About this site


Daughters of Dilla is a new project of Beats Rhymes and Life, Inc. that aims to, "Help young women of color build power through Hip Hop." 

Daughters of Dilla (DOD) is an idea born from a late night conversation between Art & Music enthusiasts Lexx Valdez & Devoya Mayo. It was one of those conversations that smart women engage in and then move on to something else.

At the core of this conversation in particular was, “What does it take to maintain who you are and still be approachable and available to the idea of love”? In other words, if the brotha don’t know who Nina Simone is, is it even necessary to continue the conversation? Better yet, are our daily lives just an extended exercise in youthful innocence or just plain old grown up hesitation? After more words and a moment of silence Lexx proclaimed “We don’t sell ourselves to fall in Love, We are Daughters of Dilla.” And that’s how it all began.

The name is derived from the song “Fall in Love” by JDilla & Slum Village. It makes sense to us. We’re going to keep fleshing out the ideas and concepts and share them with you via this Blog and other arenas. 

Sometimes a necessary idea can get lost or forgotten in the midst of daily operations. We promised ourselves that wouldn’t happen with this endeavor. We need it too much. Maybe you do too.

For more information on DOD, please contact: daughtersofdilla@gmail.com

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@DODProject

curate: Xuyen Pham’s Garden; East New Orleans, LA After Xuyen Pham lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina, she turned the property into a farm to feed her community. She fled Vietnam with her husband and children at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. After months in Southeast Asian refugee camps they were moved to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. The family was eventually sponsored by a hotel owner in Oklahoma, but the cold proved too much so they moved yet again, settling in the “Mary Queen of Vietnam” community in East New Orleans. This farm is surrounded by houses (we are right in the middle of a suburban housing tract in East New Orleans). Xuyen stands amidst taro plants in her home garden. The plant stems are a base ingredient in traditional soups and congees found on most Vietnamese dinner tables. By growing taro and other vegetables, she keeps Vietnamese traditions alive in her community. Xuyen’s definition of “food sovereignty”: The ability of community members to control food access (both effluent and influent) independent of outside food sources (such as supermarkets). Members of the community grow traditional fruits and vegetables and fisherfolk go shrimping, fishing, and crabbing to sell at local stores, the local Saturday farmers market, and most importantly, to feed their families and community members. Xuyen is also a participant in a local New Orleans East aquaponics project. The project is being implemented by MQVN Community Development Corporation and was established originally by fisherfolk displaced by the BP oil drilling disaster as a way to create jobs and to ensure adequate food access in New Orleans East (a USDA-identified food desert). In the near future, she and her husband, with the help of MQVN Community Development Corporation, will construct greenhouses and an aquaponics growing system on their farm plot. via Grist’s Lexicon of Sustainability : kimberlydelanghe

curate:

Xuyen Pham’s Garden; East New Orleans, LA

After Xuyen Pham lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina, she turned the property into a farm to feed her community. She fled Vietnam with her husband and children at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. After months in Southeast Asian refugee camps they were moved to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. The family was eventually sponsored by a hotel owner in Oklahoma, but the cold proved too much so they moved yet again, settling in the “Mary Queen of Vietnam” community in East New Orleans.

This farm is surrounded by houses (we are right in the middle of a suburban housing tract in East New Orleans).

Xuyen stands amidst taro plants in her home garden. The plant stems are a base ingredient in traditional soups and congees found on most Vietnamese dinner tables. By growing taro and other vegetables, she keeps Vietnamese traditions alive in her community.

Xuyen’s definition of “food sovereignty”: The ability of community members to control food access (both effluent and influent) independent of outside food sources (such as supermarkets). Members of the community grow traditional fruits and vegetables and fisherfolk go shrimping, fishing, and crabbing to sell at local stores, the local Saturday farmers market, and most importantly, to feed their families and community members.

Xuyen is also a participant in a local New Orleans East aquaponics project. The project is being implemented by MQVN Community Development Corporation and was established originally by fisherfolk displaced by the BP oil drilling disaster as a way to create jobs and to ensure adequate food access in New Orleans East (a USDA-identified food desert). In the near future, she and her husband, with the help of MQVN Community Development Corporation, will construct greenhouses and an aquaponics growing system on their farm plot.

via Grist’s Lexicon of Sustainability : kimberlydelanghe

Posted on Tuesday, January 31st 2012, by LEXX DIGS

Reblogged from singkrəˈnisitē  Source kimberlydelanghe

“I wanted to write a poem that rhymes, but the revolution doesn’t lend itself to be-bopping…so i thought again and it occurred to me maybe i shouldn’t write at all, but clean my gun and check my kerosene supply. Perhaps these are not poetic times at all.”

Nikki Giovanni

Posted on Tuesday, January 31st 2012, by LEXX DIGS

Reblogged from guerrilla mama medicine  Source negrosunshine

“Let’s get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I’m pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I’m also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.”

Sherman Alexie is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and filmmaker. His book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Fist Fight in Heaven,” was on the banned curriculum of the Mexican American Studies Program.

http://progressive.org/sherman-alexie

(via chicanainchoos)

Posted on Monday, January 30th 2012, by LEXX DIGS

Reblogged from Fabi/Fabian Romero  Source chicanainchoos

Dead Prez “The Beauty Within” from their mixtape with DJ Drama “Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz”.

RBG poets Stic Man and M-1 explain the essence of natural beauty as they flip B.O.B’s “Nothing On You”.

Posted on Monday, January 30th 2012, by LEXX DIGS

 Source youtube.com

larepublicadedet:

lati-negros:

Clase Baja Series, by Zahira Kelly

kellysdolls:


Clase Baja Series, by Zahira Kelly

  • is an ongoing mixed-media, self-shot, retro pin up-inspired series
  • is a direct call out and celebration of women who are deemed clase baja
  • is in solidarity w sex workers—dominican women, especially, who are home and abroad, and those who have been lost and are currently subject to the human trafficking trade
  • on prejudgment and how we are coded according to our appearance
  • a glimpse into the complexities of my existence within our society and the intersection i live at: race, sexism, class, obviously
  • on being a bicultural dominican-american and the product of globalization
  • a nod to the often nameless latina showgirls of yesteryear who quietly but oh so very boldly inspired so much of what we know as the retro scene, pin up, burlesque,cabaret, vegas showgirls, etc, from coquettish, overtly feminine attitude and poise, to dance moves to costumes.

Afralatina pinup political art 

Posted on Monday, January 30th 2012, by LEXX DIGS

Reblogged from new wave feminism  Source kellysdolls