Jahi and The Life

KQED + MoAD Workshop Reflection

microphonemechanics — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:36:08 +0000

I really dig KQED. I check out all the e mails I receive from “This Week in Northern California”, “Truly CA” to “KQED Arts.” I find all of their resources to be enlightening, educational, and helpful as I incorporate local stories into my lesson plans and classes with my After School Program at Edna Brewer Middle School. When I saw the workshop being offered to explore digital storytelling, I decided to attend because I have a passion for using flipcams, technology, photos, and other digital devices as a means of telling a story.

I’d visited MoAD once before, and wanted to check it out again, especially to see the signature by Marcus Garvey from his Black Star Line venture. Also, I thought this would be a good place to talk storytelling, given that Africa is the birthplace of telling stories as a means to transfer knowledge from one generation to another. Kristin from the KQED. Education Department was funny, witty, and facilitated in a way that opened people up, shared how we can access various resources to use in the classroom, and build our stories. I especially thought the teacher resources on the SFMOMA site, especially the story of Kerry James Marshall’s work in the Atrium, was revealing in how you can use images, with no explanation, to tell a deeper story than what’s on the surface.

Although a tour of MoAD set off a heated discussion about movement by African people prior to the Trans Atlantic slave trade, the role of the docents in sharing their opinions and possibly shortsighted facts about some of the collections, even in that there was a rich narrative. The collections on the third floor, and the wall of photos at MoAD offered all of us a chance to see how we can use images to tell stories, and how to use this methodology to engage our youth in our respective positions.

Overall, the experience was good because I was able to hear some of the perspectives of other educators in the room, and saw there are more resources in the MoAD library that could be helpful. Kristin took good care of us, kept us on task, and fed us great. I’d do it again, but wished it was like a one day intensive instead of being spread out over time. Thanks KQED and here’s a link to what I finally produced. I used my top 10 musical influences and created a narrative in I Movie using quotes from the artists. I am starting this with my students this week to create their own.

http://vimeo.com/37098725 Click This Link.

microphonemechanics — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:48:08 +0000

Here’s The Link

http://vimeo.com/37090226

I play Wednesday at Berkeley City College, and I have some new players. Just a sneak peek, and I will have full credits and footage for the show later this week. Today felt good and looking forward to Wednesday. Thought I would share this out, and if you are around in Berkeley around lunch time on Wednesday, stop through. We’ll be in The Atrium.

Peace

Reflections from The Mezzanine Show-SF w/Black Star

microphonemechanics — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:26:16 +0000

It’s always a pleasure to have an opportunity to rock on a stage, especially in the area I live, at a cool venue in an international city, with Black Star, because it’s a clear signal of intelligent Hip Hop. Peace to Ankh Marketing and everyone involved to make it happen. Although I really wanted to rock with my band, I decided to take it back to the original, two turntables and a microphone. DJ Edaboss is always my first choice if I’m in the Bay because we have literally toured the world together, and he knows how I like to get down. For this show, I wanted to do a live mixtape using songs I’ve been working on for my mixtape, Only Rhyming Over Classics.

I coined the term Soulhop in 2006 to represent what my music is. James Brown is a solid stone in the house of Hip Hop, and I thought it was only right that I pay respect to Hip Hop by including this in my set. IT FELT GREAT! and a personal highlight of the night.

Thanks to everyone who came to two nights of good Hip Hop, during the week, in San Francisco. You all rock, and special thanks to DJ Edaboss for providing the cuts. Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

If you want to see more videos visit:

www.youtube.com/JAHIMUSIC

The Beginning

microphonemechanics — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:17:20 +0000

Greetings Everyone,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Jahi and The Life’s blog for music happenings, new releases, concert reflections, photos, and videos of our new movement. We are starting from scratch, which is a good place to begin to build upon our collective musical talents, experiences, and history individually to develop a collective consciousness, rooted first in the music. The goal of our band is simple, to create good music, record it, and give 100% when we play live. From a Hip Hop perspective, the lyricism is full of wholesome ingredients, and from a live music perspective, the grooves are fluid, solid, and rich.

In the upcoming segments, we’ll be introducing ourselves even more to you so you can hopefully connect to our message, our music, and our style. We do not believe in just building a fan base of people so they can come to our shows, throw their hands up, and yell our names. What we are looking to do is connect with an intelligent audience of people mature, grown, eclectic tastes, and interested in connecting with a band who treats the listener with respect. We want you to grow because of our music, and we want you to appreciate what we create and share. Our policy is quality over quantity.

Stay tuned.

Latest tracks by MRJAHIMUSIC