Old School As Told by

Artist Awol Erizku

by twoandseven on Nov 10, 2011 

We’ve been told that pictures are worth a thousand words but Awol Erizku, tells us something else. This native New Yorker shows us his studio, his unique images, his point of view and a whole lot words that won’t fit even in a thousand photographs.

Awol Erizku and Kanye photo by Caitlin Martusewicz

 

two + seven: Tell me a little bit about yourself, how did it all start?

Awol Erizku: I’ve always had an interest in film in high school. I got into Cooper Union because of my film but when I started college I had an opportunity to intern for David La Chapelle. I showed him a series of photographs of this group of retro kids. He was blown, he made me realize maybe making art with photography was something I can take more seriously. I opened this studio last Halloween.  The owners of Adore Flower shop Jack Wu and his beautiful wife Chiyomi  have been impressed by a wall installation my good friend Fletcher Williams III and myself have been commissioned to complete that summer on Jacks bar on 53rd street .

Source: Awol Erizku

 

We took a good portion of that summer to work on the wall by night, we believe it’s the sexiest wall in all of New York City clubs. Shortly After the summer I graduated from Cooper, Jack and Chiyomi who recently moved in to the Flower Shop generously gave me the floor below the Shop to use as my Studio. From there I had to start doing the things you don’t learn in school: building my studio one equipment at a time, producing work and getting into shows and galleries.

Source: Awol Erizku

 

two + seven: How would you describe your work?

AE: Fine Art. My work is generally mixed media, sculpture, film, painting but I predominantly work with photography. The medium depends on the body of work I make. Some are more effective in sculpture and some more effective in photography.

Funky Fresh Crew by Awol Erizku

Stay Free by Awol Erizku

 

two + seven: What’s the predominant theme of you work?

AE: I’m still working on it but I would say a lot of it has to do with Identity, Beauty and Humor. I want to create substantial work that represents my culture in a positive light; I want to celebrate the elegance and the beauty of African American Men and women. Pop-culture has a lot of influence on my work. I like to re-contextualize art historical pieces with a twist of pop.  You won’t think the same artist would make my photos and sculptures. Think of a huge puzzle, I’m putting the pieces that someone will consider the “theme” of my work once I’m gone, together.

Girl with a Bamboo Earring by Awol Erizku

Lady with Pitbull by Awol Erizku

 

two + seven:  Tell us about your work

AE: My neon piece You Are All Famous, is definitely more contemporary and it’s a bit different from my photographs like The Girl with a Bamboo Earring. My neon piece of Barack Obama’s twitter name (@BarackObama) highlights his relevance in pop-culture, our generation and Obama as the first American president to be branded.

Untitled by Awol Erizku

 

two + seven: What is your work process?

AE: It starts intuitively on a conceptual level and then I create a surface. I think about what I want to say and then find the medium and material that can best communicate my concept. For photography, there’s more patience involved, for example finding the subject and scheduling a shoot and so on. Once I’m making the photograph with my subjects, it’s organic but the ideation of my work comes in time. For any given piece, I would be looking at up to 5 subjects. These subjects are people that I come across in my day-to-day adventures in the city. It’s important for me to come across these people and get to know them and see if their persona fits the concept I want to portray. Music also plays a huge role during my shoots. I usually have a playlist set up before each shoot. If I’m not shooting, I’m making playlists.

1988 by Awol Erizku

KWA by Awol Erizku

 

two + seven: Who are the biggest influences in your work?

AE: On the conceptual level, Jeff Wall, in how he uses back-lit photography to add more to his photographs. David La Chapelle has a huge influence on the visual side of my work, color and making sure the smallest details get the same treatment as the rest of the photographs. At about 18 or so David was my mentor who exposed me to A-list celebrities and how to work with them, I apply a lot of those aspects when I photograph my subjects. But if I can be honest, I avoid looking at other photographer’s work because I don’t want to have a direct influence on the aesthetic or concepts of my work. Photography is saturated!

__________________________

A Day With Awol Erizku

One of our favorite New York City artist and photographers, Awol Erizku recently sat down withBlowhiphop TV to talk about his come up and passion in his artistry. Young and independent, Awol is one of the most underrated in the concrete jungle. Little do people know he is responsible for shooting A$AP Rocky & A$AP Ferg‘s first music video “Get High” as well as shooting a video for The Suzan. Amongst his amazing photo work and art installations, his creative direction is just as awesome. He has two art shows coming up this year that you will read about on here, you don’t want to miss them so make sure you look out for those. This interview below takes you on a day with Awol as he shows you his process of creating and also some of his hobbies. Enjoy the few words with Awol.

Unsung:

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

January 31, 2011   |   LIWI68

Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s revolutionary ideas to a generation of African Americans, and reveal how he invested hundreds and thousands of black men and women with a newfound sense of pride. Before Elijah Muhammad, before Malcolm X, before Martin Luther King there was Marcus Garvey who gave birth to righteous leaders in the Caribbean, on the American continent and the Motherland.

 

 

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of the greatest leaders African people have produced, was born August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, and spent his entire life in the service of his people–African people. He was bold; he was uncompromising and he was one of the most powerful orators on record. He could literally bring his audiences to a state of mass hysteria. Garvey emphasized racial pride. His goal was nothing less that the total and complete redemption and liberation of African people around the planet. His dream was the galvanization of Black people into an unrelenting steamroller that could never be defeated. I consider myself, along with many others, as one of Garvey’s children.

 

As a young man of fourteen, Garvey left school and worked as a printer’s apprentice. He participated in Jamaica’s earliest nationalist organizations, traveled throughout Central America, and spent time in London, England, where he worked with the Sudanese-Egyptian nationalist Duse Mohamed Ali. In 1916 Garvey was invited by Booker T. Washington to come to the United States in the hopes of establishing an industrial training school, but arrived just after Washington died. In March 1916, shortly after landing in America, Garvey embarked upon an extended period of travel. When he finally settled down, he organized a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. The UNIA & ACL had been formed in Jamaica in 1914. Its motto was “One God, One Aim, One Destiny,” and pledged itself to the redemption of Africa and the uplift of Black people everywhere. It aimed at race pride, self-reliance and economic independence.

 

THE-INFLUENCE-OF-MARCUS-GARVEY-PT-1 from V.I.S.I.O.N.A.R.Y. 68 on Vimeo

Within a few years Garvey had become the best-known and most dynamic African leader in the Western Hemisphere and perhaps the entire world. In 1919 Mr. Garvey created an international shipping company called the Black Star Line. By 1920 the UNIA had hundreds of divisions. It hosted elaborate international conventions and published a weekly newspaper entitled the Negro World.

 

THE-INFLUENCE-OF-MARCUS-GARVEY-PT-2 from V.I.S.I.O.N.A.R.Y. 68 on Vimeo.

 

No other organization in modern times has had the prestige and the impact as the UNIA & ACL. During the 1920s UNIA divisions existed throughout North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Australia.

THE-INFLUENCE-OF-MARCUS-GARVEY-PT-3 from V.I.S.I.O.N.A.R.Y. 68 on Vimeo.

THE-INFLUENCE-OF-MARCUS-GARVEY-PT-4 from V.I.S.I.O.N.A.R.Y. 68 on Vimeo.

THE-INFLUENCE-OF-MARCUS-GARVEY-PT-4 from V.I.S.I.O.N.A.R.Y. 68 on Vimeo.

“In death I shall be a terror to the foes of Negro liberty. Look for me in the whirlwind or the song of the storm; look for me all around you.” – Marcus Garvey

 

 

 

2012 Red Hen Press Short Story Award

For publication in the Los Angeles Review
$1000 Award
Deadline: June 30, 2012
Final Judge: Mary Guterson

 

Established in 2001, in celebration of the new century and a new tradition of literature, this award is for an original short story with a maximum of 25 pages. Submission is open to all writers and themes.

Award is $1000 and publication of the awarded story by Red Hen Press in the Los Angeles Review. Entry fee is $20 for two stories, 25 page limit per story. Please include your name on the cover sheet only. Send SASE for notification. Entries must be postmarked by June 30.

Guidelines

Eligibility: The award is open to all writers with the following exceptions:

A) Authors who have had a full length work published by Red Hen Press, or a full length work currently under consideration by Red Hen Press;
B) Employees, interns, or contractors of Red Hen Press;
C) Relatives of employees or members of the executive board of directors;
D) Relatives or individuals having a personal or professional relationship with any of the final judges where they have taken any part whatsoever in shaping the manuscript, or where, for whatever reason, selecting a particular manuscript might have the appearance of impropriety.

Procedures and Ethical Considerations

To be certain that every manuscript finalist receives the fairest evaluation, all manuscripts shall be submitted to the judges without any identifying material.

Bios, acknowledgments, and other identifying material shall be removed from judged manuscripts until the conclusion of the competition.

Red Hen Press shall not use students or interns as readers at any stage of its competitions.

Red Hen Press is committed to maintaining the utmost integrity of our awards. Judges shall recuse themselves from considering any manuscript where they recognize the work. In the event of recusal, a manuscript score previously assigned by the managing editor of the press will be substituted.

Please submit materials to:

Attn: Red Hen Press Short Story Award
Red Hen Press
P.O. Box 40820
Pasadena, CA 91114
www.redhen.org

Red Hen Press will only accept submissions that have been mailed to the above address; please no email attachments or faxes.

Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize

What is the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize?

An annual contest for short fiction. A chance for your fiction to be read by Hunger Mountain editors and guest judges!

What will the winner receive?

One first place winner receives $1000 and publication!
Two honorable mentions receive $100 each, and are considered for publication.

Who can enter the contest?

Anyone! Everyone!

Who is this year’s judge?

The 2012 judge is Pam Houston.Read her Hunger Mountain piece “Corn Maze.”

Pam Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays called A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award, as well as multiple teaching awards. She is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis, and teaches in The Pacific University low residency MFA program and at writers’ conferences around the country and the world. She lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Her new book, Contents May Have Shifted, was published by W.W. Norton in February, 2012.

 

When is the deadline?

The postmark deadline is June 30.

Where is last year’s winning entry?

Here. Click to read the 2011 winner “The Speed of Sound” by Elizabeth Gonzalez, chosen by Gish Jen.

Or here. Click to read the 2011 runner-up “The Ghosts of Takahiro Ōkyo” by Donald Quist.

Or Here. Click to read the 2010 winner “How the Film Flint Distorts the Truth” by Mojie Crigler, chosen by Steve Almond.

Or here. Click to read 2010 runner up, “A Man is Not a Star” by Josie Sigler.

2009 winner: Click to read “Levitation” by Tricia Springstubb, chosen by Andre Dubus III.

2009 Runner-up! Click to read “Shout Her Lovely Name” by Natalie Serber, the runner-up chosen by Andre Dubus III.

Does Hunger Mountain accept electronic entries?

Yes! Please enter one original, unpublished story under 10,000 words.  Your name and address should not appear on the story; we read contest entries blind. Click the link below to access our online submission system. Once in the submission manager, you’ll need to choose “Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize” (scroll almost all the way to the bottom to find it). Pay the $20.00 entry fee and upload your entry: Enter the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize

Does Hunger Mountain still accept entries via snail mail?

Yes! Please send one original, unpublished story under 10,000 words. Include a $20 entry fee. Make checks payable to “Vermont College of Fine Arts.” Entries should be postmarked by June 30th. Your name or address should not appear anywhere on the story itself (we read entries blind.) Instead, enclose an index card with story title, your name, address, phone number, and email address. You may also enclose an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope)  for notification of winners. Entries should be typed, and on one side of the paper only. No staples please! Send entries to:

HFMSFP
Hunger Mountain
Vermont College of Fine Arts
36 College Street
Montpelier, VT 05602

Will my entry be considered for general publication as  as well as for the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize?

Yes, it will.

May I enter more than one story in this prize?

Yes. Enter as many as you like! But each entry needs its own entry fee.

Are simultaneous submissions okay?

Yes,  but please let us know right away if your work is accepted elsewhere. And unfortunately we can’t refund entry fees if the work is accepted somewhere else.

What if I have questions that aren’t answered here?

Email us at hungermtn@vcfa.edu

---

Enter the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize by clicking here

Thanks for entering the contest, and good luck!

2012 Muhammad Ali Award

for Writing on Ethics

“All I did was stand up for what I believed.”
--Muhammad Ali

ETHICS. . . To live an ethical life requires not only tremendous personal courage and conviction but also an incredibly high ethical standard. 

The National Council of Teachers of English is proud to partner with the Muhammad Ali Center and the Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony to offer an award for college students honoring Muhammad Ali’s legacy of living a life dedicated to high ethical standards.

We are seeking submissions that address relevant ethical topics of this generation. As you identify an ethical issue to address for the purposes of this competition, consider Muhammad Ali’s accomplishments and values and how these values address the topic you have chosen. Please visit the Muhammad Ali Center for more information regarding Ali’s values.

Prizes

One winner will be selected to receive the following:

• $10,000 cash prize

• A week-long writing workshop at the Mailer Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts during summer of 2013

• Recognition by the Muhammad Ali Center and the Norman Mailer Center at the Norman Mailer Center’s Annual Gala on October 4, 2012

• Travel, lodging, and gala tickets for the winner, courtesy of the Muhammad Ali Center

   2012 Muhammad Ali Award for Writing on Ethics

Judging Criteria

Submissions will be read by national panels of teachers and writers. They will be judged by how well they demonstrate the following in relation to an ethical issue: understanding; original thinking and insight; effectiveness in presenting a point-of-view; achieving an overall emotional or intellectual effect. 

Submissions will be judged on the following:

•    Understanding: The writer should demonstrate a deeper understanding of the topic than might be encountered in general public discussions.

•    Original thinking and insight; The writer should offer some original thought regarding the complexity of the topic and also some fresh insight in how one might approach the ethical issue being discussed.

•    Effectiveness in presenting a point-of-view; The essay should present a clear position that grows out of the writer's understanding and insight. 

 
•    Achieving an overall emotional or intellectual effect; The elements of the essay should work together to establish a strong overall emotional or intellectual effect.

Submission Guidelines

Entries can focus on any aspect of ethics -- from ethics across cultures to personal, medical, or business ethics, and more.  Writers can choose to explore ethical issues surrounding military policy, cultural differences, public policy, or any other subject they feel is ethically relevant.  

Writers are encouraged to think broadly about the issue of ethics and how it applies to the larger world. For this contest writers should consider "Ethics" as the "discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation," or as a study "dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions."  The contest is not looking for formal philosophical statements, but essays that draw the reader into thoughtful considerations of how people approach current ethical issues.

Sample topics might include the following: the ethics of holding detainees in Guantanamo Bay; the ethics of firing drones away from an active battle field; the ethics of being an international company attempting to impose western values regarding women on middle eastern countries; the ethics of funding prisoners’ rights programs while defunding initiatives in public schools; the ethics of food justice (we all have a right to food--access and availability). 

The competition is open to full-time undergraduate students, and first- and second- year full-time students enrolled in community colleges, junior colleges, and technical colleges.  Entries should be a maximum of 10 single-spaced pages and no more than 5,000 words. Authors retain copyright of their work. Deadline for submissions is July 23, 2012, Noon CDT.

For more information, contact us at nmw@ncte.org.

DOWNLOAD:

Afro-German

May Ayim’s writings

and poetry on Black Atlantic

May Ayim 1990 (Blues in schwarz weiß). Orlanda Verlag:

Afro-German May Ayim (educator, poet and activist) wrote the book Blues in schwarz-weiss (Blues in Black and White), A Collection of Essays, Poetry and Conversations. You can download (PDF) an excerpt of the book of her book for free at Blackatlantic.

If you need quick introduction, see the video Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story

A moving documentary about the life and untimely death of Afro-German poet May Ayim which contains both performances by Ayim and places her in the history of the emerging Afro-German movement. In the foreword to Ayim's blues in swarz weiss (blues in black and white) Maryse Conde wrote "... With the unmistakable sound of her voice her poems spoke to me of her, told of others that are like her and yet so unlike her in Germany, in Africa, in America. These poems held passion and irony ... In May's voice I found the echo of other voices from the diaspora." 

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 reunited the white Germans, but at the same time excluded ethic minorities. “In the days immediately following November 9,1989 [German reunification], I noticed that hardly any immigrants or black Germans were to be seen around town, at least only rarely any dark-skinned ones, ” writes Afro-German Poet May Ayim in her essay "1990: Home / land and Unity from an Afro-German Perspective". In her story she intimately writes about her fears of the increased racism and how her beloved city Berlin made her feel a “foreigner” overnight.

May Ayim

Home / land and Unity from an Afro-German Perspective

(...)

Within a few moments reunification led to the birth of a new Federal Republic in – as far as the GDR [East Germany] was concerned – a not particularly new guise. The GDR was left to the side. As the Wall fell, many rejoiced; others felt their heads spinning.

German Fa(r)ther-land…
My fatherland is Ghana, my mother tongue is German; homeland, I carry in my shoes. When the Wall fell, I felt, for a while, the fear of being struck down. It wasn’t much, not a great fear, but more than usual.

Since 1984 I have been living and working in West Berlin and feel more at home in this city than anywhere else. Due to my underdeveloped sense of direction I get lost everyday in the streets, but compared with other cities where I lived and studied before, Berlin has always been a place where I felt pretty much at home. My skin color is not an unusual attention-grabber on the streets; here I’m not praised everyday for my good German, and, at seminars, programs, or parties, only seldom do I find myself the only black among an indeterminate number of whites. I still have to explain myself a lot, but not constantly. I remember former times, in small West German cities, where I often had the feeling of being under constant observation, of getting sick of constantly searching and questioning gazes. I remember days when I would feel especially lonely or unbearably exposed and would be on the lookout for black people while shopping or riding the bus. In Berlin, this anonymous city with its international face, those recollections faded very quickly from my memory. With the fall of the Wall and the period following it they returned, as though out of a dusty drawer, into my daily life.

In the days immediately following November 9,1989, I noticed that hardly any immigrants or black Germans were to be seen around town, at least only rarely any dark-skinned ones. I wondered why not many Jews were about. I ran into a couple of Afro-Germans whom I had met in East Berlin the previous year, and we were glad to have more chances of getting together now. Moving around alone I wanted to breathe in a bit of the general enthusiasm, to sense the historical moment and share my reserved joy. Reserved because I had heard about the imminent policy-tightening regarding immigrants and asylum-seekers. And further, like other black Germans and immigrants, I knew that even a German passport did not guarantee an invitation to the East-West festivities. We sensed that along with the imminent intra-German union a growing closing off from outside would ensue – an outside that would include us. Our participation in the celebration was not invited.

The new “We” in “this our country” – Chancellor Kohl’s favorite expression – did not and does not have a place for everyone.
“Out, nigger, don’t you have a home to go to?”

For the first time since I had been living in Berlin I now had to protect myself almost daily against undisguised insults, hostile looks and / or openly racist offenses. As in earlier times I started again, when shopping and on public transportation, to look out for dark faces. A friend of mine, holding her
Afro-German daughter on her lap in the S-Bahn,* was told “We don’t need your kind anymore. There are already more than enough of us!” A ten-year-old African boy was thrown out of a crowded UBahn train (S-Bahn: elevated train) to make room for a white German.

Those were incidents in West Berlin in November, 1989, and since 1990 reports of racially motivated attacks primarily on black people have increased, mostly in the eastern part of Germany. Reports like those were at first known only in circles of immigrants and black Germans, the official media reporters hardly taking notice of the violent assaults. I began the year 1990 with a poem:

“borderless and brazen: a poem against the German “u-not y.”
i will be African
even if you want me to be german
and i will be german
even if my blackness does not suit you
i will go
yet another step further
to the farthest edge
where my sisters – where my brothers stand
where
o u r
FREEDOM
begins
i will go
yet another step further and another step and
will return
when i want
and remain
borderless and brazen
1990
for Jaqueline and Katharina
(Translation by May Ayim)

As an outgrowth of the “Black History Month” series of programs on topics of black history, culture, and politics, initiated by a black activist group in Berlin, February, 1990, a task force was formed of black groups and individuals of racist attacks in Berlin and the surrounding area.

(...)

Read the full story, which begins on page 14, in the PDF document. 1990: Home / land and Unity from an Afro-German Perspective.

Published in German in the book «Der Black Atlantic» (3-9808851-5-1) | 2004 published by the House of World Cultures in Berlin

 

Egypt's surprise candidate:

Hamdeen Sabahi

 

By Evan Hill

Fri, 2012-05-25 

Hamdeen Sabahi, a two-time member of parliament during the Mubarak era was jailed 17 times [EPA]

As informal and unofficial results pile up in Egypt’s first free presidential election, a heap of intriguing story lines are emerging. 

What happened to former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, the presumed front runner? Did the Salafi community, with its voting power, abandon Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, the man they endorsed? How is Ahmed Shafiq, the candidate most closely aligned with toppled president Hosni Mubarak, poised to enter the runoff?

But among the swirl of questions, one candidate has upended predictions the most: Hamdeen Sabahi.

Sabahi, a two-time member of parliament during the Mubarak era who was jailed 17 times under successive presidents, is battling with Shafiq for second place, after initial results showed him lagging far behind.

The charismatic populist from a rural town in Kafr el-Sheikh, a Nile Delta governorate, Sabahi had been dismissed by many analysts. He was the classic no-chance candidate in Egyptian politics, it seemed: a non-Islamist with no party machine who had revolutionary credentials and appealed to secularists.

“Sabahi has no organisation outside the big cities,” one well-known analyst told me.

“[The] only thing I’m sure of is that Sabahi is not in [the] second round,” tweeted H.A. Hellyer, a Middle East scholar.

Sabahi surge

And yet Sabahi’s surge over the past week has been palpable on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, where Al Jazeera reporters heard his name mentioned more than any other, if not as a first choice, then as the one man everyone seemed to like - someone tainted neither by the regime nor the strict, conservative and opaque party politics of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Magdy Girgis, a 50-year-old Christian shop owner in Cairo’s Shubra neighbourhood, told Al Jazeera that like many of his coreligionists he would vote for Shafiq, mostly because he felt the former Air Force officer could bring back a sense of security.

Yet Girgis said he also liked Sabahi, he just didn’t know if Sabahi was as strong.

In the wake of a parliamentary election that was dominated by Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood and prompted many to conclude that Egypt had revealed its deeply conservative and pious fundamental character, Sabahi’s surge may be an indicator that the appeal of a Nasserist - both in personality and policy - has yet to fade.

According to media reports, he has placed first or second in important governorates, including first in Alexandria, home to Egypt’s second city, and second in Suez and a batch of Delta governorates where the Brotherhood and Moussa were thought to be strong, such as Damietta, Gharbiya and Dakhileya.

Sabahi’s political career began in the 1970s, when he studied mass communication at Cairo University and joined the student union. He engaged in a famous, on-camera showdown with President Anwar Sadat at the university in 1977, criticising Sadat’s liberal economic reforms.

In the 1990s, Sabahi was an agitator and political organiser. He first ran for parliament in 1995 but lost in what his supporters described as a regime crackdown typical of the times. 

When the government felt that Sabahi’s appeal was growing too strong, they shut down polling stations and deployed paid thugs to instigate fights. At one station, doors were shut with voters already inside, and a barrage of police tear gas left two women dead, one Sabahi volunteer told Al Jazeera recently.

His most prominent clash with the regime came in 1997, when Mubarak’s National Democratic Party passed a law making it easier for landlords to evict farmers who had come to the end of their leases.

Advocating civil disobedience

Sabahi took a prominent stand against the law, advocated mass civil disobedience, and was arrested. 

But by then, he had become a well-known figure, and in 2000 and 2005 he was elected to parliament. He founded a journalism centre, The Rising, and advocated to change Egypt’s election laws to make it easier for independents such as himself to run for president. 

He also affiliated himself with Kifaya and other Egyptian protest movements that had been newly invigorated after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq prompted demonstrations - also directed at the Mubarak regime - that were larger than any Cairo had seen in years.

When the revolution hit in January 2011, Sabahi was in the streets, and after Mubarak fell, he announced he would try for the presidency. 

Sabahi’s campaign has reflected his likable persona. He is the only major candidate whose posters show him smiling, and his slogan, “one of us,” reflects a more populist appeal than the vagueness of the Brotherhood’s “renaissance is the will of the people” or the sternness of Moussa’s “Egypt needs the work of every Egyptian” or Shafiq’s “deeds, not words”.

He has received broad support from Egypt’s journalism and media communities - his headquarters is housed in the office of popular director Khaled Youssef - and his campaign claims that it has run haphazardly on a shoestring, with donors buying billboard and newspaper ad space where they can.

When Sabahi arrived in Cairo’s Matareyya neighbourhood for his final campaign rally on Sunday, just a few hundred people attended. 

The rows of chairs boxed in by tent cloth with Ramadan-coloured patterns and bright hanging lights resembled a small village party more than a presidential campaign.

And yet word had spread about Sabahi. Around the corner from the rally, pensioner Muhammed Abdel Rahman sat on a sidewalk chair and said he and his neighbours had all settled on Sabahi.

Whether Sabahi’s media connections provided a late boost is up for debate, and any benefit would have been equally matched by what appeared to be a performance by state-owned media that was at best sympathetically and at worst intentionally promoting Shafiq and Moussa.

Yet by the first day of voting on May 23, Sabahi had ascended into the national debate. From taxi drivers to pensioners to well-educated consultants, his emphasis on justice and the poor had resounded.

“He said the right words, the honest words, at a time when everything was corrupt,” said Doaa Mohammed, a 28-year-old lawyer in a hijab.

She said she was against Moussa and Shafiq for their regime connections and against Morsi and Aboul Fotouh, an ex-Brotherhood member, for their Islamism. Sabahi is open-minded, she said.

Sherif Fadel, a television news reporter volunteering for the campaign, echoed her.

“I know with Hamdeen if he wins, the next day I can go out into the street and say I disagree with him, and it will be OK.”

__________________________

Egypt Elections:

The People Decide

Their Future

Photo Blog by Mosa'ab Elshamy

Egypt prepared to wrap up landmark presidential polls on Thursday after an orderly two-day vote in which candidates pitted stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule.

Polling stations were to close at 9.00 PM, after voting was extended by one hour, with only minor violations reported by the interior ministry.

Queues formed outside the voting centers after they opened at 8.00 am with authorities declaring Thursday a holiday to allow public sector employees to cast their ballots.

Turnout appeared to vary across the country, with long queues outside some polling stations, and scant participation in others.

The official body supervising the election estimated that around 50 percent of eligible voters cast their ballot, lower than the 62 percent in the parliamentary elections.

Around 50 million voters were choosing among 12 candidates, with the front runners divided between Islamists who say they will champion the uprising's goals and Mubarak-era ministers.

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

(Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Kusherekea!

Today is Africa Day!

Friday May 25, 2012 – by Britni Danielle

Forty-nine years ago today the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the precursor to the African Union, was founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Back then the OAU included 32 countries and continued to expand as countries gained independence until South Africa finally joined in 1994.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon explained the importance of Africa Day:

“Each year, Africa Day provides an opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of the peoples and governments of Africa.”

Africa Day is a yearly celebration highlighting the achievements, culture, advancements, and histories of Africa’s countries. Celebrations are held across the continent, the UK, U.S., and the Caribbean. Some events include concerts, business forums, cultural exchanges, and lectures.

Despite what is often broadcast in Western media, Africa is a diverse continent with histories and cultures that stretch back to the beginning of the Earth. While many choose to focus on Africa’s challenges, Africa Day reminds us to celebrate its rich past and promising future.

In honor of Africa Day, check out one of my favorite Nigerian artists, Fela Kuti.

Who are some of your favorite African icons?

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AFRICAN

INDEPENDENCE MAP

Infographic depicting the years that African countries became independent. Happy Africa Day!

(Click on map to enlarge.)

>via: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4jjq7epcp1qiuwg7o1_1280.jpg