millions for mumia, ten years later

the first time i ever came to this city that i now live in was ten years ago today. on april 24, 1999 a massive protest in march in support of mumia abu jamal was organized in philadelphia. the millions for mumia march was both a celebration of his 40th birthday and an impassioned plea for his freedom from death row.

this evening, ten years later, i will be attending another event in philadelphia for mumia who is still unjustly incarcerated after all these years despite an international movement of supporters. the "more than a book release" event tonight at the historic church of the advocate in north philly will celebrate mumia's latest book jailhouse lawyers and will feature a number of speakers and performers. there are a number of similar events happening around the country today, mumia's birthday.

for more info visit:
http://freemumia.com/april242009.html

the continued search for focus

sometimes it's hard figuring out where i want to focus my energy. i desperately need to cultivate a steady income, but go back and forth between looking into traditional wage jobs/temp work and dedicating all my time towards my own writing and other projects. passions and survival, indeed. i'm looking forward to talking to lv about our life goals, both short and long term. i think that will help me focus. i want to envision and articulate where i want to be a month from now, 6 months, this time next year, in 5 years, etc. it will be helpful but also fun to share these dreams together.

today, i find myself at a coffeeshop all over the place. i jump from researching freelance and proofreading jobs to feelings of guilt around not booking an early summer tour for one of my aid & abet clients. all the while, the impending may rent looms over every action and thought like a fatal illness. but i'm optimistic that i'll figure something out over the next couple weeks.

bright forecast

now that i'm back in philly, i'm try to harness the inspiration from my travels. i was hoping that i would be catalyzed after the nyc anarchist book fair and reflecting on my past life in northampton. but the first few days back have been a struggle. it's still sort of cold, dark and rainy. it's as if nothing happened and i just woke up from a dream. maybe i'm still 27? i wonder if i will ever be liberated from the shackled bureaucracy of financial institutions. i wonder if tomorrow will begin a new era of sunshine and creativity. the future is still hopeful. i just need to keep reminding myself why i'm here. what i'm doing. and where i'm going.

spring break 2009

i've been on the road for a full week now. it seems like months ago that lv and i were waiting for the megabus in philly for a weekend adventure in new york! now i'm heading back to the big apple for another weekend, but this time from northampton--where i have been all week. i was able to see friends and family in celebrating my 28th birthday and despite getting a little sick it's been great fun. i'm looking forward to the anarchist bookfair tomorrow, meeting up with my aid & abet co-conspirators again, and also returning to philly and my sweetheart sunday evening. i think when i return my mind will be fresh and inspired and i will be to appreciate the beauty of the full bloom trees even more.

april urgency

it's been a good week. one morning i woke up and was brought back 6 years, to my final semester in college. jolted out of bed with the realization that it was now officially april and my senior project was due at the end of the month. there was a similar urgency this week, with so many things going on and to look forward to in the coming weeks.

tuesday night i went to a fantastic zine reading at the wooden shoe with cassie j. snyder and al burian. cassie was hilarious and it had been about 4 years since i had last seen al perform. i enjoyed the thread connecting all of the pieces he read: what was it that initally brought us to punk and why are we still in it? why were we all there that night? i had really nice conversations with all the other wooden shoe folks afterwards as i got pumped up for the couchsurfing.com meet up i was heading to afterwards!

there's a japanese restaurant/karaoke club where local couchsurfers have been meeting every tuesday night for various specials and a private karaoke room. i was inspired to check it out this week with the temptation of visiting the philly pretzel factory at midnight when the 35 cent, fresh pretzels are available!

i had fun meeting all of these random people, some from philly, others couchsurfing from across the globe. over 30 of us squeezed in this room to sing songs accompanied by the cheesiest japanese karaoke videos that you could imagine. i bonded with some of them after my performance of "dancing with myself." ha! i biked down to washington after midnight beating the carpool to pretzels. it was great to finally experience the freshest, hottest pretzels in town before biking all the way back to west philly.

there's so much more to say about this week. mostly, that jen angel arrived via train on april fool's day and it's been great seeing her again. her event at the wooden shoe last night was a success and i had a blast hanging out with all these great folks afterwards that came out for it. jen's crashing at my house over the weekend while i'm in nyc with lv. then sunday i'll be heading back to western mass to celebrate my birthday and see all of the wonderful people in my life up there. see you soon!