last night at the obama rally

Oct 22, 2008 12:47

we weren't trying to get in, we just wanted to be a part of the hypeness.

there is a haitian ra ra* band, Ra Ra Lakay (house of Ra ra?) that plays on the corner of my street every Friday, and they have a big party beginning in front of the Haitian flag.




The past 2 times it has been at least 100 people on my tiny ass street following around the parade, dancing, waving haitian flags--it's like being with the Haitian crew in the west indian day parade.

Well last night, Ra Ra Lakay was at the Obama rally, and I saw a whole bunch of my neighbors, and it eventually became a procession.  That shit was amazing.  It was such a spiritual, pan-african experience.  but EVERYBODY was involved.  The part that made it crazy to me, was that it was centered around ONE PERSON.  true it's what that person represents, but for 2 hours, everything that came out of my mouth was "Obama" or "Obama Pweziden"...it was sooooo hype!  I called Violeta and Chassidy and put them on speaker phone, just so they could hear it.  It was just like the west indian day parade, except that added fervor of having something you *really* hope will happen be on the horizon of possibility.  We went out onto Biscayne and blocked soooo much traffic.  the fire trucks were honking along to the beat, as were all the cars.  People were letting down their windows and cheering and screaming.  i was dancing,  everybody was dancing.  everyone was jumping. it was so crazy.  and everyone was saying "obama" the haitian way.  " oh bah mah, stressing EVERY syllable...not the american oh bah muh.

i took pics from my cell phone.  i had brought my camera, but forgotten the memory card :-/

it reminded me of two movies.

1) the scene in malcolm x where they are walking down the street in harlem and malcolm gets them all to quiet down and turn around with a point of his finger, and the white police officer says: that's too much power for one man to have.

2) in sarafina when the students are marching and they are jumping and marching.  and they are carring their signs through the sand and they are like "ayi ayi ayi!" ah, ah ah!" or something (whatever, i don't know how to write it) and they are raising their legs so high that their kneecaps are hitting them in their stomachs as they jump. and they are so hype.

image Click to view


  and the the "boers" come in in their tanks and shut it all down.

i wonder if we are about to get shut down.

he is 10% ahead on the polls.  hm.

*ra ra is a type of haitian music that is played with all handmade instruments, and is the most overtly african of haitian music, it's traditional, and is spiritual.  if anyone has a better explanation feel free to correct, but that is my understanding.

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