Featured Artist: Stephen Dantes

Stephen Dantes is a good friend of mine from Saint Lucia who has began a journey to wonderfulness. I have never really interviewed anyone before, so I decided to give it a swing and interview him to find out what's coming up, and for those of you who don't know him, what has been done.
Just so you know the format shall be bold text for my questions and regular text for his response.

Hi Stephen, can you give the readers a little background about yourself?
I'm a young author of 3 self-published books; The Enchanting Excerpts, The Last Enchantment and Hindsight. I have a 7-yr old daughter whom I dedicated my first book to.

I write and perform different types of poetry, was elected (about 2yrs ago I think) as a Role Model for youth by the National Youth Council and was part of a drive to motivate young people.
I won 2nd price at the M&C Fine Arts Spoken Word in 2007 and was part of Ken Hardy's band Soul Dreadz, along with Ras Isley, Emile, Sky from Amate, and Nyah. I left the group to embark on a solo mission.

How did you get involved in writing? What style did you begin with and how did you grow from there?
I got started pretty strangely, but I think I should jump straight into the part where I got inspired to write my own book after reading a fellow poet's work who is from my community. I had been penning down poems and writings so I collected them and put them in a book.. and I think I took a small loan to add to money I already had and then published my first book.

My first two books were pretty much a collection of poems, thoughts, feelings, words of wisdom, prayers, excerpts to a novel I'm working on, and any other thing I saw would capture readers and a small list of growing fans. I went to Barbados to do some promotion and tv and radio interviews.

It was after my second book in 2004, that I started taking the Art seriously and started performing and networking. There was a 5 year hiatus after my 2nd book during which I did lots of research and performances.. it was then I teamed up with Ken Hardy and Kensley Charlemagne.

And it has been no going back from there.

How do you find inspiration to write? Is it through personal experiences or hopes and dreams you hold for example?
Inspiration comes from every thing that happens around me... the good and bad world, but mostly the struggle of the average boy or girl, man or woman, even babies. The things I see and hear everyday. Life and death.
My motivation comes from the people who read them and the feedback they give.

What is your favourite piece of writing and why?
My favourite piece of writing: I have 3 favourites
1. Recreating History from my book Hindsight
2. Rude Boy Reality from Hindsight
3. Like Father, Like Son from the soon to be released eBook for Georgia, USA

I like Rudeboy... and Recreating... because they both speak to the world about the world; our mental enslavement and modern day reality which ties into the persona of the 'voice for the youth'.

The 3rd, Like father..., is new and unreleased, and I like it because it is my best piece tailored for the American market... it will be posted on my website soon.

What advice can you give someone who wants to pursue writing whether recreational to perform at open mics or writer forums, or who wants to become a full fledged writer by profession?
Well frankly I haven't reached the pinnacle in my career and don't think I'm in a position yet to answer. So let's just say, that you can ask me that question anytime if you find out that I made a million dollars.


Hahaha I shall remember that. And don't forget the little people like me when you make it big!

Much thanks to Stephen for this fabulous interview! If you want more information on Stephen Dantes including a video of him performing Rude Boy Reality, visit his website http://www.stephendantes.net or email him at pr@stephendantes.net

If You See, Touch

Naked
I'm standing
in front of
you
waiting for eyes to see.
But they don't
they all look past me,
look through me.
And I hang my head
maybe in shame.
maybe in hurt.
maybe in pain.
disappointed? and sad?
I'm tired of waiting.
I'm tired of looking.
I'm tired of hoping.

If you see
touch.
Bring my flesh back to life
and take me away from transparent.
Bring the fire back inside my eyes
and the radioactive energy to my nucleus.

Ignite and set a light to that beacon inside
that lights the world
and your life.

If you see,
Touch.
Touch and let it be known.

New Challenges? New Experiences?

A new year has began, bla bla bla, you know the rest. I'll skip all the happy go lucky-ness of New Year celebrations. I feel like I need a hobby. Something to keep me occupied, entertained, creative and curious. Something to master. I can't decide what it should be just yet though, because I know that it means settling on something and then purchasing the necessary equipment to build and develop skills related to that hobby. I feel like I might not be prepared to commit to something, or rather, I have not found something that commands my attention and keeps it. I have an interest in many things like jewelry making, baking, scrap-booking, DIY crafts, and things of that sort. I've gotten to the point where I want to settle down and get to know these things one on one and deeply. I shall see what pulls me the most and go from there. Wish me luck! And Happy New Year.

When Unhappiness Comes Knocking

What do you do when you look in the mirror and all you see id what you used to be not who you are?

What do you do when can't recognize yourself by the things that interest you?
When superficial beliefs and philosophies satisfy you, when before, you searched for a deeper meaning.

What do you do when you're prepared to sacrifice that which you know is right to get what everyone else is hustling for?
When you're prepared to not be that one different person but blend in with the crowd.
What do you do?

What do you do when you're lost in that concrete jungle and because you don't know the way out, you continue walking the way of the zombie, left; right; left; right; left.
What do you do?

What do you do when you wake up in the morning and realize unhappiness is knocking at your front door?

A Look To The Future

It's pretty late right now and I should be sleeping but I managed to open my blog up and glanced to the listing on the left. And it hits me, soon I won't be seeing December 2010 it will be 2011. It is almost one full year since I started this blog. That's pretty exciting!! I mean I haven't gotten quite the response I was hoping for, but I still love my blogs, both of them yes. There are times when I feel like one gets more attention than the other, but then it works out that the other gets attention too later on.

I want to say Thank You to everyone who has supported this venture, those who enjoy reading my blog and follow my activities as well as those who randomly stumble upon it never to look at it again. Thank You to everyone who gives me feedback and say they enjoy reading it.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I have plans to have some interesting things in 2011 on the blog. I might have new tabs or not and might just stick to using the labels (e.g. Wonderful, Baking, Money, Green, Opinion...). I am hoping to do more recreational reading, which I have started, and do a book review. I must say from now that this may not end well, but nothing beats a try.

In closing, I would like to wish for everyone a new year filled with true happiness, success, peace, understanding, respect, financial stability and honesty.

Thank You.

Nothing Beats A Try

So I finally started working on being crafty. I haven't made my nephew and/or niece's gifts yet, but I did complete one of my housemates gifts. It was really simple and easy and looks great.

What I used:
* an old/empty tin (I used a hot chocolate tin and a small Tetley tea tin)
* patterned paper of your choice (this is when you can get really creative and use magazine cut outs, old wrapping paper, nice paper from a chocolate, a map or anything that you think will go well with the person's style and taste)
* hot glue gun and glue sticks
* paint (I used black for mine)
* paint brush
* glue and water mixture (one part white glue to one part water)

How I did it:
* I made sure the tins were clean. Rinsed them with water. If you wanted a specific scent I'm sure if you rinse it with the desired scent that would work.
* Using the paint, which I bought at the Dollar Store, paint the tin. I recommend putting two coats just to make sure it's all covered and even.
* Once tins have dried thoroughly, add a line of glue using the glue gun along the edge of the paper (which I should have said earlier was measured to fit the height of the tin) and stick to the tin.
* Fit the paper around the tin making sure that the bottom is lined up (if that is what style you are going for)
* Add a line of glue to the other end of the paper and stick to the tin.
* Finish off with a coat (or two) of the glue and water mixture.
* Let dry thoroughly (a few hours if not days lol) and TA-DA!! There you have it. Your lovely matching tin set :)


Isn't it lovely?! If you're not too sure how it will turn out, I recommend not using the actual paper unless you have enough to spare. You can test drive the method on another tin until you are comfortable with what you're doing. If my instructions suck, I'm sorry...I'm new to this. Maybe the next time I will try to do a video or something...

Please feel free to comment!

Really Now?!

It's flu/cold season here in Canada, and you would think that after the H1N1 scare/threat/epidemic last year people would have developed good habits regarding anything that can transmit these things. Nope. We still have people who cough with their tongues extended out of their mouths instead of covering their cough with their elbow or shirt or something!

It amazes me that university students have to be educated about being clean and staying healthy in that way, or rather not being nasty in my opinion and sharing germs. It surprised me when we were showed how to wash our hands: that you wash the backs of your hands and inbetween your fingers as well. Granted I did not know it should be for 20 seconds but I did know long enough to build a solid lather.

All of this stuff just makes me wonder what do parents teach their children? If you don't show them how to wash their hands properly, or teach them how to sneeze and cough appropriately, what do you teach them?

I like my Caribbean upbringing. If I have children, they're getting it the same way. Now that self is for another post. Coming soon...

What have you read today??

I was listening to the song below and there is a line in the verse that says "read the books your father read" and my initial response was "yow that's a lot of books" but then it hit me, that I am being a stereotypical black person. The saying is "If you want to hide something from a black person, hide it in a book." I don't read enough. Heck, I don't even read the required readings for my courses. So I am going to challenge myself to read, and not tweets or Facebook statuses, but things of actual substance. I complain about Canada messing up my not so extravagant vocabulary. It is my responsibility to ensure that I have not completely destroyed myself and that I am able to have a good conversation with persons of all educational backgrounds. My challenge is to read more.

Enjoy the song =)



Feel free to comment. Thanks.

It's That Time Again

The Christmas season officially began whenever. For me it began as my Saint Lucian tradition has (and should continue) to be on November 23rd, the day after Saint Cecilia's Day. Anyway, everyone loves getting the presents and if you're like me, you adore well wrapped presents. For the past 4 or 5 years I have wrapped all my presents in either newspaper or wrapping paper from previous years or other paper that I am reusing. You think this is so trashy or the present does not look good when wrapped in newspaper but here's my trick to add a little umph to it.

Instead of just using newspaper alone and a bow or some festive ribbon, or even just plain coloured ribbon to the gift. If you want to continue an Earthy recycled theme for the entire gift you can use twine or some organic material instead of the ribbon. Maybe wrap the gift in newspaper, and a few sticks of cinnamon on the top and secure with twine or something like that. Photo taken from http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/gifts/wrapping/creative-wrapping-ideas-10000001137821/page4.html.

Another idea I saw was wrapping the gift in fabric. I would suggest if you have left over fabric from some project, use that. To me the options are endless!!

I think this is the time to be frugal and creative. To me there's absolutely nothing wrong with not spending money in getting wrapping paper.

Happy Holidays!

Baron : Christmas Medley

This is by far my favourite track for the Christmas season. For me Christmas begins with Baron's Medley of Christmas songs. They range from your traditional tunes sang worldwide to Caribbean specific tunes. Enjoy.