Gratitude’s an attitude.
Recently, I was put on to the writings, philosophy and purpose of the self-described “Jane Bond of Innovation” – Nilofer Merchant. She’s been providing clarity, imagination and new ideas as a thinker and entrepreneur, urging us to “navigate the #SocialEra powerfully” for the sake of our individual and societal potential to shift the status quo, which is incredibly unbalanced. Named by MSNBC as one of 2013’s “Future Thinkers,” she’s been boldly shining a light for many – Fortune 500 companies and growing digital entrepreneurs alike – guiding us on the purposeful and impact(filled) road which involves embracing our “onlyness” in the wild wild west we know of as THE INTERNET. And, that we might be able to really do something with these tools that are connecting us all right now.
I watch her talk “On Being Seen” multiple times a day when I need the reminder, but she’s also been quite vocal about the under-talked-about problem of too many people sitting on their asses [“Sitting is the smoking of our generation.”] in the #SocialEra. I’m even looking into buying a standing desk as we speak and working to make more meetings walking ones, so thank you Nilofer! Anyhow, check out these talks:
On Being Seen:
Got a Meeting? Take a Walk:
Now that you’ve been introduced, it brings me to this post on “Thanksgiving.” Yesterday, Nilofer sent out a list of the things she was grateful for in the face of loss she had been experiencing around her. We’re always losing, aren’t we? The saying goes, “the leading cause of death is birth,” right? So, I agree with her, the excersize of celebrating what we do have is important. And like her, I share mine in the hopes you make one, too!
So here’s my list. It’s totally from the gut and probably too long, but I’ve got gratitude for latitudes:
Marcus K Dowling for urging me to check out Nilofer & his intellectual generosity
Trees, Birds, Plants & Flowers
Sky
Mom and pop’s journey, various lives, trips, falls and continued creations
Sacrifice
The momentum of their migration that’s now up to me to evolve
THE INTERNET
Soundcloud, Sendspace and Mailchimp
Google docs
Los Rakas
Zuzuka Poderosa
The excitement of working with La Mecanica Popular & their #PsychedelicSalsa
The teams I’ve been thru very thick and extremely thin with in the music business
THE FUTURE
This Eclectic Other
#NEWAMERICA
IMAGINATION
Grace for dancing and a love for movement
Nikki Brydson of Misfit Media & Brooklyn the Borough for all her love and support and BRAINS
Sandi, the hair artiste, pro-dreamer and sweetest NICE LADY with the best Persian tea & view
Pomegranates & Avocados
The journalists who really read me and understand I don’t need or want anything from them other than to listen and to feel what’s happening…a true cultural shift…thank you for tuning IN
Kamren the mother and her baby Luna…friendship and family!
The color purple
Sweat
My sweet apartment in my hometown of Staten Island which I moved back to this year with the best Greek landlords and crickets’ songs
5 PTZ [RIP]
Living by water
Alice Austen
YEMAYA
Bobbito Garcia
Water with lemon in large beer glass
Ferry beers
All the amazing people I met thru organizing logistics for Summerstage’s ‘This Is Hip-Hop’ 40th Anniversary
My awesome bed which my father built with his two hands…OUT THE IKEA BOX
The growing circle of women – older & younger than me – I feel are bridging across and making #subvHERsive alliances
The Refrigerator
Yirka, Michelle and Sabi – awesome media assistants this year helping me out big time!
Creative Neon
All the amazing thrift furniture and clothes I magically connect with like my $150 butter leather couch
For the wisdom of knowing I don’t need to consume even MORE new things
STATEN ISLAND
Gina Vergel and her vivacious and disciplined example
Being a professional dreamer
My awesome lawyer Richard
#magnets
Getting older and understanding karma on a much deeper level
SummerStage
My sweet angel with a purple heart
Wu-tang Clan, Los Rakas, Rocky Rivera, Nitty Scott MC, Vic Mensa, Blitz the Ambassador
J. LO & Becky G {Becky from The Block, especially}
NYC, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Manhattan
Los Angeles, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Venice Beach, Laurel Canyon
San Francisco, Oakland, Lake Merritt, Berkeley
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti
YOUTUBE
The Staten Island Ferry
My penchant for making up words because my world doesn’t fit in the ones we have currently
Scented Candles and Incense
Independent bookstores, retail shops and coffee shops
My inability to feel shame about being a fan in the face of the “culture of cool”
My inability to feel shame about *having to share something I think more people need in their lives or need to know because it’s important
Bell Hooks and Melissa Harris-Perry talk @ New School {watch}
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Bodega Bamz, Nitty Scott MC, Kap G, Denitia & Sene & all the bold artists building with balls
Las Comadres – the national organization for Latinas to unite thru reading – I was lucky to host the first Comadrazo in Staten this year!
Rudy Rude a designer out in LA who made the conrazon album cover!
Being able to book Dengue, Dengue Dengue! from Peru for their NYC debut
The fact that water comes out of the shower head
Latino Rebels for daring to go there, working to cover the spectrum of the US Latino experience!
Daina {pictured}, Monica, Kamy, Elvira, Leizer, Sarah, etc – past interns I’ve worked with…I LOVE WATCHING THEM SOAR
SOBs for having the space for me to do #FUTUREROOTS
Tony Touch
Cindy Campbell [The 1st Lady of Hip-Hop] and Roxanne Shante
Sway Calloway for calling me “ambitious and overzealous” while introducing Los Rakas on “Sway In The Morning”
NYC Parks and Central Park
This winner
Laughter and very long walks
Raquel and her Mexico City abode and all the fun
The brave young undocumented youth, brutalized and criminalized youth not having it no more
Trayvon Martin NYC march after verdict
Instagram for giving a visual archive of my past lived life and adding more depth across acquaintances thru visual medium
TWITTER
Lauren Velez & La Lupe
End Stop & Frisk movement
Raquel and her getting me into Buddhist chanting in a time of need
Family…blood and not blood
Oxygen
“Girl, I ain’t your enemy…I’m your last hope.” – Rocky Rivera lyric I love
The Fugees
BEING LATINA
My adversaries
The pig men who make my ass and smile the barometer for exactly where they stand for in humanity, thanks for making it so easy 🙂
“Stop Telling Women To Smile” project
Sweet, kind men
Yoga
The Interference Archive in Brooklyn
Cafe Grattitude in Los Angeles
Mike Shane – Photographer from Staten Island – for snapping this:
Cold men I’ll never see again
Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls
Soul-connected women, my friends, like Nina Parks:
Closed, guarded women I’ll be kind to and empathize with anyway
The privilege to travel
My sister, Paula Lucero…watching her success pushes me forward and gives me LIFE
The patriarchy that’s breaking down everyday as our voices rise
Hot weather and sunshine
Ghostface Killah & Nas
Saunas
Frouple-life with Joaquin, who taught me so much and is a badass machinist and organizer
Everything Goes Bookstore Cafe for their strong coffee and warm vibes only walking distance from my home
Meeting amazing Staten Island-based dreamers and doers
The sound of rain
Being a professional dreamer
Seeing D’Angelo live for the first time live
The Shifting Paradigms
Hashtags I love, even if you don’t get them, like: #Diasporadical, #Worldwild, #FutureRoots, #subvHERsive, #BootlegBillCunningham, #Shero
Filters and Twitter Lists
#LaRazaCosmica
M.I.A. “Matangi”: Boom {Skit}, Matangi & Lights [Read This]
Earrings
A writer whose writing I admire…admiring my voice!
Loved ones who have flexibility with me, but toughness and then tenderness as I change and the growing pains continue
SATURN’S RETURN
Museums
Anabel Hernandez and Jeremy Scahill at the Brooklyn Bookfair
Women of Color
Allies and Fighters
Tom Tom Magazine
The amazing and radical “Rock The Belles” show which Bluestockings Bookstore put on
Raquel Cepeda and her book “Bird of Paradise”
Bold Radical Art That’s Unapologetic Staten Island’s Chinese Scholar Garden, The Greenbelt and Midland Beach
Browntourage
Sexual Energy
#POPTIMISM
My stomach scar, because it’s literature of the body and without it, I’d never have gotten past Day 1
<3