Filed under: conrazón
Visit www.conrazon.me for my brand new website!
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ISLA (translation: island) is a new monthly global club night on NYC’s 5th borough of Staten Island every final Friday at The Full Cup in Stapleton starting February 28th. The party is FREE and starts at 10 PM! Facebook RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1409515295967968/
This Pan-American & Pan-African diasporadically fly new pari (translation: party!) is brought to you by islanders DJ Reaganomics (Bembe/Eso!!), GLNJR (The Rising Sun All Stars) and DJ Nipslip (conrazón) selectin’ the vibes!
ISLA celebrates the idea that “local is global” and connects the dots between Staten’s rich immigrant population and native Islanders or those newly arrived looking to celebrate global sounds and open perspectives!
Special guests from all over NYC’s vibrant underground global bass scene as well as local talent will be invited throughout the year. Get down to the sounds of the #worldwild right here on the ISLA every last Friday of the month!
DJ Reaganomics: https://soundcloud.com/dj-reaganomics | @DJReaganomics
GLNJR (Rising Sun Allstars: http://therisingsunallstars.com/) | @GaryNievesJr
DJ Nipslip (Conrazon: www.conrazon.me) SELECTING! | @Conrazon
Full Cup: www.fullcupsi.com
#TROPICAL #CITYSOUNDS #SOUL #BASS #DANCEHALL #THINKGLOBAL #BEYOND
Sounds like:
Filed under: artist news, en vida real, familia, hi$panic, la raza cosmica, los rakas, subvHERsive | Tags: Afro-Latino, America, Bocafloja, George Zimmerman, Los Rakas, New America, Politics, Unity, Univision
Where is the love?
I really dig Aura Bogado – who writes about race and politics for The Nation and Colorlines, among others. Her poignant yet simple expression on Facebook this weekend regarding the absurdity of the George Zimmerman interview on Univision and our peoples’ deep issues with their African history/roots hits so close.
Those of us raised by Latin parents in the USA know what it is. The topic manifests its way into our daily lives in various, micro-aggressively yet seriously engrained ways which in my opinion, detract us from looking at how oppressed people could unite powerfully against the much bigger culprit$ beyond ourselves.
First, I commented on her post with my reasons for doing conrazón in the first place and supporting groups like Oakland-via-Panama’s Los Rakas:
Then, I took a selfie with a purple lips lollipop I purchased for Valentine’s Day. It reminded me of a story – which I mean in no way to disrespect my fallen abuela – but which has always made an impression on me.
As a young woman in her very early 20s, I was dating a man from the Dominican Republic who I cared about very much. My abuela, who was meeting him for the first time, recommended to me I look for purple in his lips or in his mouth to tell if he was “Africano” – in a light, but negative way. I, emotional and loud as always (nor graceful), brought up the issue at dinner, I was so upset. It embarrassed my abuela that I brought up the topic publicly, but ultimately, I do not regret what I did and I would do it again. Bless her blindness and guts in the face of it all.
A lot of this self-imposed hate, I understand as a mechanism for survival in a new land for people like my abuela and family. Get in where you fit in – and especially* if you can pass as non-black. It matters little that my father’s father – who she was with and loved – had African raices – Caribbean coast of Colombia, anyone? Seen my lips lately?
When will we celebrate ourselves and these bridges? These connections. This richness. I feel blessed to have found the clarity, but it’s much deeper across the board. We’re watching manifestations of this hate now here in America in the case of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. On Univision, Telemundo, Mainstream Latin networks, also – I have many stories to tell. As the writer Ed Morales says, “Univision’s interview of George Zimmerman: A travesty of journalism.”
This week, Los Rakas becomes a face of the Converse Cons 2014 campaign. Their black, Latin and proud Raka faces will be up all over the United States. One small example of seeing ourselves!
Stay Raka: A Raka is a rebel who loves themselves. Love yourself. Latin America, love your violent and real context. We are the remedy to breaking the Black & White binary (seen this cover of Vanity Fare, yet?) WE ARE THE KEY, BUT WE HAVE TO UNLOCK IT. THE PROOF IS IN OUR VERY FACES. ALL THE PLACES WE COME FROM.
Music and culture is not a bad place to start. How is this connected to the criminalization (some will say extermination) of blacks & Latinos, the immigration detention epidemic, cultural deficiency and declining education in this country? That’s a big answer. There are artists, writers, social media mavens, educators and entrepreneurs doing the hard work, but they must be supported and we must feel the responsibility of supporting each other and looking at ourselves closely! Can we break the cycle?
WHERE IS THE LOVE?
Zuzuka Poderosa has been in Brazil the last few weeks, hanging with family and performing amazing shows in Curitiba (see photos), Sao Paulo (thank you Avalanche Tropical & Dago Donato!) and in Rio with Rio Neurotic Bass. Follow her on Instagram for hilarious and beautiful transmissions from the Queen herself: @ZuzukaPoderosa
Earlier last month, Zu put out the banger “Baile Crunk” citing her inspiration in making it with Miami’s Burt Fox: “The idea of this track is about how South America meets the South of North America mixing the dirty south influence and the lyrics, traveling all the way to NY, making Baile Crunk. ” Rio the Janeiro, Atlanta, Miami, Rio De Janeiro , Tennessee & H- town!”
Spin Magazine picked the song as a “Rap Song of the Week” in mid-January and the song’s been making the rounds while we wait for Zuzuka’s new music coming with Nego Mozambique and others.
Zuzuka will be playing Lido Pimienta’s Bridges Series in Toronto on February 20th, SXSW in Austin, TX and in Brooklyn in March for a big show, so keep an eye open on Twitter: @ZuzukaPoderosa and Facebook: www.facebook.com/zuzukapoderosa
From Los Rakas: “Lee el artículo de Beat Latino escrito por Catalina Maria Johnson en http://www.vivelohoy.com nuestra gira llega a #Chicago este sábado 15 de febrero #rakanoticias #rakanews #soyraka | Beat Latino: Yo sí soy raka [READ IT]”
Los Rakas hit the midwest this week and finish up the #ColdestZoneTour with DJ Ethos, supporting Samoan/Californian reggae artist J. Boog on March 1st in San Francisco. Full dates: www.losrakas.com/events
In the interview, Raka Dun talks about Spring’s double disc album, “El Negrito Dun Dun & Ricardo“: “Lo de él es como una película, lo mío es como un documental. Y cuando nos juntamos, es una cinematografía total” | Translation: “Raka Rich’s side is like a movie, and my side is like a documentary.”
Visit: http://www.losrakas.com for all the latest and click on the article below to read the full piece! #SoyRaka
Filed under: nocategory
It’s been a minute since I’ve sent one of my email blast recaps. Can’t tell you how much it touches me when someone tells me they dig the voice in these letters. It’s all from the heart, all this work, which is evolving and I’m working to articulate. We are in transitional times with digital rebels [both behind the screen and AFK: away from keyboard] everywhere redefining the idea of “work” and asserting their voices to rebalance the whole shit. But I finally gave it a try to try to describe what I’m doing and the aim:
Creating Platforms, Bridges & Translations: Worldwild Digital Era Global Pop Culture & Arts.
It’s a remix. A recap of the work I’m doing on the artist development side but also – to borrow from Jason Hirschorn – I am DJing the internet but from my urban/mutant/transnational/digital/global/poderosa/kid-of-immigrant view as a Loca [with a capital L, feel me?] in the biz of culture. You can just peep my work, scroll thru casually or you can dig deeper into the links I provide and music I’m feeling – UP TO YOU!
Oh yeah, Remezcla asked some folks on the scene like Bodega Bamz and Bocafloja about their “Best of 2013” — peep my picks by clicking on my mouth!
WHAT’S GOING UP?
This post – #Psicodelia Europe: The Party Catch A Fire in the Ghetto! – recaps Zuzuka & Nego Mozambique’s Scandinavian & Spain November tour. The duo has lots of music up their sleeve for 2014. Their past collabs resulted in some of my favorite songs from Zuzuka – ‘Psicodelia’ {Nego Mozambique Remix} and ‘Celular‘ – which was featured in the CBS show ‘Elementary’ earlier this month. Zuzuka was also featured on Brazilian national TV last month alongside huge Brazilian Popstar, Gaby Amarantos for the show ‘Gaby Gringa’ and also spoke about being a Brazilian out in the diaspora for O Globo’s ‘Planeta Brasil‘. Check out Zuzuka’s Soundcloud for her 2013 singles [like another fav and global feminista anthem, “Goodah” featuring Gnucci Banana & Jasmine Solano] and her Carioca Bass EP with Kush Arora.
[La Mecanica Popular] | @LaMecanicaSalsa on Twitter
Connecting the roots, rhythms & future possibilities of tropical music, psychedelic salsa group La Mecanica Popular released their full length, self-titled debut last month on Brooklyn label, Names You Can Trust. Cop the GORGEOUS vinyl or get it on iTunes. The Washington Post called it “an enchanting album,” plus it’s made some great end-of-year lists (like Remezcla‘s) and the group performed on KEXP for a live session earlier this month [hear it here]. They have fans like Juanes, Bobbito Garcia, Gilles Peterson and Quantic. If you’re in NYC, don’t miss the band live during APAP on January 11th at Drom for the Electric Cowbell & Barbes Showcase.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
[In Queens to “clash,” Japanese dancehall kings Mighty Crown talk old-school Brooklyn and dub plates]
[Defending The Partygirl Life]
[Beyonce Broke The Music Business]
[Bob Lefsetz on Beyonce’s Album]
[Loving Beyonce As a Black Woman]
[Toni Morrison & Junot Diaz Speak on Race & Writing for 2 Hours]
[Bell Hooks & Melissa Harris-Perry at The New School]
[Bell Hooks Digging Deeper on “Lean In”]
WHAT’S GOING IN?
El Jugo – Maku Soundsystem [listen]
Somos Mujeres Somos Hip-Hop [listen]
Celia – iZem [listen]
Chico Sonido – Nalga Bass [listen]
Munchi & Isa GT – Isa Te Dijo [listen]
Mima y DJ Nature – La Vieja Voladora [listen]
CIRCLES & CYCLES; KARMA IS REAL
LOVE,
NATI
Photo Credit: Wills
Filed under: nocategory
AMEN SISTER! US HAPPEN US HAPPY WE HAPPY! URBAN WORD IS SUCH AN AMAZING ORGANIZATION #NEWYORKCITYIS #FUTUREROOTS #OGIMMIGRANTS
RAMYA RAMANA: A constellated skyscraper moving gracefully to jazz beat, finding the Gil Scott-Heron in all her footwork, gripping the streetlights like an eclipse of hymnals, this is home. The lost voices, the heart’s devotion to beat and pulse, slow-dancing colonels, home to hustle, home to work hard, dream harder, home to move in silence, let success shatter the glass of hostage echoes New York City—not lights, not Broadway, not Times Square. It is single mother donating her last meal’s worth of money to church. It is the faith in that heart that makes a dead dream worth resurrecting. It is coffee-colored children playing hopscotch on what is left of a sidewalk. It is chalk-outlined, colonized map on a street as dark as the bones of the dead. This we call holy. This we call tough skin, thick-boned. This is New York.
We will no longer stay silent to this classism. No more brownstones and brown skin playing tug-of-war with a pregnant air hovering over them like an aura of lost children. No more colored boy robbed of their innocence. This city always will be the foundation of this country. We are root. We are backbone. We brown, we black, we yellow, we white, we young, we collage of creatures stomping to be reminded of the mammal inside of us. We chance, we deserve, us opportunity, us new mayor, us new beginning, like dancing cocoons, us hope, us fight, us happen, us love, us some good human, us happy, we happy, we happy with change. It is a constant baptism to remind us of our holy. We welcome, we family, we congratulate Mayor Bill de Blasio. We are so very honored and pleased to have you. And the congregation says:
CROWD: Amen!
Filed under: nocategory
Gratitude’s an attitude.
Recently, I was put on to the writings, philosophy and purpose of the self-described “Jane Bond of Innovation” – Nilofer Merchant. She’s been providing clarity, imagination and new ideas as a thinker and entrepreneur, urging us to “navigate the #SocialEra powerfully” for the sake of our individual and societal potential to shift the status quo, which is incredibly unbalanced. Named by MSNBC as one of 2013’s “Future Thinkers,” she’s been boldly shining a light for many – Fortune 500 companies and growing digital entrepreneurs alike – guiding us on the purposeful and impact(filled) road which involves embracing our “onlyness” in the wild wild west we know of as THE INTERNET. And, that we might be able to really do something with these tools that are connecting us all right now.
I watch her talk “On Being Seen” multiple times a day when I need the reminder, but she’s also been quite vocal about the under-talked-about problem of too many people sitting on their asses [“Sitting is the smoking of our generation.”] in the #SocialEra. I’m even looking into buying a standing desk as we speak and working to make more meetings walking ones, so thank you Nilofer! Anyhow, check out these talks:
On Being Seen:
Got a Meeting? Take a Walk:
Now that you’ve been introduced, it brings me to this post on “Thanksgiving.” Yesterday, Nilofer sent out a list of the things she was grateful for in the face of loss she had been experiencing around her. We’re always losing, aren’t we? The saying goes, “the leading cause of death is birth,” right? So, I agree with her, the excersize of celebrating what we do have is important. And like her, I share mine in the hopes you make one, too!
So here’s my list. It’s totally from the gut and probably too long, but I’ve got gratitude for latitudes:
Marcus K Dowling for urging me to check out Nilofer & his intellectual generosity
Trees, Birds, Plants & Flowers
Sky
Mom and pop’s journey, various lives, trips, falls and continued creations
Sacrifice
The momentum of their migration that’s now up to me to evolve
THE INTERNET
Soundcloud, Sendspace and Mailchimp
Google docs
Los Rakas
Zuzuka Poderosa
The excitement of working with La Mecanica Popular & their #PsychedelicSalsa
The teams I’ve been thru very thick and extremely thin with in the music business
THE FUTURE
This Eclectic Other
#NEWAMERICA
IMAGINATION
Grace for dancing and a love for movement
Nikki Brydson of Misfit Media & Brooklyn the Borough for all her love and support and BRAINS
Sandi, the hair artiste, pro-dreamer and sweetest NICE LADY with the best Persian tea & view
Pomegranates & Avocados
The journalists who really read me and understand I don’t need or want anything from them other than to listen and to feel what’s happening…a true cultural shift…thank you for tuning IN
Kamren the mother and her baby Luna…friendship and family!
The color purple
Sweat
My sweet apartment in my hometown of Staten Island which I moved back to this year with the best Greek landlords and crickets’ songs
5 PTZ [RIP]
Living by water
Alice Austen
YEMAYA
Bobbito Garcia
Water with lemon in large beer glass
Ferry beers
All the amazing people I met thru organizing logistics for Summerstage’s ‘This Is Hip-Hop’ 40th Anniversary
My awesome bed which my father built with his two hands…OUT THE IKEA BOX
The growing circle of women – older & younger than me – I feel are bridging across and making #subvHERsive alliances
The Refrigerator
Yirka, Michelle and Sabi – awesome media assistants this year helping me out big time!
Creative Neon
All the amazing thrift furniture and clothes I magically connect with like my $150 butter leather couch
For the wisdom of knowing I don’t need to consume even MORE new things
STATEN ISLAND
Gina Vergel and her vivacious and disciplined example
Being a professional dreamer
My awesome lawyer Richard
#magnets
Getting older and understanding karma on a much deeper level
SummerStage
My sweet angel with a purple heart
Wu-tang Clan, Los Rakas, Rocky Rivera, Nitty Scott MC, Vic Mensa, Blitz the Ambassador
J. LO & Becky G {Becky from The Block, especially}
NYC, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Manhattan
Los Angeles, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Venice Beach, Laurel Canyon
San Francisco, Oakland, Lake Merritt, Berkeley
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti
YOUTUBE
The Staten Island Ferry
My penchant for making up words because my world doesn’t fit in the ones we have currently
Scented Candles and Incense
Independent bookstores, retail shops and coffee shops
My inability to feel shame about being a fan in the face of the “culture of cool”
My inability to feel shame about *having to share something I think more people need in their lives or need to know because it’s important
Bell Hooks and Melissa Harris-Perry talk @ New School {watch}
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Bodega Bamz, Nitty Scott MC, Kap G, Denitia & Sene & all the bold artists building with balls
Las Comadres – the national organization for Latinas to unite thru reading – I was lucky to host the first Comadrazo in Staten this year!
Rudy Rude a designer out in LA who made the conrazon album cover!
Being able to book Dengue, Dengue Dengue! from Peru for their NYC debut
The fact that water comes out of the shower head
Latino Rebels for daring to go there, working to cover the spectrum of the US Latino experience!
Daina {pictured}, Monica, Kamy, Elvira, Leizer, Sarah, etc – past interns I’ve worked with…I LOVE WATCHING THEM SOAR
SOBs for having the space for me to do #FUTUREROOTS
Tony Touch
Cindy Campbell [The 1st Lady of Hip-Hop] and Roxanne Shante
Sway Calloway for calling me “ambitious and overzealous” while introducing Los Rakas on “Sway In The Morning”
NYC Parks and Central Park
This winner
Laughter and very long walks
Raquel and her Mexico City abode and all the fun
The brave young undocumented youth, brutalized and criminalized youth not having it no more
Trayvon Martin NYC march after verdict
Instagram for giving a visual archive of my past lived life and adding more depth across acquaintances thru visual medium
TWITTER
Lauren Velez & La Lupe
End Stop & Frisk movement
Raquel and her getting me into Buddhist chanting in a time of need
Family…blood and not blood
Oxygen
“Girl, I ain’t your enemy…I’m your last hope.” – Rocky Rivera lyric I love
The Fugees
BEING LATINA
My adversaries
The pig men who make my ass and smile the barometer for exactly where they stand for in humanity, thanks for making it so easy 🙂
“Stop Telling Women To Smile” project
Sweet, kind men
Yoga
The Interference Archive in Brooklyn
Cafe Grattitude in Los Angeles
Mike Shane – Photographer from Staten Island – for snapping this:
Cold men I’ll never see again
Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls
Soul-connected women, my friends, like Nina Parks:
Closed, guarded women I’ll be kind to and empathize with anyway
The privilege to travel
My sister, Paula Lucero…watching her success pushes me forward and gives me LIFE
The patriarchy that’s breaking down everyday as our voices rise
Hot weather and sunshine
Ghostface Killah & Nas
Saunas
Frouple-life with Joaquin, who taught me so much and is a badass machinist and organizer
Everything Goes Bookstore Cafe for their strong coffee and warm vibes only walking distance from my home
Meeting amazing Staten Island-based dreamers and doers
The sound of rain
Being a professional dreamer
Seeing D’Angelo live for the first time live
The Shifting Paradigms
Hashtags I love, even if you don’t get them, like: #Diasporadical, #Worldwild, #FutureRoots, #subvHERsive, #BootlegBillCunningham, #Shero
Filters and Twitter Lists
#LaRazaCosmica
M.I.A. “Matangi”: Boom {Skit}, Matangi & Lights [Read This]
Earrings
A writer whose writing I admire…admiring my voice!
Loved ones who have flexibility with me, but toughness and then tenderness as I change and the growing pains continue
SATURN’S RETURN
Museums
Anabel Hernandez and Jeremy Scahill at the Brooklyn Bookfair
Women of Color
Allies and Fighters
Tom Tom Magazine
The amazing and radical “Rock The Belles” show which Bluestockings Bookstore put on
Raquel Cepeda and her book “Bird of Paradise“
Bold Radical Art That’s Unapologetic Staten Island’s Chinese Scholar Garden, The Greenbelt and Midland Beach
Browntourage
Sexual Energy
#POPTIMISM
My stomach scar, because it’s literature of the body and without it, I’d never have gotten past Day 1
❤
Filed under: nocategory
via conrazon: “Most impressive of Jennifer Lopez / Celia Cruz tribute was dancer in red “d*ck in the face” death dive, Beyoncé-pump mid-Salsa & that ABC did dat, right? I left watching that performance like “y’all betta know!” …that’s the win regardless of my least fav parts of the “tribute” #AMAs #HI$PANIC. Tho the centralization of JLO as *so prominent & prolific is troubling. We need a vanguard to move past idolization of the ass & really rep. I say that WITH ALL THE RESPECT…I can’t dance like she do! She will go down I hope with the recognition of her TALENT…fly! #Shero But there’s so much more out there. WE ARE SO MUCH MORE. #WAVE”
Need some guava juice after thinking about THAT* one. Where to start with Pitbull hosting… I SEE YOU ABC! Feel free to leave comments and watch the video I’m referring to below. Now’s my turn to bow down to “La Reina de Cuba” – CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW. AZUCAR! Love, a media cubanita mutant in a modern America, XO.
conrazón 
