The Miseducation of Buttafly!

Lauryn Hill says…I treat this like my thesis..well written topics broken down into pieces….. Buttafly imparts it knowledge of the curriculum that truly matters, so there will never be an issue of miseducation.

School

by

T. Semakula

Now I'm in da Spot where I wanna be

Craig Mack spittn flows on a crude track

Mouth hoopin inside vacant bus stops

Queen Laf, the word grand dame, clockin unity fo the brothas

Street poetics, the new urban cannon

Slow/fast alphabetic grooves, pushin the genius of the coloreds

Listen to the sound of miseducation!

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Buttafly offers a workshop for those students who need to utilize a curriculum that speaks 2 da people.

The Hip Hop Project

The Hip Hop Project- (Performance Component) From the mc’s to the b-boys, students explore the hip hop culture. What are the components that make up their own personal hip hop world? How can they use hip hop to strengthen their individual or collective voices? Can they compose a critical response to the issues that the hip hop culture addresses within its’ music and various art forms? Whether your students are regular students or average everyday day hip hop heads, it’s time to make some collective noise via poetry (rhyme), a little spoken word, and on the serious tip, some serious composition (essays) that will get their minds to thinking about the issues that are facing our young people today. Word!

To schedule or inquire about this workshop please click here

Young, Gifted, and Broke…..but not for long…..the broke part that is

Young, Gifted, and Broke ... (But not for long, the broke part that is)

By T. Semakula

(text in italics are compliments of Ms. Ariel Gore)

Ariel Gore hits the mark in her book titled How To Become A Famous Writer Before You Are Dead …You don't have time for rejection letter home improvement projects. You can't afford to sit Zazen while your cherished manuscript languishes in some nameless agent's slush pile. You got maybe a hundred years on this planet. Less if you smoke. And you want to be a lit star, man!

To be paid to write is like icing on a good knockout lemon punch cake. That's what most writers aspire to. We aspire to have money to pay our bills, to travel, to walk around New York City and not work around New York City. It's one thing when you work at McDonalds in Times Square, it's another when you are just piddling around after finishing off your novel and you just happen to have a taste for a nice Oreo Mc Flurry from the McDonalds that sits inside Times Square.

You'll need a bulletproof ego and a juicy humble core…I often think about the famous writer Zora Neale Hurston and how she used patrons to get her through her many creative pursuits. These patrons had taken an interest in her as a writer and researcher. She was able to secure an apartment here and there, a trip to Haiti to do some research on hoodoo, and she traveled quite extensively. However Zora, who is considered one of the most brilliant and talented writers of our time, died alone in a small green house in Florida. Her unfinished and rejected manuscripts were burned along with a pile of her personal belongings in her front yard. The only thing that was left was a charred patch of grass and a woman whose bones were resting in an unmarked grave. It was apparent that the interest, that her patrons had in her, had evaporated. It took a decade and a half later after her death, for Alice Walker to pen the article in Ms. titled "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston."

When it comes to being paid for your art, some writers come from the good old school of hip hop- by any means necessary. Us folk, who were weaned on Tupac and Biggie Big, clung to the immortal words of Chuck D-Hip hop is the CNN for black folk. We formed our own networks, created our own means of communication, laid out our own cable wire via hip hop and street corner shout outs. Self –publishing, self promotion, making something out of nothing is the mantra that more writers are grabbing hold to.

Zora took the traditional route of sending out her work. She waited for folk to respond. She waited for folk to pay her in advance. She waited for folk to acknowledge her and keep her from obscurity. Sure, writers still take advantage of sending out their work blind with the SASE, but they are also learning how to promote and market their own work.

Most people would like to receive and smell the flowers that folk have brought for them while they are still alive. I am sure that Zora would have appreciated the much deserved respect and revenue that her creative ideas and pursuits have admonished. To be young, gifted, and broke is a punch in the face to any writer. It doesn't hold any ground as we enter the age of the internet, with advanced printing and media tools which are available to the emerging writer via their own personal computers and laptops. No more waiting for someone else to make it happen, sometimes you have to make it happen yourself!

Buttafly's recommendation for those word warriors who need to get their hustle on!

Another recommendation for those who want to think and earn a living outside the box!

Buttafly offers a wonderful workshop for those who like to color outside the lines.

Tailor made Workshops (Arts Education, Professional Writing)

Buttafly offers tailor made workshops for schools, vocational institutions, community, and educational organizations. We welcome innovative and progressive ideas as we feel that the arts should always be up to the challenge when it comes to pushing the envelope. For more info, if you would like to schedule or inquire about this workshop click here

pushin...
By T. Semakula

low Southern Creole

creepin

pushin fo the hustle

Buttafly's searchin fo Peace!

God and Love

God, giving instructions for the moon....
Love, a consistent concerto trudging through the metro alley

a constellation

a constellation

of metro amazons

wanderers,

womb keepers

hovering over the secret codes

embedded in

moldy slave quilts

disciple

save me lawd

from my need to give love/On Saturday mornins/to poet laden Negrops

from my need fo red knee level dresses, afro picks, and rastas

from the psalms of the metro

sees's I believes in Gawd

and black folks who wear Afros

and youths who pants sag more than their allegiance to Tupac and Biggie

and syllables rhythmically timed to word revolts

and skin blacker than Mrs. Katie's pupils

yes'm jee sus here are saints

who fell ova dead negras

who put brown suga and butta in they oats

who steer shiny blue caddies

who barbecue rib slabs behind urban shacks

oh my save yah, I wud die

fo the pain of laid out folk

fo the one's who shows them how to act

fo them peoples who try to be as they should

fo the love of you

flowspot

point mis s ing

contingent cunning

love for the thought

of being love touched

by the ultimate

I's need that spuka spark

to float on up

Mr. man e ess

cap the strength

the condition relentless

pursuing constantly

that desired privelege of choca women

The Peace Writer’s Workshop- (Exhibition Component) Have your students ever started their own Peace Campaigns? With this workshop, your students can take a stand on the issues that are affecting world peace. They’ll explore ways that they can use their writing to affect change, and hopefully, present effective solutions to some of the problems that keep peace from within their reach. So if your students are rebels, revolutionaries, or just plain old Joes, now is the time to let their voices become known. Power to the people! To schedule or inquire about this workshop click here

Buttafly's Call For Workshop Proposals Winter/Spring 2009

the temple builders

i

who built the temple

that held up centuries

of busted cavities

polished the altar

where women worshipped

the lies of safety

sutured the offerings

where hearts lay open

for constant intrusion

paid the tithes

that subsidized the whorehouse ministries

ii

put jasmines in the baptismal ponds

where flowers float instead of flourish

sang the wimbos of praise

exalting the rape of bridesmaids

All poetry copywritten by Tarsha Semakula