"Ms. Z, you're not a sister."

Thanks, Jose…I almost forgot.  I was just so wrapped up in the celebration of the 100^th Anniversary celebration of the Morehouse (a historically Black college in Atlanta) Glee Club that when then when the emcee, a BET star, wanted a cheer from all the sisters in the crowd, I couldn’t help myself.

So why on Earth was I there to begin with, you ask?   Well, on Saturday evening, Julie, Zach and I joined a delegation of about 50 students and staff from Verb at Club Nokia downtown at LA Live for the event. The tickets (which went for $105 a pop!) were donated by a LA County Councilmember who has a special liking for Verb.  There were all sorts of honors being given and presentations being made, but we were most interested in the main event: the Glee Club.  The Morehouse Men put on a fantastic show, singing traditional African music, Christian spirituals, and other traditional songs.   There was also a guest electric violinist who tore up the stage; her rendition of Amazing Grace almost made me cry. 

After that very classy event, we joined up with the JVs for an event that was a little less classy but a ton of fun. We went to a midnight showing of a movie called The Room. It’s shown monthly in a movie theater in Hollywood and has a cult-like following across the country. It’s something like Rocky Horror in that people scream responses to the dialogue bring all kinds of props (plastic spoons, to be specific), and all seem to know it inside and out. The big difference is that it’s probably the worst movie ever made. The acting is atrocious, the filming is just sad, and there is actually footage that is repeated (and not in a dream sequence).  The writer/director/producer/star comes for Q&A and is absolutely insane.

On Saturday, I attended a conference with Colleen and Katie of Casa Ita Ford called Teen Summit: Preventing Dating Violence & Bullying.  It had potential to be a fantastic event – the speakers were wonderful, there were some great workshops lined up, and there was a ton of free food. Unfortunately, the whole thing was tainted by the lack of a schedule. Nevertheless, the keynote speaker started off the day with a moving story about growing up in Watts and dealing with gang life and the public schools. She also spoke about time she spent in prison after being charged with murder, and how she was determined to help young women turn their lives around before making decisions like the ones that led her to spend half her life locked up. She was inspiring, simply put. I attended a workshop about bully prevention, which proved helpful. The biggest problems with bullying at Urban Compass are among the girls – there are a couple girls constantly vying for the title of Queen Bee, and others who begrudgingly follow their every move in order to not be shunned. One girl straight up told me this, and said she was sick of it, but that there’s nothing she can do. The workshop had a couple suggestions, but for all the professional answers I would have to buy the services of the speaker.

On Sunday, I took a trip with my casa to The Getty Villa, a beautiful art museum in Malibu. It’s modeled after an Italian palace and is home to a beautiful collection. We took an architecture tour and ended up learning a lot about life in ancient Rome as we came to understand the layout of the palace, the materials used, and the namesake – J. Paul Getty.  It was a perfect spring-like day outside and being right on a cliff overlooking the Pacific was stunning.  

This week is our second area visit, and we kicked it off wonderfully with dinner tonight with our ever-fabulous support people and program coordinator. Thanks to Maria, Krista, and Andrew to their constant encouragement!