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 :

  • Tonight, the SF Collaborative Arts Insurgency celebrates its 5th anniversary with its weekly lyrical ambush outside the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station at 16th & Mission Streets. The crew's been rocking since 2003, and recently got noted by a series of weekly papers, including SF Weekly, the Bay Guardian, and even The [...]

  • The GPI has been staying active despite wrapping up the DuPont Circle lyrical ambushes for the winter. We host the weekly open mic at Busboys & Poets from time to time (most recently on October 30), and also did a joint set with singer/songwriter/Ukele-hip-hop artist Jon Brahman at a group house in Mt. Pleasant [...]

  • Go, Musharraf, go!
    That's how my flow goes
    so learn what happened if you don't already know
    Pakistan needs to see democracy
    we need sanity
    to help preserve humanity
    the vanity of America's fading empire
    means only that the rubble will pile higher
    kick the liars and the cronies out of power.
    Shower.
    Wash your hands of the master's plan.
    Attack Iran?  What makes 'em [...]

  • This spring, Laurie started actively pursuing an ongoing collaboration with Sol y Soul and the BlackOut Arts Collective, two other groups in the community doing work similar to that of the Guerrillas. The first concrete opportunity emerged in "The Other Side," a hip hop play put together by Sol y Sol, also featuring TriFlava.
    We [...]

  • Today's guerrilla gathering offered our first chance to check in with each other in awhile, as well as a spontaneous opportunity for a lyrical ambush that landed us on the nightly news broadcast of at least one local network affiliate. First, the notes:

    Jess is moving away in the next week: she handed off Treasurer [...]

  • The poetry insurgency rocked DuPont tonight, dropping beats and kickin' poetry for two hours in the evening rush hour before adjourning to the Belmont House to watch Dave Chapelle's Block Party over pizza.
    Poets attending included Alice, Laurie, Jeff, Laila, Midge, Damian, Shahid, and special guests Reggie and Sage from Sol y Sol. Drummers included [...]

  • The arts insurgents in SF were out in full effect on Thursday, April 5, jazzed to celebrate the birthday of mac daddy Miguel Pereira and warmly embracing me during a weekend visit from DC in order to attend a voting rights conference co-sponored by The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, where I work.
    Old [...]

  • On the fourth "anniversary" of the War in Iraq yesterday, DC guerrilla poets represented the insurgency in three venues simultaneously: a vigil for fallen soldiers and civilians at Georgetown University; the GPI's regularly scheduled 3rd Monday lyrical ambush in DuPont Circle; and "Reflections in War, Visions for Peace: Artist Perspectives on Four War Years," an [...]

  • Facilitating: Shahid
    Notes Person: Mo (grrrr)
    Present: Shahid, Laila, Fadi, Mo, Cherie
    Joining for part of the gathering: Cesar, Jaime
    Note: Cherie also submitted some personal notes that she shared during the meeting and asked to be included in the notes
    AGENDA ITEMS
    NCOR - March 9-11, 2007: http://www.organizedresistance.org/

    We still have to find out what our time slot is. [...]

  • Cross-posted at www.ShantiSalaam.org.
    Among our many surprises on the ShantiSalaam tour across South Asia has been the success of American propaganda (and to be fair, the spendthrift habits of Non-Resident Indians and Pakistanis) in cultivating misperceptions about the U.S. For example, in the South Asian psyche, all Americans enjoy both educational privilege and vast wealth; [...]

The DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency (GPI) is an anti-authoritarian, collaborative, pro-humanity artists' collective incorporating music, rhythm, spoken word, community and resistance.

Special thanks
to the
Puffin Foundation
for their financial support in 2006.


Contact Us

For more info or to inquire about availability to perform:

(800) 886-6157
dcgpi@guerrillapoets.org

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