Walking around NYC

 On my to drawing club this past Saturday I ran into two street fairs. At the first, at the Lower East Side, I was two busy stuffing my face to realized that I had my camera. The second, in Tribeca, outside my school was just ending and I was running late for my club, so I snapped these before I went inside.

A la Prochaine!

Dumbo Pt. 1

I went to Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo back in the last month of 2010. It was awesome, but I'm never going there again by myself at night with out pepper spray or some kind of weapon of mass destruction! Dumbo is filled with old warehouses turned new business(all of which where closed). The street are very small and sometimes the difference between where I'm supposed to walk and where the cars drive isn't always clear. But I love Dumbo all the same.

There were two exhibits on view that night. Humankind and Katsu and DestroyRebuild. For more information about the exhibits click here. I enjoyed both exhibits equally. I think there on view until January 20th. I will post the rest of the images I took in the week.

A la prochaine!

Artist Talk: Chad Cartwright/ CHD:WCK!

Photo © Armando Bellmas, 2010

Who?
chad cartwright/CHD:WCK!

Where are you from?
i come from clarence and brenda cartwright. i was planted and cultivated in east orange, nj. harvested in charlotte, nc.

What do you call yourself (writer, rapper, photographer, etc)?
i am a visual artist. i tend to focus on photography and mixed media, though i love music.i don’t make music, but when i talk about art(ists), i usually end up talking about music(ians).

How do you create (your inspiration)?
my art is all about my perspective. so inspiration comes from everywhere.i’m still not sure how i create, but i think the answer just lies in doing it more.

Why do you do it?
it’s very satisfying to create something you enjoy looking at.

i’m not passionate about much else. most of the other things i care about, i don’t have enough control to be effective at it. i would love for art to pave the way for me to teach, reach out to youth, and travel and experience other cultures.

art is a great way to connect with people. when people respond to something i create, we get past a bunch of meaningless introductions, small talk, and chatter, and things that we don’t have it common. we get to the heart of what we do have in common and can possibly build from there.

Are you currently working on anything?
i realize that my best art comes from life lessons and the beauty i see experiencing life. so currently, i’m working on living life more fully - making better decisions, having more experiences, being open to learn more, and making sure to make time to create. i want to take different art classes to add some more tools to my toolbox. but overall, by spring 2011, i hope to have a small body of work to share.

Any advice you would give someone in your position?
1. the best advice i’ve ever received is “stop thinking and do it” - shoot more. paint more. create more. (and if i had the resources, i’d hire someone just to remind me daily)

2. there are no formulas. do you. in my eyes, the most successful artists are people who “make the art they want to see/hear”. when you stay in your own lane, the road never gets crowded.

3. keep learning. keep growing. honor your craft. i believe any future successes will continue to be a reflection of how much work i put into growing as a person, learning about art and expression, and sharing my perspective, life lessons, and view of beauty with others. i don’t know if this is good advice, but it’s how i try to go about things.

I plan on traveling out side of NYC twice this year. Would you recommend Charlotte, NC as a place I should visit?
sure, but only if you have a knowledgeable tour guide.

Click here for everything CHD:WCK!

Project 365: Launch Day!

Tomorrow is the beginning of my year long photography project, Project 356. You have no idea how excited I am! It's not just the project that has me so happy and proud of myself. This isn't the first time I've wanted to do a photography project. This is the first time that I've taken the necessary steps to starting and completing a photography project though. And I have been taken some huge steps! I decided I was going to do this project using instant film(view sample images above) the day after I decided I was going to do Project 365. Tonight I'm going to launch my project on Kickstarter to help me get the funds I need for this project. I won't be putting all of the images on the Internet. I'm thinking I will post an image from this project about once a week or month. Depending on how busy I get once I start school again. All the same the regular content of this blog will continue as normal.

Now lets talk about Kickstarter. I first heard about Kickstarter after Kasalina Nabakooza emailed me asking me to help fund her project. I meet her at a Black Girl Project premiere back in August which she later interviewed me for her website. I really must send a huge thank you her way!! I'm asking for $1000, that will go towards covering the cost of film and creating my book at the end of the year! I hope you guys can feel how inspired and determined I feel and will help me by backing my project in whatever way you can. If you can only give a dolor then that's totally fine!! If you can only help by spreading the word then that too is fine and very helpful. Happy New Year All! I'll see you there!!

A la prochaine!

Just in chase you where wondering.

HOW TO BE ALONE by Tanya Davis

"If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it.
We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You're not supposed to talk much anyway so it's safe there.
There's also the gym. If you're shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).
And there's public transportation, because we all gotta go places.
And there's prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you're hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.
The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they -- like you -- will be alone.
Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You're no less intriguing a person when you're eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.
Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one's watching...because, they're probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you're sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life's best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there're always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might've never happened had you not been there by yourself
Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.

You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one's in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.
Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school's groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you're happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.

It's okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can't think like you, for this be releived, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.
And it doesn't mean you're not connected, that communitie's not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn't get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don't obsess about it.

you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it
If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament."

I'm going to print this out and frame it! I've always liked being alone. I find happiness and peace in doing things on my own. Like going to the movies or out to dinner. It's true though that society makes you feel like maybe there's something wrong with you because you crave solitude. I like being alone and think I know how to do it. But just incase I ever forget I'll have this!
View video here.

A la prochaine!

Just Another Sunday

I really like doing these music post. They help me find and listen to new music. I'll never be able to listen to Single Ladies with out thinking of this version! I'm going to try and do this every Sunday. I hope you enjoy!
A la prochaine ;-)

Boys Wanna Be Her - Peaches

There's something about this song that makes me want to lick my lips, pump my fist, stomp my feet, and shake my ass! ;-)

Howl-loween!

This past weekend was Halloween. I "celebrated" on Saturday with some friends. Really I just went out and had a couple of alcoholic beverages. This girl and two of her friend were Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Can you guess which one she was? Drugs! I thought they were very original and it made me want to do something different then my Indian girl costume next year!

I'm having some computer issues, but will post as frequently as I can. That's all for now.

A la prochaine!

Punch Drunk Love

Fort Greene Festival

I am now the Outreach and Communication intern for The Black Girl Project. I was sent out to the Fort Greene Festival this past Saturday, it was a full day of music and food. There was a performance at the end by Common. He stole my heart, it's official! This is some of the who's and what's that I saw.

The Black Girl Project

In a culture where Black women and girls are either venerated for their
saintly accomplishments which strips them of any other character attribute
except that of martyr/mammy, or demonized and used as the fall gal to explain
away all that is wrong with the Black community and society-at-large, it is
important to hear and see Black girls speak their truths.

Click here for more.

Books I must own...soon!

If I wasn't capable of reading a book a day I would be confident that that tiny list of seven books would last me through out the whole summer. As it is I've already finish two books, (in two days), and I'm going to start reading Black Girl in Paris tomorrow.

I was thinking about books I've read in the past and loved, but can't remember now. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou was one of those books. I read it in HS, and can remember nothing about it expect that I liked it. Last semester I read an essay from Sherman Alexie and fell in love with this author. Now I must have The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. When I was in JHS I read four books by Mildred D. Taylor They were wonderful but I forgot the names as soon as I finish them. I came across one of them at the $1 table at strand a while back and now I must own all four stories.

1. Song of the Trees
2. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (I own this one)
3. Let the Circle Be Unbroken
4. The Road to Memphis

Hopefully I'll be able to get these books soon. If I don't though there's a summary to The Road to Memphis on Wikipedia. =/

Until next time.

Is it Summer yet...?

DUMBO, Brooklyn NY

The Resistance

I've noticed this sign a couple of times on my way to yoga class, but never had my camera with me. I was a little early to class on Monday and was able to stop and capture this lovely message. I'm glad they didn't paint over it.

Ice Ice Baby

I couldn't figure out which image I like better.
;-)

A Note to Our Teachers

Last night I remembered a question someone had asked me. "Did you keep a journal when you were younger?", I said "yes, but I didn't write in it much." She said "OK" and that was it.

Last night I remembered this, and thought of a the real reason why I didn't write in that journal. Mostly it was because of embarrassment. Though no one would see what I wrote unless I showed them, I always felt a little stupid when I was writing, or would re-read my entries. I felt like I didn't have enough words to describe how I was feeling. I wasn't really shocked when I came to this realization. I am a slow learner. That's something I've come to be alright with. I do learn, I do have those "ah ha" moments when every things clear, it just takes me a minute longer to reach these points.

When I was younger no one ever took an interest into what made me think about things. I felt my teachers didn't take enough interest into figuring out how I learned. Sometimes I felt they didn't really care if I learned or not.

I think that when you teach something you should follow though to make absolutely sure that every single one of your students understands. A child might be extra quiet because she doesn't understand. Or a child may act out when he feels he is being left behind. You can bet money that we feel it when were left behind. It's in the air. There's this buzzing excitement that comes with learning. A feeling of accomplishment when you know that you can learn.

It was a very liberating experience when I learned how I learned. I was speaking to a friend and I told her, "I learn differently, and that's OK." Before that point I was terrified of school(at this point I was in my 1st years of college), and I wouldn't take chances in my writing because I didn't no how.

So Thank You to the few teachers, and counselors, and friends that took(and continue to) an interest, it made a difference!!

Things that help.

Thanks to this lovely lady I've found some nice hair styles to do in my (half relaxed/half natural) hair. I've been transitioning since late may. I watch the video above and ran into the bathroom with a tweezer and came out with nice results, if I don't say so my self. =)

This is my favorite hair style from her. Quick, easy, and classy

Snow

I tried to make a tiny time line of all the snow that fell last week. I almost slid right down my stairs taking the last photo. There's snow in the forcast later this week. Taken Feb/2010 in Brooklyn, New York.

The first photo goes with the Round Midnight project.

Daniel

My friend Daniel. His one of those gorgeous boys, but isn't a jerk about it. I worked with him for a couple of years, and I have always been a fan of his face! =) He has this contagious smile and laugh. Shot in the beginning of January. It was so cold that day, but the time flew by with us walking around bed-stuy laughing it up!

Christmas?...not so much

I tend to have the Christmas 'spirit" when Christmas is no where in site. I think the feelings are more authentic then! =)

Dress Up

dress up from Camille R on Vimeo.

I found this cute(!!) video of Camille from Childhood Flames playing dress up. I've been a fan of hers for a couple of years. Though I'm not very fashionable and tend to not like fashion blogs, I love the things she blogs about! I think she lives in Oregon which kinda sucks because I would LOVE to photograph her.