Take part in this tribute to Sekou Sundiata

Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited, a NYC-wide retrospective, is COMING SOON -- a feast of concerts, poetry readings, re-stagings of theater pieces, discussions, gatherings, and more celebrating Sekou Sundiata -- the man, the poet, the soothsayer, band leader, teacher, soul stirrer, activist and the griot. We want to create a video montage using footage created by -- and starring -- Sekou's friends, fans, collaborators, colleagues and students. TO DO IT RIGHT WE NEED YOU!! YOUR MISSION Please record yourself reading Sekou's poem, "Blink Your Eyes" (click the link to get a PDF of the poem or see the full text below) -- you can do this with a phone, a flip cam, whatever you have access to. You do not need to record it all in one "perfect" take. We just request that you record yourself reading/performing the entire poem so that we can edit it together with other people's videos, and footage of Sekou as well. FORMAT Any digital format can be submitted via email, or via  YouSendIt addressed to julia@mappinternational.org. Please include your name as you want it to appear in the credits and your contact info. STYLE Please film yourself with the camera in a horizontal (landscape) POV. Please do not record yourself in a vertical (portrait) perspective. DEADLINE In order to produce this video piece, we request that you submit your video no later than Friday, February 8, 2013. QUESTIONS Please contact Julia Gutierrez-Rivera julia@mappinternational.org Updates on the retrospective will be posted at sekousundiata.org  Thanks for participating and, in the spirit of Sekou, All of a sudden, Ann *** BLINK YOUR EYES   by Sekou Sundiata I was on my way to see my woman but the Law said I was on my way thru a red light red light red light and if you saw my woman you could understand, I was just being a man. It wasn't about no light it was about my ride and if you saw my ride you could dig that too, you dig? Sunroof stereo radio black leather bucket seats sit low you know, the body's cool, but the tires are worn. Ride when the hard time come, ride when they're gone, in other words the light was green. I could wake up in the morning without a warning and my world could change: blink your eyes. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in Up to the window comes the Law with his hand on his gun what's up? what's happening? I said I guess that's when I really broke the law. He said a routine, step out the car a routine, assume the position. Put your hands up in the air you know the routine, like you just don't care. License and registration. Deep was the night and the light from the North Star on the car door, deja vu we've been through this before, why did you stop me? Somebody had to stop you. I watch the news, you always lose. You're unreliable, that's undeniable. This is serious, you could be dangerous. I could wake up in the morning without a warning and my world could change: blink your eyes. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in New York City, they got laws can't no bruthas drive outdoors, in certain neighborhoods, on particular streets near and around certain types of people. They got laws. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in