No Phone, No Problem

The second unit of my Endurance course, Katabasis was all about the trials & tribulations of our figurative hero. In this project, we are that hero. We must "endure" something for 12 hours and log our experiences. The significance of this 12 hours is for you to determine. You can go on a twelve-hour hike, play video games, or even build a mini shed aquarium. The idea of this project is to achieve the mission that you set out in the first unit. Or at least get one step closer. I chose to simply not use my phone for 12 hours. I decided that I could become a better artist if I just became one with the art. No distractions. No phone calls, text messages, or games. During this project, I think I found out that writing music kind of hinders my creativity. There's something about writing music instead of typing it for me. Typing is always more ideal for me. The distractions hinder my creativity as well, though, so I guess I have to pick my poison. This project was intensive, but it was really fun and interesting!

The War Against Myself : Chapter 1

For the first action project of my last Humanities course, Endurance, we were asked to write an auto-biography 50 years into the future. The purpose of this action project is to help us find who we are as human beings. This unit helps us explore our limits and begin to understand what type of people we are.  We went through a number of different endurance challenges throughout this unit. It seems right that I will get to talk about myself on this action project, right? I've learned a lot about myself so why not share with you guys! Really digging deep and self-reflecting is not always easy. I think I'm proud of the way things came out though. Thanks for viewing my project! Always remember to be selfless, but you cannot be passionate about anything else if you're not passionate about keeping yourself together!

"ETP" JO. 18 Mar, 2017.

It felt like I was in a void. From ages 17-20, there was this emptiness. Who am I? That question drove every decision I made over those three years. There are so many things I regret, but if I hadn't made every decision I did, I wouldn't be where I am now.

At 17 years old, I was attending GCE Lab School in my hometown, Chicago, Illinois. GCE was a crucial part of my life. I think it was honestly the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's ironic because my mother put me there. What would I do without her? She's 83 years young, and she still finds time to be the best person in my life. She guided me through my high school years. She was my Captain America. My teenage years weren't even that bad. Why did I need a hero? I wasn't bored. I wasn't starving. What I was doing, was fighting the greatest battle of them all. The fight against myself. My junior year of high school is when I began writing poetry. Shortly after that, I began my music adventure. Both of these things immediately became very important to me. Poetry was bliss. The writing wasn't even my favorite part. Whenever I met other artists, I couldn't wait to exchange art. I'm addicted to good energy! Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB), a poetry organization based in Chicago, was the start of my artistry. Thank you.

At 18 years old, I started thinking. A lot. There wasn't a lot of people on the same level as me. My views and daily thoughts got very philosophical and abstract. I started challenging, not only my beliefs but other peoples' as well. How did our kind get here? No one really knows. Are we not making assumptions based on educated guesses? No one was there when we were created. But I'm not here to preach to you about how your beliefs are wrong or anything like that, but I wanted to bring attention to the fact that somehow someway, we are meant for something. You have to find that something. This was my call. Shortly after that, I was accepted to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a huge change in momentum because I was going to stay in the city and study audio engineering and business, but I didn't want to turn down Morehouse. The opportunity was once in a lifetime. Music still seemed right. Music was powerful. It was creative, original, breathe-taking. I didn't understand the greatness of music for a while. When I started writing and making music, I quickly became more sensitive to art. I started respecting other artists a lot more. I began to understand the broadness of "artistry." I understood music was bigger than sound. Music is silence as well. Music is everywhere.

At 19 years old, my first hit single was released. Love was my first single that went platinum. I never knew this song would blow up like this, nor did I expect it to in the first place. The song is about keeping a stable relationship while being a full-time musician. Being a musician comes with touring, women, and non-stop recording. You can easily dig yourself into a deep hole. Teenage love is complicated. A snippet of the chorus of the song is below:

"She say she love me when I'm on the road
All these beau-ti-ful girls want me to fold
I need someone to keep me warm when it gets cold
But love it will save us until we grow old"

I wrote this story because when the music got serious, I felt myself growing distant from my significant other at the time. I really wanted to be with her so I began writing about how I felt. "All these beau-ti-ful girls want me to fold." I'm basically saying that there are so many women on tour that will try to destroy our relationship, but I won't let it happen. I use music to express myself. It's my language. I wrote "Ma Knows" a year later which was written for my mom. Music is literally another language. You understand some of it, but you can't understand all of it.

After my late teens, things just started going uphill, well, for the most part. The name of the artist collective I was in is called "Exit The Premises" (ETP). These were some of the best years of my life. This group was all of my best friends. All we did, was help each other unlock our potential as artists. We all had independent careers, but we were part of something bigger. Exit The Premises was a statement. Being in ETP was a statement, and we kept it strictly family which was convenient because our family was so talented. Our logo was an alien. This alien represented all of those people who don't exactly "fit in." It was strictly for the creative and experimental. One of our mottos was to just try new things and stop being so hard on ourselves. It was important to realize that music doesn't just have one sound.

My mother is one of the dearest people to me. She taught me to be resilient and to challenge the status quo. She has proven to be the reason for all of my accomplishments. My mother went through a lot. She had me at 16 years old. It was hard, to say the least. I couldn't imagine having a child at that age. The responsibilities and the burden on my social life would be tremendous. My mother quickly became an adult. I almost ruined her teenage years. She loved me, though, and she kept moving forward. My mother's resilience is crazy. She is the reason that I try to be the strongest person I can be. The hardest thing my mom went through was post high school decisions. My mother wanted to go to college for hair. Her mother told her that it is was unrealistic. My mother ended up going to college for what her mother wanted and not for what she wanted. I didn't want to make the same mistake. I ended up going to Morehouse for business, just to understand the business aspect of music, and to be in Atlanta.

My life has been unreal. I starting touring at age 19. I eventually did drop out of Morehouse my sophomore year, but it was a hard decision to make and I had to make it. After obtaining 8 grammies over 10 years, at the age of 29, I started taking online classes at Texas University. I ended up getting my Bachelors Degree. It was for me, as a milestone, and for my family as well. I am now, at the age of 68, a co-founder of Exit The Premises (ETP) and CEO of $$ Records, Where Artists Are Free.

Do Results Overshadow Intentions?

In our third, and last unit, we discussed what a matriarch is and who could be described as a matriarch in our lives. The term matriarch is commonly used to describe someone who is very mentally strong, or positively cruel; meaning when you care about others so much, you are a bit hard on them, so they're ready for the real world. They can also be described as old/wise, or selfless. We read A Raisin In The Sun, highlighting a character, Mama as the matriarch of the story. She is wise, old, and quite selfless. For our Action Project, we chose from a specific scene of A Raisin In The Sun and followed a main character of that scene through the story. We identified glory, their downfall, and the consequences of his actions. We commented on the character's different moments by writing commentary in the form of a Greek chorus. I chose the character of Walter because of his commitment to family and his love for being in charge. In my Action Project, I chose to address the issue of blockbusting, that started in the 1940s and still takes place in different ways today. My chorus is ultimately highlighting Walter as a man of love and family, and defending him in losing the $6500 that Mama gave to him. The story will be explained below...

Modern Day Historic Conversation

For the second Unit of my "Drama" class, we studied how people view women as "dolls" and how some women or men have stood up to "gender roles" through theater. Throughout this unit, we have read and discussed all of two play writes: "A Doll's House" and "The Little Foxes." In both plays, there was a woman or man who brought upon stereotypes of how women "should" play their role in a relationship. My peers and I, also attended a play about Marie Antoinette and discussed how she follows the expectations of "gender roles." For our action project, we had to create a script for a conversation that we would have with a character from A Doll's House. We also had to choose a female historic figure to add to our conversation, and I chose Hera, the queen of all gods and goddess. I chose Hera because she would be very interesting in explaining the role of women as she has ruled her whole life. My conversation sets in Hera's palace, with special guest "Zan" from Little Foxes, as we discuss how the world has changed as our generations have past.

Remember Your Values Kate

My last Humanities course of the year, Drama, is all about how we view females through the work of plays. In Unit 1, we defined what a "shrew" was and how it relates to feminism. A shrew is a women who likes to bend the rules and let her voice be heard, loudly. The purpose of the assignment we had to do was to help us understand how Shakespeare time period affected feminism. I honestly think that women should have as much power as anyone else. It's just that, we have created this world where women are inferior to men, but not enough women fight back. If not most, some even contribute to the stereotypes of them being inferior by living under these stereotypes. The shrew of our story, "The Taming of the Shrew," is the one and only Kat. Kat was an once empowering woman who believed that women should be in control of their own lives. I want to help her re-realize this through my poem!




Who writes your book?
Men are controlling and menacing, can't you see
You call that love? But your life is what he took
You say, "And be it moon, or sun, or what you please, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

Is the merriment thought of living a justified life so bad?
Ofcourse you were once the person I sought you to be
But, no cullion is important enough for you to give up your life for free
All you really need is the stomach to regain your true sense for no fee, because that's who you should be to me….. yourself

You may not ever give up your beliefs for no one!
And even then, keep your beliefs because you are a swine
Kat let them hear you purr, by the way there is no disrespect, you're the swine women can only wish they were
Attitude is what makes you fine as wine

Remember, for what I tell you is only gonna make you step forth
Think I'm lying, then let your self tell you to rise north

The Absolutely Positively False Diary of A Full-Time Indian

In my third and last action project for my Forbidden Books class, my peers and I were assigned to read a book. The whole third unit was revolved around "Diversity," which happens to be the name of the unit as well. We discussed how derogatory language can get you in trouble and how effectively it's can influence a person. We also discovered a little bit more about why Diversity can be "dangerous" in some ways. I chose the book, "The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian." I chose This book because it kind of spoke to me, I found the term used in the title, about "part-time," pretty interesting. For this project, we had to take our book and analyze it, using one of the five different interpretations. I chose to interpret my text by defining how the main character of my book is a "gadfly." The book is definitely a wonderful read, and it's really fun to follow the storyline, too! I would recommend it, even though it was hard to interpret.

Deshawn Rivers

Forbidden Books

March 18, 2015

The Absolutely Positively False Diary of A Full-Time Indian

Is someone different because they don’t look the same as you? In that case, what’s the definition of “differen”? Well, then everyone would be different, right? Because everyone doesn’t look the same! If this is true (which it is), then why did people come up with “same”? We have to correctly define “different” in order to abolish discrimination. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India, takes place in an Indian reservation 21 miles away from Reardan in Washington State. Junior, the protagonist of the story,  is looked at differently just because he looks different than the Whites. He ends up going to school in Reardan which is why much of the story is set there. Junior is a gadfly because he encourages people to look past discrimination and discouragement by utilizing his ability to be both White and Indian.

For one thing, Junior acts as a gadfly by always making his voice heard. By making his voice heard, he bypasses all Indian stereotypes to make an impression on the White people. For example, when Junior started attending Reardan. Reardan is a completely different environment, compared to the rez, where he originally went to school, due to the fact that it is composed of mostly White people. Knowing how Whites treat Indians, Junior continues to want more. Junior bypasses the fact that Indians aren’t supposed to have “hope” and attends Reardan where he will prosper. This goes to show that Junior is about his values and fulfilling his dreams, and he doesn’t let any words hold him back from having his own “hope.” Junior wants what’s best for himself and could care less about what others think, “I want to go to Reardan,” I said again. I couldn’t believe I was saying it. For me, it seemed as real as saying, “I want to fly to the moon.” (Alexie 46)

Another key point is that Junior is full Indian, in contradiction with the title of the novel, which is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The meaning behind the title is that Junior went to depths that no other Indian at his rez would have attempted, and he is no longer “full” Indian since he spends most his time with Whites. The point that the author of the book was trying to make was that Junior is full Indian, but the way he was portrayed is Indian and White. He wanted to have “hope” so much, he had to at least act like a White person a little bit. It’s a statement that is installed in most people’s minds because we are trained to think superiority exists. He even started adapting to the White environment by making friends and doing things like joining the basketball team and taking rides home from people at the White school. An example of how the Whites treat the Indians is when Junior went to the dental office, “And what’s more, our White dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as White people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain” (Alexie 2).

Furthermore, Junior is a gadfly because he showed the Indians and Whites what they didn’t want to see. He went to a school in contradiction with his social background and he made “change” which most publishers or readers may have interpreted as dangerous. Most people may have seen Junior’s actions as “dangerous” because he tried something that no other Indians would have tried. Junior was the one to stop being a bystander. He wasn’t going to live behind some false stereotypes, and I think that he proved the Whites wrong. Although Junior had some harsh realizations, he grew as a person and realized that the Rez is home, despite all the stereotypes. He still did a very courageous thing in attending Reardan and he may have inspired others to be Indian. Junior destroyed Indian stereotypes for lots of people in the story. Although the protagonist is trying to fulfill his dreams and do something different, Junior starts to realizes that there is no place like home, “So what was I doing in racist Reardan, where more than half of every graduating class went to college? Nobody in my family had ever gone near a college” (Alexie 56).

Hoping  people will open their eyes and their minds to stop discrimination against "different" people, no matter their color, size or, shape. Anyone can do what they want when they want. Believe it or not, most people started to think of this book as a threat. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was first censored in Reardan, Washington. This place was also inside of the book, where Junior went to school. It’s pretty unfair and unconstitutional. To be honest, it’s just a book, there’s no intentions of disrespectful content, especially to the government or brainwashing children. Main factors of why the book was censored were because of: sexual content, profanity, racism, homosexuality, “dangerous” content on rebelling.

Consequently, the "interracial" Junior annoyed the other characters with his courage and curiosity. To reiterate; my first topic was how Juniors bypassed stereotypes so people would understand/ and or hear him. My second topic was, Junior is full Indian, contradicting the name of the book. My third topic is that Junior is a Gadfly because he showed the Whites what they didn’t want to see. He agitated Whites and Indians with his craziness, creativity, and drive, just how a gadfly agitates people.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. Chaos: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. Print.

"Banned Books Discussion." Banned Books. Joseph, 22 June 2009. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian Censored. Digital image. Flickr. Robert Dumas, 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.