Intimations of Fellowship

November 25, 2006

Holla,

I just got off the phone with Lorna Jackson, the host of CBC Radio One's "The World This Weekend", which will be broadcasting the interview nation-wide at 6 pm tonight. For those of you outside of Canada, the program can be heard on their website.

One of the topics of discussion was my new song, "The Fellowship of Dion", the latest installment in a long history of political engagement through rap music. This track, ironically, will be going out to my largest audience yet on this radio broadcast, but it is targeted at the narrowest group of listeners. In one week I will be attending the Liberal Leadership Convention in Montreal, which will see a new leader of the party elected, the first step to getting rid of Steven Harper. Only elected delegates and members of the Liberal Party can vote on this decision, so the purpose of "Fellowship" is to alert these people to the merits of Stéphane Dion, the former Environment Minister of Canada, who is now a leadership candidate. Besides being the most qualified for the job, Stéphane is promising to make environmental sustainability a central pillar of the party and of Canadian politics in general. This is sorely needed and long overdue. It's about time we stop Harping about terrorism and focus on climate change as the crucial challenge of the 21st Century.

For those of you who don't happen to be delegates to the convention, I invite you to listen to the song purely for its entertainment value, and also to let it serve as your introduction to Stéphane, who is serving as a force for positive change and inspiration in politics. Personally I am tired of the cynicism that has come to burden our view of politicians. Let's discover some heroes and give them our full support.

In other news, the Democrats are in power in Washington again, and the sun is shining in the great U S and A. My cultural learnings for make benefit student of literature and fan of rap have continued to bring interesting challenges and discoveries. A few days ago I had my NY book launch event at the KGB Bar in the East Village, with a good turn-out and excellent response, including a listing in the New Yorker and a special feature-pick write-up in the Village Voice. New York is a city I could happily spend a lot more time in, but for now that will have to wait.

Last week I also had my first excursion into the American South, performing in high schools in Virginia and South Carolina, where the high school put on a special medieval dinner theatre night for the keener students and parents, with period costumes, barbecued meat, banners and faux-tapestries of Chaucer's visage, as well as entertainment from the modern rap-bard. The next day I performed for a few hundred of the younger and tougher students, and afterwards a whole crew of them volunteered to battle me in front of the assembly. The four who got on stage with me were sixteen-years-old, black, with attitude and g-ed out apparel, called themselves the BBP (Big-Boy Posse), and they got served one by one by a white Canadian wearing a laced-up medieval costume: "Let me tell you 'bout my life's joy / It's when real hip-hop heads give props to this corny white boy / 'cause I come with nothin' but punchlines and great rhymin' / while you come with empty words, and a fake diamond". After the battle they were converted, and I gave them signed albums and answered their questions about how to get started in rap. I'm a long ways from the charts, but for aspiring musicians success is highly relative.

In a few days this tour will come to an end and I'll return home to regroup for the next round of punishment. Next year is looking truly invigorating/intimidating.

Salud,

baba