100 days in office

obama speaks...

President Obama addresses Congress today...

Big up to President Barack Obama for acknowledging the troops and taking the time to mention an eighth grade little girl from South Carolina, Ty’Sheoma Bethea in today's speech. It was a moment that truly moved me. It seems that he recieved an overwhelmingly good response in the midst of bipartisan debate. Obama promises to fulfill his responsibility to new energy, health care, and education. He acknowledges our flaws in the midst of praising our greatness and I find it to be an important testament to his ability to lead. I am proud to say I am from this country. I never imagined that. Not like this. In case you missed it here's a clip from his speech, it's on youtube in parts:

OBAMA addresses the stimulus

During his weekly address, President Obama outlined what the stimulus package and his home foreclosure plan can do to help turn around the nation's economy.

they estimate over 2 million gathered in DC for the inauguration...

It was all really last minute, when I finally convinced myself that I should make an effort to go to Washington, DC for President Barack Obama's Inauguration and though it was physically, a tiring trip, I am glad I was there. I was invited to perform for the NAACP's Pre Inauguration event which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I got to vibe with some good friends and it set up the motive for Ainsley, Sabrina, Javon, and I to road trip together. We spent our time marching through crowds, staying up all hours of the day in the freezing cold, eating all kinds of junk and it brought us together in a memorable way. Let me just say, the most consistent joke of the trip was generally pertaining to the amount of fur coats (real or fake) that we saw through out the trip. You wouldn't believe how many people walk out the house every morning swearing up and down their fur coat is in style. Hilarious. Anyway, I particularly enjoyed the Busboy and Poets Restaurant, ironically they turned down a perfectly great open mic opportunity with a whole host of poets in town. pretty stupid move on their part or at least the manager who argued it'd affect the shifts of his waiters blah blah blah. dude, like really, your whole shit is called "busboy and poets" and you have like ten poets from all over the country in town, its not everyday Obamas be President like this... i really think something magical could have happened, artistically in the context of where and what we were all there for...but whatever. just goes to show we aren't all prepared to change in order for real change to take place. it was a disappointment. I'll leave it at that. On to more important moments, I know at the time we weren't thinking this cause it was cold as an icebox while we were outside all day, but it was really something to see all those people flocking inside the Smithsonian for warmth. how we all shared space and made a way...if you were there im sure you feel me. in more ways than one this trip really fostered an energy that encourages unity and strength through numbers, we actually had many interesting discussions and arguments on this trip, about masculinity, politics of course, love, loss and everything in between but inspite of our differences and disagreements overall i think it brought us together. i learned something from everyone we came across and jotted down some beautiful observations.most people held a certain spirit throughout the weekend, a hopeful spirit. and of course, laughter was the greatest thing we could have ever thought to share with each other. I was journaling while we were out there maybe i'll excerpt some entry up here soon. but for now just wanted to share the photos I took. hopefully you'll enjoy them and see a bit of the way I experienced the inauguration right there in DC!

For more photos of the inauguration weekend I spent in DC CLICK HERE!

Never

(Election night in Harlem C.2008 By Aja-Monet)

Last night
after the lips
of a desperate raindrop
came over the New York City skyline
and flooded the autumn
of our shedding faces,
a skeptical skeleton of joy came to me in a foiling dream
there was a childish laughter
giggling
in the faint voice
of my singing blood
and I lifted my face to a screaming world
a world of one old, weathered man beautifully, brown, bruised
walking down the drunk midnight of Bowery street
with a long trench coat wrestling the tug and tear of the wind
the warmth of a retired sun in his eyes,

we
did
it.

as he left into the disappearing point of distance,
amidst the honking horns of foreign taxi cab drivers
and the strained throats of jubilant by standers
I watched a city lit by a light no electricity could ignite
a skyscraper no building could reach,
a ceiling has fallen in some corner of the earth
where there is no sky and no breeze.

Tonight,
Obama is
our echoing mantra, our generations great romance.

Never
have I been more proud
to be an owl-wise woman
of shackles and shambles
of nooses
and deeply rooted tree branches,
of clarinet oceans and violin passages,
ambulant picket signs and riot flesh,
of thick waving curls and frowning hot combs,

Never
have I been more proud
of the strutting finger snap of a woman scorned,
carrying the earthquake stretching in her hips,
of the marching tap-dance misshape in my toes, bunion, and corn,
the fantastical saxophone in my voice,

Never
have I been more proud of the forbidden love of this land,
the large worn
lines and wrinkles of my mother's hands,
to be a woman
of
this
color
now, still.

There is more.
So much more
to come
and
go

This morning,
at the wake
of a Harlem dawn
yawning on the sweet brown-sugar blanket
hugging my bones,
I awoke a splinter in the wild forest of this country's eyes
shrugging at the worries of yesterday
floating down the enormous spine of Malcom X blvd
I could feel a humming in our gaze
an infectious spirit in our lilac children
and I watched as a police officer
pale-ridden as the ghost of his ancestors,
hugged a stinging homeless sun-man
carrying the weight of forgotten shores in his eyes

what awe it is to have lived
in this day, on this morning
of all days
and all mornings.

c.aja-monet



(Election night in Harlem C.2008 By Aja-Monet)