free Tibet
free you
be Tibet
be me
and then
tell me
whom to hate
July 2001, the International Olympic Committee votes to make Beijing ground zero for the 2008 Summer Games.
January 10, 2008, I'm cascading amidst the prayer flags in Upper Dharamsala, McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama's India based government-in-exile.
March 14, 2008, I'm back in the addiction riddled States, Tibetan's willing to take blows as the world's eyes turn to Lhasa.
April 9, 2008, the Olympic torch builds and burns bridges all through San Francisco.
April 11, 2008, the Dalai Lama is on his way to Seattle, and squeezes in a press conference on a layover in Narita, Japan, where reminds the world how compassion works: "We are not anti-Chinese. Right from the beginning, we supported the Olympic Games."
But he also says that when it comes to protestors, no one "has the right to tell them to shut up."
Free Tibet? No doubt.
But it's about more than supporting any one campaign. More than Free Tibet: Free Palestine, Free! Free! Free Palestine! More than Free Mumia: Free All Political Prisoners. It is more than a campaign, it's about alignment. It's about that moment on the dancefloor, when you are so in sync with the music that every dancer around you can't help but to groove harder.
In what way are we all political prisoners?
I am most aligned with global struggles when I am actively aware of the ways I work to liberate my own person. In my case, liberation has everything to do with the daily fight for my life post-incest.
I've organized since I was 15, keynoted Take Back The Night's, emceed Artists Against Rape, and take note, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. But even now, it's still hard to justify dealing with what happened to me. How do I integrate my life's personal campaign with organizing and educating communities?
Read the rest of the post »
Pride and Prejudice: How South Asians Relate To Hip-Hop
Madison Avenue, New York City, August 19, 2007 If you'da checked for me a couple Sunday's ago, I'da been standing on Madison Avenue cheering on the India Day Parade. Thousands strong, brown and proud, 60 years since a world witnessed us get free from British occupation non-violently and violently.
Here's what the India Day Parade sounded like.
The neighbourhood and professional association floats had Chak De India's nationalistic Girl Power theme song on high rotation with other Bollywood hits in between. Bhajans (our call and response gospel) emanated from the spiritual floats. DJ's and travel industry folks dug a Bhangra groove into the street soundtrack, interspersing insanely danceable tunes with the foundational Punjabi MC-Jay Z hip-hop anthem, "Beware of the Boys."
When a DJ float filled to the brim with young brown men going dumb in button ups veered into Fifty's latest, "I Get Money," the teenagers' kept right on singing, body motions seamlessly shifting from Bhangra's up-and-down crunk beats to hip-hop's back-and-forth thrust . As I watched, three African-American male on-lookers nudged each other and laughed. I bristled, and yet, I could relate to how it feels to have people bite. I wondered: What's the state of the relationship between South Asian's and hip-hop?
Read the rest of the post »
Roopa Singh is a political poet, an adjunct professor of international political science at Pace University and a theater instructor with South Asian Youth Action. Visit her blog, with "All the News That's Fit to Flip."