In Sunday’s Washington Post, hip hop artist and poet Bomani Armah wrote a satirical op-ed piece about Barack Obama’s blackness. “It’s official,” he jokes, “Barack Obama is black enough.” Now, he suggested, it’s time for him to start showing how white he is.

It does not need to be said that it is an interesting time for race in the United States. With a political campaign encouraging everyone to talk extensively about blackness in America, magazine and fashion folks demanding proportional multi-cultural representation in the industry and on the runways, and a blog that satires whiteness getting millions of hits, Spike Lee, Al Sharpton, and Dead Prez are getting a bit of a break.

Read Armah’s tongue-in-cheek Washington Post piece here and hear him interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation here.

I would try to explain this, but I think it’s better to leave well enough alone.

Unrelated to the transcultural body-snatching above, the bonus featurette below is one of many episodes of a popular ’90s exercise show that doubled as real-world English lessons.

Wednesday, March 26, 8:00pm
The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church (131 E. 10^th Street)
Celebration of Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York

Reposted from the website: “Join us as we revisit Federico García Lorca’s Poet In New York, newly translated by Pablo Medina and Mark Statman and published by Grove Press. Written during Lorca’s nine months as a student at Columbia University at the beginning of the Great Depression, this is widely considered one of the most important books he ever wrote, and one of the greatest book of poems ever written about New York City.

With Ron Padgett, Jaime Manrique, Bill Zavatsky, Jane LeCroy, Pablo Medina, Mark Statman, Iraida Iturralde, Aristides Falcon and flamenco music with Roman Diaz on cajon, Carlos Revollar on guitar and other musicians tba.”

Thursday, March 27, 2008, 7:00pm
Housing Works Bookstore (126 Crosby Street)
Ledig House International Writers

Three writers from The Ledig House international writers’ residency program will read Thursday at Housing Works. Amsterdam poet Julien Holtriger, who is currently at work on an epic poem, has three volumes to his name, and his poem “Dichter” won the Amsterdam Free University Stage Prize in 2003. Mikhail Shishkin is a Russian fiction writer whose work has been published in Russian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Chech, Bulgarian, and Chinese. Born in Turkey, Buket Uzuner writes short stories, travelogues, and novels; is a biologist and environmental scientist; and now lives in Istanbul.

With the demise of the major record industry’s omnipotence and the simultaneous explosion of independent music labels, underground music has begun to see an unprecedented renaissance. Online guerilla marketing tactics have allowed dynamic DIY artists to pave their way towards a well-deserved takeover, creating fresh new ways to experiment with music production.

The Politik, a project of UK’s lovely chanteuse Bembe Seque and cohort Mark de Clive-Lowe, is just such a phenomenon of subtly rewriting the way albums traditionally get to be produced. A familiar name in the US future soul/broken beat scene, Mark de Clive-Lowe is the musician and producer behind hundreds of collaborations with the likes of Omar, Platinum Pied Pipers, DJ Spinna, Dego, or Kenny Dope.

The Politik’s self-entitled debut album featuring a stellar line-up of guest producers and MCs, such as Blu, Bahamadia, repLife, Waajeed (Bling47), Daz I-Kue (Bugz in the Attic), and Jason Yarde, has already received critical acclaims and will no doubt be written into future musical lexicons as one of the foundational records of the growing future soul movement.

And here is the revolutionary twist they put on their first baby: the album is up for grabs for anyone who feels up for the challenge to redress it. Yes, that’s right, ya’ll are invited to participate in The Politik Remix Album & Artwork Competition. The deadline to submit your work is April 14, 2008.

The competition has two parts, you can either choose to remix any number of the tracks on the album and/or remaster the artwork for the cover. The competition will be judged by an impressive crew of judges, such as The Politik (Bembe Segue + Mark de Clive-Lowe), Benji B (Deviation 1xtra), Phil Asher (restless soul) and Afronaught (coopr8/Bugz in the Attic), and the winning remixes will be compiled into the upcoming official remix album. Don’t sleep on it!

Listen to the original album and download the tracks and artwork to be remixed here and link’em on myspace.

The Barbican in London, which has been serving up a tantalizing array of reggae cult classics since March 12th, only has a week left in its Film Jamaica series. The series runs parallel to the Barbican’s seasonal run of The Harder They Come, a musical adaptation of the groundbreaking, seventies Jamaican feature starring the legendary Jimmy Cliff. And while the musical runs in the theatre, the original celluloid headlines the Film Jamaica series.

The Harder They Come tells the country-boy-meets-world story of a young musician who moves to Kingston with dreams of becoming a singer, but who quickly becomes an outlaw. The soundtrack features seminal reggae hits “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross,” and the eponymous title track.

This Wednesday, Film Jamaica will premiere Rockers, a 1970s documentary-style exploration of the Robin Hood myth in roots music culture during Jamaica’s music industry heyday.

For your viewing pleasure, check out the Film Jamaica series here and the musical here.

The BK Style Foundation is excited to debut it’s Fifth Season of the BK Fashion Week{end}, bringin’ “Brooklyn Underground Fashion Rocks!” to Williamsburg. This three-day soiree promises to catch the attention of savvy fashion nuts from across the boroughs, while providing a platform for emerging Brooklyn Designers to rock the runway with collections for Fall 2008.

Tonight the jump off begins at 5pm, with music by The Rozz Nash Band and the “International Designers Night” with collections of Denis Michel’s French-inspired designs; bold looks by Ghana-native Nana Boateng and Romania’s Catalin Botezatu.

Saturday and Sunday night’s line-up will be sure to show an innovative and eclectic variety including street designs by Riddim Driven, sexy denim by the lovely Joan Vaccianna, transformational pieces by (one of my favorite duo’s) Miss Bruno and many more.

Get a eyeful of what is developing in Brooklyn fashion here

Buraka Som Sistema are a freshly wrapped parcel straight out of Lisbon, Portugal that will be headlining tonight at FabricLive in London. A sound that will stimulate your daily audio in-take, Buraka Som Sistema (BSS) brings us a melodic mix of grime, hip-hop, house, and most prominently, Kudro.

The heart beat of BSS’s sound, Kudro — meaning “hard ass” for those of you who don’t already know –  originates from Angola, and has been huge in the clubs of Lisbon since the early nineties, mostly enjoyed by the migrant Angolan communities in Portugal.

Buraka Som Sistema have folded an exciting and genius musical blend of Angolan beats with contemporary electro, and the result is a unique, explosive sound; which arguably in the current climate of copy and paste artists is hard to come by!! Over a million views of their Yah video, BSS have been championed by M.I.A., Santogold, Diplo, Sinden, Switch & many more.Complimented by an amazing African dance troupe BSS are one of the most exciting live acts you’ll see are in London. Do not miss!

Tickets for the Fabric show here.

Check out this new video, “Sound of Kuduro,” shot in Angola and featuring M.I.A.

Ove a.k.a. Oveous Maximus’ life as a poet began with a tragedy of the worst kinds. When his only brother and a talented MC himself, Carlos “Ziiinc Blue” Salcedo decided to end his own life in 2003, Oveous found healing and inspiration in continuing where his brother left off.

Starting at the weekly open mic sessions of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York, in a matter of just a few years he had become the accomplished spoken word poet/MC his brother had always wanted to be, eventually starring as one of the four spoken word poets in the documentary, SPIT and collaborating with soulful house masters like Louie Vega, Osunlade, Boddhi Sattva, and Bradford James, his co-founding partner at S.E.E.D records.

Oveous has recently re-released his Oveous Maximus LIVE! 2.0 Album and has teamed up with his long-time friend “Al Be Back” (from Kanye West’s Graduation album) to work on a hip-hop project that aims to “challenge the status quo of what is expected from rappers and lyricist”, according to Ove.

“A lot of rappers that sell units can’t write. We’re trying to sell units too, but we ain’t trying to sacrifice the level of writing and creativity.”

This Saturday at Club Love in New York, check out Ove debuting his first single “I Apologize” (out on Yoruba Records in May) at the second year anniversary of the “One L’Ove Concert”.
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For Boogie and his camera, the journey from Belgrade to Brooklyn wasn’t actually that far. Growing up amid the violent transition out of socialism, Boogie’s lens cut its teeth during Serbia’s civil war in the ’90s. In 1998, a U.S. green card won in the national lottery moved the photographer out of Belgrade, but Boogie’s fascination with human margins and marathon desperation has followed him to Brooklyn.

Whether snapping neo-Nazi youth, gangsters, or binging crack addicts, it’s not just danger and the usual moralizing that happens in Boogie’s frames. There’s an easy familiarity in his black and white frames — a discomforting, not-quite-sweet edge that makes his harsh portraits unflinchingly human.

Celebrating the release of Boogie’s eponymous limited edition book, the powerHouse Area is throwing an opening tonight in Brooklyn hosted by Dante Ross and 10Deep.

Parallel to the Brooklyn show, which runs through March 30th, the Galerie Olivier Robert in Paris also has an exhibition up through April 12th.

Boogie in Brooklyn here and Paris here

If you’re a hip-hop head and you happen to be in Atlanta this week, the A3C festival will have you feeling exactly like a kid in a candy store. Three days of live music, street fashion and break-dancing battles are just some of the treats you’ll be getting.

The party gets started today with performances from Little Brother, Wale, and Del tha Funkee Homosapien — just to name a few. Make sure to get a good night’s rest ‘cause Friday will consist of a whole new level of craziness with a Rawkus showcase and the Juice Crew reunion. Yeah that wasn’t a typo, a Juice Crew reunion!

Other legends will be in the building doing what they do. L.A sensation Blu will also be on deck along with Ta’Raach and they’ll be performing some of their new collaborative material. The festivities come to an end on Saturday with a producer showcase featuring the likes of The Alchemist and DJ Toomp and performances from the Re-Up Gang and Tanya Morgan amongst others.

This was just an avant-gout of some of the goodies that you’ll be getting this weekend; make sure to hit up this for more details on exactly how sick the weekend is bound to be.