R. Kelly- A True Artist

Let me be perfectly clear. I am a music fan. My fanship is not bound by race, religion, gender, genre, decade, or style. My only criterion is “feelability.” In other words, my measure for good music is the degree of emotional stimulation I experience when I press play.

The most talented artist is also unbound by these walls. Great works of art are indisputable. They simply evoke great feelings. When we listen to “you’re all I need” we feel the music. Rather it’s the Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell version or the Method Man and Mary J. version, we feel the song. Why? Cause good music is good music, no matter the decade. The same way that “It’s Been a Long Time Coming” by Sam Cooke or “Dead Wrong” by Biggie Smalls disturb our sense of mortality, we become vulnerable to music. That is the magic place for the musician.
Nobody does that better than R. Kelly. Like a thief in the night, he creeps into our radio on the winds of trend. Once in, he settles onto our conscious and waits for our ears to inhale. Like a contact high, his music gets you even if you don’t want it to. Exhibit A: "In the closet." Even if you swear you didn’t like it, you know what happened at the end.

R. is a genius. His music, every single song is a work of art because he has mastered the art of placing himself on the musical canvas. There is no “bad” Rembrandt or Picasso. There’s just some shit you don’t understand. Just because you don’t feel it, doesn’t mean the artist has failed. It’s more likely that you have failed to look closely. Most people have no idea why The Mona Lisa is so damned famous. (I’m not talking about Slick Rick’s song…the painting.) In addition to the “eye thing,” the painting is perfect and timeless. When you stand before it, you have no right to judge it, rather it is you and your reaction that should be judged. She is bigger than us.

Artists like R. Kelly, Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye create and created music as a gift from their souls. So when you listen to their music, you are getting a snapshot or their lives. Al Green said, “when I’m in love, I write love music. When I’m sad I write blues and when I’m feeling close to God, I write gospel music.” Thank god he’s a writer.

Here’s my point, finally. Just because you haven’t heard “better off dead,” “Touched a dream,” “Rockin After Midnight” or “Dreamgirl” doesn’t mean that they are not timeless works of art. You might need to tear down some walls and/or visit some more museums.

New Year, New Changes: Will You Go With The Flow or Fight It?

New Year, New Changes: Will You Go With The Flow or Fight It?

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Purpose - Enthusiasm - Nrg - Action - Results

I deeply believe that what you feed will grow and what you starve will die. Some of us will fulfill our Purpose, and others will die with their purpose not fully unattained. Yet, each of us has a purpose. Purpose is awareness, sometimes an unconscious awareness, of our unique opportunity to enhance the human experience for others and ourselves. That awareness is what turns on the light. Once we look at that opportunity, we begin to develop a vision for the possibilities. That is where the excitement comes from.

I have a friend who asked me to "consider Harlan at his greatest self. This Harlan in the distant future who has fulfilled his destiny." Then he challenged me to describe him in specific detail. After doing this, I was so damn excited that I couldn't wait to get moving in that direction. A second later, I realized that I was already moving in that direction. That reflection time generated a massive amount of Enthusiasm. That is what reflection does for us. Taking time to stop and think fuels us. It fills our tank. Enthusiasm is like a bolder at the top of a large hill or the "red button" in the Batmobile. Enthusiasm is knowing that you have what you need to do what you need to do.

Enthusiasm comes from taking time to reflect, mediate, or just think. In that quiet time of reflection, we can discover wonderful things about ourselves. There's an old Baptist song we used to sing that goes, "As I look back over my life and think things over, I can truly say that I've be blessed. I got a testimony." The Greek philosopher Plato said, we do not learn from our experiences but from the thoughtful reflection upon those experiences. That thoughtful process creates the Energy (NRG) that helps us feel competent and capable to move. Think about how you fill when you have a full tank of gas. For me, I feel like I can go anywhere and do anything. A clear destination (passion) a nice car (you) and a full tank of gas (energy) will guarantee a fun ride.

Once you get the car running or the machine going, we are ready to kick things in gear and start moving. I'm a planner. I'm pretty good at planning. I can tell you every detailed step necessary to build a pyramid. However, this gift often stands in my way of actually building pyramids. Getting in gear requires that steps be taken. Action, in this sense, is bringing the abstract to the concrete. It is our highest gift from God. It is evidence of God's presence. The greatest thing God ever did was to create something from nothing. What was once a thought in God's mind is now the earth, moon, stars, galaxies and the universe. As we were made in His image and likeness, we are blessed with this gift to see in our minds and manifest in the physical world the visions of our hearts. This is done through Action. As we careen through the wonderments of our lives, we leave behind a trail of colors and textures that paint the evidence of our existence. These adventures can be considered our careers. My friend, you are now painting consciously. Your actions are being guided. Your steps are ordered and you have decided to GO. You are creating a beautiful mural of life.

There is a mural of the great Paul Robeson at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. That mural is a collage of his experiences as an All-Star Athlete in Football, Baseball and Track and Field. It includes his accomplishments as an actor, scholar and activist. It glorifies his birth, life, struggles and death. This single mural exemplifies what it means to live a beautiful purposed life. Clarity of Purpose increases ones enthusiasm. With increased enthusiasm, energy increases. More energy leads to more action. More action leads to greater Results.

Although, we are challenged live life detached from the outcomes, it is good to look back over our lives and see that we have walked through the maps of our minds and created the visions of our hearts. Hopefully, others will benefit from our example.

Go live and create.

Coach Hodge

Of Pigs and Paragraphs

It recently occurred to me that writing is a lot like that old story about those three portly brothers venturing out on their own. Let's call the first one Lazy, because he was always trying to find the easy way out. Let's call the second one Vain, because it was all about the looks. And the last one, we'll call Coach because he was dedicated to doing stuff the right way.

Well, here's what happened. One-day mama put them all out the house. They had reached the ripe age of 18 and they had to go. So, they all set out to the forest to claim some land for themselves. Lazy stopped at the first opening he could find and started putting together some scraps of hay and straw that were lying around. Vain stopped a little further into the woods near a stream and thought, "I'll build my house right here. The ladies will love this!" He used some sticks that sat alone the banks to make some walls and immediate went to Best Buy and bought a leather couch and a 40" flat panel TV. Well, Coach went deep into the woods and found a piece of land on the highest hill. He spent days clearing a few acres and used the wood to build a house that resembled an HGTV Dream Home.

Late in the fall, Hurricane Katrina came and blew down Lazy's house and washed away Vain's new color TV. They both ended up living with Coach in the west wing for several months.

Here's the lesson for us as writers. It is in our best interest to find the most suitable topic to write about and spend the time and labor developing our thoughts into a timeless statement to the world. Yes, it is easier to pull together the stuff we already have and throw together something fast, but that will blow away in the wind just as quickly. And it is just as true that when we tell people what they want to hear that we are like the water that ebbs and flows with no clear ground or identity. Yet for us, we are eagles that perch high and look low. So, we build our homes high in the bluffs. We labor in our thoughts and find themes that are universal and timeless. We preach about the truths of our mothers and grandmothers. We retell the stories of our fathers and grandfathers. We update and upgrade that which works. And when necessary, we create new stories and devise new methods to reach more people.

Writer, teacher, preacher, speaker, singer, presenter here's what I want you to do. Identify your fertile ground. What subject is so close to you that you could consider it fertile ground, a place that you could cultivate and develop a unique statement to the world? Start writing about that topic. Describe it in detail. Make a list of stories you could tell about that topic. Identify the lessons that you have learned. And list some tips that you would give about navigating through that place.

This is the beginning of your endeavors to build a Dream Home. Send me an outline; I'd love to read it. If you need help, let me know.
Coach Hodge.

Citizenship Homelessness

I grew up everywhere but nowhere. I can divide my youth into thirds. The first third of my school years were spent in University City, a middle class suburb of St. Louis, where Mr. Rice who lived on the corner taught every kid on the block how to ride a bike and led weekly neighborhood rides in the summer. The second third of my life was spent touring East St. Louis and making friend on my bike and the third division was spent ironically back in University City three blocks away from where I lived before. Before graduating from High School I lived in eight different houses and attended seven schools. In reflecting on this experience, I am sure that not only did I suffer socially and academically from this nomadic lifestyle but the communities themselves were cheated as a result of our transience. Living everywhere but nowhere creates a type of Citizenship Homelessness. I belonged to no place and no place belonged to be.
Communities are living ecosystems. For every community resource that is consumed, it has to be replaced to maintain a balanced system. It’s like the first rule of living in the wilderness “take only what you need and live only footprints. However, in the healthiest communities, the members moderately take what is needed and give back generously. Unlike nature, communities need its members to regenerate that which was consumed. In my family’s coming and going we took from several communities and never really gave back to those communities.
Apparently, we were not the only family practicing this irresponsible behavior. Often my brother and I will drive though the old neighborhoods where we lived. Sadly, they are desolate places with scarce populations, barely surviving off a bankrupt community. In the worst case, most the businesses have closed. Where there were once houses, there are now trailer homes scattered about; and where there are houses, it’s hard to tell which ones are inhabited and which one are condemned. Under these conditions, it is no surprise that schools would be underfunded and jobs would be in short supply. Thus there is a perpetuation of poverty and neglect. This is a common place in black urban America.
It is clear that few young people in urban areas feel connected or responsible for the places where they live. Even dogs understand that you don’t poop where you sleep. Yet our kids deface trash, destroy, and yes sometimes piss right on streets the rights where they live. These are clear signs that there is no ownership or value for the black community.
In my mind, we must reinvest in the value of our communities, if they are to survive. To create this value, the very people who have benefited from it must reinvest in it. I am a proponent of volunteering and mentoring. However, I would not consider what Mr. Rice did for us volunteering. We need to be a part of the black community to benefit it. It depends on us on a daily basis to be there; to been seen, to be heard, to be present role models and to be examples of staying back to build up. Communities need the people who have benefited from it, to give back to it in a real way.

Wanted: Generational Icon

It seems that every generation has a person who embodies the highest values, thoughts and ideals of its culture. Three generations ago, my grandparents’ generation, it’s was FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was more than a president. This man was the true embodiment of Americanism. He was strong in tough times. He was good to our friends and tough on our enemies. He united us at a very divided time. Then there was MLK, Martin Luther King, an international trademark for humanity. Not only did he voice the hopes and dreams of Blacks, but he represented the highest ideals of the world. He forced us to answer the question, “can we deliver on the promises of justice and equality.” His life and untimely death brought the world face to face with our need to fulfill our highest potential.

This past week we lost MJ, Michael Jackson, not only what some consider, the greatest performer of all time, but maybe the best icon for my generations highest values. Although couched in dance moves and passionate melodies, our generation’s highest values were etched in every aspect of Michael’s life. As a “Gen X’er”, I know that we have benefited from relative peace and harmony in the world. Not to be confused with the current generations “war on everybody”, my generation was one of peace and innovation. Ours was a generation dedicated to creativity and invention. My generation gave computers and rap music to the world. Michael was the embodiment of this creativity. When he performed, we waited to see him do the impossible. We stayed up late on Fridays to see the newest Michael Jackson video; because we knew something transformative was going to happen. All weekend we would watch Billy Jean, or Beat It or Thriller, only to practice our moves for the impromptu dance competition on Monday morning.

What Michael did for us went far beyond entertainment. His songs, videos, and performances were our statement of purpose. Michael Jackson spoke on my behalf to the world. Telling everyone that through passion and creativity we can heal the world.

FDR, MLK and MJ surrendered a potion of themselves to take on the highest character of their generations. Somebody, somewhere, in the not so distant future is counting on you to do exactly what you were designed to do. We need you to live passionately aware of the need for a generational icon.

Treated like a Bootlegger at the B.I.G. Movie

NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Preview Engagement
was an insult to decent people.

It is a well know fact that the movie industry is losing a lot of money because of "bootleggers." "Bootlegging" is a term used to describe the unlawful distribution of copy written material. This term has been used most recently to describe the illegal recording and distribution of movies. Well, It seems that because of the bootleggers, we are all destined to be treated like criminals at the movie theaters.

On Thursday of last week, I went to the pre-screening of NOTORIOUS, the new movie bringing the life of Christopher Wallace, aka rapper B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, aka Notorius BIG, to the Big Screen. I was surprised to find that the preview engagement included several openning activites. These activities included music, prize give-aways, several local radio personalities, local celebrity personalities, and a live performance by a local rapper, accompanied by scantily clad dancers. He performed his hit song, "Dunk Dat Butt." But the most surprising event of the evening was the strip search at the door.

That's Right! Every movie goer on this night was subjected to a pat-down and metal detection. I couldn't believe it. My first instinct was to take my popcorn and run for cover. I knew the hip hop world had grown violent but damn! Were they expecting an East Coast West Coast shoot out in the theater?

My 60 minute wait to enter the theater came to an end as I approached the armed guard. "No cell phones are allowed in the movie theater." What the hell? "Anyone with a cell phone will have to leave it on the table or take it out to your car."

It turns out that as a precaution to criminal video taping, the theaters are now preventing watchers from taking in any devices that could be use to record the movie. On a six foot table at the entrance to the theater lay piles of cell phones and gadgets, suspected as tools of the bootlegger. My Treo 755 smartphone and I are very good friends. Actually, until I can afford a secretary, my phone has served as my assistant who handles all of my business. Therefore, I naturally opposed the ridiculous request. I assured the security officer that I was not a bootlegger and I needed to retain my cell phone. He replied in a loud voice for everyone to hear, "If you have a device that lights up during the movie you will be asked to leave or be charged and arrested."

At that moment, I was ready to leave, but the people I had come with had already surrendered their devices and entered the theatre. Reluctantly, I turned over my beloved assistant to these strangers, who tagged her with a cheap ticket and placed her in the pile. I turned and walked into the chaos on the otherside of the door.

Last Thursday, I not only left my phone on that table, but I left my right to be innocent until proven guilty on that table. I left my deginity and respect on that table. Moreover, the thought that the crowd on this night was filled with mostly black faces left me to question, "is this going to be the norm in all theaters?" Is this what we can come to expect on a date night? First the airport and now the movie theater. Maybe, I''m getting old but I just don't think its right to pat down an old lady at the airport or take a man's phone at the movie theater. But one thing is for sure, last Thursday night we were all treated like bootleggers and I went along with it.