Fayemi Shakur hits me up. I hear her tiny voice as I read her inbox message. I love it when she reaches out. She’s amazing and does all kinds of fabulous events in the community. She told me about #HoldOutRadio asked me if I would be her special guest and invite some of the people from #PeoplesOpenMic to come chat with Derrick Adams in a pyramid at Aljira. She had me at hello.Hello.
I googled Derrick Adams and fell in love with his work and his movement. When we met, our conversation was on building, connection, our world, our talent and each other. Sitting in a beautifully erected brick pyramid I told him what we were doing was important. I thanked him for his contribution and we commenced to vibing.
J-Read, a hiphopper and regular at The People’s Open Mic played his violin as I shared a few poems. He shared his bars. They were dope. K.Desiree aka Love Drip-Drop who is a vocalist in The Band Called Fuse and Mary Jane both shared love poems. Snaps all the way around.
Fayemi shared classic poems from Pablo Neruda and D. H. Lawrence. And Derrick played throwback soulful tunes. We had a perfect afternoon. We weren’t just sharing our art, we were being our art inside Derrick’s Social Sculpture. “Its not about the structure. Its about what happens inside it that matters”, he said. And he’s right.
I came out of the pyramid brand new. I walked out of Aljira in love with my city, connected to my people and present to the possibility in our bricks.
