UNITYYYYYYYYYY! *Rick James voice*

So I co-chaired NPHC’s Unity Weekend 2011, which is the culmination of year-long planning and a celebration of you guessed it: UNITY amongst all 9 of the Black Greek lettered organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, that also operate under the moniker, the DIVINE 9.

We kicked off the weekend Friday night with Divine Skate 3, the third crack at a skate night at Waukesha Skateland.  Folks came out but not as many as I thought.   It's probably time to retire that event, I suppose.  I don’t skate (stopped after age 9 when I nearly cracked my head in on a field trip) so I was not that excited about that aspect, but I definitely wanted to see my fellow Greeks. The theme was to wear attire that represented what number you represent in your organization and since I’m part of the illustrious force that are the QUADs (#4s) I had to rock yellow.  It was cool to step out of my color box for a couple hours but I took that shirt off with the quickness when I got home. LOL

The Unity Cookout at Lake Park was Saturday and aside from the rain that drowned us out from the beginning hours until about 1:45, it was a nice turnout!  All 9 Greek orgs were represented at the park! I am too proud of us!  We had the Iotas grilling, the infamous moving van called the Q-Haul, a bright gold moving truck, and some so sweet desserts from the Zetas! The highlights in my opinion were the Greek Roll Call and everybody getting on the makeshift stage to do the Wobble! The Ques were deep and ready to hop, too... I'm sad we didn't have a stroll competition.

Now the after party this year to raise scholarship funds was appropriately called THE AFTERPARTY and it took place at the Aloft Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.  The space was eh… modest, but we had it until midnight and access to all the hot spots in the hotel like the patio, the WXYZ Lounge.  It was looking sad til about 10:30 then people were coming from everywhere nonstop, even after11:30 guests were still arriving AND paying knowing we stopped at midnight.  That room got packed and DJ Mike Love rocked it as usual.  Shoutout to the Alphas and SGRho's coming out deep.  All the young Greeks strolling had me reminiscing… I did get out there myself a couple of times. ;)  I deem it a very solid night for NPHC because once again EVERY org was represented!! I love it and it's definitely a mark of what’s to come for the year!

SERVE60’s 2^nd Sundays at the Lake occurred the next day and NPHC agreed to attend and volunteer to wrap up the weekend! The goal was to try something different than us barely making it to someone’s church after partying the night before and it certainly was a nice change. Sunday’s beautiful weather coupled with local gospel talent made it a good time!

NPHC- all I have to say is, in words of the Five Heartbeats,

“I’ve got nothing but love for you baby!”

3’s UP!

Big name music comes to the Mil!

For the doubters and naysayers that seem to always have the same old thing to say about Milwaukee, “man, there’s never anything to do!” YOU’RE WRONG!

I’ve been wonderfully blessed to attend some awesome concerts just this summer alone. I attended the Kanye West show at the Marcus Amphitheater at the end of June and I’m still reeling at how breathtaking it was. It was not just a concert, it was a spectacle. First off, I just knew what he was going to come out to… H.A.M. In my mind, that was the song that was going to drive the audience bananas and make us jump up out of our seats. And sure enough, the music to H.A.M. came blaring out and the crowd rose to their feet in droves! Then, this man came out the audience. I was done! Now, anytime somebody wants to take that risk with crazed and hyped fans consuming you, there’s nothing I can say aside from "I hope you have insurance!"

I swooned at the Musiq Soulchild concert on the Briggs & Stratton stage at Summerfest. It happened to fall on the best day of the year… MY BIRTHDAY in early July! He sang a couple of his hits, but what I was mostly excited about was him performing songs from his new album MagiqInTheMusiq which I absolutely adore. Musiq has always been a consistently good artist (he’s the Fabolous of R&B music) so I was geeked at the chance to see him perform live again.

Lastly, the man they call Lil Tunechi himself graced our amphitheater. Yeah, Rick Ross was there and got winded singing only one verse per song… but Lil Wayne is a charismatic show-stopper and I’m so glad I was able to see him perform in his prime. The last time I saw that young man was the Hot Boyz concert and that was hood city. At any rate, I told my boo I knew what song he was going to open with too, I’m Goin In! And sho’nuff, that was his opener and it cracked… HARD! He was very entertaining!

We’ve had Janet ,Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty come this past weekend as a stop on her#1s Tour, the Jersey Boys show was just here (I really want to see a Broadway show) and shucks MC Hammer was at State Fair… so there’s a plethora of big names that come to lil ol’ Milwaukee! Go check them out!

3's UP!