Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Civil rights leader

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

dead at 89

From CNN.com:

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who helped lead the civil rights movement, has died, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said Wednesday. He was 89.

Shuttlesworth is among the iconic figures honored in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. King once called Shuttlesworth "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South."

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregated busing in Montgomery, Alabama, Shuttlesworth rallied the membership of a group he established in May 1956 -- the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights -- to challenge the practice of segregated busing in Birmingham.

Shuttlesworth also helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with King and other civil rights leaders.

Shuttlesworth's efforts weren't without a price: his home was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956, but he and his family were not injured.

He was, however, hurt in 1957 when he was beaten with chains and whips as he sought to integrate an all-white public school.

That same year, Shuttlesworth helped King organize the SCLC, serving as the organization's first secretary from 1958 to 1970. He later served briefly as its president in 2004.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Shuttlesworth a Presidential Citizens Medal -- the nation's second-highest civilian award -- for his leadership in the "non-violent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading efforts to integrate Birmingham, Alabama's schools, buses and recreational facilities" and helping found the SCLC.

Shuttlesworth also protested segregated lunch counters and helped lead sit-ins at the eateries in 1960.

He participated in organizing the Freedom Rides against segregated interstate buses in the South when he joined forces with the Congress On Racial Equality.

In 1963, he was injured again when a fire hose was turned on him during a protest against segregation in Birmingham. The blast of water, directed against demonstrators by order of local sheriff Bull Connor, slammed Shuttlesworth against a wall. He was hospitalized but recovered.

He was also a principal in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which he helped organize.

In the early 1960s, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he fought homelessness and continued the movement against racism. There, he founded and served as pastor of the Greater New Light Baptist Church from 1966 to 2006.

In the 1980s, he established the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation in Cincinnati, which provided grants to help low-income families buy homes.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has placed Shuttlesworth in its Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by rikyrah

Viral Video Tells Obama

‘Pay Your Bills, B!’

Wednesday Oct 5, 2011 – by Britni Danielle

I was on Facebook this morning when I saw a video writer/activist Joan Morgan shared. In this hilarious, yet poignant, clip by a YouTuber named Felonius Munk, he takes the government to task for mishandling the economy.

While there is no shortage of rants about how paralyzed and ineffective Congress has been, this video was especially on point. In one section, Munk urges viewers to stop paying on the loans they owe to the federal government until lawmakers sort out their own budget issues.

While I find Munk’s rant interesting and refreshing, following his advice will get you caught up faster than pro athlete on All Star weekend.

__________________________

Occupy Wall Street Protester

End the Fed - Best Rant!

fitzgerald1971 on Oct 3, 2011

 

__________________________

Exclusive:

Occupy Wall Street

Activist Slams

Fox News Producer

In Un-Aired Interview

[Video]

 

By Drew Grant 10/03 8:42am

Protester Jesse LaGreca schools Fox producer

Even if Geraldo Rivera was at the Zuccotti Park yesterday, Fox News has generally been a tad dismissive of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Foxnews.com (as of this writing) has no coverage of this national event on their front page stories. (Hard to imagine for a network that was so gung-ho about the Tea Party!) Red Eye‘s Bill Schulz went out to try to “prank” the protesters. Bill O’Reilly sent a producer minion out with the same mission: to belittle OWS’s cause by cutting up interviews to make people sound stupid.

Well, here is an interview that Fox News filmed, but doesn’t want you to see. The segment was shot on Wednesday for Greta van Susteren‘s show, (though it looks like the same producerfrom this O’Reilly segment questioning Michael Moore‘s anti-capitalist agenda) though the decision was made to leave it on the cutting room floor. The reason should be obvious pretty quickly.

 

 

>via: http://technorati.com/politics/article/video-fox-news-owned-by-occupy/?utm_so...

__________________________

1,000 Demonstrators Sit-in at

Boston Bank of America Building

(Photo via The New Bottom Line_

by Jorge Rivas

Tuesday, October 4 2011, 9:45 AM EST

 

New York City’s Occupy Wall Street protestors made headlines this weekend when 700 of them were arrested on charges of blocking the Brooklyn Bridge. The effort has spread to several communities nationwide, including “occupations” in California, Hawaii and Florida. 

But also last Friday, 1,000 demonstrators gathered in Boston to march around the city’s financial district, culminating in a sit-in at a Bank of America building. The sit-in led to 24 being people being arrested on trespassing charges when they refused to leave, the Boston Globe reports. 

The action is part of an ongoing series of protests, coordinated by community organizers and homeowners’ groups, that aims to put the question of Wall Street accountability back onto the national agenda. Earlier last week, as part of a series of actions in the Bay Area, homeowners gathered up trash at foreclosed homes that banks are squatting on and delivered it to East Oakland bank branches. The campaign arrived in Los Angeles this week for a sereis of actions targeting banks.

Many protesters held signs urging Bank of America to return what they called their “stolen homes,” but they’re a loosely organized group mostly drawn together through email and phone calls. They’re currently holding meetings that are streamed over the Internet to finalize their demands. 

“The common root that everybody here has is that they feel like something’s wrong with the system,” Tim Hansen, 21, told the Globe. Hansen is a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who says he’s facing thousands of dollars in college loans.

This post has been updated since publication.

 

 

__________________________

WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent. 

Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?

OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 106 NOTES

 

My mother (leader in her field of pathology, MA) is upside-down on her house. My father (multiple PhD’s) lives in his car so that he can do what he loves for a living rather than be a slave to the system. 

I am lucky to have a steady job doing what I love. I live frugally and without debt. All of my friends are jobless or homeless or swimming in debt or all of the above… I wonder how long it will be before I join their ranks… and the government DOESN’T CARE.

We are the 99%.

I want a government that puts PEOPLE before corporate BOTTOM LINES.

HUMANITY BEFORE MONEY.

(peace & love)

 

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 19 NOTES

I am 45 years old.

I was laid off twice in 18 months.

The second time 6 months after I got married.

I am “unemployable” because of layoffs.

I have not worked since November 2008.

We have NO healthcare.

My husband works so that I can go to college to get a degree.

We are also dependent on family to make ends meet.

I AM THE 99%

OCCUPYWALLST.ORG

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 19 NOTES

Also, after over 5 years in the workforce, not counting my retail years as a teenager, I have yet to hold one full-time job, or earn more than $22k/year.

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 27 NOTES

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 19 NOTES

My husband and I have $80k in student loan debt.

I am in the process of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a hard enough thing in and of itself.  I also have over $30,000 in medical debt because of that.

We own cheap cars, live frugally, have a roommate to help, and try hard to keep up.  

We no longer have any savings, we had to use it up when we moved back home after I made the decision that I could no longer continue graduate school at the time due to my illness.  

We have NO BAILOUTS.  We are unsecured.  We are at risk.

I work when I’m not too sick, and he works full time.  We have a combined annual income of less than $40k annually.  Our roommate is here because he lost his job and his house and we took him in.  He works enough to help cover food costs.

We are always in the hole.  

We are the 99%.  Occupywallstreet.org

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 19 NOTES

I dropped out of medical school 2 years ago because I decided to be a midwife, and you can be anything you want, right?  Now, I don’t think I can afford to get another master’s degree - I’ll be lucky to get my BSN.  I can’t move in with my parents because I’m afraid of my large, homophobic (and also unemployed) brother, so I’m not sure what I’ll do when I wear out my welcome at friends’ houses.

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 58 NOTES

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 25 NOTES

Lost my job in 2006. Sold my home and moved in with my 87-year-old mother.

Worked temporary jobs on and off for over 5 years with little or no benefits.

Cancer survivor. Need medical care. Can’t afford health insurance.

TOO YOUNG TO RETIRE.

Watching my retirement funds and savings shrink.

Moved to Mexico to get medical care. Rent a room and live on $250 a month. No car. No phone.

Mom is in the hospital and I wonder if I can afford to come home.

I AM the 99%.

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 20 NOTES

I am 30 years old. I have a BFA and an MA. I taught Art History for 2+ years and made regular payments on my loans. As a newer, less established member of the faculty I was out of work when my college cut classes. Over a year later and I still can’t find work. I pick up dog poop for $6 a walk. Because of deferments my $41,000 loan has become $62,000. I am the 99%.

5TH OCTOBER 2011

PHOTO WITH 31 NOTES

I just want to live the American dream, but I’m not exactly sure what that is anymore.

occupywallst.org

 

>via: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Caipirinha Lounge Cinema:

Tchoro na More, by Tcheka

O Tcheka é sem dúvidas um dos filhos mais talentosos de Cabo Verde e um dos meus cantores lusófonos preferidos. É só ouvir a presença dele em várias mixtapes do Lounge. Muito se tem ouvido das divas caboverdeanas, entre elas vozes como a Mayra Andrade, a Lura, e a Sara Tavares, mas em Tcheka estas beldades encontraram um par masculino. Fico, portanto, muito feliz em saber que o Tcheka prepara-se para lançar um novo álbum, entitulado Dor de Mar. Há dias o portal da Buála publicou a seguinte entrevista com o cantor, que retomo aqui na íntegra, bem como o vídeo oficial de Tchoro na Mare, o primeiro vídeo do álbum:

Tcheka is without a doubt one of Cape Verde's most talented sons and one of my favorite Lusophone artists. I've been unable to keep him out of most of the Lounge's mixtapes, such is my respect for him. You'll always hear about Cape Verde's talented divas, such as Mayra Andrade, Lura, and Sara Tavares, but little on the masculine front; Tcheka is as gifted as them. I'm quite excited then that he's preparing to launch a new studio album, titled Dor de Mar. Several days ago Buála published an interview with the man, which you can read below. Check out as well the official video for the first single off his new album, Tchoro na Mare.

 

Tcheka descreve sua música como sendo “música tradicional de Cabo Verde com influência erudita e do jazz”. O seu novo trabalho “Dor de Mar” surge após quatro anos de pausa em que o músico amadureceu a sua experiência profissional. “Dor de Mar” é um álbum “mais Tcheka”.

O Tcheka participou do álbum “Argui”, em 2003, em 2005 lançou o álbum “Nu Monda” e em 2007 “Longi”. Foram distâncias de 2 anos e agora precisou de 4 anos para lançar, o novo álbum, “Dor de mar”, porquê?

Isso aconteceu porque eu fiz este trabalho como produtor também. Fiz os arranjos e tudo foi feito por mim e então eu precisava de mais tempo para poder trabalhar esses aspectos e tomar essa decisão. Porque quando se faz um disco sozinho precisa-se de tempo e de espaço para se poder pensar e conseguir o resultado desejado.

E porque decidiu fazer tudo, desta vez? Porque surgiu a oportunidade ou porque queria mostrar mais da sua pessoa?

Para além de querer mostrar mais, apesar de cada disco que eu fiz ter sido muito importante porque fazem parte da minha carreira, eu também senti que, cada vez estava a perder algo. Eu queria estar presente como director musical. E isso não tem nada a ver com o facto de os outros discos estarem mal, muito pelo contrário, são muito bons. Mas quando tu próprio estás à frente de tudo, podes incluir elementos, que para ti são importantes no teu trabalho, não tens de negociar tanto, então, é completamente diferente.

Então fale-me desse processo desde “Argui”, álbum em que participou em 2003, até agora, ao “Dor de Mar”. O que mudou?

Ganhei muita experiência. Nos outros três discos eu era simplesmente mais um músico, um cantor. E com a experiência que ganhei nesses três discos senti-me capaz e com força para decidir fazer este novo disco sozinho. 

E o que quer dizer com “Dor de Mar”?

Dei este nome ao disco porque eu vivi numa aldeia em que o problema da apanha de areia é muito importante e o desgaste da natureza está a sentir-se cada vez mais. Então este nome é uma espécie de alerta para este tipo de problemas ambientais.

Agora o Tcheka falou de uma das temáticas e em termos musicais o que se pode ouvir em “Dor de Mar”?

Ouve-se música de Cabo Verde mas com algumas influências de jazz e um pouco de tudo mas sempre com o meu cunho pessoal. A minha intenção é mostrar que a música não tem fronteiras e que tem as portas abertas para todo tipo de influências e para tudo o que um músico queira dar. Por exemplo, eu não tenho banda, então para gravar o disco eu tinha as minhas ideias definidas e convidei músicos e cada músico levou as suas experiências e isso é muito importante. Mas o que eu defendo no meu trabalho é que haja uma base e que as pessoas a identifiquem como Tcheka.

E os músicos que tocam consigo neste disco vêm de que países?

Angola [Ndu, bateria], Camarões [Guy Sanguy, baixo eléctrico], França [Thierry Fanfan, baixo acústico], Cabo Verde [Ivan Gomes, guitarrista] e Madagáscar. É uma mistura de países diferente e é normal que eles incluam as suas influências, mas a minha preocupação é manter a base Tcheka. 

E tem uma música preferida neste álbum?

Eu não tenho uma música preferida. Tudo depende do momento que estou a viver. É como se tivesse cinco filhos, seriam todos iguais para mim.

Todos os temas no álbum foram escritos por si excepto um, porquê?

Gravei um tema de Norberto Tavares [Forti bu dan cu stango] à minha maneira. Mas eu queria mostrar que, para além de ele ser um grande compositor, ele também é um grande músico. Eu acho que é bom regravar temas de grandes artistas para homenageá-los e Norberto Tavares foi um grande músico que hoje já não temos, então, é uma forma de homenageá-lo.

E agora terminar, porque é que o público deve ouvir “Dor de mar”?

É um disco novo, tem outro tipo de arranjos e é um disco mais Tcheka!


-Entrevista por Carla Fernandes

__________________________

Tcheka

>via: http://lusotunes.blogspot.com/2009/09/tcheka.html

Ukoo Flani

Music Break:

Ukoo Flani ft Jahcoozi

Pwani tuko kwenye hii fani! (Kenyan Coast all up in this joint!). It’s good to see that Ukoo Flani is still producing socially conscious music. Hizi mistari zina mizani! (The lines in this song are heavy/deep). Micharazo! (Untranslatable). The video below is a cut about how the BLNRB (The Berlin-Nairobi Project) project from whence the Ukoo Flani track above came was put together. And, um, er, look at the interview of Abbas Kubaff in the video below and tell me what he’s been smoking.

 

We are very honored to announce that the stunning Carolyn Forche will be judging our Volume XI Poetry Contest. We are currently accepting submissions for the contest, which are due by November 15, 2011. Poets may submit up to three poems, and contents entries do require a fee of $12.

Poetry Contest Submissions (judged by Carolyn Forche) - $12.00

(doc, docx, txt, rtf, wpf, odt)

LUMINA will hold a national poetry contest for Volume XI, judged by Carolyn Forche.

Submissions for the contest contain a fee of $12. If you'd like to submit to the general poetry submissions, there is no fee.

Poets may submit up to three poems, 60 lines maximum per poem. You may submit your work in a single document or separately. Please include a three-sentence biographical statement with your submission, in the cover letter box provided, but do NOT include your name on the document. Previously published works will not be considered. If your work is selected by us, rights will revert to author after publication in Lumina; subsequent publishers should credit us for first appearance. We do accept simultaneous submissions. Please notify LUMINA immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere: lumina@gm.slc.edu.

DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME ON THE DOCUMENT. WE WILL NOT READ IT IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS. THIS IS TO PROTECT YOU AND YOUR RIGHT TO A BLIND READING.

We look forward to reading your work!

Submit

 

 

 

 

Call for Papers:

Beyond Normative Approaches: Everyday Media Culture in Africa

An international conference organized by the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan and with support from the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster

Dates: 27-29 February 2012

Venue: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Deadline for abstracts: 30 October 2011

We invite contributions that address the everyday lived experiences of Africans in their interaction with different kinds of media: old and new, state and private, elite and popular, global and national. All over the continent today, country by country, there are signs of growth and change—a buzz of energy stimulated, in part, by the rapid spread and impact of new mobile communication technologies and the new economic, political and social affordances which they help to create. The rise of these technologies, and the new forms of media practice and use associated with them, is in parallel with the emergence of new forms of commercial mediation and communications enterprises across the global South, which arguably complicate the role of the media in African cultures and societies.

Since media studies began in the 1970s, its object of study has changed in fundamental ways. Media were at first conceptualized almost wholly within the frame of the nation-state, its national politics and culture. The bulk of academic research on media and communication in Africa has studied media through the lens of media-state relations, hereby adopting liberal democracy as normative ideal and focusing on the potential contribution of African media to development and democratization. This approach has insufficiently looked at the actual role of media in African societies but instead focused on what roles media ought to play on the continent. Instead of understanding media on the continent on its own terms, scholars have often produced ahistorical accounts that posture as negative imprints of Western models of media-state relations. Furthermore, the heavy focus on media-state relations in studies on media in Africa has ignored both the way in which ordinary people relate to media and the increasingly important role of private capital and the market in the realm of African media.

Since the 1990s, the diffusion of continuing technological innovations in digital media and telecommunications, driven by the world economy, has changed the media landscape beyond recognition, producing the globalized world that all of us inhabit today. The question which then arises is what the study of media can tell us about Africa, in all its diversity, and the position of African societies in the world today. Among other issues, we invite participants to engage with one or more of the following questions:

Audiences, lived experience and changing notions of identity

• How can we research and theorize media cultures in today’s Africa?
• What roles do different forms of media play in the everyday lives of Africans?
• How do global and national media contribute to changing notions of African identities?

Media, participation and resistance

• What role do old and new media play in forms of resistance on the continent?
• To what extent are media contributing to emerging participatory cultures in Africa?
• What does the diffusion and uptake of new media technologies tell us about social change taking place in Africa today?

Consumer culture and the media

• How can we understand the contribution of media to the rise of consumer cultures and consumption practices in Africa?
• What role do media and communications play in the increasing commodification of development?
• Who are the new entrepreneurial elites who are driving the diffusion of technological innovation in Africa?

For Africa-based scholars who would like to participate but require travel funding (primarily for airfare) to do so, please include a funding request with an estimated travel budget. A small amount of funding will be available to support presenters’ participation.

There will be a modest registration fee (R 175 for graduate students, R350 for faculty) to cover the costs of snacks and some meals.

Proposals for 20-minute papers should include the following: paper title, author, institutional affiliation and postal address, email address, abstract of no more than 300 words. Proposals should be sent on or before 30 October 2011 to Wendy Willems at: wendy.willems@wits.ac.za

The competition is adjudicated by Josephine Austin L.G.S.M. Editor of "First Time" and recipient of the Dorothy Tutin Award for Services to Poetry 1986.

Cash Prizes of £150, £75, £50 and £25.

The winners will be published in 'First Time' Spring Issue 2012.

RULES

1,  Entrants must be Aged 18 or over.

2,  Competitors may enter as many poems as they wish.

3,  No poem must exceed 50 lines in length.

4,  Previously published poems are ineligible.

5,  Poems will be neither acknowledged nor returned unless a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed.

6,  Poems must not bear the name of the author which should appear on the entry form.

7,  Each poem must be accompanied by an entry fee of £2 .00. Cheques / Postal Orders should be made payable to J. Austin.

8,  This form may be photocopied.

9,  The closing date for entries is 25th October 2011.

10, A stamped, self-addressed envelope should be enclosed in order to receive the Results List.

Entry Form

To download an entry form, please "right-click" on the link below and select "Save Target As". You can then print it out and post it.

>> Entry Form << (Microsoft Word Format)

Alternatively, you can contact Josephine by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another world

is not only possible,

she is on her way.

On a quiet day, I can hear

her breathing.

 

Arundhati Roy

 

"Today, in a world convulsed by violence and unbelievable brutality the lines between 'us' and 'the terrorists' have been completely blurred… We don't have to choose between Imperialism and Terrorism, we have to choose what form of resistance will rid us of both. What shall we choose? Violence or non violence? …We have to choose knowing that when we are violent to our enemies, we do violence to ourselves. When we brutalize others, we brutalize ourselves. And eventually we run the risk of becoming our oppressors."

If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything you have created. If you're not religious, then look at it this way. This world of ours is four thousand, six hundred million years old. It could end in an afternoon.

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness -- and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling -- their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them."

Frantz Fanon

Documentary on Frantz Fanon. Before Amos Wilson,Frances Welsing, Joy DeGruy, and countless others, Fanon wrote studied and articulated our modern day colonial existence which still goes on. 

The Fanon Symposium:

Remembering the Life and Work

of Frantz Fanon

October 4 and October 6-7

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for

Black Culture and History

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

A commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the passing of Frantz Fanon and of the publication of Wretched of the Earth

 

With Keynote Addresses by Mireille Fanon-Mendés France and Ranjanna Khanna

 

The University of North Carolina’s Stone Center will host a special commemoration marking the 50th year anniversary of the death of cultural and political icon Frantz Fanon.

This 3-day event is a commemoration marking the 50th anniversary of cultural and political icon, Frantz Fanon.

The symposium kicks-off with a screening of “Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work.”  Frantz Fanon, a Martinique-born psychiatrist, theorist and activist, became an unlikely spokesperson for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism in the 1950′s.  Fifty years after his death, this documentary reveals the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century.

The Stone Center will host a keynote presentation on October 6 at 7pm with Mirelle Fanon Mendes-France, joined immediately after in conversation and discussion with Professor Linda Carty, Associate Professor of African Studies, Syracuse University.

The program continues on October 7 with panel discussions throughout the day with visiting scholars as well as UNC and other local area faculty.

For more information, or to register for the Fanon symposium, please visit our Facebook event page or email, fanonrsvp@unc.edu.

Click Fanon Symposium Schedule for a complete schedule of sessions and panelists.

__________________________

>via: http://www.metmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/listings/2011/heroic-africans-legenda...

__________________________

i art film

by rowan pybus

makhuluproductions on Mar 30, 2011

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

we have just learned that it has been selected for the shnit international shortfilmfestival 2011 happening wednesday,5 october at labia on orange at 19h30.

see https://www.shnit.org/

>via: http://www.i-art-sa-project.com/