Cliff and Andre ended up singing the lights out. Cliff, after having…(a lot of) trouble recalling the precise song he wanted to sing, exhorted us to never use drugs. Then he rolled out “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which I’d ironically considered singing just a few minutes before. Once he got going, he seemed inclined to keep going, so we let the cipher roll for about half an hour.
shahid
shahid.buttar@gmail.com
http://www.shahidbuttar.com
I'm a creative countercultural change agent. After being deployed behind enemy lines for five years in the capital of our (supposedly) freedom-loving nation, I rolled back out west in 2008 to live a little. My passions include rhyming over house tracks, building spaces around which diverse communities can coalesce, media activism, dancing my ass off, and zerberts.
Posts by shahid :
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(this lines up well around 90 bpm….)
I had a great weekend in the People’s Republic
everything one could possibly ask for, on a stick:
connections en masse, with an entire class,
folks who — when they talk — I feel like I’m at a mass.
The space is sacred. The vibration we’re making.
makes me pause, examine myself, and [...] -
The poetry insurgency’s March 2011 lyrical ambush was intense, starting with all of two poets and ballooning over the course of two short hours into over ten.
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It was a snowy night in DC last night, but guerrilla poets nonetheless came from far & wide — including George Washington University, from which students Ellen and Kevin rolled through — to rock the mic at Bossa. Meanwhile, a crew of stray guerrillas rocked rhymes in Hollywood, while the SF crew did a [...]
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Last night, the poetry insurgency returned to Bossa in Adams-Morgan. We performed from the stage, the middle of the dance floor, and tables along each wall. Undeterred by the train, Fourth Stream joined us for some collaborative jams after our set finished, and we had the fortune of welcoming Las Vegas based poet-activist-labor [...]
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Danny Harris from People’s District posted my rambling reflections on the origins of the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency. He also captured some video of an old school rhyme I’ve been kicking for years, at our old haunt in DuPont Circle:
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Tanene Allison wrote a piece on Huffington Post today titled “Follow the Artists to Our New Democracy.” Check it out for some inspiring analysis and fun links!
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There is a conscious counterculture kickin’ in the Capital
Back east in DC, the community’s rockin,
Non-stoppin’, the underground family’s poppin’
bee-boppin’ to the rhythm of a go-go beat
Kickin’ music and revolution out in the street
Rhythm Workers bangin’ out a beat in time
Guerilla poets wagin’ a lyrical struggle in rhyme
Belmontia risin, Batala boomin
DC51 son! We be swoonin’
Enraptured [...]
