outside again

Hello outside people. Its me again. Trying to give you the hotline of whats happening in the Lou...I didnt do too much this past weekend, but I did a few things that I would like to share with ya. Last Friday, I checke dout the season premiere of the Black Rep's play, "Crossin Over"(I did a radio review of it last Tuesday on KDHX, 88. 1 FM) at the Edison Theatre at Wash U. This is a must see. It is a musical about the African American plight from Africa to America. It take syou to the depths of the rituals and custims of Africa, to the capturing on the slave ship, to the plantation fields, to the civil rights protests to the today hip-hop generation. And it was all told in over 100 songs from African chants, to We Shall Overcome to Mary Mary's "Shackles." Starring in this close to three hour production are J Samuel Davis, Denise Thimes, Kelvin Roston (Formula Boy), Leah Stewart bka Stephanie Mills and , my fave, local gospel artsist Karen Hylton. She blew me away with her five octave voice. She was off the chain with her light and delicate yet powerful soprano. If you go, check her out (Also check out my review of the play on kdhx.org). The play is entertaining yet disturbing especially during the pillaging scenes when Africans were sent off by ship to America. If you remember The Black Rep's production Tell Me Something Good, this is the equivalent as far as telling a story through music, just picture Roots: The Musical and you have Crossin Over. The play runs until Oct.2. For more info, go to the Black Rep's website...Later on that night I hung out wuth my boy Christiaan and his friends Allen and Amber who are in his acting class. We were at the Drunken Fish. Its pretty amped on this night, mostly white crowd, but the music was techno funk. It was definitely a change of pace as far as the typical black club with hip-hop and R&B as the standard club fare..I chilled out on Saturday, well I did go to the gym to workout at Ballys in Clayton. My boy Kam did messages at teh Balloon Race in Forest Park. I knew something was going down cause when I tried to drive east on 64 after the gym it was neck to neck traffic trying to exit off of Hampton exit just for the balloon race. It took a good 15 minutes to drive my normal way of driving...On Sunday, I checked out the Sunday Sip Finale at the Central West End Bedand Breakfast on Washington. It was OK. It was the finale for the weekly Sunday event and to celebrate, they had some booths set up in front of the hotel and had the street closed off. Some of the vendors were floralists Fosters Unlimited,and graphic artist Jay Real. They had a some local acts performing including a beautiful female duo named Az One, and the Non Stop Reggae Crew who reggaed up everything from Usher to Alicia Keys(and what was up with the two gorupie girls who danced in front of the stage as though they were Patra? One sista was a lil too big to get her butterfly on!) , sax man Mike Fitzgerald, who played his sax on top of open seats , and Silhouette gfeat. Heff Hardin (who, according to the peanut gallery I was sitting with, said could not sing). They had comp Hpnotiq and praize giveways too. Tiffani Blackmore (the sista who was on the pic with me and Gina last posting) gave me her tickets (I sat with her and her wild and crazy mother and her friend) for the grand prize of a one night stay at the B and B, but I didnt win. So, I tore up my tickets and vamped.
Shots: Thanks to Lily for hooking up my braids every two weeks; Thanks to Majic 104.9's Selena J for checking out my blog and liking what she saw, she said I wrote a lot of words and I took her onmy journey. Also, thanks to Delores Shante for letting Partyline readers know I am one of two former STL American employees who still use my press pass from the STL American to get in free. I knew I would be in there sooner or later, but oh well, I guess I'll have people in St. Louis buzzing about who the culprts were. I guess any publicity is good publicity.
In the meantime, I'll be checking out the scene thsi weekend with teh Gateway Classic and my own VIP lunch that I am having at the Emperors Wok on Hampton and I am checking out Farrakhan at the Orpheum. I got a feeling taht I need to attend expecially with thsi being the 10th anniversary of the Million MAn MArch (I attended 10 years ago and feel its my duty to attend) . I will try and fit everythingin next week. Until then, see ya outside!