Everything that happens has a reason and a cause. That’s why I won’t knock the knowledge I’ve learned since the death of Korrynn Gaines, the 23-year black woman who was gunned down by police officers earlier this August in front of her 5-year-old son and the comfort of her own home.
Photo From Korryn Gaines Social Account
Since Korrynn’s death, there’s are numerous questions about what truly happened during her 6-hour standoff with the Baltimore County Police Department. For several days, the general public was left in the dark about whether the police kicked her apartment door in while entering her apartment or if they obtained a key, and questions on whether she fired her shotgun at police first or if the police did.
Hearing so many questions regarding this shooting can make someone question if the people we put our trust in to protect and serve us are really honest in their dealings. It caused me to do a little more research about policy.
Previous to Korrynn’s most recent encounter with the Baltimore County Police Department, there was another incident with county police in March. The police interrogated the Korryn for 20 minutes for driving around with cardboard tags instead of Maryland state tags on her car. When asked to provide documentation for her vehicle, she repeatedly refused to present her driver’s license, tags, and registration. Some articles on the Internet state Korryn was pulled over while practicing sovereign law. Take a look at this footage as she refused to provide identification for police officers in March while she was pulled over for a traffic violation.
Delegation of Authority: What does it mean?
Like many of us that have a growing curiosity for something we desperately want an answer to, I went to YouTube for a quick definition. I came across a lot of videos that gave good definitions. But there was one particular journalist named Andrew Westmoreland who gave me the best explanation to what delegation of authority meant in the sense of its use in law enforcement. I also found websites that further explained how it is used to delegate orders to people of the law. Though I can’t say what Westmoreland is saying is the fact, he does make a few valid points that I cannot look past, like people not being aware of their laws and policies as it relates to current events with cases about police brutality.
With Korryn Gaines, lots of people may have jumped to conclusions too quickly about her character by saying she’s crazy or mental. There is obviously something more. According to what is observed in her encounter with the addition to learning more about delegation of authority, Korryn had a genuine concern about how she dealt with law enforcers. She was a smart and strong-willed woman. She truly stuck to what she believed was her due to rights. To her, there is a correct way of doing things. She literally died for what she believed.
Would you believe Korryn’s notion to ask the police for delegation of authority was justified after watching journalists explain what it means? Leave your comments below.
It was around this time a year ago when Black Baltimore Youth decided to take a stand against social injustice as a result of death to Baltimore native Freddie Gray. One year ago, the city was at unrest as media from around the world had their cameras focused on the city’s reaction.
2015 Baltimore Uprising Protest
First at an uproar, then later turned uplifting, the riots became like a light switch flicked on gaining the attention of billions. Baltimore had all eyes on them as its citizens showed the world what’s truly happening in the city while public officials, like Mayor Stephanie Rawlings – Blake, left the citizens with “space to destroy.” Many have wondered would it be this be time for a revolution; will there be a change in the fight against systematic racism?
During the 2015 Baltimore Uprising Protests, people gathered at the historical intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue with a mission to show whoever watching the truth. Hundreds of people met with the same purpose against police brutality and social injustices. It was in front of the burning CVS Pharmacy, we designated a landmark for many of the Uprising’s protests. On the corner of Penn North Station, a revolution was sparked but is the flame for Black deliverance still lit?
A year later, there still remains an urgent call of attention to those same social injustices. Every day, there are signs that let people in on these still prevalent social needs. There are activists continuing on the search for ways to fight for funding towards a corrupt Baltimore City education system. By December of 2015, crime rates skyrocketed way past the usual records leading to more than 300 homicidal deaths throughout the year. There remain blocks-upon-blocks of vacant homes untouched since the riots in Baltimore during 1968. The homeless continue to be pushed out of tourists friendly areas in shame to prevent an unwelcoming presence for visitors. The city is the same.
At least once once a year I’ll do these trendy post about what’s happening in Baltimore that’s catching the bulk of attention. Last year, I wrote an opinionated piece about the unrest presented in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, victim in 2015 grand jury case that sparked the fight against injustice and systemic racism in Baltimore City. The year before, I wrote on the social trend of people taking to social media to share their best representing picture they’d like to share if murdered unjustly by police brutality in honor of the death of Michael Brown. Also, let’s not forget about the #ImSoBaltimore hashtag that sweep the Internet for an entire day.
What’s popular this past week was the sudden appearance of memes inviting tourist to visit Baltimore. Only a week after Baltimore’s Light The City event took place in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, someone, who still remains anonymous, took to social media to share a few places that wouldn’t be considered the average tourist attraction.
I assume the Internet couldn’t wait to make Baltimore the butt of the joke, as the funniest photographs of famous and some historical landmarks act as the punchline for city natives familiar with the area. The locations to some places mentioned aren’t your typical call for luxurious vacationing. But who’s ready to visit Murry’s Steak House with me?!
Whoever made these memes are simply awesome!
If you’re not from Baltimore, some of these pictures may be questionable. Why would anyone want to visit Owings Mills where there’s nothing worth sight seeing if we go by what we see in the memes? To see boarded houses that have been that way for years? Oh, what joy!
These memes can be taken in many ways, even political. As we approach the near anniversary of last year’s Baltimore Uprising, I can see someone choosing to make a statement of what still hasn’t changed in Baltimore. The city granted programs and funding to the youth, but as people may visit the areas mentioned in these memes, you’d see the same old’ rusted, dingy, and dusty Baltimore.
Being a Baltimorean, I know of conversations that take place during this city’s unrest addressing the concerns people have about city and state officials calling the National Guard to protect Baltimore tourist areas instead of areas that took majority impact during 2015 riots. There’s also conversations about media outlets around the world showing a city that physically displays the outcome of constant budget cuts from our government. We need answers. We need understanding for why outsiders know only of Canton, Fells Point, or Federal Hill, but not Sandtown, Pennsylvania Avenue, or Station North.
Hmm, does this have to do with racism?
Anyway let’s not get carried away. I just think these pictures are funny and extremely left field. Pictures speak a thousand worlds and I love it. So if these were created as pure comedy, that’s fine with me too. Haha.
It’s not real! I want to assure the people who aren’t from Baltimore that. Don’t let them get their panties in a bunch trying to explore the unknowns of Lexington Market or Shake n Bake. If you truly want to know, come visit and find out. I bet you’d laugh too.
Today’s musician I’d like to highlight is Baltimore’s own R&B/ Soul artist 4TAE.
4TAE launched his professional career in 2005 playing with the Eubie Blake legacy jazz band and Marcell and the Truth. He has opened up for various artists, such as Anthony David, Anthony Hamilton, Algebra Blessett, and Lupe Fiasco.
He also played alongside artists, such as jazz violinist Regina Carter and Raheem Devaughn. Along with the Trombone, 4TAE plays piano, bass guitar, and is a producer. He is currently working on his debut EP “Blue hart”.
Stated via 4TAE’s press kit:
“His music is described as a smooth explosion of hip-hop and R&B. Music lovers will enjoy listening to the sexy smooth sounds of this new artist.”
Well, I’ve had the chance to be the judge of that as I was tagged in a recent music video of him on Facebook. Check out, “Right Where I Wanna Be” below.
The video and song were quite cool. It very well did pass off a smooth kind of vibe. I think the video complimented the theme of the song very well, too.
What did you like about the song? Leave your comments below.
Minister Louis Farrakhan stepped up as leader of his people to share wisdom at Justice or Else March, Saturday, October 10, 2015. He spoke knowledge that any race of people could take with them to become a better being for changing the world around them.
By calling a meeting for all oppressed people, Native, Latin, and Black alike; he showed the world through stern intervention that he is a man who loves his people. He did this through speaking basic philosophy any human being should have the capacity to understand, and he did it with a mission to instill change within a society that shows limited signs of breakthrough due to ill-mannered government policies and social injustices.
Farrakhan, by being emotionally attached to this cause for so long, also made contradictions while giving his speech. I choose not to focus on delivering what’s deemed unimportant. Instead, I’ll focus on the four main points discussed by Minister Louis Farrakhan that remained with me, which I see to be worth passing to my readers, beginning with why he called this meeting following 20 years.
Minister Louis Farrakhan on the big screen. Photo taken by Doc’s Castle Media
This is a movement. We have no time for vanity.
Minister Farrakhan came with a mission to let his people know that what he’s doing is not to be taken in vain. His life work is for the future of everyone’s lives, for the descendants of everyone’s children and grandchildren, that they may have a better outcome than what his ancestors had, he had, and what’s currently facing many Black people today. Like an angry grandpa frustrated with his grand-kids, he demanded the attention of the crowd to open their eyes, minds and hearts to what’s happening in America. He told us change is a requirement and not preference.
With plenty of conviction behind his words, Minister Farrakhan shared a passion that many who attended the march felt. Black people are trying to be heard from a government unwilling to lend a listening ear. He urged that Justice or Else not be just a day that Blacks, Natives, and Latinos meet in unity. He emphasized it being a call for all oppressed people to come together in continuation in working on unification to fully gain equality.
The only way we can gain justice is through unity from everyone who has ever been deprived from justice.
Minister Farrakhan sent an invite to every nation of people to be apart of the march for Justice or Else. Speakers from different cultures, religions, sexual orientations, and gender came together to unite even in our many differences because we all had a common dislike for mistreatment.
Everyone wants to be treated fairly and we want it now!
In the fight to gain common ground from those who are privileged, Minister Farrakhan stated we must come together by first seeking to find that love within ourselves. By loving first our body as the temple then showing love for those who are around us, no matter what color of the skin, we show a force that cannot be reckoned with; a stronger power than of one entity that holds the human race back as a whole. We will gain equality for blacks by taking a stand, but we also create opportunities for the Native Americans and Latino Americans who are still fighting those same social injustices.
Black Empowerment Photo taken by Doc’s Castle Media
We live not for ourselves but for the generations that come after us.
Minister Farrakhan stressed as a people we have to stop thinking of what we can only do for ourselves. We live in a generation that thrives off doing anything for personal gain whether it be reaching success in a positive manner, or slashing each other’s throat to get to the top. It hasn’t gotten the human race far through thinking this way because there are so many people still left to be treated unjustly.
Farrakhan reminded us that to show love for your fellow brother and sister, we must become selfless. We have to sacrifice those selfish thoughts to gain for ourselves and work on gaining for our children because that is who we work for. They are the one’s who are left to these unjust institutions once we are gone.
By referencing the accomplishments of great leaders like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., he explained why this life we live is only temporary. “From dusk we came, back to dusk we shall go.” (Something like that.) He asked what is the purpose of living a cut throat “I’ll-steal-and-kill-to-reach-success” kind of lifestyle if everyone’s end in life is the same? It only makes life more difficult. Why not think of making an easier life for generations to come?
Today’s Youth is crying out for a worthy leader.
Farrakhan stressed that leadership is what’s needed to create progress. He also spoke on how very few of genuine leaders our country has by insinuating that we have more leaders today who chase money and fame rather than a good principle for life.
All corruption is an enemy of the progress of man!- Minister Louis Farrakhan
In a system that is built on corruption, such as greed, fame, and betrayal, man cannot move forward. Everywhere we go, we see corruption with the lack of discipline to lend a helping hand towards another person so they may reach new heights of success. Instead we have people who are in charge that want to tear down another man. A great leader helps another up. They lead by example to be a better person.
Minister Farrakhan reminded us that we haven’t had an influential leader since Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both of these great leaders taught the basics of being a humanitarian. There’s a need for someone who’s able to lead and teach what we no longer learn from important public figures. There is no one dedicated solely to the liberation of an oppressed people. No one to promote a better living. Instead, there’s more negativity being broadcast to a large mass of people.
Farrakhan told everyone the essentials of demanding justice; the essentials of being a great leader. He did so to reach a generation of people he states as whom he works for, the youth. To be a great leader demanding justice, a person should seek integrity and selflessness. They should sacrifice for a principle bigger than their own lives because the majority is greater than one. When we find that leader who chooses the majority before themselves, we know the person is working in love and not war.
6 AM upon boarding the bus to Justice or Else
Attending the Million Man March was as familiar to me as attending the protests earlier this year for Freddie Gray in Baltimore following the riots exasperated through police brutality. That feeling of unity that is so scarce in a time of selfishness gave me life! I felt amazingly proud of the skin I was born in. I was proud of the people around me coming in unity against social injustices that minorities have fought against for years. I understood what needed to shared with people who didn’t find an importance in coming out for Justice or Else. I gained a better understanding of what Justice or Else stood for, which that “or else” stands for you and the interpretation you gain from Minister Farrakhan 3 hour speech.
All in all, I understood the change in a people, as a whole, that we must overcome in order to have a better future. It’s starts with ourselves channeling our inner leader, being that example that’ll spark a revolution to change. So I see and, so I shall do.
What do you think about things that Minister Louis Farrakhan had to say at the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March? Leave your comments below.
Waking up on April 28, 2015 was the most surreal feeling I’ve experienced in my 23 years of living. To open up my eyes at the crack of dawn after tossing and turning caused by the Baltimore riots happening blocks away from where I laid my head that night, how could anyone feel any other way?
Two days prior to probably one of the most shocking riots to ever happen in history, I spent 7 hours writing about my frustrations towards the riots in Downtown Baltimore. In opinion essay on Doc’s Castle Media, “The ‘Real’ Revolution Will Not Be Televised. #ILoveBaltimore,” I speak from an emotional standpoint on the ways I believe Blacks should move forward after the major breakthrough of riots on Saturday, April 25th. I’d hope it’d be a message to calm people down from seeking to destroy more of our city as my blog reached over its average viewership.
My words may have reach quite a bit of individuals but as this week started, I see that my efforts may have not made much of an impact. Monday morning at Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore, only 5 minutes away from my job, was rioted by a huge group of young people immediately when dismissed from school and lasted for hours that day.
Rioting eventually turned into looting and destroying of historical neighborhoods. People who once had jobs along North Avenue and Mondawmin Mall are now without employment, and as riots made it across East Baltimore later that night, near Monument Street, again around the corner from where I stayed that evening, a senior center was burned down, leaving older people who were anticipating to move into a new home suddenly without one. To top it off, our mayor grounded the entire city. So we have to be in our homes by our 10 o’clock curfew.
Baltimore is a mess. The city I’ve known all my life is scorned from which the world believes is because of police brutality against 25 year old African American man Freddie Gray. But our story is deeper than the surface. It is now that we use everyone’s cameras as a tool to let you in on the scoop.
Words cannot express how I feel about what happened in my city. I’m not a fan of the media like I once was before, especially as I’ve watched events that day come to pass. There’s a media circus in my backyard reporting from Penn-North subway station, now internationally famous for our CVS that burned down on its corner.
Come on, now! Just the other day I bought a chocolate Snickers bar out of there. I’ll never be able to do that again.
We’re never getting some of those shops back. It’s hard to have hope for the restoration of CVS or any of those other buildings due to the the reputation of reconstruction in Baltimore. We’ve waited YEARS for our government to rebuild the hundreds of vacant buildings and shops damaged from the Martin Luther King Jr. riots in 1968. The only reconstruction we’ve ever seen has been to our pothole infested streets, and I swear, we can’t improve the pavement on Charles Street anymore than it is.
Geeze! Does all our tax money go to that street?!
In the minds and hearts of many people here, it’s second nature for citizens to want to walk outside to see what’s happening for themselves, rather than to watch the news nowadays. The world’s painted picture on television is far from what we’re experiencing. A trust barrier is broken for many who relied on national news stations to give us the 4-1-1 on events occurring during the week. So the local news and social media is our only best friend during this time.
The media from outside of Baltimore lacks an understand of the type of people who live in Baltimore and the lifestyle that we see on a day to day basis. It’s like the media’s way of looking at us is similar to viewing through a microscope. They’re looking to find where all these horrid problems and rioting behavior could be stimming from. But the people who experience the lifestyle of living in here will always have a better understanding and a better way of explaining what’s going on.
Poverty is one of the hardest struggles a person can try to shake in Baltimore City. With a phrase like “The struggle is real,” which is often recited in Baltimore’s Black communities, it models the hard knock situations we see as being seriously rough to live through. When we say this phrase, almost everyday nonchalantly, we as black Baltimoreans adopt an “It is what it is” attitude, learning to also desensitize and quiet ourselves from what’s really happening. Well, Baltimore’s tired of being quiet now.
People who are publicly judging my city worldwide are failing to understand. Even I feel uneasy each time I come into the realization of what’s happening to us sometimes. Tuesday evening, I walked passed a reporter from Russia and another from London. Like whaaa?! These people don’t even know that just 2 weeks ago I was frustrated from fighting to be heard because of Baltimore’s crab in a barrel reputation.
Our youth isn’t afraid to make a change. I think of how some of those kids who were rioting were doing so to scream out they were fed up. Some of those kids had no home before they rioted. Some of them go to school everyday to get away from their daily worries of not having something to eat once they leave school. Some of them were angered because they were stranded without transportation to get home due to the police shutting down the bus lines and subways before school let out. (But that’s another mystery in itself I won’t get into.) And I admit, some of them were just following the crowd. But to see our kids act this way, hurts the most because they are innocent. They’re the one’s we’re trying to protect from “the struggle.” But we can’t.
Baltimore needs change and everyone knows now. I’m so proud of us. We made a stand for so many things this week. We’re fighting police brutality, racial profiling & systematic racism, bad publicity and corrupted governmental policies not only for us, but for our entire country, we’re making a statement. My feet are suffering from it and I don’t mind it all. I have a bigger hope for my city, though I may doubt our government’s follow-up as an African American woman who’s part of the working force striving for success and a better Baltimore. But I’m glad to have seen a better side, finally! I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Rest In Peace, Freddie Gray. You’re gone, but you are not forgotten. Your name will be in history books along with our city. Change will surely come for us and our country.
Special Note: This post will be my least uniformed blog post due to the built up emotions from recent events caused by the death of Baltimore black man, Freddie Gray. It’s my duty as a Baltimore writer to talk about this the way mainstream media does not want us to. PLEASE KNOW THIS FIRST WHILE YOU READ THIS: I AM NOT A JOURNALIST, now. I AM WRITING AS A BLACK WOMAN FROM THE CITY OF BALTIMORE!
Words pour onto paper as I’ve become a part of American history today while I write about what my eyes have witness on April 25, 2015, a day which I thought I would never see my city be the forefront of America for something so severe and extremely civil. I thought it was a part of mankind’s inhumane struggle that Black people conquered, or at least scratched the surface of overcoming. But we haven’t and it’s obvious to the world now.
America is governed by a system corrupt that uses the very people who help build this very nation as a stepping stool to bringing the world back to square one by embarrassing my whole race through provoking us to move; by tormenting Blacks unfairly.
As a Black woman, myself, and a blogger who lives in Baltimore, it is my duty to talk about the problems my city faces in the eyes of millions, nationally and internationally, who are watching my town react to police brutality towards yet another African-American male, who met his end in the most unfortunate and unfair manner society could ever grant, death by the very people meant to protect him.
Who is Freddie Gray?
If you don’t know by now, get the fuck off my blog. You don’t care enough. This post isn’t for those who rather sit in their ignorance while we are at war. This post isn’t for the people seeking to view how “ratchet” and “routy” my city is to confirm our “home of The Wire” reputation. This post is not for people who go on major media outlets social media pages to read and participate in the racist comments. This post is to wake you the fuck up! This post is meant to make you realize from the eyes of a Baltimore writer that something really messed up is going on. So open your eyes.
Baltimore, what are we doing? No, let me redirect my concerns to the correct group of individuals… America, what are we doing? No, no, no. WORLD, what the fuck is going on?!
These last two years of my life has been about watching a massacre of black men, AND black women, being slaughtered by a system who prays on a culture who isn’t united and hasn’t been since we were active in the 1960s US Civil rights movement. The way that I feel about it, I have no words for what’s going on in my heart. I have no words for how I see my country being portrayed. I have no words for how my race is being treated. I only feel a fire burning within me from how close to home Freddie Gray’s death has hit thousands and thousands of hearts around this country, and I’m in awe because I would have never thought something this relentless happening in front of billions of people watching is happening in my very own backyard.
I CANNOT BELIEVE MY EYES! This shit happens everywhere else, not in my home.
As each month unfolds since the death of Trayvon Martin, I started to view my country as the ultimate hypocrite and bully. I use to watch and read about the United States in international affairs while growing up, thinking how phoney we must be to walk into other countries, like Liberia and South Africa, trying to assist with their racial issues when in neighborhoods where I live didn’t match up to the persona America tries to paint for the world to see. It is here, the media hides what’s really happening between blacks and whites, until now. Why? Our country’s own racism was hidden and blocked from mainstream media and majority of this country’s citizen for so long, so we could believe we were past oppression; to make us feel like we could give a helping hand to other cultures around the world. America needed us on the same page so we could be viewed by countries around us as “land of the free” and “home of the brave.”
Black people have fallen by the arms of police officers since forever ago, and white people, and even black people, still want to yell out one of the most irrelevant and most repeated statements recited in recent years as if it’s an excuse for why we shouldn’t make a difference in our law enforcers policies. “Blacks kill blacks all the time.” WE KNOW THIS! WTF DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH POLICE KILLING US TOO!?
Black people I need you to listen! I need you to open your eyes because this is what’s real.
Do you know we are being manipulated by national news? Of all things to capture and broadcast to the world, they choose the most uncalled for and offensive images to represent our race at such a delicate moment in our history because they know it will make our uneducated youth move and take an opportunity like protesting as an excuse to “show out” and express their anger, when they don’t even know what to be angry about. Do you know we are being made to have opinions that we’re unsure of because the media knows this will make us angry and ready for a revolution? And why is it that our own news stations WJZ and WBAL are taking a different approach in reporting about Freddie Gray than stations like CNN and the Huffington Post? Nothing’s making sense. This isn’t adding up.
Do you realize the media’s power, now? LISTEN!
Though we are made to believe the media is not bias, people of Baltimore and black people around the world, we do not have control of the media’s motivation to stay unbiased. Even I am being bias now (and I encourage you to continue to have your own opinions during this time. All I ask is that you realize and watch everything going on)! The media is what’s making police brutality the fuel of our anger ; it’s turning it into something bigger than expected. The media, which is funded by BIG corporations who bank on black people’s money, are making my culture out to be unruly savages and it does not sit well with me. It makes me angry. It’s what made me step up and write how I feel today. Black people I don’t blame you at all. We have a right to be mad, but it is unwise to be so turbulent.
To me, this is beyond race. Racism is being used as a tool to push a bigger motive because it’s the only way to get large bodies of people to move. We have to be wiser. We have to be smarter in our decisions because 10 years ago, we lived in a better peace. But with the media suddenly pushing stories about police brutality incorrectly more often, seems every couple of weeks to days, it’s also corporations that are funding the media’s weapon to wither our peace away and box us in for something we don’t fully understand yet.
So what is real? What is true? We can’t rely on our reporters to be honest and staying away from these stereotypes we’re fighting about.
To all the kids who are reading this, you must choose now to learn your history. You need not act before you are educated. Do you see how dangerous it is to go through this? This entire ordeal isn’t transparent enough, and this anger escalating within us is not good, especially coming from a group like us who can’t get past light skin and dark skin.
Peace, love, joy. Peace, love, joy, everyone.
Why is it that America decides to use my backyard as a war zone this week? America decides to take the city that I’ve spent the last 3 years trying to help put on the map, positively, as a target and guinea pig for a bigger agenda. Can you image how I feel right now? For someone who spends all her spare time trying to help the city become angry with her fellow Baltimoreans. They don’t see the bigger picture, and rather dig a bigger hole for us to climb out of? I’m so disappointed and proud at the same time. This is why I have no words. I’m so all over the place.
I doubt this will be my last post on this. I’ve been awakened.
I ask that anyone who lives outside of my city to turn to the World Wide Web for real accounts of what my city is doing in honor of Freddie Gray and not CNN. I ask you to read about what we are really going through from us. I ask that you empathize for us. I ask that you pray.
#PrayForBaltimore #PrayForMyCity
Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath. -Proverbs 28:9
With less than two weeks away from my EP “Songs From Da Dugout” release, I am pleased to finally release the official cover artwork for my project to the public. The EP is expected to release March 21, 2015 via the Alissa Feré Bandcamp and Soundcloud music pages.
Like many of my other projects, Briana Ragler was given the pleasures of handling majority of my visuals. Starting from taking on the responsibility of styling my creative persona to designing my cover of my first musical project, Briana, also known as recording artist Boutzie’, utilizes all her creative abilities to make sure Alissa Feré was ready for the world to take in. She was my photographer, stylist, and graphic designer.
Ayeee!
I’ve decided to take the Rebellious Rebel approach while working on my EP because Briana’s creative style is that “clear and clean” image I was aiming for that steers away from the average look associated with sports and hip-hop. I commonly see a more “rigid and rough” images used for things associated with both hip-hop and sports. Both are hard topics dominated by men, which I am not. So my thoughts for my project already being assumed as “hard” had to be challenged to seem more “fluffier” for Feré’s sake.
By creating a more cleaner representation for this project, I hope to promote interests that’s grabs the onlooker’s eye. I want my listeners to know from the moment they see the cover that there’s meaning behind being left in the Dugout for women. This clear and concise illustration captures the beauty behind what I believe this game we call love really is. It’s a cloudy, mysterious, dangerous, and very uneasy to understand, but it continues to be alluring, mesmerizing, and worth taking. Briana captured that we’ll in this very simply put work of art.
On top of it all, it’s very professionally presented. *applauds*
Along with the help from Baltimore artist FLuX, who’s the owner of the Baltimore brand The Dugout Dojo and the engineer of “Songs From Da Dugout,” I was ensured that each song would sound superb. I had no doubt about how my EP would turn out because listening to FLuX’s previous works, I was already blown away. (Listen to The Sky Is Blue by FLuX, here.)
The EP’s track listing is also finalized with six semi- complete songs ready for me to share.
José (Liquor Talkn) ft. Boutzie (prod. Doowy Lloh)
Rufus Bush (prod. mjnichols)
Only You Ft. Quinn Shabaz
Tonight (prod. Cmbeats)
When The Stars Align ft. Leon Dominick (prod. Davinci)
(Bonus Track): Pleasant Nightmares (prod. André 3000)
“Songs From Da Dugout” is expected to release this month March 21, 2015. For more updates on Alissa Feré, subscribe to Doc’s Castle Media social sites.
Something new had to be brewing in the Doc’s Castle Media kitchen for there to be such a long and lasting silence. It’s been almost a month since my last blog post….sorry, guys.
My silence is partially justified with the new goals I’ve acquired throughout the last two quarters of 2014. While I’ve aspired to become a master resumé and songwriter, I’ve neglected my original hobby for writing blogs. But as you can see, I always come back of course.
Since May 2014, I took on a mission to complete my bucket list, which I thought would be easy to do. I was sadly mistaken, and since then, I’ve even added more tasks to my bucket list. I can’t help the feeling I get from accomplishing a new goal. Though sooner or later, I’ll have to set limitations on these goals because I don’t know how much of my list I’m willing to take on now. Haha.
One of the tasks I’ve added to my lengthy list is the release of my 2015 mixtape. It began another duty on my list the moment after I released “José (Liquor Talkn).” Eight months later, I give you the promotional art for my project!
Songs From Da Dugout is as general as it sounds. It’s a project compromised of multiple tracks about my life, or emotions I’ve experienced, between the time period of May, when I released José (Liquor Talkn), and January. All the songs were recorded in Baltimore city studio The Dugout Dojo with head producer and artist FLuX.
Songs From Da Dugout is an EP formulated to speak on the thoughts and emotions of a woman in heartache. Feel the agony and scornful words of Alissa Feré as I speak upon situations every girl can relate to, and every man probably heard of before. Listen to a new rhythmic style only sure to be found in underground Baltimore hip-hop.
Are any of your favorite indie artist releasing any projects that you’re anticipating? Let us know about it in the comments below.
Now that the holidays are over, I can finally ask this question? Is it just me or does the holidays suck now?! Haha
Christmas feels a little odd since I’ve gotten older. I don’t know if it’s because as a child I wasn’t consciously aware of everything going on around me or if it’s really changing. I no longer get that merry feeling I once did as a child when the season approaches. This Christmas eve, I literally asked myself, “Am I suppose to feel odd about Christmas, especially the day before on Christmas Eve?”
Everything I do is different from when I use to feel the Christmas spirit. Everything I see is the same, but the feeling behind what I know as “christmassy” is different. Even as I speak to my friends, it feels like another average day. Only thing that’s different is the fact everyone’s giving people stuff, and it doesn’t feel like people want to do it. Christmas feels like a season people must participate in because we’ve been doing it for years. That’s not cool.
The way I remember this holiday growing up is with pure tenderness, happiness, and love. My family spent every Christmas together. I woke up way before dawn Christmas day, excited to open presents from all the people I loved, with the people I loved, and every evening I saw more people I loved during our traditional Christmas dinner.
This Christmas was weird. I mean, I asked my mom and sister would we be having Christmas dinner this year, and nobody knew. I asked two days ahead of time, too. They couldn’t tell me. That’s was odd and unusual because we usually know at least that. So I assumed I wasn’t the only person feeling odd.
I even had to work Christmas day. That’s nothing new but it puts the icing on the cake when you realize your family’s doing things differently this year.
I came across an article while searching the web from blog site, On Being.org titled “Why I Don’t Do Christmas” by Krista Tippett. I found it while looking for people who might have similar thoughts about the holidays as I. Krista hits it right on the nose with her explanation for why she doesn’t like Christmas anymore.
Krista isn’t participating in the Christmas as we know it for many of reasons this year. To her, the holiday has become senseless. It’s all about money and reward. People are more selfish with thoughts of what they think they deserves during the season and not seeking solely to make someone happy. Days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday represents corporate businesses way of turning Christmas into an economic relief. The ole mighty dollar has become the country’s savior.
Christmas doesn’t seem so sweet and I believe it’s because the meaning is withering away from us. Krista isn’t far from figuring it out for her family.
When I think of Christmas, I think of happiness, togetherness, genuine generosity, and love. These are all things I rarely see on a daily basis. That’s why Christmas means more to me than any other holiday. But if the day is suddenly losing its meaning, what’s the point?! Our point should be to celebrate the birth of the world’s savior, but without these principles it becomes really hard to create a better world to live in and its purpose slowly disappears.
As a record for myself and to the many of you who care about Christmas too, I wanted to remind everyone what each principle stands for during this season and why they’re important.
Happiness means contentment and joy. It’s contagious. Someone who is always happy can spark curiosity in someone who’s seeking to be happy. A happy person has to ability to uplift any atmosphere. In the world today, we’re lacking that high-spirited person who’ll promote hope, wonder, and change. Instead, the world rather enforce the harsh truth plainly. Hopefulness should embark in our children’s future but with all this “reality” going on, I fear that if I ask a child about what they’d picture life to be in five years, they’d take what they’d picture on television as a depiction of what will happen for them.
Ask a child what they’re looking forward to for Christmas, and they’ll probably tell you a new cell phone or tablet. They’re not seeking to spent it with the people they love. The first thing they’re thinking about is their gifts. It’s more common to hear their mom or dad has to work Christmas day, too. Forget about togetherness. They need to chase the olé mighty dollars because they spent their last trying to show their love through buying materialistic things to keep their kids happy.
Togetherness induces warm affection and tenderness. It makes a person feel needed and wanted. Without togetherness on Christmas, the holiday seems much colder and lonely. That also is depressing.
As far as genuine generosity goes, I rarely see it at all. Holidays have turned into a person’s duty. People don’t seem like they’re doing things because they truly want to anymore. It’s like they partake in the festivities because it’s a habit or reward. It’s instinct to do something because someone else will be doing it, too. People buy gifts because others are buying gifts for them. People seek for self first and the holidays are far from being about yourself.
All these notions are connected and each sparks off the other. They all are connected to the final principle, love. The more people become selfish, the less we feel loved. Love is sacrifice. Love is patience. Love is kindness. Love is generous. Love is tenderness and happiness. It’s putting someone before yourself. It’s showing what your soul looks like. So without all these principles we lack a soul, compassion, and all things that are important in making Christmas really feel like the Jesus’ Birthday.
How can we bring love back?
We have to step away from our selfish needs first and choose to think about others. It can be as small as having a 15 minute conversation with someone we love. Those 15 minutes can be the beginning of sharing togetherness, which could possible spark of working to improve other principles. It starts small then gradually expands into something greater and better. We can work on it together and turn any holiday into a day that’s meant to show pure, genuine love.
Who’s down to do that?
How do you feel about the holidays? Do you think people care enough about the holidays to try to change it for the better? Leave your comments below.
![FB_IMG_1444527320499[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.docscastlemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FB_IMG_14445273204991.jpg)
![IMG_20151010_074601[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.docscastlemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_20151010_0746011.jpg)
