Whatcha Up To Q?

Peace All... I'm working on a small blog about the Charles Barkley situation, but before I go into specifics about that subject, being that it's been such a long time that I've actually blogged about anything, let alone shown any of my artwork, I'd thought I send a smidgen of something that I'm working on right now. More later! Enjoy!

X'd Out Again? My opinions on the recent Malcolm X controversies.

Peace all, Let's skip the chit chat and let's get down to business, OK? First my apologies for what may seem to many to be a late blog, seeing that we are now living in the age where "news" is trendy, and people are now given the impression that things work in a vacuum, or at least are considered "isolated". I assure you although this bit of "news" is about a few weeks old, it all ties into a much bigger picture. And allthough I thought of speaking frankly about Nicki Minaj's song Lookin' Ass Nigga, I hesitated much, one because of my procrastination, but also because I witness more "knee jerk" reactions when news hits the air nowadays. We tend to take the little information we feel we know, and then comment right away based on what we have at that moment. I for one think this is planned by the main press. However, if there is anything that 9/11 has taught us, especially for those who do not believe the official story, is to research, research, research before coming to conclusions that affect the masses of people.

The controversy surrounding Nicki Minaj's song with the Malcolm X picture is one of many attempts to distort the name and the legacy of the late Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz, better know as Malcolm X. Although she supposedly apologized and removed the image, stating that this was a conversation piece and was not the official first song off the album, it still poses as a marketing tactic that Michael Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use To Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us To Buy, says that Calvin Klein used in 1995 when it pulled its controversial ad after an uproar from the public, and even the federal government.  In his opinion it really didn't matter that CK apologized and pulled the ad , because the controversy surrounding it and the attention it garnered was the main focus. It didn't adversely affect CK's bottom line in the end, and I don't think this incident will affect Nicki's bottom line either, seeing that many who were disgusted with the song and image most likely don't buy her work to begin with, and not to mention it won't affect the sponsorship she gets from "old money." Her target audience probably doesn't know a thing about Malcolm and what he stood for, nor the background behind the image. But I'll discuss that issue later.

 How many of us remember what happened around the same time of this controversy? You know In Queens, NY? The issue involving the teacher who barred her students from writing any reports about Malcolm because she thought that he was a bad man? How many of us who may have heard or read the article noticed that the elementary teacher who made the remarks was nowhere to be mentioned by name in ANY ARTICLE? Nor was the teacher even interviewed by any media who covered the story? Doesn't that sound strange to you, that the accused is not mentioned nor interviewed as to why they would make such remarks?

Many people have forgotten so quickly about the book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, a book written by Manning Marable, a book that caused so much controversy because of its claims that Malcolm had a homosexual encounter in his hustler day, as well as allegations of having a tumultous marriage life with Betty Shabazz, especially with his busy schedule, among other claims. I didn't read the book at all after hearing what some of the book entails, simply because I didn't believe that I wanted to read a so called definitive book entitled A Life of Reinvention about a man who died in 1965, only to have supposed stark revelations 45-46 years AFTER his death? I don't think it would've taken the American press THAT LONG to dig up dirt on such an important figure.

And to think this book won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012, despite the criticism received from his children and close associates? So who's really behind this?

Well deeper research brings up a figure by the name of Wendy Wolf, a self proclaimed progressive who is the editor and publisher of Viking Books, who went on a tour touting this book and the supposed craftsmanship of a writer such as Manning Marable. However after listening to her make statements about Malcolm's "native" intelligence, and her own admission that she did not read the book in its' entirety due to the fact that it "scared" her, one must ask oneself would a person publish a book which castes a good light on a man that they practically can't stand?

 By now if you're still reading this, you're probably thinking "ok, another person claiming conspiracy" and to each it's own. I just think something smells fishy when one recollects the recent events and put them together. Why is this man hated so? Why is there an attempt to either distort the name and what he stood for, or at least neutralize his influence, which one can bear witness when one looks at the number people he influenced from the former members of the Nation of Islam to the international love he gets from within and outside the Muslim World, the white Muslims who point to his autobiography as a major influence in their becoming Muslim, to the ever growing love and support from the Hip Hop Community?

But I have an even more pressing question. In light of the events that's going on in America, with gentrification all over the place, the growing discontent for America's first Black President, the killing, miseducation, disenfranchisement and incarceration of Black people, especially Black Men beyond the likes of Trayvon, Oscar and Jordan, with the drone strikes and security breaches and invasion of privacy going on in a global fashion, why do we see these sporadic attacks on a man who's been dead for 49 years? Why would an unnamed teacher seek to dissaude their students from writing about such a figure if old people are supposed to be "irrelevant"? Or are they really sporadic? Are they controlled in the press as to what, when and how we receive such information?

 Is it because he represents a  dramatic transformation from hustler to a well respected world figure for human rights and self sufficiency, instead of a figurehead that's controlled by old money and corporations, who seeks to intergrate with a society who feels and teaches the inherent inferiority of Blacks? Is it because he saw the false empathy from White Liberals, and made many statements against the likes of them, for example in an open roundtable he made this statement in 1961:

  Most of your white liberals who profess to love Negroes and who profess to be pushing for this integration thing, they themselves live as a rule in lily-white neighborhoods and sometimes they’re the first ones to put the FOR SALE sign on their door when a Negro who has fallen for this integration thing moves into their neighborhood. I think that it’s very hypocritical today for me as a black man and the white man to sit down with each other and pro fess that there is a great deal of love between us. 

  Or another statement: ...no the Jews are the ones who usually represent themselves as white liberals. More so probably than any other segment of this society. Now if the Jews are genuinely liberal and they want to help the Negro, then they should show the Negro how to use the same kind of strategy and tactics to solve his problem that they used to solve their problems. And you’ll find that all over this country, wherever the Jews have been segregated and Jim Crowed, they haven’t sat in, they haven’t been sittin’ or Freedom Riders, they usually go and use the economic weapon. They bought Atlantic City, and now they can go there. They bought Miami Beach and now they can go there.

  Or another statement: We see masses of Black people who are thoroughly fed up with the deceit of the so-called white liberals, or the white so-called liberals. White liberals who have posed as our friends, white liberals who have been eager to point out what the white man in the South is doing to our people there, while they themselves are doing the same thing to us here in the North.

Why isn't he projected as an example for all of the young Black hustlers as a vehicle for transformation and reformation? Why do we have to keep hearing Dr. King's speeches about I have a dream, which was about intergration, and not about Black people's quest for justice, human rights and independence? Is intergration going to make these young men pull up their pants, start respecting their elders and become more responsible, and not lead lives that will either have them in prison or dead? I think not.

Or, do we really want to see transformation or reformation among young Black men or in the Black community? That's my real question.... www.qartworks.com

And Here's The Olds...

I mean the news, well considering this has been going on since Reagan, and maybe even before, this is nothing new, nor is it short of laughable. Not to mention who the heck is the Next News Network?

Post by Activist Post.

Is It Really?(Not Enough)

Peace all,

I had intended to do a blog about this tripped-out documentary I saw entitled "Prohibition" from PBS, about the history of the Law of Prohibition on Alcohol in America, and the repealling of the law, but I'll hold off on that, because I'm still trippin' on it....LOL


Things have been jumping recently for me, and I have everyone to thank for the support, it is greatly appreciated. For starters, I have received an offer from another library to display my work...I can't begin to tell you how pumped up when I received the email, and now I have other things on hand to boot, but I can't tell ya right now....

LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE COOKING UP FOR THE Q!

Yeah, they do look that way, I just pray that I can take everything in stride, not forgetting what and Who am I doing this for! I keep thinking this thing almost didn't happen.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

I mean I had presented the proposal to the librarian for the CWATIC exhibit, even after going through all of the other drama, and I had pretty much dropped the whole thing, but something internally inspired me to give it to her. The day I was ready to chuck it all in, she summoned me up to the desk and after explaining everything to her, I showed her the website, and then she introduced me to another librarian, who saw what I did, and she just took off and took it to another level, and it hasn't stopped since. Regardless of what happens, this is definitely a lesson to keep going regardless of how things look...I am ever grateful to my Creator for this, and grateful to those who supported me in any and every way.

SO WAS THIS ONE OF THE PICTURES AT THE EXHIBIT?

Yeah, it's called Not Enough. It was constructed almost two years ago, but I displayed it at the exhibit, and it was well received by both young and old. I didn't think it would go over so well, but they loved the blue and the message it contained. The red bowl added to the contrast.

SO EXPLAIN BRIEFLY THE MEANING...

Well it just to show that a growing number of Americans(and the rest of the world too as a matter of fact) are not able to fulfill their basic needs due to the criminal economy and the hyperinflation of basic goods and needs to a point where the average citizen may have to face a decision of whether to drop the health insurance, or have to cut back on nutrition, or letting go of some other type of basic need. Despite this there are some who are not suffering who do not see this discrepancy and do not see the effects of globalization, and make statements such as "any job is better than no job at all." But they miss the point greatly when they realize the menial jobs cannot cover the ever increasing costs of health care( or as one author wrote in a book disease care, which seems more appropriate) and the costs of food(whatever happened to Wal Mart price rollbacks?), not too mention insurance for every freaking thing from homeowners to car insurance to life insurance, to....oh my!!!!

SO PEOPLE REALLY MAKE SUCH STATEMENTS?

Yes they do...funny how humans can forget about others' plight and only judge another's situation based on their own experience, they also fail to understand the difference between a "little" job and not having any job is that even with a "little" job, you will eventually lose everything you own, it just doesn't happen right away....This picture also reminds me of a young man with five children and whose wife recently needed surgery, but was denied Medicaid because his $10 an hour job was deemed as too much for Medicaid to cover the surgery. Then we have politicians who prove everyday that they are more concerned with the corporations and the elite who oppress and exploit, who say in their campaigns for election that they are content with seeing someone dying rather than to sehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife to it that they would receive care.



WHAT ABOUT OBAMACARE?

Please don't get me started on that....just check out the language, and not just what they say, but what they "don't" say.

SO TRUE...

WHERE CAN ONE SEE THIS AND OTHERS LIKE IT?

www.qartworks.com Just click on the link and I hope enjoy it...

Take care all....CWATiC @ WWW.QARTWORKS.COM

MARCH MADNESS IS HERE!

March Madness is here...NO NOT THE NCAA TOURNAMENT! My version of March Madness! LOL




It's been a very eventful year to say the least for the Q and things are right now topsy-turvy. My interview with Angel Ayes which was rescheduled to March 7th(Hey, that's tomorrow, right?) will go on as planned, despite the ever-continuing saga of trying to get some decent internet access. This crap is really beginning to eat at me to the core, with all of the mishaps and stuff going on. I signed onto this service last week, only to have my activation date start TODAY! A FULL WEEK! Then as I tried to activate my account, no access...

So I call tech support today to see what was going on, and they have to escalate my issue to Level 2, which will be tomorrow, hopefully. Sooooo, while connecting to the modem I discovered that I can actually connect to server of my old provider, JUNO, but I would have to pay for the delinquent services in order to the internet. So simple, just call back and pay the bill and have the account reactivated, right? OH SO WRONG!

Usually I do not complain about the services of a company unless they have had a continuous string of inefficiency( I hate that word...efficiency!) but there have been several bad experiences with this provider in the past couple of weeks. I've been told that there was no availability for the service in my area, despite having the service a few months ago. Then I was told that the current modem I have will not work, and they need to send a new one, WRONG! I'm connected to the network right now, I just need to pay the bill and be provisioned to the internet! Then I was told that I could get the service, but my activation will not be until the 13th of March because they have to re-provision my signal and I need to pay a reactivation fee...

I won't go into the language and/or racial barrier, but I will say the experimenting of using foreign people to service your products as a means of efficiency( or shall we just say being plain CHEAP)is failing miserably. Giving people a script and running through scenarios to teach people how to approach certain issues SUCKS! How do I know? I've worked for two of the major tele-plantations myself and this is how they conduct business...All in the name of being CHEAP! Excuse me, efficient. Verizon goes a step further and tells you in training that they have to be cheap on you to stay competitive. So they give you a raise after 90 days, but everything after that is performance bonuses...WTF? So we work for tips now, huh? Like I'm some freakin waitress? Well as Flo used to say "KISS MY GRITS!" The same stress has returned, which means the same overeating and hypertension has reappeared.

These incidents are coming at a time when doubts are arriving, mainly from other factions, but I can't help it! I'm human and I'm tired of being judged or hearing that others are basically writing me off, especially because they don't understand what I'm trying to do here. They're looking at this as some novelty act, or goofy types of craft, but this is serious business...It's hurts me more because it's coming from the mouths of those who say they love me...That really hurts. They are expecting me to stay on a low paying ass job and smile simply because there is a check every two weeks, but if the check can't cover your basic needs, what the f*ck is the reason for staying there? Just to say you have money for a few minutes? What is this attitude that we have that now allows people to accept any type of ill treatment from Mr. Charlie, and tell people to pray on it and leave it to God, but the first insignificant little person ticks us off, we don't pray on it or leave it to God, we go straight for the jugular vein... No wonder these jobs treat us so badly. We worship them the same way or even more than we worship The Creator. We fear them MORE than the Creator, and because of this we will continue to slide down deeper and deeper into bedlam.

But be grateful, right? Yeah but be realistic TOO HOMEY! Struggling just to struggle ain't cutting it!

But when I tell people of my aspirations, they look at it as wishy-washy, so I'm not telling them anymore. I just don't want to hear any fake applause or see fake smiles if this thing jumps off...

Wanna know why I focus so much on Lifestyles of the Ignored? Let's just say I have a lot of experience on this issue.


WWW.REALQUWWA.COM is on it's way...

Peace all...

...Dreaming of a White Super Bowl

Peace all! Hope you had a very Merry Super Bowl! I wish you all nothing but the best this holiday season! LOL

This holiday season was somewhat even more special, being that the festivities took place in Dallas, Tx, my hometown! That meant the city had to be decorated from head to toe in the latest holiday decorations!








A lot of money was thrown into making the visitors get that good ol' Southern Hospitality...Where they got it I don't know, I can't even get a receipt from my local library showing the return date on items I've checked out due to cutbacks in the city!



Even building that were not completed construction-wise took part in the festivities!





Then we had a nice little winter storm which almost made it a White Super Bowl...I can hear Bing Crosby singing now...I'm Dream-ing of a Whiiiiiite Super...oops wrong lyrics.

The winter storm caught everyone by surprise, even the electric company, who issued a winter emergency on Wednesday, asking mainly residents to shut down their electricity for a few hours! Wouldn't have been much of a problem, but I seriously doubt Downtown Dallas with all of its top dollar paying visitors were affected by this strategic move...

Unlike most winter holidays this holiday does not have a food drive, but people are driven to a food frenzy by all of the advertisements to party up and stock up...Friday evening was torture just trying to get some basic necessities for being bombarded with the chips-and-dippers and the beer guzzlers and wine suckers all scurrying about, in addition to the rough traffic from all of the snow and ice. I just wanted to get enough food to last through the next week...LOL

When it was all over the the buzz was filled with complaints about people not getting their seats, the failure of the transit system among other things, giving Jerry Jones reason to issue a public apology. Poor thing, he's had to apologize a lot this season, especially for the sadistic pay of a team he'd hope would be the home team in this year's Super Bowl. In the end, he'll make out big, just like the NFL, just like every bar in grill in town who overpublicized the event, and just like all of those corporations who wasted up to 3 million a pop for a 30 second slot just to show an ecstasy induced rapper advertising a car, an old cut-up face woman advertising a web hosting shop with a name that reeks of pornography, the never ending potato chip commercialism, among the other jokes that make up this feast called the Super Bowl, event in the first place.

The only ones who don't benefit are the citizens of the host city, who watch these corporate monsters claim local pride, only to move the stadiums to out of the area to the suburbs in the next 20 years, only after they've booted residents out and bought up the area to build stadiums with corporate kiss-ass suites.

In closing I think back to last years' Super Bowl between New Orleans and Indianapolis. One was sure that the Katrina tragedy would be a storyline used to show how the city of New Orleans "overcame" adversity, but in the end Katrina was hardly mentioned, if it ever was mentioned at all. No memorial for the victims, no mentioning of the many residents still living in FEMA trailers being threatened to leave the trailers. Just "WHO DAT?"

Do these teams really represent the cities?



Happy Holidays Y'all...

You Wouldn't Understand

Peace all,

Here at the lab working on the pictures from the upcoming art exhibit in Shreveport, LA this coming August. I have made great progress(thank God) and things are going full swing. I am in the process of making 8-9 original works along with 3-4 prints of previous works. I am very excited about this possibility to call to attention the ills of the society as well gain exposure about my art, and maybe make some money in the process. I have been bouncing around like a pinball, hitting different areas, some people don't get it, thinking this works against me, however I assure you it works in my best interest. It's great to concentrate solely on one piece, but what happens when you run out of ideas or hit that fork in the road on a particular piece? In my case i pull up another piece and get to work, never stopping for just one piece.

Speaking with my friend and fellow artist today she revealed a sad case wherein her parents have basically given her the boot due to her insistence of working on her passion instead securing a "real job"... I ask you, especially in today's world, what the feezy is a "real job"? Is it one of these jobs that you feel safe in knowing you have a paycheck every two weeks, although you are still unable to cover the costs of living? A job where in the bulk of the people working are also struggling with some type of vice or addiction that crept up on them as a result of trying to deal with the stress of overwork and underpaid? Disrespected? Don't people realize that the days of working for these plantations for 20 years, collecting pension, social security and profit sharing are now OVER? That they don't give a fick about you and your family's well being anymore?




Do they not think that independent artists have what it takes to succeed artistically and still make ends meet? Do they not know all of the avenues that are available to artists to express their true talent as well as make profit? Have we lost touch with what's going on in the world so much that we have given these slavemaster corporations the idea that we can't live without them? I grew up being taught that I could not live without God, now it seems we have allocated power to human beings that they do not deserve. They cannot create, produce, provide for anything here, and they too will die, so subjecting myself to them is not only wrong, but foolish. All that you see as a result of their doings (for many of them misdeeds is more like it) is really an illusion that has no foundation in truth. Truth will prevail.

I have reserved May 23, 2010 as a day I call my Independence Day, and I have no wish to go back. My attitude is now "I can work with you, but I can't work for you!"

Take care all, love you...Peace