Happy Birthday

Nick Gabaldon:

First Man of

African American Surfing

Source: Los Angeles Beat,2012

Nick Gabaldon was born on February 23,1927. He is the first documented African American surfer and known for regularly paddling 12 miles from Santa Monica to Malibu for the best waves.

Nick (far right) surfing in Malibu.

Source: Los Angeles Beat,2012

 

 

 

 

Posted by Richie P.

 

“Whitewash,”

Documentary on

the Black Experience

in Surfing

 

I would like to send out a special Thank You to @Bertstyle and our friends at Brown Girls Surf for sharing information on the documentary Whitewash. A few weeks ago I posted an article about "12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story." Whitewash is another documentary expanding on the black experience in surfing.

Source:Whitewash,2011

Whitewash explores the African-American experience and race in surfing. It touches on some pertinent issues about how the history of surfing was detached from it’s indigenous Hawaiian origins and largely regarded as having it’s founding or “discovery” with European settlers. It also focuses on the issues of segregation and racism at beaches in California and of how the belief that “black people can’t swim” was passed down from generation to generation. 

 

One section of the documentary that really stuck out was the story of an English sea captain’s account of seeing young Ghanian boys “riding waves on wooden boards” on the Gold Coast of Ghana in the 17th century. Ironically, this was the same coast where the slave trade later occurred. As the slave trade expanded, many Africans in costal regions moved inland, which could suggest why “aquatic culture” greatly diminished. In the 1960’s, two American surfers would later be documented “introducing” surfing to Ghanaians in the film “The Endless Summer.” Well “reintroducing.” 

 

Whitewash is definitely an eye opener for individuals in the black community, who believe that sports like surfing is a “white thing.” Although one’s interest in a sport should not be associated with race it is still a factor. Though as surfer Andrea Kabwasa noted “When you’re riding a wave there is no race.” 

 

Whitewash is now available to watch for free Hulu,check it out below!

I encourage you to watch this documentary and please share your thoughts. One point that this documentary projected was the fact that so much of our history has been written from one perspective. We should be recording our own stories,history and culture so it is not distorted. The documentary also featured  the founder of  Brooklyn Surfer, a company and surfing community in Brooklyn, New York. Guess what my fellow New Yorkers? You don't need to go on the West Coast to surf.

 

Rosebud Contests for Writers

Rosebud sponsors four biennial writing contests, each with a $1,000 award to the winner, plus occasional extra competitions. Entries are considered independently of Rosebud submissions (though winners and some runners-up will be published in the magazine) and each requires a $10 entry fee. Click below for  current contest details.

 

• The Shelley Award:   WINNERS ARE ANNOUNCED!  CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS.
  

  
  

The Mary Shelley Award for Imaginative Fiction, successor to the popular Ursula K. Le Guin Award.

 

• Stafford Award:   DEADLINE - July 15, 2012

  Click here for info on the last The William Stafford Award for Poetry, named in honor of the inspiring poet and judged by his student R. Virgil Ellis, Associate Editor of Rosebud.

   

   

• The Kennedy Award:  Click here for more info.

  The X. J. Kennedy Award for Nonfiction, named for one of America's most respected writers and editors, judged by Rosebud editor and VOICE OVER columnist Roderick Clark and by Cambridge Book Review editor Robert Wake.

   

• The Dylan Thomas Award: DEADLINE November 10, 2010. Click here for more info.

  Authorized by Aeronwy Thomas-Ellis, in honor of her father, Dylan Thomas, who died in New York City in 1953.

  
  

   

  Ready to submit your material?  Click here for instructions on how.

Call for Submissions:

Hera Devotional Anthology

Deadline: 30 November 2012

We are interested in a wide variety of pieces, including (but not limited to) scholarly articles, short fiction, poetry, original translations of ancient texts, hymns, rituals, recipes, and artwork that pertains to Hera, her Roman counterpart Iuno (Juno), and her Etruscan counterpart Uni.

We strongly encourage those interested in submitting to explore the many facets of this complex goddess in their work, including but not limited to

– Hera as Queen of Heaven, and the meaning and responsibilities of that position – Hera as Queen of the Gods, and her relationships with other members of the pantheon – Hera as Goddess of Marriage – Hera as Goddess of Women – Hera as the wife of Zeus, and the dynamics of their relationship – Hera as daughter of Rhea and Kronos – a discussion of the relationships between Hera and her children Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe and Hephaestus, as well as Eris and Typhaon – a discussion of Hera’s reaction to Zeus’ affairs, and her relationships with his lovers (eg, Leto, Semele, Io, et cetera) – a discussion of Hera’s relationship with Zeus’ mortal and immortal offspring (eg, Apollon, Artemis, Herakles, et cetera) – compare/contrast Hera, Demeter, Leto and Maia as divine mothers – Hera as the matron Goddess of Argos and Samos – Hera as the Goddess of heroes such as Jason and Herakles – Hera as the Goddess of Cattle – Hera as she is portrayed in the Homeric Hymns – Hera as she is portrayed in The Iliad and The Odyssey – Iuno as she is portrayed in The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, and other Latin works – a discussion of the cow, bull, cuckoo, peacock, scorpion, poppy, and pomegranate as symbols of Hera – a discussion of the origins and meaning of the name Hera (and/or Iuno, and/or Uni) – Iuno as a member of the Capitoline Triad – a discussion of Iuno’s various epithets, their meanings, and their implications (such as Lucina, Mater, Moneta, Regina, et cetera) – the cultic links between Iuno and the wives of various Roman emperors – compare/contrast the relationship between Hera and Herakles, and Iuno and Hercules – a discussion of the iuno and genius, and lares and penates

Syncretisms between Hera and other God/dess/es are acceptable so long as the author clearly demonstrates this syncretism; for instance, a discussion of the differences, similarities and overlap between Hera and Goddesses such as Isis, Hathor, Asherah, Tanit, and/or Frigga.

All works must be original, not public domain. No plagiarism. Previously published submissions are acceptable, provided the author retains all rights to the work. Authors retain all rights to the submission. Upon acceptance, the author will be sent a permission to publish form along with a request for a short biography to include in the anthology.

The editor reserves the right to make any minor changes in the case of grammar, spelling and formatting concerns. The editor also reserves the right to request modification of submissions and to reject submissions as necessary.

No monetary compensation will be provided. Proceeds from all sales will be divided between charitable donations in the name of the Hera, and production costs of future publications from Bibliotheca Alexandrina. All contributors will receive a coupon code which will allow them to purchase three copies of the anthology at cost.

Acceptable length is anywhere from 100-10,000 words, and the submissions period will run from 1 June 2012 – 31 November 2012, with the projected release date of January 2013: an auspicious occasion as it coincides with the celebration of the Theogamilia. Please send your submission either in the body of the email or as a .doc/.docx or plain text/RTF attachment (for Mac users) with “Hera Devotional” in the subject line to lykeiasl@yahoo.com. Any artwork submitted should be scanned in or created at 300 dpi and sent as a .jpg or .tif file.

Please remember to include a by-line in your email: your name as you would like it to appear in the book!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: lykeiasl@yahoo.com

 

Call for Papers:

Examining Past and

Defining Present

- The Black Literary Aesthetic

in the USA, Canada,

and Caribbean

(Georgia, USA)

Deadline: 26 October 2012

The purpose of this conference – Examining Past/Defining Present: The Black Literary Aesthetic in the USA, Canada and Caribbean – is to highlight the centrality of literature written by people of African heritage during the 1960s and 1970s in the American, Canadian and Caribbean Literary Canons. Specifically, this conference seeks to open a revisionary aesthetic view on the literatures of Americans, Canadians, and Caribbeans of African descent.

The participants in the conference will present papers and discuss critical constructs which will produce revisionary definitions of a Black Literary Aesthetic. The work produced will move away from a mere examination of literary ideas towards a discourse that enables humans to study and critique literature written by Black Americans, Black Canadians, and Black Caribbeans as ‘beautiful’ [or not] using the full range of human emotions towards such critically aesthetic responses. A re-examination of past definitions of Black Literary Aesthetics will be central in the context of the conference.

Presentations – papers, roundtable discussions, and poster sessions – may be organized topically from [but are not limited to] the following questions:

1. Were the motivations and concerns of the literary artists (associated with Black Nationalism/Black Power Movements in the USA, Canada, and Caribbean) more monolithic or varied?

2. How were the literary expressions critiqued? What were the motivations and agents for such critiques? Was there significant ‘protest’ (during the Black Arts Movement) to the level and substance of those critiques?

3. How did gender in addition to race emerge as major or minor factors in both the creation and critique of the work, as well as the absence/presence of substantive critique?

4. What was the [space of the] divide (wide, narrow, etc.) in the critique of Black Literary production in the USA versus Canada and Caribbean? What were the reasons for such a divide and how is it reflected in the criticism?

5. How has the scholarly and critical response to a Black Literary Aesthetic evolved, increased, or decreased (for the works) in each decade: 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s?

6. What are the affects and effects of popular culture on the political and social aspects of contemporary literature written by Blacks in the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean? What new terminologies and critiques are required and/or are necessary in defining a Black Literary Aesthetic?

7. How effective is the use of social media in widening both the critical response to literature from the Black Arts Movement as well as creating venues for publication and critique of contemporary Black literary artists?

8. How will work in the Digital Humanities, which interprets the cultural and social impact of the new information age, provide new ways of critiquing historical literary works as well as contextualize new works? How will tools and methodologies such as three-dimensional visualization, data-mining, network analysis, and digital mapping assist in advancing research on the Black Literary Aesthetic?

Deadline for submission of abstracts and proposals: October 26, 2012.

Microsoft word attachments or PDF format.

Proposals must include Name, Title, Institutional Affiliation, and Categories of Presenter (as follows):

1) Undergraduate students

2) Graduate students

3) Faculty

4) Independent artists and scholars/researchers

Submit proposals to akilahw@msn.com or ewilliams@paine.edu

Location of conference: Augusta, GA (USA)

Specifications on conference fees, travel and lodging will be provided upon acceptance for presentation. Fees must be paid by February 2013 for conference participation. No financial transactions will take place at the conference other than book sales.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For enquiries/ submissions: akilahw@msn.com or ewilliams@paine.edu

 

June 8, 2012

As Jamaican Drug Lord

is Sentenced,

U.S. Still Silent

on Massacre

Posted by Mattathias Schwartz

Update: This post has been edited since it was first posted in order to reflect Coke’s sentencing.

On Friday, a U.S. federal judge sentenced the Jamaican strongman Christopher (Dudus) Coke to twenty-three years in prison. As I reported for the magazine in December, at least seventy-three civilians died in the process of getting Coke out of Jamaica and into U.S. custody. At the time, the Jamaican security forces claimed that most of the dead were gunmen who died defending Coke inside the barricaded neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens. But for these seventy-three supposed gunmen, the security forces recovered only six guns. Three of the dead were women. One was a U.S. citizen. Most appear to have been unarmed civilians, rounded up and massacred after the neighborhood was already under control.

In court, Judge Robert P. Patterson said that Coke’s violent crimes offset any lenience he might be due for his charitable deeds in Jamaica. “I concede that he did good things,” Patterson said. “But the conduct charged was of such a bad nature that it offsets the good.” According to Stephen Rosen, one of Coke’s attorneys, Coke could return to Jamaica in time for his sixtieth birthday in 2029. “The [guilty] plea was directed at keeping him from getting a life sentence,” said Rosen. “He will, if the government allows, return to Jamaica one day. That’s what he wants.”

As the question of Coke’s future heads toward a resolution, questions surrounding the loss of life that led up to his extradition remain open. Coke has admitted to serious crimes. He barricaded his neighborhood to avoid arrest, and deserves much of the blame for the Tivoli killings. Did seventy-three civilians have to die for the arrest of one drug trafficker, no matter how powerful?

The U.S. government knows, but it isn’t saying. The Drug Enforcement Administration has live video of the operation, shot from a Department of Homeland Security plane that was flying over Tivoli Gardens as the killings took place. The footage could provide invaluable assistance to Earl Witter, the Jamaican official who has been charged with investigating the massacre. But more than two years after the assault, the D.E.A. still refuses to release it.

However, a State Department cable obtained by The New Yorker shows the force with which the Jamaican Army struck Coke’s neighborhood, and the U.S. government’s knowledge of it. Sent shortly after the conflict, it says that “the JDF [Jamaican Army] fired mortars and then used bulldozers to break through the heavy barricades.”

The injuries of Marjorie Hinds, a Tivoli resident I wrote about in my earlier story, who was knocked unconscious by an explosion just as the security forces entered the neighborhood, appear to be consistent with a mortar attack. In a medical report, a doctor who examined Hinds noted “evidence of foreign body (pellet)” and “extensive scar tissue again suggestive of burns … with variant pigmentation, suggestive of possible chemical (phosphorous) ‘trauma.’ ”

“I do not know whether the J.D.F. used mortar fire,” former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who was in office during the May, 2010, crisis, said by e-mail. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the cable. A statement from the J.D.F. confirmed that the Army had fired mortars, though it said the weapons were used to confuse gunmen. “Mortar rounds were fired into open areas as part of a diversion,” the statement says in part. “At no time were persons or buildings targeted.” The J.D.F. did not respond to questions regarding the number of rounds fired, and whether they were smoke, illuminating, or high-explosive rounds.

Coke’s supporters say he is a community leader, or “don,” who provided for an impoverished neighborhood. Coöperating witnesses accuse Coke of being a ruthless crime boss who shipped cocaine all over the world and imprisoned his enemies in a makeshift jail where he carried out bloody executions. (Coke’s guilty plea does not include these alleged murders.) Much of Coke’s sentencing hearing focussed on testimony from a prosecution witness who testified that Coke carried out the killings himself, using a hatchet and a power saw. In his statement before the court on Friday, Coke disputed this account. “It seems like they know me more than me know me,” he said of the prosecution’s witnesses. “They talk about things I would never ever dream of doing.” Judge Patterson, however, said that allegations about Coke’s violent tendencies were corroborated by the crimes to which Coke pled guilty, including the stabbing of a marijuana dealer.

One of thousands of wiretapped calls to Coke’s phone was introduced into evidence last month at a pre-sentencing hearing. It has Coke, in 2006, conversing in patois with an associate who can be heard pledging his allegiance. (“Man love you. Man do anything for you. Mi no spar with nobody who do nah spar with you.”) At times, Coke seems to feel that the violence of those around him is getting in the way of business. (“Them nah think how to make no money. Them only think about war, war, war … if war come then war come but we can’t go outta the way to start war.”)

The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is “to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards.” What was the D.H.S. doing in Jamaica, hundreds of miles from U.S. shores, passing on intelligence to Jamaican forces as they stormed Tivoli Gardens? Was intelligence-sharing the full extent of our government’s involvement with the operation? If U.S. forces saw evidence of the massacre as it was unfolding, did they make any attempt to intervene? And given that we were the ones who insisted on Coke’s arrest, what are our obligations to the families of innocent people killed in the process?

Releasing the Tivoli video would be a good start to answering these questions. The U.S. government should share what it knows.

Photograph by David Karp/AP Photo.

Let Us Not Be Weary:

Discussing the

Senseless Death of

Darius Simmons

Thursday Jun 7, 2012 – by Stacia L. Brown

If not enough has been said about slain Milwaukee 13-year-old Darius Simmons, it’s because so few know what to say anymore. When a sixth-grader can be gunned down in front of his mother, in front of their home, on the mere and baseless suspicion that he’s stolen something from his neighbor, it’s hard to shore up the words to reflect, respond, or report without thinking of all the similar cases that have come before it. It’s hard to describe the white 75-year-old neighbor, John Henry Spooner, and the 9 mm shots he allegedly fired: the first–discharged five feet from the boy–was the fatal one, but as the boy tried to run before later collapsing, a second shot–aimed at his back–was a miss, and a third attempted shot was unsuccessful, according to community activist David Muhammad.

It’s difficult to discuss circulating photos of his mother, Patricia Larry, holding a snapshot of her slain son, her eyes bloodshot, her expression pained and bereft with grief. And it’s cold comfort that Spooner is already in custody, charged with first degree intentional homicide. Because no matter whether he’s acquitted or convicted and regardless of his sentence, we’re still left with the disturbing realization that he thought he was well within his rights to shoot the unarmed boy next door, as the child stood before him with his hands raised. We know that very little anyone said or did could’ve convinced Spooner otherwise, even though he had no evidence that the boy had stolen from him, even though Darius was in school when the alleged theft reportedly occurred, and even though firing at close range on anyone when no life is in imminent danger is never the right response.

Cases like these make us feel helpless. Because even if the law prevails, the world seems dimmer.

But we need to speak Darius Simmons’ name. We need to follow his case. And we need to discuss it with others. As we’ve seen with the Trayvon Martin case, too much of society is desperate to explain away senseless racial killing by finding fault with the victim. Too many are so hard-pressed to understand what motivated the aggressor, they’re willing to excuse his actions as somehow justifiable. (In the case of John Henry Spooner, the front-running “justification” is that his home had been a repeated target of theft, that he’d complained to his Alderman and nothing had been done about it.)

If nothing else, understanding cases like these can help us discuss them rationally, and stand our ground about the very obvious racial motivation of crimes like these, a motivation so many are quick to dismiss.

__________________________

It’s Here! Watch

The Unwritten Rules, Ep. 1

– a New Web Series

About Being Black

in the Workplace

Wednesday Apr 25, 2012 – by Britni Danielle

Earlier this month I told you about a new web series that was in the works called The Unwritten Rules by industry vet Kim Williams. Well, it’s here and from the looks of things, it’ll be hilarious.

In case you missed it, The Unwritten Rules is about “the comedic realities of being an African-American in a predominantly white workplace. Like the novel, the series delves into the main character, Racey Jones’ head to uncover real situations, truthful thoughts, honest reactions, and hilarious moments that African-Americans experience in the workplace.”

The Unwritten Rules stars Aasha Davis of Pariah and Friday Night Lights and ANTM winner Nicole Fox.

Check out the first preview episode of ‘The Unwritten Rules‘ and let us know what you think!

++++++++++++++++

 

It’s Back! Watch 

The Unwritten Rules, Ep. 2

– a Web Series

About Being Black

in the Workplace

WEDNESDAY MAY 2, 2012 – BY BRITNI DANIELLE

Well, you asked for it and it’s back. The second episode of the new web series by writer and producer Kim Williams,the Unwritten Rules, is here, and once again, it’s hilarious.

In case you missed the first episode, The Unwritten Rules follows Racey as she starts a new job and has to deal with being the only black person in her workplace. Although her coworkers seem welcoming, their cultural ignorance and condescending tone rubs Racey the wrong way.

The show is based on Williams’ book, Unwritten Rule: The Diary of a Nigger, Negro, Colored, Black, African-American Woman, which chronicles her professional life of being the only black person on the job.