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BEHIND the STICK – vol. 1

Categories: Events & Exhibitions, Music, News, OYASABA Music Videos, Portfolio, THE SH*T SHOW
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BEHIND The STICK – vol. 1














BEHIND The STICK – vol. 1, by multimedia artist Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning, is an ongoing photographic project, ten years in the making. The name “BEHIND the STICK” connotes the point of departure, which is the perspective of the bartender and DJ. 
The collection of fleeting nightlife moments was produced using an assortment of point-and-shoot and disposable black-and-white 35mm film cameras. 
BTS – vol. 1 is Manning’s photographic dedication to the burgeoning era of the social microcosm he calls “Childrensburg.” It is also a reflection on the citywide gentrification that has physically, economically, and spiritually displaced several of the subjects themselves.
“The intent of the photos is to reflect the postures nightlife people assume as a matter of reflex, and also, sometimes, out of actual joy, as well as exposing uncanny and candid shapes and glances. Another primary element for me has been capturing the cultural diversity of the people I encounter every time I show up to work.” – R.O.M.

Instagram: @rhasmann & @behindthestik

YouTube: rhasmann)

 

FOR SALE:

The first limited edition set of large prints from the collection consists of thirteen
signed (13) 24” x 36” prints (featured above), Epson Legacy Baryta Paper, framed by ROOQ, NY, NY.

The first printed volume is a 120 page 8” x 10” mini-tab zine,
on 30 lb. newsprint, printed exclusively by Linco Printing Co., L.I.C., NY.

Contact: oyasaba@hotmail.com

VIDEO:

Ol’ Fren by OYASABA

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BRAND NEW VIDEO by KENJI HAYASAKI TO BE RELEASED SOON…!

CHECK OUT A PREVIEW…!:

 

 

LYRICS:

Ol’ Fren     03.12.03      4:44am 222

By OYASABA:

am I the monk who runs in place

counting the raindrops that hit my face

am I the drunk who wants a taste

am I the punk whose life’s a waste

am I the monk who’s lost his way

caught in a funk and out of place

am I the one who needs to pray

am I the one who I create

am I the gun that’s wrapped in lace

you think it’s fun to kill w/grace

am I the one undone by fate

you are the smile that I embrace

 

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

 

(repeat all above)

 

sometimes I feel so very whole

while others I am coming apart

in conversations w/fragile folk

fragile like me

& I say the last thing I meant to say & I see

the shiver of disappointed surprise

shoot up their spine & out of their eyes expression

their defense’s reflex reflect transgressions as do mine

against my own mindlessness

in these interactions where nothing that ought to be said can possibly be stated

the best ending time passes as though we were dead I stand captivated

by their beauty and transfixed by their attitude of solitude

people quiver unsteadily in those good thick gaps in mood

(like slices of dry turkey that choke horses)

we communicate more than in the fleeting words which came before,

yet perhaps to be outdone by what is to come.

 

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume

I am them all & so are you

We rise & fall like sun & moon

The cries we call are hope in bloom

We try response we mass consume.

 

olfren6

 

 

QUALITY MENDING CO. / SPRING 2015

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QUALITY MENDING CO. / SPRING 2015
“I wish it could happen to me…”

 
QUALITY MENDING CO.
Work.Clothing.Sport.
{http://www.workclothingsport.com}
&
OYASABA PRODUCTIONS
{http://www.oyasaba.com}

Starring
CLEMENTINE NIXON
&
PAUL LOMBARDO

Featuring
CHARLES VON HERRLICH

Stop-Motion Animator
LARA VALLANCE

Featured Song
“After Hours”
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Cover of
“After Hours”
LARA VALLANCE
&
OYASABA

Producers
OLIVER HARKNESS
&
RHASAAN OYASABA MANNING

Writer & Director
RHASAAN OYASABA MANNING

 

QM HQ
15 Prince Street
New York, NY 10012
{212}-334-5334
11-8 Friday-Saturday
12-7 Sunday-Thursday
{Hours may vary}

sudden owl.logo

What makes a teacher survive in a school where the guards are more violent than the students?

A one-minute story by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning

 

Crossroads, Horizons, & Passages

by Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning

 

I am a teaching-artist at a few “academies” in the Bronx with names like Crossroads, Horizons,  & Passages.

Every day on my way up to class I try to guess how many of the original 20 students will actually be there.

Will there be 5 in solitary confinement?

5 in court?

5 zonked out on meds?

This day there were 2 new kids in class. Legends. Within a minute they’ve already attacked another student.

So the guards rush in, yoke ’em up, beat ’em down, drag ’em out and body-slam ’em in the hallway.

One guard comes back to me and says,

“Yo… You lookin’ at me funny cuz I beat dey ass? Hippie-ass nigga, please. You don’t know who dem 2 niggas is? Dem 2 niggas doused a mothafucka in gasoline and set that nigga on fire. It was on the news! Think I give a fuck about dem 2 niggas?! I hope they get the fuckin’ chair, suhn!…”

Turns out the 14 & 15 year olds were tried and convicted as adults, and sent upstate where the real men are at.

In here, we call that early graduation.

And that guard? If I happened to drive up on him in the street, I would run his ass over.

Except, I’m a hippie-ass nigga…

OYASABA: Best of Downbeats

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This playlist features some of our downtempo psychadelique dance music selections, aka, slow-motion…!

SHANTEL DAVIS – 21 MISSING

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On June 14, 2012,

a few weeks after

her 23rd birthday,

SHANTEL DAVIS

was gunned down

by PHILLIP ATKINS,

on the corner
of
East 38th Street
&
Church Avenue,

in East Flatbush,

Brooklyn.

She was unarmed.

On the day of the shooting,
the details of Phillip’s
use of deadly force
were unclear.

In the wake

of the killing

the press
focused on

Shantel’s
police record.

Phillip’s
record as police

did not garner
equal attention.

The vilification

of victims of police

use of deadly force

is a mainstay

of today’s

major news outlets.

Is the goal of this
shameless habitual slander
to make us all more accepting
of police killings?

As if to say, well,
he or she is better off dead?

Our courts are criminally inefficient
and pathologically dysfunctional,
but we are all entitled to due process,
to the right to being proven guilty –

even those of us who are poor
and under-represented.

2 years later,

21 MISSING

visited the corner

where Shantel was killed.

The small shrine,

which had bloomed there

shortly after the incident,

had long since vanished.

Our plan was to

“re-memorialize” Shantel

by spray-painting

a white homicide outline

at the scene of the crime.

Inspired, in part,

by the white bicycles

used to remind us

of the deaths

of bicyclists in traffic,

we are creating

visual reminders

in places

where people

have been killed

by

the

NYPD.

Why focus on police killings?

The idea is not
to point the finger of judgement,
but to open the fist
which suffocates
the wisdom of the heart.

We want to keep these people
alive
in our collective memory,
and to invite the movement
towards
preventing
unnecessary deaths of this kind.

One of our arresting officers
asked us if they would be
finding these outlines everywhere.

We did not respond.

The question floated in the air
like sulfur.

(Antoine White was killed
at this spot in Bushwick
by Detective Benjamin Cintron
on January 29, 2012)

There are no
official statistics
of police killings
available anywhere
in
the
United States of America.

Is not the role of the police
TO SERVE AND PROTECT,
to be the FINEST?

What exactly is JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE?

Ask:
Antoine White, Kimani Gray, Ramarley Graham,
Duane Brown, and so on, and so on……………………………………………

E
r
i
c
G
a
r
n
e
r

Michael Brown

Eleanor Bumpurs

Sean

Bell

Amadou

Diallo

Michael

Stewart

May they all
rest in peace.

May we all stop
adding to their numbers.

21 MISSING
1 MISSING
MISSING
ISSING
SSING
SING
ING
NG
G

NORTHSIDE MUSIC FESTIVAL – VH1 & PALLADIA – CITY EVENTIONS

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Northside Music Festival ran from June 12-19, 2014 in Brooklyn, NY. For 1 week VH1 and Palladia dominated the Northside Festival.
This video highlights shows at The Knitting Factory, hosted by Linda Perry, featuring Perfect Pussy, Shilpa Ray, and Syd Arthur, as well the VH1 RockDocs showcase at The Wythe Hotel.

This video was produced by the City Eventions team.
Camera Operators: Tyrone Brown-Osborne, Benjamin Kelley, Lara Vallance, Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning
Editor: Oneil Vargas
Director: Rhasaan Oyasaba Manning