So I was hanging out with Kevin Coval and Willie Perdomo for this poetry workshop week and on the first day they strike up a conversation about music. And I could not compete on the same level of hip-hop know-how as everyone else seemed to be able to. I always feel like I need to have at least a little grounding in hip-hop to have any poet cred, but I never know how to become acquainted with it. I'm digging Black Spade, though. I feel like either "black" music and "white" music are converging (see: Timberlake, Justin) or I'm just becoming way more aware. Either way, it's freaky how reluctant I am to step out of my musical comfort zone.

(Do you ever read a poem by someone and then years later meet them and realize they are flesh and blood even though they wrote that sick ass poem? Look up Willie Perdomo's Letter to Pedro Aviles.)

-Lauren