There is no capital, curriculum, counselor, plan, professor, or administrator who can solve all our educational problems. We must make a lifestyle change. Introducing genius to each other is a start; sharing innovative genius is a start. Forget a classroom as the root of education; spirit is always the root, whether you believe in it or not. Call spirit something else if you really want to, even call it nothing: you will not insult it because both spirit and you know that even nothing, the great emptiness, is something or eventually becomes something, even if it is simply death. But … Continue reading THERE IS NO TRUTH EXCEPT IMAGINATION

We revere the fighter, the warrior, the one who trains and hardens him or herself for battle. We enjoy a good fight between equally matched opponents, and we enjoy even more when the little pitbull beats the lion. Many of us, especially from underdog worlds, have taken on this fighter persona, whether we actually do it in the ring, the cage, or in life. I, myself, like to flatter myself as a fighter for ideas and maybe even, sometimes, justice, however abstract that may be. I fight to help; I fight to love.   Today I am reassessing this time … Continue reading You, Only You

A new beginning is always dawning. It seems that I have been repeating that statement for the past twenty years. I have had the luck and creativity to constantly perform new and crazy feats, beautiful tricks. Soon I will be a professor on sabbatical, counseling youth in Oakland. I will be traveling to New York, and I will be reading and writing all the time—two new books, one which is an educational autobiography, tentatively titled, Bone Mountain, and the other will be an entertaining and profound novel. I also plan to spend much more time loving and caring for my … Continue reading EMBRACING YOUR GENIUS WITHIN

My Friends, Reconnecting with nature: a poem on the power of tree. Who is the primitive one 🙂 Enjoy! PRIMITIVE PERCEPTION Tree, you bless me with your stupidity. Don’t you know you are designed to desire more? To fly like crows that caw on your arms To scatter like squirrels that climb your perch To walk like man who steals your shade. Tree, you are so stupid to not want more To not choose evolution or ease. You do not have answers nor do you care Yet your roots contain mystery Your branches veins of life Your leaves live and … Continue reading Primitive Perception

All I Can Offer You is the Air Cupped in My Hands My Friends, We own the air, yet many are afraid to breathe. We must reclaim the air that enters our lungs. One way to do this is to allow our brains to flower. We own our brains, yet many of us do not feed our brains an intellectual identity, a philosophical, or metaphysical identity. That identity has been lost or beaten. It is not that we can’t think or care about these intense subjects. But for many, they have been whipped out of us. History, politics, economics have … Continue reading All I Can Offer You is the Air Cupped in My Hands

  BARRIO BUSHIDO VIDEO AT UC BERKELEY’S STORY HOUR   Gente, last night was a beginning and today is also a beginning! Wow and thank you is all that I can say. Barrio Bushido at UC Berkeley’s “Story Hour” was a huge success. Check this out: homeboys, homegirls, students, professors, and intellectuals gathered to engage in an authentic new genre of literature—Homeboy/Homegirl Urban Literature! Reward yourself by clicking on the link and viewing the video of our evolution! See you all tonight at the San Fran Mission Lowrider Cruise!   Continue reading VIDEO OF BARRIO BUSHIDO AT UC BERKELEY’S STORY HOUR

This Thursday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m. sharp, U.C. Berkeley’s famous “Story Hour” series will host me reading from and providing literary analysis of my novel, Barrio Bushido. At the beautiful Morrison Library inside of the Doe Library building on the U.C. Berkeley campus, with arms extended, I welcome you to attend this unique, unprecedented event. Never before has U.C. Berkeley, ranked as having the best English department in the United States, opened its doors for urban literature. Many times urban fiction is portrayed as senseless and ultra-violent. At this event I will explain how Barrio Bushido both reinforces and … Continue reading AN INTERNATIONAL EVENT: BARRIO BUSHIDO AT U.C. BERKELEY THIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1 AT 6:00 P.M.

There is no truth except imagination. Once upon a time, the truth was the Earth was flat. That was the truth for more than one thousand years and to disagree with that truth was to be tortured for imagination. Once upon a time, the truth was that I was supposed to be a dishwashing convict criminal and to disagree with that truth was to fight the universe. I chose and continue to choose to fight the universe with my most powerful weapon, my imagination. But how, how can we possibly fight against the universe with only imagination? How can we … Continue reading Ben Bac Sierra’s “Inventing Your Destiny” Presentation, Thursday, November 17, 2011