i left a piece of me in Haiti

love is in the AIR

Lets face it valentines day is only overrated to those of us who DONT have valentines…. Every 1 likes to feel special. So here are a couple of tips to make sure you feel special with or without a beau.

BEST DATE IDEA

The way to the heart is through the stomach! Take your date on a cooking class. There are tons of classes available on all kinds of food. The sidebar offers a sushi making class plus great drinks.

BEST GIRLS NIGHT OUT

There is nothing like drinks, laughs, and ur girls/boys

You are never to old for a sleepover… grab some movies, ur fave bottle of wine, and break and bake cookies

BEST SOLO NIGHT

Whens the last time you had a bubble bath? Grab a good book, tonights your night.

Some good reads :

Tupac: The rose that grew from concrete

Toure’ :Soul City

Paul Farmer: The uses of Haiti

Zora Neale Hurston: There Eyes were watching GOD

Scuse me while i kiss the sky…

JIMI HENDRIX is an american born , guitsrist, singer, and songwriter. He is considered by many to be the greatest musician ever. One things for sure this man touched lives in a way many could never imagine. His music is the kind that gives you chills as you listen and dreams as you sleep. The power of music is evident in him. TRC visits travels back in time to visit this mans mind….shoutout 2 @mistiranderson for putting me on to this essay…

Jimi Hendrix, ‘Life’ magazine, October 3, 1969

In most moments, much of what follows makes me wonder. But when I remember the music, I’m willing to concede a maybe.

Pretend your mind is a big muddy bowl and the silt is very slowly settling down — but you remember your mind’s still muddy and you can’t possibly grasp all I’m saying.
Music is going to break the way. There’ll be a day when houses will be made of diamonds and emeralds that won’t have any value anymore and they’d last longer in a rainstorm than a wooden house. Bullets’ll be my fairy tales. There’ll be a renaissance from bad to completely clear and pure and good — from lost to found.
The everyday mud world we’re living in today compared to the spiritual world is like a parasite compared to the ocean, and the ocean is the biggest living thing you know about. One way to approach the spiritual side is facing the truth. People who make a lot of money — they get sadder and sadder ’cause deep down they feel a hurt. So they go and buy a prostitute on Saturday and go to church on Sunday and pray down on the ground in a little salt box, hearing another man who has the same problems preach — and the collection plate keeps going around and around. That man thinks he’s found religion but he’s not going toward the spiritual side, which is the way the atmosphere is.
Atmospheres are going to come through the music because is in a spiritual thing of its own. It’s like the waves of the ocean. You can’t just cut out the perfect wave and take it home with you. It’s constantly moving all the time. It is the biggest electrifying thing on Earth. Music and motion are all part of the race of man.
I don’t think what I say is abstract. It’s reality. What’s unreal is all those people living in cement beehives with no color and making themselves look like their gig and slaving themselves for that one last dollar and crying with millions in their pockets and constantly playing war games and making bets. They’re losing themselves in big ego scenes and being above another man in some kind of form. Look at the pimps and congressmen.
But I can explain everything better through music. You hypnotize people to where they go right back to their natural state, which is the pure positive — like childhood when you got natural highs. And when you get people at [their] weakest point, you can preach into the subconscious what we want to say. That’s why the name “electric church” flashes in and out.
People want release any kind of way nowadays. The idea is to release in the proper form. Then they’ll feel like going into another world, a clearer world. The music flows from the air; that’s why I can connect with a spirit, and when they come down off this natural high, they see clearer, feel different things — don’t think of pain and hurting the next person. You think of getting your own thing together. You can’t be lazy. You have to look at all the faults you have.
There’s no telling how many lives your spirit will go through — die and be reborn. Like my mind will be back in days when I was a flying horse. Before I can remember anything, I can remember music and stars and planets. I could go to sleep and write fifteen symphonies. I had very strange feelings that I was here for something and I was going to get a chance to be heard. I got the guitar together ’cause that was all I had. I used to be really lonely.
A musician, if he’s a messenger, is like a child who hasn’t been handled too many times by man, hasn’t had too many fingerprints across his brain. That’s why music is so much heavier than anything you ever felt.

GOD dont forget your children

Its a 4:00am on a Wednesday morning in Port-au Prince Haiti. The sky is dark. the air is cool, and the city is silent. “Leve namn mouin ak soley la…”   A voice deep with passion and struggle breaks the silence. “Konmansme tach ou jodi a…” The voice is anonymous, yet distinctive, floating over the city from one makeshift sleeping bag among many others lying on the city streets. Another voice soon joins, this one broken but proud. While I cannot see her, I imagine she is crying. “Premie bagay ou gin pou fe…” Before long the entire city is singing. A choir of Gods children, praising, and praying. “Se lou Bon-Dieu ak tout Ke”…. “Wake my soul with the sun, Let me start everyday, with the first thing i should do, Praise the Lord with all my heart”

On Jan. 12th 2010, an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude, struck the already impoverished island country of Haiti. Leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, motherless, dead, and in desperate need of a hand.Christian Hand, a non-profit organization offered that hand, taking a group of 27 volunteers, medical professionals, and helping hands, to respond to their dire needs in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. I went with them.

The entire city is homeless. The streets are lined with tents, and sheets, children, and mothers, brothers and fathers, dust and rubble. The people walk wearing masks, to supress the smell of death in the air. “When will you go back into your home”  I asked Daniel, a Port-au-Prince native and recent newlywed. “I cannot say, I did not know when the earthquake was coming, so I cannot say when I can go back into my house.”  He and his wife have found refuge  with other families in a lot next to the cities radio station. For one week we were one of them. Sleeping on the streets. The first morning, my soul woke before I did to the sounds of the people praising God. It was moving to say the least. The sound in the air could stir soul the could of a deaf man. We would wake this way for the entire week.

Our medical fair was stationed in the near by church lot and before we could even fully set up we were seeing patient after patient. Many of which, suffered major injuries relating to the earthquake though it had been two weeks since. Injuries included broken legs, broken hands, and infections. When one came in with a bone showing and infected in her leg, we asked her why she had waited two weeks  to have it looked at, she responded she did not know where to go or have the money. Another seriously injured patient came in with leaves wrapped around her injuries, informing us that she had only seen a traditional doctor in the area. Almost everyone suffered from urinary track infections, dehydration, both from lack of clean water, and hunger. One child said to us “My leg is hurting me so bad, but everytime I eat something it goes away.” We fed him  he smiled, and went on his way. The night it almost rained was the saddest experience. As the clouds darkened the thunder clapped, and the rain began to drizzle, the city lifted their voices to God, crying and wailing with the wind. As though they were having a conversation God and bargaining. God heard us, and for that night at least, we slept on dry ground.

Everyday we gave all we could, using the many donations we received prior to the trip including medical supplies, foods and more. While we had so much, it was not enough. On the fourth day we decided to prepare a hot meal for the people living in what was called “tent city” Preparing over 100 plates we headed over to give what we could.

Attempting to line up the fast growing crowd, we quickly realized that it would never feed everyone, they realized that too. No one who got on the line we requested recieved a plate. It was those who reached, pulled and sadly fought for a plate who received. It was so hurtful to see, but humbling and enlightening. These people were not just fighting for a plate, they were fighting for their three kids, hungry and looking to them to provide, they were fighting because even if they did eat earlier, they did not know when/ where their next meal was coming from, they were fighting out of embarrassment that while they may have once been able to provide themselves, they now have no choice now but to wait in line for hand outs covering their faces at the flashes of cameras and onlookers, they were fighting for survival. We were fighting back tears.
It felt good knowing that we were able to help over 500 people for those few days, but it hurt more knowing that there was so many more we could not help.

“I am blessed” Sr. Therese, a native woman staying within our camp said. So blessed, you don’t understand how many people I saw lying dead, and I am still here. It is to say how great the Lord is” With all their perils, all their tribulations, this blessed theme was common with many of the people I spoke with. While their lives were visually low, their spirits were high, praising, thanking and waiting on God. I guess the Haitian people know the same secret Job knew: that even in suffering, God is worthy to be praised. He will bless you twice over, and expand your territory. “Lou Bon-Dieu ak tout Ke”- Praise the Lord with all your heart

Christian Hand is a non-profit organization, who bi-annually take trips to Haiti, to minister, educate, and provide medical attention to the Haitian people. (www.christianhand.org)

cooL is the new bLack

TRC IS BAAAAAACK….

yes yes yall…

TRC is BACK and this time were not going newhere. We were experiencing some difficulty…and our old site is no more 😦 …but so many have asked us where we have been and there has been too much going on for us to not be on it. Thanks for always thinking of us and Please continue to be with us as we grow in a new cooLer direction… we’ve got a lot of ideas cooking…

To all those who dont know what we’re about…..

THE rebirth of cooL
realize, yes the cooL,is slowly creepin through the streets
we are the many soldiers but we march to different beats
feeL the RHYTHMS echo cuLture fueLs thas sound
its MORE than just a melody
a brand new genre has been found
check our SWAGGER
check our styLe
the oLd bLlueprints have been TORN…
this is the WAY we do it realize the cooL has been reborn…….

WHAT IS THE REBIRTHOFCOOL?….”THE PRODUCT OF CREATIVE MINDS, AND ORIGINAL WORK” therebirthofcooL focus is to awaken the mind and spirit, through innovative events, cooLmagazine, cooL tv interactive creativity and much more, while provoking a hunger only satisfied by the continual pursuit of elevation to new heights within our thoughts, our lifestyle, and our world. basically we just “tryna put you on”when it comes to culture, politics, life, fashion, music, creativity….. we on it!