“It’s ALL about the Mets…”

Wellllllllll Helllllooooo Therrrrrrre! Been awhile, no? I’ve come up for some air, and in the middle of a breath, found time to write this post.

Lost in the thickets of design and editing, I have squeaked out a 100 page report for the immigrant rights group DRUM, a great new issue of Left Turn, and a new and improved War Resisters League Magazine, WIN: Through Revolutionary Nonviolence.

Check them ALL out:
YouthPower! DRUM report. After 2 years of research by their YouthPower members, DRUM, along with Urban Justice Center and Research for Revolution, has come out with this incredible report about the policing of immigrant youth in NYC public schools.

Left Turn Issue #2: Estamos en la Lucha! From covering the immigrant rights movement, to a forum on the Black left, to repression against the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign in Mexico and analysis of the uprisings in Nepal---this issue got it all! Check it out, subscribe and support real grassroots mediaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Introducing WIN magazine! Been at War Resisters League for exactly a year. Phew. Somehow it really does feel like longer…a lot has happened, mostly happened for the better. Much of my time has been trying to unite with some of the younger staff members and really push the organization to do some relevant and strategic antiwar work—put out some analysis, and assert something more radical than what some of the other large antiwar entities have… It’s a long way to go, involving breaking the org’s habits and general inertia. With the magazine and the year I’ve been here, we have successfully changed the name (from the Nonviolent Activist to WIN) and design (from NOT to HOT) of it, created a new mission statement, and have gotten younger and more people of color writing for it on a wider array of issues. It’s pretty exciting, and the new issue will be out any day now. (Historical footnote: WIN was a magazine from the 60s to the mid 80s put out by the radical direct action group Workshop in Nonviolence (WIN), who were closely affiliated and funded by the WRL. It later became the Nonviolent Activist. Now we rebirth WIN!) **I really want all y’all to see a copy of it, email me with your address please, or ask me for one when I see you**

So it’s It’s been a lil hectic as you can see. A year out of school and as I look into the summer and realize that there is no 3-month break anymore, I kinda start to panic. When does it end? It doesn’t.

Yet just before I begin to hyperventilate, I find time to…

Chill with Brenda for her birthday!

My random soulmate. Her name Nina. My name Francesca. Her ideal name for her future daughter, Francesca. My ideal name for my future daughter, Nina. (not that I think about that shit...haha...err) The STRANGEST part though, is that, not really in this picture, but in person, she looks EXACTLY like my mother when she was in her 20s....nutty!

....Go to the Allied Media Conference! Quite the experience…10 hr. car trip to B-b-b-bowling Green, Ohio. (WTF right?) Ahhh Bowling Green…where Coronas are $2 and the cinderblock college dorm rooms give you that suicidal rush. Left Turn held it down with a few great sessions, and the whole conference, specifically with the rented out bowling alley and an evening of incredible hip hop performances from youth from organizations like Detroit Summer and Global Action project, made for a movement-building weekend .

But “10 HOURS?!” you cry out. Well, of course we could not have made it without Jesus our Lord and Savior, guiding our every step. After all, it was he who woke Arun up after falling asleep at the wheel. He who guided our minivan to the only non-chain food, the ever-amazing Dutch House. He who tested us with the hours of torrential downpours in Pennsylvania as we skittered along the two-lane highway...

So we thanked Him at every rest stop, at every bend in the road.

Bowlin' in Bowlin Green........................bowlin.

Jordan's Scrolling Marquee Belt....You can take the boy out of New Orleans but you can't take the New Orleans out of the boy....FYI: the belt says "RIGHT OF RETURN" hahahahaahah

Nijmie steppin' to Ora! "WHHAAT?!"

Sheddy and Oraaaawwww

Mark Gonzales, hip hop activist and founder of Human Writes doin' his damn thing on the dance floor!

Yay! Nijmie and Shivaani from INCITE! Philly and the Media Mobilizing Project, after an all night drive to Bowling Green, still coming out to the evening's activities

A very drunk Arun, and a crazy Frankie...

Arun trying to build the street cred at the Allied Media Conference

Max making sure his street cred still there...

THE CONCLUSION:

But after all this work and other events, the one, the only thing that has kept me going, gotten me up out of bed, pushed me to do my best, give it my all, has been my official enamorment and afilliation with a particular baseball team I like to call the GQ Ballclub....otherwise known as the Amazins', or, to all the non-New Yorkers, the Mets. But how could you not fall in love? Just look at them...sigh...

David Wright....

...Jose Reyes...

...Carlos Delgado...who only recently began standing for the US national anthem after years of sitting in protest before games.

...Cliff Floyd...

...Carlos Beltran...

Yes, I have become a baseball fan. An addictive and horribly violent one at that :) We're talking listening to sports talk radio and knowing who was drafted to the minors... See, you leave me alone for a few months, check back and BAM! Frankie likes baseball. I also bought a glove and have been playing regularly. Sure I can't throw a ball back to the pitcher without it bouncing in front of their feet, but I can hit a mean ground-out, and if I'm lucky, an error will get me on base :) No, honestly, I'm not too bad....it's getting better all the time.



11 1/2 games up in the National League East, the Mets will make the playoffs...they're in a mini-slump right now so I gotta stay away from the sports talk radio cause I don't want to hear no bad mouthing of them. A great team....mmm!

It's ALL about the Mets!

Thanks for reading as always...