Join the Too Big For My Skin Campaign

Check out this amazing video and note from Minneapolis's own amazing Desdamona and get involved!

Too Big For My Skin - The Campaign

Hello - I'm writing to invite you to be a part of The Too Big For My Skin Campaign. Many of you have probably heard my poem by the same name. But "Too Big for My Skin" is not just a poem. With the help of BFresh there is now a video for the poem. We are working to build an international campaign that invites people to leave responses to the video in the comment section or to submit their very own video response.

It's about positive body image, acceptance and strength.

It's about finding your voice and speaking.

Join us in the campaign.

More is to come! We are planning on expanding the project to include interviews with the women in the video. A group of women from Loyola University have already taken the title as their theme for the year.

The word is spreading. Send it along to others who you feel may benefit from seeing and hearing the words.

I am hoping to tour the video and do workshops in correlation with the video and well as performances and Q&A. So, if anyone is interested in this please contact me: desdamona4@aol.com

Thanks!
Desdamona

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About Desdamona

DESDAMONA is an international, award-winning artist; who has taken her distinct lyrics, sound and artistic stylings to audiences from Minnesota to Hawaii, from Puerto Rico to Germany; gracing some of Hip Hop and poetry’s most illustrious stages.

ALONGSIDE: Desdamona has had the pleasure of opening up for distinguished artists including Wyclef Jean, GURU, Bahamadia, Zap Mama, Black Uhuru/Sly & Robbie, Saul Williams, Ursula Rucker and Rhymesayers Artists. She has also shared the stage with other influential Hip Hop artists including Canada’s Eternia and bgirl Rockafella.

EVENTS & TOURS: Desdamona is one of the founders of B Girl Be, the first international festival, which celebrates women in Hip Hop. She was a featured performer at the We B*Girlz Festival in Berlin, Germany (2008), the SheRock Festival (2008), and was a Minnesota Music Awards featured performer (2005). Desdamona won the award for Best Spoken Word Artist from the MN Music Awards five consecutive years. Desdamona was a featured artist on the SummerJam Tour (2007) with legendary, Grammy Award winning artists Sly & Robbie. She and beatbox partner Carnage (as Ill Chemistry) also headlined The 2nd Nature Tour (2008).

No one puts baby in the corner

A quote to live by, a song to love, a dance to remember.

It is also so funny to remember what was "dirty dancing" in 1987...

And look how much my wuzband and me look like Johnny and Baby.

And then there's this. Oh so timely and hilarious!

Ellen!

This is why I love Ellen Degeneres. She is my middle aged white girl dancing diva role model! Go Ellen Go Ellen Go Ellen!

Blaog -- by Bao Phi

UPDATE DEC 27, 2011: This year Bao Phi published his first book of poetry, “Sông I Sing.” It is off the chain good. Get it today! 


Here is an excerpt of a review from the New York Times:

In this strong and angry work of what he calls refugeography, Bao Phi, who has been a performance poet since 1991, wrestles with immigration, class and race in America at sidewalk level.

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"Blaog" is a new blog in the Star Tribune's "Your voices" by Bao Phi, an amazing performance artist and poet from Minneapolis. He is also an incredibly kind and generous person who speaks a fierce and lovely truth. Go to this blog and read it!!!!!

A little more about Bao: Bao Phi has been a performance poet since 1991. A two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, Bao Phi has appeared on HBO Presents Russell Simmons Def Poetry, and a poem of his appeared in the 2006 Best American Poetry anthology.

You MUST go read the whole blog, but a couple of excerpts are below:

As a three month old baby, I spent an evening in my mother’s arms at Tan Son Nhat as bombs fell for hours and hours, shaking the dark bomb shelter around us. My family was huddled with many other Viets as the airport was shelled all night long, trying to wait out the bombardment, waiting for our chance to escape.
With the aid of Lutheran sponsors we tropical people settled in Phillips in South Minneapolis, unprepared for a life of snow and English speakers and hot dish made with hamburger meat and little tater tots on top. When we came as the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees, local papers ran articles about how we kidnapped pets in order to eat them, how Viet gangsters had taken over Coffman Union’s basement and plotted murders over the pool tables and would kill you for looking at one of ‘our women’....

....It’s over 30 years later, and not much has changed. My parents still live in that house, two blocks from the Little Earth projects. People are still saying Asians eat cats and dogs, except now it’s plastered all over billboards for certain wealthy white eateries and they’re winning national advertising awards for their blatant racism...

...Understand that, at this point in my life, I feel more privileged than I ever have. My partner and I bought a small, fixer-upper house in Powderhorn. She and I are not rich but we are not starving, and I have a steady job which I absolutely love...

...One of the insidious benefits of being a person of color raised in Minnesota is to be acutely aware of how race impacts you on several different levels...

...Being an Asian American writer, writing about Asian American issues, is to risk going unread. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is, we need to exist.

Bao, Thank you for continuing to put your voice into the universe!

Warrior Girl

Music feeds the soul. I made this mix for a special Warrior Girl. Music for strength, courage, and healing.

1. Say Hey (I Love You) [feat. Cherine Anderson], Michael Franti & Spearhead
2. Salala, Angélique Kidjo Feat. Peter Gabriel
3. Bandy Bandy (Featuring Erykah Badu),Zap Mama & Erykah Badu
4. Sweet Melody, Zap Mama
5. Up Above My Head (I Hear Music In the Air), Ruthie Foster
6. I Believe I Can Fly, Etta James
7. Oh Happy Day, Etta James
8. Melodies from Heaven, Kirk Franklin
9. Lean On Me, Kirk Franklin
10. Three Little Birds, Bob Marley & The Wailers
11. Rivers of Babylon, The Melodians
12. Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens
13. Just The Two Of Us, Bill Withers
14. Blackbird, Dionne Farris
15. Skylark, Cassandra Wilson
16. Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
17. God Bless the Child, Jill Scott
18. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
19. My Girl, The Spinners

Most of mix can be found on iTunes here.