After editing the interviewing, and watching it a few times, I honestly feel like this is an interview that the world needs to see.  I think Brother Ali touches on some amazing points and he was gracious enough to take us into his own personal life in hopes of others learning from what he went through.  I encourage you all to support conscious musicians like Brother Ali in their quest of spreading the truth.

NOTE: This interview does have some explicit language that may not be suitable for young audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.

Part 1 of 4

Part 2 of 4

Part 3 of 4

Part 4 of 4

i-appreciate.org interview with Brother Ali about domestic violence, his songs Dorian and Babygirl, and his new album entitled Us.

For more information about i-appreciate.org please visit:

http://www.i-appreciate.org

http://www.facebook.com/iappreciateorg

http://www.twitter.com/iappreciateorg

For more information about Brother Ali please visit:

http://www.brotherali.com/

http://www.twitter.com/brotheralimpls

peace

-ai-

I highly encourage you all to take a minute and visit the website at Save The World Blog and to join their Facebook Group

Enjoy…

peace

-ai-

There are parts of the interview that contains explicit language so viewer discretion is advised.

peace

-ai-

Altamash Iftikhar and Immortal Technique talking after the interview...

Altamash Iftikhar giving Immortal Technique an i-appreciate.org shirt after the interview

I love this kind of involvement and encourage people of all creative styles to submit written works, photos/art, or videos to be premiered on our blog.  I hope you enjoy this piece (as it’s from my boy Muhi) and encourage each and every one of you to get involved in the fight against domestic violence…

peace

-ai-

About the author: Muhi is a senior at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and is majoring in History with a minor in Psychology.  He’s always been fond of the arts and sensitive towards the development of communities.  Muhi has many aspirations, but one of his favorite passions is to mobilize others.  Muhi plays rugby for UM-Dearborn and is a well connected and involved optimistic humanitarian in the metro Detroit area.  For more of his poetry, check out www.xanga.com/poetichermit85 or for his daily dose of thoughts find him on Twitter, www.twitter.com/michiganmuhi.

Empty Space – 1/10/2008

It’s too late to hate,
I’m one step passed ‘had enough’,
It’s like nothing resonates in his head when I say ‘stop’.
He says ‘I love you’ and it frustrates me beyond belief.
Those deadly words have bruised me, they’ve scarred me.

Part of me feels torn, and the other feels nothing,
There is an empty space that eats me up inside,
The warmth of his body cuts me cold,
But I can’t seem to let go.

It’s too late to hate,
I’m one step passed ‘I’m done with this’.
He doesn’t seem to care and promises he’ll stop,
I don’t trust him anymore and the look on his face hurts me so much,
As his hand connects with my face,
This empty space engulfs in flames and destroys a memory bank of pictures in frames.
‘I’ve had enough, I’m done with this’.

It’s too late to hate,
I’m one step passed ‘I’m leaving’.
NO man will ever raise their hand against me,
This beauty is profound and I’m a woman on a mission,
To help with getting past the remission,
Barren trees and dried up leafs,
I can only love when it’s in season,
I’m single for a reason,
Maybe it’s cyclical in this empty space,
The void between love and hate,
Maybe you can relate,
But in some way this was my fate,
I’m here to give a voice,
To tell you there is a choice,
To be bold and brave,
And not living in a grave,
To stand up and fight,
And give the abused their right,
To take this empty space,
Give it up with haste.

It’s too late to hate,
I’m one step passed ‘I’m going to make a difference’.
This new reality is of the essence,
It is the only thing that makes sense,
I am finally reasoning for myself,
Finally respecting myself.

This empty space mutates and isolates,
When all I really need is someone who can relate,
We all carry these empty spaces,
Lets shatter these vases,
That are holding flowers blooming with sensation.

It’s too late to hate,
I’m one step passed ‘living my life right’.
I got past the empty spaces,
I’ve filled them with smiling faces and happy occasions,
Thank you for the courage,
Thank you for the support,
Thank you for helping me find my own worth,
It’s too late to hate,
And I’m one step passed ‘forgetting him’.

First of all, I want to thank each volunteer that made it out and helped spread the word today.  We definitely reached a ton of people and we all had some pretty deep and insightful conversations with people.  I had a lot of people asking about the shirt and just asking about the organization in general, but I wanted to reflect on two special encounters that I had today.

The first instance was on State St. when I was passing fliers out.  As I said before, each flier had a statistic on it and the web address.  As I was handing them out, an African American man came back and stopped me and repeated the stat on his card to me.  I said yeah and he said “that’s a hell of a statistic”.  And walked away looking pretty upset.  I believe the statistic was 1 in 5 teenage girls are abused by their partner.  And that is a “hell of a statistic.”  It’s a scary statistic and it is the sincere hope of i-appreciate.org that we either help to educate the youth more so to minimize such horrifying numbers, or that we do everything in our power to help empower victims to these acts…

The second instance impacted me tremendously.  As I made my way to Michigan Ave. I met this young lady with kids and began talking to her about what i-appreciate.org is all about.  She smiled and put her hand on my shoulder and told me that this was great work and that she would definitely buy a shirt.  She got a little emotional but was being strong in front of her kids and said to me “my sister was murdered three years ago…” and didn’t need to end that sentence.  She didn’t need to finish the rest.  We need to put an end to this.  We need to come together and fight for good and fight against evil.  We need to put aside our differences whether they be religious or cultural and unite for a good cause.  As my man Brother Ali says in his new album, there’s no me and no you it’s just us…

I met some really other interesting people while passing these things out (and was even interviewed by a group of high school girls for a project they were doing–big ups to Stagg High School and I hope you get an A on your project Jessica!) not to mention meeting the famous New York rapper Jadakiss after the whole thing was over.  All in all things went well and I look forward to working with you all in the future to help make a difference in the lives of many…

peace

-ai-

peace

-ai-

Part 1 of 2 of Interview with K’naan

Part 2 of 2 of Interview with K’naan

If you are a writer, artist, photographer, singer/performer, or have some type of talent and want to submit a piece on domestic violence.  I have had some people contact me asking if they have to be a victim of domestic violence or have to experience it to submit a piece.  This is not the case at all!  We welcome any people who have a creative way to portray domestic violence from any viewpoint!  So if you have something and would like to share, please feel free to submit it and we will feature it on our blog.

Enjoy it and spread peace…

-ai-

About the Author: Asad Jaleel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has a B.S. in Biology. He has taught with Kaplan, the Chicago Public Schools, and Islamic Foundation School. He is a published poet.

In fever dreams
I hear her cries for help
Her quick steps across the kitchen floor

Moon and stars witness
As do I from the stairs
Veins in his head throbbing

His angry shouts
The curse-words spilling from the mouth
Words that belie the ancient vows

Flesh on flesh
Two locked in a struggle
But one so much weaker

When I turned eighteen
I left the madness
And told her to escape too

She said it would stop
She said not to worry
She said it wasn’t his fault

Buried rage
Hidden but not forgotten
Simmering like hot soup

I swore to myself
I would never be that kind of man
I feared becoming feared

Missteps I’ve made
My blood has boiled
But I remember the heavens watching

peace

-ai-

About the Author: Deeznia is a young, aspiring writer from Africa.  She is 23 years old and recently graduated college.  She received her B.A. in Communication from the Daystar University which is located in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ever since my four year-old daughter was born, the story has been the same
Evening would draw nigh and I’d dread his coming home
More often than not I thought about using the rope
But instead I found myself turning to small doses of dope

The days start with a bash on the head
Sometimes I sit and wish I were dead
All he ever does is put his hands on my neck
A few days ago, in a fit of rage threw me the video deck

I fear leaving because he will hunt me down
I’ve contemplated rising early and taking my daughter at dawn
Driving far into the distance where I’ll be alone
But I don’t want her to grow up without a father; so maybe I’ll leave when she’s grown

Last night he hit me with a baseball bat
I could have sworn I almost heard my ribs crack
I fell down and that’s when he began to kick
Dropping the bat, I took it and hit him back

Mom seldom pays us a visit
She requested me to leave him, that’s what she sees fit
But when I gather the courage, he hurts me then I get sick
I know my time here is little as the clock goes tick

I live like a slave bound to his every word
I prepare myself like an Asian warrior with his sword
I ensure there’s nothing he can use to hit with me in plain sight
Sometimes I wish the day didn’t have the night

I loathe and despise him for doing this to me
Forcing me to stay home and taking away my life
He never listens to anything I say, nor does he care about my fate
I just hope by the time I gather myself, it won’t be too late

So today I was over at the free weight area and this really old guy smiles at me.  I mean he must have been about 70 years old.  He walks over from half way across the gym and is mouthing something to me.  I was thinking “great, he’s probably going to be like ‘sorry but I’m using this’ or something like that.”  I obviously couldn’t hear him because my music is super loud so I took out my head phones and he came up to me and said hi.

He asked me what the back of my shirt said and I turned around and told him it read i-appreciate.org.  He was interested in the shirt and after I explained it was for victims of domestic violence he was just like “that is so cool” and dapped me five.

Needless to say, that totally made my day.  That’s love.  That’s what’s up.  Even if he doesn’t buy a shirt, sign up to volunteer or even visit the website, atleast he knows that there are people out there of different backgrounds standing up for those who are victims of domestic violence.

The rest of my workout was with a huge smile which probably made some other people uneasy, but I don’t care…

-ai-

Yesterday, I believe the Facebook group was at 177, and today, 297 people.  That is a tremendous jump and want to personally thank each and every one of you for joining.  The mailing list only has 70 or so members so if you haven’t already joined, please do!  Also, make sure to follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/iappreciateorg) and add me as a friend on Facebook.

Oh, and before I forget, please go to the site and sign up to volunteer if you want to be actively involved with i-appreciate.org.  We have a few volunteers from around the U.S. (and even Canada) but definitely could use a whole lot more.

And as always, spread the word to anyone and EVERYONE you know (we want to be go global with this).  Tell your family, your friends, and yes, even those that you can’t stand…

It is extremely humbling to see such support and I seriously want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  Hopefully, together, we can change the world…

-ai-