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Hip Hop Chess Federation Tournament-San Francisco

On October 13th, 2007 The Hip Hop Chess Federation brought together some of the sharpest hip hop artists, chess players, and martial artists to promote positive living, the youth, and of course, chess. Those who know the history of hip hop, chess, and martial arts understand the connections, which include an emphasis on discipline, self-awareness, and hard-work. Essays could be written on this topic, but let's just say that for many of us who grew up in the '70s and '80s, these three areas are intertwined. But that's for another day...

Celebrities in the house included Balance, K.E.V., Big Rich, Emma Bentley, the 10 year old world chess champion from England, and Josh Waitzken, who the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was about, although he's much more than that movie. Many others came out to support and compete, as shown below. Additionally, a number of youth from schools and organizations from around the Bay competed for scholarships and other prizes. My school, Oakland Unity High represented, coming in third place, while Leo Lopez of O'Connell H.S. in San Francisco took the individual championship and walked away $1,500 richer! Shout out to Youth Uprising and Muhammad's University of Islam for coming out, as well as the others who participated. In the celebrity tournament, Wu-Tang's RZA took the belt. Special thanks to Adisa, Me'ko, Leo, and others for making this happen! Check out this article and video from the Oakland Tribune.

Oakland Black Cowboy Association

This past Saturday saw the latest rendition of an Oakland tradition 33 years in the making. Unfortunately, most people are not aware that many cowboys throughout the history of this country have been African American, up until this very day. As one way to keep awarenss of this rich history alive the OBCA holds an annual parade in downtown Oakland that starts and ends in DeFremry Park. It was my first time attending and I'll definitely be back! Check out the Oakland Tribune article.

First Annual Oakland Hair and Fashion Show

More details coming soon. Just wanted to get the pics up! Apologies for the quality as I was using a lower-end camera. Then again, a poor artist blames his tools. Maybe I should read the manual...

Japanese Culture and History Class

Various images from a couple of classes that I taught at Oakland Unity High School, CA. Besides typical lectures, students did presentations, tried food, watched DVD clips and studied atypical topics including Brazilians immigrants, the Chicano gang influence, and Harajuko street fashion. A thank you to Dawn-Elissa Fischer for the yukatas.

The following are links to some of the pictures we reviewed in class:
Tokyo pics
Tokyo Pics 2
Ogaki school pics
Pics from Gifu

The following are links to interviews we read in this class.
Head of the Japan Zulu Nation
Japanese High School Student
Japanese American woman visits Japan for the first time
African American teacher and artist shares thoughts on visiting Japan
Govt. official discusses immigration and women's rights

Ogaki, Japan School Visits

Images from elementary, junior high, and senior high schools in Ogaki, Japan.

Pics from Gifu, Japan

Pics from various spots in the Gifu Prefecture, mostly in Ogaki. As noted elsewhere, I was participating in a study program, courtesy of the Japanese government, who treated us like royalty. A part of our trip was spent visiting schools, learning about their education system, but we also got exposure to plenty of cultural activities, ranging from traditional cormorant fishing, which I learned that Charlie Chaplin came to watch, The Gifu City History Museum, Gifu University, Gifu Grand Hotel and plenty of good eats. We also got to relax in some hot springs. No pics of that though, as you couldn't even wear your birthday suit!

Tokyo Pics 2

More pics from Tokyo including a great art gallery known as Design Festa and other wanderings around Harajuku, a martial arts demonstration (if that wasn't obvious), our final JFMF dinner and the The Tsukiji Fish Market. Plus, there's plenty of anthropological discussion points here: murals, Mexican food, Guardian Angels, Hip Hop legos, and even gum. So much to see and do...

Tokyo Pics

While I took a bunch of typical tourist shots of buildings I figure that people are always more interesting and I tried to include some stuff that you won't find in the tourist books, as well as some of the people I kicked it with. I'd write more, but I have all kinds of writings posted so there's no need to get too deep. Check out other galleries from Japan: More Tokyo, Ogaki, Gifu, Japanese Schools, and Japanese class at Unity High in Oakland, CA.

Southern California College Trips

A week after returning from Atlanta, my school took another college trip to Southern California. This time we definitely had more time constraints and we focused more on visiting as many colleges as possible. Also, the group was more than twice as large. It ended up being a great trip and a this point I could probably write a book on organizing trips such as these! At any rate, some of the colleges we visited were San Diego State, UCLA, Long Beach State, Occidental, and UC Santa Barbara. A special thanks to the Hip Hop Congress (Shamako, Vishal, LJ) for helping us out at the last minute, my boy Mohammad from the U of M days, and of course everyone back at Unity!

Georgia and Alabama College Visits

A group of students from my school spent a week exploring various schools in the south and checking out the local sites. It was a great trip for all. Some of the collegest that we visited included Emory, Georgia Tech, Spelman, Morehouse, Tuskegee, and Alabama State. We even visited my old high school, George Washington Carver in Montgomery. In terms of non-school visits, we also spent time at the Georgia Aquarium, the CNN building, Maxwell Air Force Base, and the Rosa Parks Musuem. We could easily write a book from this adventure!