connecting*the*dots

Cara Michele Forrest is one of the good people, fighting the good fight. She’s a tireless advocate for the rights of homeless people in Greensboro, NC.

When I say tireless, I’m not using empty rhetoric. Below is a shot of her in front of the NightWatch truck that hits the back streets of Greensboro each and every Friday night, usually getting her — the mother of teenagers — home well after 2am.

She’s a mixture of spunk, sass, righteousness and southern momma to boot. It’s hard to imagine anyone not appreciating her take no prisoners attitude when it comes to serving the needy in our community.

Well, don’t look now, but it’s starting to look like she’s catching some blowback for her no nonsense approach to advocacy.

It’s not coming from her friends on the street.

And it’s not coming from Greensboro residents or businesses who more often than not have adverse relationships with the homeless in town.

The unfortunate element of this story is that the flak she’s beginning to receive is from players within the very same agencies that she works with on a daily basis, in the common goal of eliminating homelessness in Greensboro and Guilford County proper.

Who Is Cara Michele Forrest?

There are a bunch of issues at play here and being that Michele is too good of a soul to air some of the details — she’s too humble to frame the issues in the context of her daily life on the off-chance of making it about her rather than the work she’s doing — I’m going to play advocate for her position.

If you have any issues with this post, it’s my thinking, reasoning and positioning.

Mine and mine alone.

Let me start off by stating that Michele isn’t a career advocate — she doesn’t take a salary to help people; she helps people because it’s a part of her calling.

It’s how she walks that fine and narrow line with Jesus.

So when push comes to shove, Michele not only has zero reasons to back away from doing everything she can to serve her community, but she refuses to bow to situations that might lead her off that narrow path.

Basically, she’s the type of person that gives Christianity a good name.

I bring this up to distinguish Michele’s character and her purpose in life. It’s what makes her such an amazing advocate. She doesn’t serve the numbers of homeless folk in town; she serves her friends in need.

She listens.

So when she tries to advance the notion that there are homeless people that can and should represent their own needs during Task Force conversations — meetings that eventually craft an approach to helping the homeless — and it falls on deaf ears, she feels wounded.

Or the time Michele worked out a program with the Greensboro Public Library to provide library cards to the homeless (usually reserved for people with proof of residency in Greensboro), but the providers in town failed to see the importance of the program and wouldn’t agree to vouch for the people they serve.

To a soul like Michele, it’s just another example of talking loud and doing nothing.

The Bottom Line

Over the last month or so, Michele has become increasingly upset with the bureaucratic machinations of the homeless industry that she finds herself dealing with on a daily basis.

She refuses to give me details regarding most of her problems — being the narrow path, tightrope walker that she is — but I know she feels that there might be improprieties in play with the operations of the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County.

A few days ago, she openly questioned an element of a certain initiative — something innocuous like the non-announcement of its launch date — but after following up internally and getting an answer she retracted the post.

Maybe she should’ve posted an update to the post with the newly found information, but she killed it instead, so all parties involved should’ve been satisfied.

Not quite.

The HPCGC now wants her blog, Chosen Fast, de-linked from their member page, stating:

“The HPCGC website is not the place to share your personal opinions and thoughts, particularly ones that are contrary to the success of the Coalition. No one’s trying to stop your advocacy, Michele, but you need to use the proper channels.”

If the HPCGC considers a link to a blog “sharing personal opinions and thoughts” they’re sitting a bit too close to their monitors.

What their position says to me is that they’re extremely controlling with their organization, and particularly inept regarding the role of the internet and their objectives in the 21st century.

More precisely stated; they value appearance over substance.

Sounds like some marketing and PR consultants have made a buck or two over there.

Here’s a little insight of my own (for what its worth):

You don’t gain trust and credibility with your clients, customers, constituents or neighbors by coming off overly slick, rounded and without flaws; you gain such respect by delivering for them while allowing yourself to be viewed as a human being.

Try to name one organization on this planet that isn’t made up of the blood, sweat and tears of human beings.

You can’t.

So why represent yourself or your organization otherwise?

I’m sure the people at HPCGC think they’re doing “the right thing,” but this is how bureaucrats stomp the passion out of people trying to make a positive difference in the world — people who are more concerned with the well-being of the people they serve than becoming a sycophant to folks who are primarily concerned with their job security.

It’s not right and it’s not fair, to both Cara Michele and her homeless friends.

And the bottom line is that it’s just not good business.

Next Monday: The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tomorrow, from 1 to 5pm, Clement Mallory is putting on the Second Annual C37Words Youth Poetry Festival at 200 N. Davie Street, next to the Cultural Arts Center and Center City Park.

From the Greensboro Public Library:

The Festival will include poetry readings along with teen steppers, games, a comedian, African drumming and dancing, music, storytellers, an open-mic, hip hop dancing and more.

The C37WORDS Poetry Program empowers young people to discover ways to earn money from their talents. Organizer Clement Mallory hopes to inspire the youth in our community by showcasing their creative efforts.

Come on down and support the youth of our community.

Let’s hope the rumors are nothing more than that.

UPDATE: David is warm to the idea of Disney imagineers coming up with a Downtown Disney fit for Greensboro.

No thanks. Call me old fashioned, but I don’t Disney where I eat.

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Keith Robinson dropping science and experiences on the crowd last week at the C37Words production, Poetry GSO Slam, in Greensboro, NC.

If you felt that as much as I did in person, I’ll leave it up to you to transcribe the lyrics in the comment field.

(shot by stephenomenal)

National Poetry Month is coming to a close in a few days, but Clement Mallory might have just put it to bed last night with a bang.

With a packed house in the lecture hall of the Greensboro Historical Museum, Clement effortlessly moved the crowd as the emcee of the competition, displaying a rare range of lyrics and emotion, delivered across numerous poems as the judges tallied their results.

But there’s something other than talent that separates Clement from his peers.

While he’s making moves as an up and coming performer, it’s his foundation as a teacher and his Brooklyn born and raised personality that makes his approach unique.

The first half of the show consisted of a teen competition and by any “standard” of a spoken word competition, the kids delivered more poetry than passion — mostly standing behind a podium and reciting their words.

But as a teacher, Clement’s concern was visibly focused on the kids growth as poets, performers and their confidence with their own voice, not their current ability to rock the stage. His realness, casualness and sense of humor seeped from his soul each time he addressed the crowd — whether killing time between acts, giving advice to the kids after the adults slammed or while making connections with his next opportunity through an ill shout out.

Before the show was even half-way through, he had the audience completely eating out of his hands.

In the end, the finals of the adult slam came down to two poets battling it out for the first place prize — Monica Daye and Keith Robinson (A.K.A. The Arsonist). If it were up to me, they both would’ve walked away with top honors.

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Keith Robinson (A.K.A. The Arsonist) ended up bringing home the $250 first prize, but it wasn’t because of this powerful drop. Let’s just say that this Marine veteran of the first Gulf War wasn’t feeling the actions of our current president.

Look for that winning slam on next week’s Lyricist Wednesday.

Another great night in GSO.

Clement is hosting the spoken word jam this Friday night. Come on down (it’s free) and you’ll have an opportunity to get to know The Future of Poetry.

Congrats again on the cover story, man.

I’m on the North side of Greensboro, watching Bill Moyers Journal: Buying the War with 15 other engaged citizens. House parties like this were set up all across the nation by Free Press.

How simple was it? I received an email from my brother after he was made aware of the showing through their local action alert email newsletter.

In any event, it’s great to see so many concerned and engaged citizens — mostly strangers before tonight — coming together to ask tough questions. Actually, it’s much more hemming and hawing at the incompetence of our Fourth Estate than dialog between each other, but I’m sure that’ll come in a few minutes.

I’m furious watching this broadcast, but it’s nothing new in terms of knowledge. I’ve been blogging about this fucking mess before we invaded, while we invaded and throughout the occupation and opined about most of the concepts and players covered in this brilliant narrative by Moyers.

If you saw this documentary — or plan to catch it in the future — don’t waste your time getting mad with politicians making decisions based on self-interest and power plays. Instead, think about your personal relationship with the media, journalism and reporting and how it shapes your world view.

Kent Bye has been working on a project since the run up to war called, The Echo Chamber Project. Paraphrasing his thesis: he’s attempting to present a large number of perspectives about both the media coverage in the run up to war and interviews with professionals from a large variety of industries in a manner that can be contextualized, remixed and redistributed to the live web by world citizens.

Why is that important?

Because the current journalistic methodology of reporting and “coverage” from centralized business domains is responsible for pimping this war into fruition.

Maybe if we all have the ability to participate in a methodology that allows for easily stitching together unbundled clips of perspective, reporting, coverage, etc. and contextualize it with our own knowledge and narrative, we can make a real dent in the mainstream business as usual.

Maybe we can even replace TV as we know it today.

Kent and I rapped about a bunch of the possibilities last year. If you have some time, check out the interview.

Andy is going to post an audio file of the conversation we just had post-viewing (which was really interesting). I’ll link to it as soon as he posts it himself.

UPDATE: Andy just posted the post-viewing conversation.

What’s History Worth?
The Lex Files

“Every time I publish a story related to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation report and its aftermath, I hear from people either curious or angry about why the N&R, almost a year after the release of the report, continues to cover it.

[…]

But here’s the problem with ignoring the wrongs and the hurt that litter our past — and I am indebted to the old comic books I read as a kid for the imagery: You can cover up the past all you want, but often it won’t do any good. If you clean and bind the wounds of past harm, and acknowledge the loss and grief of those to whom it happened or their survivors, then you can bury it and perhaps it will rest easy.

But if you don’t, then don’t be surprised if, as you walk through the garden, smelling the magnolias and enjoying the evening air, a rotting hand reaches up from the ground and grabs you and won’t let go. Sometimes the dead don’t stay buried.”

I hear you and couldn’t agree more, Lex. And after living here for going on two years now, I think I’m getting the pulse of this city, but it’s a strange one to put a finger on.

For all of the accountability folks wants from city government and the GPD over issues like a fired police chief and potential misappropriations of $30,000 of taxpayers funds, one might think that the disgust over the Greensboro Police Department’s gross irresponsibility to protect and serve in ‘79 would draw a furor until they satisfactorily explained their inaction on that day.

Actually, that’s not true; the GPD was in action on 11/3:

• A police informant was riding with the Klan in the lead car
• The GPD filmed the Klan loading up their cars with numerous weapons prior to hitting the march route
• A call was sent out to clear the march route of all officers

So yes, the GPD was busy on that day, just not protecting the permit approved march route.

But can you blame them?

Nelson Johnson vociferously barked at the cops to stay away the day before, so they just followed his wishes. I mean, cops are notorious for throwing their responsibilities to the wind when a civilian yells loud enough, right?

From yesterday’s Yes! Weekly article, New inside perspectives on 1979 shootings point to police complicity:

[…] “Based on conversations with Dawson, who is no longer alive, Hennis told YES! Weekly in a recent interview that he believes members of the Greensboro Police Department decided to allow the Klan and Nazis to attack demonstrators after march organizer Nelson Johnson warned police to “stay out of our way.”

“The police, I believe, knew right much about it,” Hennis said. “After Nelson smart-mouthed them, they decided to just stay back and referee…. They didn’t have no plan, but they knew about it and couldn’t care less.” […]

Hell, the people that died in ‘79 were communists. It’s not like they were actually people who subscribed to a different take on labor issues and the systemic issues of socio-economic inequalities within America (which have actually grown since 1979). They were followers of a foreign “ism”… and words have consequences, right?

The thought makes me sick.

I’m not so naive to believe that privileged folk down here care to settle that case of obvious police wrongdoing.

Now, if there’s money involved or the potential for “reverse” racism to be framed, well, that’s a whole other case entirely.

Greensboro 101

Here’s the deal as I see it: Greensboro is a civil, southern town — civility will not allow for such retrospective inquiries of negative events that have occurred in the public sphere.

It’s not how things are done down here; dirty laundry is not to be aired — it’s meant to be buried.

Historically, that’s how things have worked.

It’s always been much easier to bury improprieties and crimes, along with the heads in this town, rather than talk about the issues, bring truth to the table, hold folks accountable to their actions and reconcile our grievances.

More so here than anywhere else I’ve lived.

The problem for past and present town planners and gatekeepers, is that we’re now living in the information age — their circle the wagon rhetorical tactics of old cannot quell the voices of residents who want answers, whether it be about 11/3/79 or the Dudley High School revolt or Willow Oaks or re-zoning a city district to force a successful rehabilitation and homeless program to close their doors.

And more and more folks are wanting answers in this day and age.

Burying an infested bone in a wire-frame view of a backyard these days can’t even fool a dog named Helenkeller.

Andy, Micah, Blake and Will are all local independent filmmakers and forward-thinking netizens. Something really interesting is going to come out of this collaboration.

They’re open to ideas for a production company name. Any thoughts?

(originally uploaded by lisa scheer)

Today is day two of the voting for Netsquared’s Technology Innovation Fund. If you haven’t yet stopped by to vote for The People, Yes, please do so. If we place, we’ll receive solid funding and development resources desperately needed to get us off the ground.

If you’re a blogger, talk show host, stewardess with a captive audience, etc., I’d greatly appreciate your help pointing folk in that direction as well.

Thanks so much.

This new parody of Ed’s blog is killing me. Whoever is responsible, please don’t out yourself, just keep dropping the hits.

And yes, I got spoofed as well:

Yo, yo, yo. Joisey in da house.

I’m so plugged in I can’t stand myself.

Heh.

Chris Daughtry may not be your cup of tea, but the guy does have the #1 pop album in America.

That’s some serious ’80’s Bon Jovi kind of success.

So guess what happened when the product of nearby Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina came to Greensboro for a free show downtown.

One word: Insanity.

Over the past 30 years, the Greensboro Police Department has developed a long history of mistrust within the local community:

• In 1979, the predominately black and poor Morningside community was left unprotected during a permit enabled, anti-KKK rally that came to be known as the Greensboro Massacre.

  Oh yeah, the GPD also had an informant riding shotgun with the Klan during the fatal firefight who reported just the day before that there would be bloodshed.

• In 2006, whispers of racism and charges of mismanagement and suspect behavior led to the dismissal/quitting of then police chief, David Wray.

  Ever since then lines have been drawn within the community here, with some folk pointing at reverse racism within the local media and city government hiring a shill third-party as the reason for Wray’s dismissal

Tim Bellamy does not have an easy road ahead of him.

Common is playing Guilford College next Saturday, March 31st.

Day one.

Artist: Molly McGinn (MySpace | Blog)

I’m in a Molly frame of mind, so here’s a double-dose of local talent. Enjoy!

Song: Bad Jokes and Blues

Stand on one side and be criticized
It gives people something to say

They look back at you
Or down upon their shoes

While the show it moves
To another stage

Please don’t dull my eccentricities
Well, isn’t it what first attracted you to me?

Bad jokes and blues
Whiskey bars and booze
Guitars, moonshine in jars
Jumping on trampolines under the stars

Please don’t dull my eccentricities
Well, isn’t it what first attracted you to me?

Bad jokes and blues
Whiskey bars and booze
Guitars…

Please don’t dull my eccentricities…

==========

Song: Kill Devil Hills

Sunday morning
Wore my best
Rolled up blue jeans
And a green bucket hat

And the strings of my bikini
Are flapping on my back
As I peddled up a breeze
On that black top paved path

So I ride
Legs out wide
Almost took a tourist out on that last freestyle
And for the moment I’d forgotten even why I was there
And how I was hoping there was something for me up at the top of Kill Devil Hills

Around and around
Atop the mound
Where 1,000 failures lay in state in silence underground
As I circle around and try to memorize every word
I soon realize that I, I, I
Am completely done for.

Faster now
Passing trees
And the salty sun
Takes a morning washcloth over me
When I lick my lips
I can taste the ocean on the breeze
Baptized by the failures buried below
Kill Devil Hills

Round and round
Up the mound
Where 1,000 failures
lay in state in silence underground
As I circle around
and try to memorize every word
And thought of all the times
I’d pushed my faith to the edge and watched it burn
I soon realize that I, I, I
Am completely
Absolutely
Indubitably
Done for.

(shot by Mikey aka DaSkinnyBlackMan)

We’ve moved the monthly Blogsboro Meetup to:

M’Coul’s Public House (blip.tv | flickr | site | directions).

We’ll be on the second floor tomorrow evening, beginning at 7pm. M’Coul’s has working wifi, so feel free to bring your laptops.

Again, this event is open to anyone interested in publishing to the web, so Allen, Ed, David, et al of the N&R crew, feel free to grace us with your presence.

I’ll even bring a bottle of wine if you’d like. ;)

In the future, please RSVP on Upcoming. Thanks.

(originally uploaded by Captain Flexible)

UPDATE: The story behind Pall Bearers Handle.

At 4pm, The Holy Ghost Tent Revival is on. Come on down!