We owe these codes to the fine folks who attended the Urban Verbs Performance at the 2bers Album Release Concert & Benefit

and…

The folks who attended the MADFest Performance at Menaul School.

Only 100 FREE codes per album, so get it quickly by commenting on this post with your e-mail address (for those of you from the 2bers show, we ware sending you e-mails with the codes!)…share..spread the word…we don’t want to have to haul any of this electronic merchandise home. PLEASE HELP US!!!

Thank you.

-UV

FREE
The first show had over 100 people at it, let’s beat that number yall!

By Hakim Bellamy Visit his website by clicking here.

Writing love songs
Makes one think less
About the sex
They wish they were having

Breath
Hot, heaving, heavy
And relatively unused

Sits frustrated
And lonely
In lungs
Waiting

Waiting for a chance
To make it

Beautiful music

Make out
A way
Escape
To its preferred destination

Behind her ear
The condensation
Humidity of hym

Waiting
To wail
Against walls
And neighbor’s sense
Of what’s decent

Only the sex starved
Distaste the sound
Of human’s feeding off
Each other

My breath
Is waiting

To mate with music
In order to sound
Less desperate
More romantic

Because love songs
Make one think less

About the mornings
We give in to
Too easily

The nights
We no longer
Keep for ourselves

Our bodies
We find easier
To give to work
And worry
And war

Than to
Our partners
And wants
And love

Love songs
Make us
Think less
About sex

More about
The world
We put between
Our souls

That can’t
Get any closer
Than they are
When we’re not clothed

The practice
Of pushing poems into
And pumping poems
Out of one another

Get scrapped
Like every art
When budget cuts
A comin’
And us
Uncomely

Our sheets
Musicless
Resembling
A poet’s
Blank rage

You used to
Sing everyday
And that’s something
The love songs
Can’t replace

We slave
For everything
But love
These days

And that’s a shame

I long
For the days of
Sex-fest in bed
Where we forgot to eat
And fucked
A whole day
Off the end of the week

Now
All the things
We forget about
When we’re having sex
Are what we remember
And forget about
Having sex…

So I’m up late
And burning sole

Lighting lyrics instead

Keeping my
Art beat
Beating on
Your porch

Til you return
To the rocking chair
Of our relationship
And we share
Our bodies
Under the light
Left on for you

Your ear
To the vault of my heart
Tongue to belly
Unbuttoned
And unlocked

In my chest
You’ll find
A pile
Of unpublished
Songs
On fire

Next to
A metronome
Maintaining the
Rhythm of the last time
You let go
You went soul
Damn you could blow…

In the key
You forgot.

Making love
Is an art
Passion
Is not a plan
It’s a priority

There’s no
Love song
More seductive
Than “I
Want to Fuck you
Right now…”

Tomorrow
Can wait
Until we finish
Worshipping today

We are promised
To each other
Though
Tomorrow is not

There is no
Amount of sleep
That can make tomorrow
Feel better
Than the sleep
We can lose
Right now

Make longer
The enjoyable
Ride of our lives
By two
Horizontal hours

There’s nothing
We have to do
Tomorrow
More important
Than who
We aren’t doing
Right now

I don’t want
To have time
To write songs
About why
I have time
To write
Love songs

Unless you
Are singing again…?

I’d rather
Be having sex
To think less
About the songs
I wish I was writing

About the love
We’re never too tired for
The love
We never get tired of
The love
We keep on re-writing
In lyrics
All over her body
In lipstick
All over my body
In liquid
All over our bodies

Evaporating
And re-writing
Waking
And re-writing

And
Re-writing.

Visit The Typing Tank at www.theypingtank.com

Thanks to my man Artis Jackson at Nightvision for posting a blog on the 2bers DIG Album Release Concert & Benefit tomorrow at the Historic El Rey Theater in Albuquerque. Urban Verbs just announced that the FIRST 40 FOLKS IN THE DOOR WILL RECEIVE FREE ALBUM DOWNLOADS BY ALL THREE MEMBERS OF URBAN VERBS! #BOOYAH

Statement of Thanks by Hakim Be:

Just as the feeling of being appreciated never gets old, there is no such things as “over doing it” with the practice of humility and giving thanks. Thank you Weekly Alibi readers and thank you Albuquerque. You don’t just encourage me to do what I love, you allow me to do it.

In the company of Levi Romero and Mary Oishi (two poets I look up to and am inspired by), I am thrilled to be considered “Best Poet” beyond the box (limitations) of slam poetry AS a slam poet. Thank you for doing more than accepting me, Albuquerque. Thank you for celebrating me. I thank God for you everyday, Burque. I am humbled and privileged to enjoy the mutual crush we have on each other…I hope it lasts forever. xoxo

BURQUE MUSIC LEGENDS BUILD COMMUNITY THROUGH MUSIC:

2bers album release concert to benefit local charter school,

civil rights organizations

Albuquerque, New Mexico—27 March 2012—On Saturday, April 7th at the Historic El Rey Theater, 2bers will release their new album DIG.   Proceeds from the album release concert will benefit the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School, Equality New Mexico, and the Albuquerque Center on Peace and Justice.

Never too young to be legends, the Burque hip hop pioneers have been innovating the community’s music for over ten years and now they plan to innovate the community itself.

By partnering with nonprofits, they are creating the opportunity to bring their community-centered art to a new, like-minded audience. This DIY (Do-It-Yourself) model is not simply a “buy local” mantra (though that is encouraged); it is a “give local,” “party local,” and “live local” concept that creates community rather than profits off it. “We’re trying to take things to new level,” says Collin Troy of 2bers, “not only for ourselves, but for the city itself.”

“Hip hop music has been a positive force in our lives and it still is for emerging generations” says Troy. “It’s a resource and tool to create change and our job as artists is to be an example of how hip hop can be a community resource.”

The April 7th album release concert at the Historic El Rey Theater will open with a full theatrical performance of Urban Verbs: Hip Hop Conservatory & Theater. Feature performance by veteran bands La Junta and Zoology will follow, along with New Mexico’s all-female percussion band, Mala Maña.  This is an all-ages event. Doors open at 6:00pm.  Tickets are $7 student/$10 pre-sale/$12 day of.

Learn more about the 2bers at www.2bers.com

###

Into my nine to five feet to concrete pace,

I wasn’t meant for this

Born of something else

Things other folks find meaningless.

Not for profit

This world spins and I can’t stop it,

But the beat in my chest

Knows it’s only held back by ribs

Why do we spit poison on the dreams of our

Kids?

I could’ve been a rockstar

An astronaut, something made of stardust

Something more than pocket lint

And happy hour suds

More than stolen dreams in times of sleep

More than empty pockets and tired feet

But life don’t cut no slack

And when I turn inside

I realize it’s only me that

Is holdin me,

Back…

Where do I begin?  March 4^th was filled with the voices of those speaking in solidarity with young men and women, just a border away – a desert night in distance, a sweaty walk, and loud enough shout into the Sonoran sky.  Librotraficante was the inspiration; a charge to “throw the book at [your] Arizona,” and its recently culturally genocidal, un-ignorable, racially motivated, and just down-right wrong decisions, to remove Ethnic Studies programs from TUSD schools, while at the same time banning a multitude of books.  From Anaya, to Cisneros, Zinn, to Alexie, and the list goes on – our stories, history, and (her)story, are being removed from the shelves of Arizona schools.  One of the night’s performers reminded us “this is nothing new, but I am glad we are talking about it.”  Another said to the crowd, “Remember, Ethnic Studies programs are like tortillas, they are for everyone.”  And so they spoke, the poets, on behalf of everyone that isn’t saying a word – out of fear, out of shock and sadness, out of complacency that our generation (twenty-somethings and teens) often have with political issues… but the truth is – a sold out house at the Outpost performance space on Sunday night, got it!  We get it, and Arizona will soon get a band of poets and authors crossing their border, that they may not want to see, but damn it, they cannot stop it.  It became apparent that our story will not stop – history continues to write itself, as we have brown authors scribe new poems, new tales, new histories; Arizona cannot ban them all. Poets that night stood ten feet tall, the audience roared along with them, and many will hit the road toward AZ in the days and weeks to come.  There are proud people in the Southwest, too many to erase – and we continue to write our way into the folds; Arizona has quite the job on their hands, if they think they will continue to silence the meaningful, for years to come. 

And you, Ms. Brewer, only have so long in your elected position, only have so much time to continue to make those kinds of decisions; and with each one made, we will respond.  Perhaps we cannot change those things inked into law.  And yes, I do carry my ID each time I walk your Tucson streets – but trust, each time I go to a school, I will continue to create writers like myself; like those that exist in your schools, and they one day, will write books too!  So please, continue to be fuel, for a fire that does not burn out of hatred or anger, but a wish and hope for the understanding that our children deserve to know who they are looking at when they stare into a mirror.  Our children need the stories of those that came before them, so that they can march confidently into their futures, but if you take those stories away, we need only write more; or speak them to each other, silence will not be had, and the talking has only just begun.