Local Yokels

So, as I'm going through my portfolio of work to post on this new blog, I have been checking my work out from older to more recent.  I had forgotten about some of the pieces I've had published in City Newspaper.  This next assortment is to highlight those folks from around the way... i.e., the way of Rochester, NY.

I'll kick it off with a piece that was published circa September 2005.  City gave me my second cover story with a feature on a dude named Amir Sulaiman (pronounced SOO'-lee-mon).  He's a published author and poet slash dope eMCee.  His spoken word is sometimes blended with music on some tracks from his three albums.  He's been featured on Russell Simmons' Def Poetry on a few occasions, toured with KRS-One and Mos Def, and been called everything from teacher to terrorist.  Oh, and of course, he's from the city I currently reside in.  Good look for the Roc!  Check out the piece from City's archives.

We also covered a piece on a funk electro...


jam band that formed at what would have been my alma mater if I hadn't been a drop out.  Pia Mater, which was a five-piece at the time, has since had a lot of change up in the lineup, with only two of the five members that I interviewed still holding the foundation.  Check out that archive here.

City does a "Best of Greater Rochester" annually, where the writers sound off on what they think make the Flower City a fly place to live/visit/be.  Also in this issue is the Readers' Choice awards, where readers send in ballots in the weeks prior to the issue's release and vote on the best in everything from late night eatery to gas station.  Since I had been a previous Critics Choice award winner twice for my radio show, it was fun to flip the script and be a critic.  Here's the 2005 awards page, and this has my four contributions.  The coffeehouse has been off and on with that event for years (currently off), and the morning show has had changes galore (haven't been up that early in years).  But Club NV is still poppin' with G.I. and Reg, with DJ Bac-Spin is also thrown in the mix.  And my Little is now way bigger than me, was a groomsman at my wedding, and has since graduated from culinary school after high school.

Okay, players... that's it for now.  I'll holla more in a minute.  Got some big news to share.