Saul Williams Plans To "Slam" Santa Cruz

Hip-hop is the music of our generation. It is a musical reflection of our times, our issues, our hopes and fears. Hip-hop culture is apparent in modern television commercials and magazine advertisements. It is a recurring theme in contemporary music, art, film and fashion.
Attention Cabrillo hip-hop heads, an extraordinary artist, Saul Williams, will be performing later this month in Santa Cruz. His delivery of fresh rhymes and beats is not worth missing. This performer actively redefines the hip-hop revolution, incorporating social activism and blending his personal experiences of trials and tribulations with progressive idealism.
Williams encourages college students to strive and succeed during his visits to U.S. campuses. He collaborates with musicians to establish exciting, contemporary sounds. He performs alongside his enthusiastic 12 year-old-daughter. His voice is clear and melodic when he speaks of pain or promise.
As a practicing poet or “spoken word” artist, Saul explains that: “Poetry has a much longer oral tradition than it does literary. Many poets of ancient lore, such as the Greek Homer, were not read in their time (reading and writing was reserved for the very rich. Most of Greece was illiterate), people gathered to hear them speak. Like the griots and storytellers of ancient Africa, or the wandering philosophers and Sufies of the East, if most were alive today they would be called ‘spoken word artists.”

He was born Saul Stacey Williams, on February 29th, 1972, in Newburgh, New York. He is a poet, writer, actor and musician and is well known for his distinctive blend of poetry and alternative hip-hop. His music has been classified from hip-hop, spoken word, and poetry, to industrial, electronic, and alternative. On his myspace page he describes his music as being a blend of “postpunk/breakbeat/ghettotech.” Williams asserts that, genre definitions aside, “a lot of people get caught up on my lyrics and poetry, but my writing is always founded on beats and polyrhythmic backdrops.”
Williams received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Morehouse College in Atlanta and later completed his master’s degree in acting at NYU. During his time spent in New York City he found himself at the epicenter of the café poetry scene where he began to gain standing as a performer.

In 1995 Saul first established national recognition as a talented open mic poet. A year later he won the title of Nuyorican Poets Café’s Grand Slam Champion. Shortly thereafter he appeared in a documentary film entitled “SlamNation” that documents the Nuyorican Poets Slam team at the 1996 National Poetry Slam, held in Portland, Ore.

Saul starred as the lead role in the 1998 feature film “Slam” which chronicles the life of a young African American man whose social background has negative effects on his exceptional poetic talent. Despite his attempts to escape the pressures of drugs and violence he is arrested during a drug deal and sentenced to prison. During his imprisonment he participates in writing classes where he is encouraged to develop his already strong talents. When he leaves prison he is able to convince his friends to quit drug dealing. He then performs at a poetry slam where he delivers an unforgettable performance.
“Slam” won the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Price for a Dramatic Film and the Cannes Camera D’Or (Golden Camera). The film gained international audiences and acclaim. Since then, Williams has continued to write and act in films.

Over the years he has performed with Nas, The Fugees, Christian Alvarez, Blackalicious, Erykah Badu, KRS-One, Zack De La Rocha, De La Soul, and DJ Krust. He has also performed with legendary poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez.
In 2001 he released “Amethyst Rock Star” with producer Rick Rubin. In 2004 he released his self-titled album. In summer 2005 he went on a European tour in support of Nine Inch Nails and Mars Volta. That same year he performed at the Lollapalooza festival.
He appeared on NIN’s album “Year Zero,” and continued supporting them in their 2006 North American tour. Soon after, Williams announced his plans to co-produce a new album with Trent Reznor of NIN. Speaking of his relationship, he said that Reznor “has become the big brother I never had, offering his insight, expertise, and shared desire to fuck up the system while believing fully in the power of music and the intelligence of the masses.”
This partnership produced Williams’ latest album, “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust,” a title which faced criticism for it’s racially infused ring. In response he said “I’ve also thought long and hard about all the discussion surrounding racial epithets etc. and chose this title as a means of furthering the dialogue while also showing how creativity will outlive and outshine hatred of any kind.”

Aside from being an exceptional poet and singer, his writings have been published in the New York Times, Esquire, Bomb Magazine and African Voices. He has released four collections of poetry including a book of poems entitled “Said The Shotgun To The Head.” As a poet and musician he has toured and lectured worldwide. He guest speaks at college and university campuses around the country. Williams is a vocal critic of the Bush administration, the War on Terrorism, and the Iraq War. He has written some anti-war anthems, among the more well known of which are “Not In My Name,” and “Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare).”

Saul’s career as a jack-of-all-trades is a mirror of the increasingly common trend of movie stars pursuing musical careers, and musician’s crossing over into the acting limelight. “It’s not that I balance [those arts] out, all the different arts balance me out. So, that there is a certain type of emotion that is more easily accessible through music than poetry…. Some things are meant to be written, some are meant to be sung, some things are meant to be hummed, some things are made to be yelled, and so that’s just how life works.”

Saul married Marcia Jones, an art professor at Clark Atlanta University and had a daughter, Saturn Williams, in 1996. They later divorced and in 1998 he remarried to Persia White, a member of the industrial alternative rock band, XEO3. Saul Williams lives in Los Angeles and is currently on tour. For more information and to hear Saul’s music check out www.saulwilliams.com, www.myspace.com/saulwilliams, www.niggytardust.com. If you’re interested in having Saul come speak at Cabrillo please call The American Program Bureau at 1-800-225-4575.

First Music Interview Tonight!!!

I have an interview this evening at 7pm with the Byron Space Circus, a local musical group. Very excited, nervous, etc. I am working on coming up with some good questions and this will be my first interview with a tape recorder. I need to buy myself a tape recorder.

Finished!

Finally done, submitted article, ready for newsprint! This class is so gratifying and fun, and what a learning experience it all is!!! Leads are mad mad challenging....wow!!!

K'naan: His Rap Is Hardcore

Rap music gets a bad rap. Our parents tell us it’s loud noise with too much swearing. Radio stations and dance clubs play only mainstream rap, materialistic music about bitches and gats. Drugs and “bling.” Somewhere, somehow, the true art of rhyme was forgotten and then replaced with superficial words and overused, repetitive beats.
There is good news for all the Cabrillo hip hop and rap fans who share these concerns. Just when it seemed that rap music was beyond redemption, K’naan came onto the scene. He reinstates the purpose and origin of hip hop music by using his music as a weapon. He draws inspiration from his war torn childhood in Somalia. His music is spine chilling and uplifting while it teaches and entertains. He is truly acting as a voice of the global struggle. K’naan is both a poet and a rapper. His words can be fully appreciated when spoken or in writing.
“So what’s hardcore?” K’naan asks on his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher.
“Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.-
We begin our day by the way of the gun,
Rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,
We got no police ambulance or fire fighters,
We start riots by burning car tires,
They looting, and everybody start shooting,
Bullshit politicians talking about solutions,
But it’s all talk, you can’t go half a block without a roadblock,
You don’t pay at the road block you get your throat shot…”
He was born Kaynaan Warsame in 1978. The name translates to “traveler” in Somali. K’naan is a Somali refugee living in Ontario, Canada.
K’naan spent part of his childhood in Mogadishu, the capital of the African country of Somalia. He lived in the district of Wardiihigleey, more commonly known as “The River of Blood” due to ongoing political conflict and violence that continues to this day. Violence recently broke out in Mogadishu on Sept. 22, when mortars fired into a marketplace killed at least 32 people. The current clash is between Islamic extremist anti-government groups and the Somali government assisted by Ethiopian forces.
K’naan’s father left Somalia first and moved to New York to make money for his family. With the money he sent, he would include rap albums for K’naan. Through this musical medium, K’naan taught himself to speak English by studying the hip hop and rap diction of American artists such as Nas and Rakim. He would then copy the phonetics of their lyrics and style, even though he could not comprehend the actual meaning of the songs.
He left Somalia in 1991 when the Somali government collapsed. As civil war broke out, K’naan was fortunate to have his visa approved and consequently took the last commercial flight out of the country before the US embassy closed. He reunited with his father and other relatives in Harlem, New York City and they eventually moved to Rexdale, Ontario where there is a large Somali Canadian community.
           K’naan dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and traveled throughout Canada, rapping at open mic events. In 1999 he befriended a Canadian music promoter who got him a gig at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees where he performed a spoken word piece in criticism of the United Nations and their failed aid missions to his home country.
           Fortunately for the young artist, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour sat in the audience and was extremely taken with K’naan’s courageous performance. Soon after, N’Dour invited K’naan to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges. Because of his addition to N’Dour’s project, K’naan was taken on his worldwide tour.
           In the next few months, K’naan worked on more United Nations events and performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Soon he met a Canadian producer who helped him create his debut album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher in 2005. In 2006 K’naan’s album won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year and was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. In 2007 the album won the newcomer category in the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music.
           This year K’naan’s album was re-released and re-packaged as a “Deluxe Edition” featuring new remixes and a DVD. He has been promoting his album on tour and working on a follow-up album. K’naan has been collaborating with artists such as Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, The Roots, Dead Prez, Damian Marley and Pharaohe Monch. He toured on Live 8, Breedlove Odyssey and the Welcome to Jamrock tour.
           Most recently he played at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, Earthdance Festival in Laytonville, and 330 Ritch in San Francisco. For more information or to hear his music visit www.thedustyfoot.com or www.myspace.com/knaanmusic


“K’naan will make a song anywhere, on anything, out of anything.” –Mos Def

“If I rhyme about home and got descriptive,
I’d make Fifty Cent look like Limp Bizkit,
It’s true, and don’t make me rhyme about you,
I’m from, where the kids is addicted to glue,
Get ready, he got a good grip on the machete,
Make rappers say they do it for love like R. Kelly,
It’s HARD, harder than Harlem and Compton intertwined,
Harder than harboring Bin Laden and rewind….”
-From “What’s Hardcore?”

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark
In the eyes of the youth there are question marks
Like freedom, freedom for the mind and soul
We don’t see ‘em,
See them for their worth at all.
That’s why we lead ‘em
Lead ‘em to these wars and what is it we feed ‘em
Feed ‘em our impurities and who it is we treat ‘em
Treat ‘em like the enemy humanity will need ‘em
Need ‘em like the blood we spill and where freedom
Freedom for the hearts we fill
Mislead ‘em
They hunger for the love we give but we cheat ‘em
The guys beat ‘em and all he want is his freedom
So they defeat ‘em
Whatever spirit he’s got
Beat ‘em
And they teach ’em the rest of the world don’t need him
And he believes it’s a disease that he’s heathen
Put up your fists if all you want is freedom
Put up your fists if all you want is-”
                                               -From “In The Beginning”

(Un)wearable Art At Cabrillo

These clothes are wild but they’ll never be seen on even the most eccentric Santa Cruzans. The blouses and dresses are part of a show that uses textiles and clothing to make bold political and social statements. The exhibit entitled “(un)wearable” illustrates vivid expressions of emotion and activism intertwined into stunning textile art.
It’s Fall fashion month in Santa Cruz and artists are displaying their work all over the county. Here at Cabrillo we have a beautiful collaboration of local artist’s work on display in the College Gallery. The three contributing artists of this show are Dawn Marie Forsyth, Richard Elliott and Kathleen Crocetti. Each has their own unique style and message engrained within their pieces.
Dawn Marie Forsyth’s exhibit occupies the back part of the gallery and is hugely dramatic in delivery. She has constructed five separate blouses hanging high from the ceiling. Each blouse has arms that stretch all the way to the floor where they lay, folded, curled or draped. The blouses are representative of unwound straight jackets to go with Forsyth’s central theme of “expressing the beauty of our struggles.” She explains that her work illustrates the “creepy seductive,” and the “sensual sculptural” aspect of the relationship between art and life.
Each blouse is created using different fabrics such as wool, taffeta, velvet, silk, spandex, and nylon and then sewn with silk and cotton thread. Each fabric is a representation of different human struggles. Her physical exhibit is accompanied by a video in black and white entitled “My Skin II,” which shows a woman in a straight jacket struggling to escape its confines. The pieces compliment one another, and follow her main theme of expressing “the triumph of the human spirit.”
Richard Elliott works with media ranging from digitally printed and hand manipulated polyester fabric to rusted steel transfers on fabric-mounted canvas. He is fascinated and inspired by scientific magnification. His pieces are entitled “Micro/Macro,” “Hidden Networks,” “Subcutaneous Micro Colony,” and “Human/Nature.” Science geeks and artists converge! Elliott illustrates his appreciation for art and science.
Elliott’s pieces are both two-dimensional wall pieces and three-dimensional forms. He layers these 3-D forms with materials such as Plexiglass, transparencies, fabrics and translucent tracing papers. Elliott’s major focus “lies in rather mundane, unnoticed or unseen patterns.” He puzzles at such natural phenomena as fingerprints and hair growth patterns. The “playful shapes and language of chromosomes, DNA, microscopic cellular and molecular structures” inspire him.
Kathleen Crocetti works with media such as steel, newsprint, cotton, satin, dog tags, flags and origami. Crocetti uses the inside labels of Gap, Eddie Bauer ad Old Navy clothes to invent new party dress designs. Her main purpose in these pieces is to point out the ridiculousness of “label status” as she juxtaposes inexpensive labels to accent collars and hems of presumably expensive party dresses.
In her more politically infused pieces, Crocetti illustrates the idea of “wear[ing] our grief,” a practice that was abandoned after World War II. She hopes to inspire a “ripple effect of compassion and outrage” to replace the current “ripple effect of insensitivity and complacency.” Her politically infused pieces are entitled “Posthumous Citizenship,” “Coalition of the Willing,” and “War Bride.”
This show is located in the Cabrillo College Gallery and is available for viewing Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4 pm and Monday and Tuesday evenings from 7 pm to 9 pm. The show will run through the third of October.