My Playlist

I listen to my iPod
It blocks out the sounds of things around
Especially when riding the train uptown and down
16 gigabytes of room for applications and iTunes
2726 songs my play list is mad long got Louie Armstrong
I've got Coltrane to Prince's Purple Rain
Public Enemy and EPMD Run DMC Sly and Robbie
Nine-Inch Nails and Rage Against The Machine Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean
Alice in Chains to Bad Brains Big Daddy Cane Little Wayne to House of Pain
Curtis blow to Fat Joe
Biz Markey and Barrington Levy to Young Jeezy AC/DC to Jay-Z
Akon and Little Jon
Amy Winehouse to Eek-A-Mouse
B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix Little Wing
Bernie Man and The Wu Tan Clan
Bahamadia to Aaliyah to Monica Carlos Santana to Nervana
Billie Holiday to Morris Day Macy Gray Marvin Gaye
Bob Marley and Lee Scratch Perry
David Bowie to The Brand New Heavies
Buckwheat Zydeco to Agustus Pablo D'Angelo Lupe Fiasco Cool G Rap with D J Polo Nelly Furtado
Ceila Cruz to John Lee Hooker singing the blues
DJ Cam to Yellow Man Pearl Jam MC Shan
Cream to The Dream
Eric B. and Rakim to Eminem
Black Sabbath to The Smiths
Parliament Funkadelic to Funkmaster Flex and DMX and Annie Lennox
On shuffle I wonder what will be next
De La Soul Depeche Mode Dilated Peoples
Stevie Wonder to Stevie Ray Vaughn to Sarah Vaughn
Red Hot Chili Peppers Def Leppard Mos Def to The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff
I get my MP3's illegally
back in the day of Napster
before you had to pay
I never tire of music I get from Limewire
Erykah Badu Sade to Beyonce
Incubus Fabolous Newcleus to Thelonious
Janis Joplin Led Zeppelin to Tracy Chapman Malcolm Marclen to Smashing Pumpkins
Korn Lauryn Hill to Cyprus Hills
Les Nubians to The Brand Nubians
Lou Reed to Creed
Dread Zeppelin Ornette Coleman
Mikey Dread and The Grateful Dead to The Talking Heads
OutKast Eartha Kit to Limp Bizkit to Nas’s Illmatic
Sly and the Family Stone Grace Jones Nina Simone to the Rolling Stones
UB40 U2 to Tupac
They all rock

GRAFFITI All CITY

I had to get up ~ tag up like a disease
My hand to the marker would freeze
Never got busted by the police
My vandalism did increase
Made me a graffiti sticker beast
Spray paint, steel ball - shaking feast
Busting colors like caps
Sticker slaps
The world and I would interact
Fat markers in pockets packed
To get my name fame
Artistic acclaim for the graffiti insane
Those who died writing on trains
Scaling walls and road over hangs
Those crews and gangs
For FC and MPC and living graffiti legends like CRASH and LEE
I used to live and die graffiti
From marker stains
to the chemical smell of permanent markers swirling and bleeding into black books for artistic crooks
For city marching over dark blocks
tagging up and hitting perfect spots
Blending colors of icy grape
make wild style shapes
Midnight bombing runs
Burners and throw ups
Getting raided and buffed
to high speed fence jumping
running to escape 5 0
to staring down a graffiti rival
Fat caps and bubble letters
Standing on the shoulders of others reaching high spots with paint that last forever
Outsmarting drips
Cutting marker tips
From dazed eyes from too many forty dog sips
Drawing crazy characters with blunts dangling from African lips
From dissing toys with my homeboys
Getting that jungle green piece rolling over elevated tracks
back when wack meant wack!
Sitting for hours just watching window down and full car flats
The 149th street writers’ bench
Before graffiti went to Europe and spoke French
Before the clean trains erased the name fame
I loved seeing my name rolling IRT, BMT and MTA trains

Congress was in session

to apologize for 400 years of oppression
in succession
America are you really sorry for the slave ships
for the bull whips
for the lynching and raping
for killing of slaves who were escaping
it’s a hole in your history that still is gaping
the selling and buying
of humanity
could you not see that this was insanity
the looting of nations for their population
did this not bring some consternation
where is the give back for lifetimes of free labor and breaking of backs
to the billions of dollars make off of crops and cotton stacks
America look over the facts
this land is a ceiling and floor filled with bleeding cracks
Is your apology done down on bended knee
To try to forget the atrocity with little civility
A monetary apology for those descendants of slavery
Would be a better way to try to say sorry
For the mass graves of African slaves
The separation of families
America this is your history
It’s like an open wound no way to shut it
murders, raping and maiming
I am sorry just doesn’t cut it

More shots from New York City streets

Citizenry Got No Health Care?

I ain't got no health care

ain't got no Welfare or Medicaid

It's medical warfare

HMO's got to go

They lead to early funerals

When coverage gets denied people die

We are the only first world country who refuse its people the opportunity for free health care

It’s a daily nightmare

should be a right of our citizenship in this land of the rich

the government should pay to take care of its own instead we’re left on our own while insurance companies pray on us, like vultures they roam

no one is left to atone their behavior should not be condoned

instead it's cloned affecting home after home

HMOs bottom line is making money that's why so many requested procedures are declined saving the sick is a waste of their time

How many more years shall they continue with death on the menu so many get screwed abused and misused

Many can't afford to pay so they are turned away by hospitals to their sure early decay

A sad situation played out across the nation over paying for medication they are getting wealthy off our generation

What will it take for this country to change its policies to not take advantage of the sick and needy

Too many bankrupt because they can't cough up

They need cash flow for an operation meant to save their life, one delay turns into another doctors don’t get paid for procedures insurance don’t cover

it's time to speak up and not stay shut

Make congress pass a bill for free affordable health care it's everywhere except here

How many more people have to die

How many more people will be placed in deep debt while insurance companies show no regret for the quality of life they forfeit

claiming standard procedures are experimental

the deaths that come as a result are not accidental

health care should be a right that’s fundamental


check out the short video of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explaining what a public option for healthcare coverage means for us at Bravenew Films.

more graffiti

DubbleX Chilling At Crib

these photos are property of Joy Leftow courtesy of her. She asked me to pose in front of my dreadlock poem scrawled on my wall one manic night.

We bring our words to the street

The Loctician

My dreadlocks grow from small peas mad narrow
They sprang from tight rolled twisted nigga naps
clamped together and latched they grow with me attached
they swing and cling to my shoulders,
warm my ears in the winter
They hold memories of my child's birth
Conceived my lock's seed
in same calendar year as he
My dreadlocks toss fear in the hearts of onlookers
and catch the eyes of cops
They attract women to compliment and bald men to resent
They make me drip in the summer and cool my neck from the sun
My dreads collect raindrops and soft pillowy snowflakes
get me rejected and make people wonder
If I smoke weed, if I blaze trees
if I speak that rastafari with “irie dem help we”
They get me second looks and no looks
they make me friends and instant foes
you know my dreads make you wonder
if I'm a criminal or a dealer, or healer,
or if I'm hustling for the minimal
My dreadlocks get me searched, stopped, followed when I shop
So the militant in me steps up to my gangster bop
My dreadlocks grow from my brown skin
within the combination of the two often offend,
gets me glares and stares so sometimes
I act mad ghetto and put on a show
My boss asked me how long I'm gonna let them grow
I think I don't know but once my dreads go where my dreads go and I go
I'd like to see them grow to 2080 maybe
If you have to know, I'd like to see them grow like I've seen 'em,
they been with me when I was lonely, helped me hold my sanity
they were there in my despair when my marriage went beyond repair
I dread in my son's hair over here, this is my ex-lover's hair here,
and another lover over there, this dreads over here is kinda new
they grew as I grew since I made this stage move
My dreads are my night pillows
They sat with me and gave me comfort in a jail cell
Gave me comfort in that church hell
Some are braided, others sun faded it's been stated
Very long I waited for these locks to grow
they teach me patience and persistence
with kemi oil and sunshine they glisten
it's not a hairstyle
it's a life style after a while
waiting to dry for a day,
they hold life's moisture in its brown coils
my dreads stand for the lion inside of me
that can't be killed by society
The Nyabinghi Mansions, branches of Rastafari
came down from the hill to defeat Napoleon
The power of the African motherland
And now the white man's twisting dreads with his hands
just hope he understands when he does he's given praise to the Black man


visit my partner's blog
Joy's Poetry Blog

MY BLACK HAIR STORY

Back in the day I had an Afro that extended out into the universe like Saturn’s rings

I’d walk up and down city streets

wrote and stickered many things - dreamt I would be a graffiti king

Back in the day I wore a Jeri curl and cornrows

played basketball and dodged swinging elbows

Back in the day I would drink underage

knocking back Absolute Cranberry Vodka to get very drunk

Back in the day I sported an Afro – I let it grow for many years

high and wide busting out from all sides

I tamed my Afro into braids

down my shoulders they cascaded

My fingers working to interweave that weave

Before my braid days I sported a high top fade

Fucked around with Jeri curls - used to wear waves

Slept with a silky black do rag skull cap

Sometimes it was hard to nap if it was too tight at night

Come morning time my forehead would have deep do rag line

I threw on that green hair food for that ultra shine around 89

I remember one time I insisted on getting twisted

used small colorful rubber bands grabbed up a couple of hair strands

and twisted with my hands.

Rubber bands held the twist in place but as soon as I washed my hair

they were no longer there disappeared into thin air

Another time I wanted dreads

I poured honey and lemon juice on my head

I didn’t wash my hair for a month the hair had quite a funk.

My hair began to lock

Then I cut it all off and put my whole world in shock, made everyone rock

Before cutting the dreads I washed them

found lemon seeds in my natty from my lemon juice spray

I was still crazy back in the day

Afterwards, for many years I kept it cut at a level one - my scalp exposed to the sun

One day I decided I wanted my dreads back so I brought two jars of beeswax

but low and behold the dreads wouldn’t hold

so I went to the beauty saloon to get my dread on.

They twisted me up - wished me good luck –

told me not to wash my hair for at least six weeks

my ex-wife started to complain that I reeked.

The dreads grew long after some time once again I cut my hair down real low

Thought I was gonna go work for a corporation so wanted to present myself professional

Now, once more I wanted my dreads back

broke out that old jar of beeswax

sat and twisted this time I commanded them grow and grow

So finally now from high top fades braids and Afros I have come full circle

Back to my dream I think I’ll let my dreads grow to 2080 maybe

More Pics

Graffitti in our hood

I want that tattoo sleeve

I want artwork dripping down from the top of my shoulders to my wrist
This doesn’t exist yet but if I insist on one thing on my to do list
I want Rodin the thinking man sitting on a rock covered in dreadlocks
A constellation of stars twinkling in a colorful nebula
Graffiti tags mixed with elegant pieces
Rolling trains in flames and flying eagles
My pockets cannot support my ambitions to commission the rendition
So I scribble on my brown skin with ink pens not near the equivalent of my intent
My money is so quickly spent
On child support and rent
My girlfriend says a sleeve will be $7,000
She knows a guy in PA and one day when I can pay $100 an hour
I can get shit started maybe get the outline design
Daily I evaluate tattoos I see on city summer streets
As the pressing heat reveals multicolored skins inked in
spider webs on elbows
Yellow and red flames on forearms
Scripted names on necks
Depicted crosses
Skulls and devil heads
Baby feet for young dead
Hearts and picturesque landscapes
Tribal black lines in twisted designs
Winding dragons with flashing swords
Piano keys with noted chords
Salamanders and trees
Butterflies stars and Celtic swirls
Pictures of naked sexy girls
Motorcycles castles and loved ones’ faces
Lasts a lifetime never erases

Jumping tigers and flying fairies it’s all so enticing
Flower arrangements with abstract impressions
Tattoos cover lower backs buttocks and bellies
Calves breast and chest
Half sides of faces
all types of places
I dream about my tattoos
Wonder if it will scare or bruise me
How much pain it will inflict
With thousand of tiny nicks
My girlfriend tells me about the pain
The back and forth over the skin in the same spot
You want the guy to stop be he will not
If you want the style and color to be hot
She tells me a lot of people get shit on their arms
That has no charm
Ugly tattoos that look unprofessional
People stop her every where she goes when she lets her tat show
Sometime soon I hope to go to Pennsylvania
When I get my tax return
Grit my teeth for that needle burn
Soon it will be my turn

My thoughts run wild

like fire
ideas burn quick
like candle wicks
I switch on the switch
and carry on
my thoughts run wild like a cheetah
or a lion chasing a fleeing zebra
wild like a dog pack
my thoughts melt in your mind like an ice pack
my thoughts run wild in New York City’s naked streets
I roar my words like a tiger
my thoughts run wild like a fire
they burn through paper
they torment my brain
leaving me only partially sane
or completely deranged
but never the same
my thoughts run wild
like a nervous web surfer
a channel flipper
an exotic stripper
Sinking and sinking
I keep thinking and thinking
My mind is on rapid fire
More thoughts are required
More of them transpire
I get inspired
A poetic crier
Drowning in thoughts till I expire
My thoughts misfire and peak
They go so deep sometimes I can’t speak
My thoughts run wild
they escape me
Too many lost memories
It’s a travesty
My brain becomes a graveyard
Recalling things are simply too hard
I try to capture my thoughts in a net
So I won’t forget
They run like a bullet from a handgun
I get spun
Don’t know where they all come from
Like an on going chess game in my brain
Sweet thoughts like sugar cane

Depressing thoughts like suicide
Makes me wish I could hide from life
Next instant I’m riding high
Feel like the whole world’s on my side
My thoughts run wild - they need to be tamed
Instead my head is inflamed
My thoughts run wild like a fire
Medication is my water hose
It shuts off the word rain
I wish I could shut off my brain
Just when I thought the thought fire was out again it rose
My thoughts run wild like a neglected foster child
Beguiled by life lied and reviled
Thrown from reality locked out of society wishing for sobriety
The voices inside grow louder and louder as I’m ripped of my sanity

Neighborhood Graffiti