NEWSLETTER: go vote California

Howdy!

Wow, 20 days and several mostly done but not posted newsletters...I am switching to daily updates on the blog, commentary on the calendar posts, and a shorter email blast. However, I will likely also switch over to a 3 times a week blast instead of just one. OR you'll all join Afrologica and that won't be necessary...yeah yeah yeah, destination fatigue, I get it. School is almost out, so I will be done with the 320 miles/week commute, freeing time to dance, research, write and blog. Oh yeah! I have some footage from my recent trip to Oakland that I will post soon. Below please find my Tweets from earlier today as I went over the propositions on the ballot today. Basically, if you have a hard time getting to the polls because you are disabled, mentally ill, or a child, you are loosing money on this ballot. And if you are person with a dependent and too busy to read the propositions all the way through, you are loosing money too.


Afrolicious. Afrologia. Afrodelic. Afropoesia. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro? Fractal, improvisational, polemical, but always moving with spirit and in service to lifting us all up! That's the Logic of the Afro--sign up, read up, be up--you can move mountains, now make it beautiful


BLOWIN BACK DA 'FRO right now are scary propositions to balance the California state budget...

Good morning Californians. Please go and vote today! 20 minutes till polls open. yeah, 1A &B SUCK, but it's that or bankruptcy.about 5 hours ago from web

1A is absolutely perverse and 'bassakward' in its reduction of the dependent tax credit. Real issue is pre-1978 property & Prop 13about 4 hours ago from web

How insanely putrid is 1B? Stinks so bad my eyes hurt reading it. Prop98, which guides 1B, is the stinker. Cynical does not cover it.about 4 hours ago from web

Heading out to vote, wishing we were having the constitutional convention instead. CA is run like a very old poorly maintained switch boardabout 4 hours ago from web

AHH! I was leaving and looked at 1C. NO WAY! Why is education under attack? Lottery to balance budget? Whaat? Driving addiction as policy?about 4 hours ago from web

It's appropriate that prop 1D is so titled. This will not pass. The trend? Take money from kids cause they can't vote. Save 1st 5, no on 1Dabout 4 hours ago from web

1E: Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Strike the 3 strikes law & terminate contracts with private prisons, then come for kids and the vulnerableabout 4 hours ago from web

just back from voting. completely empty polling place. how much are we spending on this special election? at least I was called "dear."about 3 hours ago from web


LOVING OURSELVES
What about 1F you ask? VOTE FOR IT. Perhaps when you mess with their paycheck, the legislature will finally look hard and look at the actual problems--too many prisons, too many laws to imprison those who need treatment of some sort or just a job, too much profiteering on real estate, educational system designed for the 19th century Industrial Revolution; no current industrial revolution; too many folks/dollars forced into higher ed when a vocational school would serve their true passion; ditto for art and education; not enough family-focused child policy; rampant industrial farming polluting air, ground and water while devastating water table; stifled innovation through laws to protect outmoded "industries," rules that inhibit going green; wasted dollars chasing drug dealers when legalization would be good business & policy--and stop putting these whack propositions in front of us. Basically, we need them to admit that Proposition 13 from 1978 is having unforeseen and deleterious effects on our state. And the arts? With Michelle Obama kickin it in NYC yesterday to watch extravagant ballet performances, I am wondering if folks in the "places of power" are making the same connections between sustainability, localism, and scaled labor in the Arts as they are in the automotive sector. I am guessing no. As beautiful as grand spectacles are, they do not represent the "norm" of art production, nor the main aspiration. In fact, they lie well outside where and how most dance artists make their work. Looking at these ballot measures under the shadow of the ABT gamin dancing at the Met reminds me of a phrase attributed to Jean-Paul Satre: "You do not speak of philosophy to a starving man." Or is that a violin playing amidst the rising smoke? The crazy thing about an artist is that we will make our work no matter what, at least that's the myth. How many of us have hidden themselves, choosing stability over booms and busts, simply because the model of the grand spectacle is untenable? California is a testament to this faulty logic. Excess is not art nor is it innovation. And being simple- and single-minded is simplistic, not elegance in simplicity. You know, we are always talking about finding the middle road; what if it is not on the same plane as the hard left or right? What if we need to elevate, rotate, and move against the two? I'm just sayin,' goin round and round ain't so merry. Go vote, and get it together for the constitutional convention.

in love,
-Anna