Class Warfare in Wisconsin: 10 Things You Should Know
For most of the last decade, I lived in the crazy, cold, contradictory state that is Wisconsin. I wrote research papers in Madison, performed poems in Milwaukee, walked picket lines in Jefferson, organized student conferences in Eau Claire, led artistic workshops in Green Bay, spoke at my roommate’s wedding in…
From San Francisco to Egypt: Let My People Go!
It’s time for the Pharaoh to go. Like much of the world, I’ve been glued to the news these last couple weeks, watching the people of Tunisia and then Egypt rise up against their respective dictators. Egypt, in particular, is filled with so much revolutionary possibility: Cairo is the big…
A Spoken Word Pot of Gold – The Progressive Video Series
(My all-time favorite Progressive cover. Maybe why McCain was fighting Obama so hard on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’) I spend a lot of time telling political organizers the importance of art & culture in creating the space for social change. 9 times out of 10, the organizer’s response is, “Sure,…
For Fedya, for Arizona
Monday night was one of the artistic highlights of my life. I had the privilege of hosting Youth Speaks’ 15th annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr celebration in front of 1,200 people at the beautiful Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Anyone who knows me, knows hosting…
First Christmas in Berkeley — new video!
As the last hours of 2010 wind down, here’s a little something to keep that holiday spirit going past New Year Day’s eventual hangover. A couple nights ago, I performed as part of Fireside Storytelling in San Francisco, and it turned into the funnest show I’ve done in a LONG…