is, in the dark venue, young black men and women, giving hugs, kisses, pounds, daps, secret handshakes, calling their play cousins by nicknames while their shadows dance to Wu-Tang before the actual show starts.

I love it.

Young and black and young and black and young and black.

I went to see my homeboy scienZe perform the other night. A young Brooklyn emcee, I’ve been following for a while. The environment he ushered in is the one that gives us hope in ourselves, in our future, and in our young people.

I also got to hear some new nicknames. Peanut and Boobie and Black are gone. Old school. There was a dude there…a dude everyone loved, called Icy Popcorn. Yes…Icy Popcorn.

Amazing.