as it stands right now, i have about four personal days coming to me at mindbuilders. took one of them today to read for some junior high school kids up in jamaica, queens. the trek from the bx would have been ri.cock.ulous so i crashed at mc’s crib in order to get there on time (good lookin out, matt) and meet with bon, cirelli and (new compatriot) yusef hayes (whose poem about his mom passing from AIDS was off the meter). we went over on time during the first set and cirelli got left out. he set off the next set with an extra piece and then we had a kick ass reading except for pelo bueno getting interrupted half way through by a mouse (boo! (c) r.v.)

more food, fun and poetic disertation as we headed to a jamaican spot afterwards and cirelli led off the “appropriation vs authenticity” debate. good stuff as elana and the ladies of bank street college (the organizers for this event that did an awesome job of putting it all together) joined in as well. chicken escovitched, rice & peas, plaintain and cole… oh, hell yeah!

me and bon have spent the better part of two days together. he came through for me big time yesterday at m-b and did a mini-feature and q&a for my kids. he ripped (as usual) and his “i am a slacker, too, except when it comes to writing” speech hit home with the kids. then down to columbia u to see the filatinos do their thing. (given the choice between robert haas and my friends, i came to this conclusion: i like seeing work develop rather than essays being formulated) the college crowd was dense and obtuse and reacted poorly to ed & omar’s work. no worries, some food afterwards always makes the night much better and, guess what!, no poetry discussions… maybe some trash talking afterwards but there aint nuthin wrong wit dat!