Just trying to deal with these feelings…
Posted on | December 10, 2008 | No Comments
We have 5 more days until we roll back in to Brooklyn. As the HURRICANE SEASON crew gets closer, we begin to bear witness to all sorts of self-sabotaging, elitist, depressing behaviors within ourselves and each other. Three and a half months is a long time to travel with people you haven’t said vows with, had children with, or committed to winning some medal with.
And we are at the final stretch.
In the last blog I suggested to myself I should get a tattoo. The next day, I did. The Adinkra symbol for TRANSFORMATION. Alas, I’m just that kinda chick… As Will (a Cali/New Orleans transplant) tattooed my arm in Jacci & Associates AART ACCENT: TAT-2 & BODY PIERCING (1041 N. Rampart, New Orleans, 504-581-9812), Alixa so graciously held up the laptop so that I could hear Concha Buika’s “Ay De Mi Primavera” on repeat.
We have lost family members while on this tour and seen long lost relatives and friends. We have slowly dragged one another’s menstrating periods closer together. We have used composting toilets and gray water systems together. We have fallen in and out of love together (and together). We have baked yummy things picked from gardens and created the most elaborate spreads over dining room tables across America together. We have watched the market go down, seen the nation demonstrate that “…we can…” and shared our own inaugural dreams together. We have seen audience members cry, stomp, cheer, and marvel together. We have listened to Fela Kuti’s “Water No Get Enemy” and every remade version together. We have experienced floods, torrential rains, snow storms, black outs, witnessed two hurricanes and an international terrorist attack. We have lost weight, gained weight, and waited on one another to complete morning rituals together. We have hurt one another’s feelings, made one another proud, and hugged more times than any tour crew on the face of the planet.
It has been an experience none of us will forget all the days of our lives. It has forced me to forgive myself and others. In long rides between cities, I have been still. I caught on sleep I’d been storing hours for from 5 years ago…
Concha Buika
We’ve slept on mountaintops, on beaches, in RV parks, at rest stops, in nests, on buses, in living rooms, and in mansions. We have discovered Concha Buika, gotten tattoos and videotaped Election nights hanging out of strangers’ cars. We’ve seen Mo’ Better Blues, Favela Rising, Sicko, Do the Right Thing, Wall-E, Hancock, Miracle at St. Anne’s, Trouble the Water, and What Democracy Looks Like on laptops, flat screens, and huge Zeniths.
We each have different stories we can’t wait to share with our loved ones. I, sadly, wasn’t as diligent about posting as I’d planned. Nevertheless, what this tour has meant for us - the crew - cannot be summed up in blog reflections.
Check the fotos!
Because when I am with them…
Posted on | November 29, 2008 | No Comments
I told Alixa and Naima (because I believe it) that I feel closer to God when I am with them. What it is, is I feel more myself, more creative, when I’m with them. It is a beautiful realization to have while on tour - to see the God in me.
My college friend told me during my Thanksgiving fast that “Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.” And what did I see that evening, while using the men’s restroom in some hole in the wall spot in New Orleans but a message written on the towel dispenser that reads: “Here I am, Sorry.” Okay, God, I’m listening.
So here it is. We have two more Hurricane Season shows before returning to Brooklyn - Atlanta and Washington DC. I am sure I will need a new tattoo on my left wrist to represent this journey. Tattoos have been my way of marking chapters in my life. Wonder what I’ll get…
Follow the white rabbit… again!
Posted on | November 26, 2008 | No Comments
In January 1, 2007 in the wee hours of the morning as folks stood on Naima and Alixa’s roof declaring intentions for their year, I professed that 2007 for me, would be about “follow[ing] the white rabbit.” That year I had so many miracles and coincidences happen I thought that I really WAS Neo.
Naima and Alixa are led in their lives by coincidence, or signs, that demonstrates when they are moving with the guidance of something much bigger than their “plans”. That spiritual yellow brick road has been re-revealed to me. And it’s always so exciting when you hear something, it is repeated in a billboard, then again in a magazine article, then again in a facebook status update, then again in a K’Naan song, then again on a t-shirt of a random person in the audience at a Hurricane Season show. It makes your breath catch for a moment, the corners of your mouth creep slowly, slowly toward your ears, your head feels pulled to the sky. And you want to feel that way always.
It’s even more special when you witness it happen with others - a shared moment of magic. Like the time the crew was stuck between Portland and Arcata and Sugarcube wouldn’t start. Pippi had been working on it for nearly an hour. I had been sleeping on the bus, oblivious to our breakdown. Alixa was holding the flashlight and offering ideas as to possible solutions; the rest of the crew was standing in the rest stop picnic area. Pippi was getting visibly exhausted starting and restarting the bus, attempting to have it turn over. Alixa asked me to pray. I said a silent prayer that went something like, “Yo! Sun! I’m rolling with two fairies so I know you ain’t gon’ have us out here like this. Let’s get it poppin!” Just as Pippi begins sharing her disbelief, that baby purred awake! Alixa and I were like, “Holy sh*t!” It was as if All That Is was saying, “Ahhhh, shut up Lindsay and let me show you what I can do you non-believer!” right on cue.
Or when we were guided by Esther (an enchanted being if I’ve ever met one) in Boulder Creek, California to go meet Jayson at the Big Sur Spirit Gardens. I swear this white dude was blessed by the heavens with this extraordinary power to make all around him peaceful. While there we were all clear that we were there to bear witness to Alixa meeting her next spiritual guide.
What a blessing to participate in such wonder. And I don’t even know how many people have approached Alixa and Naima after shows all over the world telling them how a life has been changed forever. Pretty powerful stuff.
It is all intensifying as I get closer to and through Thanksgiving. For many years I have made a point to fast and go into a form of meditation on and around this day. My connection to my indigenous blood line is sadly limited to this time every year when I immerse my mind, body, and spirit into a state of reflection, healing, and love.
And here we are, the day before Thanksgiving. My will is always tested, but my soul is always full. And this year’s holiday presents a whole new element - the unsettled spirits of New Orleans. It was a sleepless night last night as I was washed over by their memories.
Tonight is the show. I pray that the message of love provides audience members in Hurricane Season whatever it is they need to live another day in celebration of this life and the lives we have lost.
Bloggericious
Posted on | November 25, 2008 | No Comments
I stopped blogging somewhere around the Northeast. I was going through Brooklyn, intimacy, and seafood withdrawal. I had a long conversation with a good friend of mine last night. He was asking me about the tour and where I was (mentally, spiritually, emotionally) from the beginning of the tour to today. What poured out of my mouth surprised even me.
If I’d been told all that I’d have to endure physically on the tour, I probably wouldn’t have gone on it. And that’d be a shame. On top of that, so many political, cultural, social and ideological differences have come up amongst the few of us on the tour bus that there have been times I questioned my ability to relate at all – “Hell,” I thought, “I am not even remotely interested in living in the kinda world they seem to want!” “How contradictory is it that I be a part of this mission?!”
I spent one solid conversation with him, in the early part of the tour, complaining, doubting, cursing myself… In this conversation, nearing the end of the tour, my heart spoke.
Naima and Alixa (Climbing PoeTree) are living breathing expressions of Faith and Love – literally. I haven’t met very many people whose values are daily practices. And just as they are offering themselves as examples of that possibility for me, I am their witness. I believe it is my responsibility in this particular life experience to bear witness to how people can spread seeds of love and faith - building forests of immoveable, interlocked, supportive oak trees. After this tour I will, with newfound faith and unmatched assuredness, be able to profess my promise that ANYTHING is possible on mountaintops, stages, desktops, and subway platforms.
And just as I am finally making peace with my choice to abandon all that I knew and go on this crazy national tour (4 stops before the end), I also am able to heal a long standing wound that was created in arguably the most important relationship in my adult life. It was a converging of conversations, moments, book excerpts, and longing that brought on the overwhelming desire to shore up that place I’d held open for anger, pain, jealousy, and distrust to dock.
So I text Him, for the first time with nothing but love in my heart. And He text me back.
Without needing to go into detail, I can finally say that I am free to love again.
Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, cyclones, typhoons, fires, droughts… these things remind us to connect, share, love, and treasure. This tour has been my natural disaster – offering pain and solace, fright and courage, damage and security, loss and unbelievable contributions. I cannot fathom how much I have transformed. I hope everyone is around to see me shake off cocoon remnants and spread my beautifully marked wings, fluttering to an unknown new paradise.
Ashe!
Minneapolis, Part Deux
Posted on | October 29, 2008 | No Comments
This was a truly dope experience.
So one thing I’m noticing as we circle the nation is that many of our hosts live in a cooperative living situation. Meaning, there are grown folks living in houses together (4-8 at a time), sharing household responsibilities. So far, none of the homes we’ve been to have had children. Having lived in a boarding situation for five years, then to college and living with more folks I was done with the communal living for a while. After living alone for 5 years now, I’m almost considering the benefits of this type of living. Especially if I had kids! (wink)
I digress… the fotos. Minneapolis. The house. Picking the veggies for dinner. The dinner. Filling out absentee ballot applications. The community.
Minneapolis, Part Uno
Posted on | October 29, 2008 | No Comments
I know, I know… this blog could become a photo album - easily. I promise to get back to writing. However, there’s no way to fill you in on ALL that happened in the Midwest. Our best bet - el fotographs! lol
MINNEAPOLIS in technicolor… Part Uno
The beginning
Posted on | October 22, 2008 | No Comments
Thank you Chad for taking pictures on August 28th, the day we left NYC… For all of you who missed the goodbye “ceremony”.
From $86 million to $700 billion
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments
Chicago… I blogged while there. I loved spending time with my aunt and cousins. Confession – part of why I’m on this tour is to see my folks in as many cities as possible!
We stayed with a marvelous older sister, E. Dali. Her home is called NIRVANA. And rightfully so. It’s one of those homes where your senses are immediately in a state of bliss. It smells divine. The temperature is perfect. The colors make you feel like you just ate the best meal of your life. You want to snuggle. You want to have dreams there. Yes, it WAS truly that deep. Lol
First there were 5, then there were 7! We had Summerlynn and now Layla Love – Alixa and Naima’s dope photographer friend – all chillin’ in NIRVANA.
Luckily, we got to see Trouble the Water and to meet Tia and Carl (producers and directors). They looked as exhausted on their tour with the film as we surely looked. Mama Lou and Huey had fallen asleep as some point during the film. And though I didn’t want them to miss one part, I knew how tired there were. So I let it be. And Tia gave us the trailer for Trouble the Water so we can show it in the next cities we visit where the film is showing nearby. It is no coincidence that they are on tour to promote their film and we are on tour to promote… well, the transformation of humanity. J
Before leaving NIRVANA – of course it can’t be all glitz and glamour – a toilet seat cover was broken, a treasured item in the home went missing, and we watched on CNN as the financial crisis went from $86 million to $700 billion. The crew was convinced that the rack in the back with cubes of vegetable oil was partly responsible for the sway (along with our bus contents being too heavy for its frame), so Pippi was determined to get the second “dirty” tank attached so we can quickly create a filtration system that enables us to put unfiltered grease straight into the car and we can stop lugging grease along. She, Mama Lou, Tetris, and Huey were under that bus for hours detaching and breaking down our rack, and attaching our second tank.
So before leaving Chicago, we got a new door blocker – the broken down rack – and a spiritual cleansing by E. Dali. It was complete with sweet smelling incense, a drum, and a neighbor-waking “Ashe!!!!!!” And off to the University of Illinois – Urbana, still swerving, grrrrrr-ing, and shaking!
No One Left Behind
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments
While still in Ann Arbor we watched Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (done by the same dude that did Supersize Me.) It was really well done and I made a mental note: “Reel to Real Talk (link) has to see this!” Get it through your Netflix or Blockbuster subscription!
We took Sugarcube to get the Clankity Clank fixed. A beautiful spirit of a man, Abdul, took our bus in with a short period to work on it. We stayed at his shop for at least an hour in the cold with it being test driven. Someone mentions our steady swerve and he goes under the hood, tightens something and says, “There, you should be fine.” The ladies celebrate, “Yay! No more swaying!!! Yay!” I hate to be the one to bring folks spirits down… okay, no I don’t… but I didn’t celebrate. After all of our getting excited mechanic after mechanic I wanted evidence before getting happy. So I waited. We get on the road toward Chicago.
We left Ann Arbor without the Clankity Clank - a replaced flex plate, some part of our transmission. We still had a rack of grease attached to the back, a caged tank in our doorway, and now… a NEW problem! Well, let me first say that the swaying wasn’t fixed. As a matter of fact – it was worse! To the point where we had to pull over and “uncorrect” what Abdul had corrected within miles of leaving the shop. But now when trying to pick up speed or slow down the bus made a “grrrrrrr” sound and shook. It also wasn’t going into first and second gear without flooring it. It’s funny now. It was funny to me at the time. But to the crew… it was a sad state of affairs. How were we going to make it to Chicago like this?!!!
Before we’d gone on tour I lost someone really close to me in a car accident. I haven’t driven since. And I for sure wasn’t going to help drive Sugarcube on any part of this tour until every kink was worked out. So, as Pippi’s job got more and more stressful (she’d taken on the role of tour mechanic, a promotion from grease acquisitions), I got more and more skeptical about our future with Sugarcube. So to cheer us up, I shared this video with the ladies, and of course Huey comes up with a new shirt idea – Remember K-Ci & Jojo, No One Left Behind.
Oh, so I’m assuming you’ve read it?
Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments
We’ve been through so many cities and I haven’t had access to the internet often. So I’m recapping two weeks later. To catch you up… 
To complete our Detroit experience…
Before heading out, Pippi got a new veggie oil tank and we had a cage created for us at a welding spot at 555 Studios by a dude that saw the show two nights before and wanted to offer us that service for free. While we waited for finishing touches on it, a few of us went into the Detroit Summer offices in the same building. Diana tells us Hurricane Ike is coming and if we wanted to be safe, we should get out now. Off we go – to Ann Arbor.
We clankity clank into “A Taste of University of Michigan” with our new caged tank blocking Sugarcube’s swinging doors. As acorns fell, banging loudly on the roof of the bus, the rain picked up, and new students walked around the parking lot getting free food from various ethnic restaurant vendors, we unloaded the set.
At the University of Michigan we had our first night in a hotel. I had started a conversation with Huey weeks early with, “I’m not high maintenance or anything…” But seriously, knowing we were going to be staying in a hotel got me excited! I’m not hard to please…
It is here in Ann Arbor that we watch hours and hours of television to see the damage Hurricane Ike was wreaking on areas of the Midwest we’d just left, and watched as the stock market crashed with a need of $86 billion to bail companies out. (It’d drop dramatically as we went on through the Midwest.)
It is also in Anna Arbor that I read and finish Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel. I hadn’t heard of her or the book, but some friends suggested it to me before leaving for the tour. I’d seen “Water,” looking at the lives of Hindu women and their fate after the death of their husbands. Now I was reading one woman’s relationship with her faith – Islam. 
Amer, our gracious host, sees I am reading and asks me what I think about it. I admitted that I was disturbed by the preface, written by some white dude who clearly has issues with the religion and praises Ali’s forthcoming “indictment” of Islam. It had rubbed me the wrong way and I’d read excerpts of his preface to the Hurricane Season crew. It said on the cover that it was a best-seller and I couldn’t help but think that that was because of Americans’ brainwashing by our media, and a desire to have someone from “inside” agree with “our” representation of the faith. Amer begins telling me why he doesn’t like the book. I ask, “Oh, so I’m assuming you’ve read it?” “No. But I’ve heard her speak and read other things she’s written.”
As completely objective as I am when it comes to the religions of others (except Christianity, and since I grew up in it feel I can say what I think about that faith without apology), I felt myself reacting to what I felt was a defense of the treatment of women in Islam by a Muslim man. I told him I was actually more interested in hearing what other Muslim women, particularly women who have not denounced their faith and are critical of the treatment of women, speak on Ayaan Hirsi Ali. “Fair,” he said. I could have hugged him for that backing down. I was extremely sensitive after having read her story and having seen “Water.”
Being a part of Hurricane Season, knowing that the creators are both women, hearing the words of women through the performance, working with the most forward-thinking women whose love – not anger or hate – has them act… I am seeing Toni Blackman’s words in another light. She’d told me that women are going to save hip hop. And I can’t help but think, “women are going to save the world.” I am guilty of constantly having male names on the tips of my tongue when talking about thought and societal transformation. This tour is having me look for the sheroes whose names will come easily when I go to speak on changing the world.
Tags: Ann Arbor > Ayaan Hirsi Ali > Detroit > Detroit Summer > Hurricane Ike > Lindsay > sugarcube > Toni Blackman
About Sallomé Hralima
Sallomé is an idea mogul and dream executor making sure those on the periphery have the opportunity to live purpose-filled lives, experiencing themselves as people who make a difference. Often working, she is in a constant state of training and development, brainstorming and sharing.
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