Notorious B.I.G. - Rap Phenomenon Mixtape Online Link

I found this online link to the classic mixtape from 05 by Dj's Dirty Harry and Vlad the Butcher, it has a grip of unreleased flows plus some clean remixes off ill beats. I've been looking for a hard copy ever since I lost my original copy so this online version helps. A banger for sure.(Shout out to www.livemixtapes.com for posting the link)Enjoy!

(Posted in front of 226 Fulton St in "Do or Die Bed Stuy" a.k.a. Biggie's mom's pad)

The Morning my Grandma Died.

Originally written on Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 5:35pm

"Daniel! Daniel!" I woke up on the first yell, I ran out of my room and into the kitchen, my mom and my Tia Elda were running around the house, I remember that the house smelled like Guayabas, We had been in that house for over a year and we knew that around the beginning of fall the avocados and guayabas in our back yard are in full harvest. "Despiertate Daniel!" "Mama!" and i was in the kitchen staring at the guayabas in disbelief, i snapped out of it and went into my gradmas room, I forget who asked me to call an ambulance but i did, by this point we had a nurse on call for about 2 or 3 days. We couldn't call 911 because it wasnt part of the contract. I called the operator and urgently asked her to send an ambulance, she said "what's happening?" It was at the very second that i finished my phrase that I actually realized what was happening right before me, "My Gradma is dying!! PLEASE SEND AN AMBULANCE!!" the operator said, "Is this the moment you've been waiting for?" I said ....yes. She said, "then I'm very sorry but the only thing i can recommend is that you be by her side, there's nothing else that we can do, I'll send an ambulance right away" I hung up the phone, my Tia Rosa asked what the nurse had told me and i told her. By this time my mom and my two tias were already by her side, "the operator said to just be by her side, the ambulance is on its way" tears filled the room, silent tears, with child like moans, prayers. My mom touched her mothers forehead one last time and said a final prayer in tears, "Grant me the strength to be a woman like you..." My tias tears were more silent, quiet whimpers, she was turning yellow, her moans were growing more and more quiet. Everything that I'd ever wanted to tell her in life I did, not at that point, but through out the life long relationship I had with her leading up to that moment. There were no apologies said, for there were no apologies to be made, by anyone. I held held my grandmothers hand and felt the warmth that was leaving her body. I was crying, thanking her for life, for everything, my matriarch. I looked up and in the four corners of the rafters in her room saw creatures with wings overseeing our tears in wonder and astonishment. She was cold, I closed her eyes, she was with papa Diosito. I let go of her cold hand, tears still running down my face, it was the beginning of fall and the house smelled of guayabas, I walked outside of the house alone, the sun wasn't out yet, I sat in the porch and stared at the moon talking to my grandma, thanking her one last time in tears. by this time my uncles and aunts were arriving and the sun was coming out, one of my uncles walked up to me and hugged me, in the background I heard his wife whisper to him, "leave him alone let him be with his grandma" it was then and there that I lost fear because I felt a shield over me that would protect me until my last breath, and no one in this world can do me harm and death is natural and I am not afraid. Now, she is back in the clouds, my matriarch, my chaparrita, my heart, see you when I get there.

"Deep within my cerebellum"

Deep within my cerebellum
I compose dark thoughts that would split an average man’s melon
To keep it real here I stand as a literary felon
Seeking purchasers for these dynamic thoughts that I be selling
All you get for free is a sample of my lyrical symmetry
One of the financial have nots
Find me in the streets hustling this G.R. and EBT
2pac status home slice “Only God Can Judge” and
“U can’t C me”
Street gentleman, working class chivalry
When it comes to L.A. son, I know her intimately
South Central stomping that original 213
But I digress from the point now someone spark the joint
Dropping that perspective of the lower class
No solid pay check but still I catch wreck
I’m not that sucker duck, no I’m not what you expect
When I step to any scene I always come correct
Hungry for a little bit of change, I done come here to collect
Tired of looking and feeling bummy
Going all in for the sake of living life comfy
A dream that my grandma had, before she died she told me,
“Son you gonna make it cus I know you ain’t no dummy”
But when she passed, no lie I lost my will and felt mad crummy
Alcoholic and broke I see my girl as a blessing
Then I overheard grandma in a dream say
“Pick yourself up son, the lord will always be testing”
I began investing in my talent that’s when I saw
That I could only survive in this world by living outside of the law
The shit I speak is forever raw, what I do from this point on
Is for you grandma, can’t stand being judged as I fight for the cause
I’m a Public Enemy, yes a rebel without a pause
And I’m tired of these people that don’t know me judging me for my flaws
I got bigger goals than those who take on fake roles
So if it is that I’m meant to be a lost soul, I hope you never find me
I know where I am there’s no need to remind me
I been at the bottom, I know what it is to live grimy
If you think I can’t see, by all means let me continue living blindly
This General Relief can only go so far, no car
So I rock these buses like a MTA commuter super star
These reparations seem tempting, weed jar empty
Ambition is plenty, I’m gonna live life like the good lord sent me
And this is just a fragment of what goes on in my brain
Adamant about these thoughts that would drive an average man insane
That’s the name of the game, a free sample of my lyrical symmetry
In these raps that I be telling, I’m the rebel that that’s constantly rebelling
Making my argument detailed and mad compelling
To keep it real kid, here I stand as a literary felon
I live life with no shame, gimme my loot and then I’m bailing
In the words of grandma… “Go ahead mijo tell’em…”

General Relief

I had my second cup of coffee before I stepped out, as I was slowly enjoying it I thought to myself, “remember this moment and how at peace you are with yourself, remember this moment when you realize that your day is going by slow or in case you feel a headache coming on” so I sat in silence and enjoyed that coffee like I was facing execution right after it. I’d submitted an application online the day before but was referred to an office that was extremely out of the way. There was an Exposition Park branch of the DPSS (Department of Public Social Services) by my mom’s house and decided to go to that branch as soon as my coffee was done, it was just after eight a.m. Turns out that branch only services parents and children and was told to go to the downtown offices on the corner of Adams and Grand. I thought to myself, “no problem, I got this” I took a liberated trip in the new expo line and got off at the Adams stop by LATTC a.k.a. “Trade Tech” as I made my way to the office I wondered if that would be my only trip or if I was in for a long day. I was in for a long day. The gentleman at the service counter told me that since I’d submitted my application to the South East division there was nothing I could do because they could not access my file until I personally checked in with those offices. He gave me my case and file number and politely asked that I go to the office in South East LA and take care of my paperwork there. Being that I had no choice but to go to that office I took my first deep sigh and realized that yes, it was going to be a long day, I would have to take at least four buses and I did'nt have a dollar on me. I walked over to Broadway and as I did so I prepared my wrap for the bus drivers I would encounter on my trek to Gage and Holmes, a courtesy ride is nothing new to me, I used to take them all the time in high school when I wanted to save a few bucks, but this time it was different because I legitimately did not have a dollar to my name. “ Hey brother/sister the county fucked up my paper work and I have to go down to Gage to fix the issue but I don’t have any money” it was between that and the regular, “Bus driver, may I please get a courtesy ride?” and say no more. The first bus came the 45, I chose to go with the first story just to warm up in case I should encounter a hostile bus driver down the line. He said, “sure man, get in” I exited Gage and began walking east, it took me a while to realize I had the address and could make a more or less accurate assesment of how long the walk would take me. I quickly realized that it would take me more than ten industrial blocks in the hot sun before I hit the street where the third building was located. I walked to the closest bus stop and by the mercy of the good lord found a stop that was under the shade of a tree. Again, I worked on my wrap for this next bus driver, I told myself I would stick to the first story, luckily by the time I got on the bus I realized that the machine where you insert your bus fare was jammed and the driver was therefore letting everyone get in for free.
I arrived at the third building or the “District 17” building, just outside the entrance were two ladies in colorful scrubs offering medical services to the people who were coming out and had just been approved for Medi-cal. I walked to the customer service counter and told them my story, I was referred to a window and was helped by two workers who found my case and assigned me a personal worker. I sat in the waiting area and waited for about a half hour, during that half hour I noticed the others who were waiting for social services, young mothers, elderly women with their grandchildren, young men and I was called up. The worker said that he was glad to see me because he was about to give me a call and notify me that those offices too were designed specifically for parents, also he stated that I what I need to ask for was Adult GR (general relief) and that I had filled out the online application incorrectly which is why the automated online application was sent to that particular office. He quickly cancelled my application and said that I had to re-apply but at one of the centers that specifically handles Adult GR, and of course he told me I had to go back to the office that I’d just come from but I had to wait a 24 hour period. He did his best and was as helpful as he could be given the fact that I was going to be forgotten within the next hour due to his work load. By this time the sun was at its peak and it was already one o’clock. But I was still determined. I would not go home, I had already found my rhythm and was not giving up that easily. I told the Gage route bus driver, “I need to get to Broadway to handle some county paper work in downtown” with no hesitation he said, “come on” it should be noted that there is a certain sense of slight embarrassment when asking for a courtesy ride because the stigma of the L.A. commuter is that you’re at the bottom of the social ladder and asking for a courtesy ride is letting your fellow commuters know that you don’t have enough money for even a bus ride and therefore have resorted to asking for a free ride. I felt no shame, yet it was odd because I didn’t feel this stigma when I would ask for courtesy rides as a teenager. Never the less I was under the hot sun and now on the corner of Gage and Broadway on my way up to downtown. By then I had already developed lower class commuter swag, as in when the bus came I just told the driver, “Yo man, I’m going up to the county building on Adams, can I get a ride?” again with no hesitation the driver let me in and I was off.
When I finally arrived back to the Downtown building helicopters were swarming and black and whites were all over Grand. Turns out some guy was in a police pursuit but abandoned the car he was in right in front of the building and blended in with everyone that was in and around the building, when the cops came asking, everyone said they didn’t see where the suspect had gone, but once the police were gone everyone was talking about what direction the guy had gone and what he looked like. There was a long line but it was moving relatively fast, people were selling loose cigarettes, Medi-cal scams, job hunting scams and various other black market services for all of those that were recently approved for whatever service they had gone in to the building for. Finally I was given a number and was asked to take a seat, it was just after 2p.m.
In the ground floor there are two lobbies and you can go back and forth for hours depending on how many of the available services you’re asking for. I asked for GR, Cal-Fresh and Cal-Works, I was given a number and from the start all I heard were names. It was loud, and the lobby was packed with more people standing by the walls waiting for their name or number to be called, in front of me was a couple with a child, the child was crying and the man was showing his son tough love, I heard him tell his son, “why you crying? You’re gonna hit yo' head 20 times a day, and I know you aint gonna cry every time you hit yo’self” he was reprimanding his partner for holding him, he told her, “you gotta toughen him up, all that baby-ing your doing is gone make him soft…” he was interrupted only by the fact that he like I, like the couple next to me realized that we might be in the wrong lobby because they weren’t calling out any numbers, the young lady next to me was telling her boyfriend, “ay babe, just go ask, we’ve been waiting for like an hour and they haven’t called us” to which he replied, “just wait, the lady said we’re in the right place and they’ll call our number” just as he got up to comply with his girlfriend’s wish one more time, a worker in one of the windows began calling out numbers, I was A107, we stood in line and received thick packages that contained the forms for all of the services we were requesting. We were told to go to the adjacent lobby and wait for our name to be called by our worker.
Now the adjacent lobby was a whole other trip. There was a kind of solidarity that they don’t teach you in college. If there was one commonality it’s that we were/are broke and we are all on that level and no one person in there requesting those services is above anyone else, that and for the most part we were all inpatient and highly irritable because some had been in there for well over seven hours and still had not been fully helped. There was a young cat going up and down the isles talking to everyone as if he knew them all, he was no older than 21 slender and letting everyone know that he had dope readily available, “aight my dude, hit me up you know I got that “X” that weed, whatever you need my dude” there were some that were playing music through their cell phone speakers like they were ghetto blasters. Because of its location most people were of color, mostly black and brown, most were young, homeless, some elderly folks, at one point a group of people began mocking a transgender person yelling, “you know you’re a boy right??” a shouting match ensued and the sheriff came in, everyone quieted down. Someone in the background said, “Damn they got us up in here like it’s county jail or some shit!” and everyone minded their business again. And sure enough the sheriff’s presence could be felt as two officers, two heavy set women scanned the room, everyone avoiding eye contact, myself included. Everyone seemed to have an angle as to how to fill out a given application, what to say, how to answer, what to ask for and everyone gladly exchanged details black and brown, in that sense uncle Sam had a way of unifying the working poor, regardless of gang affiliation of perceived economic status.
It was at that moment that a much deeper sense of critical thought kicked in. frustration was beginning to set in, I closed my eyes took a deep breath and recalled what I’d told myself just that morning before heading out the door. It was my nirvana, recalling that inner peace, that inner tranquility that I felt as I sipped on that coffee looking out of my mom’s kitchen window. When I opened my eyes I saw a completely different scene that I knew from the start but didn’t quite get. Someone next to me just blurted out, “God damn this shit is taking forever, I just wanna get my shit and be out!” and various county workers kept coming out of doors, yelling out names and numbers, everyone hoping that it would be their name called and when it was all you heard were sighs of relief and “God Lord Jesus thank you!” and that’s when it hit me. This is privilege, undeniable privilege. I told myself, if it weren’t for the fact that I have “proper documentation” I would be extremely fucked. I think I’m at the bottom but I’m really not. This option has always existed for me, I just didn’t want to take this route. My mom never needed it, my grandparents never needed it, and I therefore thought I would never need it, but my reality is different. I need it. And I have to thank my lucky stars that I have the capability of applying, if I was "undocumented" I would be shit out of luck. How many people aren’t in the predicament I’m in, but without the access to these services? How many people are really worse off than me but can’t get this help?
At about close to five p.m. my worker finally called my name, “Daniel Morales” I walked to the door and she presented herself, “Hi Daniel, my name is Miss Rodriguez I’ll be your worker follow me." I followed her, filled out my applications and I qualified, I didn’t make it out till well after five. The office was relatively empty in comparison to how it was just an hour before, I was in the last line with the last of the people applying, and everyone was in a more cheerful mood because our process was pretty much done. The only thing remaining was to receive our Cal-Fresh cards and our bag of free bus tokens, I walked out and made my way to my sixth free metro ride that day, as I walked to the station down Adams I did something I rarely do, I said a prayer, I stopped at a red light, looked to the sky and thanked the lord for every humbling yet eye opening experience that I lived that day and quietly made my way back to my mom’s house.

"Literaloco​s y literatont​os"

Image courtesy of Rafael Cardenas (www.eastsiderWriter.com)

"Literaloco​s y literatont​os"
By Abel Salas


It’s me and Chapulín. This kid calls me maestro, and there no more humbling an attribution. We’re at a neighborhood bar working on our second or third beer after walking through the Mobile Mural Lab which has been stationed strategically at the regular Friday afternoon Boyle Heights Farmer’s Market. It’s getting cool, and until just moments before taking a seat on these stools, our pockets were empty. For poets, this is not a surprise. Penniless poet is a redundancy.

“No problem,” I had uttered an hour or two earlier. We see a client and a B & B contributing writer, a successful attorney who supports the arts and advertises here regularly. He doesn’t have a problem with an advance payment on the next issue. Chapulín is a poet, and, of course, poets never think about the weather or whether they’re dressed appropriately. He’s in a t-shirt, shorts and the inevitable Chuck Taylors. As the sun goes down, I can see he’s having a tough time with the drop in temperature.

“We have to start your East side poe-tour and cantina crawl with a stop at the Proyecto Pastoral segunda to get you a long sleeve flannel, homie,” I tell the young vato sporting a goatee and Buddy Holly horn-rimmed glasses. Bronze and maybe just a bit on the chonchito side like me, he is covered in a grip of tattoos. Daniel Morales León, AKA ElChapulín, is the resident poet at La Mina Collective, over in City Terrace. Relocated from South Central to LA’s Eastside, he is part of a circle that also includes the charming and magnetic boys in a lively cumbia band called La Chamba, young dudes who also happen to take political organizing with a zeal and a seriousness that provokes and inspires. They are LA’s first and foremost exponents of cumbia chicha, a Peruvian variation of working class cumbia where the accordion has been supplanted by the electric guitar. Daniel’s jefitos are from Oaxaca, and they don’t necessarily always understand, he says, that he is a “poeta necio,” a handle I’ve managed to get friendlier with myself over the years.

“They have a hard time understanding just exactly what it is I do,” says Chapulín, who has also begun extending his East side residency with regular gigs as the host of the Corazón del Pueblo bi-monthly open mic series, Flowers of Fire.

“You know why we named it Flowers of Fire, right? Flores de Fuego,” I say. “Not really, but I can pretty much guess,” comes the reply from a sage and wise young bard who I’ve watched the sun come up with more than once already.

“When we first came together as the original Corazón del Pueblo collective board, we were thinking of the floricanto,you know, ‘in xochitl in cuicatl,’ which is nahuatl for ‘flower-song,’” I explain. We weave back and forth on a hundred subjects but mostly we get back to the poetry and what it means and why we have to write. And then there are references to Neruda and Roque Dalton. I’m trying to tell him about the argentina Alejandra Pizarnik and her “ extracción de la piedra de la locura,” that stone of madness we both have lodged in our brains.

“She committed suicide,” I say. “Say what?” says Chapulín. “Yeah, she OD’d on seconal on purpose,” I say. Later, we sit in my car and I extract a manuscript to share some more of that madness,the kinds of craziness that keeps Chapulín awake at all hours when he has to write, when he has to let the ink dribble in spades from his finger tips, allowing it to pour forth onto a page before it hemorrhages in his veins.

These are the musings and sharp reveries that have pulled him here, to a barrio not unlike the South Central hood where he was raised, a community that drew me 12 years ago after a decade of nomadic gypsy wanderings in Mexico City, Chiapas, Barcelona, New York, Matamoros, El Paso and Houston after a childhood in Austin marked by movimiento politics, Brown Beret marches against police brutality and the tutelage under an ex-pinto poet named Raúl Salinas, or raúlrsalinas, as he himself signed his named.“Tapón,” the placazo Raúl was given during his own childhood, had authored the now renowned “Un Trip Through the Mind Jail Y Otras Excursions,” and I’m trying to tell Chapulín that lineage and an appreciation for the literary opportunities we have been handed from elders who made it a point to step outside of their traditional homes to embrace brotherhood with distant relatives from all of the tribes is important. I’m telling him that I wouldn’t be publishing this paper in the barrio I recognize as ground zero for Chicano culture worldwide if it weren’t for them.

Chapulin, like many of the young brothers who share spoken word, did not grow up surrounded by nurturing poet swho arrived with an arm load of books and told them, “you should read this and come back later so we can talk about it.” No, Daniel and many of his peers brought themselves up, literally. They did not have guides or XicanIndio mentors who led them through sweat lodge ceremonies. They looked for and found their poetic voices on the street and in the immigrant stories of the irindigena parents.

“I’ve been spittin’ for about a minute,” says Chapulín. And I know he’s the one. He’s the one who can only sit still long enough to let the poem live through him, pound itself out of him until it sees the light of day. I see a grittier, angrier yet somehow still less tortured version of myself in him. So we chill, we make the rounds. We break bread and follow the moon, howling into the wind and pretending we don’t care. That life is only loaned to us and that we’re on borrowed time. Of course, I tell him that in an effort to let my own street-wise profe know how much his influence and love had meant to me, I coined a word. How I sat in a South Austin restaurant called Little Mexico over a plate of tacos de carne guisada (steak picado to folks here in Califaztlan) and a cold Corona with the legendary barrio bard, a traveler who had been invited to Cuba and Nicaragua and Libya and Palestine to share revolutionary poetry. How he was at the same time a die-hard radical AIM(American Indian Movement) activist and a co-founder of the national Leonard Peltier Support Committee. How I looked at him with reverence and said I would forever be proud of having been inducted into the great hall of the“literalocos y literatontos” he had adopted and raised.

I tell Chapulin how Raúl used to humbly refer to himself as the cockroach poet because he never took it so seriously that he had to act like a diva and demand green M & Ms backstage at readings where he shared the stage with truly great writers such as Ernesto Cardenal and Fernando Alegria and Mikey Piñero. These days, it seems like so many of the young poets are trying too hard to be rock stars who worry about pecking order or whether or not they’re going to be on the radio instead of just trying to be the guys that don’t mind taking out the trash and cleaning the refrigerator and loading sound equipment even though they don’t have to.Chapulin is one of those dudes. He gets down and dirty, but he can also slang words and spit fire with the best of them. There is also something simultaneously charismatic and travieso about him. Much later, after I’ve published his gut-wrenching poem about Mexico, I watch him dance around a room holding the printed pages in his arms and waving them about with a contagious glee. And again, I know he is the one. I can choose no one better to help me uphold the literaloco-literatonto banner. And more than any of the other youngsters on the scene right now, he really is mexicano. “Yes, I’m Chicano, but I was born in Mexico,” he says proudly. While still heir to a powerful Chicano literary tradition, he is unique among all the other serious young wordsmiths mixing it up on the Eastside right now with poetry rooted in rap and hip-hop. He holds up his mexicanidad for all to see and still skips easily back and forth between two languages like a wizard of wordplay, straddling all kinds of borders… a lad after me own heart, neta.

“Literaloco-literatonto, huh?” says Chapulín. “I like it.”

*Abel Salas is the publisher of "Brooklyn & Boyle"
This article can be read on the June edition.

Mi Feliz Canción Feat JZ - Mixed by Patch Nastyy

Image: Patch Nastyy

(FREE DOWNLOAD) Produced by Tantu Beats, Mixed down by Patch Nastyy a.k.a. Switch Blade Pete. Featuring JZ. Produced in The K Town Lab

LYRICS/ LETRA

soy un grifo y la vida les juro que no me importa
y por eso me la rifo,
a nadie le gusta juntarse con mi tipo
ni pobre ni rico, pero saben que?
a mi me vale pito,
la gente le gusta juzgar y dudar en mi
y aun asi le continuo al escape,
porque es lo unico que me late,
la vida de pedo bohemio
que le gusta vivir en el sueño
y no preocuparse con un dueño
ando con mis cahuamas en la mochila
esperando el camion,
escapando el cotidiano salon
en ruta al invisible avion
yo soy ese guey que desobedece la ley
y se pasa de mamon
se que soy basura con moscas en un carton
y aun asi no se callar mi feliz cancion
y hacer mis pendejadas que no tienen razon
llegando destrozado en las madrugadas al canton
ni me sobra un centavo para para una torta de jamon
y aun asi no se callar mi feliz cancion,
y aun asi no se callar mi feliz cancion,
y aun asi no se callar mi feliz cancion,
y aun asi no se callar mi feliz cancion...

Mascara Sagrada VS La Secta de la Muerte

black masses and sacred death
never meditating on my last breath
from ancient cemeteries i express
messages for the nocturnal soul less
wrestle demons, nowhere near decent
shout out to my feline like high priestess
another hymn, all about the business
most will never believe what they bare witness
casualties, victims of my demented sickness
mass graves, m.i.a. with the quickness
and i recite ancient spells
written under the influence of hells bells
and from there i tell tall tales
with a certain kind of regal evil
that even to my enemies is seen as unbelievable
red eyed champ to mask my true intentions
from the people i gather strength
and travel many dementions
ascend into levels unheard by those
with soft intentions, hold their soul hostage
found myself when i lost it
the path i took, i should have never crossed it
but i did and now theres no going back
satanic messengers dressed in black
no one is innocent there for no slack
hardcore attack to make friends and enemies crack
not a "B" movie flick w a fictional script
i shout sound loud and clarity clicks
no preacher can preach his way out of this
they beg for mercy for having been all in the mix
black magic tricks, taking the souls of innocent kids
good over evil, whose to say what
cross me in the ring and i'm aiming for guts
keeping it sane got me going mad nuts
and going mad nuts gets the enemy stuck
deranged mind frame
when within the presence of the wicked
clear vision, walking at night
no time for games, i put up a fight
must aim for supreme sorcerer teacher
zombies sent to sacrifice false prophet preachers
and through eternal nightmares were going to reach them
beat and then eventually defeat them
this is a promise from a dark side creature

LAW CAUSA Public Service Announcement..

Special thanks to Alicia Vargas, host of Soul Rebel Radio on KPFK 90.7 for mixing and recording track! TUNE IN 1st Friday of Every Month at 7:00 PM for the one and only SOUL REBEL RADIO! (http://www.kpfk.org/programs/105-soulrebelradio.html)

Much appreciation to KPFK 90.7FM, Arturo (COP AGENT), Rosario (Xicana #1/Mother Earth), and Daniel (Xicano #1/The Homie) for making this possible and special!

Please join us for CESAR E. Chavez 85th Birthday: http://www.facebook.com/events/367981546567652/

*Law Causa is a grass roots community service organization (CSO), modeled after historical labor leader Fred Ross's community organizing model for empowerment and self-determination. Our goal is to both empower and inspire underrepresented communities to enter the field of law by demystifying the law school admissions process.

We assist activists and community residents from the underbelly of Los Ángeles with admission into Law School by providing insight, referrals, popular education, and resources.

Our guiding principle is to contribute and advance the movement for civil, environmental and human rights, and serve as a node for the dissemination of information and change.

Our motto: "A pragmatic, practical, popular approach to education. To advance protect and promote equal rights by educating, motivating, and informing the next generation of civil, environmental and human rights legal advocates."

"Meant to be Deciphered"

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There is 1 And There is 2 (Short Story)

In this story there is 1 and there is 2. both are writers, one is an academic the other is not, they lead hectic lives and both hold literature to its’ highest regard, both have read countless classics and just to make things metaphorically interesting, both are poets, both are irrelevant in the greater worries of the world but as writers in their youth, they can care less. Literature is for the heady, literature is for those with the luxury of time, and in times like this, there’s revolution to be made. Wars are being fought right outside our doors. 1 and 2 do not see it like this, to them literature is an art that helps define identity and culture, they are cynics. 1 is an academic, 2 is from the streets, 2 is a raw romantic, it is not a stigma, it is a badge of honor. He lives life naively thinking that every action he takes is a poem unto itself, he is self destructive, stubborn, a dreamer, his only real friend is the pen. They are both readers of Rimbaud except 1 reads Rimbaud in French and thoroughly understands every word, while 2 reads the translated works if only to say he has read Rimbaud, both however are equally mad.

2 immediately falls in love with 1. 1 can carry several detailed conversations that few can thoroughly understand, 1 quotes all of the writers that have influenced 2 and 2 is amazed at the common knowledge they equally share. 2 has waited for someone like 1 his whole life. He has several notebooks filled with poems written about an imaginary woman that resembles 1. 2 has a well tested tendency of falling in love with anyone who remotely resembles 1, that is until he meets 1. Then he is certain he has found his queen.

On one given day they have coffee, they speak, find out bits of each other and exchange formalities while knowing that formalities among writers are non-existent. With prose and verse they examine one another’s masks, they exchange mild words, they are very intrigued by one another’s ego, both fear obscurity. they come from different forms of privilege, 1 is well read by way of upbringing, parenting, proper schooling, 2 is well read as a means of escape, he reads to kill time, he lacks discipline, yet this is privilege and privilege allows for the luxury of reading. They read and write, write and read, first drafts, second drafts, final drafts, 1 caters to the bourgeoisie, 2 distances himself from it, 2 is an anarchist. 2 does not adhere to the academic perspective, a naïve idealist, he is now jaded, yet 2 sometimes writes as if he were catering to the bourgeoisie, he openly envies the fact that 1 can reach the ear of the bourgeoisie, it is a constant confirmation of his admiration of 1 as an accomplished writer.

They have established their own individual tastes in the written word, after years of incessant reading and writing, prose, verse, essays, scripts, plays, they have become true connoisseurs of all things… written. They compliment and critique, they insult, they name writers, thinkers, vagabonds, teachers, the great ones, the failures, “Who the fuck was Whitman anyway?!?” says 1, “you know he was a big supporter of manifest destiny?!!” “most of the classic American greats are trust fund babies anyway!” “There will never be another Borges!” they dialogue, debate, and in the end come to grips with several commonalities in one another, they know one another’s flaws, they become an item.

Neither see any glamour in the ‘starving artist’ lifestyle, 1 isn’t as big a fan of English language literature as 2, 1 has always been steadily employed through literature and sees all unpublished works as amateur yet always appreciates a good poem regardless of writer. 2 does not know nearly as many Spanish language writers as 1. They learn from one another. 1 has traveled and is well cultured, 1 has been to countries that 2 has only read about. For every city 1 has visited 2 knows the literary importance behind that journey. In her professional career she has sat in the same room as her literary heroes and in turn they have become colleagues.

2 embraces his ignorance, he believes in asking questions to erase all doubts. Where 1 can find the meaning, metaphors or flaws in any given writing on the first read, it takes 2 sometimes four of five reads to begin to see beyond the obvious. 2 has a complete disregard for institutionalized academia, the only real teachers 2 ever had were Bertholt Brecht and Ricardo Flores Magon, 2 does not believe in art for arts sake, 2 views writing as a tool that helps achieve social empowerment even if never formally published, 2 believes in mobilizing the working class masses through words. He allows for his beliefs to saturate his works, some would call it propaganda. Yet 2 is the biggest fan of 1’s writing and 1 writes about life, 1 has the ability to give prose rhythm, 1 does not directly involve politics in her works, yet her work has far more influence with her essays and allegories than 2 does in his poetry, this is why 2 is a fan of 1’s writings. They view themselves as irrelevant in the greater worries of the world, in the end they do not know whether either of them fully acheive whatever goals they had set out to accomplish , but their unspoken commitment allowed for mistakes to be forgiven throughout their years together. Neither 1 nor 2 are perfect, there are moments of absence and in those moments of absence they cheat. They forgive. They separate, they re-unite.

Words eventually become over bearing, they find language in silence, 2 believes that 1’s body movements and gestures are epic poems and new conversations arise. 1 begins to recite a long silent stream of consciousness poem that began when they first met. And 2 is fully attentive listening and reading the poetic genre that he first fell in love with anxiously awaiting the next stanza, hoping the last one never arrives.

The Rose Garden (Short Story)

Hola colega,

Espero que te encuentres en buenos espiritus, i'm not sure when you're leaving to South America but if I remember correctly it’s coming up soon, I wanted to wish you a safe trip, aver que me traes por si decides regresar(at least bring back a good story or two). I know that it’ll be an experience for the books, just don’t get too academic with your observations because I want to be the first to see your journals when you come back. Before you leave I wanted to tell you that for what it's worth I think about you sometimes, at the strangest times really, you see I don't expect many things of women who enter my life, I’m easy to forget, my poems and drawings can only impress for so long. Pero me interesas mucho, para mi dar la amistad es un acto muy intimo, y las conversaciones son sagradas. Straight up, I love being with you. When I think of you I see you in your worn in black low top all stars, the ones with the black shoe laces, you once said you take your shoes off to feel more comfortable so I hope you have your shoes off for this. Thinking back to an afternoon when we sat in El Jardin de las Rosas, I haven’t had a moment like that in a while, in a very long while. Actually, truthfully, I've never had something like that happen to me, I don't know of too many women or even people in general that’ll sit around dissecting and reading poetry for a better part of the day, I mean really read poetry, verse for verse, finding the rhythm in prose. Most times I meet women who claim to be readers and writers but it ends up being merely superficial, they like to read...sometimes or they haven’t quite found their voice.. or are afraid to search for a good writer, they wait to be told who the great writers are. I am intrigued by your love of letters and words, your physical beauty, your intelligence, your genuine love of literature turns me on, it always has, it’s what draws me to you. I can still taste your lips, I'm sure you could care less about mine, I don't know if this is lust and it’s worrisome because I know lust, I lust all the time, what I know is that I can still taste your lips, and I taste your lips at the strangest times. The days play out in strange scenes; I’ll spare you the detail because you were there. I have this almost inhumane ability to let go, it makes me cold, distant, its a defense mechanism, but as a writer I have the ability to cling to a given moment for what seems an eternity, BE inspired, live in that moment, know that I can relive the memory until it fades and no longer serves a useful purpose. I am at a cross road, do I cling or let go? At this point I can do either and be fine. But I see the sun setting behind you as you sit on the park table next to the garden taking a drag from your camel, holding modern Latin American poetry in your hands, writing modern Latin American literature with your pen, te veo leyendo Bolaño, recitando versos del maestro. I hear,

"En aquel tiempo yo tenía veinte años

y estaba loco.

Había perdido un país

pero había ganado un sueño.

Y si tenía ese sueño

lo demás no importaba….”

I’ve never sat with a mujer and dissected poetry before, a thing of beauty, a sense of intimate involvement, now I know what that feels like and it feels good, to read and be read to, se siente chingon. Poder plasmar esa experiencia por toda eternidad en una hoja de papel. Como dice el gabacho, “You did a number on me” I’m a seeker of symbolism and in you I find a kind of curiosity that awakens all my senses. And I find myself thinking about you at the strangest moments, quien sera esta escritora ------- ------ ? Why do you stand out? Why do I still go back to looking into your eyes at night? I go about my days, work, run errands, read, write and yes eventually think about you, it’s a strange thing which I don’t mind in the least. It’s almost childish and to you I’m probably someone who comes and goes, and that’s what I tend to do, come and go. An invisible character in many womens lives. mas no puedo borrar tu voz, tu cuerpo, tu sabor, and why do I tell you all of these things that we know are better left unsaid? Pues simply because I don’t want you to forget me while you’re traveling up and down Latin America, but more importantly, I had you on my mind today as I do all other days and it just so happens that this is what you inspired, stream of consciousness love letter to you, colleague and comrade in arms. Let me know when you get back, i'll be here.

DML

"Creme de la Creme"

Image courtesy of: Pocho 1 Fotography

thee common folk decree
that we be fed up with the reality we see
so everybody take two steps back
pressures gettin to me and i just might crack
can't just lay back in the shack
when there's mad snaps to stack
gotta get over shit thats holdin us back
realize, gotta rise not demise
prioritize, come correct cat daddy
can't be mad at me
i merely reflect reality
matter of fact, my words go click clack
serious as a heart attack
but that aint the half
never hung with the riff raff
strictly high end staff to help master my craft
i dare you to laugh,
ditched school to understand street math
that was the rule, lamping on the block
hustling words and bumping hip hop
forever and a day aim to be on top
claim to be the cream of the crop
yeah, creme de la creme
i'm only i and i'm not like them
spit truth like blunted ass phlegm
break a nug down to its very last stem
banned from getting a halo
i love to live in sin
dont even ask to be forgiven
lifestyles not even favorable
cant be boxed in or given a label
just mad knowledge that's relatable
super capable of giving pop ed
to knuckle headz
get the crema the vino and the bread
so many tears shed, lost souls misled
constantly expecting the unexpected
it's the attack of the under educated and neglected
all forces as one, connected
this is my reality, check it,
i merely live life and reflect it

BORROWED INSPIRATION (A Collection of Love Poems)

Table of Contents

1. Borrowed Inspiration
2. Corazón
3. Oldies
4. Metaphoric Lemon Cake
5. Florycanto
6. 3:04 A.M. (Scribbling Thoughts)
7. Awww..

Borrowed Inspiration
I write you a poem
Because you are my muse.
I grab a pen and spill my soul
For your attention, admiration.

I write you a poem because
A poem is what you are,
Immortalize you on paper.

Nit pick thoughts and lose myself in the moment
Scribble prose hidden as verse
Gather words
And in one sitting
Confess a backlog of emotion.

I write you a poem
Because literature runs through your veins

And because you grasp the power of words
These words are for you.

Corazón

warmth
comfort
healer,
she who
welcomes,
by my side
caress
hold her tight
if this be love,
love with all your might
main squeeze,
squeeze her right
rhythm, lots of rhythm
relax, breathe
everything's going to be alright.

Oldies

hey there lonely girl, i wanna know your name
you really got a hold on me but i have to tell it like it is
you're the best thing that ever happened to me but
i think you got your fools mixed up my sweet dear miss
was a natural high and would always remind me that
i'm still a young man every time i'd walk on by
my distant lover had me thinking i was the duke of earl
for me she was the only one in the whole wide world
i ain't to proud to beg, i do love you
and would do anything to be her boo
shoot'em up bang bang, cowboys to girls always be true
but you beat me to the punch and now im wondering,
"could it be i'm falling in love?" '
i have no clue, somebody please
but cutie pie, i'll be around just don't break your promise
no soy de ti, i have have the tears of a clown
still i want to make it with you
daddy's home and you're my angel baby
for too long i've been sitting in the park
till after dark, Didn't i blow your mind?
how can you mend a broke heart?
my spirit is beat, tired of finding love on a two way street
it's a thin line between love and hate
so try me coz i'm never gonna give you up
earth angel, i know it's going to take a miracle
in the still of night i think of us together
and realize i only have eyes for you
i want to get next to you
why do fools fall in love? don't know but
i want to be your man, what i do
is for the love of you, not a sideshow
silly of me to think we could be between the sheets
i'm so tired of being alone and all i want
is love and happiness, let me be your angel
look what you've done for me, i love you for all seasons
i'm just looking for some kind of sign girl
i'm giving you reasons so why won't you take a chance on me?
darling baby, i'm the one who really loves you,
hey love, as i sit here, oh how it hurts
i sleepwalk wishing on a star, hear the bells
i want you back, but imma smile now and cry later
truth is i'm your puppet and you got me hypnotized
i'm confessing a feelin, baby i'm for real
it can't just be my imagination telling me you're forever mine
at last, i'm the one who really knows
i'm no genius of love and i don't wear a diamond ring
but oh honey, if you should lose me
you'll lose a good thing

Metaphoric Lemon Cake
I think of her at random times
like at this very instance
beautiful redundancy
of all who have entered
come and gone
she will be the one to always stand out
i love her like i love letters
sometimes i dwell in cliche emotions
as all poets ocassionally do
but at all times i remember that i do have
my better half, literature personafied
the book that i can't seem to finish
the elusive poem that refuses to be
written down.
the voice that one day recited
verses and stanzas to me in a rose garden
the one who turns me on by merely picking up a pen
or smoking a cigarette,
the only critic that matters
the only bridge i refuse to burn
my equal, i am her poet
we are selfish
distance helps me romanticize
but that's something between she and i
i miss her at random times, like right now
and i make her real by writing a poem with no rhyme
all heart, no pauses, no edits and she is there
and i'm good,
and then all of those who've entered
come and gone no longer matter.

Florycanto
my literary muse was sitting beside me
and we were listening to elder chicano poets
she was attentive
and was very critical
one of the panelists said something
about poets now a day focusing too much on
"I"
and we thought he was crazy
we saw ourselves in twenty years
the radical, the academic
the ever present ivory tower
the poets spoke of one Brown Buffalo
being followed by CIA agents
and having an after party at Buff's pad
over in the east side
i imagined a room full of young poets
drinking and smoking
inspiring one another
and then my muse pulled out a pen
and on the florycanto event program
she began writing
i looked over enough to see that she WAS writing
i am most attracted to my muse
when she puts words on paper
but i didnt look enough to see what she was writing
that's an intimate moment that i respect
one chicano poet was the veterano of the bunch
a second was an academic that loved to hear himself speak
his wife was a poet as were his children
a third poet had presence
we didnt stick around long enough for the last poet
the academic read five poems too many
but the best poet was on black and white celuloid
a mystery mujer from a 1979 recital
she had a nice stack of stanzas in her hand
her words were the most visual
a true poet
she reminded me of my muse
it was the 200th birthday of our motherland
we went back to the pad, in the kitchen we spoke of words
in another there was music
we smoked cigarettes and drank beer
we danced, i showed her the bands lyrics
she loves letters as much as i do
by nights end we were all drunk
and then i got the privlige of having her steal
one of my books, a book on Ricardo Flores Magon
my muse knows little shame
letters and words are of more importance
than any other woman that may enter my life
she is my literary muse for a reason
and with that our night came to an end

3:04 A.M. (Scribbling Thoughts)

check it,
you got me a little curious
Delirious in my confidence
I know my actions must be obvious
5-but you keep it stupid fresh
your style compliments your flesh
my brain cells are all in a muthafuckin' mess
god damn it miss ------
I gotta confess

10-I don’t think I can suppress
the fact that for a cool minute now
you caught my interest
and although I want to get intimate
Don’t be thinking that

15-I’m just trying to run through,
if anything this is more like
Common when he first met Erykah Badu
I want to write love poems
that are strictly for you
20-you have a smile and a style
that don’t fake the funk
always keeps it true
got a poet feeling energetic,
revived and brand new...

25-you are beauty personified
a bona fide queen, got you stuck
in my dreams
you roam my mind,
seems like cupid busted off shots
30-and I caught a slug
got me scribbling thoughts at home like,
“you shine so bright that I’m left blind,
the whole world gives you props”
and though hip hop is your love
35-I’m trying to rep you
like hand in glove
like I'm an addict and you're the main drug
better yet sent at the perfect moment
from way up above
40-we can start from scratch,
a new beginning,
you got my soul singing
straight up, like that!

there’s nothing wrong with drifting into the unknown
45-let me build you a castle with brand new crown
let me be the one who takes you in and out of the zone
the one who'll write you

the worlds illest poems
it's been a good while since I felt like a child
50-you inspire this style that has me flowing
you look good and my curiosity is constantly growing
the love I can give to you, you ain’t even knowing
I can love you like this
like a living legend
55-straight embedded your impression
in my heart a new sensation
your aura constantly glowing
my heart constantly roaring
together we could be constantly soaring
60-traveling new heights
New York and Parisian nightlights
new adventures every morning
if you wanna keep this going
I guarantee miss ------
65-we’ll see the sights
and life with me will be a sick journey

that’ll never get boring.

Awww..
If i could have you here tonight sitting by my side
I'd turn off the lights
And tell you of the few things i have left to hide

I would ask you to go with me on a
Most enlightening metaphysical life long ride
And would abide by your every last demand

From grabbing stars, stealing planets
To drying every individual one of your hair strands
I would open up and confess all the dreams i have planned

I get the feeling you of all people
Wouldn't mock but understand
You wouldn't label me or give me some unfitting brand,

Cosmic muse
my secret little cosmic muse,
You help heal every single earthly bruise

If i had you here tonight sitting by my side
I would do away with my childish pride
And confide;

Love, my words are more than just implied
Or for that matter over simplified

...if i could have you
Here
Tonight
Sitting by my side
There would be no reason for me to write this
I would simply steal a kiss;

But instead I take a deep sigh
And from a safe distance
Sullenly wave good night and good bye