DuEwaWorld News! by DuEwa Frazier

So during my Maryland/DC excursion this past weekend, I had to step inside of a few local bookstores.   The geek that I am wouldn't allow me to pass up a chance to browse through books, some new, some used, all valuable of course.  I first stopped into Busboys & Poets located at 14th and V. St. in DC. I wasn't in the mood to sit down and have a drink. I went straight for the poetry section. There I found books that I've never actually seen because my nose has been in my MFA books for the last 2 years. While in the poetry section, flipping through the glorious pages of several books of poetry I made a list of the books I planned to purchase and read : Femme du Monde: Poems by Patricia Spears Jones , Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith, The new black by Evie Shockley, Totem by Gregory Pardlo, Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith and many others. Some of the books I picked up were signed by the author, others weren't. I found myself feeling like a book groupie. I ...

Mos Def's Big Band & Gil Scott Heron at Carnegie Hall by DuEwa Frazier On Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 8pm, presented by Festival Network in partnership with Carnegie Hall and co-produced by Jill Newman Productions , the JVC Jazz Festival brought Brooklyn’s own renaissance man, Dante Smith, a.k.a. Mos Def , to town with his big band Amino Alkaline Orchestra, featuring special guest Gil Scott Heron. Mos Def: Amino Alkaline – The Watermelon Syndicate rocked the dome of Carnegie Hall for a multi-general audience of what seemed like thousands. The show opened with Mos’ twenty-three piece band walking onto the stage and the image of the late, legendary radio man, talk show host, and activist, Petey Greene , shown overhead on a large screen above the stage, eating watermelon . Petey Greene urged the audience to eat and enjoy; perhaps a metaphor for the evening to come. Once his band was in place, Mos Def seemed to glide smoothly onto the stage, to the roar of shouts and applause. ...