toussaint the liberator

Spirit of mandela 
What we need now is a clear way forward. What we need is to stop preaching to the choir and figure out a way to get regular Americans to understand the stakes of leaving an entire portion, a vibrant portion, a life giving portion of its populace behind in its blind attempt to forge ahead without reckoning with its ugly past. We see all of the trimmings of an erasure. Heavy money coming from the right to erase critical race theory from education completely and absolve America of any…

An evening with Toussaint in Portland Oregon

So im nah gonna say much because then i would be battling with de elder dem.  That is nowhere near my intent.  so my few words will be simple.

I was in a bad way.  The album "Black Gold" was being recieved well by the reggae community worldwide.  But i had just finished a 19 day tour on the West Coast supporting the record and we were in talks to try and do a nationwide run.  As it is with everything, hindsight is twenty twenty.  After the  west coast tour, we…

Iyahni nah afraid. Nah Jah. Iyahni nah timid. Uh uh Jah. The power given to I is great and i intend to use it all. I am nah put here to shrink for you. I am nah put here to make you comfortable. Man wan peace den nah battle. Man afraid den nah call I. Iyahni nah stand for no foolishness. Iyahni stand with my community AND I stand alone. Jah protect the sure. And Jah protect the weak. And Jah will still be here when all the lies have been laid bare. Know yourself. Use this time wisely. Stop looking for…

WARTIME FALL EDITION

Peace to everyone out there in the world.  This is an important piece for those of us that are struggling to find direction in this "new normal."

What is not new is that we as black people have been constantly under attack no matter what the normal is.  It is time for a united front.  It is time for us to have some semblance of togetherness.  This organization is one that i am very excited to be a part of.  We are building up our ranks by reaching out to black men all over the country…

Welcome back to another edition of The Liberator Talks.  I'm your host, Toussaint The Liberator and i have someone special to introduce to all of you. 

Moon is one of the baddest musician i know and has been creating not only music but all kinds of different art for many many years.  We linked some years back and he was one of a few producers from my very own Black Gold project that came out in 2010.  He has before and since then been a collaborator on an exhaustive list of musical offerings from artists…

So when i thought of starting this interview series, I realized that there are so many people that i know that are giants in their respective fields.  To get us started is someone that i look up to immensely.  As i sit here and write, i am listening to Kamasi Washington's song "Changing of the Guard" from an album called The Epic.  It is so majestic and regal, and that coupled with the man i am about to present to you all makes me feel like i am in the temple of Black Excellence!!!  And what better way to…

Greetings all of you beautiful people out there in the world!  I salute you for grinding and doing what you can do to keep a level head in these times.  It has been hard for me and i have definitely had ot do a more intensive regimen just to be pleasant which has led me to riding my bike incessantly every day searching for that peace place where i can actually see the thoughts that burn the edges of my reality and push me towards the dreams the drive me.   Those frayed edges of reality have always been…

When i was about 17 years old, i was a freshman in college.  I had a professor by the name of Dr. Paul Gugin at the University of Evansville, and for political science 101, one of the books we were to read was The Black Jacobins by C.L.R.James.  This book ended up changing my life forever.  I was blessed with the good fortune of graduating high school in the golden era of black music.  The culture was thick and vibrant from all angles.  The underground was substantial, mainstream was getting flooded with…

A few years back when i returned to Boston, i began to work for the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain.  They were a nice group of people doing some antiracist work within the community and i was thinking i could work within that energy to get some things going.  One of the things that i started when i was there was a drum circle. And from there the goal was to do some organizing.  I got a little traction with what i was trying to do, but it turned out it was not enough to stay. It was a weird time for…

I grew up angry.  I was a smart little kid.  My parents were very deliberate in that my mother stayed home with all of us until my youngest brother was five years old.  The development that happens during that time is so phenomenal when you have your mother present and available.  Me and my four siblings all thrived because of this, and we launched into kindergarten with a real love of learning.  My mother fought hard to get me into private school and because i got in, so did my siblings.  Of course it was…