Saturday, January 9, 2010

Looking for Sanity in London

i am sitting here in a starbucks trying to collect myself before i walk out into this freezing weather.

it has been another dreary day that is beyond bitingly-cold. but i must say that the music in this damn starbucks is rocking.

now this is a shame when i say that the music in this starbucks off of tottenham court road is better than most stations in the US.

but i ain't gonna front, i have never sang a Stevie Wonder or Bob Marley song so hard because i appreciate the genius of black folk.

what happened america?

captialism and commodification of art.

we have juiced and exploited creative art to a skinny, ashen hooker on a dark street corner in vegas that can't get a john if she sells it for a penny a pounce.

anyway, the first days here were quite culture shocking as i plowed through a dozen black folk on the street to find out exactly where the black folk hang out.

repeatedly, i was told, we don't do that in london. we are BRITISH. and so i said to myself, how does being british erase being black?

so i walked for several days in disappointment and scratched my head.

i am dealing with my racialist americanness....until i was stopped by a white british guy who immediately started talking about the problem of blacks in the UK and connected it to the underwear (aka booty-shorts) bomber.

ahh, so the pale horse that sits on the highest of seven hills emerged in the face a plump and tender-looking old bloke.

but, i was not worried about this absurd chit-chat. i was on a hunt for my people.

i went to brixton. but it was on a weekday and the working class folk well, were working.

i was about to trot to east and southeast london for the africans, but the bitter cold and snow storm, put a hold on that. the last thing you want to do is be in the cold and lost. shit.

so i returned to my small little hostel that is no bigger than my closet. did i tell you i have been sharing a bathroom. oh excuse me, that is not proper. i have been sharing 2 toilets and 2 showers with about 30 other backsides.

the other night one toilet had unflushed shit and the other, full of piss. wow. what a day. fuck it. i got a cup and made my own chamber pot. wish i could throw this bitch outta window.

and this also may sound gross, but fuck the showers, i've been taking bird baths. my aunt call's them "ho-baths." but whatever they are, after about three, this light wash-and-go gets really unpleasant.

but that is not my worry, i am looking for black people and i am not feeling too good. they pass me by on the street when i greet them. am i back in new york for fuck's sake.

then i bump into an african tube worker who tells me there are a lot of people who front with proper british accents and british passports, who seem to not get they will never be ENGLISH.

clarity. thank you. but i am sad and losing my sanity.


i want to see and smell my folk in raw and uncut form. where dey at lawd.

so in disappointment i attended that blackest thing i saw in centre london, the play, "cat on a hot tin roof." and dare i say it, it was damn good. james earl jones and phylicia rashad (aka ms. huxtable) killed it!

and it was there that i saw them, black people, well not by the ten folds, but at least a couple of dozen.

and i heard john legend singing in the distant, "heaven only knows, heaven only knows."

i sat in front of two lovely sisters who debunked what i had been told by all these nonchalant "brothers." black does exist on this small empire island. oh yes it does.

i sighed with tears in my eyes. "yes, dere is a gawd."

do you mean to tell me that estelle and idris elba aren't they only cool black folk.

you mean there is a place i can be with people who look like me and are comfortable with calling themselves, "bahlack."

woosahhh EcoSoul.

so off i go to something called the black grape for comedy and music. wish me luck. blog on, EcoSci

5 ish talking intellectuals holla at a sista:

Reggie said...

Good luck with that and do enjoy your vacation. One of these days I'm going to head to London myself; but I WILL NOT be sharing a shitter with 30 other people. I draw the line there. I remember days gone by when I lived in a boarding house in college......that's not for me anymore.

A penny a pounce you say.....I've got a nickel doing nothing!!!

soul said...

London can be a very lonely city and to survive many assimilate and accept the daily discrimination as 'joking'.

This is also the worst time to come here because half it's FREEZING. everyone hibernates in the winter or most people are on their extended holidays back in their country of origin.

P.S. Us Africans are everywhere. The Jamaicans are in Harlesden, Neasden, Willesden, Hackney e.t.c..

Try the southbank for a place to simply relax or see about the entertainment (get off at embankment tube station)
Come back in summer and I'll write you a guide :)

EcoSoul said...

ahhh, soul thank you for the informaiton. i will be back and be ready to conquer british isles.

Goddess Intellect said...

London...wow it sounds like Toronto..I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip..
You wrote nothing about the food....

EcoSoul said...

goddess intellect. there was one place where i had the best king fish and rice'n peas. other than that, yuckee.