To the right is a picture from the John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana, California, where I flew in this afternoon. I'm at UC Irvine with Rafi for a MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning grantees meeting. We're joining a bunch of super smart people who are conducting a wide range of research, field…
Learning from the legend: the original b-boy Ken Swift
I made it to Ken Swift’s weekly breakdance fundamentals class last night at PMT Studios, despite being dead tired from just returning from the Global Kids retreat that morning. Ken Swift is a legend in the breakdance world, an original innovator of most of the basic steps that make up b-boying today. It was a…
The Global Kids Retreat: Spoken Word and B-boying with 60 Teens in the Woods
On Monday, I got to spend some quality time with 60-some teenagers in our Global Kids programs from around New York City — kids who we call our “GK Leaders.” Normally being stuck in the woods with 60 teens sounds more like a bad horror movie rather than a fun time to me. But this…
Daptone Records in Bushwick was robbed!
Brooklyn Vegan reports that the amazing indie soul label Daptone Records was broken into a couple of days ago! They lost a ton of equipment including: a Fender Super Guitar Amp and Deluxe Guitar Amp, an HP laptop computer, one desktop MacIntosh computer, 2 Yamaha NS10 monitors, a vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar, one steel string…
Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon: help our kids get to college!
On Friday, March 6, I'm participating in Global Kids annual Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise money (anything for a cause!) This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who will attend college this…
Grooving to Sharon Jones and Dap Kings in Times Square last night!
Last night, a bunch of friends and I caught Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the swank Nokia Theater in Times Square. Sharon and the band played a mix of their last two albums, several awesome new songs that they are still working on, as well as amazing covers of Sam Cooke and Gladys…
Need examples of poetry about political and social change
On Monday I am helping lead a workshop on "Global Arts for Social Change" with fifty-some Global Kids youth at a retreat in upstate New York. (See the full video I prepared for this here.) We've got a great bunch of kids, so I'm expecting some awesome dancing, street art, spoken word, drumming and other…
Christina on the sex appeal of librarians
I don't think I've mentioned my smart, lovely friend Christina's awesome new blog "Stacked." She is chronicling her adventures as she works toward her goal of reading 100 books in a year. She has a recent entry on the nerdy sexiness of librarians that's a great read: Nothing like the conservative nerd-girl to get a…
Date this New Yorker: I’m in TimeOut New York!
Through the recommendation of a friend, I was selected to be among 100 other single New Yorkers in the February 12 edition of TimeOut New York. You can see my profile here. Thanks, TONY! Thanks to those of you who advised me on what to wear. Luckily I did not wear my battle armor or…
Global Art for Social Change: from Banksy to Korean B-boys (video)
For an upcoming Global Kids retreat, I’m helping organize a workshop on “Global Arts for Social Change” with some other trainers. As part of the session, we wanted to show our teens some examples of various forms of art related to activism and civic engagement. So I threw together this compilation reel of different forms…