Artists & Creativity

I totally went to Vancouver last weekend with Master P and his technogeek coworkers. That's not a slam on them, of course, but just a description. I borrowed a digital camera from student services at the university but, unbeknownst to me, the thing had only a 32 meg card in it, so I have only about 12 photos to put up here. Plus, I left the camera in Master P's car, so I have only about 0 photos to put up here. I'll get them up tomorrow and write a little something about our 15-hour trip to Canada.

So onto the post...

On the first Monday of each month students put on a show in the Ethnic Cultural Theatre aptly titled First Mondays. It's mostly a poetry thing like the Friday night show was. WhatUpThen barely made it there because he was tired after work and it didn't start until 9pm and, strangely, his back had been killing him all day. But I went because I hadn't seen it before. Boy, was it worth it.

Let me tell you, there are some mighty talented young men and women out there writing insightful social commentary, keeping the crowd chill as MCs and...playing upright bass. I gushed about the Friday show, too, and I'm not saying that these kids are all geniuses or the collective second coming of Langston Hughes, but it was good shit. Even more wonderful is to witness the result of the creative process. We see a 20-year old Black man (yes, it's WE ...I can't exempt myself from these presumptions) wearing basketball shorts and his hat cocked to the side and we don't realize he carries a notebook in his bag stained with lyrics that would force anyone to reconsider. It's the creativity and effort and art that I appreciate coming from these students. Do any of my friends write poetry? What are our creative outlets...I don't even know. I'll be sure to find out very soon.

On a semi-related note, I finally watched Ray last night. As soon as it was over I had to IM Master P and tell him what an incredible movie it was. So much of it made me want to cry/tell my Mom I lover her/sing/call you-know-who. It was Amadeus-ian, this portrait of an artistic genius splitting time between the tortured, exploited and likeable blind man and the savvy, awe-inspiring yet insufferable virtuoso. What's it like to be the best of the best? To be in the zone your whole life so that people barely understand you. I suppose when we encounter these special people we've just got to appreciate them and let them soar.