if you ever wondered why the Make A Wish Foundation gets the big bucks from philanthropists and private individuals alike, read this seattle times story about 13 year old Erik Martin, who experienced a day as a superhero this week. the organization involved hundreds of volunteers to help Erik (as superhero “Electron Boy”) pull off not one, not two, but THREE daring rescues in his hometown of Seattle. The daylong production ended with a showdown with his nemesis, and i challenge you to read the whole article without getting a bit misty. –jb

WARNING: This video contains “bad” words, brief nudity & graphic violence towards the end…However if you can get past that I feel this is an interesting commentary considering recent political events. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.-pierre bennu

‘Born Free’ song by M.I.A
Directed by Romain Gavras
Director of photography André Chemetoff

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

What I’m about to do here might seem simple to you but for me is extremely hard. I have a habit of burying or throwing away things that are old or that I feel are not polished & perfect. The danger in that is you might loose perspective on what you have accomplished. You also run the risk of burning out & feeling you constantly need to start from zero. Despite the numerous awards I won for this as a teen I have not screened this in several years and as I write this my stomach is hurting at the thought of you seeing it but I need to do this for me. Thank you for the opportunity to be courageous. Pierre Bennu.

Negative Images (1992) from pierre bennu on Vimeo.

I’ve been up since about 4 this morning in part because of a dream i had. The dream was sparked by a picture i once saw. None of the people were identified, no location, the approximate time was 1899-1900 and the only caption read “on the way to a lynching”

The taking of this image was where the dream started where it went was surreal, supernatural & pretty out there even by my standards. I hesitate to write it all out as i feel i might forget a detail. ive been spending most of the morning trying to remember all the pits and pieces and put them in some sort of order. “The Dandelion King” are the only words i can remember from the dream so perhaps thats what i’ll call it when all the ideas are collected into something coherent. Needless to say i will have my sketch book with me all day.

Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu takes the Afrofuturism genre one step further with her short SciFi film “Pumzi.” The dystopic flick is set in an enclosed, underground future society, “35 years after water wars have torn the world apart,” and chronicles the efforts of one young woman to bring life back to the surface of the planet.

Unique opportunity to see this groundbreaking, award-winning film this sunday in Brooklyn, NY — at a free screening hosted by mtkalla keaton sunday evening, april 18th. details below.

“Pumzi” Brooklyn Screening @ Le Grand Dakar (Grand ave and Clifton Pl)

Sunday April 18th @ 8pm.
Please RVSP via text (917 771 2747)

Click below to see the trailer. Wow.
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To Have & To Hold – Taster Tape from Jony Lyle on Vimeo.

I’ve been doing some soul searching, I’m finding some good stuff. I’m being pushed reluctantly into the foreground, a place that i purposefully abandoned several years ago. However situations keep occurring where my hermit tendencies don’t serve me. I am also being informed that my style of perfectionism doesn’t serve me. My art is like a cockroach in that for every one piece of mine that you see there are about 30 that you don’t see. Growing up I used to throw away sketch books, rhyme books and journals because they were not “perfect.” It wasn’t till i got married that i really started to save my work & even then many things never saw the light of day. I learned that just because something comes easy to me doesn’t mean it lacks value. So here i am unwilling to put things out there that are not “perfect” but in desperate need to share and make room for all the new stuff. The first challenge I put to myself is to be “out there” more. I’ve decided to do so by starting a Video Blog (which i believe is called a V-log). It is tentatively titled “2 minutes with your imaginary friend Pierre!” I begin shooting later this week…see you soon..well…you’ll see me soon but you…you get it…so yeah.

Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy winning producer 9th Wonder (pictured left) are using SunMoonChild – amazing song by imani uzuri, amazing video by Pierre Bennu – as part of the midterm exam for their course, ’sampling soul.’ The course is about black cultural production and the tradition of borrowing/remixing/sampling and how it all relates to today’s legal issues of intellectual property rights and copyright law. Since YouTube just removed SunMoonChild after three years this issue cuts particularly close for us.

He’s made the midterm public on his blog to encourage a wider dialogue and wider exposure to the ideas. Stop by and give it a read, comment if you can! )

–jb.

As a DJ, an artist, a sometime teacher, and the son of an academic, I will never get tired of marveling at the intersection of HipHop and academia. It’s an honor to have my work thought of as contributing to this discussion.

–pb

Meditations during gardening season – applicable to gardening, or life.

When you get a plant from the store it might seem healthy, but in actuality it has already outgrown the container it’s in.

It must be put in a larger container or it will die.

When you take it out of its old container you will see the roots so tightly packed that they are in the shape of the pot.

You must firmly/gently crush it out of this shape to free the roots. Some use a razor blade to free the roots.

The plant may go into shock but this is necessary for growth.

If the roots are not freed it won’t matter what pot u put it in… the roots will grow in on themselves & choke the plant.
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This is a short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy + Ludovic Houplain. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short.

In this film there are two pieces of licensed music, in the beginning and in the end. All the other music and sound design are original. The opening track (Dean Martin “Good Morning Life”) and closing track (The Ink Spots “I don’t want to send the world on fire”) songs are licensed pre-existing tracks. All original music and sound design is by, human (www.humanworldwide.com)

Logorama from Marc Altshuler – Human Music on Vimeo.

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