Month: November 2013

It was bad…

I have always been poor. For generations back the Simpson and Gibson clans (along with an assortment of Goatchers, McMasters, and others) have been accurately considered white trash.
We were not always sure where meals would come from, moved almost as often as rent came due, went years without a traditional Christmas, and were all on some form of welfare.
For some, this may be a point of embarrassment after conditioned to believe that savings account balances are accurate assessments of character, or that the rich were favored by God or worked extensively to achieve and became great because they were the most superior specimen the human species had to offer. That the family which achieved was the better family.

…but it could’ve been worse

I never, not for a second, felt alone as a child. There was family everywhere it seemed. Holidays were family reunions with booze and food and the loudest conversations in the history of the world. Most times there was a fight or at least one hell of an argument that was forgotten by dinner or right before anyone left. Grudges were not held as long goodbye hugs. We were white trash, and blood family meant allies, and you needed allies when rich whites didn’t claim you and black people couldn’t.

it was bad…

When I speak at high schools or middle schools there are always a few kids who are labeled as such and are ostracized for it, much as I was at their age, and have never seen an adult openly admitting they have been or are white trash. They feel doomed and assume that anyone labeled like them will fail, which is true more often than not across the country.

However many don’t see the bright side.

…but it could’ve been worse

I have failed multiple times and have been given multiple chances to try again. Mostly because, even though the trash part follows it, the front part of that label is still white. This is America after all, and White Trash are the most American people in America. Some feel they are owed something because they are white and they seem to think that because the rich are mostly white they should be rich too, or that other poor people should wait to get jobs til all the white have one first.

Most of us don’t feel that way, not my people.

My people and I are a part of a bigger picture that so few see. The middle row in a huge family photo, we are lost in the shuffle among those on the edges and can barely see over those down front. We hold little true hope for the future, only dreams. But today is good, and might just last forever, if we can only get enough of anything to last us for today.

it was bad, but it could’ve been worse

These are the confirmed dates for the 1st button on the “Pearl Snaps and Poetry Readings” book and cd release tour :

Dec 1st Java Monkey
Decatur, GA
Dec 4th Smokin Grooves
Raleigh, NC
Dec 5th Da Cypher
Jacksonville, FL
Dec 9th Revolutionary Lounge, Tom’s River, NJ
Dec 10th Busboys and Poets Washington DC
Dec 11th Busboys and Poets Washington DC
Dec 12th Jersey City Slam
Jersey City, NJ

When you meet your heroes, be prepared for disappointment…usually. 

I can say that from experience that Richard Gere is an asshole, and so is Cindy Crawford, and I say that because they were assholes to me. The fact that they seem perfectly nice on t.v. or in movies means nothing to me because they were assholes to me and several hundred other fans one night in Dekalb, Illinois to our faces. Cindy had a shitty movie premier there because she was born and raised in Dekalb. There is nothing but corn in Dekalb, so this was a huge deal for all of us who lived there. She had “made it” and was therefore a hero to many in a small town famous only for being the birthplace of barbwire.

 

 During the “red carpet” portion of the evening, a fan approached the “famous couple” asking for an autograph. They both made the same noise you’d make if your best friend claimed he had married Beyonce in Vegas over the weekend with Jay-Z’s blessing. A kind of a “ppppffffttt” sound. Richard then turned to Cindy and said, “if I knew there were going to be so many of these assholes, I would’ve stayed home,” to which Cindy howled with laughter. The result is me using the same term to descibe them that they used to describe all of those people, no matter what, for the rest of my life.

That will never change.

None of that has anything at all to do with Regie Gibson.

When I first heard Regie perform he became a hero of mine. Instantly.
The first time I met Regie, he became an inspiration to me.
Instantly.

For someone who has done so much in his career, Regie is incredibly centered and level headed. We’ve worked together twice and I would work with him at every show ever if he’d only sink to my level, and by that I mean I would have rise to his. The things I have seen him accomplish on a stage are second to none. Anywhere.

I have several times witnessed him completely pause all thought in a room full of thinking adults by speaking, making the rush of creative thought crashing back thru your body after seem like a tidal wave. There are few on his level, and not a single person does it better.

None of this changes him as a human being. He is the same caring teacher, philosopher, and person on stage and off. Like a good hero should be.