A community-oriented art & graphic design collective. We make graphic apparel, hand-crafted accessories and produce events. And most importantly, spew randomness about important and non-important topics.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Woe to WHOA!

Why do I keep staying up until 4am roaming the internet? It's really annoying. I like being in bed by 11pm, waking up at 7am, getting a bunch of errands done, and then starting my work day. But now I find myself with so much time to get things done, and instead I stay up doing nothing on the internet. I'm actually really upset at myself and almost wanna cry right now. I've been SO freaking busy for months and finally I had a sort of 'forced vacation' and guess what I did nothing. PFFFFTTT

Here are some photos my dear friend Kola Shobo covering the International Women's Day Celebration 2010 in SF. There's some videos clips of the pieces I choreographed...somewhere but I'm too lazy to pull em out right now. So just lookie the pics...until later.

---By the way Chichi made 3 of the skirts pictured here with the Nigerian wax print ...see all I need in this creative life are my one3snapshot women...I created the performance piece, chichi makes the costumes, anneli designs all the posters and visual backdrops. BAM and that's the show!!



Peep the rest on our facebook page

I'm going to sleeep,
N

Thursday, March 18, 2010

What to do?



The image on the left is an ad I came across reading a home decor magazine (click the image to view the full version) and I thought to myself here we go again, 36.1 million people have been reduced to a charity case. I hate this depiction of African countries, which is what the image on the right evokes in people's minds. I am especially weary of patronizing non-profits who use us to make millions. When I have conversations with my peers about the state of Nigeria, I hear them echoing the very same things our parents said - our leaders have failed us, we are corrupt to the point of no return. We have all at one point or multiple points in time done the kanye shrug and simply put our noses to the grindstone so we can work hard and support our families here and back in Nigeria. Lately I have been wondering is that all we can do?

The earthquake in Haiti has people talking about the effects of Haiti being marginalized dating back to the 1900s. It scares me because Caribbean and African immigrants typically send money home, we are not too big on investing and give the side eye to widely publicized Let's save Africa campaigns, Project (Red), Live 8 anyone? The earthquake happened, and where is all the money that was sent home over the years now? If even a portion of it had been redirected into infrastructural investments maybe they would have more than one functioning port, perhaps another airport...I don't know. I am in no way saying that we should stop remittances entirely, but instead of clucking our tongues and shaking our heads at the state of things and the people in government are not doing anything, can't we private individuals collectively do something substantial?

Honestly, I don't know the answers... all I know is we have entrusted strangers with our dirty laundry and they are publicly displaying it and dirtying it up even further. Dambisa Moyo thinks foreign aid is impeding our ability to thrive and thinks micro finance is part of the solution. To a very large extent it has worked, there are numerous success stories to prove it but sometimes I wonder if it will turn out to be just like the others. Maybe it isn't micro financing, maybe it's supporting fair trade businesses like My Asho and Mad Imports that directly impact communities in African countries. Maybe it's investing in the Africa Vectors ETF (AFK) or directly in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

I am so inspired by the Light Up Nigeria movement, I hope it can eventually be channeled into doing something more concrete than #lightupnigeria tags on twitter and who is not to say it will not in the future? And if it does, I hope they don't tow the line and ask China to invest in a power generating plant in Calabar but actually tap into the immense and under-utilized power of the Nigerian diaspora. If people actually see results, I know that they will invest in it. Nollywood and the burgeoning music industry in Nigeria can attest to that - the profits are actually going into the hands of regular people. Chijioke in his stall in Onitsha market is making money because Jumoke bought Nollywood DVDs that were made in Nigeria and is now selling them from her Brooklyn apartment.

Besides complaining, what else can we do?

Further reading:
Why Haiti Matters Part 1, Part 2
Stop Trying to Save Africa

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Oh the joy!



Siblings rocking One3snapshot originals. 

FYI - Our online store will be inactive for a period of time, if you live in the Bay Area please visit Artillery Gallery to purchase our merchandise. For all other inquiries, please contact us via email - info@one3snapshot.com 

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Once Upon a Time...

Hi. N here...

Okay when I revived the concept of us starting to blog again somehow I figured I'd try to do once a week. I think I was successful for like the first 3 posts; how hard could it be to come up with insightful yet witty commentary on this and that. And SPLAT! now I've hit a wall. I'm so facking busy and when I'm not I'm just lazy and blank. Asides from blogging...in general I feel like I've reached a creative wall block... Maybe I'm not alone... Chichi, Anneli and I are kinda like blehhhh I don't know it's weird. We're trying to truck through to produce new shite but it's like we're so busy with work, family and random fool fool drama...there's no time to just sit and create. Also it could just be transient...we're creative in other ways and have to find a way to accommodate that and express it still under the collective vehicle.

I'm getting my fix a bit with working on a dance piece that is a concept that's swirled in my head for years and finally is able to have some form of fruition. this makes me happy...but I really miss sitting for hours getting lost in the process of making earrings...this is kinda frustrating 'cos when I haven't done it for long then it's like I'm starting over. I also had a lot of support with the earring making from friends and my sweet and I guess I'm like mehn I need to get on with it, so the investments don't go to waste. I really don't wanna be that unproductive and seemingly flighty. My goal is to get at least TWO basic styles of earrings by the end of this month that will be available for sale on the website, and some one of kind pieces to boot. Hold me to this yo!

Until then if you are in the BAY area come check out the International Women's Day Celebration event March 12-14 at Mission Cultural Center (see flyer/link below for more details). I'll be premiering my Woe-man to Whoa!myn dance/poetry piece there. Which is pretty much a work in progress of sorts... I'm really excited about it and can't wait.

March 12 -14,
Fri. & Sat. @8pm, doors open 7pm
Sun. @2 pm, doors open 1pm
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Pasrking at Mission & Bartlett garage (btwn 21st and 22nd)
Adults $10, 18 and under $5