Grandmother hope and wishes.

I lost my Ojibwa Grandmother in 1981. She had a hard life. You would never know. She loved her children and wanted them to know freedom.

Grandmother hope and wishes.

Dear Grandmother was a kind woman.
She was took from her reservation as a young child.
They cut her hair and re-name her.
Her eyes would become sad if I asked her about her youth.
She would tell me. Leave the bad times forgotten. Old hate need to be forgotten.

Grandmother would chant for me and my sisters. My baby sister’s would dance in circles.
I never knew the meaning of the chants. She knew so many.
The songs brought joy to her voice watching my sister’s dance and laugh.

Grandma followed the Native American path.
Drank too much trying to hide disappointment with alcohol.
She met my Step-Grandfather who…

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Empress of East Africa, Bi Kidude RIP

Africa is a Country (Old Site)

It was 2011 and we were preparing for TEDxDar. Behind schedule as always, we needed to get Bi Kidude, this iconic figure on our stage. We wanted to hear her voice and her story in an intimate way. We wanted to experience her magical presence, her Diva, on the small stage, away from the large international concerts and festivals such as Sauti za Busara where we had become accustomed to seeing her. Was she still alive we asked ourselves, for it seemed every four weeks in the previous four years there was at least one rumor of her passing. How would we even get in touch with such a legend? This authority of culture must surely be hard to find – but find her we did.

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FEATURE – Indago – Time Machine [prod. Right Beat Radio]

There’s always something to admired about Chicago rappers

The Math: What Life On Kepler-62e Would Be Like

Science-Based Life

In my latest for Popular Science, I take a look at a newly discovered exoplanet and do a little math to see what life would be like there. I have published an excerpt below.

Scientists recently located two exoplanets orbiting in the Kepler-62 star system 1,200 light years from Earth. Though much further away than other exoplanets possibly conducive to life—Gliese 581g is only 20 light years from us–Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are the smallest exoplanets the Kepler Mission has detected in their star’s “goldilocks zone.” And for habitability, size matters. Kepler-62e, in particular, has a radius only 60 percent larger than Earth’s, meaning that if it is a rocky planet like Earth it might have a similar mass. With a similar mass (meaning similar gravity) and an atmosphere, Kepler-62e could have life as we know it. In fact, Kepler-62e now tops the charts for potential…

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Big Brother Goodluck Jonathan

Africa is a Country (Old Site)

Late last year, we ran a piece on the documentary Fuelling Poverty, a 30 minute crash course on the politics, implications, and significance of #OccupyNigeria and the fuel subsidy protests of January 2012. Made by Ishaya Bako and backed by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the film deftly exposes Nigeria’s failed social contract. But now, though it apparently took the ruling PDP a while to become aware of it, it’s illegal to watch or disseminate. The National Film and Video Censors board, whose members are all appointed by Goodluck Jonathan, announced the ban last week. With the ruling party’s popularity falling fast, it seems Fuelling Poverty was too politically damaging for Nigerian citizens to see. Now, “all relevant national security agencies are on the alert” to ensure that the film is neither exhibited nor distributed.