Thai Chickens like these...

After Thursday's session we've spent Friday at Soul Rival and Velocity crew member Ted Her aka B-Boy Flake's place in Tulsa. We had a great interview with the 18 year old B-Boy who has, like B-boys Sukie (Shoua) lived in California for a lot of his life before coming to Tulsa. For all of the interviews we've been conducting, I'm always reminded by the correspondence with our project adviser, Vivian, to not only get concrete stories but those ever elusive metaphors! Something in the surrounding area that could represent the struggles or ideas visually that we're trying to capture with the words in our interview. Friday as we arrived at Ted's I was treated to a COCK FIGHT with two of their neighbor's big Thai Chickens. Having never seen anything like it, I was immediately intrigued. Apparently he was just sparring/training the chickens, to be ready for their time to really battle. They tape up their dangerous sharp tallons, as their fights aren't about the blood, so much as they're valued more for their skill, stamina, and endurance, like a boxing Prizefighter! Following the interview, we touched on topics such as training and how he's really learned and developed as a B-Boy through battling. As the other guys showed up, we got some more in depth stories about their camaraderie, about life in Tulsa being Asian, and more about them as a B-Boy crew.

--Chris

Labels: cock fights, metaphors, oklahoma, production