tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191454265292943812024-03-13T17:06:25.502-07:00The Teaching MirrorOn the Frontlines of the FutureMike Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01165274383821596332noreply@blogger.comBlogger164125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-86851703520380727952020-07-13T04:27:00.004-07:002020-07-19T07:04:16.856-07:00I Don't Believe You When You Say "Blank Lives Matter"A primer for the anti-racist teaching unit Ironically, All Lives Matter
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Mike Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01165274383821596332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-54344363714314058402020-06-27T07:06:00.005-07:002020-07-15T19:59:55.415-07:00Tear Down Twain? The Literary Monument that is Huck FinnRockwell's The Problem We All Live WithNorman Rockwell's artistic work The Problem We All Live With (1964, pictured left) was one of that iconic White American artist's depictions of the racism in his day. A determined Ruby Bridges, the real life six year old who'd desegregated New Orleans' William Frantz elementary school, is forced to walk under the hateful cloud of the "n-word". The Mike Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01165274383821596332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-70061102421244815462020-06-22T06:29:00.013-07:002020-07-19T07:03:31.786-07:00Toni Morrison Taught Me the Challenge Is Worth It: Teach Twain for Anti-Racism
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Mike Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01165274383821596332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-64928996848407445662019-02-07T18:05:00.000-08:002019-02-07T18:05:34.399-08:00Meaning-Maker Essay - Writing Exercise ModelI asked my students to do this assignment I call a Meaning-Maker Essay. Out of respect for their time and in solidarity with their struggle, I did the assignment myself.
The were to gather bits and pieces of their own unfinished writing as raw material. Then they had to mine for gold by choosing ten phrases that they liked for some reason. Then they had to pan for gold by finding ten words from Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-40991846666378548842018-10-16T19:03:00.004-07:002024-01-03T17:38:35.209-08:00It Takes a Village Having Fun
From The Cultural Organizing of Blowout Consciousness,
a book and cultural organizing tool-kit by Mike Molina
Available on Amazon now
A flock of crows is called a “murder”. The snarky poet who thought of this moniker must have heard a flock of crows cawing—with that awful scream that curdles into a gurgle—and thought of the discord and distress that accompanies a murder. This poetMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-35728672637051114632017-01-14T07:12:00.002-08:002018-01-17T18:50:27.515-08:00And Every Tomorrow I tell my son, Miles, he is my dream boy -- the boy of my dreams.
His sense of humor is my hope -- where I laugh proud, loud laughter. Miles' earnestness and diligence in caring for his things feels like eternal validation of my existence. His quirky, quick-twitch mind and fluid gait feel like DNA at its most unfurled and flourishing magnificence, at it's best and in the flesh and Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-22407675239353393882016-10-16T05:43:00.001-07:002018-10-16T19:04:44.038-07:00On the Spectrum of Patriarchy
As a teacher at an elite all boys school where I also coach football, when I heard audio of Donald Trump boasting about weaponizing his wealth and power to violate women without consequence, I immediately felt a pre-exhaustion with the damage control ahead. Trump essentially told my students, "do what you want to girls because you can." We teachers have a hard enough time battling Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-13491873984897105102016-10-12T05:26:00.003-07:002018-01-17T19:09:11.133-08:00 I Only Tweet Haiku: Make Politics Poetry
Fog horn bellow romps.
Many men, they brood, snarl, bark.
Bred fight dogs, panting.
-@momolinamedia
A world divided needs the poet in
you. The careful, deliberate voice in
all of us needs expression now. And the
place where it most needs to be heard is in that often vulgar, vile, vicious
vector of all things rash, rushed, and unreasonable: social media.
You Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-75833012105149159462016-09-30T21:12:00.001-07:002016-09-30T21:12:14.353-07:00Shadow of the SunI told my nephew, multi-instrumentalist Xavier Molina (trumpet, guitar, drums, vocals, keys), I told Xavier that I will only have one tattoo in my life: a black sun, the shadow of the sun on my shoulder that reminds me that there is always a bigger star with a brighter light so bright that it can make the sun cast a shadow... the shadow of the sun. He made a song to interpret his Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-89700391320941534492016-09-25T07:25:00.001-07:002016-09-30T21:07:27.629-07:00Politics is
Politics is
raw meat in the Colosseum of
thought.
Poets have no business there.
Political rhetoric is tangled
in crisscrossed veins of ideology,
matted in dogma’s grey hair.
Political
prizes are big game,
majestic symbols of freedom,
slaughtered and
mounted
for sport and fame.
Politics is bloody tough&Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-8401667042295054282016-09-10T21:02:00.001-07:002016-09-10T21:02:22.149-07:00Book Trailer: The Misbelief Tree PrologueAudio-visual prologue to The Misbelief Tree
Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-28013851798979997122016-05-05T11:22:00.004-07:002016-05-05T11:22:34.313-07:00RIP Afeni ShakurRIP Afeni Shakur. Met her once and she was every bit as fierce as Tupac. She told a room full of activists that if they didn't find God and use God's love in their work, that they would destroy themselves. She said she saw the Panthers destroy themselves and each other because they didn't work for a love greater than ideology. The room was unreceptive, except for the youth. The teen organizers inMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-61151096136279662582016-05-04T15:27:00.001-07:002016-05-05T06:42:45.609-07:00Lyrical Prince
After Prince died, a
young person asked me what was Prince’s best song. I scoffed out a laugh. Song?
No way to pick a song. You can
barely pick an album. There is just too
much, too diverse a catalogue of songs in Prince’s creative treasure to pick
one of anything. This is a man who
started his first album, 1978s For You,
with an acapella arrangement Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-22950915360942110592016-04-28T11:20:00.001-07:002016-04-28T11:20:29.401-07:00A Ribbon in the Sky for PrinceMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-34800044223976893832016-04-11T14:34:00.001-07:002016-04-11T14:34:04.273-07:00A Cry for New OrleansMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-21551834886243975122016-04-01T06:40:00.001-07:002016-04-06T10:38:23.995-07:00Weak by SWV, Jazz Remake... I'm all for this form of cultural appropriation
Sometimes jazz can be too complex for me to grasp. And this remake is certainly complex on the verge of hard to get musically. But it really brought out a beauty I never saw in the lyrics of the original. SWV version was not complex, very pretty and well-sung. But I never really appreciated the words till this...
Props to Brian Alexander Morgan for such a sweet Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-78431016677944884122016-03-29T16:00:00.001-07:002016-04-06T10:41:01.782-07:00Cash Rules Everything Around Me
I steam therefore I am.
Some say the "cream rises to the top." But what do some mean?
UsingEnglish.com says this popular phrase refers to the belief that "a good person or idea cannot go unnoticed for long, just as cream poured in coffee or tea eventually rises to the top." This malarkey is all about meritocracy, which is, according to Wikipedia, "a Mike Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01165274383821596332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-8716536112885948702016-02-05T10:15:00.002-08:002016-02-05T10:15:59.173-08:00Performance at Imagining America Conference: Mass Transit Muse/Be EncouragedAudio recording of my featured performance at American Studies Association national conference in Baltimore: Imaging America.
Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-42333107812765759582016-01-28T20:51:00.002-08:002016-01-28T20:51:38.125-08:00Bowie in 1999
David Bowie, in a 1999 interview,
said of the Internet, “I think we are on the cusp of something exhilarating and
terrifying,” before disagreeing with his interviewer who described the emerging
system of information gathering and distribution as ‘just a tool.’
“No. It’s an
alien life form,” said Bowie with a wheezy laugh.
When David Bowie died, two days after releasing his
finalMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-21394915527190531192016-01-11T11:42:00.001-08:002016-01-11T11:42:53.102-08:00RIPMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-21814286769209341922016-01-05T07:58:00.002-08:002016-01-05T07:58:13.935-08:00Been a WhileBeen a while... been working on some things. Here's a hint:
Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-56163182293769911762015-12-09T19:32:00.001-08:002015-12-09T19:32:13.323-08:00The Process is the Prize: What I know by 40......is the measure of a life.
I grew up thinking that how much money we make, or who we marry, or if we have kids and what they do, or our careers will be the ultimate measure of a life. I feel differently now.
I measure my life in work, distance and time. As much as I demand good outcomes from my effort, I've learned that the process is the prize. It's in the process Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-7821612606856157782015-12-08T18:24:00.001-08:002015-12-08T18:25:35.285-08:00Make Room for Magic: What I know by 40...As my cousin T. Rose said when he, my brother Tony, and I were making a series of film shorts called Crossroad Cab more than six years ago...
...You have to make room for the magic. That means that, sometimes, things can't be scripted and must not go as planned. Sometimes genius is only found in flow. And though our film didn't win any awards or thousands of views, we learnedMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-79136327289053120512015-12-07T10:18:00.002-08:002015-12-07T10:26:07.339-08:00It takes the individual and collective: What I know by 40...
...is that it takes individual and collective action to change the world. I'm presenting to youth twice this week about it. Here's the outline of our time together.
Opening
Ago, Ame
Call
and response request to speak from the Akan language of West Africa.
I
respect you and I am grateful for your time and attention. It’s going to
take us all to make thisMichael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1919145426529294381.post-77434082706849967192015-12-04T04:18:00.003-08:002015-12-04T04:18:20.311-08:00Other Men Part IIIA professor walks up to a podium and begins to speak as if already in the middle of a conversation.
"So, as you can imagine, I'm flabbergasted. I found, in footage from the most exclusive social club in the state, I find proof that Reverend Otieno, the radical left-wing Reverend Doctor Otieno, is invested in a private prison in Louisiana and its sister private Michael Otieno Molinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10949783270042532543noreply@blogger.com