Friday, August 21, 2009

Michfest Part 3 (Settling In/Work to Do)

Day 3 (8/4) Tuesday
Tuesday is the official start of the festival. It’s the first day of shows on the acoustic stage. People are slowly rolling in. I had to play with Hanifah on Wednesday so we had rehearsal on Tuesday. Ganessa, Tiffany and Marya also arrived that day. Ganessa and Lee jumped straight into the fray. They had rehearsal with Hanifah and Toshi Reagon for the opening ceremonies.

Hanifah’s rehearsal went well and then later in the day, I can’t remember at what time, the Brooklyn crew went around and flyered the port-a-janes with information about all the artists from Brooklyn who were playing the festival. Black Patti (Hanifah’s band), Gina Breedlove, Ganessa James, Gloria Bigelow and Shelley Nicole’s blaKbüshe were all on the bill this year. It was a banner year for Brooklyn for sure.

That day was also pretty subdued. I saw folks that I met in years past. I ran that morning with Olive and Gina, which was really great. It was so nice to run in a place where the air is clean. It makes you want to get up in the morning and exercise.

Tuesday was the first day of breast casting at the womyn of color tent. The first year I went to the festival I had my breasts cast. I still have them and they are still holding up. Lol. After having my breasts cast the first year I decided that I was going cast breasts the next. So last year I learned from the master, Cassandra. It was such a great experience. Womyn would see me later and tell me how happy they were with the cast I made them. So you see I don’t only have musical skills, I’m crafty too! LOL! This year I went over to help as well.

Tuesday night got really cold. We could feel the chill in the air even before the sun went down. Although this was my third year at the festival I still don’t know if I brought enough warm clothes. I didn’t freeze or anything, but it always seems to get so much colder than I think it will. I guess because it’s August you just think it won’t really dip too low. Well that night and some others we could see steam coming out of our mouths. Remember it’s August. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, but we were in the northern part of the state. It just gets that cold. Bombshell and had lots of covers, but we were still very cold. I didn’t know if I would want to get up in the morning and run, but I did. You know when you are under the covers and it’s cold in your house you don’t want to get up, but imagine getting up and just being outside. It was cold, but it was only an overnight thing. So it was bearable. But damn it was cold!

Tuesday down. Let’s the events begin.

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