Thursday, July 24, 2008

ATLANTA Part 1




Peace yawl, it’s been a whole lot of planning, meetings, phone conferences, fundraising, stress, and high hopes that got us here. Were tired, hungry, stinky, sweet smelling, and ravenous for exchange of ideas and plans. We hope you feel us or support our choice to carry out a nationwide tour of artistic magnificence consisting of large-scale murals, impromptu workshops, and gallery earthquakes.

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We hope to do something great, not for recognition or fame but because ART + Culture is in necessary. There have always been people in our families who struggled against isms and the ever-changing steel toe boots against the necks of progressive and revolutionary change. There have always been artists and activists working together to forward our collective thinking so we could move the notch on the turntable of life a lil’ bit further towards freedom.

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Obviously, were not the first to gather a group of artists of hella different racial, class, cultural, and political backgrounds together to put down some dope art. We were passed down art, skills, technique, love, anger, awareness, and the ganas (desire) to make some type of sense out if it. And with this tour across the United States of Apathy we are doing our best to inspire future generations so we wont be the last.

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Why? Shit, I don’t know? I mean we want to party, cook delicious food, talk, hang out, and raise our children just like anybody else would, but we recognize that a whole lot is wrong. Hella fat cap sprays, brush strokes, and debates need to happened before we can say we truly tried to do something about what’s wrong instead of just talking and meeting, and talking and meeting about it. We not through with that, were just tired of philosophizing about the struggle and romanticizing about change. We want to pay our dues and DO SOMETHING. Its small yes, but aligned with all the other people doing small things with school bus yellow, training for trainers readers, mega phones, and asr 10 beats we can make a big ass impact on our people.

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Lets face it; the state of education where we all grew up is a joke. We don’t learn about the roots or the foundations of what we are all facing now. We are fed just enough brainwashing to make us semi-functional workers in society. We begin learning when we want to pick “Open veins of Latin America”, the “Autobiography of Philip Vera Cruz”, Sanyika Shakur’s “Monster”, “Drown”, the speeches of “El Hajj Malik Shabazz”, or “Lies my teacher told me”. There’ a lot of good teachers, parents, organizers, grocery store cashiers, domestica’s, and bloggers out there, They’re like shining stars in a cloudy universe of pollution. They are brave souls attempting to plug a million and one holes in a damn that’s about to spill over with ten fingers and toes. We love all of y’all; you give us inspiration to accurately and fantastically describe the world we’ve seen, the world we see now and the world that we know is possible.

Keep up with the blog as we slow ride across the intersections and dirt roads of NYC, MA, ATL, NOLA, TX, AZ, the BAY, and LA with only a few dollars in our pocket. Look out for our blog, check the links to our previous paid dues, and donate any amount of scrilla (money) you can because um, were not getting sponsored by any businesses. We need that. But more, tell us what you think, honestly. We’d like to know. You’re feedback and comments give us ammunition and motivation to reach beyond the communities in which these walls are located. Come on, we like a good conversation just as much as anyone and were prepared to lay down our lives and put up our tags for this thang called “trust your struggle”.

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Someone once said “you can either live on you’re feet or die on your knees”. There’s away to do that even if you got child care payments to make or if you want to save up for some new rims.

-TYS Collective

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3 comments:

kolks said...

THIS IS SOOOO FLY, Thank You Trust Your Struggle, for making this world more complete with your images/ Allowing are oneness to manifest with your travels and work,
Much love and Respect,
Kolks

Sneakersuitman said...

WORD. This is hot. I love it. ATL. Good stuff.

Scott La Rockwell said...

Damn , yall I am so wishing I was there with my TYS family I'm try and get a ticket to fly out for one of the dates maybe Austin texas.I miss yall!!!
sincerely yours in the struggle
mr. La Rockwell