Blog Archives
what can i say about paris?
what can I say about paris
that hasn’t already been said?
on this day of mourning
more than 120 killed
should I call for a collective prayer?
that’s been done millions of times
on your facebooks and your twitters
and your instagrams.
I could post the french flag
over my profile picture.
but that too has been done. Read the rest of this entry
Poverty in Dominican Republic – Short Documentary
I produced this short documentary as charity work to help my aunt Maria Santos continue her missionary work, bringing much needed school supplies to the poorest of the poor in Dominican Republic. Please help us reach our goal and donate to this worthy cause. Feel free to share this. If you want to make a donation, please visit my gofundme campaign here > http://www.gofundme.com/helpmariasantos
Thank you.
Portraits of Colombia
Portraits of Colombia, a set on Flickr.
I took these photos while on vacation in Medellin, Colombia in December 2013. This collection shows the diversity of the common Colombian. While on vacation, I encountered so many warm and welcoming people of different shades. I chose to make the photos all black and white to remove color barriers, because while I was there, I didn’t sense any color differences. This series represents the unity I felt while walking the streets of Medellin. These are the beautiful people.
I Remember What My Father Told Me
I remember what my father told me:
There’s only one thing I’ll take with me,
all my women and their memories
But I knew he’d take more than just that. Read the rest of this entry
I Wish I Were a Deadbeat Dad
Sometimes I wish I were a deadbeat dad. I’d be accountable only for me and my wants and needs. Sometimes I wish I were more selfish and kept my money in a savings account or just spent it on things I want, like trendy clothes and sneakers or after-work happy hours or expensive dinners or bottles at all night parties on weekends. I would sleep late on Sundays and never get up to cook breakfast, cause I don’t like bacon and eggs anyway. I wish I didn’t have to rush home after work to mundane, routine, often frustrated evenings, checking homework and disciplining a third grader who’s constantly in trouble at school. I would pay child support only when I wanted to or could, cause that wouldn’t be my priority. I wish I didn’t have that extra expense for health coverage. Instead, I would use that money to travel the way I used to. I wish I’d have some sense of spontaneity, so when a friend calls me to hang out, I could say “I’ll be right over” and simple gatherings or even dating wouldn’t become long-planned affairs at the mercy of a baby sitter’s availability. Sometimes I wish I wouldn’t have a little body dependent on me for his very survival. Life would be much easier.
Judgements & Misconceptions (2000)
*Originally written on a Hyatt Regency letterhead, this poem was turned into a spoken word house music track and released on Fluential Records (UK) in 2002, with music produced by Wilson and Steven Mestre.
It was about 6:15 in the morning I’m drunk and I’m high and I’m in Chicago now, I had just stumbled out of some club, somewhere I can’t even remember, and um I walked to the corner to hail a cab and after five empty cabs just passed me by one finally stopped Read the rest of this entry
My Verse – a visual spoken word
today I write my verse not because I want to but because I have to I write my verse to give voice to the voiceless to give sound to the silence around to make light out of dark to bring peace out of war and squeeze water from oil and blood Read the rest of this entry
You Should’ve Said No – 2012
You shouldn’t smoke this other blunt, and you know it too. But your drunken ass just can’t say no to Sonia, licking the Dutchie with her raspberry mouth, because you don’t see a blunt at all, but imagine something else between her lips, and instead of saying no, you hand her a lighter.
Sonia is a professional at rolling pencil-straight blunts. You imaging she must be professional at other things too, because that’s how your perverse mind thinks. It doesn’t matter that she can’t cook rice and beans like Abuelita does, or that she leaves dirty panties in the tub, or thinks Uruguay is an exotic Malaysian dish. Read the rest of this entry