Portraits, Photographs
The importance of images…

Call for an appointment:
  
Gregory Jackson Photography
212-459-4665 or 917-447-1661

PhotoGJ@aol.com

Okay, so much for them….whattabout me…………

Jewelry: I’ve been really quiet with the jewelry all Summer. The bank account says it’s time to start making some noise, however. Tis the season, so you’ll probably be hearing a lot from me in the way of jewelry over the next few months. Don’t take me for granted though…..treat every (jewelry) show/event as though it may be my last, ‘cause I’m on the verge like that. Needless to say, I have my hands full with a lot of things right now. I just don’t have 12 hours a day to make jewelry anymore. Enuf of my bitching, Art Groupie is hosting a jewelry opening for me on Sunday, October 14th from 3 – 7pm. The opening will be at Locks ‘N Chops 365 W. 34th Street / 2nd floor (btwn. 8th & 9th) NYC 212.244.2306. Check out the fall collection – Get a haircut too!

Music: More details on the ‘Just Lovers’ soundtrack. If you missed the first issue if THE OMO MISHA TIMES, I mentioned that producer Steve Greenwell and I have music on the soundtrack of a film called Just Lovers. Just Lovers premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this year. If you happen to hear anyone singing behind the murder scene, or whatever – that’s me. There may be more information on the Project Pollen site as things progress: www.projectpollen.com

Soon come: the OMO MISHA/Project Pollen CD will soon be available on my website. It encompasses 7-10 original songs co-written by me and Steve. There is a clip on the Torch website if you want to get an idea of what it sounds like. More on that later….

Speaking of Torch, Thom and I will perform there again on Saturday, October 27th for the late set: 11:30 – 3am. As usual, we will do a little blues, jazz, some originals, as well as PJ Harvey and Hendrix. Torch is located at 137 Ludlow, between Stanton & Rivington on the Lower East Side. BTW, Torch makes a mean flourless chocolate cake. The Corvina is also an excellent entree – even if you’re not a fish lover! Take my advice and have your dessert first though :)! Take the VR tour: www.torchrestaurant.com

For real tho’!!! This may be news to some of you. For others, you have been hearing me whine about this for months. I am in the process of putting together a non-profit organization: The Foundation for Learning Differences. What this organization does is provide parents of children with dyslexia and related ‘language based’ disorders with support and financial resources. I am doing this for a number of reasons: 1) Dyslexia affects 1 in 4 children – it can therefore be considered common; 2) Dyslexics are, by and large, of above average intelligence - they are characterized by the disparity between their aptitude and their work performance; 3) The public school system has very little to nothing to offer these children; 4) Initializing alternative programs is costly, therefore specific groups/classes of people are automatically excluded, and 5) parents in low-income/low-performing school districts are often uninformed and, naturally, without financial resources to act in their child’s best interest. It is easy to add up 1,2,3,4, and 5, and see who is suffering most from this system.

Without further ado: A preliminary fund-raiser will be held on Sunday, September 23rd at Torch. It is a cocktail reception from 6:00 – 9:00 There is a $25 suggested donation at the door. A portion of the proceeds will go towards implementing the organization. There will be an open bar from 6:00 – 7:00 and hors d’oevres. At 7:30 sharp (!), I will be performing on stage with the full band (a rare occasion – don’t miss!), as well as speaking a bit about the organization and our objectives.
Please come out and support. RSVP at omomisha@bigplanet.com or call 212.969.0106. Also, feel free to pass this information on to anyone who may be interested in working with the foundation, or who may be in need of our services.

Special thanks to Torch for availing their splendid space and their services!

ORA’s
SHOE REPAIR AND
LEATHER WORLD

464 AMSTERDAM AVE.
NEW YORK, NY

212.579.2028

LuiSe
* cafe *

129 Rivington St.
New York, NY 10002
(212) 475-5447

New York City -- September 11-12, 2001

The Courage to Be Human: A Path to Transformation

 The devastation of this day is staggering beyond measure.
 
We have all heard the radio, watched the television with our mouths gaping in disbelief, our hearts wrenching in  despair. We have heard talk of resolve and determination. Plans  for justice and retaliation. Unanswerable questions being  asked and unimaginable events being lived.
 
The fact is that as a culture and as a people, we are not equipped emotionally, psychically and spiritually to manage  the magnitude of this tragedy in our minds. We have,  mercifully, lived for so long under the dark shroud of ignorance to  the scope of our vulnerability.
 
I want to encourage you all, first and foremost, to be still. To listen to your heartbeat. To be silent. To breathe. If  you listen deeply, it is the voice of sanity and compassion  that you will find there. It is the voice that will remind  you of your connection with all beings.
 
Yes, you are connected with the untold hundreds, possible thousands of unknowing people that lost their lives instantly  in the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes.
 
You are connected with the undoubtedly horrified passengers  and crew of the airplanes turned into weapons of massdestruction. 

You are connected with the brave rescue workers, firemen,  police officers that willingly ran into flaming buildings as others poured out, only to have two of the world's largest structures of steel, glass and concrete fall in on them along with the countless victims trying desperately to escape.
 
 You are connected to the mothers, the fathers, the sisters,  nephews and cousins of all those people. To their teachers, their coworkers, their friends and their lovers that must carry an unthinkable burden forth.
 
 And you are also connected with the men or women that, with frightening calculation, walked onto the planes of four major airlines, knowing that they would pilot their own deaths and take the lives of innocent people on their journey.
 
 We cannot close our eyes or our hearts to not one of those people. We cannot close our minds to the unbearable truth of  the consequences of our actions. Of creating, perpetuating and sitting on the sidelines of a culture that passes off  violence as a reasonable tool to achieve peace. Of doling out so-called justice only to those who are not in our favor. Those who do not say the right things, have the right color, were not born into the right caste, worship the right gods and live the right lives. Our unbalanced sense of justice is increasingly available on behalf of only those who can afford it or offer enough benefit in exchange. Most of us sat idly by, comfortable that our distance made us safe.
 
Now how many additional lives do we need to see taken to make us feel truly secure? What punishment will feel like it  is enough?
 
It is tempting to find oneself taking aim at a nameable group and pulling the trigger of anger. Which is why now, more  than any other moment in our history, we must make the most courageous effort, take the hardest step towards living in an altogether different way.
 
If we are lulled into seeing the people that have committed this desperate act and the people that will surely pay with  their lives in any act of retaliation as separate, different, Others that are not a reflection of the darkest parts of our own selves, we will lose this crucial opportunity. We will lose the window to a realization of ourselves as more compassionate, more thoughtful, more fully connected with the events of our world, and thus more responsible. This bears repeating: if we continue to refuse to take personal responsibility for the cause and conditions: for the oppression, the inequity, the sheer unnatural imbalance of our existence, we will never witness an end to this.
 
So I implore you to not allow your inexpressible confusion, sorrow, helplessness and fear to numb you into turning over your agency. Do not let your desire for a new illusion of personal safety, of "freedom" to give license to further violence.
 
Our military may be "powerful and prepared" but are we? Are we prepared to, with fierce determination, with the strength bestowed by personal realization, insist that we will no longer let violence be perpetuated in our names, in the name of justice, and most cruelly, in the name of peace?
 
We must band ourselves and our hearts together to put an end to the cycle of violence that we now know we are not immune from. We must put an end to the wars being waged against our humanity and become warriors for the common cause of  peace.
 
 We are desperate to have the answers to every question, to always know what to do and how to respond. It is obvious that there is so much that we don't, but what we do know is that the way it has been done is not working. You have permission to turn off your TVs and radios and simply feel your pain.
 
You have permission to not know.
 
It is easy to see ourselves as good and well-wishing when the fabric of our very being is not called into question. But can we be open and honest about who we really are, about  the evil acts we are capable of conceiving while staring in the face of our own remarkable frailty? And can we use that to change?
 
 We need to find peace in our own hearts first.
 
Many people find their ways to spiritual paths, to personal paths of transformation when the ground they always knew to be there falls out from underneath them. The ground has fallen out beneath us America. Let us all find the wisdom to see this unspeakable tragedy as a doorway to meaningful change, as a precursor to collective transformation. If we do not accept this challenge, if we are not brave and unrelenting in our demand, but instead cower behind the "quiet, unyielding" and clearly insatiable, emotion of anger, the loss of thousands of lives will not be merely unspeakable, they will be in vain.

 A meditation, prayer, affirmation for our humanity:

"May all beings be granted with the strength,
determination and wisdom to extinguish anger
and reject violence as a way.
 
May we seek, find and fully realize the love and
compassion that already lives within us and
allow them to permeate our every action.
 
May we exercise the precious gift of choice and
the capacity to change that makes us uniquely
human and is the only true path to freedom."
 
 with warrior-spirit,
angel Kyodo williams, urbanPEACE
founder@urbanpeace.org
http://www.urbanpeace.org
http://www.beingblack.com

Farrakhan Denounces Atrocious Terrorist Attack

READ THE FULL STORY
http://www.blackpressusa.com/News/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National News&newsID=1273

volume II: page 1 • page 2 • page 3 • page 4 • page 5