The BLK ProjeK continues its hustle to turn a piece of neglected parkland into a flourishing, cooperatively, community owned & run urban farm.
The BLK ProjeK is currently planning the Libertad Urban Farm Family Fun Block Party. The block party will be a day of urban farm awareness, a chance for community members to become acquainted with the possibilities of what an urban farm can mean to their community, how to get involved as well as having a bunch of fun while doing it.  This block party will also serve to help raise funds to continue to get this initiative under way.
There will be performances, workshops, raffles, demonstrations and food. We need your help! Help us to raise funds to pull this off!

Our current date is September 26th, 2009 from 12-6 PM. The location: Fox Street between Leggett Avenue and 156th street in the Boogie Down Bronx.
All donations are tax deductible, since we are still in the process of applying for 501(c)3 status our current fiscal sponsor is Mothers on the Move.
If you would like to donate (and we really really really need you to) address all money orders to:

Mothers on the Move 725 Fox Street Apt. 1B Bronx, NY 10455  and place The BLK Projek in the memo line

or if you prefer to pay online you can do so here: Brown Paper Tickets- Donate!
This promises to be an event that is off the chain and for a good cause so help us make it happen!

View a slideshow of work we have been doing

Check out our YouTube Video

The BLK Projek’s Holistic Hood project is moving like a fret train people! We have added…drum roll please- ACUPUNCTURE!

Yep - if you are stressed, overwhelmed, suffering from physical ailments then this is for you. The BLK ProjeK in partnership with Mothers on the Move will be bringing you FREE ACUPUNCTURE.

Our first Free Acupuncture Thursday was August 13th and it went DOPELY. I didn’t really anticipate the response. I mean even Jessica from Square Rootz came up from BK to get poked (lol). Folks didn’t believe me when I said make an appointment and a few left a lil salty because they had to wait longer than expected.

If you are interested Jomo, our licensed, board certified acupuncturist will be back THIS THURSDAY, August 20th.

Where: Mothers on the Move 928 Intervale Bronx, NY 10459

Time: 6:30 - 8 PM

APPOINTMENTS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
There is more news! Holistic Hood Yoga has moved to Thursdays!

Join our fabulous Instructor Camellia for Hatha Yoga. If you have never taken yoga before don’t worry, our class is a great low impact class that will teach you how to cope with stress through, breathing, chanting and holding specific poses.

Where: Mothers on the Move 928 Intervale Bronx, NY 10459

Time: 6:30 - 8 PM

PLEASE BE ON TIME AS SPACE IS LIMITED!

For more questions or to make appointments please contact Tanya at Tanya (at) BLKGRL (dot) com.

Walk with me people cuz this is been on my mind for a minute.

A couple a months ago I caught myself calling a particularly whining ass male a pussy. He exhibited weak behavior, he was whiney, he seemed…feminine. The fact that was my line of thinking is what made me stop and ask myself “well what the hell is so terrible about feminine?”

Hence the nuanced misogyny that even I, a self-proclaimed womanist has internalized. The more I thought about this, the more ludicrous it seemed. Candidly speaking, pussies are great. I am not just saying that because I have one (well maybe I am). The reality is that they facilitate birth, they give life, they are the very embodiment of strength and some of them are even a great addition to one’s diet ☺.

The reason that being a “pussy” is insulting is because it is associated with being feminine and being feminine is somehow inherently associated with weakness. I could explore this even more but this is a blog not my graduate thesis so I will just allow ya’ll to marinate on it for a minute.  And I know a few of you will say calling someone the male genitalia is insulting too and yes, yes it is. But calling someone a dick has a completely different connotation and it doesn’t speak to weakness or one’s inability, that’s my ultimate point.

Being a pussy makes you incapable, it makes you weak, it makes you a WOMAN.

This may seem trivial but it’s time for us to start thinking about the subtle way we condition our children, ourselves to think about women and what it means to be feminine…or not.

The Who’s That BLK GRL? shoot was freaking bananas! I have to say thanks first and foremost to my kick ass crew. Aeric, the photographer is a lighting and aesthetic genius; Jewel, the makeup artist is knowledgeable and fun; Lacey, the hair stylist sweet yet dangerous with a flat iron and brush and last but not least Curtis, the wardrobe stylist, Jack of All Trades and has mastered every one. The team was just one cohesive, effective styling machine and I could not have been happier.

Now…Drum roll please…

The ladies of BLK GRL!

I was completely blessed to have the women commit and I would now like to introduce you to the women who I feel embody what BLK GRL is all about. BLK Tees isn’t just about t-shirts, it is another piece of the movement, another part of the struggle. We often seek to express part of ourselves through our clothing. We want the clothing we produce to further help move women of the DIASPORA forward thru positivity imagery that reflects the essence of our heritage and engaging text. The women who wear BLK Tees are conscious of their place in the world, they are creators, they are mothers giving birth to various forms of life and creativity, they are dynamic, they are strugglers.

Majora Carter- Majora is a world renowned Environmental Justice Activist and MacArthur Fellow(who also happens to be my boss) hailing from the South Bronx. She is most noted for helping to create the Hunts Point Riverside Park, securing 28 million dollars for the South Bronx Greenway and creating and effectively running Sustainable South Bronx from 2001-2008. In July 2008 she founded her consultancy the Majora Carter Group.

DJ t.elle- DJ t.elle is a 20 something MTV employee by day and an up and coming Hip Hop DJ by night. You can find her burning up the wheels of steel around the NYC area. But this chic isn’t just all hip-hop records and beats, she has plans to create her own non-profit looking to nurture young women of color to pursue college and foster leadership development.

La Bruja- La Bruja is an emcee, spoken word artist and actress. She has been featured on Def Poetry Jam, HBO Latina, toured various venues around the country and recorded several albums including Brujalicious.

TastyKeish- TastyKeish is one of the host of WBAI’s Rise up Radio and a rising Nightlife Personality. She has hosted parties at Madame X, Public Assembly, Sutra and other premier nightlife haunts around NYC.

Jasi B. - This early 20 something has tried her hand at many a thing and parlayed her real life experience into a boutique creative and branding agency. She is an upwardly mobile creative professional and a future mover and shaker to watch.

Natasha Paracha- Natasha is 2008’s Miss Pakistan. She is a humanitarian who created her own non-profit called Vision of Development. She also works for the United Nations.

That’s right ladies BLK Tees is on the come up…get some!

I have to tell you something. I tried. I tried really, really hard. I tried really hard for good and bad reasons. I tried with optimism. I tried because I am Black. I tried because I am working on getting to comfortable, useful, productive outside my own bubble, fabulosity. I tried to relate to Harlem Heights. I really really did. I tried to like it. I went to the premiere. I talked to some of the cast. I had an optimistic open mind. I spoke to different friends and random folk. I watched it with the mister (after much pleading on my part and trying to hear over his frequent interjections of “this shait ain’t real” and repeated snickers). I watched more than one episode.

And well y’all.

I just can’t jump on the “good show” bandwagon. The only things that I may have in common with the portrayal of these folks is the fact that we live in the same city, although I am a native as opposed to the cast of transplants; we are close in age; and ummmmmm (thinking really really hard right now) that is it.

My political soap box is in the closet and is not even needed for why I can’t get with the show. There is very little about the show, their chemistry, their clothes, their friends, their jobs, that is not manufactured and contrived for the sole purpose of being packaged for you to watch. I don’t know ANYBODY who interacts the way they do, both with each other and their surroundings. Their dramas are so pointless, especially in this day and age, that I wonder if any single person related to the show thought that anyone would get it. But there isn’t much to get… I am hoping and praying that one of the camera men will accidentally catch the cue card guy in a shot so that I can jump up and scream I told you so to anyone within 3 feet of me. I’d rather watch Keeping up with the Kardashians because at least I can like Kim’s makeup and won’t be subjected to a nasal scripted narration. I can even get with Baldwin Hills before this show because at least I know that they are immature and are trying to be adults and outright enjoying the fact that they are on TV.

Am I telling you not to watch?

Well don’t give up your bedtime for it. Maybe you could watch it because it is raining terribly outside and you cable signal went down and the only channels that you are able to receive are BET and Slavic International Network. Otherwise, go be your age and do something productive.

This is the community I live in, the community I fight for everyday with out the slightest bit of apology yet I know they mistrust me. I hear the conversations in the few pieces of Spanish I can understand, I am often deliberately

overlooked in stores, at restaurants, brushed aside because I am Black. I recently went into a dispatch station to catch a cab and a driver came out. He didn’t ask who was there first he asked the lady next to me something in Spanish and signaled for her to go. I looked in disbelief at the dispatcher who apologetically told me to just wait one minute he would get a cab for me. I had been standing there first but I didn’t exist, I wasn’t one of “them”. This has happened to me countless times, in countless places in my own community.
This is what I have and am struggling with, when did I become a “them”. When did they become an “us”.  I feel a comradery with my Brown neighbors that is not always reciprocated.

But it comes from my folks as well. Often I hear my Black friends and neighbors verbalize their mistrust and distaste for their Latin counterparts and I am just as dumbfounded and viewed naive when I object to the generalization.

Sheiiit, lets be real, Brown people don’t trust each other, my Puerto Rican neighbor often talks about how dumb and backwards Dominicans are. And shit everyone makes fun of and ostracizes the Mexicans.
The reality is we need to wake up. It is this type of residual imperialistic and racist internalizations that stops us from creating progress. We so often get caught up in the differences we fail to realize that we face many of same barriers even if the variants are different, the results are quite often the same. We also fail to check ourselves on how we continue to perpetuate many of the systematic oppressions that we have more often than not been the victims of. And the truth of the matter people is that as long as we continue to perpetuate the victimization of another group of brown and black people, including the various shades that make up the group we belong to then don’t be surprised that we keep getting stuck and can’t evolve as fast as we would like.

It is very simple.  We need each other and our inability to love each other reflects our inability to love an intricate part of ourselves.

With wide-ranging, scenic shots of Harlem streets and staple hot spots, Harlem Heights definitely makes use of their ninth cast member.

For those unfamiliar with the village of Harlem it is the gentrification capital of New York City , once the epicenter of the Negro Renaissance. Malcolm X spoke in these streets. Adam Clayton Powell repped Harlemites in Washington and elsewhere. W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, the list goes on and on.

And herein lies part of the problem. Harlem Heights is more of the black version of The Hills than a New Negro Revolution caught on camera. While the eight central cast members are likable enough, theirs is a concocted microcosm that while not entirely wrong, is a bit out of touch with real life. Yes it is absolutely refreshing to see colored folks not fighting to the moral death in an arena of buffoonery and coonishness for a whole three minutes of fame. And it helps that they are doing things other than the traditional music and sports to get their names in lights. They all seem bright and ambitious. They are well dressed thanks to June Ambrose’s guiding hand. They are well spoken, courtesy of collegiate completion. And in a city where the cost of living is ginormous they have the semblance of being well heeled.

This is this not a reality for most of their native neighbors. Harlem is being gentrified by the yuppy hipsters, but there are still a collection of social ills that plague colored Harlem folk. To actually see productive colored folks move uptown in an effort to preserve some of the, well, color is commendable. Their political analysis (so far) is trite, narrow minded and borderline ig’nant. Yes Barack made it to the Oval Office, but please please please do not equate that with the dams of systematic and institutionalized racism crashing down for regular everyday folks. There are still class and socioeconomic issues that play into so many of the lives of people in Harlem and other urban areas, that the Obama effect is only just beginning to touch.

The Cast at the 3/2/09 Premiere at the Apollo

I am not so much making an indictment of the choices (personal, connections, nepotism or otherwise) that were made to get them to this point. I’m just saying…

At times dialogue and interactions seem awkward and forced. The narration is a bit shrill and could use more bass.

Pierre is the “pretty boy” former college basketball star with family issues that he is trying to overcome. Brooke is the MTV producer and ex-girlfriend of Kanye West. Landon is the son of former public affairs director and community developer Larry Dais. Bridget is also a former MTV employee and good friends with Brooke and cousin to Briana who is the technical designer for Victoria ’s Secret Pink. Jason is the single dad and a native of Harlem. Ashlie is the bartender by night, actress by day and frenemie of Brooke. And Christian is the Morehouse alum and Lifestyle Editor of Dime Magazine.

I will be tuning in just to see how this all plays out. Can’t say I’ll be riveted and glued to the couch, but there will always be the reruns.

I consider myself a pretty conscious, righteous person. I mean like any person I have my conundrums and contradictions but when it comes to music I liken it to food. What you put in will surely have an affect on what comes out. If you want to think clearly, evolve as a person then watch what your mind consumes and sorry kids most of the shit in the mainstream music business is utter nonsense.

BUT

I have to admit, I freaking love The Dream. There I said it and I feel like a load has been lifted off of my chest. Everything this man has produced and put out and in the last year, I have been all over it. I Love Your Girl, yep. Falsetto, yep. Rockin That Shit, yep.