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I had a great day visiting schools in Thunderbay! The girls out here were so LIVE and friendly! In the morning we heading out to Goreham Ware and followed that up with Winston Churchill in the afternoon. I found the Q & A portion of the show very interesting today as many of the girls asked really great questions and shared stories of challenges they faced as girls growing up in the community of THUNDERBAY. Everything from being told they couldn’t play football, to facing domestic abuse in the house hold to even being discriminated against for not only being a girl, but for their race and culture.
I definitely faced a lot of discrimination when I was growing up in Vancouver as a kid whose family had immigrated to Canada at the age of 9. I spoke English with a SINGAPOREAN ACCENT (SINGLISH), had the nerdiest clothes (my brother’s hand me downs) and was the biggest tom boy (my hair covered my eyes most of the time). At a pretty young age I got into Hiphop culture and this became my escape and private way of expressing myself. I used to bump PUBLIC ENEMY at the loudest volume my Sony Cassette player could muster and jump frantically up and down on my bed singing a long and venting my frustrations of how no one could relate to me. Soon after I discovered a Graffiti writer named LADY PINK, and I couldn’t believe a woman was allowed to do what she was doing…tagging up walls and creating pieces (WILDSTYLE BURNERS) with the guys. I started drawing on EVERYTHING! My school books, binders, tables…and this became another creative outlet for the isolation that I felt. I remember at a high school dance in grade 6, I would dance the way I wanted to and some of the kids would look at me like I was a total freak. At this particular dance I was wearing size 40 neon red jeans with a matching neon red shirt. Everyone else dressed much more conservatively. The DJ of the dance had brought a crew of Bboys with him, and I noticed they were dressed in a similar fashion to me for the first time in my life! Midway through the dance, one of the bboys approached me, told me he appreciated how different my style was and asked if I wanted to learn to break dance. I had recently discovered a female break dancer named ASIA ONE and was thrilled to learn to do what she could do. Long story short, I met up with these bboys after school every other day and learned how to uprock, 6 step and do some basic freezes! They used to kid around and call me MASIA ONE because I looked up to Asia One so much! All these years later, I would never think that I would be making a living as a rapper with the stage name Masia One, but all great stories have to start somewhere…you just have to be willing to take the first step and be unafraid of who you are.
I want to encourage all the girls I met today to support one another and not buy into the “catty, gossipy, bullying” image that reality TV always portrays of women. In the end, it’s such a waste of time. If you’re being picked on, please be strong and learn to develop your unique beauty. Maybe right now it feels like no one understands or picks on your for who you are, but learn more about what you love, develop your skills and share with those who will listen. It’s always best to keep focused on the positive and let the bullies, bigots and negatoids wallow in their own unhappiness. Lionesses have no time for such riff raff. Big up all my warriors!
ps: As promised, pictures are posted below!
One Love
Masia.
Loved this display of music products! Did you know the castte tape was not invented until he could sell them for $100
Everyone at Goreham listening to Miss Eternia speak!
Tweeting back stage! www.twitter.com/masiaone
Churchill girls 1
This girl was so pretty and shared with me that she was discriminated against.
Thanks for buying a LIONESS shirt guys!
3 Comments
After your performance, I went home and really ended up thinking about what you guys said, and your history of where you all came from, not only you but all the girls we heard from. I realized that in high school, you tend to lose your way.. I’ve lost my way and I haven’t stayed true to myself.. Since your performance, I realize I need to change.. Your right, at the end of the day.. gossiping, and all that rat-a-taa isn’t worth it. You guys really inspired me to kick it back to my old school ways! and I have to thank you..
I forgot, where I came from..how I started my life, I forgot about all the things in my child hood that should make me the chick I am today. I got bullied a lot when I was younger..since I started school I was bullied, well into grade 7. Even then I was still a target for people to vent on.. When I was younger, I found good ways of getting that out, by helping younger kids at lunch time.. or cleaning up the art room( how i got into art). All those things, make me who I am today.. and not who the media wants me to be..
Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks! It’s too bad all the grade 11 girls and 12 girls didn’t get to see the performance. I’m sure it would have inspired many!
From Haiti to Singapore, to Colombia to Africa, we are all ONE.
p.s I didn’t get to mention this when we talked, but as you rock Jamaica, My homeland is Trinidad and Tobago.. When I was listening to your music i had to reply it, for the shout out to TnT!
Rikaa.
Rikaa!
Thank you for taking the time to comment and share in such an honest way! Loosing your way is always part of finding your way…as the saying goes being strong is not how many times you fall, but how many times you are able to pick yourself back up!
I wish the grade 11 and 12 girls and GUYS could have made it too, but either way…maybe your school will win the dance! LOL. I’ll fly in from where ever I am in the world to perform and host the party with Eternia!
From Thunderbay to Trinidad to worldwide…One Love! Stay sweet and creative as you are!
ps: I hope to go to Trinidad one day…I love me some DOUBLES and hot peppa sauce!
haha yeah, I hope the school wins too, it’ll be nice for a change
I Havent gone to a dance in such a long time, I think having you two host would deff bring back the joy of going to school dances
If you do get a chance, go to Tobago and try the Roti there, TO DIE for, aha.
My mom makes home made doubles that are very good. aha.