Yesterday was AMAZING.
We started off our Saturday by meeting up at the forWord headquarters at around 12:30 PM. Steph, Susan, and I worked on our untitled piece. It’s pretty much done (Sorry, Mark!). Just kidding. Since I called him out the day before on A P.O.E.M., he worked on his piece for today.
- A P.O.E.M. is an ongoing event on Facebook dedicated to celebrate National Poetry Month by recording 30 poems for 30 days where poets call each other out with a random topic. I was Day 8 and wrote about what makes me the most happy. Then I called out Mark for Day 9 and had him write about trucks and headlights. Steph and Susan are soon to be next!
At around 5:30 PM, we headed out to Tard and Feathered Presents Rufio Ink Launch Party in Los Alamitos. Do you all remember the movie, Hook? It was a hit movie back in the 80s with Robin Williams as Peter Pan and I hope you remember RUFIO (the one with the spiky black hair streaked in red). So Dante Basco and his sister, Lady Basco, are launching a new t-shirt company and we were fortunate enough to be personally invited by Lady Basco herself to join the festivities!
We met up with Kevin Mai and Victoria Hanna (Uncultivated Rabbits!).
It was a fun-filled day with jokes coming everywhere from left to right.
I especially love when we quote each other’s poems and impersonate one another. I am glad that they were able to come kick it and share this night with us.
When we arrived, we didn’t know what to expect. I thought it was going to be in some abandoned warehouse. It wasn’t. It was in a clothing store, Tankfarm, in a plaza. In the front, there was a place where you can take professional photos with the Rufio Ink logo and a sick motorcycle. There were trucks outside selling french fries and ice cream. People everywhere! We saw Lady Basco and she welcomed us as always. She is just so chill.
We went inside the store. Of course, there were Rufio Ink t-shirts everywhere. Two security guards were at the entrance of another door. Steph got carded and was asked how old she was. I got carded too and they asked me what my birthday was. Do we really look that young??? We are 23 years old! It’s cool. We’ll stay sippin’ on this fountain of youth.
After they checked our IDs, it was crowded inside. There was live art happening on the side. Artists were designing their own versions of the Rufio Ink logo. There was an open bar. CRUNK. HYPHY. Yeah, we had a few drinks.
When Kevin, Victoria, and Mark went outside, it was Steph, Susan, and I just chilling around the stage. Then out of nowhere… Dante Basco came and toasted his drink with us. He complimented us on our poems that we performed last week at Speak Easy in Downtown LA (it was a celebration for Lady Basco’s Birthday). I honestly didn’t know what to say other than to thank him. I find it difficult to talk to someone who I see as a celebrity. I just couldn’t believe he was right there. It was SURREAL. I first saw him on Hook when I was a kid. But I didn’t know he was Dante Basco until I saw him in The Debut back in high school. Anyways, life is too good to us.
There was a live performance segment. Lady Basco invited forWord to come perform. Steph and I performed “Shared Roots” which is about a time someone called us whitewashed for being born in America as Filipinos. We have VIDEO soon to be uploaded on YouTube.
All of the performances were sick. Dante Basco spit a couple poems. Lady Basco spit a couple poems. They both ripped the stage. Yee!
AJ Rafael worked on that piano.
Derrick Brown spit his poem.
Tara Malia played the ukulele!
Afterward, we met a lot of people. It was all smiles. We had our first interview as forWord with Bakitwhy.com. This is a milestone for us!
We gave a shout-out to Uncultivated Rabbits. We can never forget our roots! We discussed how forWord came to be. We talked a little about our writing process. We remembered to say how forWord is spelled. And we all moved “forward” into the camera. Thank you to Nino and Samantha! We may also be spotlighted by them for National Poetry Month. Look out for the interview coming soon.
Words cannot express how I am feeling right now. I wish these words could talk themselves because they could speak forever on all the emotions that are flowing through my body. I’ll do my best to describe by saying that we are so THANKFUL to be given this opportunity to share the night with Lady Basco and Dante Basco. It made it even better that Kevin and Victoria were there. I definitely will not forget this night!
forWord is moving forward… toward what end? We have no idea. We are just taking it one step at a time. Spoken word, we love you so.
- Eddy M. Gana Jr.
