Writings on the wall @ Highschool we recently visited...

Every morning, as I rub the sleep out my eye and we make our way to the first school of the day, “T” breaks down to us the size of the school and the teacher’s comments on what some of the issues facing the female students might be. One theme keeps arising…BULLYING. I’m no stranger to the concept and to be quite honest I’ve been on both sides of the fence.

At my high school there were a lot of foreign exchange students and often the students would think I didn’t speak any english. As a result, I could understand everything that was said about me, in front of my face. You see these “bullies” had no idea that I could understand every word.  I stayed very low key, and just hung out by the Art Room and ended up spray painting my name across the back of the art room as a school art project before graduating. After class and on the weekends, I hung around girls that lived in a different part of Vancouver…many of which were in female gangs. I never jumped into a set (though I was offered a few times) and Hiphop seemed to give me a neutral status with many of the girls. I was affectionately known as “Hiphop May” and they let me hang out because I always brought the music and dance. These cliques would do everything from pick fights with other females at the mall, gossip and create terrible rumors about one another and generally posture so everyone else could recognize how big and bad they/we were. I noticed after a while that the girls always got more brave when everyone in the gang was around, but one on one, each homegirl was more sincere, open and honest about life views. It was as if we puffed out our chests to be big and bad in order to impress one another. I have to admit, I enjoyed the feeling of being seen as powerful or dangerous because of the crew I rolled with.  Even now, as an emcee, I’m not always sure I have outgrown this guilty pleasure.

All Bgirls School Portrait photo by Che Kothari

Years later, after my move to Toronto, I was fortunate enough to help organize an event known as The M1 Academy: All Bgirls School (featuring many talented women in the Hiphop Community like Lady Noyz, DJ LOQENZ, Eternia, Isis, Zaki Ibrahim…) I realized that many of the women in Toronto Hiphop could not get the proper recognition they deserved. The talent ranged from graffiti writers, singers, DJs and rappers. I also felt that our HERstories (histories) as women in the culture of hiphop, had hardly been documented.  I gathered all the super women B girls to take a giant famly portrait of women in Toronto Hiphop, and held an event to celebrate the amazing contribution of these women to the Hiphop community in Toronto.

Return of the Bgirl features a cast of talented young women

THE ALL BGIRLS SCHOOL event was a success and we held the concert as a series of annual events.  When it came time to film a video for RETURN OF THE BGIRL, I already had an amazing cast of characters to holler at!  Only in hind sight I realize this – there is a difference between GANG mentality and CREW mentality, although both involve gathering together groups of potentially powerful young ladies.  Although I had my fun causing trouble with my clique in high school, we accomplish very little and in the end everyone grew up and went their separate ways.  What I accomplished together with the CREW of ladies gathered for the All Bgirls School, on the other hand, was quite phenomenal.  The women expressed ideas to one another, shared their experience and traded services and talents for future projects.  The event was also a spring board for many female artists that had never performed before and have since gone on to great things or become ROCKSTARS! (Shout out to Isis & Zaki Ibrahim!)

The point I’m trying to make here is this:  We can still empower ourselves, bring groups of people together and create something positive.  Bullying or having a gang mentality when picking on someone together is a waste of time and does nothing to create a foundation for something greater.  It is very much like a 15 minutes of fame.  On the flip side, get together your closest homegirls, agree on working on a project together (whether it’s a dance routine, raising money for a girl’s group or holding an event) and create something positive with them.  You will watch it grow…I promise you, it’ll be much more worth it.

One Love

Masia.

My mother left home when she was fourteen.  She faced abuse at the hands of my father.  She raised three children as a single parent, without a high school degree, on government assistance.  She was an amazingly capable mother, and I learned from her how to think and live independently by watching her do it.  I was out of my mothers’ home at the age of fifteen.  Most people around me assumed, with the statistics to back it up, that I would never graduate high school, let alone make it to college or university.   “She’ll be living on welfare & have three kids by the time she’s twenty”.  I didn’t want to settle with the idea that the circumstances into which I was born and raised would dictate my future opportunities.  So I used others’ doubt to fuel my own belief in myself.  After leaving high school for two years, I returned, graduated on the Honour Roll, and then graduated Ryerson University four years later on the Deans’ List. 

I was unintentionally a living example of what Girls Rights’ rights are all about.

 Girls Rights are quite simply Human Rights.  Boys and girls have the same rights (such as access to education, healthcare, opportunity) but around the world girls face obstacles in accessing these basic rights simply because they are born a girl.  Plan Canada’s 3^rd annual Girl Report: “Girls in the Global Economy: Adding it All Up” offers hard stats to back this up.  The report also shows that investing in girls and young women can literally transform lives and lift entire nations out of poverty. 

 I find this point really interesting: Empower a Girl, you Empower a Community.

 It sounds so simple, and yet the feedback I get from a lot of people when I tell them I’m on a Girls Rights tour is “huh?” or “whats that tour about, some feminist, pro-woman, man-hating agenda?”.  It saddens me that some people can’t see beyond their own limited reality.  Women make up more than half the world’s population.  Empowering women, by simply allowing them to participate in decision-making, have access to basic human rights and control over their own resources, is key to reducing global poverty and instability for everyone.  When women are educated, they have better job opportunities.  Statistics show that women around the world spend 90% of their annual income on their families, in comparison to the 30-40% that men will bring home to their families.  Currently, most of the one billion people living on less than a dollar a day are women.  This one fact alone highlights the need to invest in our girls globally.  Gender inequality impacts the global economy.  And this, in turn, impacts all of us.

I have learned so much in our first week on tour in Northern Ontario. I want to write so much more!  Next week   In the meantime, check out some of our pictures from the first week on my myspace page, here:  

ETERNIA’S TOUR PHOTOS, WEEK ONE

Blessings and love,

 Eternia.

The Girls of the tour on our way to Thunderbay!

2 weeks ago...

From Hollywood to Thunderbay!  3 days into the tour and I’m still getting over the culture shock, weather change and early days (This rapper is allergic to 6am mornings!)  Tamara has been really great at kicking me out of bed when I ignore my alarm clock, so we make it to the schools on time.

It’s been a crazy contrast writing lyrics for L.A. pop singers to meeting all these beautiful young women face to face in high schools across Ontario.  A lesson that I have learned in just the past few months are that pretty faces are dime a dozen…along with fake eyelashes, fake bodies and really high heels which all can be purchased.  I have found that women with lasting power have taken the time and discipline to develop a skill, fine tune an interest and established their opinions and beliefs on things.   To see the freckles and unique details in a face that has so much more to paint, write about or illustrate has so many beautiful complexities in comparison to the plastic mold we often see in magazines and on TV.

Another crazy juxtaposition is having been in the constant  sea of traffic on Californian freeways to silent  rides to the next city where evergreens cover the land like a lush shag carpet.  We pass by lakes that are clear as glass and offer the most true reflection of foliage positioned by the waters edge.  When the sun sets, the sky progresses through pinks, oranges and reds until darkness arrives and the black canvas is speckled with a trillion stars.  Tonight on the drive into Thunderbay, the Big Dipper guided our way clear and wondrous – and I was reminded of the truths behind the age old understanding of Natural Beauty.

One Love and good night.  MASIA ONE

Backstage @ Koras, Eternia paparazzi pt 1

The Masia One Adidas custom made by Paul T that I rocked for the show!

Masia & Nana somewhere 1 hour from Wah Wah Ontario!

Eternia paparazzi pt 2!

DJ Kyle imitates Tamara's pose

Sunset from White Water to Thunderbay