And the meme goes on...

No doubt you've seen the "Sh*t people say" videos.  Some are really good, some are not so.  Most focus on exaggerated stereotypes... which can certainly be funny, but can also be boring and borderline offensive.  It's that line you have to walk when playing the "dozens", or ribbing as we used to say.

Well here is a sh*t radio says clip.  Doesn't focus one one type of people, but one type of radio - the mainstream madness.



I think this "sh*t people say" meme could be useful for social commentary.  Let's get some sh*t republicans say, some sh*t drug companies say, sh*t Newt Gingrich says going...  Whose got next?

I'm playing John Proctor in The Crucible!

My journey into acting has taken a stunning turn...

I'm playing John Proctor in a production of The Crucible at The Chappel of Trinity Presbyterian Church on Thursday - Saturday February 23rd - 25th.  A small deal to most of the world.  However, considering that this role is rarely played by a Black man... I'm pretty excited.

The role is a serious challenge as I must balance guilt, indignation, shame and outrage while negotiating a difficult marriage (due to having had an affair with a young "maid"), a spiritual-political-economic calamity that has said young maid at its center, and the choice to either live or betray my friends.  Damn, I can't wait!

Come out if you can!

Cover for my next book?

In Memory of Daniel Price

In memory of a very special human being and a tremendous artist who died 8 years ago today. This was put together by his high school sweetheart. RIP.

Daniel Price Memorial - Slideshow from Cr aY on Vimeo.

PASSAGE

So if you could read things written backwards you'd see that this letter states:

This is to certify that Michael Otieno Molina has satisfied all requirements of the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law and is eligible for admission to the practice of law in this state.

In other words, I PASSED THE GEORGIA BAR EXAM!!!

Its not often that I can toot my horn unabashedly. Now I can. I was able to do this 10 years after graduating law school AND while being a full time parent. I worked hard, long nights and it payed off. Now a new chapter of my professional life begins.

This year has been a good start to the decade. While being out of work, I completed my first full length album, starred in my first play, and passed the bar. I'll have my second book published by my birthday. Coming off a decade (2000-2010) in which I lost my mom (October 2000), my city (Katrina August 2005), and my dad (July 2007)... I'm due for a successful and happy 10 year block!

Promo for All Blues - 40 Acres and a Mule

Press for All Blues, the play I'm acting in come October

7 Stages Presents the World Premiere of All Blues (click link for original article)

7 Stages is pleased to partner with Washington College in Chestertown, MD to present the World Premiere of Robert Earl Price’s All Blues.

This new work is based on the story of a white newspaper reporter from Pittsburgh who traveled through the South in 1948 as black man.

All Blues, named for the 1959 Miles Davis classic – from Kind of Blue, one of the most influential record albums of the 20th century – is being co-produced by 7 Stages and the Washington College Department of Drama.

Del Hamilton, co-founder and artistic director of 7 Stages, will play the role of Ray Sprigle, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter who traveled through the South for 30 days in 1948 as a light-skinned black man named James R. Crawford. Sprigle’s guide was John Wesley Dobbs, an important political leader in Atlanta’s black community and an NAACP activist. Dobbs will be played by Chestertown actor and musician Bob Ortiz and then by actor Michael Molina when the show primers it’s Atlanta cast.

Sprigle had already won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story that Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and he was famous both for his hard-hitting stories and for his penchant for going undercover to get them.

All Blues is a compelling meditation on the moral complexities of Sprigle’s venture across the country’s racial and geographic divide – which the reporter learned in his travels to call, not the Mason Dixon, but the Smith and Wesson line. Sprigle’s journey took place more than a decade before the publication of Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin’s bestselling account of his own travels through the South as a white man passing himself off as black.

The lyrics and music of All Blues form a subtext to the play, which weaves light, movement, and a cast of characters that include the light and dark sides of Sprigle’s own soul into a moody meditation on race.

“The project will be built on the juxtaposition of one of the seminal pieces of music from the 20th century and a forgotten story,” said WC drama department chair Dale Daigle, who will direct the performance. “These two pieces provide a foundation for us to explore the ubiquitous and unavoidable feeling of being the ‘other’ and the complicated responses that we all have when confronted with the unknown in the form of another human being. By exploring these encounters – what Robert Earl Price calls a ‘slight’ and personifies in an eponymous character – we hope to take our audience on a journey that will be discomforting yet, hopefully, revelatory.”

The Washington College cast of All Blues includes acclaimed Kent County jazz singer Karen Somerville; Polly Sommerfeld, lecturer in the Washington College Department of Drama; and Washington College students Mike Zurawski ’12, Marta Wesenberg ’12, John Lesser ’12, Phaedra Scott ’14, Harris Allgeier ’14 and Zach Weidner ’14. This cast will perform for a week in Atlanta.

All Blues is Robert Earl Price’s fifth premiere at 7 Stages during his 20 years there as playwright in residence. The award-winning playwright and screenwriter is also artist in residence in the drama department at Washington College, where he teaches creative writing and drama.

“By joining forces to take on Robert’s excellent ideas about race and racism, we not only expose Washington College students to new theatre art, and new ways of making theatre, but we also are teaching core values about the nation and how each of us fits into society,” said Del Hamilton of 7 Stages. “This is one of the major questions on the minds of young people these days: how to have a purposeful life.”

The play will be performed at 7 Stages in Atlanta with the Chestertown cast Sept. 22-25. 7 Stages will produce All Blues with its own cast Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. The Atlanta cast includes Del Hamilton, Dorothy Bell, Johnell Easter, Michael Molina and Patrick McColery. The set for the shows, designed by Faye Allen, will be used for both productions. More information about the Atlanta performances can be found at www.7stages.org.

One of my greatest inspirations

Heart A Cappella Abstract

Rally The Troops

I shot and cut this video for hip hop artist Fiyah... and it is fire!

Video audition for the upcoming Tupac biopic

Potential covers for the e-book

Where the Blues was Born

The book is an epic poem of rhymed and metered prose that tells the story of a surreal bus ride through the city, history and culture of New Orleans. Its also an audio book and a smartphone mapping app for tourists. I'm looking for a cover that expresses the blues, paradox, beauty, mystery, hope, and rhythm that is New Orleans.

Which of these do you like better? Do you like neither? Any thoughts on the font?

Who is Mike Molina?

Sneak Peak tracks off Heart here

Better Than Radio -First Video off of Heart - Extended Version