Palestinian Solidarity and Children's Museums
I have definitely had one of the busiest weekends I've had in a while, and not the normal "busy with projects and work" weekend, but "busy with going out" weekend. The Cornel West event really set me off, and made me realize I rarely go out, running from one class to another, doing work at home, I just mostly crash out on my nights off.

So I decided to be spontaneous and Friday night I drove the hour and a half up to Olympia WA after the high school class I teach, to see my family Gabriel Teodros perform at not one but two shows. Even though I got home at 2 am and was hella tired, it was so the right thing to do. Gabe sent me the sweetest text the next day, which said, "Walidah you hella make my heart sing." I feel the same way every time I get to see Gabe perform or spend time with the brother. He is one of the most thoughtful, sweetest and most talented artists I know, and his music seriously just puts a smile on my face, whether I'm in the front row at a show, or driving around in my car. And plus he was also performing with Canary Sings at both shows, who are a hip hop sista duo who know how to lay it down and who bring so much energy to their shows, it was just awesome to watch.

The first show was at Evergreen College at a fundraiser for a dope program they run in WA in a juvenile jail, so the youth can do art and writing and work on self determination. Which was powerful. But the way the fundraiser happened was a "do over prom," and it was a little freaky when I walked in. For those of you not from the northwest who don't know the reputation of Evergreen, all I can say is the room smelt overwhelmingly of patchouli and the first person I saw was wearing tinfoil and glow sticks, and nothing else... That's all I'll say. That and I was one of three brown people in the audience. And they hassled me when I came in, until they realized I knew the performers. But Gabe and Canary Sings laid it down like professionals, I was hella proud of them, cause I don't know if I coulda done it.

The second show was like night and day though. It was across town in Olympia in this warehouse space, and it was a screening of Slingshot Hip Hop, a documentary about hip hop in Palestine, and a performance form artists who had been on tour. It was packed and people were so into the message and the reason of being there, standing in solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, standind up against the genocide, apartheid and occupation that is happening. And I got to see this dope poet Mark Gonzalez, who I haven't seen in like six or seven years, since this political spoken word tour called the End-Dependence tour. It's so great to be able to make those connections, and to see the good work people do, and how it all links up.

So I bounced back to Portland after that show, and though it was late and I was sleepy, I was riding high on the energy from the shows, and from the homey Gabe, so I was wide awake. The next morning, not so much. But I chugged some coffee and made it work, cause my oldest friend Bayla came up with her amazing brilliant adorable three year old daughter to visit from Eugene. We went to the science museum here OMSI, which has a whole crazy kids' room, with shit I wanted to play with, as a grown ass person! We were there for two hours, and Bayla's daughter didn't get to even a fourth of the stuff they had there. It was really amazing. And since there was so much to do, kids were pretty chill with each other, and there was very little fighting or crying... until it came time to leave and you had to drag them out of there! But it was so amazing to get to reconnect with Bayla, who is one of my supports who keeps me going, and who I don't get to see nearly enough.

All in all, it was an incredible weekend, I mean, how could it not be, moving from Cornel West, to Palestinian hip hop to best friends? Now all I gotta do is catch up on all the work I slacked on...