Black Power Olympic hero John Carlos introduces a debate on Resistance, the best Olympic spirt to trade unionists in London . Image © Thabo Jaiyesimi

JOHN CARLOS

 May 23, 2012 by presstvlondon

The man who became world famous for his Olympics "black power salute" has urged ethnic minorities in Britain to resist racism from the authorities. John Carlos is on a speaking tour of the UK ahead of the Olympic Games in London to show solidarity with oppressed peoples. Roshan Muhammed Salih reports.

via facebook.com

THE BANJO LESSON

art-history:

Henry Ossawa Tanner 
The Banjo Lesson  1893 
Oil on canvas  49 x 35 in
Hampton University Museum, Virginia 

In 1893, Tanner painted this work while in Philadelphia, to which he had returned from Paris to recover from typhoid fever. The Banjo Lesson was one of two genre paintings Tanner produced at a time in which poor southern blacks, still scarred by slavery, are presented with unsentimental dignity. The reserve of Tanner’s subjects departs from the traditional image of the gregarious black performer. The Banjo Lesson was painted three years before the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), during a period when whites were committing lynchings and other crimes of intimidation to reestablish racial separation in the South. 

In this quiet scene a young boy is cradled in the arms of an older black man who holds up the neck of the banjo—an instrument too large for the boy to support. The boy tentatively strums the banjo with his awkwardly cocked right hand, while his left hand struggles with fingering. The two figures form a tight compositional and emotional unit, thoroughly absorbed in their world. They are situated in a simple, scrubbed domestic interior, the remains of a meal just eaten visible on the table in the background. An internal radiance sets off the massive dark brow and head of the man and illuminates the face of the young boy, a study in concentration. Knees spread wide, the man frames the boy in a metaphor of protection, tradition, and the bond furnished by music as it is passed from generation to generation. Tanner may have drawn this subject on travels to North Carolina before returning to Paris. As the art historian Judith Wilson has pointed out, Tanner transforms the conventional view of blacks as innately musical by emphasizing the role of teaching the transmission of black cultural forms. The young boy’s face is illuminated from the left, in a traditional metaphor of enlightenment. In their embrace of vernacular subjects, these works by Tanner look forward to twentieth-century black artists who explored the place of tradition in black cultural identity. 

—Angela L. Miller, et al., American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (2008)

STREAM:

New Yasiin Bey (Mos Def)

Track 'Bey'

• Posted by Sound Check on May 22, 2012 

Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) revealed a really clever new track via hypetrak.com. It was released as a tribute to Notorious B.I.G.'s and Malcom X's birthdays, and consists of Bey's take on Lil' Wayne's 'John'. It's the second track off his 'Top 40 Underdog' project (the first one being 'N****s In Poorest'): “The tradition, taking someone's song and making your version of out of it, is not new to hip-hop,” he told Hypebeast. “It will deal with a range of various subjects, covering socially conscious and political themes since it is a staple in my life and an expression of who I am.”
Stream 'Bey' below.

__________________________

Yasiin Bey at the Apollo

Thursday June 14, 2012 Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) will be performing live at the historic Apollo theater. The critically acclaimed artist (and actor) will present the next level of his musicianship as he continues to grow, change, and innovate.

Tickets

Date: Thursday June 14, 2012
 

Time: 9pm
 

Venue: The Apollo Theater

JOHN FORTE

TEDxTalks on Nov 8, 2009

John Forté is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and producer from Brooklyn. This July, marking the nine-year anniversary of his date of arrest on charges of drug trafficking, Forté released StyleFREE the EP, his first collection of new music in eight years. On StyleFREE, Forté delivers an eclectic group of songs, full of powerful social commentary, hope and inspiration.

__________________________

John Forté is an accomplished musician and producer who recently released StyleFREE the EP, his first album since serving seven years in federal prison. Forte’s career was interrupted by a 14-year sentence for a first-time non-violent drug offense; Former President Bush commuted his sentence in 2008.

>via: http://poptech.org/popcasts/john_forté_an_impresario_returns

__________________________

John Forte & Valerie June

"Give Me Water"

__________________________

Tribeca 2012 Preview

- John Forté's

Personal Journey

During One "Russian Winter"

>via: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tribeca-2012-preview-john-fortes-pers...

Guidelines

---

Download the required guidelines here.

Who May Apply?

Citizens of the United States and Canada with primary residence in these countries.

Deadlines?

June 30th for Nonfiction and Poetry December 31st for Fiction, Visual Art and Mixed Genre (We do not accept electronic applications.)

 

We award:

Small artist support grants ($500 – 1500) to individual feminist women in the arts whose work in some way focuses on women.

We do not fund:

Theater, playscripts, videos, work which is or will be self-published. We do not give loans or provide money for educational assistance, work on dissertations or research (except research to be used in writing a book). We do not provide funds for the cost of editing services, business projects, or emergency money for people in need. We rarely give money to groups. Those who have applied for a grant previously must wait two years before reapplying to the fund. Former grantees must wait five years before reapplying,

We are interested:

in funding projects which you have begun or which are well underway and for which you have work to show. We request that the majority of your submitted materials be related to and part of this project. (see the Award Notes for examples of recently funded projects) Please take time to download and read the guidelines and application form carefully. Submissions which do not include the required documents in the requested order may be refused. We do not accept electronic applications -- all materials must be mailed by USPS. Please mail applications only in the months of December and June. Applications with a late postmark will be refused at the post office & returned to you. You will be notified about the grant decision approximately five months after the deadline date.

Search

Links

• Facebook
• Order Grantee Books

 

 

 

 

Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc. is exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is a private foundation within the meaning of section 509(a) of the Code. Donors may deduct contributions as provided in section 170 of the Code.

THE NEW GUARD 2012 CONTESTS

 

Our 2012 contests are open! Entry period is March 1-June 18, 2012 (postmark). Entries are $15.

KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of narrative and/or experimental poetry. Three poems per entry. Up to 300 lines per poem. Judged by National Poetry Series winner JEANNE MARIE BEAUMONT.

MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of literary and/or experimental fiction. Submit up to 7,500 words: anything from flash to the long story. Novel excerpts are welcome if the manuscript functions as a stand-alone story. We do not publish illustrations. Judged by Novelist and Essayist RICK BASS.

 

KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST JUDGE

Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, Burning of the Three Fires, which was a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and Curious Conduct. Her first book, Placebo Effects, was selected as a winner in the National Poetry Series. She also won the Dana Award for Poetry and The Greensboro Review literary award for poetry. Her poems have been included in two dozen anthologies and textbooks, including Good Poems for Hard Times, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Norton Introduction to Literature, 9th ed., and Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website. She was co-editor of the literary magazine, American Letters & Commentary, from 1992-2000. With Claudia Carlson, she co-edited the anthology, The Poets' Grimm: Twentieth Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales.

"Afraid So," a poem from Curious Conduct, was made into a short film by the same name (narrated by Garrison Keillor) by award-winning filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt. The movie has been screened at numerous international film festivals, on the IFC, and at the Museum of Modern Art. She served as director of the annual Advanced Poetry Seminar from 2006-2010, and she currently teaches at both The Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, and at the Stonecoast MFA Program in Maine.

 

MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST JUDGE

Rick Bass grew up in Houston, and started writing short stories on his lunch breaks while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi.

Bass has published more than 20 books of essays and novels, and has worked passionately for environmental causes all over the world. His honors and awards include a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship for Where the Sea Used to Be. He was a finalist for the Story Prize in 2006 for his short story collection The Lives of Rocks. He was a finalist of the National Book Critics Circle Award for his autobiography, Why I Came West. He was also awarded the General Electric Younger Writers Award.

Bass lives in the remote Yaak Valley of Montana, where he works to protect his adopted home from roads and logging. He serves on the board of both the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies. His papers are held at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University and Texas State University–San Marcos.

THE NEW GUARD 2012 contest readers are looking forward to reading your work! You can submit online via our submissions manager or by postal mail with a check for the entry fee, which is $15 for either contest. Contest winners and all finalists get two free copies of TNG, and each submission will be carefully considered for publication. Final judging is blind.

We accept .doc or similar files–no PDFs, please. We do pay strict attention to word and line count. TNG accepts previously unpublished work only. Any size print run or online publication (including blogs and/or social networking) disqualify your entry. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided we're notified upon publication elsewhere.

TNG retains standard first publication rights; all rights immediately revert to the writer upon publication. Please note that TNG cannot return manuscripts. We are not presently accepting submissions aside from our contests.

Deadline May 31

| Call for Short Stories

Featuring Characters of Color

- MENIAL: Skilled Labor

in Science Fiction

(Crossed Genres Publications)

Deadline: 31 May 2012

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

Guidelines

• Science Fiction stories (no Fantasy)

• No stereotypes/caricatures of the lower classes

• No retellings of John Henry (it’s a great story, it’s just done too often)

• 2000-8000 words (firm)

• Single-spaced, double-space between paragraphs. Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial, in 12 pt. (Note: Courier is evil.) Use DOC, DOCX or RTF format.

• No simultaneous submissions. No reprints.

Rights & Compensation

Crossed Genres Publications takes exclusive worldwide print and digital rights for 1 year, then non-exclusive worldwide print and digital rights for 2 more years.

Payment is a flat $20 USD, plus print and ebook copies of the anthology.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For enquiries: questions @ crossedgenres.com

For submissions: submit online here

Website: http://crossedgenres.com

 

Rihanna Does

Whatever She Wants

With Her Vagina and

for Some Reason

That’s a Problem

 

BY LINDY WEST

Editor, Jezebel

 

Sluts. They're the worst, right? Always having sex for pleasure and walking around with visible ankles. Thank god we came up with this foolproof slut eradication technique, where we treat women like garbage for doing totally normal (but gross!) stuff that everyone on earth does all the time! Remember how we used to slut-shame Madonna? That totally worked out. Nobody ever had sex ever again. UNTIL RIHANNA.

Curses! Rihanna (and her vaganna) must be stopped! Fortunately, Drake and Chris Brown are on the case. Michael Arceneaux has a great piece in Ebony this month (somewhat in response to a Russell Simmons piece titled "Get Off Rihanna's Dick") detailing the latest wave of Rihanna-shaming, in which the aforementioned famous men, who have famously put their penises in Rihanna, rap about how gross it is that Rihanna lets men put their penises in her. Cool story, bros! (Brown's lyrics have the tasty bonus of alluding, it seems, to that time he savagely smashed the shit out of her face: "Don't f—k with my old bitch, it's like a bad fur/ Every industry n—— done had her/ Shook the tree like a pumpkin just to smash her/ B*tch is breaking codes, but I'm the password.")

Arceneaux writes:

Meanwhile, as for everyone else so fixated on this notion that there's a problem with the way Rihanna carries herself and brought this attention on herself: grow up. She could have Mother Teresa's sex life and would bring about the "starlet or streetwalker" debate from any man with a certain attitude about women and sex.

To "slut shame" is to perpetuate the idea that sex is dirty, and in particular, dirty and dangerous for a woman. That rigid mindset is problematic as it is unrealistic and does little in the way of advancing the way we discuss consensual sex between adults. You know, any day now.

Weirdly, men manage to stick their penises into stuff all the time without slut-shaming themselves into oblivion. Drake isn't releasing a track about how many chicks Colin Farrell has dropped his panties for (although I WISH HE WOULD BECAUSE HAHAHAHAH). But the problem with slut-shaming goes way beyond the problem of a double-standard. It's not just that men and women both engage in slutty behavior and therefore no one has a right to throw stones—it's that there is nothing wrong with slutty behavior (or, as I like to call it, behavior) in the first place.

So why do we target Rihanna's sex life so aggressively? Well, first of all, she seems to be truly having an awesome time—and women owning their sexual pleasure veers dangerously close to women wanting to own their bodies. And we can't have that! The more sexual agency you possess, the less of an object you become. That's threatening to a lot of people. Rihanna's not even some delinquent heiress with a sex tape whose only job is commodifying her sexuality (although that's fine too)—she's an incredibly successful artist who works hard on her craft and in her free time does whatever-the-snatch she wants without apology. And isn't that exactly what we want women to do? Whatever-the-snatch? It's almost like there's a right kind of slut (Kim Kardashian?) and a wrong kind of slut (our dear RiRi), and the difference lies in exactly how many fucks you give. Kim Kardashian's entire job is giving fucks (it's called maintaining her brand). Rihanna is just whoever Rihanna happens to be that day.

But more importantly, Rihanna is very famous, kind of bonkers, and completely unfiltered. She behaves exactly like any average 24-year-old does (plus a million billion dollars) and she has the nerve and the platform to do it right where we can see it. Most celebrities are so buttoned-up and micromanaged that as far as we know they're all smooth as a Ken doll down there. Not RiRi! And shouldn't we be happy about that? There's an entire INDUSTRY devoted to prying open the dirty little corners of celebrity life and digging out the nuggets that prove the stars are human, Just Like Us. Rihanna just hands it all over, shame-free, and now you're mad? Is it just the cycle of illusion/hunt/exposure that we like? Gross, you guys.

Whatever the reason, here is my rallying cry: CUT IT OUT. We need to stop shaming celebrities for having sex when celebrities having sex is obviously our favorite thing. Freaking out about Rihanna every time she Tweets some crazy shit about fucking a leprechaun or whatever doesn't make you hilarious or grounded or moral. It makes you just a couple of clicks above Chris Brown. Because what you're saying, essentially, is that women's sexual behavior is shameful and should be hidden and/or mocked.

No. Women's sexual behavior needs to be accepted so that women's sexual health can be protected. So slut it up, Rihanna.

Black German Cultural Society

of New Jersey

2012 Annual Convention

 

Katharina Oguntoye, Audre Lorde and May Ayim

Building on the success of the inaugural 2011 conference, the second annual convention of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey (BGCSNJ) will be held at Barnard College in New York City on August 10-11, 2012. This year’s convention will focus on the theme of “What Is the Black German Experience?” The conference will feature a keynote address by Yara Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, screenings of the films “Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story” and “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” and readings by Black German poet-performers Olumide Popoola and Philipp Kabo Köpsell.

In response to recent interest, the BGCSNJ Review Committee has expanded the scope of the conference and invites proposals for papers that engage the diverse histories, experiences and cultural productions of Blacks of German heritage and blackness in Germany and Europe more broadly. We welcome submissions for twenty-minute presentations on three academic panels. Additionally, two panels will be devoted to life writing, oral history and memoir. These two panels will provide a forum for the work of collecting individual accounts and reflections, as well as raising awareness on the overlooked life histories of blacks of Germany heritage and blackness in a wider European context.

For more information check http://blackgermans.us

Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story

Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992

Olumide Popoola

Philipp Kabo Köpsell

 

 

 

"Golden" 

 

Ekua Holmes:

A Boston Artist

Uses Collage To Depict

Everyday Life In Roxbury

Download EKUA_holmes-roxbury-collage.mp3

• By Radio Boston Staff
• May 22, 2012

"For The Boys"

Ekua Holmes is a lifelong Boston resident and collage artist. In her work, Holmes takes unexpected items, and creates images that reflect the community she grew up in. And like the unexpected items that Holmes uses to create her art, the works themselves often hang in unexpected place: her current work is displayed at the J.P. Licks store in Jamaica Plain.

"Time Out"

 

“Part of our job,” says Holmes, “is to take things that people walk by every day, and don’t notice, and bring them to the forefront and make you notice them.”

Holmes works in collage, and she says this requires her to collect lots of fragmented things: pieces of fabric, bits of paper and even sugar packets.

 

"Mrs. Jones"

 

Holmes says that even though it’s unlikely her granddaughter will ever hang laundry on a clothes line, one of the reasons she created the piece, “Mrs. Jones,” was she wants to share the experience of being in the backyard with her mother with future generations.

"A Matter Of Time"

 

The every day life of African-Americans, notes Holmes, is not always depicted in art or on TV.

"Literature"

 

“If you were to read the newspapers, you know, you would think that the African-American community is just one big source of problems,” she says. “And that has not been my experience. I know that those statistical realities exist, however, there are a lot of things that don’t really get shared in the media. And those are the things that I want to talk about because it’s not just about what’s wrong, it’s about what’s right.”

• Ekua Holmes is speaking at the Boston TEDx conference in June.