2016 - New Year Revival

All:

How does the new year find you? Many new beginnings arriving, fumbling the transitions, though remaining ever-hopeful and exercising self-compassion. The celebration of the arrival of the new year is not the ending of seasons but rather a ritual of beginnings. Nothing ever ends; instead, the old energy takes on new forms. God's glory moves from unmarked box to unmarked box, says persian mystic Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, as rainwater, down into flowerbed, as roses up from ground. So don't grieve for what appears to come to a close. As much as we are seeking, we are also arriving. And so, here, we've arrived.

I will dedicate the following entries to my writing lab with Gemini Ink - Engaging the Active Imagination: Writing as Activism. The laboratory differs from a typical workshop format: any achievements the participants may have are purely their own (as they very well should be). However, the lab does serve a purpose: engaging participants to explore the depth of their imagination, expand the breadth of their creative capacity, and discover self-expression through writing and class discussion.

I thank you all for continuing to follow these efforts. I will be posting the writing prompt with my entry for the current lab topic. I don't know what may come of these writings; the writing itself must continue, must move from the written page to who knows where? So be on the lookout in the coming weeks. Until then.

Essay on Chicano Culture featured in The Curve Report (NBC Universal)

Earlier this year I participated in a focus group organized by Culture-Co-Op. The results of our conversations led to a commissioned essay for NBC Universal's The Curve Report. Words are as follows:

“¡VIVA LA RAZA! ¡HUELGA! ¡VIVA LA CAUSA!”

By Rene Jaime Gonzalez (as mentioned above in Texas or Bust)

These were the cries heard on the front lines of the student walkouts at Edgewood and Sydney Lanier High Schools in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1960s and ’70s; in the impassioned calls to action from speakers at neighborhood park podiums addressing crowds gathered at political rallies; in the righteous slogans written on picket signs carried by farmworkers in their pilgrimage march toward the capitol. Residing deep in the heart of what was once the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, Chicano culture in San Antonio has a uniquely urban story to tell.

The genesis of the Chicano movement—an amalgam of working people and middle-class Mexican American students, educators, and community organizers—was founded on principles of reform and revolution in education, politics, and civil rights with the commitment to maintain and strengthen community ties. The seeds of my involvement in Chicano culture started with my parents’ participation in the Chicano movement on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s. In my childhood household on Sunday mornings, the sounds that I heard coming through the kitchen stereo speakers were the canciónes rancheras (ranch songs) and corridos (folk ballads) sung by the prolific Mexican recording artists Pedro Infante and Cuco Sánchez. I dusted off old books and read the poesía (poetry) of Alurista and other literary works focused on the folklore of the mythical region of Aztlán.

In my parents’ day, social movements like the Chicano uprising had to kick down the door of the house of mainstream society for inclusion and fight for any scrap of recognition. Now, with rights won and a new generation moving toward the front lines, we find ourselves rearranging the furniture. Many of the hard-fought demands driving la causa (the cause) were eventually won and institutionalized, but Chicanos gained much more than representation within the system: they redefined their own ethnic identity through artistic innovation and academic self-expression, solidifying a cultural legacy with a foundation of rediscovered historical roots.

When I was growing up in San Antonio, this innovation and expression manifested itself in the four elements of hip-hop culture: B-boys, DJs, graffiti artists, and MCs. By the time I graduated from high school, I had immersed myself in the local B-boy scene, grounded by my identity as a Chicano and battling along with my crew at regional competitions and hip-hop conventions. Spinning all-vinyl funk, soul, and hip-hop records, I’ve also shared the stage with the venerable MC and DJ Marco Cervantes, Ph.D., an assistant professor of bicultural and bilingual studies in the Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Outside of the classroom, he performs under the alias Mexican Stepgrandfather with the hip-hop collaborative Third Root, mixing classic Mexican song with new hip-hop and rap. His message is the unification of the cultural crossroads between black and brown (or the “Afro-Mestizo connection”) and the empowerment of disadvantaged youth—an innovation of cultural expression at its finest.

Whether I’m catching wreck on the nightclub dance floor as a B-boy, hosting a writing workshop at a local literary center, or participating in the democratic process at municipal public hearings, the Chicano spirit runs through the lifeblood of my 21st-century community at large. As they have since its inception, activism and community continue to stand as the backbone—the heart and soul—of our contemporary Chicano culture here in San Anto.

Full essay text

Special thanks to Tessa Love, Mai Perches, Bayla Metzger

Community Poem #1 - Brick Bar

Community poem guidelines:

• One line created by one member of the community
• The next writer may not see the previous writer's line, use a cover-up card
• Intended for genuine, original thought
• Improvisation encouraged

Once poem is completed:

• compile lines and revise accordingly for flow and feeling
• create your own line breaks for effect and form
• keep intact the original spirit of community interaction
• refrain from making any additions other than suitable/substitutable prepositions

The following community poem was created at Brick bar in the Blue Star Arts complex:

Community Poem #1

In the resting of nests,
the great white heron bathes
in the waves
of the mallard's call

of pitter-pattered maelstroms,
turn-arounds and right wrongs,

and when the night owl's
tempered sugar skull
begins to rot,
confusion rides like a circle round.

Pick up the telphone
when the actor
from across the aisle
dials your number,

because lively dreams are not at night,

in the meantime
a wrench can fix things.

One-two-three, two-two-three, three-three-three,
we danced by the dim light
of candled chandeliers.

Hays Street Bridge Story Rap (Under Construction)

Now here's a little story that must be told,
about the Hays Street Bridge that was put on hold
by the monied, the cultured, and the powers that be,
another tragic tale of development versus community...

Signpost on Home of Frank Toudouze Before Demoliton (Found Poem)

THIS HAS BEEN

OUR HOME FOR

50 YEARS,

IT'S NOT FOR SALE.

WE CAN NOT SEE

WHY WE SHOULD BE

FORCED TO SELL JUST

TO SATISFY A HAND

FULL OF SO CALLED

BIG SHOTS. SO IF

URBAN RENEWAL

HAS THE POWER

TO CONDEMN OUR

HOME, MAY WE

SPEND OUR NEXT

CHRISTMAS IN A

TENT.

The Art of Eavesdropping: Notes on the Makers

The "makers" of San Antonio, posted up at a bar a friend once called "Brooklyn Nights":

Sounds like he might have changed the song himself. Singing along to the popular melody of "Mary Jane" by Rick James, underground classic no doubt. Bartender plays along with the chord changes. But there's only so much oil in the ground, councilman. You missed the message in the music, Tower of Power. Too bad, councilman.

Councilman went to Keystone high school, he says. Not so near to east side. Left town for college. Still, visions of MLK march dance in his head: Up from the south, the homeless, disabled, wounded warriors march. From the west, the latinos march. Down from up north, the LGBTQ march. Deep from the east black folk march. Interfaith march from...some other point in town.

Multiple marches...segregation...? And the corporate commissaries? From which direction will they march, councilman?

After march, TED talks during the day. Concerts at night. All in the name of peace, prosperity, diversity, and opportunity. Opportunity was keyword. Left out autonomy. Pitch it to major news networks. Plans to make it on CNN. Drone cameras. Largest march in country is not enough. Passé topic. Downtown march, close down streets. Converging on La Villita, Hemisfair. Philanthropic effort or Business pitch?

The other from Central Catholic. Never a Marianist. Doing business in the backroom, behind closed doors.

A Tech operative enters the frame. Said he had a problem with organized religions. Boasting. Logic class in college, debate on whether religion was a force of good in the world. Catholic school burnouts turned atheists.

Wires, Headlines

Intended to grab the reader's attention. To sell papers. To lead into.

This entry will share the joy, puzzlement, and amusement you may get if you too are baffled by the most oblivious and bizarre AP wires and the not-quite-right newspaper headlines found on the front pages. Here's an original take on headlines and sub-headings:

This just in:

"Public Safety" is a euphemism for law enforcement
Subheading: "Creating jobs" is double-speak for creating profits

This just in:

All wars of conquest are unjust
Subheading: This includes American Manifest Destiny

This just in:

US Airways and American Airlines set a historically unprecendented merger in air travel

Subheading: Meanwhile, half of the city of San Antonio's population has never flown in an airplane

This just in:

Public transportation is not a part of the American dream
Subheading: Which has become an American nightmare

This just in:

Maximizing profits is in no way related to managing an economy

Subheading: Whose economy is it anyway?

*work in progress*