Laura G Manifold

This one’s for you Gabs.

Lentil Taco “Meat”
Recipe adapted from The Ordinary Vegetarian 

• 1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked over - I usually use brown lentils, but when my stock is low, red lentils and/or chana dal work just fine.  Be sure to soak the chana dal before you cook it.
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced - or more, if you’re nasty
• 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped - red, yellow or orange, I do not recommend green
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms - I like crimni best 
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
• 2 ribs of celery, sliced
• 1 can diced tomato  - Muir Glen’s Organic Fire Roasted are where it’s at
• 1-1/2 tbsp chili powder 
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf 
• dash cayenne 
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste.
• Olive oil for sautéing - I use about 2 T, but you can use more or less depending on your preference.

Saute onion until soft and slightly brown.  Add about 1/4 cup of water and stir in the garlic, bell pepper, and mushrooms. If the pan starts to dry up and the contents get sticky icky, add a bit more water. Next, add in the lentils, carrots, celery, chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, bay leaf, and cayenne, and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add in the broth and bring to a boil. Let the goodness boil for about 1 minute, stirring constantly so as not to burn.  Then, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts drying out, add more water or broth.

Remove from heat and carefully drain off extra liquid. Don’t forget to remove bay leaf! Stir in tomato paste and lime juice. Transfer to food processor, blender or nifty hand blender and pulse a few times, until a crumbly texture is achieved. Be advised to not puree the mixture, otherwise you’ll have taco soup.  Which is not bad, just not the goal here.

This recipe will make six 1/2 cup servings, which you can could be use to make tacos, burritos, nachos or a salad (my preferred way to enjoy).

For taco salad, I like to use a mixture of spring greens and spinach.  I add avocado, radishes (trust on this one), tomato, fresh parsley and/or cilantro, cucumber, black olives, if I haven’t already demolished the jar, and lime juice.

Want to get to know the fly DREAM GIRLS from the photo shoots in my previous posts (sets I & II)? Check out the series of video interviews here.

Big up to Tewodross Melchishua aka That Soul Cinematic (TSC) for his production skills and to Gerald Watson for his hard work with this project.  Keep on!

I feel amazing.  After years of struggling with digestion issues, malnutrition, malabsorption, doctor visits, colonoscopies, misdiagnosis, I’ve finally discovered what works for me.  The whole me.  Mind, body, spirit - all of that business.  

I no longer wake up in pain in the middle of night.  I no longer have to excuse myself constantly to use the restroom.  I no longer fear road trips.  I can get out of bed in the morning.  I can think clearly.  I don’t miss out.  I smile.

It’s been about two full weeks now that I’ve gone full-on vegan.  While I’ve been gluten free off and on for several years, I’ve found that a plant-based diet void of any gluten is the best thing that I’ve ever done for myself.  

missturman:

Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference:
“Hip Hop, Education, and Expanding the Archival Imagination”

The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation (TASF) present the first annual Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: “Hip Hop, Education,…

(Source: missturman)

punchdouble:

Power (2009)

Much love and respect to @punchdouble

(Source: punchdouble)

Welcome to Part 2 of the SHAOLIN JAZZ – DREAM GIRLS photo shoot for the SHAOLIN JAZZ – T-shirt line.

Part 2 finds the girls progressing from their day in Part 1 into some familiar territory, especially if you’re a Hip-Hop head.

DREAM GIRLS …is a nod to the 90′s female Hip-Hop head, who is just as knowledgeable, confident, participatory, and literate in Hip-Hop culture as her male counter parts – essentially a male Hip-Hop head’s ‘Dream Girl.’

Shot by Chris Carr (Eat The Cake NYC), make-up by Diti (Diti Devi Makeup Artistry).  Featuring Alison Carney,Jayne Kennedi, Jheanelle Morgan, and Shanika Wright. 

See the full shoot here.

This could be the best flyer ever. (via quadrillion)

subtilitas:

Louis Kahn - Phillips Exeter Academy library, Exeter NH 1971 (click for big). Via Trent Bell.

A great article about the Phillips Exeter Academy Library in New Hampshire.

(via quadrillion)

thejazzwriter:

Fascism is upon us and I do not mean this lightly. I am writing this piece in the context of recent struggles which have exposed the acute nature of the current sociopolitical landscape. With the recent passing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) “which [authorizes] the U.S….

(via theoryactionpractice)

SHAOLIN JAZZ: SHAOLIN JAZZ - DREAM GIRLS - Photo Shoot - Part 1

daughtersofdilla:

Erykah Badu’s Radio Series Explores Music Generated by Black Power Movement

Contributors include: Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, founder of the Black Arts Movement Amiri Baraka, Black Arts poet Sonia Sanchez, jazz flautist Lloyd McNeil, Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets, Gill Scott Heron’s co-writer Brian Jackson, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and former Black Panther leader and songwriter Elaine Brown.

Listen to the second part of “Black is a country” on BBC Radio 4’s website.

analog-blog:

John Coltrane - Africa/Brass LP.

By NICK DERISO - All About Jazz

It’s perhaps no surprise that John Coltrane wanted to do something different upon moving to the Impulse label after a long association with Atlantic.

No surprise, either, that it might be a recording with a larger aggregate behind him. That was, and is, the style of the day when jazzers seek to get out of the box a bit.

Leave it to Coltrane to turn all of that on its ear with “Africa/Brass,” a 1961 release that — because of its orchestration — is at once rumbling and mellow, rather than swinging and bright. Coltrane hand picked a back-up group that featured only trumpets, trombones, French horns, tuba and euphoniums (a rarely used baritone horn).

Pianist McCoy Tyner, who even then had such burnished layering in his block-style approach, led Coltrane to this place. And it marked the beginning of a period of deep introspection and startling experimentation over the six years that remained before Coltrane’s tragic, too-soon passing.

Coltrane’s only Impulse recording with legendary producer Creed Taylor, “Africa/Brass” actually includes, in all but one tune, charts by future Coltrane regular Eric Dolphy — who listened intently to Tyner, and matched his texture and style. These music sheets were created from rough sketches by Coltrane, and workshopped right in the studio.

In this way, Coltrane kept the basic quartet approach, despite having all those other guys in the room. The close-knit, absorbing “Africa/Brass,” interestingly, had a limited number of solo voices — despite an orchestra that included Dolphy, Booker Little, Paul Chambers, Julian Priester and Freddie Hubbard, among others. It remained immediately identifiable as Coltrane, even in the new setting. 

We hear an expected, by then, take on a waltz standard in “Greensleeves” — something few would question after the artistic and commercial successes of Coltrane’s blockbuster “My Favorite Things” in 1960. The difference is drummer Elvin Jones, who was becoming ever more confident in the polyrhythms that would dominate jazz in the decade to come.

More interesting was the chant-like, almost religious beauty of “Africa,” this set’s centerpiece — and the launching pad for Coltrane’s move away from swing conventions into drones as a compositional foundation. Likewise, “Blues Minor,” worked out on the spot by Dolphy in a style that fit well with the stirring creativity now associated with this group, broods and swings with equal power.

Just that quick, Coltrane reinvented the one-off, large-group project.

Rather than sounding like a patch job, as many of these things so often do, the attention to improvisational detail, and careful selection of instrumentation, instead make “Africa/Brass” dark and powerful — adding unexpected hues to one of jazz music’s most brilliant improvisers.

Unfortunately, this is one of only two big-band sessions by Coltrane (the other being the otherworldly “Ascension,” also on Impulse, from 1965). Yet, “Africa/Brass” somehow — and this is baffling — remains one of his lesser talked-about releases.

To my mind, though, no John Coltrane collection is complete without it. Even four decades later, “Africa/Brass” still casts him — and this is saying something — in a new, insistently inventive, light. 

BY THE TIME I GET TO ARIZONA is a mural project through the collaboration of several artists throughout the US. This mural, as executed by the Momentum Art Team over a period of two days, is located in a Chicago Westside neighborhood. Their goal was to recreate Chuck D’s venture into the fine art medium for everyone to see.  Chuck D, working in conjunction with Scenefour Art Collective, used this project to focus on the problems associated with ill-conceived immigration policies in Arizona.

See a post of mine from this winter which features two of the artists, TOKEO and C3PO who hail from Chicago involved in the BY THE TIME I GET TO ARIZONA collaboration.