Aids Walk 25 was a blast!
I spent Sunday afternoon at Central Park with family and friends, attending the AIDS Walk 25 concert.
With the wife and kids in tow, we headed over to midtown to catch Leon and The Peoples’ set, which was supposed to start at 12:30, but hadn’t (thank you CPT!)
After lugging the two lawn chairs, two sleeping bags, diaper bag, freezer bag of snacks, hobo bag with blankets, stroller and four kids halfway across the park (from 65th and Madison), we finally arrived at our destination.
Now I was supposed to be ‘backstage’ (on account of me being a VIP and all) but there was no way I was subjecting myself to the torture of chasing three kids around craft services and celebrities.
So we opted for the grassy knoll to the right of the stage (on the other side of the fence) instead.
The pack mule (=Stephen) was unloaded, we set up camp and proceeded to get our collective groove on.
As soon as I was all comfortable, I saw a few folks I knew and headed over.
I gave a pound to my peoples, Danny Greene, Jon E. Edwards, Victor Lewis, and Leon.
Danny and Jon were recording Leon’s set, and are co-producers of a film (currently in post-production) called Mr. Sophistication, that features Leon.
But there were mad heads in the cut as well, Bob Johnson, Ed Woods, Malik Yoba, among others.
Now you must know my girl D was with us, and she is crazy off-the-chain.
When she heard that Malik was in the cut, she told us she was going to head over to f with him for GP.
A few years ago when she met him at APT, she stated (matter-of-factly) “I haven’t seen you in anything recently!”
Chanel and I were aghast at her audacity, but Malik seemed…smitten.
And the love affair began.
I was genuinely concerned for Malik as D (and her acerbic wit) made her way over for Round 2.
When she returned, she regaled us with another story involving the aforementioned wit, a tussle with denim and one Mr. Yoba drawn deeper into D’s mischievous rabbit hole.
And then she proceeded to knock over what looked like a miniature cricket set of these two dudes whose misguided survey of the grounds led them to select next to us as the location for their game.
I’ve got to do a separate post about D one of these days (this little ditty does her no justice).
When Leon’s set was over, the pack mule (=Stephen) was laden (once again) with our gear, and we headed back through the park to the ride.
I might be working with Leon and his crew in the near future, and I expect that D will be harassing Malik as well, so stay tuned.
Stephen Chukumba 