Bridge Over Troubled Water
From: Rock A Mole Productions
To: All lovers of music and all lovers of humanity
Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of the Los Angeles Rebellion. And yesterday, Los Angeles lost a great and rebellious soul, our friend and collaborator DJ Dusk. On April 29th, Dusk was crossing the street when he was hit by a car and killed.
We first met Dusk some years back when he was hosting the radio show “The Bridge” on KPFK-FM. Most of our crew and some visitors from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign in Philadelphia were on the show and, thanks to a booking by the Pride of Baltimore (Michael Griffee), we spent an hour getting to know Dusk while we preached and partied. We spun a crazy eclectic batch of records and talked about how good they made us feel. We talked about the crime of poverty in the richest country on earth and dreamed of a revolution that could save our country. We made one hell of a friend in Dusk and found out that his definition of “The Bridge” was more than a catchphrase, it was a blueprint for a whole different kind of world.
We worked together very sporadically since that night, connecting mostly by accident and occasionally by design. We did what we could to help him with his work with youth in the Mar Vista Gardens Projects. He helped us with our festivals. We talked for hours about music, especially the salsa of the classic era.
Dusk would come to our parties and kind of take them over in his subtle way, casting wisdom around the room with that sly, slick, and wicked voice.
Dusk would borrow an album and never return it. He’d tell you to your face he wasn’t going to. “Don’t worry, I’m playing it for more people than you ever would.”
Dusk would expound on the connections between different kinds of music and then get up there on the ones and twos and really make the point. One unforgettable night at the Root Down he mixed Sly Stone with salsa like his life depended on it. Only part of it worked, because he took chances, but the part that did work made you glad you were alive for days afterward.
Dusk dreamed of a world where no one went homeless or hungry, where no one was brutalized or left to die without medical care. Dusk dreamed of a world where we all crossed the bridge every day and paid no tolls.
Now Dusk won’t be here when we, all of us, make his dreams come true. But like the great DJ he was, he will feel the crowd and know what we have done.
Email to the family / April 30th, 2006