declare yourself

Election 08: Sekou “tha Misfit” and Steve Connell on Obama

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

On Election Night, I caught up with spoken word artists, Sekou Andrews (aka tha misfit) and Steve Connell, to get their poetic thoughts on the Obama’s win. Andrews and Connell were featured performers at Obama’s California Headquarters celebration. The two artists created a special poem called “Obama Takes America Back” about Obama’s historic win.

Andrews and Connell, both National Poetry Slam Champions, are no strangers to political activism and worked with the Norman Lear “Declare Yourself” campaign back in 2002. For the spoken word artists, the political is personal. The very definition of democracy, of being a Christian, of being an environmentalist is changing. The duo discuss George W. Bush’s role as a great motivator and how fear caused many Americans to become politically active. Check out the interview above and their performance below.

The Week in Gossip: Bow-Chicka-Chihuahua

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Let’s talk Jamie Lee Curtis. Say who? Yeah, her. She’s working the media circuit to promote her latest and greatest box office killer—wait for it, wait for it—Beverly Hills Chihuahua. How this has anything to do with Curtis polling Rachael Ray’s audience for lactation and then crying out like an infant in the middle of an interview is . . . quite reasonable, really. Let me repeat: She’s promoting a film called Beverly Hills Chihuahua. [ED note-So totes going to see it!]

Paris Hilton’s new reality show, “Paris Hilton My New BFF,” debuted on MTV this past Tuesday. Over 300,000 freak shows put themselves on the web to compete for a spot on the program and 18 made the cut. They’ll face a new series of challenges each week (resisting the urge to throw a Choo at Her-Royal-Hilton ain’t one of them, but should be) and one lucky soul will be eliminated at the end of every show. How? With Hilton waving a wand and chirping “TTYN!” (ICYMI: That’s TXT MSG speak for “Talk to you never!”) But wait— it gets worse.

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