Today in history, June 3rd, 1906... dancer, singer and actress Freda Josephine McDonald (aka Josephine Baker), who gained fame in Paris, France, thanks to her risque cabaret and musical hall performances, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
While Ms Baker did perform on screen in a number of films - Siren of the Tropics (1927), Zouzou (1934) and Princesse Tam Tam (1935), notably - she's probably more universally recognized for her vaudeville stage musical acts which helped her become maybe the first international black female celebrity.
She was also politically active, making contributions to the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States, and assisted the French Resistance during World War II, becoming the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
She died on April 12th, 1975 at age 68.
Since then, there's really been only 1 true attempt to tell her story in a scripted biopic - the 1991, HBO movie, The Josephine Baker Story, which starred Lynn Whitfield as Baker. Whitfield would go on to win an Emmy Award for her performance!
HBO Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray in January of this year.
Louis Gossett Jr., and Ruben Blades co-starred.
In the documentary category, check out Josephine Baker: Black Diva in White Man's World, a 45-minute doc released by Artmattan, which:
... focuses on her life and work from a perspective that analyses images of Black people in popular culture. It portrays the artist in the mirror of European colonial clichés and presents her as a resistance fighter, an ambulance driver during WWII, and an outspoken activist against racial discrimination involved in the worldwide Black Consciousness movement of the 20th century.
The film was screened last night actually, in New York, presented by the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF). You can also pick up a copy on Artmattan's website HERE.
And lastly, there was this 2009 BBC-produced hour-long documentary titled Josephine Baker - the First Black Superstar, which takes a look at the life of Baker. I found the entire documentary on YouTube, which is embedded below, so watch it now:
In the last few months of 2011 into early 2012, the issue of police violence once again burst into the mainstream with the treatment of Occupy protesters.
While we were appalled at the violence directed at peaceful protesters by law enforcement, we were also dismayed that this phenomenon was treated as a novel one. The incidents were discussed in a way that was divorced from historical context. After all, the black and white images of police dogs being unleashed on peaceful protesters during the black freedom movement of the 1950s and 60s would not have been alien to the young people who were abused by law enforcement in New York and Oakland at the Occupy protests. Police violence is unfortunately not new.
In an attempt to inject some historical memory into the current considerations of police violence, Project NIA and the Chicago Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Teaching Collective decided to develop a series of pamphlets to inform and educate the broader public about the longstanding tradition of oppressive policing toward marginalized populations (including some activists and organizers).
by Tyrone Boucher
This series titled “Historical Moments of Policing, Violence & Resistance” features pamphlets on various topics including: The Mississippi Black Papers, the 1968 Democratic Convention, Resistance to Police Violence in Harlem, Timothy Thomas, the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre, Oscar Grant, the Danzinger Bridge Shootings, Chicago Red Summer, the Slave Patrols, and the Young Lords, among others.
The pamphlets are available for free downloading on this site. Please spread the word about the availability of these publications & let us know if you want to contribute your own pamphlet to the series (see “get involved” page for more information).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Every single person who worked on this series volunteered his or her time to this effort. We are grateful beyond words for your support and for your talents.
Special thanks to the following people who made this project possible: Authors: Samuel Barnett, Martha Biondi, Lisa Dadabo, Billy Dee, Lakeesha J. Harris, Julie Hilvers, Mariame Kaba, Eric Kerl, Olivia Perlow, Emily Pineda, Lewis Wallace Editors: Mariame Kaba, Laura Mintz, Emily Pineda, Gina Tarullo Graphic Designers: Madeleine Arenivar, Micah Bazant, Antonia Clifford, Eric Kerl, Mauricio Pineda
PAMPHLET SERIES You can download individual pamphlets below as PDF documents. Check back every month as we will be adding new publications until the end of this year.
Volume 4 — Historical Moments of Police Violence: “We Don’t Want This to Look Like A Massacre:” The Danzinger Bridge Shootings – text by Mariame Kaba/ art and design by Billy Dee. This pamphlet was designed to be an accordion book and so printing it might be a bit challenging. Here is the TEXT (PDF) for the publication. Here are the IMAGES (PDF) that Billy created to accompany the text. The tricky part is that you will need to enlarge the images on your computer to be able to see them well. We are making a few hard copies of this pamphlet which will be available soon for purchase as a fundraiser for our work. Stay tuned for more information about this soon.
Volume 5 — Historical Moments of Police Violence: The Police Execution of Oscar Grant (PDF) by Olivia Perlow and Lakeesha J. Harris and designed by Antonia Clifford
A brilliant songwriter, vocalist, instrumentalist, producer and arranger, he had the aphoristic grace of a natural poet who was steeped in the rhetoric of the black church.
American popular music in the rock era has been dominated by cult of personality — by “superstars,” flamboyant charismatics, grandiose gestures. Curtis Mayfield, who died the day after Christmas, 1999, at the age of 57, was an exception to the rule: a popular music titan who was never a pop star. Few musicians who sold as many records and exerted as great an influence as Mayfield had as modest a public persona.
He began making hit songs in the late 1950s. For the better part of the next two decades, he was at the forefront of popular music, a pioneer of both ’60s soul and ’70s funk. And his gritty but never nihilistic excursions into black pop make him the spiritual forefather of the more positive and uplifting strains of ’80s and ’90s hip-hop. But even at the height of his fame as a million-selling solo artist, Mayfield was a self-effacing, unlikely star.
To the extent that he projected an “image” it was that of a hip intellectual: His scraggly beard and thin-framed eyeglasses gave him a professorial cast, a fitting look for a musician whose songs bristled with intelligence and unashamedly brought the didactic urgency of gospel to the secular airwaves.
Mayfield was one of the most complete musicians in the history of black pop; only Stevie Wonder and Prince rival the aplomb with which he balanced the roles of songwriter, vocalist, instrumentalist, producer and arranger. This autonomy gave Mayfield the freedom to experiment, and he was consistently several steps ahead of his contemporaries.
In the 1960s, as the leader of the Impressions, Mayfield developed a distinctive soul style, combining gospel-based vocal interplay, swooning string and horn arrangements, and his own rolling, stately guitar lines. Even more groundbreaking was his lyric-writing for the group. He had the aphoristic grace of a natural poet who was steeped in the rhetoric of the black church, and he poured this gift into songs of inspiration and uplift, which took the themes of the civil rights movement to the pop charts: “Keep On Pushing,” “Amen,” “Meeting Over Yonder,” “We’re a Winner,” “We’re Rolling On.”
The most majestic of these, the chiming ballad “People Get Ready,” is a testament to Mayfield’s craftsmanship: By sheer force of poetic economy and musical eccentricity (those oddly delicate guitar figures; that queer whole-step leap between verses two and three), he wrestled one of the most hackneyed of American images — the glory-bound train — into what is, with Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” the greatest message song of the soul music era.
Mayfield left the Impressions to pursue a solo career in 1970, recording a string of albums which were remarkable for the scope of their musical ambitiousness and social awareness. Tackling issues of urban poverty and desperation, drug abuse and violence, black pride and self-determination, Mayfield wrote songs with a bluntness and narrative verve that anticipated rap. “Superfly” (1972), Mayfield’s gorgeous soundtrack to Gordon Parks Jr.’s seminal blaxploitation movie, is the most celebrated of these recordings; but perhaps the best and most important was “Curtis,” Mayfield’s 1970 solo debut.
He had absorbed the influence and expansive spirit of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and “Curtis,” a lushly orchestrated suite of thematically linked songs like “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go,” “Move On Up” and “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” was Mayfield’s soul music answer to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Pet Sounds.” A tougher and more baroque version of the musical-uplift he had produced while leading the Impressions, “Curtis” inaugurated the heyday of politically charged ’70s soul, which would be highlighted by Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Stevie Wonder’s “Innervisions” and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale.”
The fluency with which Mayfield addressed social concerns marked him as one of only a handful of truly eloquent, conscience-driven American singer-songwriters, and the eulogies that have followed his death have treated him, rather breathlessly, as something of a secular saint — a kind of American Bob Marley. This sort of hyperbole isn’t surprising: Rock critics are invested, to the point of ridiculousness, in the myth of pop music’s political relevance, and generally find it easier to amplify that myth than to discuss a piece of music. In Mayfield’s case, this is a pity, because his music — in particular the music he recorded on that glorious sequence of early-and mid-’70s solo albums — is his great legacy.
Those records were trailblazers of what might be called black psychedelia. Take a listen, for instance, to “Superfly”: The lyrical string and horn arrangements that made the Impressions records such sweet listening are gloriously, woozily bloated into shapes amorphous and trippy; the bass is dark and wet, and Mayfield piles on layers of Latin percussion, boosted in the mix and swirling atop his multi-tracked rhythm guitar. Together it sounds unmistakably like the prototype for the funk and disco that would rule the airwaves later that decade, and which, through the alchemy of sampling, haunt the hip-hop and techno tracks of contemporary clubland.
Curtis Mayfield didn’t make it to the 21st century, but there’s every reason to believe that his weird, transcendent music will survive to see the 22nd.
Open Book Poetry Contest—$3,000 (November–December, 2012)
Chapbook Contest—$1,000 (February–March, 2013)
The winner of each of the three Omnidawn poetry book competitions wins a cash prize as indicated above for each contest, publication of the book with a full color cover by Omnidawn, 100 free copies of the winning book, and extensive display advertising and publicity, including prominent display ads in American Poetry Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books and other publications. All three Omnidawn poetry book contests have very similar guidelines and submission procedures, as completely described on this web page. The requirements that are the same for all contests include the following: Postal and online poetry contest submissions are accepted for all contests. Manuscript submissions for all contests must be original, in English, and previously unpublished, although individual poems in a manuscript are still eligible for this contest if they have been previously published in print or web magazines, journals, anthologies, or on a personal web site. Revisions are not allowed during the contests. Translations and collaborations by more than one author are not eligible. All Omnidawn poetry competitions are blind, so you can submit manuscripts that contain identifying information, but please be aware that such information will be removed from manuscripts before they are passed on to our editors who select manuscripts to be sent to the judge. If we find a serious error in your entry we will either correct it or contact you to obtain a correction at no cost to you, so your error will not disqualify you. Nor will a few smaller errors in your manuscript, including spelling, punctuation, or typographic errors, reduce your chances of winning. (We fully understand that such errors sometimes occur for everyone, and that these can be easily corrected later.) The only differences between Omnidawn poetry competitions are the contest dates, the judge, the dollar amount of the prize, the reading fee, the manuscript page limit, an optional Omnidawn book offer, and for one contest only, the First/Second Book Poetry Contest, a limit on the number of previously published full-size books by a submitting poet. These differences are described immediately below, under the "Current Poetry Competition" and "Upcoming Poetry Competitions" headings.
Current Poetry Competition
2012 First/Second Book ($3,000 & Publication) May 1–June 30, 2012 Judge: Brenda Hillman
First/Second Book poetry contest open to writers who have either never published a full-length book of poetry, or who have published only one full-length book of poetry, so that the winning book would become a poet's first or second published book of poetry. Writers who have published two or more full length books of poetry are NOT eligible. (Chapbooks do not count.) The manuscript page limit is 120 pages for this poetry book contest. (Most manuscripts we receive are 40-70 pages long.) Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Brenda Hillman, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contest submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between May 1 and June 30, 2012 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time. Reading fee is $25. For $3 extra to cover shipping cost, entrants who provide a U.S. mailing address may choose to receive this contest's winning book or any Omnidawn book (including 4 PEN USA winning books). A complete list of all Omnidawn books is available at www.omnidawn.com/catalog.htm. The winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in January 2013, and we expect to publish the winning book in the fall of 2013.
All the essential information for the current 1st/2nd Poetry Book Contest is contained in the above two paragraphs.
If you want to read helpful additional details, which are virtually identical for all Omnidawn contests, and then go to the submission procedures, you can:
2012 Open Book ($3,000 & Publication) November 1–December 31, 2012 Judge: Cole Swensen
Open poetry book competition for all writers with no limitations on the amount of poetry a writer has published. The manuscript page limit is 120 pages for this poetry book contest. (Most manuscripts we receive are 40-80 pages long.) Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Cole Swenson, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contests submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between November 1 and December 31, 2012 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Reading fee is $25. For $3 extra to cover shipping cost, entrants who provide a U.S. mailing address may choose to receive this contest's winning book or any Omnidawn book (including 4 PEN USA winning books). A complete list of all current Omnidawn books is available at www.omnidawn.com/catalog.htm. The winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in May 2013, and we expect to publish the winning book in the spring of 2014. Click here for helpful additional details and submission procedures that are virtually identical for all Omnidawn Contests.
Open to all writers with no limitations on the amount of poetry a writer has published. Submissions should be 20–40 pages of poetry, not including front and back matter (so that this will fit in a 5.5 x 7 inch published chapbook of approximately 50 pages or less). Friends, colleagues and students of the judge, Gillian Conoley, are not eligible. Postal and online poetry contest submissions accepted. Manuscripts must be received or postmarked between February 1 and March 31, 2013 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Reading fee is $18 for the poetry chapbook contest. For $2 extra to cover shipping cost, entrants who provide a U.S. mailing address may choose to receive this contest's winning chapbook or any Omnidawn chapbook. A complete list of all Omnidawn chapbooks is available at www.omnidawn.com/chapbook-catalog.htm. The poetry chapbook contests winner will be announced to our email list and on this web page in August 2013, and we expect to publish the winning chapbook in December of 2013. Click here for helpful additional details and submission procedures that are virtually identical for all Omnidawn Contests.
Corruption is an inevitable part of political life, in countries rich and poor. In India, a Transparency International study finds that 55 percent of citizens have had firsthand experience with bribing government officials. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, storeowners pay police officers protection money to “watch over” their shops. And in the United States, corruption has become a high, if hidden, art, with politicians and lobbyists conspiring to rewrite the rules to grant special interest groups an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
But in recent years, advancing technology and increased public awareness have changed the ways that corruption is tackled, exposed, and ultimately punished. In India, almost a quarter of the country’s members of parliament were recently facing criminal corruption charges, and a strong case can be made that the evolving digital news environment is responsible for their undoing. Websites like Wikileaks have made it easier for whistleblowers to bring misdeeds to light — while also weakening the secrecy that governments argue is necessary for their diplomacy and strategizing.
This month, In The Fray wants your stories of corruption — political and otherwise. Tell us the ways that dishonesty and greed undermine the proper workings of organizations, from Congress to corporations, from regulations to relationships. Is corruption an inevitable human tendency or a curable condition? As usual, we are open to stories that deal with the topic broadly construed, and in a variety of approaches: profiles, interviews, reportage, personal essays, op-eds, travel writing, photo essays, artwork, videos, multimedia projects, and review essays of books, film, music, and art.
If interested, please email submissions@inthefray.org with a well-developed, one-paragraph pitch for your proposed piece as soon as possible — along with three links to your previous work — NO LATER THAN JULY 1, 2012. All contributors are urged to review our submissions guidelines at http://inthefray.org/submit.
Each issue of the journal contains an open section to provide a platform for general contributions on conflict and violence. Single contributions may be submitted at any point in time.
In addition each issue of IJCV also contains a so-called focus section. Contributions for a focus section are usually submitted in response to a Call for Papers (see below). Selected authors may be invited directly to participate in a focus section. If you are interested in guest editing an IJCV focus section, or if you have any suggestions for possible topics, please feel free to contact us.
Call for Papers:
Intimate Partner Violence
as a Global Problem
The International Journal of Conflict and Violence invites submissions to a Focus Section on “Intimate Partner Violence as a Global Problem: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives”. Intimate partner violence, defined as the use or threat of physical or sexual violence, psychological aggression, or emotional abuse by one partner in a relationship against the other, is a serious problem worldwide. As the 2002 WHO Report on Violence and Health reports, intimate partner violence occurs in all countries and all social, economic, religious, and cultural groups. It places great burdens on individuals, communities, and social institutions, such as health care systems and the employment sector.
The Focus Section seeks to bring together papers from different parts of the world that address the social construction of intimate partner violence, the prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner violence, and its impact on victims as well as societies. A broad definition of “relationship” is adopted to include both marital and long-term relationships as well as more casual, short-term relationships. In addition to papers addressing violence within heterosexual relationships, analyses of same-sex relationships are also welcome. All papers should have a strong grounding in theory.
We welcome contributions from a range of scientific disciplines, including (but not limited to) psychology, sociology, family studies, women’s studies, psychiatry, and public health.
The focus section is scheduled to appear in the spring of 2013 and will be guest-edited by Professor Barbara Krahé (University of Potsdam/krahe@uni-potsdam.de) and Professor Antonia Abbey (Wayne State University/ aabbey@wayne.edu).
The deadline for the submission of manuscripts is September 1, 2012.
We request all contributors to observe a limit of 55,000 characters (including all references). Papers should be submitted online. For submission/manuscript guidelines please visit http://www.ijcv.org.
Theme: Toward a Reggae Hall of Fame: Celebrating Great Jamaican Music
RPC FINALISTS
The 2012 First International Reggae Poster Contest (RPC) began in December 27, 2011 with the goal of discovering fresh Reggae Poster designs from around the world. Interest in the contest grew significantly over the 4-month run with a total of 1,142 submissions from 80 countries. The contest winners were chosen from 370 finalists by a distinguished panel of judges known for their creativity and commitment to design.
Thoroughly impressed with the outcome of the competition, the RPC organizers are excited to announce that the international jury committee has selected the three finalist and the 100 best posters.
The winners are:
1st Place: Alon Braier, of Israel, for his "Roots Of Dub" poster
2nd Place: Zafer Lehimler, of Turkey, for his "Reggae Star" poster
3rd Place: Rosario Nocera, of Italy, for his "Riddim is Freedom" design
2012 Winners
1 • Alon Braier Israel
2 • Zafer Lehimler Turkey
3 • Rosario Nocera Italy
4 • Tomasz Bartz Poland
5 • Taj Francis Jamaica
6 • Jorge Davalos Cordova Bolivia
7 • Blaine Levy United States
8 • Matt Vearncombe United Kingdom
9 • Tomasz Bartz Poland
10 • Dimitris Evagelou Greece
11 • Gonzalo Gomez Gaggero Uruguay
12 • Sergio Ortiz Aguilar Mexico
13 • Giacomo Viviani Italy
14 • Miguel Cachia Malta
15 • EdicsonJose Nieto Baez Spain
16 • Alejandro Franseschini Canada
17 • Daniele Ascione Italy
18 • Dane Kemper South Africa
19 • Gamma Jam Jam Mexico
20 • Mary Wagner United States
21 • Sonia & Gabriel Diaz & Martinez Spain
22 • Yura Nikolaev Russia
23 • Vilmas Narecionis Lithuania
24 • EuiJong Lee South Korea
25 • Michael Clarke United Kingdom
26 • Jonathan Vizcuna United States
27 • Onur Askin Turkey
28 • Katie McClure United States
29 • Krzysztof Grudzinski Poland
30 • Andrea Caligiuri Italy
31 • David Doubell South Africa
32 • Tomasz Krawczyk Poland
33 • Babak Safari Iran
34 • Fernando Chato Gonzalo Spain
35 • Vilmas Narecionis Lithuania
36 • Celina Lambert United States
37 • Corine Campbell United States
38 • Michael Clarke United Kingdom
39 • Hriday Nagu India
40 • Vilmas Narecionis Lithuania
41 • Arvee Fider Philippines
42 • Domenico Marazia Italy
43 • Vanesa Merulla Argentina
44 • Dan Gershony Israel
45 • Ramiro Exposito
46 • Dimitris Evagelou Greece
47 • Vilmas Narecionis Lithuania
48 • Angel Ochoa Venezuela
49 • Kfir Weizman Israel
50 • Dean Bradley United States
51 • Mr Miao xiaoyong China
52 • Edmundo – Galindo
53 • Tomasz Krawczyk Poland
54 • Ewa Wlostowska Poland
55 • Tien Le United States
56 • Jeremiah Persyn Belgium
57 • Chaitanya Veer Singh Bist India
58 • Tien Le United States
59 • Gamma Jam Jam Mexico
60 • Ivan Fuentes Mexico
61 • Pablo Garcia Costa Rica
62 • Miguel Cachia Malta
63 • Oscar Ramirez Mexico
64 • Chris Walker United Kingdom
65 • Mehmet Ferryh Hasiloglu Turkey
66 • Thaldev Kaim Thaldev India
67 • Tomasz Bartz Poland
68 • Freddy Peralta Mexico
69 • Denni s Indonesia
70 • Dean Bradley United States
71 • Martina Wiesner Germany
72 • Sonia & Gabriel Diaz & Martinez Spain
73 • Kiryk Drewinski Germany
74 • Ali Can Metin Turkey
75 • Julia Wong Hong Kong
76 • Aimilios Galipis Greece
77 • Jorge Mattus Argentina
78 • Mario Fuentes Ecuador
79 • Benyamin Soleimani Iran
80 • CHema Skandal United States
81 • Mario Fuentes Ecuador
82 • CHema Skandal United States
83 • Oliver Batho United Kingdom
84 • Mario Fuentes Ecuador
85 • Zafer Lehimler Turkey
86 • Patrick Ott United States
87 • Isabella Brandalise and Henrique Meuren Brazil
Billions of people do not have access to good health care. There are surprising and innovative solutions for the delivery of medical care in emerging countries.
Speaker: Ola Orekunrin, Managing Director, Flying Doctors Nigeria Ltd
Dr. Ola Orekunrin is a medical doctor, helicopter pilot and Managing Director of the Flying Doctors Nigeria Ltd, West Africa's first Air Ambulance Service.
She graduated from the University Of York, is one of the youngest doctor’s in the country and has worked in the NHS for nearly ten years. She has a specialist interest in Trauma and Pre-hospital Care, buttressed by her private work at motor-racing Circuits across the country and her work with air ambulance services in the UK and Japan.She has published her own book along with several articles in high-profile medical journals and has sat on various influential boards at the British Medical Association. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious MEXT Japanese Government Scholarship and produced groundbreaking research in the field of regenerative medicine, focusing on induced pluripotent stem cells. She also is a member of the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine and holds their board certification.She Currently resides in Lagos, Nigeria where she is considered a national expert of disaster medicine and pre-hospital care. Her company has been featured on various local TV and radio stations as well as the BBC and CNN. ---- The Legatum Convergence, presented by the Legatum Center at MIT, is the global forum on entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Every year, aspiring and established entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, academics and others interested in entrepreneurship and bottom-up development convene at this marketplace of ideas.
Increasingly, entrepreneurship is being recognized for its role in creating prosperity and fostering good governance around the world. Today, innovation, entrepreneurial leadership and bottom-up development can effectively address the issues faced by low-income countries and stimulate progress in their economies. The two-day conference will explore the challenges and opportunities entrepreneurs encounter in the fields of education, health, technology, media, and manufacturing. The Convergence will also address financing and the nature of entrepreneurship from multiple perspectives.
Born and raised in England and of Nigerian parentage, Ola Orekunrin made history when at the age of 21 she became a medical doctor thus becoming one of the youngest medical doctor in England. She started her medical degree at the University of York and passed with flying colours.
She was raised by foster white parents and went to a primary school run by Catholic nuns and her family often struggled to make ends meet. According to her, her foster mother, Dorren was a tremendous influence in shaping her life.
Now at age 26, Orekunrin is founder of The Flying Doctors, the first air ambulance service in West Africa. She was prompted to start the new venture after her younger sister died of anaemia. Her sister was always in and out of hospitals and eventually died for lack of the availability of an air ambulance. But starting this venture was not easy.
She gave up a high flying job in England and her dreams of becoming the president of the British Medical Association and minister for the conservative party and moved to Nigeria.
According to her, “I was rejected more times than I can remember.”
“Sometimes I would spend hours waiting in an office only to be told to come back the next day and then be turned down.” she said.
“One time, on my way to Ondo State, I was robbed of all I had and was told by my companion, who was travelling with me, not to speak or else my accent would give me away and be the basis for my kidnap. Even in the face of difficultly, I was able to get some funding in addition to what I had saved up.
“The first time an air ambulance service was suggested for Nigeria was in 1960 and nothing was done about that idea. Having studied the models in Kenya, Libya, Uganda and India, coupled with my growing passion to help improve the health care system in Nigeria, which I believe is poor, I became even more determined to bring a similar service to Nigeria,” she said in a recent interview.
“We are completely physician-led and adhere to the highest standards of medical practice supported by the East Anglian Air Ambulance in the United Kingdom. Our mission is simple— to provide the best possible standard of health care to all.”
When asked if poor Nigerians would be able to benefit from her service, she said: “What I do hope is that more states will take up cover as well as making it increasingly available to the common man. I know that as Nigeria starts to take health care reform more seriously, this will begin to happen.”
Regular followers of S & A will remember an item I posted a few months ago back in January (HERE) about writer and director Joseph Elmore’s film Because I Love You which is currently now in the final stages of post-production.
As the official synopsis states the films deals with "Cream, an exotic dancer and devoted mother of a beautiful, little girl named Cookie and who's in the midst of a custody battle with her ex-husband, who wants her to stop dancing or give up her daughter. On the very night that Cream has decided to quit dancing, the strip club is robbed by a group of wild animals and she is taken captive and moved to an unknown location where she is beaten and raped repeatedly. They plan to use her and then kill her before they move on to the next city and the next job. The only thing keeping her alive is the care of one of the kidnappers who refuses to let her die and forces her to remember that her daughter needs her."
And, of course, because of the premise I figured that more than just a few people would be more than just a little upset..
Though the film, as well as Elmore, had some defenders, it’s safe to say that most commenters weren't exactlyfeeling the film and felt that it just reinforced negative stereotypes.
Well, Elmore last week reached out to yours truly, chomping at the bit, to explain and defend his movie which he told me already has several distributors interested in it and I talked to him at length about it
For the record, we had a great conversation and Elmore himself is very likable, very approachable, down to earth kind of guy. But I had to ask him, of course, the obvious question that many of you were no doubt asking: why didn’t he make say more “uplifting and positive” film instead about one with a black female stripper who’s kidnapped and sexually abused?
He responded that: “Because I Love You is an action drama. The movie is not about crime. it’s not about strippers. It is about a woman who is fighting to stay alive for no other reason than to be there for her daughter who she loves desperately. I wrote this movie because I wanted to ask the question: 'Who would you fight to live for?' People say all the time that they would kill for someone. That they would die for someone. But what would you fight to LIVE for? When all else is at its worst and you feel like not going on, you know, it’s like 'Please just kill me', 'Put me out of my misery'. But what would you live for? It’s like I would never want anything to happen to me because I need to know that my son is O.K. Who’s going to be there for him?”
So O.K. then, but why does she have to be a stripper? Why not a teacher, a doctor or just a regular person?
“Well here’s the funny thing about that. What is that saying? It’s American culture now. It’s being real. It’s American culture. Everyone knows a stripper. Everyone’s been to a strip club. You know all about it. So to say that there’s no story that can come out of this is ridiculous.”
But there are many people, especially women, who will say that you are sexually objectifying the female lead in your film by making her a stripper who is raped and abused
“You know that makes me laugh because they want to say that everything is perfect in the world. Everything is great in the world. The only people who have good things to happen to them should have movies made about them. You can’t tell a story about her because she’s a stripper because that isn’t 'positive'. Positivity comes out of negativity. So because she came out of a negative situation we can see something positive come out through that.
"I remember people saying we shouldn’t do “hood” movies. I don’t do “hood” movies, but I would do any story that has a story. So if someone from the hood sees a story and sees something positive happening, then they can see that this can happen to them, that something good can come out of it. And again this is what I’m trying to do with Because I Love You. I’m trying to show that something good can come out of this. This girl does not want to be a stripper. That was not her goal in life when she grew up. Something terrible happened to her and it led her into that direction and she’s here now. And she’s trying to make the best way that she can so that her daughter doesn’t have to do that.”
Which brings up the issue of black imagery in films and do you think that black filmmakers have this particular burden? I don’t think there’s ever been a black film made that every single black people has universally liked. No matter how "positive or uplifting" the film is, there will always be people who will have a problem with it
“(laughs) Yeah it’s a burden, but as a filmmaker you have to accept it. It is what it is. I always say that if 4 people hate your movie and 400 love it and respect it, that’s all you can do. You try to make the best movie that you can possibly make. I agree that we should not be making movies: ‘This is negative, this is negative, shoot people, kill, kill, kill!’ without any responsibility. That makes no sense. And I do agree that if I made a sexual movie there will be people who say: 'Oh My God! Black people having sex! That’s the most terrible thing in the world!' You have Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Unfaithful, but if they’re black and sexual it’s a problem.
"For me what feeds into the stereotype is black people. We feed into the stereotype more than anybody because we’re the ones complaining about it all the time. We keep complaining and saying it shouldn’t be done, but no one else is complaining. I’ve never heard a white person saying: ‘Wow! Halle Berry having sex with a white person! This is terrible!’ But black people say it all the time, so who’s feeding into the stereotype?”
And there you have have it. I want to thank Joseph for the opportunity to let me talk with him and I’m sure that many of you will have something to say.
IT'S BACK! The film that everyone has a strong opinion about, Because I Love You, written and directed by Joseph Elmore (which we've covered before here on S & A - most recently HERE) has a new extended trailer.
If you recall, the film deals with "Cream, a beautiful young exotic dancer torn between good and evil, internally as well as externally. On the night that she chooses a life of good over evil, the Gentlemen's Club where she dances gets robbed and she is taken hostage by a group of wild animals. She is driven to an undisclosed location and brutalized repeatedly. Feeling like all hope is gone, it is the love of her daughter, who is waiting for her to come home that keeps her alive."
Furtheromore the filmmakers are proud of their film because, in their wordsit's a "must see film that mixes action, crime and comedy up in a pot and feeds our movie going need for good old fashion, no holds barred entertainment. Most importantly it’s a love story in the greatest sense of the phrase. It is about unconditional love, between a man and a woman, friends, family and especially the love of a mother and her child."
Here's the new trailer; can't wait to see what you all are going to say about it now:
2nd Place: Zafer Lehimler, of Turkey, for his "Reggae Star" poster
3rd Place: Rosario Nocera, of Italy, for his "Riddim is Freedom" design
