Victorio Reyes has travelled the country, offering workshops, readings and presentations.
For information on how to bring Victorio to your spot, shoot him an email:
victorio(at)sunstillrising.com
Monday, December 8, 2008
Bio
Victorio Reyes is an activist and artist living in Albany, NY. Reyes was featured in the anthology of emerging writers: Chorus, published by MTV Books and edited by Saul Williams. He holds an MFA degree from The Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches poetry classes at Siena College. His poems are forthcoming or have been published in the Acentos Review, Mobius, Word Riot, The Pine Hills Review, The Homework Project and the anthology It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip Hop. In 2014, Reyes served on a panel entitled "Uncovering Hip Hop Poetry" at the AWP Conference. Reyes also explores the role of activism in art evidenced in his essay “A Personal Journey for Justice”, published by the feminist blog She Breathes. Blending his writing and activism, Reyes has also been the executive director of The Social Justice Center of Albany (SJC) for the past 10 years.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Slaves and the White House
Sorry I haven't been around for awhile but...
This just in:
Slaves helped build the white house:
www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/02/slaves.white.house/index.html
If you read the article you will find out that slaves built the white house. You will also find a few tidbits about "our" presidents that used to own slaves. Anyway the article essentially explains how we are at a historical turning point because Barack Obama and more importantly in this case Michelle Obama will be living in the White House. I mention Michelle because she is the ancestor of slaves from South Carolina. I know we should be proud that America has grown sooo much. But...
This sort of gets to the crux as to why I'm not terribly excited about Barack Obama becoming president.
On one of the many occasions that Malcolm X was chosing to criticize civil rights leaders he said something to the affect of: why would you beg to sit on the toilet next to someone who doesn't want to sit next to you? I keep hearing that over and over in my head. I feel like we have been beggin' America for Political representation and now we've got it. But it doesn't feel good to me.
That's because the building was still built by slaves and Obama's election doesn't erase that. But more importantly The papers that govern that building were written by slaveowners. The entire political system was created by slave owners. The basic fundamental aspects of governing in the United States were created by slave owners that didn't recognize the humanity of black people, native people, and women. Imagine that the Israeli constitution was written by Hitler. The situation I'm describing is absolutely at that level and never analyzed from that prism by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, John Stewart or Barack Obama.
I look at the injustice in our world and more specifically our country. And I say of course. We are functioning in a society that is run by pieces of paper that were written by psychotic, sadistic, evil men. How the hell can we be surprised? None of this changed on November 4th. And that's why I'm not happy.
Eliminate the glorification of these slave masters from our currency, our buildings, cities, counties, and schools. Tear up the papers that they wrote and develop a new concept of governance that is generated by people of all backgrounds. At that point than I will feel that progress has been made. But the truth is I don't believe we are any closer to that than we were 8 years ago.
The Zapatistas, revolutionaries from southern Mexico, said we are not looking to climb the stairs, we are looking to eliminate them.
That's what I'm talking about.
This just in:
Slaves helped build the white house:
www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/02/slaves.white.house/index.html
If you read the article you will find out that slaves built the white house. You will also find a few tidbits about "our" presidents that used to own slaves. Anyway the article essentially explains how we are at a historical turning point because Barack Obama and more importantly in this case Michelle Obama will be living in the White House. I mention Michelle because she is the ancestor of slaves from South Carolina. I know we should be proud that America has grown sooo much. But...
This sort of gets to the crux as to why I'm not terribly excited about Barack Obama becoming president.
On one of the many occasions that Malcolm X was chosing to criticize civil rights leaders he said something to the affect of: why would you beg to sit on the toilet next to someone who doesn't want to sit next to you? I keep hearing that over and over in my head. I feel like we have been beggin' America for Political representation and now we've got it. But it doesn't feel good to me.
That's because the building was still built by slaves and Obama's election doesn't erase that. But more importantly The papers that govern that building were written by slaveowners. The entire political system was created by slave owners. The basic fundamental aspects of governing in the United States were created by slave owners that didn't recognize the humanity of black people, native people, and women. Imagine that the Israeli constitution was written by Hitler. The situation I'm describing is absolutely at that level and never analyzed from that prism by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, John Stewart or Barack Obama.
I look at the injustice in our world and more specifically our country. And I say of course. We are functioning in a society that is run by pieces of paper that were written by psychotic, sadistic, evil men. How the hell can we be surprised? None of this changed on November 4th. And that's why I'm not happy.
Eliminate the glorification of these slave masters from our currency, our buildings, cities, counties, and schools. Tear up the papers that they wrote and develop a new concept of governance that is generated by people of all backgrounds. At that point than I will feel that progress has been made. But the truth is I don't believe we are any closer to that than we were 8 years ago.
The Zapatistas, revolutionaries from southern Mexico, said we are not looking to climb the stairs, we are looking to eliminate them.
That's what I'm talking about.
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