CFP: The South Atlantic, Past and Present

September 24, 2012 · by Jessica Marie Johnson

Guest Editor: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro (Université Paris Sorbonne)

This volume will focus on the historical, geopolitical and cultural aspects of the South Atlantic, past and present.

From 1550 to 1850 most of Brazil and Angola formed a system sustained by the slave trade and intercolonial traffic that complemented exchanges between these regions and Portugal. This system also included Buenos Aires, the Amazon maritime captaincies, the Senegambia and the Gulf of Guinea and, in the first half of the 19th Century, Mozambique. After the independence of the Lusophone nations in Africa, direct relationships were reestablished between the two sides of the ocean. New extensions appeared with the creation in 2003 of the India, Brazil and South Africa Forum. Underlining the new geopolitics of the South Atlantic, the United States re-established in 2008 the Fourth Fleet in the region (originally established in 1942 and disbanded in 1950).

The deadline for submission is 1 October 2012.

Themes include:

- The South Atlantic and the concepts of World-economy (Braudel) and World-system (Wallerstein)

- South Atlantic Geohistory and Historiography

- Languages and cultural exchanges in the South Atlantic

- Literary dimensions of the South Atlantic

- Lusofonia, religion and missionaries in past and present South Atlantic

- The teaching of South Atlantic history

- Forced and free migrations in the South Atlantic

- The South Atlantic, Hispanic America and the Caribbean

- The United States and the South Atlantic

- Mercosur and the South Atlantic

Please send submissions to the Guest Editor: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro: luiz.de_alencastro@paris-sorbonne.fr
Luiz Felipe de Alencastro
Centre d’Etudes du Brésil et de l’Atlantique Sud
Occident Moderne
Université de Paris Sorbonne
1,rue Victor Cousin
Paris 75005
phone 0140462685
Email: luiz.de_alencastro@paris-sorbonne.fr

cfp: The reality and the prospects

of gender equality

after “the Arab spring” (Conference)

Posted on November 7, 2012 by feministmemory

From my inbox:

The program on gender, society and human development and the research group “Identity and Difference,” at the faculty of Letters,

Mohammed I University, Oujda, Morocco

Organize

An international multidisciplinary conference on

“The reality and the prospects of gender equality after “the Arab spring”

May 30-31, 2013

As we all witnessed over the last 2 years, the Arab world has been shaken as it has never been in its entire history. Autocratic regimes crumbled like sand castles; others started reforms that would have been unthinkable a few years ago; social dynamics have been reconfigured and long crushed and silenced identities came to the surface. The whole world discovered for the first time that the monolithic image they had of this vast region and its cultures was a media-entertained ideological construction. Yet it came as no surprise to anyone in the region that from Casablanca to Sanaa women played a key role in the success of the uprisings that wiped out long ruling oligarchies in the region, ushering in an era of political reforms. In fact, during the revolutions gender was never an issue; women from all walks of life marched in the streets of Tunis, camped safely in Tahrir square took to the streets in Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Morocco. However, after the revolution many felt betrayed as they were excluded from decision making circles. Women hardly made 20% in the electoral lists in Tunisia, a country that passed a law for parity prior to elections; in Egypt women’s representation in the parliament dropped from 12% to 2% while in Morocco, despite the increase in the number of women MPs from 34 to 67 seats, the political parties that formed the new government marginalized women by decreasing the number of women ministers from 7 in the previous cabinets to only 1 minister out of 33 men. In Tunisia and Egypt, Salafist movements are exerting pressure on the constitutive assembly to write off women’s rights from the constitution drafts, and every day brings news of demonstrations against gender equality across the region. All of these unsettling developments are cause for great concern among civil society organizations, women’s rights activists and pro-gender equality media.

What went wrong? should we jump to conclusions and declare the “Arab Spring” has failed in bringing gender equality to Arab societies? And, if the much celebrated “Arab Spring” was about freedom, democracy and equal access to resources, why were women excluded from these rights right after elections? Why didn’t women’s efforts and momentum during the revolution pay off in the same way they did for men? Did we think “revolution” before we thought “democracy”? What meanings do “democracy”, “freedom” and “dignity” carry in our region? Are Arab societies ready for gender equality? Even more disheartening, is/was it ever on the agenda? Or was it just a male spring? Do women have to start their own uprising in order to impose their right on their fathers, husbands and bothers? Women constitute more than half the population in the region, why have they failed to seize the opportunity to claim more leadership? Why did the revolution lack the impetus for women’s rights and freedom? And most importantly, what is the future going to look like for half the population. Is culture to blame for women’s poor political participation? What can civil society do to promote women’s involvement and participation? How can we raise youth’s awareness to the necessity of gender equality?  These and other questions and topics are the main focus of the conference.

We are interested in papers (in English or French) that consider women’s and gender issues in the Arab world from an interdisciplinary perspective and that deal with (without being limited to) the following :

The role of women in the uprisings

Challenges to women’s political participation

Obstacles to women’s leadership

Economic/political empowerment

The prospects of gender equality in the Arab world

Women’s rights in the political discourse of the new rulers

Comparative studies of the new or projected constitutions

Educated women and men of the Arab diaspora in the West and the mentality change in the home countries.

The role for the local civil society

The positive/negative role of Arab media in promoting/demoting gender equality

Please send via email (no attachments) an abstract of approximately 250 words and a short narrative CV to the organizing committee (s.boutkhil@ump.ma and chourouq1@hotmail.com) by December 15th 2012. Completed papers expected by March 15th, 2013. Please note that the reading time is limited to 20 minutes per paper (8-9 typed pages).

Selected papers will be considered for publication, participants are therefore urged to conform their articles to the guidelines of the Chicago Documentation Style.

Air/train travel and accommodation will be at participant’s charge, The organizing committee will make hotel reservations at a negotiated price for 2 or 3 nights. A participation fee of 100 Euros is required.  2 lunches and 1 dinner will be offered to all participants.

A website for the conference will be available shortly.

HARLEM WORLD:

DAPPER DAN

 

With his eponymous store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered streetwear in the early 1980s by co-opting luxury branding from the likes of Louis Vuitton and MCM and designing original menswear with high-end detail—including exquisite leathers, furs, and skins. First drawing neighborhood hustlers and friends, Dan eventually outfitted rappers and other celebs of the time, such as Eric B & Rakim, and  Mike Tyson, to name a few. Now, nearly thirty years after entering the clothing game, Dan is plotting his return to the public eye. The reclusive designer recently sat down with Life +Times to discuss his career—alongside childhood friend Pee Wee Kirkland—retracing Harlem history in the process. For more information about Dapper Dan, visit his site.

In 'Let Fury Have The Hour,'

Chuck D, Van Jones

& Others Discuss

Role Of Artists

In Affecting Social Change

by Tambay A. Obenson

 
November 27, 2012 

 

A call to action, the short story goes... In the 1980s, a generation of artists used their creativity to respond to the reactionary politics that came to define the culture at the time. In director Antonino D Ambrosio's Let Fury Have The Hour, over 50 notable musicians, artists, and thinkers are brought together to trace a social history from the cynical heydays of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, to today, ultimately imparting a message of hope.

The indie documentary, which includes commentary from the likes of Chuck D, Van Jones, Suheir Hammad, John Sayles, and more than 50 others, will see a limited USA theatrical release starting on December 14.

When I know what cities exactly, I'll share here.

In the meantime, here's the trailer:

If you are having trouble viewing this email or if no graphics are appearing, please click here. 

 

---

 
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
Charles Kernaghan
November 27, 2012

 

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A Senior Worker

—An Eye Witness—

Relates What Happened

at the Tazreen Factory,

As Flames Engulfed

the Workers,

Many of Whom

Were Purposefully

Locked In.

 

“I was working on the fifth floor in the sewing section on the evening of Saturday, November 24^th. Fifty percent of the workers left the factory at 5:00 p.m. and the remaining 50 percent had to stay for overtime. All overtime is obligatory.

“Just a few days earlier, the factory had received piles of cartons full of cloth, yarn and thread, and some sewing machines. It was 6:30 p.m. on Saturday when the fire started on the ground floor, and it quickly spread to the upper floors. About 1,800 workers were trapped. Some men from the finishing section started to go downstairs to flee the factory. They were burned but escaped death. Our production manager, Mr. Monju, pulled down the collapsible gate on the third floor, forcing us to continue working. We pleaded with him to let us out, but Mr. Monju assured us that nothing was wrong and we should keep working. He told us not to listen to any rumors.  He said again, ‘Nothing has happened, just keep working.’

“We smelled the fumes and saw the flames coming from the ground floor of the factory. There is no emergency exit in the factory. Some of the finishing section workers managed to escape, but the sewing section workers were trapped inside since the production manager would not allow us to leave the factory and demanded we keep working.

“Some workers broke the windows and jumped from the building. I went to the rooftop of the building and saw that some bamboo poles were roped together to make a scaffold. The bamboo scaffold was being used to paint the outside of the factory. From the fifth floor, I was able to climb to the ground floor. It was risky, as the entire scaffold was shaking.

“I saw some workers were jumping from the broken windows. Some workers jumped from the roof and died. Most of the women workers were trapped inside the factory and burned alive, as the production manager instructed them not to leave and locked down the collapsible gate. Every floor has this kind of gate. We heard the alarm of the fire fighters. By then, the workers had to pay the ultimate price. 

“I can roughly estimate that at least 200 workers were burned to death, although the government has announced that the death toll is 112. The casualties took place as the panic-stricken workers jumped out of the burning factory trying to escape the fierce fire. The number of deaths could have been less if the production manager had allowed us to leave the sewing floor the minute the fire started. [Note: All the workers interviewed said they believed more than 200 workers had been killed in the fire.]

“The real figure is more than the declaration of the government. You have to understand the context of the situation. I have seen that some sewing machines were burned to ashes. Human bodies, which are softer than machines, can more easily be burned to ashes. You cannot find the remains of the bodies of the dead workers when they have been in a devastating fire for 12 to 13 hours. [Fifty-three bodies were burned so badly that they could not be identified and were buried at a graveyard in the capital’s Jurain district on Tuesday, November 27.]

“To my knowledge, 300 workers were injured. They got admitted to different medical college [public] hospitals and private hospitals and clinics.

“The factory fire was so devastating that neighboring houses were also destroyed.

“You see families of deceased workers surrounding the factory. The guardians of the missing workers are searching for their people and weeping. Guardians are showing us pictures of the missing workers. No one will know the exact number of deaths.”

 

A second observer recounts: 

“There was a fire alarm and all the workers wanted to get out of the factory by running down the stairs.  Then the production manager stopped them from leaving.  He said, ‘Nothing happened.  Do not panic.  Do your work and don’t listen to any rumors.’  Workers were frightened... ‘We are going to die.  Please let us get out of the factory.’  But the production manager responded, ‘Do what I say.’  The production manager kept them stranded for 15 to 20 minutes.”  [By then, the workers were trapped by the fire.]

 

---

 

Tazreen Fashion Factory
Ashulia, Dhaka, Bangladesh 

 

-Gross and Illegal Sweatshop Conditions-

  

• Below-subsistence wages: some of the lowest wages in the world:
  

- Helpers earn just 18 cents an hour, $8.44 a week, working 48 regular hours each week.

- Junior sewing operators earn 21 to 22 cents an hour, $9.85 to $10.69 a week.

- Senior sewing operators earn 23 to 26 cents an hour, just $11.26 to $12.66 a week for the regular 48-hour work week.

• Physical abuse: It is not uncommon for supervisors to curse and even slap and punch workers, including young women, for making a mistake at work or for taking too long in the bathroom. Workers report that the toilets are filthy.
  

• All overtime is strictly obligatory: Workers who object or cannot remain for obligatory overtime are terminated.
  For the last three months, it has been mandatory for the workers to toil two Fridays each month—supposedly their weekly holiday. The workers are forced to work a nine-hour shift, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on their weekly holiday. The workers receive just two days off each month. They routinely work 72 to 81 hours a week!
  

• Women are routinely denied their legal right to maternity leave.

• Workers who arrive late to work three times are immediately fired.

• There is no daycare center at the Tazreen Fashion factory.

• Sick leave is not allowed.

• Workers are routinely cheated of their legal overtime wages. The standard work shift is 12 hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with one hour off for lunch. It is obligatory for the workers to toil three overtime hours each weekday on top of the standard eight-hour work shift. The workers are routinely cheated of their legal overtime wages. Just one hour of overtime each day is paid correctly, at a 100 percent premium (double time), while the other two hours are paid as straight time. For example a junior sewing operator earning 22 cents an hour should earn 44 cents an hour for overtime work. But of the three hours of daily overtime, just one is paid correctly, at 44 cents an hour, while the other two overtime hours are illegally paid as straight time, at just 22 cents an hour. Essentially, the workers are being cheated of 33 percent of their legal overtime wages!

• Tazreen Fashion Ltd had a permit to construct a three-story factory, but instead, the company built an illegal, nine-story building. Apparently no one in government challenged this.

• There were not enough fire extinguishers to control even a small fire, let alone the major flames that engulfed the workers.
  

 

---

 

Something Must Change 

 

 

How is it possible that Wal-Mart, Sean Combs’ ENYCE label, Sears, C&A, Li & Fung and so many other international labels all failed to see the obvious illegal sweatshop conditions at the Tazreen factory over the last two and a half years?

If the labels had spoken to even one worker at the Tazreen factory, they would have learned the truth!

And has the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) ever once attempted to implement legal factory ordinances and respect for workers’ rights? Never!

When 29 workers died in the Hameem factory fire in 2010—many of whom were also locked in and jumped to their deaths so their parents could have their bodies to mourn and bury—Hameem’s owner, Mr. A. K. Azad, who is also president of the powerful Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce, said the fire was a result of “sabotage.” Of course this was all a lie, and there never was a serious investigation into why so many workers were killed.

Now the Government of Bangladesh is once again crying “sabotage,” hinting that there is some evil plot to attack the Tazreen Fashion factory. In reality, the labels, the owner of the Tazreen factory and the Government of Bangladesh have done almost nothing to hold Tazreen or other factories accountable or to guarantee the fundamental rights of the over 3.5 million mostly young women workers who are abused under miserable sweatshop conditions.

Sadly, until the Government of Bangladesh finally allows workers their internationally recognized worker rights—to freedom of association, the right to organize a union and to bargain collectively—nothing will change.

Bangladesh is on track to surpass China within the next eight years as the largest apparel manufacturer in the world. By 2020, Bangladesh could have as many as 10.5 million garment workers, churning out $57 billion worth of garments a year.

There is certainly a future for Bangladesh, if the government finally recognizes that the country’s garment workers—among the hardest workers in the world—also must be afforded legal rights that are every bit as strong as the rights of factory owners.

 

“The Star” Newspaper of Bangladesh on the Tazreen Factory Tuesday, November 27, 2012  “Death Trap: Authorities Negligence Leads to So Many Deaths”   “[The Tazreen factory] did not look like a workplace –rather, set up for confinement.” “Only [one major] exit, no fire escapes.” “Locked windows” “Many managers refused to let workers go downstairs... When workers rushed to the exit, it was locked from outside.” "Faulty fire extinguishers.” “The three internal staircases led to the warehouse on the ground floor which was engulfed in flames.”

BOOK:

Cecelski on Former Slave

Turned Union Spy

Abraham H. Galloway

September 26, 2012 ·

by Jessica Marie Johnson

 

David S. Cecelski, The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War. Durham, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Abraham H. Galloway (1837-70) was a fiery young slave rebel, radical abolitionist, and Union spy who rose out of bondage to become one of the most significant and stirring black leaders in the South during the Civil War. Throughout his brief, mercurial life, Galloway fought against slavery and injustice. He risked his life behind enemy lines, recruited black soldiers for the North, and fought racism in the Union armys ranks. He also stood at the forefront of an African American political movement that flourished in the Union-occupied parts of North Carolina, even leading a historic delegation of black southerners to the White House to meet with President Lincoln and to demand the full rights of citizenship. He later became one of the first black men elected to the North Carolina legislature.

Long hidden from history, Galloway’s story reveals a war unfamiliar to most of us. As David Cecelski writes, “Galloway’s Civil War was a slave insurgency, a war of liberation that was the culmination of generations of perseverance and faith.” This riveting portrait illuminates Galloway’s life and deepens our insight into the Civil War and Reconstruction as experienced by African Americans in the South.

http://inktalks.com Storyteller d'bi.young anitafrika uses the art of dub poetry to weave a story of childhood sexual abuse and HIV in this beautifully intense performance. 

ABOUT INK: INKtalks are personal narratives that get straight to the heart of issues in 18 minutes or less. We are committed to capturing and sharing breakthrough ideas, inspiring stories and surprising perspectives--for free!

Watch an INKtalk and meet the people who are designing the future--now.
http://INKtalks.com

Follow INKtalks on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/INKtalks
Like INKtalks on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/INKtalks
Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/INKtalksDirector

ABOUT D'BI.YOUNG ANITAFRIKA: 
d'bi.young anitafrika, affectionately know as d'bi. is an internationally celebrated Jamaican dubpoet, monodramatist and educator whose socially-conscious performance art works have made an indelible mark upon the global psyche. After moving from Kingston Jamaica in 1993, she exploded onto the Canadian theatre scene in 2001 as the unbelievable storyteller in 'da kink in my hair' which played at London's Hackney Empire Theatre in 2006 and has toured globally.

Since then d'bi. has written 8 plays: solitary, yagayah (published), androgyne (excerpt published), she, domestic and the sankofa trilogy, featuring the award winning monodramas blood.claat, benu, and word! sound! powah! Her groundbreaking Biomyth Sorplusi Method assists artists worldwide with developing their personal integrity in art-making and is being practiced in over 8 countries. Ms. young's work has been produced at Canadian theatres: Passe Muraille, Buddies in Bad Times, GCTC, Firehall and internationally at London's Free Word Centre, Barcelona's CCCB, Havana's Teatro Nacional, Cape Town's City Hall, India's Counter Culture, Belfast's Metropolitan Arts Centre, Kingston Jamaica's Edna Manley College and Barbados's Queen's Park.

For more about d'bi.young: http://inktalks.com/people/dbiyounganitafrika

d'bi young

 

Photo credit: noncedo charmaine, (as it appears on the CD 333, design by James Kachan).

 

By Jason Selman

On Dec. 6, 2011, Montreal’s Kalm Unity Vibe Collective had the pleasure of having d’bi young as its special guest. The occasion was the release of her album 333 and tour in support of it. Ms. Young performed solo tracks from the album and then was backed by the Kalm Unity band. As always d’bi gave an awesome performance. Afterwards I sat down with her surrounded by friends to conduct the following interview.

 

litlive.ca: What does Montreal mean to you as an artist?(‘Police & Thieves’ by Junior Murvin is playing in the background)

d'bi young: Montreal is the place where I moved from my adolescence into my young adulthood, and that’s really crucial because at the time when I was here (I came at nineteen, and left when I was twenty-two) those three years were crucial in helping me to locate myself not only within Canada but to locate myself within a Jamaican reality. I remember my friend Dave Austin being instrumental in encouraging me to re-investigate the roots of Dub poetry and to uncover and recover the fact that I was raised by elders of Dub poetry, veterans of Dub poetry, pioneers of Dub poetry, which I seemed to have forgotten on my move to Canada. Canada, when you’re coming from the outside at fifteen has the potential to really confuse you because of the assimilation that is forced down your throat: the cultural assimilation, the linguistic assimilation. And so I went through a process of losing myself and then finding myself through living in Montreal and moving among a young group of politicised artists including some of (I feel), the layers of the foundation of poetry in Montreal that includes you, Jason. There are many, many people I can think of who were around at that time who made an incredible impact on my work as a Dub poet. People like the Neudorfers [David and Joseph], people like Naila [Keleta-Mae], people like Jah Sun who was playing in a different band at that time and many, many more people. Alexis O’Hara was around, mentoring me and helping to create a space for me to do my work. So Montreal has a really special and emotional place in my heart because what I’m doing now is so much an outgrowth of this city.

 

litlive.ca: What separates Dub from the rest of reggae of the movement? Both stylistically and philosophically? (‘Reggae Got Soul’ by Toots & the Maytals can now be heard)

 

d'bi young: Let’s say Reggae music is a part of a trunk. As that tree grows, on the branches of that tree are the specific mediums in which you tell stories. So Dub poetry is one of the branches, so is Hip Hop, Slam or whatever else you want to consider the different mediums. Dub poetry grows out of Reggae; it cannot be separated from its parents. Dub is a child of Reggae music, so is Dancehall, so is Hip Hop. What makes Dub different from let’s say Dancehall and Hip Hop, which are its cousins is that Dub has some very clear principles which include but are not limited to its political content and context. Dub prides itself on locating itself within the centre of the community where the people gather and it reflects what the people are going through. Also, Dub coming out of the village is spoken first and foremost in the nation language of the people. Initially that nation language was Jamaican but since Dub is now an international form what it prides itself is being spoken in the nation language in of the people who are speaking it. Another principle of Dub is its commitment to rhythm and using rhythm as a tool of communication. As we know music has a potential to speak to people in a way that words are limited, so Dub even though it’s heavily word-based is also heavily music-based because it understood coming out of that oral African storytelling trunk that music has a potential to move people in ways that words can be limited. And then the final principle that I’ll mention is performance. Dub is a storytelling poetry and storytelling works best when the storyteller is involved in the process of telling their story physically, energetically, vocally and in any other way (spiritually) that they can use to tell the story so that the performance is all about the mind, body, spirit, word, etcetera. Word, sound, have powa.

 

litlive.ca: What have you learned from your trips / work in South Africa? How has it transformed you as an artist?(‘Slavery Days’ by Burning Spear is the current selection)

 

d'bi young: South Africa is a very complex place, like everywhere else. But I mention that because South Africa is now about twenty years out of its legitimized apartheid system. Now we here in North America, supposedly slavery ended in the 1800s, and as we can see more than a century later clearly slavery is still real. So that means to say that looking at apartheid twenty years down the line, twenty years is just not a long time. So you go South Africa and it’s really quite incredible the ways in which the Black people of South Africa are suffering. One has to ask the question, what changes have come about in twenty years and who has benefitted from those changes? And those are the questions that I’m asking because what I see around me is the same kind of inequities that exist in every country that considers itself to be post-colonial. It takes a long time to change and because apartheid is no longer legally on the books maybe many people have relaxed and feel that the struggle is over but in fact the struggle is only just begun. So that’s the dichotomy that exists there. Of course I also say what I’m saying from the place of I’ve only been in South Africa for a year so I don’t pretend to know everything and every little complex detail but inequity is inequity and you don’t haffi kno everyting to kno seh inequity is inequity. So there are many inequities and there are many people who are working on the ground to change those inequities but I think we must question what we are being sold here in North America about the government and about the changes that have come about. Because people are still suffering, in the millions. 

 

litlive.ca: What does the completion and presentation of your Sanfoka Trilogy mean to you?(‘Tenement Yard’ by Jacob Miller is playing at the moment)

 

d'bi young: Well one, it means I’m old. Older. I am absolutely enjoying being able to look at the decade of work that the Sankofa trilogy represents. So those three plays: blood.claat, benu & word! sound! powa! are for me bio-myth theatre that I’ve been creating and the completion of that cycle means there are certain things that I can put to rest in order to begin other things. But it also means that word! sound! powa! which ends the trilogy is the play that talks the most about Dub poetry and about the birth of Dub poetry which I’ve always wanted to talk about in honour of my mother and those people who laid the foundation for us and I was finally able to do that. So it feels like a rite of passage, almost like I’ve only now graduated from my infancy in Dub poetry into I wouldn’t say eldership, but somewhere between infancy and eldership. And that’s really for me a very important step because it means now that this idea of mentorship is something that I can embrace fully. I’ve been doing that but having completed the trilogy now means, alright dat process done and you must represent as a teacher and I’m all about teaching. And learning, and teaching ... and learning ...

 

litlive.ca: Seeing that part three of your Sankofa Trilogy deals with a Jamaican Election in 2012, how do you feel about artists’ capacity to write the future into existence?

 

d'bi young: In word! sound! powa! -  the Prime Minister who’s elected in 2012 is assassinated by the people and I think it’s crucial that as storytellers (which we all are), I think it’s crucial that we imagine the possibilities for change. I’m not saying that the best way to accomplish change is to go and assassinate the leader of your country; I’m just saying that I think that as storytellers we have to present a mirror to the people of possibilities that they may or may not consider and then not only those actions but what happens after that. So let’s say you do assassinate the leader of your country, what happens after that? What kind of organizing would you need to do and planning so that you don’t end up having someone else take power who then falls in love with power and who does the same thing that the person that you just assassinated would have done anyway, which is a cycle that we see repeating itself. So many revolutionaries, we fight the revolution, then we get into power and then we become despots ourselves, we become dictators, we doh wan’ share the powa, we see it over and over again. So it’s not just about taking out the people who we consider problematic, it’s also coming up with a good, good plan about how not to reproduce those actions. 

 

litlive.ca: Where would you like to be artistically in twenty years?

 

d'bi young: In twenty years I would like to have a very well rounded international arts centre that’s somewhere on the African continent in sunshine. A place that has sunshine 24/7. On this compound we have a greenhouse, we have three or four wells where we can get clean running water, it’s completely solar powered and it’s sustainable in its development. People live there on and off, some people live there year round. People study there from different parts of the world, we have storytellers who come from different parts of the world to teach there and it’s a cyclical system of producing storytellers who then go out into the world and go to their own countries and villages to do the same model. I would be a part of a counsel of people who run this very elaborate circular arts education compound.

r/evolution is love:

an urgent message

from assata shakur

20 Nov 2012 

 

 

r/evolution is love (feat. assata shakur) by d'bi.

 

this is the 21st century and we need to redefine r/evolution. this planet needs a people’s r/evolution. a humanist r/evolution. r/evolution is not about bloodshed or about going to the mountains and fighting. we will fight if we are forced to but the fundamental goal of r/evolution must be peace.

we need a r/evolution of the mind. we need a r/evolution of the heart. we need a r/evolution of the spirit. the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction. weapons of mass love. it’s not enough just to change the system. we need to change ourselves. we have got to make this world user friendly. user friendly.

are you ready to sacrifice to end world hunger. to sacrifice to end colonialism. to end neo-colonialism. to end racism. to end sexism.

r/evolution means the end of exploitation. r/evolution means respecting people from other cultures. r/evolution is creative.

r/evolution means treating your mate as a friend and an equal. r/evolution is sexy.

r/evolution means respecting and learning from your children. r/evolution is beautiful.

r/evolution means protecting the people. the plants. the animals. the air. the water. r/evolution means saving this planet.

r/evolution is love.

-assata shakur

via dbi333.com

__________________________

Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947,^[1] as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard^[2]) is an African-Americanactivist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.^[3][4]

In May 1973 Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded.^[5] Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents—charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping—resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of Foerster and of seven other felonies related to the shootout.^[6]

Shakur was then incarcerated in several prisons, where her treatment drew criticism from some human rights groups. She escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba in political asylum since 1984. Since May 2, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has classified her as a "domestic terrorist" and offered a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture. Attempts to extradite her have resulted in letters to the Pope and a Congressional resolution. Shakur is the step-aunt of the deceased hip-hopicon Tupac Shakur, the stepson of her brother Mutulu Shakur. Her life has been portrayed in literature, film and song.^[7]

Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award

Deadline:

December 22, 2012

Entry Fee: 

$15

Website: 

http://www.poetrysociety.org

A prize of $1,000 and publication by the Poetry Society of America is given annually to a manuscript-in-progress of poetry. Previously published work may be included. Submit a manuscript of up to 15 pages of poetry with a $15 entry fee by December 22. Send an SASE or visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poetry Society of America, 15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003. (212) 254-9628.