Books/CD

Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by kahlilalmustafa in BOOKS/CD

BOOKS/CD

Grandma’s Soup

(Feb. 2000)

almustafa’s first collection of poems is dedicated to his grandmother. Through simple language, almustafa shares the blu’z of one young black man living in an urban landscape. Grandma’s Soup was selected by Black Issues Book Review Magazine as a poetic pick for the holidays.

I’m Crying Everyone’s Tears

(Aug. 2002)

almustafa’s best-known work, I’m Crying Everyone’s Tears has sold or been distributed to more than 5,000 people worldwide. Poems from this collection have been featured in articles in The Village Voice, Alternet.org, Mahogany Blues Magazine, The Shield Magazine, Free Magazine, BRM (Beyond Race Magazine) and many more. Poems from this collection were performed at the nationally-televised Rally to End Occupation in Iraq in Washington DC in 2003, the “Millions for Reparations Rally” at the United Nations in 2003 and the 45th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speech Against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in 2006.

Be-Boy, Be-Man

(July 2003)

Be-Boy, Be-Man, originally entitled Chivalry IS Dead explores one young black man’s experience with masculinity, sexuality, love and romance.  Poems from this collection were performed at Feminist in Hip-Hop Panel at Fordham University in 2004 and Kevin Powell’s Black Men in America gatherings in 2003 and 2007. If the featured speakers in Byron Hurt’s “Beyond Beats and Rhymes” gathered their secret diaries, it would be this collection of poems.

CounterIntelligence CD

(May 2006)

almustafa’s highly-anticipated debut CD received critical acclaim and was dubbed “HipRockSpoketry” by FreeHipHop.com. CounterIntelligence featured production by GAME Rebellion, mixing and mastering by Aaron “Freedom” Lyles and vocals by Sparlha Swa. This CD included the poem Optimis Prime IS a Blk Man” recorded live at Afro-Punk in Feb. 2006.

Growing Up Hip-Hop

(Aug. 2008)

Growing Up Hip-Hop tells a coming-of-age story through fifteen years of poetry, beginning with unreleased poems from almustafa’s youth. This collection features an introduction by Nana Camille Yarbrough, author of Cornrows and a legendary performance poet. Poems from almustafa’s final chapter were featured at the first solar-powered hip-hop concert at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, GA in 2006, La Casita at Lincoln Center outdoors alongside Amiri Baraka, Yusef Komunyakaa and Joy Harjo, and in almustafa’s multimedia show “Growing Up Hip-Hop: Plugged-In.”

Growing Up Hip-Hop is currently being used in more than 40 classrooms from the elementary to the university level and was named as a must-read by Teaching to Change: A Planning Book for Radical Educators.