January Updates! [Shows in NYC & Atlantic City, Article, NYC Workshops)

 Happy New Year!

I know we're a week in but I wanted to make sure I had some news for you all regarding January's happenings! After a month of planning and re-evaluating where I want to be in 2012, I've got a lot in the works: new music/ poetry, videos, service projects, shows, and more that will be revealed in time! I don't want to overwhelm you so here's what's going on in the next few weeks:

Live Performance in NYC - Friday, January 13th @ 6PM

MUSIC, FOOD, FUN and ME :) .... and at the same time you get to learn about the BLK ProjeK and its mission to create economic development opportunities that address food justice, environmental justice and public and mental health. I'll be performing Friday at The BLK Project's Welcome Party & Fundraiser @ Museum of Motherhood:

401 East 84th St (between 1st Ave and York, lower level Dunhill Building), New York, NY 

Also performing: The Paxtons, OHBO! Niyre. Tickets are $35/ VIP $60. 

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Live Performance in Atlantic City, NJ - Monday, January 16th @ 5PM

It's a blessing to have been asked to be the guest of honor at The Greater Atlantic City Dr. Martin Luther King Day Of Stars, a free music, poetry and from the heart tribute and festival celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It will take place at The Shore Mall in Cardiff, New Jersey. The event begins at 12pm, but I'll be pretty much closing out the night. IT'S FREE! 

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Feature Article at Kansas State University 

 I was featured in a great article in the Kansas State University Collegian after my performance there last month. I thought I'd share! (Thank you, Jakki Thompson, for writing such a great article! And thank you K-State for welcoming me to "The Little Apple", Manhattan, KS.) 

Check it out: http://www.kstatecollegian.com/news/spoken-word-artist-shares-poetry-with-students-in-personal-performance-1.2673010#.TtVFaHNFFUk 

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Winter Workshop on Performing in NYC 

Through Urban Word NYC, I am teaching a Youth Winter Workshop Performance Series called "Lyrical Melodies" on performing work that blends genres. Whether you sing and rap, spit poetry and sing, or dance and monologue, this workshop is for you! It's every Tuesday from now till February 14th at the Urban Word Main Office (242 W. 27th St. Suite 3A, New York, NY 10001) from 4:30PM to 6:30PM. Free! 

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Well, till next time, stay warm and stay blessed! See you on Twitter! 

Shanelle Gabriel

www.twitter.com/ShanelleG

NEW POEM: Being a Poet During Black History Month

To the college student who asked me if my poetry was gonna educate her on Black History...

Should she rearrange her schedule to see me speak/ Would my quotes be black studies term-paper quality/ I mean, I am performing in February/ What else could I be speaking about?/ I didn't mean to confuse you/ I know my videos on youtube aren't exactly Black Panther friendly/ You're right someone could mistake me for ignoring my ancestors' history/ I haven't complained about educational inequality/ I didn't explain why 60% of the prison population has Africa in their veins/ Haven't re-accounted the 2010 news story where the Texas Board of Ed state that textbooks should be changed to say "Africans were brought here to HELP American society," without mentioning that they were enslaved/ I guess this is when the/ statistic should come to mind/ that Blacks receive longer sentences and spend more jail time/ than Whites with similar backgrounds who committed the same crimes/ I guess my poetry lines and rhymes aren't "melanated" just right/ I made the mistake of thinking that telling tales as a Black woman in America/ meant I was telling the Black history of my life./ Because this month isn't just about slavery/ We're still fighting for equality and for the right to tell our stories today/ See maybe, you assumed I'd educate you in the traditional way/ Teach facts and stats that you'll misquote or forget once you receive your final grade/ Like classical musicians versus Hip Hoppers/ you've made the fatal mistake/ of thinking a new generation's experience isn't worth as much as the ones of those people in graves/ I don't incorporate everything I know about my people's past/ Maybe that should change./ Maybe you're right...

I just remember the time when one late night/ on a college radio station phone line/ I was told "You niggers need to get off-air, cause no one wants to hear that jungle music."/ This was in 2005./ Remember hearing my shadowed, deep deep chocolate cousin complimented with the words "You're pretty...for a dark skinned girl."/ Grew up in an educated home/ went to a high school where the kids my skin tone called me Oreo for using words like ecstatic and sarcastic/ Hung with girls who thought poppin like they do in rap videos meant they were grown/ I've only known a handful of Black families where both a mommy and daddy lived in one home/ including my own/ Rode the train with boys who wear their pants like their self-esteem/ Really really low/ Who don't know that trend came from prisoners who weren't allowed to wear belts/ I'm the product of whippings from rolls of wallpaper and "licks" from belts/ cause to my mom, "Timeouts were for White kids"/ I watch friends around me struggle with the idea that they could better them self/ Who stay in abusive relationships cause they don't know anything else/ Scared to leave the hood because they've never seen anywhere else/ Condemned for not trying harder when they've never received sincere help/ America hands minorities their destiny like snotty tissues/ You wonder why my people have issues/ If you don't see how your race effects you on a day-to-day/ you must exist on a different plane/ because to quote Martin Luther King's saying, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"/ so you must be ignoring the pain/ You must not have heard about Oscar Grant, Kathryn Johnston, and a host of other untold names/ You must not have known anyone stopped by cops and told their expensive car couldn't be theres even though the title bears their name/ You must never have seen skin lightening creme sold in the ethnic section in a Duane Reade/ Or Black woman who's scared for anyone to see her without her hazel contacts or long, straight hair weave/ Met any kids who believe that the only way to get rich as a Black man is to play sports, rap, or sell weed./ Obama is just one person to them/ how do you teach them better when the majority of minorities around them are in poverty?/ Heard folk say, "Just play your cards right, and you'll make it" even though it's shady as hell the way the cards are dealt/ Even still my skin affects me./ Recently an A&R from a major label said "Shanelle is awesome, but she's not industry-beauty."/ I've watched girls with less talent than me get put on instantly for their mixed ethnicity/ genetical ambiguity/ tall, light eyed, near White-skin and skinny/ a lot less curvy than me/ They call it "marketability"/ Don't play the Jennifer Hudson & Beyonce card/ Look at the ads and commercials and count the brown skinned girls who look like me/ Count the Grammy and Academy award winners/ Count the number of blacks on TV/ Shoot, count the amount of black performers that get booked on the average college campus other than in February/ I'm grateful for the opportunity/ but I don't need anyone telling me that it's my job to give a rundown on being a descendant of slavery/ to be the token negro displaying my reality TV/ Get off Facebook and look around/ We're in an age of technology and diversity/ I speak stories that affect my audience universally/ Don't you think it's deplorable that you'll only support me if I can teach you what it means to be Black?/ No one taught me how to be this ethnicity/ I just am/ and I'm blessed to be able to be on a stage in front of you because 30 years ago, if you asked a Black Woman to speak at the average non-Colored venue/ they'd say "Thanks, but I can't."/ This month celebrates the African American past, present, and what's to be./ I like to think that I show others our similarities/ I hope that through my performance you'll see/ a human being with unique experiences that relate to her race, gender, and geography/ more than just a skin tone/ if that's not enough for you/ then maybe you should just stay home.

"I Will Wait for You" by Janette Ikz (Poem)

You know the feeling you get when someone randomly shares something with you that is just so TIMELY, so PERFECT, so NECESSARY at the moment you hear it that it brings you to tears??? I got that after my boy Kel Spencer sent me this... Dopeness!

New Poem: More

My heart hurts for you
Since yours is too numb to feel anymore
As I watch him steal your joy
Both in his presence and when he's gone
I thought u were stronger than that
I see you for who you could be
A single mom
No, a mother who knows daughters tend to follow maternal example
A mother who neglects her desire for comfort zone men
Guys who sit on shelves like teddy bears
For no other reason than they've always been there 
Even though they've long been outgrown
I saw you as a mother who'd spend many a lonely night
Just to show her child what sacrifice was like
Show her that a no good man, 
Is no good, man.
Just because he makes you weak in the knees
Doesn't mean you can't take a stand
I don't understand what you see in him
Or maybe it's what you don't see in yourself
What makes you believe that u don't deserve happiness
You're more beautiful than your situation
You're a snowflake on a summer rose
Rare, delicate, but fading fast
Clinging to something that wasn't meant to last
Your child may be perfect with both your DNA
But you two will always clash
The man laughs at your dreams
Takes pride in your pain
But you stay with him so he continues to do it again and again
Cause for him,
Rejecting you keeps you at bay
And no matter what you say
You're addicted to insults
And used to taking in strays
I pray you see the err of your ways
And that in the novel of you
This will be a ripped-out page
Not to be told retold/ or ever replayed
I wish I could make you hate him like I do
He's laid up with other chicks
Don't you taste her lip gloss on his lips?
Sis 
He's got your soul in a choke hold
Stop questioning what you did for him to treat you this way
Question what the heck made you stay
And throw so many years of your life away
Pulling tears from your eyes
While Donnell Jones cries in the background
You're too good for that
Too fly to go back
So from this day on vow to move forward
Cause this is worst than a blow to your face
He's given your soul a smack
Left permanent imprints on the color of your eyes
Torn apart the love letter you gave him between your thighs
Nothing you say can change him
Cause leopards don't change their spots
Why would they want to
When it's gotten them thru life all these years
My sister, use a mirror to count your tears, 
Each one from a different fear
Be sick of the way they taste on your lips
Vow never to let someone making you cry a habit
Know that true love stories are still non-fiction
It will find you once you let the fictional love leave you
My prediction
Is that someone will see you
Someone will see YOU
And appreciate you 
Your sincerity, 
Your resilience is beautiful
The features you hate on yourself are perfection
Madame Recarnier
You don't see your own masterpiece
I pray that you'll see that when he leaves 
He won't take away pieces of you
But he'll leave a certain peace within you
You'll see that in overcoming him
You'll find the power that I know you have within

Copyright © 2011 Shanelle Gabriel 

Please do not reprint or repost without my permission 

Check out this awesome poem by Jasmine Mans

"Nicki Minaj" by Jasmine Mans

I remember when this sister slammed for the NJ Youth Slam Team back in like 2007-2008... She was dope back then, and look at the awesome poet she's grown into. I wish her much success.