Josh Healey

posted by Josh Healey on Dec 30

It was my first New Year’s since I moved to the Bay. A nice, quiet one: Esther and I played watched movies, drank wine, and maybe stayed up till 12:30am. Maybe.

Not till the next morning did I hear the news: a BART policeman had shot and killed an unarmed black man at the Fruitvale station in the early hours of the morning. And there was video to prove it.

The man’s name, we all shortly learned, was Oscar Grant.

In the weeks that followed, I joined the protests against the police violence (let’s call it what it was: state-sanctioned murder), the BART Board’s attempted cover-up, and the fact that Oscar Grant’s family had to joined the ranks of those mourning another young black man taken from them.

I was at both the protests that turned into ‘riots‘ in downtown Oakland. I didn’t see everything, and I personally think breaking a couple windows doesn’t do much (good or bad), it is true that Johannes Mehserle, the killer cop, was only arrested after the first big demonstration and in fear of the second.

There was weeks, months of organizing: vigils, rallies, meetings, new coalitions formed. And then…most of it fizzled. Whether the established, non-profit activists couldn’t handle the influx of so many new, unaffiliated activists, all I know is that I stopped received email alerts and calls to action.

Mehserle is now on trial for murder, but the trial has been taken out of Alameda County, based on some blatantly racist reasoning. It’ll be down in Los Angeles, and I can only hope that the verdict will come down, and he will be the first cop convicted of first-degree murder in decades.

Actually, I can do more than hope. I can re-join the movement. So can you. Let’s start 2010 off right, my friends. I’ll be at Fruitvale on New Year’s Day for the vigil and rally. See you there.

For joy & justice in 2010…

* * *

Come celebrate the life of Oscar Grant, and demand justice in the New Year to come!

New Year’s Day, 2010:

2-4pm: Family Vigil
Fruitvale BART

4-5pm: Rally for Justice
Fruitvale BART

6-11pm: Cultural Event & Community Gathering – featuring Ise Lyfe, Boots Riley, and More – Humanist Hall (390 27th Street, between Broadway and Telegraph)

Come to celebrate, mourn, and strategize!

All Ages / No alcohol / Wheelchair Accessible / FREE EVENT – Donations Encouraged

* * *

posted by Josh Healey on Dec 26

With some folks now saying that Barack Obama has been disappointing and not lived up to his potential as the first black president, just remember…Joe Lieberman could have been the first Jewish vice president. When I think about Lieberman, I think about the all-encompassing, dead-on personification of what it means to be a schmuck.

Not only has he been more pro-war than most Texan Republicans, this guy more than any other Senator has destroyed what few good things were left in the health care reform package. Not that Obama was pushing for universal health care or even a public option himself.

But the one thing that made me glad Bush stole the election from Gore was that it saved us from 4-8 years of hearing the phrase “Vice President Lieberman.” I mean, it’s not like Bush’s VP was the epitome of right-wing, corporate evil. Oh wait…

Here’s to a happy 2010 to everyone, for peace in Afghanistan, reparations for Iraq, justice in New Orleans, jobs in Oakland, statehood for DC, a Grammy for Wale, an Oscar for Fantastic Mr. Fox…and a really painful, expensive, uninsurable (and medically unnecessary) colonoscopy for Joseph Isadore Lieberman.

posted by Josh Healey on Dec 14

Last night I performed at the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Festival of Rights party. Shout-out to my boy Dan Wolf for making it happen, and for letting me rock some new material in the shmancy space. SOOOO…just in time for the 4th night of Chanukah (aka holy hump-day), I present to you good people some facts and creative non-fictions of this great holiday.

The best (worst?) part was that I also performed this piece on Friday at the Youth Speaks open mic, and of the hundred teenagers laughing in the audience…a good 30-40% definitely did not get that it was a joke. I had at least five folks come up to me afterwards and wish me a “happy Chanookah…wait, wait, did I pronounce it right, Josh?”

On that note, happy Challah-days to all my friends, fam, and even you, Bill O’Reilly. If you do end up winning your War for Christmas, Bill, there’s only one thing I can say to you: Mazel Tov.

posted by Josh Healey on Dec 8

This past week I had the pleasure to witness some amazing shows that cross the fake boundaries of performance, culture, and politics. 2 cities, 4 shows, 8 days…and i didn’t even pay a dime! Quick, non-linear recap:

- “In the Heights” (NYC): When I heard there was a hip-hop, merengue musical on Broadway, I was skeptical. I was wrong. This was the most fun, most grounded-in-people-and-places-that-look-and-talk-like-my-friends-and-me show I’d ever seen. And they could actually rhyme. And sing! Check the video.

- “Stateless: A Hip-Hop Vaudeville” (SF): From the folks who did the theater version of Angry Black White Boy…but here Dan Wolf and Tommy Shepherd were on stage just having FUN. And so we did in the audience too. Dan’s true-life story in the play is crazy, but the best part is the vaudeville. It’s like Charlie Chaplin meets Rahzell, but surprisingly well done.

- “Left Coast Leaning” (SF, 2 nights): My co-conspirators in artistic crime, the Living Word Project, put on this weekend festival. I caught two nights. Not everything hit, but the ones that did hit HARD. Rennie Harris’ dance explosion was fresh, but it was really my folks that impressed the fuck out of me: Lauren Whitehead singing and bringing the water, Denizen Kane w/ Sean San Jose flipping a solo show into joint brilliance…and the one and only Chinaka Hodge saying exactly what needed to be said about Oscar Grant and Barack Obama. With powerful, painful help from the trumpet and the keys.

It’s fun when you’re some of your biggest heroes are your friends.

It’s amazing to see art that provokes, that moves, that challenges in ways that we need.

And it’s exciting for me to try to do the same. And scary.

Back in college, if you asked me “what do you do, Josh?” I would have said I’m an organizer. Maybe an educator. A part-time poet, yes, but I wouldn’t have claimed the title of artist. I brought artists to campus, I organized shows and teach-ins and protests, but I didn’t have the experience or the confidence to put energy into my own art.

Several years and many of my own performances later, I am an artist on the verge of my next artistic evolution. To me, spoken word is a great starting place. An engaging, exciting, democratic art form that is very welcoming and supportive. It can also be a launching pad into new forms. You’ve got folks who go into music, who go into theater, who go into fiction and write next-level novels. And you’ve got folks doing all three — or creating new hybrid genres.

I am a writer.

I don’t know exactly where I’m going as an artist (which is the point…I tell my students “if they know how the story’s gonna end, they’re not gonna even read the beginning”), but I do see a couple paths in front of me. One is just straight writing, but in new forms: short stories, essays, political commentary, one-act plays, etc. (Hint: the next book is gonna be more than just poems.) The other is trying new performance styles: stand-up comedy, mash-up storytelling, working with musicians like I used to with the Big Mouth Band back in Madison. Maybe (god forbid) even some theater.

With all that said…I’ve got a big show this Saturday! And I’ll be premiering some new, crazy pieces. Yes, I know it’s at a museum but come through and I promise you we’ll get the place jumping like Kris Kross…

Super 8 Hanukkah Festival
Saturday, December 12, 2009, 7:00 PM
$10 presale/ $15 at the door. Must be 21 to attend.

The Hub of the JCCSF and the CJM team up this year to get your holiday on at the third annual Super 8 Hanukkah Festival, now with eight ways to burn bright:

* MAKE PROGRESS: 5th Annual Progressive Jewish Alliance Festival of Rights
* WATCH IT @ 8by8: Eight short films curated by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival including Sundance selection, Ten for Grandpa
* GET SLAMMED: Poetry by Josh Healey, two-time National Poetry Slam artist
* EXHIBIT YOURSELF: There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak, As It Is Written: Project 304,805, and Jews on Vinyl in the CJM galleries
* BE PREPARED: With Hanukkah Survival Kits
* GET DOWN WITH THE GIRLS: Live music performances by Girls In Trouble and Charming Hostess
* UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY: A sober space to get creative and make art
* BREAK THAT FUNK: Cash bar and dancing to the funky sounds of DJ Teeko

Get your tickets here!

They’re saying i’ll go on around 7:30…so don’t be too late, friends. This ain’t a Wu-Tang show. Remember, it’s more like…