Big Ideas, Little Fiction

So I've been saying a lot about some rather unpleasant issues in Southeast DC, so I'd like to highlight at least on fairly event on this side of town--

DC Microfiction Performances in Anacostia and Dupont this Weekend

The Ramayana: Behind the Scenes (or Sound the Alarm)


I wrote a blog post for Examiner.com about The Ramayana, the Constellation Theatre Company's latest production. But what I didn't mention was that at one point we had to evacuate the theater...

One of the characters, a monkey, had just said something about 'being late for school,' when an alarm bell rang. Considering that it started just after that line, for a nanosecond I thought it might have been some strange, anachronistic sound effect. Sure, the play take place in Asia in ancient times, but since monkeys were talking, anything was fair game, right?

The actors looked hesitant, but in true "the show must go on" fashion, they did not stop. My eye darted to where I knew the director was sitting. She had a strange look on her face and she too looked hesitant. The alarm continued to ring and the director stood up and told us we all had to leave.

Once the fire department cleared us, we re-entered and watched the rest of the show. The same thing happened while I was watching a movie once. For some reason it was must easier to get back into the play than it was to get back into the movie...I'm not sure why.

The movie theater gave us nothing for our trouble, while Constellation did provide us with an easy-to-remember discount code to reduced-price tickets to their first show of the next season.

Turning Up the Heat

I'm taking a writing workshop and last week's workshop hit very close to home.

Our instructor led us through making things much worse for our character. Asking us to consider:

What are some things you could do to make it even more difficult for your character to reach his/her goals?

Now think of even more obstacles.

What if your character does not achieve their dream, can you still wrangle some happiness out of that?

As for me, real life feels a little like someone has been turning up the heat. Every time I turn around, there is something else. And yes, it could always be worse, but that doesn't mean it is not bad enough as it is.

Disturbing the Peace

As you may have read in other posts, my neighbors and I oppose the Peacoholics' plan to open up an "apartment"/independent living facility/non-group home with a computer lab for the community/would-be condos for qualified youth.

They have popped up a lot in the news lately. Just today,I've seen them in 3 articles--

Group sues SE D.C. neighborhood commissioner over libel (This was the first Peacoholics' article o' the day. The deny plans to house 16-year-olds, but then the article says they will house 16-21 year olds.)

Gray's making mayoral race about ethics seen as big risk (In this article the Peacoholics' founder makes a guest appearance as a Mayor Fenty's heavy.)

Peaceoholics Took Betts Suspects on Retreat (If you are not in DC, you should know that the murder of beloved middle school principal Brian Betts has sent shockwaves through the city. While they did not harbor the suspect after Betts' murder, they did take one of the suspects on a retreat while he was being sought because he ran away from a juvenile detention center.)

Related posts:

Peacoholics at War
Properly Valued

No Peace, No Progress

We Made The City Paper...For What It's Worth

After a lot of e-mails and agitating, me neighbors and I have gotten some media coverage about this "it's just an apartment although it will only house male ex-offenders from we don't know where" madness.

I'm not crazy about this article, but at least the word is getting out.

Peaceoholics at War

I luv the very patriotic stance the Peacoholics take-

"The founder fathers of our country are ex-offenders..."

I also like how Marion Barry, of all people, says we are "selfish" for opposing this group home.

And the assertion that the people working on the building won't get hired by anyone else (*cue the violins) matters little. The disadvantaged youth were only there for the initial phase--now that have a work force that includes many Latinos. One of the Peacoholics tried to egg my neighbor on, asking her didn't it bother her that the apartments being built by a developer across the street mainly employed Latinos. The makeup of the current construction crew on the Peacoholic's building is no different than the one across the street.

And who cares who is working on the building across the street anyway? These so-called 'addicts to peace' are antagonistic and divisive.

Since it is The City Paper, they did zero in on drama and make it seem political. To me as a homeowner, it is not about politics--it is about my home. And people in the area, homeowners and renters alike are not in favor of this. Renters have said they are leaving because they cannot live near such a facility.

And it brushes past the fact that according the DC law (which the government selectively enforces, of course), this facility is not legal.

At least this blogger gets it-

Latest Peacoholics Drama

Stuff I Wrote Roundup

I haven't done one of these in a while, but here are links to some things I wrote recently (none of the ghostwriting, of course :-P)

$5 Gets You into the French Embassy's DC Street Performance Festival & Brunch Garden Party- May 2

See the Family-Friendly Artful Animals Exhibit at the Nat'l Museum of African Art

The 2010 Rhythm Road Free Concert Series at National Geographic

Ancient tale of ‘Gilgamesh' gets a modern makeover

Classic tale of dysfunctional family comes to Bowie

Experienced cast, crew ready for the ‘Impossible Dream'

Properly Valued

There is so much I could say, but in short, I left a meeting last Friday with community leaders, the Peacoholics and officials from DCHD and DCRA absolutely disgusted.

If the scenario where a building that once belonged to an associate of Marion Barry's is purchased at a steep discount with government funds by a non-profit group with ties to the mayor with the aim to make it a facility for ex-offender youth within a few feet of a home for battered women and children and down the street from a homeless shelter is not cronyism and extremely poor government planning, then I don't know what is.

DCRA continues to insist that is is simply and apartment building and that the use of it is incidental.

DCHD implies that opposing the facility or taking any legal action is tantamount to hurting the disadvantaged children of DC since such things would inhibit their ability to implement programs.

While they attempted a new charm offensive during the meeting ('You could be on an advisory board for the new facility.'), supporters of the Peacoholics followed us for over an hour once the meeting was over.

We fear for our safety, our neighborhood and our investment in that neighborhood.

There is so much wrong with the entire scenario, but here is one thing that struck me: the continued implications and outright accusations that we are wrong for wanting to protect our own interests.

One of my neighbors spoke at length about how she has worked hard and now feels that she is being penalized. Had she messed up, the government might be more willing to help her. I feel her. We are not rich folks preying on a poor neighborhood as some would like to think and we are not disadvantaged youth either. Being neither, we matter little.

I thought about that the next day when I read this is in Kim McLarin's book review of a novel by a African American author-

"[the author's] central focus seems to be the tension between racial solidarity and naked individualism, between loyalty to race and family and loyalty strictly to one's self."

My neighbors and I have been branded disloyal and even told we are "thinking white" because we oppose a group home for ex-offenders and because we have dared to utter the words "property value." (Although many of the renters on our street also feel the same way.)

Everyone in this scenario from the Peacoholics to DCRA to DCHD has gone for theirs and is protecting their own interests and we intend to do the same. I think with the exception of one homeowner present, everyone sitting at the table was African American. There is nothing disloyal about protesting an injustice, even if it brings you into conflict with people who look just like you.

No Peace, No Progress: Now the NIMBY is me)

"No problem can be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it."
-Albert Einstein

I've written about how my neighbors and I oppose the Peaceaholics' plan to put
a group home for ex-offenders (which they and their friends in city government insist is merely an "apartment") next door to us and a shelter for battered women and their children.

Last night I rushed from teaching a class to get to a neighborhood council meeting where this topic was on the agenda. As I expected, I heard shouting as I got closer to the meeting. Then I heard someone yell that the meeting was adjourned.

What I didn't expect was that simply because I walked into the room and spoke to people who are not in favor of the project, a Peaceaholics supporter would zero in on me. She approached in the name of dialogue, but could barely contain herself. I heard about how I was one of those people who make a lot of money that prey on the community. I noted that I did not make a lot of money (my neighbors and I heard some of the same rhetoric--with the race card thrown in to boot--when we attempted to meet with the Peaceaholics before) and that if we both lived there, we were neighbors.

When others intervened, she calmed down but it didn't last. She did, however, take a moment out to calmly and wholeheartedly agree with one of our white male neighbors when he asserted that we are concerned for our safety. But then she ramped up again and repeatedly yelled in my face that I was not relevant because I didn't grow up in the neighborhood. I walked away and out of the building.

What I didn't expect was to find out the next day that the same woman who got in my face actually pushed one of my neighbors. The two were not talking at the time; she approached after my neighbor had stopped talking to her and went to speak to someone else.

What I didn't expect was to hear was that members of the Peaceaholics, including the top brass, followed another one of my neighbors to her car to intimidate and frighten her.

You can read other accounts of the meeting here:

Washington City Paper-
Chaos in Congress Heights Over Peaceaholics Group Home

Congress Heights on the Rise blog-
OK, This is Going to Hurt but Somebody Had to Say It

Christ Rock to Remake Kurosawa movie (Or, a blog post in which I refer to a previous blog post-twice)

I just read that Chris Rock is remaking/adapting a movie by Japanese legend Akira Kurosawa and of course that made me think of his Death at a Funeral remake, but the article also reminded me that some of his other movies, like I Think I Love My Wife, were remakes too.

The Kurosawa remake is a surprise though...I may not like all of his movies, but it is a smart move, business-wise. Most American audiences have not seen the originals and you get a proven plot and structure to play around with, without having to start from scratch.

Related-
How a Discussion about the "Death at a Funeral" remake reminded me that we still have a ways to go...

How NOT to be Popular

"You won't be very popular if you're sending viruses," my new and rather upset co-worker admonished me the other day, sounding like a 1950s etiquette pamphlet on how to win friends and influence people.

She had used her company-issued computer to send me a file to edit via the company-run intranet. I edited that file on my company-issued computer and sent it back.

And somehow a virus wormed its way into the file. I guess someone had to take the blame.

As a contractor, the only thing I usually bring to work is my virus-free self (and maybe my lunch)...so how was this my fault?

Puppy Luv / Friend This

A guy who asked me out once, but couldn't be bothered to follow through suggested that I friend his dog on Facebook.

Maybe the dog will buy me dinner....

I Just Wanted a Tomato
I stopped by Eastern Market in DC to get a tomato on my way home the other day. I got my tomato, but left more puzzled than I normally would have been.

The market vendor who sold me my tomato looked at me and said, "This my grandson." I felt obliged to smile at the little boy he indicated was related to him and thought nothing of it. But then he said, in broken English, something like, "He is not the black, but he is part." The man was Asian.

Before I could react or think, one of his employees, approached and asked in a thick Hispanic accent if the little boy was nicknamed "cucaracha."

In my mind, I imagine that no one in this situation meant to offend, but still I was perplexed, so I took my tomato and left. Sometimes I am a crusader for justice, sometimes I want to set people straight and sometimes I just want to get home and make my dinner.

"Advancing the Economic Security of Unmarried Women"

So I've still got finance on the brain...when I got the invite for a forum about the economic security of unmarried women at the Center for American Progress, I couldn't pass it up--

Center for American Progress talks about "Advancing the Economic Security of Unmarried Women"

"Study finds median wealth for single black women at $5"

A Facebook friend posted this article and I posted it there, but it certainly deserves to be posted and plastered everywhere. I suppose I thought that by choosing writing/editing, a career path the unsteady income, I was kind of an exception, but it looks like that is not the case. Overall, black women aren't doing so well financially. I'm glad the article points out the complexity of this issue--it isn't because black women keep shopping or getting their hair done that they are at a financial disadvantage.

"The popular image is they spend too much, which is the reason they are running up credit card and consumer debt, but the cost of living has risen faster than income, and they need to go into debt for basic daily necessities," Ms. Lui said. "It's compounded because unemployment is twice as high in the black community than it is in the white community."

For all working-age black women 18 to 64, the financial picture is bleak. Their median household wealth is only $100. Hispanic women in that age group have a median wealth of $120.

"That means half of [black women] have a net worth of more than $100 and half have a net worth of less than $100," Ms. Lui said. "So that gives you an idea of how far in debt some women of color are."

Married or cohabitating white women have a median wealth of $167,500. Married or cohabitating black women have a median net worth of $31,500.

The reasons behind the daunting financial challenges black women face are numerous and complex.

__________

"If wealth was based on hard work, African-Americans would be the wealthiest people in our nation," she said. "It's not about behavior. It's about government policies. Who does the government help and who is it not helping?"

READ MORE:
Study finds median wealth for single black women at $5

The Hair Divide

In a conversation with, I think, six black women the topic of hair came up. That topic is kind of a given with all women and yet I felt surprisingly left out. Now, talking hair recently with a girlfriend who is white, we discussed products we liked, etc. and I didn't feel excluded. But in a convo with only black women I felt as if I couldn't get a word in edgewise because of my natural hairstyle.

Of the six, two of us have locs and we stood by politely while the hair conversation started because one of our friends had found a new hairdresser. I can certainly talk hairdressers, but since I mostly do my locs at home, I had to recent adventures. Plus, the talk centered on who could to the best job and the methods used to help hair grow and who could get your hair really straight. And while I remember the days when making my hair as straight as possible and counting the days until my next perm was an obsession, I took part, but couldn't fully participate.

At one point when the subject of texture came up, I joked- "Hey, I've got texture." This was acknowledged, politely, before everyone except my other loced friend and I, turned back to the real matter at hand--who could produce the results. I even turned to the other woman with locs and purposefully started to discuss our hair, not that anyone else cared.

Since we were waiting to leave an event and wanted to see that everyone got safely to their cars, we waited it out. I don't know why, really, since the conversation went on for quite a while. I know majority rules, but for how long?

In Pursuit of Me: The Life and Times of Christylez Bacon or Escaping Southeast

Last night I saw, "In Pursuit of Me," a autobiographical theatrical concert from Christylez Bacon, a young performer from Southeast DC. You can read about in the review I wrote for my blog on Examiner.com--

In Pursuit of Me: The Life and Times of Grammy nominated DC Performer Christylez Bacon

Since (for the moment) all roads on this blog lead to Congress Heights, I will say that the show gave me plenty of food for thought. One avenue my mind traveled down was the one that says taking people out of their environment can be a life-changing experience. In the show, Bacon talks about how his life changed after he was given the opportunity to leave southeast DC and attend a two week arts program in Colorado.

While discussing our disagreement with the plan the Peaceaholics have to open a group home to rehabilitate troubled youth on our very troubled block, I learned more about one of my neighbors.

The Peaceaholics told us that a large percentage of DC's youthful offenders come from southeast DC and that they didn't want to put their "problem" in someone else's neighborhood. My neighbor told me that, while she was not in trouble with the law, she was one of those kids who was given the chance to leave her problematic Baltimore 'hood to go to school in New England and that this gave her new perspective and altered the course of the life. Some people will change their lives no matter where they are, but for many, a change of scenery helps. Does it really help to bring people back to where they were before? While the cost of a building in southeast is low and the facility would be near metro, it is also surrounded by other social service facilities and many of the temptations that likely lured these kinds in the first place.

NIMBY? Yup.

All this unrest about how DC government (does not) regulate what facilities go where got me to thinking about the first time I heard the term NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). I learned it from a teacher, who was no doubt fired up about something. She didn't really bother explaining that made her think of the term; she just explained the term to us.

I think that same teacher taught us the "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" Song.

Fish and Chips and Vinegar
Vinegar Vinegar
Fish and Chips and Vinegar
Pepper Pepper Pepper Salt

Don't throw your junk in my backyard
My backyard, my backyard,
Don't throw your junk in my backyard
My backyard's full.

(Listen to Fish and Chips and Vinegar, traditionally sung as a round.)

After my neighbors and I met with the Peaceaholics and they (sort of) got (some of) the point, they offered to buy us dinner. I left, but those who stayed reported that the man who wants to put a group home for troubled youth right near us and other social service facilities remarked that they didn't want to put their "problem" in someone else's neighborhood. If these kids are such a problem, why do you think we want them nearby? In some ways, our ward is burdened with various elements that people do not want in other parts of the city. I say let's spread the love.

No Peace, No Progress

Last week some of my neighbors and I sat down for an extremely tense discussion with higher-ups from the Peaceaholics, a non-profit mediation group that claims to be "addicted to peace." Since we have already have a number of social service agencies within a few feet of each other on our block, we do not welcome the thought of the Peaceaholics adding a group home to the mix. And since they gave the community no notice whatsoever, we wanted to discuss in with them and our ward representative. At one point they said that the building would be regular apartments and that they didn't have to tell us anything. (Although these apartments would be only for young men ("children," they said) ages 16-24 or 15-21 who have had brushes with the law or been in jail, who would have a curfew and adult supervision.)

Before they owned the building they intend to use for a group home, the grounds surrounding it were well-kept. After they bought it, it went to pot. I asked them how could we expect them to keep up with their young charges when they hadn't even managed to keep the grass cut or shovel the snow in front of their building? They told me that we could call them and tell them what needed to be done and this was our "opportunity" to address the issue. Huh? So we have to keep up our own building and become part-time building managers for their building too?

They told us they'd give us written documentation outlining their plan before the meeting. It never came. Then we got a hostile e-mail from the founder, casting blame on us for an irate phone call he received from a stranger.

From: rmoten
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 11:51 PM

I've been getting a lot of call from people calling me on my personal number and its so sad to see how we as a people think about our own people, however I'm not talking it personal.
I will just continue to do Gods work and I look forward to meeting with you and all the concerned citizens.~Ron Moten

While it is true that we were opposing something they wanted to do, nothing about their demeanor or tone said "peace."

They threw the race card in our faces and made assumptions about people they did not know, telling a tableful of hardworking black folks that we don't care about black folks. It irks me when someone calls me "sister" and uses the word as a weapon. Where's the peace in that?

Mr. Moten's parting shot on his way out the door after we met with him was, "And I don't make $90,000 like the City Paper said. I don't need government money. I'm a bad man."

While I don't always agree with The City Paper, the article they did last fall on he Peaceaholics was on point:

What Cost Peace?
The D.C. government has given Ronald Moten's Peaceoholics $10 million to quash street beefs. What has it gotten?

Stuff I Wrote + People I Saw: Bacon on the Metro Edition

I saw Christylez Bacon on the train not too long ago. He told me was going to the Library of Congress to sound check and leave his stuff for a performance with Michelle Obama tomorrow. Apparently, the performers have to leave instruments, etc. for security to check them out before tomorrow's performance. He didn't have a guitar so I guess he was just going to leave his spoons...in any case I was super-jealous and told him to say "hi" to Michelle for me.

We discussed DC Metro's "temporary" raise in prices and as usual, he had a rather comedic take on the matter. I told him I was going to see his show, "In Pursuit of Me" at The Atlas.

**********************

Monday, January 25, 2010
It's the Beatbox!

I interviewed progressive hip hop artists Christylez Bacon, who has been nominated for a Grammy, for my Examiner.com blog. Mr. Bacon beatboxes and also plays the guitar and spoons. He is very talented and also hilarious, but I didn't quite get all of that into the post and wrote it in a rather straightforward way. His Grammy nomination is for his collaboration on a children's album, while the music he does on his own is more grown-up.

He asked me what I'd done for MLK Weekend and I said I was mostly sick, but I did manage to get to the "Let Freedom Ring" MLK Celebration featuring India.Arie at the Kennedy Center. First he suggested that I go to Soul Vegetarian and get some drink with lemon, ginger and echinacea and then he asked if India Arie had a woman from Ivory Coast with her. Apparently, he had recently run into them and pronounced India Arie to be very cool.

DC native Christylez Bacon Nominated for a Grammy

Stuff I Wrote: Mary McLeod Bethune & Eleanor Roosevelt Brought to Life at National Portrait Gallery Performance

While at the performance, I saw Johnnetta B. Cole, the first "Sista Prez" of my alma mater, Spelman College,sitting in the first row. Before Cole got the job, Spelman, an HBCU for black women had never had a black woman as president. We exchanged cards. How cool is that?

Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt Brought to Life at National Portrait Gallery Performance