TWIGA STARS
Documentary: Follow a year in the life of the Twiga Stars, the Tanzanian women’s national football team, as they prepare for their biggest competition, and fight to prove that “wanawake wanaweza,” meaning women are capable
Support: 1ne Drop,
Conversations on
Skin Color, Race, & Identity
Tuesday Oct 11, 2011 – by Britni Danielle
How do you define “Blackness”? Skin color? Connection to Africa? Cultural ties? Throughout American history, there have been many iterations of what is and is not considered “Black.” Through slavery and colonization, interracial mixing has both expanded and confused the definition of what it means to be Black for many. Although much has been written about “Blackness,” very few things have explored what it means to be Black when, at first glance, you don’t appear to be Black.
Enter Africana Studies scholar Yaba Blay, Ph.D. and photographer Noelle Théard. Through their project (1)ne Drop, Blay and Théard seek to “to challenge narrow, yet popular perceptions of what ‘Blackness’ is and what ‘Blackness’ looks like” by restarting a “long-overdue and much needed dialogue about racial identity and skin color politics.”
Although the issue of race and how we define ourselves (and how the world views us) is still pertinent, many aren’t tackling the topic. Because of this Blay and Théard have set out to create a book that will take a look at how Blackness is perceived in our racialized world.
To aid their efforts, Blay and Théard are attempting to raise $9,000 to finish their project. So far, they’ve already raised over $4,000 and have a month to generate the rest.
Check out the (1) Drop Kickstarter page for more information about the project and to donate!
How do YOU define Blackness?
Thousands march for
badly injured Oakland vet
From: PlanetEarthAwakens01
Thousands marched in the US city of Oakland on Wednesday night after clashes saw a protester’s skull fractured, apparently by a non-lethal round fired by police. Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen (pictured above) was on a respirator in hospital, and in a critical condition, after the incident on Tuesday night. His condition was upgraded to fair early on Thursday. Around 2,000 people took their protest to City Hall on Thursday night, where police stood off even as the group tore down a steel barricade. A nearby underground station was shut, and protesters marched through the city centre. Olsen, meanwhile, is recovering in hospital. The incident that left him with a fractured skull took place on Tuesday night as police from Oakland and neighboring departments attempted to prevent protesters re-occupying a protest camp that had been cleared in a dawn raid. Oakland police stated they did not fire rubber bullets or use stun grenades, but video emerged suggesting that both weapons were deployed from police lines. No formal complaint has been lodged, but police sources reportedly said an official investigation would be carried out.
Olsen’s condition was initially reported as critical:
@OccupyMARINES
OccupyMARINES Scott Olsen, 24, remains sedated on a respirator, in stable but critical condition at Oakland’s Highland Hospital MARINES STAND WITH HIM
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @OccupyMARINES
A Reddit poster who says he served with the marines in Iraq posted this response to Scott Olsen’s injury in this reddit thread.
Oakland mayor Jean Quan expressed her regret over Tuesday night’s events:
@abc7newsBayArea
abc7newsBayArea "Oakland is a city that loves peace and progress...I'm saddened by what happened." - Mayor Jean Quan #occupyoakland
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @abc7newsBayArea
But protesters have been gathering evidence of the non-lethal weapons deployed against them. The uploader says this photograph shows a “a police 12 gauge cartridge and a rubber bullet”.
According to the uploader, this photograph shows a protester injured by a ‘rubber bullet to the head’.
The Occupy Oakland encampment was created on October 10 and grew into a ‘tent city’ with around 300 demonstrators taking their place outside City Hall. Organisers claimed some 70 people were arrested in the dawn raid:
@occupyoakland
Occupy Oakland 70 occupiers arrested. #OccupyOakland
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @occupyoakland
via storyful.com
__________________________
Quan, Under Attack,
Changes Course on
Occupy Oakland
Mayor reopens plaza to protesters, promises dialogue and "minimum police presence" if demonstrations stay peaceful
By SHOSHANA WALTER on October 27, 2011 - 12:08 a.m. PDT
From left to right, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana, Mayor Jean Quan and interim police Chief Howard Jordan speak at a press conference Oct. 26, 2011
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, under attack from inside and outside her administration, announced late Wednesday that Occupy Oakland can return to the plaza in front of City Hall, an abrupt reversal that followed a night of street violence Tuesday and widespread criticism over her handling of the crisis.
As more than 1,000 people descended on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Wednesday night, Quan called for "a minimum police presence" and said nonviolent protesters would be allowed to re-occupy the area near City Hall. One day earlier, with Quan's authorization, 400 police officers had dismantled the tent city.
Quan has been facing a growing firestorm over what some describe as a tentative, out-of-touch approach to the crisis. Earlier, Quan admitted that she had not known that police were planning to evict the protesters early Tuesday morning, saying only that she had signed off on the plan.
Dan Siegel, the mayor's longtime friend and legal adviser, said he was considering resigning over the raid. He added that city officials were divided over how to handle Occupy Oakland.
“I think a big mistake was made yesterday. A big mistake,” Siegel said during an appearance on the plaza. “I have made that clear to the mayor.”
Quan's Facebook page was filled with calls for her resignation Wednesday. After protesters distributed her cell phone number, her voicemail inbox was full. An online petition condemning Quan and City Council members for authorizing the raid has collected 1,500 signatures.
The announcements Wednesday were designed to placate the protesters, but Occupy Oakland also appeared to be dictating events. The city initially re-opened only a concrete portion of the plaza in front of City Hall, encircling the lawn where protesters had camped with a 6-foot chainlink fence. But protesters calmly removed the fence in the early evening, and some protesters began to lay down sleeping bags and drive tent stakes into the grass.
Later, Quan said Occupy Oakland would be allowed to stay on the lawn, which the city administrator previously described as a "biohazard," as long as the occupation was peaceful. Quan said she planned to "open up channels of communication" with th protesters.
"I’m a mayor of a city that has divided opinions on some things," Quan said. "I think most support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I know you guys don’t like that I look at things day by day, situation by situation. We’re going to do what keeps most people safe."
City finance officials now expect the costs of the eviction, cleanup and response to the protests to surpass $1 million, with at least half going to police overtime, according to sources familiar with the projections.
“Wall Street’s not going broke, but the city of Oakland will,” one finance official said. “We’re spending money on resources we definitely don’t have.”
They expressed fears that future clashes would become more violent.
“I think we’re in trouble. We’ve been placating these people so long that they don’t take us seriously,” one officer said. “If you run this red light 10 times and I’m sitting there and on the 11th time I give you a ticket, you’re going to say, you’ve been watching me this whole time and today you’ve decided to do something about it?”
Quan has “lost both the progressives and the people who are supportive of police,” another officer said. “I think she wants to maintain this kind of weird plausible deniability that the police department has operated totally independent of her. She wants people to blame OPD.”
Some city leaders agree Quan should have acted sooner — and more decisively.
“I think we should have never allowed them to put up tents,” City Council member Larry Reid said Wednesday. “I think all of us were very supportive of Occupy Oakland when it started out initially. Then it went beyond Occupy Oakland.”
At Wednesday's news conference, Quan reiterated her support for the Occupy Wall Street movement, noting her own experience as a civil rights demonstrator. She said she was disappointed and surprised that the protest Tuesday night became violent.
"I asked the chief to investigate that," she said of Jordan. "We’re taking it very seriously."
But if Siegel’s appearance Wednesday was any indication, Quan has a long way to go to repair her reputation. Wearing blue chinos and a striped shirt, Siegel said he came to offer support but as he walked into the plaza he was confronted by a man who called him a “fraud” for representing Quan.
"This guy has no credibility,” another man shouted. “You’re a hack. You have already lost. What are you doing here? Get out of the way.”
Someone else yelled: “Why wasn’t she willing to take on any leadership? She was handing it over to a city administrator and one-week old police chief. She’s our leader.”
"I think that’s a question you should ask her,” Siegel replied.
As the questioning grew more intense and dozens of people crowded around him, Siegel finally said plaintively: “Give me a break at least of acknowledging that I am not the mayor."
A woman handed Siegel a penny.
"This is you," she said. "You are the 1 percent."
Quan seemed to be working overtime to repair relations with other allies. On Wednesday afternoon, she and Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu met with labor and religious leaders, as well as representatives from the Ella Baker Center, to ask for help keeping future protests nonviolent, according to Reid. Both the Ella Baker Center and the Alameda Labor Council had released statements Wednesday criticizing Quan.
"Some have members in the encampment," Quan said. "They have agreed to step up participation in the camp and work with us to see if we can chart a different way."
>via: http://www.baycitizen.org/occupy-movement/story/quan-shunned-reverses-occupy-...
Thomas Sankara
Sankara Lives On
allAfrica.com: Africa: Sankara Lives On
Pasamba Jow
23 October 2011
U.S. — If the bullets that cut down his life were meant to silence him and to undermine his admiring legacy, then they failed miserably. Twenty fours after his cowardly assassination by Blaise Campaore and his thuggish soldiers, Thomas Sankara’s life and legacy are still being celebrated around the world.
On October 15, 2011 Africans and Pan-Africanists gathered in Washington DC to commemorate the untimely demise of Thomas Sankara, former president of Burkina Faso at the hands of forces loyal to his former close friend and current president, Blaise Campoare. Speaker after speaker extolled Sankara’s vast contribution in fighting against imperialism and Africa’s dependence on foreign loans, etc.
The program included the showing of “Sankara: The upright Man” which gave a vivid and unbiased assessment of Sankara’s four-year rule. In it the audience saw a dynamic and articulate young president who led by example. Unlike many young so-called revolutionary leaders in Africa today who usurped power to enrich themselves at the expense of the people, Sankara lived a very humble lifestyle, who shunned personal wealth and prestige – he rode a modest Peugeot 405 as his official car and earned a captain’s salary.
The most striking moment of the movie was when Sankara addressed the 1987 OAU meeting in Addis Ababa where he appealed to his colleagues to take a unified stance against paying back loans taken and instead use that money for the betterment of their people. He went on to proudly tell the gathering that the outfits of the Burkina Faso delegation were all made in Burkina that “not a single thread came from Europe or the USA”.
As the narrator delved into the horrific nature of Sankara’s assassination, all eyes were fixed on his two sons, Philippe and Auguste who impassively sat in the audience capturing every word of the narrator leaving wondering minds to speculate on what they were feeling or thinking.
Asked what it was like hearing people talk so highly of their father, Philippe , who was seven when his father died, answered: “It is strange in a good way, because it seems people know more about our father than we do.” On whether they have any political ambitions, Auguste, who was just four when his father died, quickly stated: “We would want to chart our own path,” but Philippe added, “You can never say never.” Asked what would he say to Campoare if he ever had the chance to meet him? Auguste calmly said, “I have no ill will towards him because he will be judged by God for his actions, but I would simply want to know how he sleeps at night after betraying his friend.”
The Gathering was chaired by Paul Sankara while the vote of thanks was delivered by Patrick Sankara, both of whom are brothers of Thomas Sankara. Others present included Pauline and Lydie Sankara, sisters to Thomas Sankara.
Plans are ready afoot for an elaborate event to mark the 25 anniversary of his assassination.
'Scuse me whilst I kiss
the Soweto sky
Film:
Punk In Africa
We stumbled upon this preview for an absorbing documentary on the rise and influence of punk music in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Punk In Africa follows on an array of mid 70s/early 80s groups — including pioneering punk-reggae Joburg outfit National Wake, Durban’s Wild Youth, Asylum Kids, and Suck — with a focus on the oft-forgotten role the genre played in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. The film debuted in South Africa earlier this year and had its international premiere at Brazil’s Festival do Rio. Check their site out for more info!
via okayafrica.com
Call for Papers:
Caribbean Studies Association
Conference 2012
The Caribbean Studies Association Conference announces its 37th Annual Conference to be held on May 28-June 3, 2012, in Le Gosier, Guadeloupe. The theme for 2012 is “Unpacking Caribbean Citizenship: Rights, Participation and Belonging.” The deadline for submissions is December 30, 2011.
The CSA invites scholars, practitioners in the humanities, social sciences, public policy and members of civil society organizations whose works focus on the wider Caribbean and its diaspora to submit abstracts of approximately 250 words or less for research papers and presentations. Graduate student submissions and multilingual panels are welcome.
While the organizers expect individual paper submissions, they especially encourage participants to submit proposals for complete panels (four presenters), roundtable discussions that engage with the conference’s timely theme. Unrelated topics will also be considered. Submissions must be made electronically via the CSA website.
With respect to the film/art/performance track: Next year, a very limited number of films that pertain to the conference theme as well as the Francophone Caribbean will be selected for presentation during the conference. This new direction is designed to both streamline and better integrate the film/art/performance track within the conference. Please see the CSA website for submission information.
CSA is able to offer a limited number of travel grants to assist selected participants. A call for applications for the travel grant will be issued on the CSA website as well as in the CSA fall newsletter scheduled for December.
For information concerning the program only, contact Dr. Gina Athena Ulysse, Program Chair at csa2012@wesleyan.edu
For information pertaining to registration and membership, please contact Mrs. Joy Cooblal, Secretary-Treasurer at Joy.Cooblal-CSA@sta.uwi.edu
For questions on the travel grants, please contact Dr Samuel Furé Davis, Grant Committee Chair at sfuredavis@flex.uh.cu
More information on the conference’s theme can be found on the CSA website at http://www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org
Contest
2011 Poetry Contest
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Sonora Review is given annually for an innovative poem. D.A. Powell will judge. All entries are considered for publication, except those from recent students (within the last five years) of D.A. Powell. 2nd and 3rd prize will be published in the journal, and all entries will receive a free journal if they provide shipping costs (a scant $3). Submit up to three poems with a $15 entry fee by December 1st. You can submit online here or send an SASE to:Sonora Review, Poetry Contest,
Department of English, University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721.
via sonorareview.com
Awarding $1000 to some creative soul.
(And $500 to the soul placing second.)
Submission are currently being accepted for the Roanoke Review‘s 2011 Fiction Contest.Prize winner & runners-up will published in 2012 issue.
Send unpublished stories (max, 5,000 words) to Roanoke Review Contest, Roanoke College, Salem, VA 24153. Include $15.00 reading fee for each story. Make checks out to Roanoke College. Also include a SASE for reply. Manuscripts are recycled.
Deadline is November 7, 2011 (postmark or online submission).
Note: All entrants will receive a copy of the 2011 Roanoke Review (if you provide us with your address).
** NOTE: You may now submit to the 2011 Contest online. Look for the submission link under “guidelines.” Thanks!
* Winners of the 2010 contest:1st Place ($1000 award)- Irene Wescott “Wolves”
2nd Place ($500 award) – Tracy G. Night “Memories of Rescue”
3rd Place ($150 award — Lyle Roebuck “The Crab”
Free the Slaves President Featured in
‘Not My Life’ Documentary
Here’s something for you to keep on your calenders for the New Year: Not My Life, a documentary on modern day slavery, narrated by Ashley Judd—and featuring Free the Slaves President Kevin Bales—will premiere in January.
The director of Not My Life is Robert Bilheimer, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1988 for The Cry of Reason, a documentary based on the life of Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naude. Bilheimer’s second film was 2003′s A Closer Walk, a documentary on the worldwide AIDS epidemic narrated by Will Smith and Glenn Close, featuring interviews with human rights luminaries and celebrities like the Dalai Lama, Bono and Sade. This film has been viewed by over 300 million people—a success they hope to replicate with Not My Life.
The film was shot all over world, including, notably, the United States, where child sex trafficking is explored. The film also features several locations where Free the Slaves works: child labor in Ghana, slave labor in Brazil and labor and sex trafficking in India.
Here is a synposis, via Worldwide Documentaries production (which produced Not My Life):
A FILM ABOUT SLAVERY IN OUR TIME—A STORY ABOUT THE WAY THE WORLD IS
Not My Life is the first documentary film to depict the horrifying and dangerous practices of human trafficking and modern slavery on a global scale.
Filmed on five continents over a period of four years, Not My Life unflinchingly, but with enormous dignity and compassion, depicts the unspeakable practices of a multi-billion dollar global industry whose profits, as the film’s narration says, “ are built on the backs and in the beds of our planet’s youth.”
While acknowledging that trafficking and slavery are universal crimes, affecting millions of human beings all over the world, Not My Life zeroes in on the fact that the vast majority of trafficking and slavery victims are indeed children. This fundamental truth, says the film’s director, Oscar® nominee Robert Bilheimer, raises profound questions about the very nature of our civilization. “What kind of society cannibalizes its own children?” Bilheimer asks. “Can we do these sorts of things on such a large scale and still call ourselves human in any meaningful sense of the term?”
Not My Life features dignified and inspiring testimony from survivors; depictions of trafficking, exploitation, and slavery in all parts of the world including forced labor in Africa; street begging and garbage picking in India; sexual trafficking in the United States and Southeast Asia; and various forms of child enslavement and abuse in both North and South America.
Follow Not My Life’s social networks:
via ftsblog.net