Change is Gonna Come: Obama Inauguration

Kenyatta Hill (son of the late great lead singer for Culture, Joseph Hill) rocks the mic real hard in Georgetown after the Inauguration.

January 20, 2009
I had just come back from a government sanctioned trip to Havana on a professional researcher visa to finish photography for Havana Habibi. It was was snowing in New York, I was beat, but I knew I had to go to DC and follow up to the Brooklyn Obama little mini doc I did. I drove down with my sista Regine Romain and her daughter Ngozi and dropped them off in Silver Springs where I connected with my bredren Tikher Teferra, who was my assistant director/sound man for The Seed, the feature film I shot in Ethiopia. He'd moved from Addis Abeba to the states in 2008 and now works for a video production house in Silver Springs. We ate bomb Ethiopian food and went tried to go to bed early, knowing we'd have to wake up at 4am to get an early start on Obama's Inauguration. There was such hype over the whole thing, traffic alerts, folks making it seem like it would be impossible to get there from new york... We got up well before dawn and hopped on the train, which was packed to capacity and rode in. The vibe was jubulant, somewhat quiet, but electric on the train. I was struck by how many children were coming out, as well as how strong the turnout was considering how freezing it was... it was hurt you cold... mean to you kind of cold. We were unable to get to the train stop we wanted to because of the crowds, so we walked a little farther to the festivities. Volunteers were out in mass to help direct folks, but I think some were from other cities, because they we got some opposing dirctions. Our press passes came from an on-line hip hop magazine, and turned out to be disfunctional when it came to getting to the press area, so we did plan B, and just talked to folks about why they made the journey and what kind of expectations they had for the future. That night was full of celebration, the hustlers came out and sold everything from Obama hot sauce, condoms, watches to Obama air fresheners, cups, plates, and thongs. We breezed through a party that i was very underdressed for and ended up going to Georgetown to see Kenyatta Hill perform in a little Reggae club.
Enjoy the video!