My thoughts are hampered by my pen
A wretched human invention;
a sad intellectual temptation
to jot and rot
with the words now solid
on paper as fragile
as our souls
to be thrown away
when comes the day
a death certificate to sign –
Will my pen outlast this time?
Or will another's make the mark
forgetting me with the other pigeons
    in the park
to have coffee with Noah,
that bastard with the arc?
Who is to decide which animals
make it on board
his creaking and leaking
anthology from yesterday
to be read tomorrow
by the children of today?

This piece marks my first 'return' to poetry, and the first original I have performed with GPI.

I come from a part of the country
Where the first thing they ask you
Is "What do you do?"

This single question is misleading
Its casual nature hides its true meaning
They don't ask what you do.
They question it.
It's loaded with an understanding
Of class consciousness.
With your unguarded answer
You tell me

(more…)

Upstart Radios Mindwalk: 31: Driving to Baghdad

Summary: This episode features audio of convoys and patrols by US & UK soldiers. Sounds of beating victims from the recent whistleblower video from the UK set to Klaus Nomi. William S Burroughs, Raymond Lafferty & Jody Paulson chime in, including Skits by Kanye West, US Soldiers on patrol, Rev. 99, Jody Paulson, US truck convoy, Lord Patch (lawrence y braithwaite), Charles Bukowski, Vera Lynn, Girl on Sybian, Iraqi Victims Reprise

http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/mindwalkthirtyonerevb128.mp3

http://www.live365.com/stations/lennonvideo

T U R N T A B L E I N T E R R O G A T I O N T E C H N I Q U E S

    In the beginning was the word and the word was bass. And the bass was good and Gawd saw that it was good and Gawd said and Gawd left plenty. Gawd left notes and files and jams and cycles…. and Vico saw
that Homer saw and Virgil heard and cyphered the story of blindness and
loss of self and he turn Us all into brave warriors who feared nadathin,
and refused to forget and stepped to fate like like yänkee and
fadayee,– lawrence ytzhak braithwaite — "T U R N T A B L E I N T E R R
O G A T I O N T E C H N I Q U E S"

audio: MP3 at 3.4 mebibytes:

http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/good_violence__d.u.n._.mp3
How Fast Does Light Travel . mp3

sidebrow: mez en braithwaite

http://www.sidebrow.net/2006/a006-braithwaite-01.php

http://www.sidebrow.net/2006/pdfs/braith-breeze-01.pdf

sidebrow: http://www.sidebrow.net

(more…)

Whether you’ve already conducted joint operations with the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency, or have never heard of us before, we write to invite your insight.

Please feel welcome to visit the empire’s belly anytime to grab a mic and raise your voice in resistance. We frequently host events and always welcome newcomers, and the community can provide places to stay for limited numbers if necessary. The same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) in New York City, Aurora, NY; San Francisco; Richmond, VA; and Asheville, NC. If you–or anyone else you know who enjoys rhythm and consciousness–travels to any of those cities, feel free to reach out and drink from the vibration hose.
If you’re interested in exploring public performance art as a popular outreach and education vehicle in your area, we enthusiastically offer our support. The mission to transform our culture will require ubiquitous resistance, and the reclamation of our country in the name of its ideals would benefit from your participation.

In nonviolent solidarity, rhythm, love and peace,
The DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency

The day is upon us…..our website is not only live – it is ready for your blogging pleasure. You log in, create an account and you can post poems, photos, reportbacks, random thoughts…come express your inner guerrilla!

For starters there will be no restrictions on content – can’t wait to see where that takes us! Obviously we may need to revisit that at some point for any number of reasons.

We thank Ted and Dave whose early work honed our ability to know exactly what we needed/wanted. THANK YOU Andrew and Laila who are the creators of that which is before you. It’s hot, it’s incredible and each and everyone of you should give a special hug – in gratitude – to Andrew and Laila the next time your paths cross.

In the last few months, GPI created a website team (Laurie, Mo, Android, Shahid, Laila, and Jessica), who created a process for moving forward, made decisions and gave the feedback which led us to this latest version of the website (it’s still a work in progress). Going forward this team will hash out any issues/concerns that come up. This team will bring any larger thoughts/concerns to the group (i.e., what would cause an entry to be deleted?) but some decisions (i.e., can we change that black to red?) will simply be made for efficiency sake. While the group will act as editors and creators of necessary documents for the website, we’ll need the help/support of everyone from time to time. If you’d like to a part of this team (i.e., be invited to any meetings), let me know – it is not closed. Keep in mind, whether you are on the team or not – you can always raise a concern, express an opinion etc.

At a future gathering, Android is planning to come and give a 101 on how to use the blog software , but you should feel free to play around – some basic info and a link to more info is available (Under FAQs)

We’re incredibly proud and excited about the possibilities available to us now that our interactive web presence is real!