Free health care in the City of O?

For those who do not know, The City of O is the state capital … and thanks to a group called Olympia Common Action, there is a free workshop to address the increasingly popular movement of free health care being held on Thursday, May 21, 6:30 p.m., at The Olympia Center, Room 204, 222 Columbia St. Hey if the banks can be bailed out and “socialized,” why can’t the people’s health — right? Thanks to an old River Ridge High School alumnus and friend, the brilliant and beautiful Brooke Knapp, I was informed of this important event that we ALL need to pay attention to and participate with. The intent of the meeting is to propose and discuss the possibility of creating and sustaining a free health care clinic in Olympia. This type of grassroots discussion is pertinent to Hip-Hop and its beginnings and speaks to the voices and messages of artists like KRS-ONE, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and others — like maybe you.

The Free Health Care forum will feature a panel of “experts” and professional health care personnel and thinkers like Peter Bohmer (Professor of Political Economy at The Evergreen State College), Dr. Muhammad Ayub (Medical Doctor and Master of Public Health at Madigan Medical Center and former UN peacekeeper), Aaron Dixon (former Captain of the Seattle Chapter of The Black Panthers and Green Party Senatorial Candidate), Rob Richards (former staff at the now re-organized Bread & Roses and organizer for The Poor People’s Union) and Linda Sternhill-Davis (Legislative Committee Co-Chair, board member of the Washington Health Security Coalition and former worker at The Los Angeles Free Clinic). This is the type of discussion that citizens are invited to participate in and the proposal of free health care is one of vital and timely importance … Ever heard of ‘Swine Flu’? Speak on it.

Re:Fresh with Luvva J to move to Thursdays

OK … OK … I know I write this handsome column weekly, but also I do my best to feed the hunger of 25360 Hip-Hop heads and real Party People by rockin’ the 1s and 2s at The Royal Lounge in Olympia at my weekly RE:Fresh sessions. So, since October 2007 I’ve been rockin’ the Friday night sets, but beginning in May 2009 we move to Thursday with special guest DJs including 25360 DJ of The Year, DJ Drastic … Just a heads-up that the party continues — on Thursdays.

SP aka Slo Poke holds down MC battles at The Vault

A 360 legend and Official Source Magazine Unsigned Hype Alumnus, SP aka Slo Poke keeps it true to his city by giving the Olympians and Tacomans something to do as host of an eight-week MC battle series at The Vault (Fifth and Franklin) in downtown Olympia. The battles are held every Thursday, 7:30 p.m., with a $5 cover. Word has it that the first week’s winner (last week) was the insanely humorous, aloof lyricist Big Sam. Big Sam nearly trumped XP and a gang of other competitors at the legendary MC battle at The Royal last year. This should be quality, with SP aka Slo Poke in the mix.

The Most Valuables: NWA’s Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton should be an obvious and required addition to any Hip-Hop aficionado’s collection. Alas … It is not! But here is why it should be … First of all, NWA defines the title “all-star group.” Amazing lyricists, producers and DJs … Dr. Dre, MC Ren, Eazy-E, DJ Yella and Ice Cube. Unfadable! They became all-stars by not biting the styles of anyone else, but instead creating and developing their own voice that happened to speak to the thinking of mainly Black and Latino youth, but also resonated in all youth in the United States and beyond. Secondly, the tone of rebelliousness, political activism, disgust with the public and covert offices that govern this country and a prophetic series of visions that would bear fruit following the beating of and riots attributed to Rodney King’s experience.

Finally, with tracks like “F**k The Police.” “Gangsta, Gangsta,” “If It Ain’t Ruff,” “Express Yourself” and “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” NWA dropped science, revolution and BASS in your face like no group before — or after … Straight up and down. Even as important as Chuck D and Public Enemy were and are, NWA added Los Angeles’ gangsta element — an element that undeniably overwhelmed the United States with the on-set of the crack-cocaine epidemic in the mid-1980s and even had the nation’s top police agency, The FBI, shaking in their boots. Shots out to (the late) J. Edgar Hoover and his cowardly and sinister regime — assassins of Black and Brown leaders and alternative thinkers. Anyway, NWA spoke unabashedly, intelligently and shared the insight of the ’hood before it became a popularized and overused term. If you want to know how the urban settings of the United States became overrun with gangs, how the U.S. government agencies and officials submitted to corruption, and if you want to know the voice of unrelenting in-your-face truth from the streets meant not for the faint of heart … pop Straight Outta Compton into your tape deck, put the needle on the record or slide in a CD … Get it crackin’ anyway you can … Just like Too $hort’s first albums, Straight Outta Compton still out-knocks the tracks of today with bangin’ slaps (“that’s heavy bass” if you need a translation).



Winners Train, Losers Complain … Do Yo’ Thang!!!



Peace & Love

 

Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. is an editor, writer and producer. A graduate of Washington State University and student at The Evergreen State College, he writes and edits the Pacific Northwest section of OZONE Magazine and hosts and produces Live From I-5 Radio (since ’89) every Friday at 3 p.m. on KAOS 89.3 FM (www.kaosradio.org) in Olympia.