Soul Connection-Alternative Soul Philly

The First Wednesday of The Month Have Your Behind at The Harvest Baby

Today’s Truth with Joe Peace!

Commercial Success is not always a bad thing.

I like and love small little poetry and open mike venues where you don’t really need a mic to be heard. They are cute, quaint, you get to exchange some powerful ideas and…they pay zero bills.

I am tired of people coming up to me who expect to find a friend by dissing commercially successful TV, hip-hop, politics and ESPECIALLY SPOKEN WORD VENUES.

Here are a few reasons why commercially successful spoken word and live music venues are greater than you give them credit for.

1. It’s all about money in this land of milk and honey- I remember the day I met Stephanie Renee because she was beautiful? NO DOUBT! Talented? Again WITH OUT QUESTION! However the TRUTH that was revealed to me that day is that people actually get paid to create poetry. And not just people like “Bertrum Snodgrass Catchings the Third.” People who looked like me, listened to my music, loved me for who I was and where I came from were getting paid to create poems. So no one is prouder of mega venues like Jus Words or The Harvest than me. No one was more excited about Def Poetry than I. In fact years ago sitting at October Gallery when all there was, was Def Comedy I mused that Russell should put what we were doing then on HBO.
2. Money Got No Owners …only Spenders- Poetry and spoken word is going to be marketed and for now it’s hot. While it is hot, WE may as well get in there and develop sponsorship deals and more. And to you reading this if you don’t have a chap book at least (well now you got home work. “ GET HER DONE”.) Even having a venue where you charge a dollar a head is sound economics.
3. You Can Get With This Or You Can Get With That-Some people believe it or not do not wish to discuss Marcus Garvey or Naim Akbar. Some people prefer to dig some vibes more Lauryn Hill or Jill Scott. There is room on the planet for both. Some people go to the more commercial venues because that’s where their head is at. They go and hear all the poetry they are going to indulge for the month or week and go home and felt they had a great time, met with friends, maybe got a phone number or facebook friend. The point is they came and had an exciting time. Now if the same type of person came to a joint where we discussed the difference between The Willie Lynch Papers and CoINTEL Pro? I don’t think they would be as excited going home as I would be. I enjoy both types of events and they both serve needs
4. Everybody IS A Star…HOWEVER- Because there is no regular mainstream for poetry, under ground hip hop and live music I try to create a venue with AFTER DARK for artists who are ready to meet with booking agents, casino talents buyers, clubs owners, publicists and so on. It’s not really fair to say that a talent like a Talaam Acey should always have to share a stage with the person who is reading their first poem and half of that is probably warmed over Maya Angelou. I like to reward the talented artists who are working and perfecting their craft a stage with others who are ready and getting ready.
5. Don’t Neglect Your Small Stage Though-Shout out to Talaam Acey, Lyrespect, Shyster, Michelle Moseley, Kya, Viz, Jay Knives, Stephanie Renee and all the big guns in poetry and spoken word who still take time out to bless the little venues as well as the big ones. Shout out to Ewuare Osayunde, Oskar Castro, Yolanda Wisher and poets too many to name who still embrace, teach and make any venue they are at a class room of creativity. Lastly shout out to that poet who is about to read their first poem at a venue….the universe has been waiting on you too.

Create something special…and hey..be careful out there.

John Lennon is one of those figures cut off at a time when they may have been about to create their most important work.

When he was killed Starting Over was one of my favorite songs on the charts.

“Imagine There’s No Heaven.” Asking people to imagine that is no reason to prove who’s right or wrong about God, asking people who ARE blessed to imagine there was no reason to let people starve, are still dangerous ideas some 40 years after his passing.

From The Beatles to his life with Yoko…we celebrate the life of Johnny Lennon this weekend and always.

Culture and Freedom!

If you are a writer of any genre? We welcome you to check out The Tri-State Writers.

We meet the first Tuesday of every month at The Moonstone Art Center in Philadelphia from 7pm to 8:30pm with an open mic that follows.

This Tuesday October 5th will be our last open recruitment meeting of 2010.
We will not have another scheduled open meeting until October of 2011.

The goal is critique each others work, inspire each other, to grow and to complete some special projects.

We also have a Facebook group where we post stuff and share in between our meetings.

If this sounds like something you can make a commitment of one Tuesday a month to?

Please join us. Donation is $7 and that includes the open mic as well.

Every Friday The Soul Connection on WLFR Makes Radio Real Again!
10am to 1pm
WLFR.FM in South Jersey 91.7 WLFR FM on the dial
Raymond Tyler, Original Ill Nino, Michelle Moseley and guests!

This Week Tune in for great soul, old school hip hop, pop and rock and whateverv else we can get on!

Plus these topics.

FOOTBALL! The new season is here and we have a Soul Connection Football Party Every Monday!
We give you the details.

Muslims and Raymond Tyler discusses why he thinks hate being called AMERICAN is not new!

GOOD and BAD Hair? Venus Vs. Mars is this Wed and at the event we will discuss why Natural Hair is STILL a problem.
And also get you ready for Wednesday!

Plus on Facebook! Guest Commentator/questioner Saniyah Tyler (No relation) leads the Question Of The Day Discussion…ARE BLACK PEOPLE TOO RELIGIOUS?

Plus great music! Your comments on facebook and twitter.

The Soul Connection! Friday’s 10am to 1pm

Don’t Call It A Come Back

In July we wrapped a successful run of The Soul Connection at Tastee D’s on South Street.

Thanks to Dot, Carmena and all of the great poets, musicians and guests who came through.

Special thanks to my brother Mark who helped me through the first few weeks! Thanks to The Soul Connection AC family who showed up in force for the opening night of The Philly Soul Connection.
And a special thank you to Ebony Collier, Stephanie Durran, and Tiffany Dean…ladies you helped me through some lean weeks until we got the feet under us good.

Well now I can say we’re back!

From now until the end of the year you can find us at The Moonstone Art center the first Tuesday of The Month!

At 7pm we have the First Tuesday Writers Group (we still have a very few spaces left.)

At 8pm we have the open mike jam.

Already my special guests for the first one at The Moonstone include Antonio Gray, Shawn Jones and Sheyster with more artists to be announced.

We know it will be a wild ride with discussion about culture and politics with the audience and great art happening on stage.

Tuesday September 7th 7pm Writer Group! 8pm Soul Jam!
The Moonstone Arts Center 110 A S. 13th in Philly!

Video Soul Connection Pick of The Week

I Want You Back by The Jackson Five

With Michael Jackson’s birthday coming up on August 29th, you knew it was going to be about him.

I Want You Back was the single that started off MJ and The J-5’s record making and record breaking careers.

This single started a chain of 4 straight number one singles which at that time was a record. The singles were I Want You Back (Diana Ross Presents The Jackson Five) , ABC, The Love You Save (ABC) , and I’ll Be There (The Third Album.)

Personally the J-5 is the reason I try to be patient with pop music today, because when Michael, Marlon, Tito, Jackie and Jermaine were hot nobody loved them more than me.
The J-5 set the book for young pop music that’s still being used 40 years later.

ABC was as bubble gum and kiddie as Chicken Noodle Soup with The Soda On The Side.

Looking back I had a lot of fun, bumped a lot of rumps (the dance the bump), and ate a lot of birthday cake and chicken at house parties with the Jackson Five in the background.

This particular version of I Want You Back was recorded live and I personally enjoy the live recordings of this song better. I think MJ’s voice sounds more natural and that the words of the song are easier to hear than in the studio version. And if you didn’t get the urge to dance in front of your TV …I mean computer you are better than me.

As I reflect on a whole year and more gone by with out MJ, I mourn, knowing that there will be no more new music or break through moments from him. I still am on the fence about why he never quite found a place to be at home in this life. Not quite sure how much responsibility Jackson should have taken and respect he could have demanded vs. what we in the media and public should take responsibility for.

I think about why Mike’s place in history and my heart will be so unique. Even among the names in history I admire, aspire to and like Paul Robeson and Harry Belafonte (to name a few) , Mike’s place will be special because I honestly never had quite as much fun as when I was listening to a Jackson Five/MJ song.

Write About…NOW!

Four Funky Questions plus One More with Philly Cypher Publisher Traycee Lynn.

Ms. Lynn is part of an all star line up of ladies featured this Sunday at Beyond Spoken Word 3: Ladies First.

Starts at 3pm at The Moonstone Arts Center!

Traycee took time out of her schedule to discuss the Philly Art scene and how her website/news paper The Philly Cypher has come to be.

1. Historically, Philly has always been a trendsetter. Its always been that city that adds that extra umph to the game – whether it be hip-hop, spoken word, soul music – you name it. I remember The Last Poets told a group of us, “whenever art changes, it starts in Philly first” and I never forgot that. Also overseas, they tend to keep an eye on the talent coming out of Philly as well. I guess people look for that raw, uncut, Philly edge and soul. They can count it on it.

2. I have to categorize this so I catch everybody…Favorite mainstream would be Lauryn Hill (who is like a modern day prophetess in my opinion), Erykah Badu (early Badu), Janelle Monae, Georgia Ann Muldrew, and Solange Knowles. These are artists I respect for their writing, trendsetting individuality, and fearlessness. My pioneer favorites would be Nina Simone, Diana Ross, and Madonna – they had to break some rules to do their thing and I dig that. Favorite Independent female artists are Queen GodIs and Ms. Wise. Very passionate, honest, humble, healer type of artists.

3. I started Writer Blocks in 2002. It was an independent grassroots newsprint magazine that I funded while I was finding my way as a budding artist and writer in the city. I would publish poems from writers of all levels, interview local artists just out of my love for the art and community. I was excited about it…and I felt like I understood them on some level because I share the same lane as a fellow artist. Later the magazine expanded into exclusive interviews with major celebrities and industry execs. Then there was a period where Writer Blocks was my source of self employment and primary employment. That was a good time for me socially and spiritually – I was so free being my own boss at like 25.

Over time it went from the newsprint magazine format to more of an internet based format. Around 2007 the changes started kicking in – I started working again and my job responsibilities increased surprisingly, the performance arts scene was fading in and out, and eventually the economy started to change. So I had to make some changes to keep up on all sides. It was no longer feasible or wise to publish a large quantity newsprint magazine – unless it was published everyday like the Metro or at least once a month because hard copy info gets old so quick. I recognized that the planet was becoming more and more digital and the internet had become the preferred source of information these days.

So today Writer Blocks is now known as Philly Cypher. I guess the name change was a reflection of my own changes and the changes that I saw going on around me. I wanted to be more inclusive and not have a title that turned people away who were not “writers”. I changed the format to serve primarily as a internet guide map for independent artists that want to showcase their work in Philly. This has been a more realistic narrowed focus for me and this change kind of carved a niche out of the broad range I had before. I’m happy with it, but ready to start interviewing people again.

4. Hip Hop is my favorite. I love rapping and being in sync with the drum, a beatbox, and some hand claps. I think all art is a spiritual connection, or maybe our spirits dance when we create. When I am doing hip-hop…I feel a deeper spiritual connection with myself and the audience than when I‘m doing anything else. I love singing and songwriting too and that’s why I tend to fuse this with hip-hop.

5. Oh that’s easy for me…I would say Rahnda Rize or Lee Mekai. Picking Rahnda is easy because people always say that we have similar facial features and plus she’s a great actress and artist. I also think Lee Mekai because she rhymes and is also an actress and dope artist.

Video Soul Pick of The Week. Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald on Ed Sullivan

It amazes me how many talents and voices are today virtually invisible to anyone under 30 years.

Here are two of the best talents the world has ever seen in their prime.

Ella doing what she did best; putting jazz, swing and soul into the American Song book.
Whether she was doing a love song like this rendition of S’Wonderful or whether she was doing something totally for fun like her version of Frosty The Snow Man; Ella made every song she touched special. By songs end she often added a magic only she could with her trademark scatting.

Also in this clip you see and hear Sammy Davis Jr. doing what he did best….EVERYTHING! As a member of the hip hop generation Sammy has often inspired me because there was nothing he could not do. To that end, I became bold enough to try anything. No. I did not become great at everything but I always have fun no matter the challenge.

In this clip you see Sammy scatting with Ella Fitzgerald who at the time was praised for the art form of making up words to music as if she had invented it.

IT WAS A BIG DEAL for anyone to scat with Ella because she is recognized as the best to do it. But in Sammy Davis style he holds his own.

I love this clips which shares a moment in time when show biz was SHOW BIZ!

Time keeps on slipping. It seems like yesterday that a beautiful queen of a woman came up to me and introduced her daughter at one of my venues. Her daughter wrote poetry about the Black experience and a woman’s experience and most importantly her own experience.

Over the years the young lady has grown into a beautiful queen in her own right and her poetry moves crowds from AC to Philly to Michigan.

Cierra Farquarson is that young lady and is getting better all the time.

On Sunday August 22nd she’ll be a part of an all star line up of ladies taking the stage for BEYOND SPOKEN WORD 3: Ladies First.

Here she sits down with me for Four Funky Questions Plus One More!

1. Why do you write poetry?

Poetry helps me to vent and to explore topics that are important to me and topics that may be too taboo to bring up in regular conversation.

I used to want to write a book, but since the demographic I am trying to reach sadly does not read anymore (especially not poetry) I want to make a Spoken Word CD eventually. I also want to expand my network within the poetry community and in doing so also hone my “skills.”

3.I have heard you do several poems about body image. How do you feel America see’s black women? How do you see yourself as a black woman?

I feel that America as a whole does not generally respect black women or appreciate anything about them the way it should be appreciated including the struggle that many face on a day to day basis. I feel that society does not take into account some of the circumstances that may force Black women to do things that were once uncharacteristic, but through a lack of knowledge, empowerment, and encouragement have become commonplace.
As a young Black woman I see myself as a work in progress.