HUSTLENOMICS presents…

The 5th Annual HUSTLENOMICS Art Exhibition

Theme: Politricks

Hustlenomics Collective provides annual events for artists in the areas of photography, visual art, design, and print media . The collective represents talented up and coming Artists from the Bay Area, California to all boroughs of New York City. Each year the Hustlenomics collective organizes an exhibtion for the artists to showcase their art in an environment that honors honesty, culture, and the struggle. The Hustlenomics annual event has been successful in providing artists who normally don’t have this outlet, a space to shine and feel empowered.

Friday 11.14.08
M1-5
52 Walker Street, NYC
btwn Church Street & Broadway
(N/Q/R/W or 6 trains to Canal)
7pm - 9pm FREE
$5 - $20 sliding scale after 9pm

Oh, and yeah, a performance from Blitz Ambassador and his full ensemble.

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NOT!

Seth posted this and suggested it be shared with the world.  Don’t get caught slipping.

Too good to be true (the overnight millionaire scam)

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Last night I stumbled into the SENO Launch Party quite unexpectedly. SENO stands for Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans. I found out about the event from the announcements column in the Money section of the Times Picayune. In keeping with my re-invigorated commitment to networking at all costs during these economically challenging times when I read about the meeting I decided to attend. I’ve got to admit that I initially figured this meeting would be about Social Media and Web 2.0 related topics. I’d heard the term social entrepreneur before but it just didn’t click immediately that I would be in a room full of individuals working to make a difference in our city. I was at Models For Success headquarters when I read about the meeting and shared with Jason and Sed that I would be going. Sed is the one who cleared things up for me and told me that Social Entrepreneurship is the type of company he runs. It started to make a little more sense at that point.

The launch party was held uptown at The Fine Arts Center on Constantinople Street. I walked into the venue and kind of stood back for a moment to enjoy the diverse crowd interacting with one another as if they were at a family reunion. At first I didn’t really know which way I’d go because all of the tables seemed to be reserved for one of the organizations or social entrepreneurs. However, one of the ladies from SENO advised me that I could just pick any table I like and make myself at home because as she put it, “we’re all friends here.”

BE THE CHANGE! Connect. Create. Innovate.

Andrea Chen of the SENO Team opened up citing some of the problems which we face presently and historically in the city of New Orleans. Violence, eroding wetlands and failing schools just to name a few. In addition to showing the world the Third World like conditions many of the citizens of New Orleans have lived under for years, Andrea observed “Hurricane Katrina also revealed how fragile our support systems are.”

She also noted that these circumstances have presented a quite a challenge for this city in particular and that social entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge with innovative approaches.

The excitement in the room could definitely fuel a commercial jet flight from New Orleans to wherever it is you wanted to go and back. Change is definitely in the air. Every direction you turned it seemed like you ran into another believer in the potential for greatness that we possess as a city. For me this is especially encouraging because of my well documented love/hate relationship I have with this great and dreadful city of ours. The evening continued with a panel discussion featuring social entrepreneurs who have been impacting our communities in a positive way. The theme of the panel discussion was: What does it take to support and sustain the social change movement?

INNOVATION!

Carole Bebelle (Ashe Cultural Arts Center) emphatically proclaimed that innovation is one of the most vital components of this social change movement. She pointed out that necessity is the mother of invention and that as far as needs go New Orleans is the Need Mecca. In Carole’s words, “we are in need of almost everything that you can think of for a city to be functional. We have to do almost everything over again and we shouldn’t recreate what we had. We must evolve to something better than what we had.” Carole also talked about the importance of us creating the kind of city that would be conducive to Brain Gain as opposed to the decades of Brain Drain that we suffered as a city. Most of the Brain Drain was a result of our best and brightest young minds being forced to leave this city in order to find employment and opportunities for growth.

Dr. Kyshun Webster (Operation Reach) spoke to the need for people to mature in their understanding of what a non-profit is and what it means to run a non-profit organization. Non-profits can and should earn revenue. Non-profits should model themselves like for profit businesses and operate with that goal in mind. He also expressed concern over the fact that social entrepreneurs have to be legitimized by those outside of the city before they can be embraced locally.

John Thompson (Resurrection After Exoneration) encouraged everyone to stay connected. He works with ex-cons attempting to make the difficult transition back into life on the outside and finds that it helps to stay involved with program participants after the program ends. A lot of times they still need that support and six months to a year may not be long enough so you have to make yourself and your services available. In addition to making your service available part of your service has to be staying connected with those you serve by tracking their life progress long after they have moved on with their lives. It fosters that sense of family and sometimes you may be the only family they have.

Aesha Rashad (Parent Organizing Network) wanted everybody in the room to know inspiration is not just yours. Aesha had so much spirit and high energy that it was definitely contagious. She admitted that she was a little star struck with so many heavy hitters is the world of social change being in attendance but once she started to share her thoughts and ideas you knew instantly that her passion for change could uplift anyone willing to share a few moments with her. She told the crowd that you have to invite others in and put as many ideas on the table as possible. You have to share it for it to grow.

Craig Cuccia (Café Reconcile) shared with the crowd that we have to embrace change. He said, “out with the old and in with the new.” He stressed the importance of learning all you can about what you are trying to do. He admonished the audience to do their homework. He also expressed how important it is to network and to tell your story. “Relationships, Relationships, Relationships.” He also discussed the importance of sharing what you’ve learned with those who are coming behind you by paying it forward. In closing he said that it was o.k. for people to think that you’re crazy. Don’t worry about it and keep pushing forward.

As the panel discussion began to wind down Carole Bebelle mentioned the roles that fear and failure play in the realm social entrepreneurship. She cautioned her fellow social change agents about the people around you who may not understand this feeling in your gut to do what you do. She said that sometimes you even begin to feel like a failure because of your own perceived lack of progress. Its times like these that you have to put your head down and keep going into the wind. If you are doing this work you’re bound to have failures but your failures can teach you as much or more than your successes. The important thing is what you learn from your failures. It’s O.K. to feel fear because it is natural, but do what you set out to do in spite of your fears.

It would seem that social entrepreneurship is alive and well in the city of New Orleans and as one of the panelists noted that we have a good chance to be a model for the world. We have something going for us that other cities may not have; we know how to talk to one another. New Orleans may do wrong what other cities do right but we also happen to do right what other cities do wrong.

Personally I had a very enlightening evening and am looking forward to working with several members of this community for social change in the city of New Orleans. In closing I’d like to leave you with SENO’s vision statement.

Just as Silicon Valley is known as the center for technological innovation, we envision New Orleans becoming known as the hub for social entrepreneurship. We believe in harnessing the power of local diversity and the new participatory mentality to launch the problem-solver into action. A social change movement is currently underway, and SENO will sustain this new energy by supporting social entrepreneurs who are committed to making deep social impact.

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Maybe it’s a good thing we’re not back in ATL judging by the gas lines. The shortage is due to Hurricanes Ike & Gustav according to news reports. Well we all know the other dominant story in the news recently is the $700 billion bailout plan which was rejected in Congress. The picture of grief on the cover of the USA Today was priceless. Well today the players in this economic meltdown drama are looking optimistically happy about the potential to pass a revised version of the bill. Any way you look at it, the Bill is only going to be a band-aid over a wound that is so much deeper than any one in this country wants to look at. America is not known for paying her debts and has been operating out of a deficit for a long time now. We are not surprised by this behavior or America’s actions regarding anything they do to remain in power. You are looking at a country who have always been willing to kill millions to get her way. She was built in this manner and still has an outstanding debt to us which they refuse to pay. We cannot put our hopes in a bailout plan which offers no benefit to us.

In the introduction of The Debt; by Randall Robinson he writes:

“At the dawn of the twenty-first century African Americans lag the American mainstream in virtually every area of statistical measure. Neither blacks nor whites know accurately why. The answer can be found only in the distant past, a past as deliberately obscured as the Capital’s secrets.

“The solutions to our racial problems are possible, but only if our society can be brought face up to the massive crime of slavery and all that it has wrought.

“Now never begins yesterday. To set afoot a new and whole black woman and man, we must first tell the victims what happened to them - before and after America was new.”

We know that we have an enemy who does not care anything for us. This is no longer surprising to us or at least it shouldn’t be. Now we must learn to progress in a hostile environment despite this fact. We are naturally equipped to thrive during the tough days that lie ahead for this country but we must be willing to work together on multiple levels. The enemy has a price to pay for the wickedness done to us and during a time like this we must not be caught waiting around for our opportunity to rejoice at her failings. If America falls this means bad news for us because of our refusal to come out of her. We have to embrace change like no other time in history just as our presidential candidate and brother, Barack Obama is attempting to represent. One thing for certain is that change is on the way.

You have to think about investing in the most stable of resources right now to get through this time. You must invest in yourself. You look to all these outside factors to change your life when you possess the most powerful resource known to man. The power of you!

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” – Ralph Ellison

Do you know who you are? Well on a certain level of course you do. You know what your favorite foods are, your favorite movies, songs, video games, books, sports, etc..

But have you taken the time to get to know yourself? In addition how much of your true history have you bothered to study? It has intentionally been hidden from you. Its refreshing to see that youngsters are learning some of their recent history (last 10-20 years) even though most of it is Hip Hop culture.

You have to start to think of what will help you become the best you that you can be. What are your strengths and how can you maximize them for the benefit of yourself and your family. And unless you are a damn good emcee or you are serious about dedicating yourself to that craft, don’t tell me you wanna rap. Trust me we have enough son.

You must learn how to put Self First.

Now of course in order to do that you have to learn who you are and some of the obstacles we have faced and continue to face as a people which keep us last in all these areas of statistical measure as noted above.

“The great stumbling block in the way of progress in the race has invariably come from within the race itself. The monkey wrench of destruction as thrown into the cog of Negro Progress, is not thrown so much by the outsider as by the very fellow who is in our fold, and who should be the first to grease the wheel of progress rather than seeking to impede it.” – Marcus Garvey

The troubles America is facing financially is mirrored in the officially struggling music industry as the internet has officially disrupted the master/slave relationship that record companies enjoyed with their artists. They are struggling to devise a way to continue to exploit young artists but in the meantime the playing field has been leveled again allowing independents to carve out a niche for themselves through Social Media. It is not a sure bet with the music industry for independents but they enjoy equal opportunity for exposure thanks to the internet.

What our young brothers represent in the re-emerging Hip Hop scene is a raw fearlessness, a new sense of creativity, an appreciation for their story which has been hidden from them, the vision to want to create their own reality and a swagger that tells the world that no matter what, “We Are The Sh1t.”

This is why we are so dangerous. Creativity is once again reigning supreme and we have to spread it to every aspect of our existence. We believe in ourselves thanks to young brothers sharing their talents.

West Coast. The Dirty South. East Coast. Midwest. We doin our thing. The best rises to the top. Fear is gone. Now we are beginning to smarten up.

Our youngsters have shaken that fear and are beginning to realize that we need knowledge to learn of the things that we may be ignorant to. This is happening through Hip Hop as well. It’s great to see it taking shape as a movement.

Named must your fear be before banish it you can. – Yoda, from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Well America is on the ropes but still has a chance to get through this rough period however she has rethink how she handles her former slaves because she can once again redeem herself by investing in this great resource she has abused incessantly. In closing I want to leave you with a sobering quote from:

A Torchlight For America by Minister Louis Farrakhan

America On The Brink Of Anarchy

Without an advocate for the poor, without a new state of mind in America, the country lies on the brink of anarchy. Anarchy is the complete absence of government. It’s a condition of political disorder, violence and lawlessness in the society. We saw signs of it in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.

Anarchy my await America due to the daily injustices suffered by the people. There really can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without truth. And there can be no truth, unless someone rises up to tell the truth.

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I know it has been a little over a month since my last post. Of course when I started this little project I was fairly certain that it would just be a matter of time before I resorted to my comfort zone when it comes to writing on a regular basis; not writing at all. For me its not as much the act of writing I try to avoid but the act of wasted energy. Secondly, but probably even more important than conserving my own energy is a heightened sense of security as we continue to move closer to a police state. Most of our actions and words can be monitored at will by whomever wants to know something about us. The very illusion of freedom that we take for granted is quietly being stripped from us all. I also don’t like to invest too much time in efforts that won’t produce desirable results. Another sticking point of mine is making sure that I really understand my motives for doing anything that takes effort, focus and any amount of brainpower. The other thing that I can’t help but be a little self-conscious about is the needs of my audience. It’s a fine line when it comes to deciding what content is relevant as well as timely to share in this type of format. I’ll refrain from over analyzing the inner workings of my mind which is very swift and changeable. Most days I’m all over the place in terms of subject matter so it’s hard to narrow down on one subject to dig into further on a regular basis.

Through some long moments of intense reflection I have been struggling to thoroughly understand this twilight-zonish period of time we seem to be careening through as a people. For a while I thought I was just trippin (which is apparently part of the problem), but it seems to be very real. I lived long enough to recognize economic cycles and witness us repeat history by not learning from our collective experiences. Last week I read an article in the LA Weekly that sums up our unique approach to making progress as a people. We exercise a relaxed pace like the brothers on the block waiting for tomorrow to get here. I can vividly remember riding my bike around the city observing how bleak our condition as a people was and how f’d up our city was as a whole. This was about 15 years ago. The scary part is that our condition today looks just as bleak as it did back then. As I was making my transition into manhood I remember thinking that we were entering the dark ages as a people. Looking back it would seem that we have been stagnant overall as a people. For all of our individual (& small group) achievements we have remained rudderless as a people in the landscape of human history. However, the time is ripe for our rise as a people. Our greatness shines through whenever we put our mind to any endeavor.

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