Here’s an article I wrote for Tokyo Weekender (April 2018). The piece is about the short feature film, Born With It. The movie follows Keisuke, an African-Japanese boy growing up in a small Japanese town. He’s the new kid and the only black one. I talked to director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour. He made the film in 2015, but its still getting recognized. Next month Born will air on PBS and later streamed online. Watch the trailer below. Sorry for the long absence. …
Blog Posts
First 2018 fam flick 
Kantra showing out. 
Just wrote an article about raising my daughter, Kantra in Japan. It’s up here. She’s thrived despite the adversities. In retrospect, it’ll give her an unlikely perspective. She has no idea how brave she is. I’m still debating on taking her to see Black Panther. “He’s got superpowers,” she told me. “You do to,” I said. “You don’t know it, but you’re using them right now.” “I am? What’s my superpower?” she asked me. “You’ll find out when you get …
Writing about Black Panther and googling it while trying to avoid spoilers is like boxing yourself. But learning about Wakanda’s king still got me hyped. A lot of themes came out of writing this Black Panther post for Tokyo Weekender. The movie is a treasure trove of symbolism and possibility. Here, the cultural and social impact of this film is epic. For kids like my four-year-old daughter and parents like me who worry about their child’s mental health and safety, …
On a bus in Hokkaido. -
First 2018 fam flick 
Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery arrest 1958 
My first cover story. Had just gotten it in the mail. 
On this trip we had the dope view. Wish I had a full frame cam though. 
Photo by Lukasz Palka 
Mega and Late. This was the day that I was a guest on their podcast. 
Still from “White Face” 
Moriyama Tadashi, “Solar and Lunar Spectra” 769×1024 
Foretoken, 2008, pen, acrylic ink on paper, mounted on board 190×340cm, Photo :KUGE Yasuhide, Sustainable Investor Co.,Ltd. 
M.Sayyid of Anti-Pop Consortium, Photo by PH
Last year my daughter, Kantra forced me to pick up my crown. For many nights, on my knees, helping my four-year-old get dressed for bed, at eye level she’d tell me, “I’m a Princess. Mommie is Mommie Queeen and you’re Daddy King.” We could be in a grocery store aisle and out of her pocket she pulls rocks, rose pedals, acorns, and handfuls of sand. She got a bike for Christmas and a remote control car. In the last few …
In 2012, the inception of The Microscopic Giant was supposed to be a bloodletting of sorts. I always wanted to tell stories that reflected my experience and the opposite. Posting about music, art, film, and culture was a pivot from my original intention. I got shook. I suck. My work wasn’t finished. It wasn’t the right time. All I have is time. If I considered my writing to be an invite for the world to fuck with me, perhaps that’s …
