Gaetjens name is rather common. (A close variation on Gaetjens — Gätjens — is also oft-heard just north of there, over the Danish border.) Thomas arrived in Haiti shortly after 1825 (when France officially recognized Haiti’s independence) and married Leonie Dejoie, whose father was a general and had played a part in Haiti’s self-determination. That connection opened a path to prosperity for the Gaetjens family…

Joe Gaetjens did not practice voodoo.

“Absolutely not!” shouts his indignant younger sister, Mireille, reached in Puerto Rico.

“The Game of Their Lives,” the 2005 movie about the historic upset, had been ludicrously inaccurate. The film made light-skinned Gaetjens, played by dark-skinned Jimmy Jean-Louis, out to be some sort of voodoo nut.

The Gaetjens family was appalled. In real life, Gaetjens was Catholic, like most Haitians, and went to church every Sunday…

After the U.S.-England game, a barrage of excuses was blasted from the England camp. It had been too hot. Travel had been strenuous. But this one would stick: Gaetjens’ goal had been a lucky one.

All Americans and most English present on the scene dispute that.

Read the full article here

Here is some vintage footage from the England USA match.
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Estelle and Kardinal have come through with a new track “Freak”, check it out.

Supreme releases a video interview with Lee Scratch Perry, Jamaica’s Musical Shaman. The interview gives us an overall brief history into the life of Lee Perry, one of the most important creative, artistic and musical figures to emerge from Jamaica in the latter half of the 20th Century. Along with his musical achievements, he has also directly influenced numerous important figures active in other genres, including everyone from Paul McCartney and Brian Eno to the Clash, the Beastie Boys and Jay-Z. For Supreme’s 2010 Spring Collection, they collaborate with Lee Perry on two t-shirt designs featuring his written word and original artwork

…via.

One of the toughest things about running a blog is finding new content to post. Every now and then things just fall into my lap. Through a friend I just got wind of the “I am Caribbean 2010″ campaign.

CaribbeanFever.Com and FeverEyes.Com are proud US Census 2010 partners. We strongly encourage Caribbean persons across the USA to complete the Census 2010 form in March this year and answer question 9 with their ancestry and/or country of origin. Spread the word by telling your Caribbean friends and/or family about completing the US census given it’s importance. In addition it is only ten questions long.

The idea is to get ancestral recognition, checking Black, African American or Negro (I hate that they added that in), on the census form does not indicate if you are directly from Africa or your heritage is from the Caribbean or America. And not to be short sighted about this, the same goes for Indians, Asians etc, who have migrated to the US via the Caribbean. During the last census 1.8 million people wrote West Indian as their ancestry, so the numbers are there and obviously smaller than the actual numbers, if there was a place to check it off. Compare those numbers to Pacific Islanders who only made up roughly 874,000 people surveyed about 0.3 percent of the US population and they were able to have their own category.

Accurate counts in the once-a-decade survey ensure recognition from the federal government and the fair allocation of resources to state and local governments, advocates say.

While most Caribbeans are expected to at least check the box for “black,” lumping them together with all African-Americans means corporations and politicians won’t see the political, economic and social issues specific to their immigrant communities, Persaud said. They also won’t see the size of those communities or get a sense of the diversity of experiences among Afro-Caribbean groups.

- LA Times

I don’t know who denied us the last time we tried to do this - and decided to lobby for “Negro” but now is our chance to make a bigger impression. We got to get rid of Negro as well

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m honestly posting this recipe for me…I’ve always wondered how this one was put together….Check out the details below…

Flan

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 (14 ounces) can condensed milk
• 1 (12 ounces) can evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ounce cream cheese

Read the rest of this entry »

New film on the way directed by a close friend of the artist. Check out the details below…

In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place.

Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat’s own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man.

Check out the trailer below…

Just wanted to give folks the heads up that the legendary Gil Scott-Heron will be bring his live show to New York’s fabled Blue Note Jazz Club next week.

Gil will play a two-night engagement as celebration of the release of his new album I’m New Here , which Dom detailed a couple of weeks back.

To purchase tickets to either the March 2nd or March 3rd show, click here: Blue Note New York: GIL SCOTT-HERON & FRIENDS: CD RELEASE SHOW FOR “I’M NEW HERE” - 2 NIGHTS ONLY!.