Em profile picture

Em

I am here for Friends

About Me

In general, am interested in changing the world for the better...and, with God's help - and all the angels God sends in the form of friends, family, and inspiration - I will not fail :o)

And, I strive to hold onto these thoughts, always...They have become my mantra, and I hope it will become yours as well, my distinctly beautiful friends:

(1) "The single most revolutionary thing you can do is recognize that you are enough." Carlos Andrés Gómez, from _Without Shame_ (2006)

(2) "at any given moment every living thing in the world is either expanding or contracting – growing to a tipping point before it begins to die...

We were given everything we need to know at birth...

We just need to find the courage to grab it
and rise up into this world
expanded"

~ Carlos Andrés Gómez, "tipping point" from _Finding the Music_ (2006)

My Interests

Love to listen to music, go to shows, hang out w/ great friends and family :o) Love to take tons and tons and tons of pictures, too....

Music:

Pearl Jam, Dishwalla/JR Richards (hi JR!), Fugazi, Rage Against the Machine, Motorhead, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, International Noise Conspiracy, Maceo Parker, Black Eyed Peas, Public Enemy, Gil Scott-Heron, Last Poets, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Red Hot Chili Peppers (old skool), Jane's Addiction (juana's addicion), Soundgarden, Audioslave, Tool, Metallica (old skool - pre-"none-more-black" album), Cibo Matto, Black Sabbath, Ramones, Ministry, Jello Biafra, Superswamper (go Todd!)

Movies:

The Visitor: http://www.thevisitorfilm.com/ Please see this film at once...Really!
Also ~ I'm serious about the two tenets under "About Me," too - but with a warning:
Sure, Love yourself, your loved ones, and humanity, yeah? Though seemingly simple, these two tenets are incredibly difficult to live by, especially in our culture of control and competitiveness (moreso than "mere" competition) and/or when "the world is obsessed with [us] dying."
Since "real Love is freeing" (thanks, Steve) and antithetical to the trio of negative Cs above, let's help one another to Love:
(1) please join me in doing the "distinctly beautiful" exercise ( Distinctly Beautiful Facebook Group - share some, if you want, in the discussion board). And, please listen to the message in the "Distinctly Beautiful" video below...

(2) believe and live out - don't just say - every word of it...

(3) and, above all else, Let Love Rule....

Television:

Carlos Andrés Gómez and Savion Glover performing "All We Have"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Fh9wBYdtU

at Town Hall, Broadway for the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Also see Poems 30 (Gregory Hines’ protégé rehearses in an $18 an hour studio) & 34 (Rome falls – the wreckage and the gift) at the blog here: Carlos Andrés Gómez -MySpace

And, last, but most definitely not least: A compilation of poetry performances, clips from "Inside Man", and the 35th Anniversary performance above...And, this, my friends, is just the beginning.....

Carlos Andrés Gómez - poet and actor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jjeSGDjZqM

Books:

Gosh...that I'm reading now or...? For renewal - most everything from Paolo Coelho (thanks Luciana!) to Zadie Smith. For inspiration and to keep me, what...focused and grounded, I guess - works by Carlos Andrés Gómez, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, WEB DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Miguel Algarin, Amiri Baraka, Miguel Piñero, Angela Davis, David Cole, Gwendolyn Brooks, Thich Nhat Hahn, gosh so many more.... -- and all my colleagues (comares and compadres below):Enrique Bonus, Martin F. Manalansan IV, Augusto Espiritu, Linda Trinh Võ, Shilpa Dave, Allan Punsalan Isaac, Rebecca King-O'Riain, Dylan Rodriguez, Bill Kunz, Divya McMillan, Andrew Barlow, John Lie, Norman Denzin, Susan Leigh Star, Andrew Pickering, Mae Ngai, David Roediger, Kevin Danaher, Yen Le Espiritu, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Walden Bello, Cornel West, and - good God, ask me again some other time!
And, well, I'm biased cuz it took so many years to research and write - _Building Diaspora_ (Rutgers University Press, 2005) by me, Emily Noelle Ignacio :o)

Heroes:

ma and pa :o)

My Blog

On the shallow understanding from people of good will...

hi all ~ So, I was quietly checking out the video of Liz Trotta stating "And now we have what, uh, some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, um uh Obama...well, both if we could ...
Posted by Em on Tue, 27 May 2008 11:21:00 PST

My Math Question - Poem 57: Black folk-Fried chicken (Michael Vick) (100 poems in 100 days) -

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.... Here's a math problem for you (you know how we Asians are, huh...yeah *rolls eyes*): Michael Vick - sentenced, in 2007, to 23 months in a federal ...
Posted by Em on Thu, 22 May 2008 03:09:00 PST

Myspace.com Blogs - Poem 25: Det. Michael Oliver and Lt. William Calley have lunch (30 poems in

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.... There's some truth to the old adage, ignorance is bliss.... I awoke today to much sunshine...putzed around the house....locked myself out of the h...
Posted by Em on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:30:00 PST

Myspace.com Blogs - Poem 9: Angry black man (30 poems in 30 days) - Carlos Andrés Gómez MySpace

hi all ~So now that all the "reflections on Dr. King, Jr’s life" have passed, let’s get serious. No more platitudes, friends. No more excuses. No more nostalgic musings or pats on the back...
Posted by Em on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:12:00 PST

I will bend towards the sun: please read, reflect, and love....today and everyday

hi all ~ It’s 40 years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated....Please be love and light today...and read the poem "Poem 4: Raoul, across the street (For Dr. King, 40 year...
Posted by Em on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:58:00 PST

"How do I bend towards the sun...?" - feel, empathize, love, cry, hope

"How do I bend towards the sun/when this world is obsessed with me dying?" (from "tipping point")My dear distinctly beautiful friends ~Please take the time to listen to the poems (newly uploaded and o...
Posted by Em on Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:23:00 PST

what a long, strange trip its been...(part 1 of God knows what)

hi all ~ Last weekend, I spent a two days with remarkably bright friends/colleagues at my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...The reason? Well, ostensibly, this Philippin...
Posted by Em on Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:19:00 PST

Love and Light? *We* have to absorb, be, and reflect it to the world, folks.

hi everyone again ~ Just had to share this with you... As many of you know, a couple my family members are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (again), so Yotem Der Nicht Heilige's remix of Carlos Andrés ...
Posted by Em on Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:23:00 PST

this...this right here is the power of Love :o) (part 1 of who knows? :o))

hi everyone ~ Today, I have been struggling with writers' block.  But, now I see that I have writers' block because I have lost some faith in people in my field...I've been losing faith for a whi...
Posted by Em on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:15:00 PST

to all my "distinctly beautiful" friends ~ defy "authority", join the movement

hi my distinctly beautiful friends!~ A few weeks ago, I'd posted a bulletin with a quote which I was drawn to the minute I read it and which I dearly hold on to, every single day: "The single most rev...
Posted by Em on Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:25:00 PST