Home is in my Head

Short Documentary – Change on U Street

Check out today’s post from my Sound the Horn blog:

My former AllAfrica colleague Kyle Piennar made this unique documentary on the brief history of a favorite hang out place, U Street in Washington, DC. Unofficially dubbed “Little Ethiopia” for its abundance of Ethiopian businesses and residents, U Street is undeniably going through a cultural formation, or the big scary G word: gentrification. As one interviewee points out, this is natural in pretty much any town or city. The documentary also explores why and how the petition for the DC government to officially recognize the strip as “Little Ethiopia” progressed, as well as the social relationship between the Ethiopian and African American communities. I enjoyed it and learned quite a bit. It makes me miss living a hop and a skip away from U Street.

http://genetparadise.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/short-documentary-change-on-u-street/

Talk About M.I.A.

Wow, I haven’t been on Tumblr since September. shame, shame. But that makes sense because that’s around the time I started my new Ethiopia/Horn of Africa-focused blog on WordPress. Check it out, you won’t regret it :) I actually update that blog on a regular basis, usually twice or thrice (I’ve always wanted to say thrice!) a week. I love it, it’s like my baby that I’m truly dedicated to and excited about.  Here’s a snippet from the About page so you can get a feel for its purpose and mission:

Welcome to Sound the Horn. If you care to stay a while, you can check out thoughts, experiences and findings about people, places and issues related to the Horn of Africa, with a special emphasis on Ethiopia. I tend to post a lot of photos and videos that explore various social and political issues like women, education, art/expression, literature, press freedom, etc.

As a young member of the Ethiopian Diaspora, I aspire to learn as much as I can about the region I come from and help expand other people’s knowledge of it too. My goal is to portray a more complete and nuanced imagine of Ethiopia and the Horn because sometimes our voices are exaggerated, charged and uninformed, particularly among the Diaspora. Just like every other Ethiopian and daughter/son of the Horn, I want justice, love and peace for my country of origin.

There you go, I hope you like the content. I love comments and suggestions. http://genetparadise.wordpress.com/

Thank You Troy Davis.

I am sad, heartbroken, pissed off, angry, disappointed and the list goes on. I will probably feel like this for a while. But I can’t change this situation, I can only learn something from Troy Davis. I can learn more about all the other possibly innocent inmates sitting on death row waiting to be executed by the United States government and see what I can personally do on my own to help. If I was ever unsure about my stance on the death penalty before, I’ve made up my mind now. God is God, humans are humans - let’s not confuse our roles. I’m glad Troy Davis died with a sense of peace only God can grant and no human can take away. Good night.

The apple of my eye.

My mom is my queen, forever will be. Her love for me is closest to God’s love I’ve seen.

Anonymous asked: ARE U SINGLE

Nope, happily taken :)