VIDEO: ‘Sonia Sanchez: Shake Loose Memories’ « Clutch Magazine

Must See:

‘Sonia Sanchez:

Shake Loose Memories’

Thursday Sep 15, 2011 – by

Famed poet, activist, and professor Sonia Sanchez is finally getting her just due. In the film Shake Loose Memories filmmaker Jamal  Joseph takes viewers on a “musical journey through the life, art and activism” of the Temple University Professor.

Sanchez is not only a poet, but she is a force of nature. She co-founded the Black Arts Movement in the ’60s, and was one of the people responsible for establishing a Black Studies program at San Francisco State University. The film weaves together interviews with Sanchez with performances of her poems by T.C. Carson, Toshi Regan, Amiri Baraka, and Oscar Brown Jr.

The film, Shake Loose Memories, is currently screening at the Urban World Film Festival in New York City. Check their website for showtimes and more information on the film.

 

CULTURE: "Kinshasa One Two" and a brief history of DR Congo's shafting New Releases > This Is Africa

"Kinshasa One Two"

and a brief history

of DR Congo's shafting


It's easy to get cynical about "charity albums" for Africa by celebrities from the West, but Damon Albarn - who gathered together the collective of producers involved in this DR Congo project - has earned his cred several times over, demonstrating time and time again his cultural sensitivity, professionalism and seriousness about engaging with African musicians as contemporaries with whom to exchange ideas, rather than as people on whom to thrust his.

So our brows did not furrow for a second when we heard about Kinshasa One Two.  The Democratic Republic of Congo is almost unparalleled in terms of musical richness; it's only in the last decade or so that it's been somewhat overshadowed by Nigeria.

We talked about the current music scene in our recent two-part survey (Part 1; Part 2), and highlighted some of the Coupé Décalé modernisers we thought you ought to check out, but while an outpouring of music is a good sign for any country, in the case of DR Congo it doesn't entirely obscure the terrible history its citizens have had to live through.

As you know, DR Congo was wracked by conflict that earned the dubious distinction of being the deadliest since World War II; over five million lives were lost.  The country, about the size of the entire Western Europe, is rich in diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, zinc and coltan (used in mobile phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets), but all these riches have done is attract unscrupulous corporations, warlords and corrupt governments, cause and prolong the conflict and divide and impoverish the civilian population.

But DR Congo's tragedy didn't begin with this most recent conflict. Here's an excerpt from an article by Johann Hari for The Independent summarising the background to the country's fall (and this is kinda important, 'cos the majority of newspaper reports about DR Congo, but omitting a couple of details, seem to imply that the country simply descended into chaos once the colonial powers left the Congolese to their own devices):

The Belgians unified Congo in the first great holocaust of the 20th century, a programme of slavery and tyranny that killed 13 million people. King Leopold II - bragging about his humanitarian goals, of course - seized Congo and turned it into a slave colony geared to extracting rubber, the coltan and cassiterite of its day. The "natives" who failed to gather enough rubber would have their hands chopped off, with the Belgian administrators receiving and carefully counting hundreds of baskets of hands a day.

This system of forced cultivation continued until the Belgians withdrew in 1960, when Patrice Lumumba became the first and only elected leader of Congo. On the first day of independence, he said white people had beaten and humiliated the Congolese. In saying that he effectively signed his own death warrant.

Lumumba was a democratic socialist who wanted to overcome Congo's ethnic divisions, but no one knows if he would have fulfilled this dream because the CIA decided he was a "mad dog" who had to be put down [with Belgian complicity. What was the CIA doing in DR Congo? The country may have gained its independence in 1960, but that didn't stop it from becoming a pawn the Cold War struggle between superpowers.] Before long, one of its [CIA's] agents was driving around Kinshasa with the elected leader's tortured corpse in the boot, and the CIA's man - Mobutu Sese Seko - was in power and in the money [from 1965 - 1997 when he was forced into exile]. Everything began to fall apart after he came into power. (The BBC has a basic chronology of events, here.)

Anyway, the country is getting back to its feet, and now "mostly" at peace, with elections coming up in November (first free general elections in four decades were held in 2006), but after years of conflict a great many people need a lot more support than the government can give right now (it's a bit like Germany after WW II), and Oxfam is one of the non-profit organisations on the ground providing some of this support. Kinshasa One Two is a fund-raising initiative to boost the support they can give.

 
Oxfam invited Damon Albarn to get involved, and he put together an eclectic production team - which they called DRC Music - to collaborate with some of DR Congo's best contemporary musicians and performers (they worked with over 50). They recorded Kinshasa One Two in just 5 days, and it's gonna be released digitally by Warp Records on 3rd October 2011 with a CD/vinyl release to follow on 7th November. You can, however, pre-order your copy right now in whatever format you choose. All proceeds going to Oxfam.

This isn't just a feel-good purchase 'cos if these three embedded tracks are representative of the album as a whole then it's gonna be a goodie.

 
DRC Music - Kinshasa One Two (see http://drcmusic.org ) by DRC Music

Listen to Damon Albarn talk about Kinshasa One Two on BBC Radio


  

TRACKLIST
1. Hallo featuring Tout Puissant Mukalo and Nelly Liyemge
2. K-Town featuring N'Gotshima and Bebson
3. African Space Anthem (A.S.A) featuring Ewing Sima of Tout Puissant Mukalo
4. Love featuring Love
5. Lingala featuring Bokatola System and Evala Litongo
6. Lourds featuring Yende Bongongo of Okwess International
7. Respect Of The Rules featuring Loi X Liberal
8. We Come From The Forest featuring Bokatola System
9. Customs featuring Bokatola System
10. Virginia featuring Magakala Virginia Yollande and Yowa Hollande
11. Ah Congo featuring Jupiter Bokondji and Bokatola System
12. Three Piece Sweet part 1 & 2 featuring Bebson
13. If You Wish to Stay Awake featuring Washiba
14. Departure featuring Bokatola System

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FASHION: The Making – Shoot 4 – “Grecian Sexy Siren”: Rouge Vallari by ChiChi Iyiegbuniwe > Bella Naija

The Making – Shoot 4 –

“Grecian Sexy Siren”:

Rouge Vallari

by ChiChi Iyiegbuniwe


Posted on Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 11:57 AM

 

By Ijeoma Ndekwu

The Making is a project that aims to mentor young designers and provide them with the opportunity to interact with business development analysts and entrepreneurs who will aid them to achieve their vision for their brand.

The theme for this shoot for Rouge Vallari is “Grecian Sexy Siren”

Check on it!

Credits:
Designer: ChiChi Iyiegbuniwe
Label: Rouge Vallari
Location:  Scarlet Lodge
Photography: Peter Bello
Photography Assistants: Oshalusi Kola, Kunle Haastrup
Make- up: Doyin Akintunde (Divanista)
Stylist: Ade Dolapo (Deepee)
Models:  Makida Moka, Odunayo Bisola, Uyi Ogbeifun
Theme: ” Grecian Sexy Siren”

Stockists:
Model shoes:  Divanista
Jewellery: Accessories for U by Diri
Props: Victorian settings- Scarlet Lodge

 

LIBYA: Death for Libyans; billions for the West

Death for Libyans;

billions for the West

Posted: 2011/09/15


West's intervention in Libya is not only about oil, its also about: arms, gas, water, counter-terrorism and reconstruction contracts.

 

By Garikai Chengu

People who think that the West's intervention in Libya is just another oil grab are mistaken. Broadly speaking, for Britain military intervention is mainly about arms, Italy its natural gas, France its water and for the US its counter-terrorism and reconstruction contracts. Spreading democracy and saving the people of Benghazi form merely supposed tangential benefits used to justify these ends.

Lest we forget, NATO's bombardment began because Mr Gaddafi "threatened to do to Benghazi" what NATO itself is poised to do in Sirte.

''History is a set of lies agreed upon'' once remarked Napoleon Bonaparte. If left unchallenged the true motives behind what the French mainstream media have coined ''Sarkozy's War'' may be lost in the fog of war.

So what makes Libya so important to the West? Any real estate agent could tell you: location. Given that Libya sits atop the strategic intersection of the Mediterranean, African, and Arab worlds, control of the nation, has always been a remarkably effective way to project power into these three regions and beyond.

Ever since time immemorial Western control over Libya has been of great importance. After Libyan independence in 1951, US, British and French payments for military basing rights formed the single-largest element of Libyan GDP until oil exports began to flow in 1961.

Nowadays, Mr Sarkozy's interest in Libya lies in a commodity more precious than oil, namely water. It is becoming increasingly accepted that water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations.

Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water. Nature has decreed that the supply of water is fixed. Meanwhile demand rises inexorably as the world’s population increases and enriches itself. Population growth, climate change, pollution, urbanization and the rapid development of manufacturing industries are relentlessly combining such that demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40 per cent by 2040.

Libya sits on a resource more valuable than oil, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, which is an immensely vast underground sea of fresh water. Colonel Gaddafi had cleverly invested $25 billion in the Great Man-made River Project, a complex 4,000-km long water pipeline buried beneath the desert that could transport two million cubic metres of water a day. Such a monumental water distribution scheme could turn Libya - a nation that is 95 per cent desert - into a food self-sufficient arable oasis.

Today France's global mega-water companies like Suez, Ondeo and Saur, control more than 45 per cent of the world's water market and are rushing to privatize water, already a $400 billion global business. For these French companies, Libya will be a bonanza. No wonder Le Mondé coined it ''Sarkozy's War'' and had a ''Victoire'' front page splash when Mr Gaddafi's compound was stormed.

Late last year, the Central Intelligence Agency suspiciously raised the spectre of ''future 'hydrological warfare' in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over,'' or controlled through proxy armies and client states. Regime change in Libya is the first major instance of hydrological warfare.

With the spoils of war from Libya's water market largely reserved for the French, Mr. Cameron is eyeing another market, that of arms.

The subject of the West selling arms to regimes suppressing uprisings remains as wilfully overlooked as an American war crime. Even as The Times of London has just reported that Britain enjoyed a 30 per cent spike in arms sales to regimes in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Arms sold between February and July jumped to $101 million, the Times' report says, noting that these include weapons that could be used to suppress domestic protests.

Mr Obama's administration is even more steeped in the controversial arms trade. The US accepts no rival on this front. Over the past decade the US has averaged a staggering $5.8 billion per year in arms sales with the Middle East.

The very Libyan military hardware that NATO boastfully claims to have downgraded by 90 per cent will need to be rebuilt. US arms companies will gleefully be on hand to arm their proxy regime to the teeth. Libya will be a bonanza for American arms dealers.

American infrastructure contractors will also reap the windfalls of post-war reconstruction. The grim reality is that every bridge, road, rail-link and building that US war-planes bomb will have to be rebuilt and paid for by the Libyan taxpayer.

Even grimmer still is the fact that the approximately $1.1billion spent by the US government on bombarding Libya is a drop in the ocean compared to the profit that American contractors stand to make. Many of whom have strong ties to the upper echelons of the military and the Obama administration.

In-fact, more than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in post-war Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity.

According to the study, nearly 70 per cent of these companies had employees or board members who either served in or had close ties to the executive branch for Republican and Democratic administrations, for members of Congress of both parties, or at the highest levels of the military.

Therefore, those in the military tasked with minimising 'collateral damage' to property stand to directly profit from less than pin point precision. In short, dropping bombs can be profitable.

The recent bombshell revelations of correspondence between the CIA and Libya's security apparatus prove that the US has been outsourcing its torture or ''enhanced interrogation'' of terror suspects to Libya through the internationally illegal rendition process. These revelations are embarrassing but hardly surprising. Nevertheless, there is little doubt a pliant proxy regime will continue to do America's dirty work.

Last but not least there is oil. Much as the self-righteous West might pretend otherwise, oil is unquestionably a key part of the equation. Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa and 85 per cent of its exports are to Europe.

Archival footage of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi surrounded by Mr Gaddafi's female bodyguards, kissing the Libyan strongman's hand at Leonardo Da Vinci airport is indicative of just how important Libya is to Italy.

Libya's oil is especially important to Italy because of its proximity, the ease of its extraction, and the sweetness of its crude. Most refineries in Italy and elsewhere are built to deal with sweet Libyan crude, they cannot easily process the heavier Saudi crude that has recently replaced the Libyan production shortfall.

Libyan natural gas reserves are estimated to be over 52.7 trillion cubic feet and large areas of the country are still to be surveyed. With assured supplies available from Libya, Italy will become less dependent on supplies from Russia, which on the energy front, is increasingly flexing its muscles and thumbing its nose at mainland Europe.

Libya has a 1,800km coastline just miles from Italy and porous southern borders with three poor African nations. Therefore, a pliant regime that will stem the flow of asylum seekers and keep the oil and gas flowing is vital for Rome.

From oil to water, water-boarding to arms and from gas to reconstruction the war in Libya will rake in billions of dollars.

#

 

EDUCATION: How Black Colleges Are Turning White – The Ethnic Cleansing Of African Americans in the Age of Obama > voxunion

How Black Colleges Are Turning White and Keeping Their Historically Black Colleges and Universities Status:

The Ethnic Cleansing Of African Americans in the Age of Obama (Part 1 of 3)

By Jahi Issa, Ph.D.

For more than 100 years, HBCU’s have served as a model for educating a plethora of African American leadership around the country. Although the mission statements of most HBCUs do not state this fact, HBCUs grew out of the social disorder and aftermath of the American Civil War—a period which constitutionally brought millions of formerly enslaved Africans into citizenry in the United States. Similar to colleges and universities that were created for groups such as Catholics, Jews and for immigrant groups, HBCUs were created in reaction to de facto marginalization created by a European American hostile society. Because of the efforts of the Civil Right Movement, HBCU’s were finally recognized as important institutions and were giving special status for Federal funding. However, over the past few decades, HBCUs have been targeted as being too “Black” and many states are progressively trying to eliminate African Americans from these institutions that have served as a buffer zone for the Black middle class. Some HBCUs have and are going through hostile takeovers in order to turn them into White education facilities and thereby permanently eliminating the African American middle class.

African American Perform Better at HBCUs
Although over the years many have argued that HBCUs are redundant and irrelevant in today’s “post racial world,” the fact remains that these intuitions of higher learning, according to the National Science Foundation, graduate more than 33% of all African Americans earning Bachelor’s and doctoral degrees, almost double that compared to African Americans attending predominately White schools . Furthermore, according to the Washington Post, the “post racial” world that many hoped for with the election of President Barack Obama may just be an illusion. Relying on a recent report from the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends, the Washington Post noted that the typical White household in 2009 had 20 times more wealth ($113,149) than the typical Black household ($5,677). Moreover, another report that was conducted by Brandeis University in May of 2010 and concluded that African American will never reach wealth parity with that of White Americans. Both reports note that African Americans with college degrees stand a better chance at edging out a decent life in the United States than those without degrees.

According to a 1977 study that was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Mary Francis Berry, in her capacity as the former Secretary of Education in the Carter Administration, primary reasons why HBCUs tended to be better equipped to prepare students for real world experience was because they offered:

  • “credible models for aspiring Blacks…
  • “psycho-socially congenial settings in which blacks can develop”
  • “insurance against a potentially declining interest in the education of black folk”

Furthermore, the report posits that the ultimate purpose of the HBCU is to “represent the formal structures which nurture and stress racial ideology, pride and worth for Blacks. Consequently, they are what every racial and ethnic group is entitled to have—a political, social and intellectual haven.” The report mentioned above was recently vindicated in a study that was published in January of 2011. Three economists concluded that African Americans who attend HBCUs tend to perform better in the work force than African Americans who attend predominately White universities and colleges.

The 1965 Higher Education Act and Title III: Federal Funding For African-Americans in Higher Education
One cannot discuss today’s relevancy of HBCU’s without mentioning the Higher Education Act of 1965. The Higher Education Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his Great Society program that sought “to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education.” Before the law was signed by President Johnson, the Chairman of the House Committee on Education, an African-American Harlem Congressman named Adam Clayton Powell made an amendment that defined HBCUs as “…any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans.” The amendments also legalized the federal funding of HBCUs through the Higher Education Act of 1965 Title III program. Title III is the federal governing body which sets the standard for providing funding for HBCUs. Over the years Title III had provided billions of dollars to support African-American undergraduate, graduate programs, increasing African American participation in math and science, real estate acquisitions and strengthen HBCU’ endowments to name a few. In all, Title III has helped African American universities to not only increase their numbers in accredited degree programs across the country; it has also allowed many HBCUs to have a tremendous economic impact in the communities that they serve.

Economic Impact of HBCUs and the Origins of a New Era Rifted in Corruption
In 2005 the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an office within the U.S. Department of Education, published a report that documented the economic impact of HBCUs. Primarily, this study was introduced by President George W. Bush and continued by President Barack Obama administration which sought to include the participation of private sector (corporations) into the governing bodies of HBCUs. The study found that more than 100 HBCUs had in 2001 an economic impact of almost 11 billion dollars in the communities that they served. For instance, schools such as Howard University total economic impact in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area was more than 600 million dollars. For smaller schools such as Delaware State University, their total economic impact was more than 150 million dollars. It must be noted that the economic impacts also made a national impression. Again, according to the National Science Foundation, HBCUs bestowed nearly 25% of all bachelor degrees earned by African Americans in 2001. In the areas of agriculture, biology, mathematics and the physical sciences, HBCUs accounted for more than 40 percent of all bachelor degrees earned by African-Americans. With this stated, it is easy to see why corporations would want a piece of the pie. Furthermore, if one is to evaluate the current lack of transparency on Wall Street, it is easy to see that Wall Street’s collaboration with today’s HBCUs could represent the end of African American higher education as we know it.

The Second Corporate takeover Black Higher Education

Although President Barack Obama HBCU Executive Order 13532 “encourages private investment in HBCUs,” however, research proves that corporate partnerships is not new to HBCUs, nor are their historic input solely motivated by financial gains. Not long after the end of reconstruction, Northern White capitalists sought extreme ways in which they could control the ebb and flow of African American education. This was done to curtail the rapid development of African American educational institutions immediately after the Civil War. For instance, from 1865-1880 federal agents documented that there were thousands of African American schools operating throughout the South independent of White control. When northern White benevolent groups finally reach the South with mythical-preconceived notions that they were coming to “civilize” former wretched enslaved Africans, they were astonished to see that Africans Americans had already had established their own schools systems fully equipped with African American teachers. These schools’ full missions were self-determination and political control over the regions of the South in which they were the majority.

The high level of African American political education created a problem for the nation after the Compromise of 1877. Since African Americans were no longer allowed to exercise political autonomy in the South, strategies were devised on the federal level to control the nature of their education. The federal government along with the corporate conglomerates in the North believed that the only way that they could ensure the continual flow of cheap labor in the South was to train African Americans in a way that they would not advocate for political control of their communities. Furthermore, there was another important issue at play—that was African American competition with Whites for high skilled jobs. The solution was a new type of training for Southern African Americans was called industrial education. This type of schooling served the purpose of supervising and training African American to be subservient to White interest. Schools such as Hampton, Tuskegee and Delaware State were devised as the alternative to the African American independent schools that advocated self-determination after the Civil War. The corporate-handpicked spokesman for this new type of schooling was none other than Booker T. Washington. One must remember that Washington’s entrance exam into Hampton University was sweeping the floor. The ultimate goal of Hampton was to control the emerging Black leadership of the Jim Crow South, and train African Americans in the corporate labor needs of the new South. The financial backing of Hampton University and what would later be Tuskegee was provided by White Northern corporations and philanthropy. This corporate-industrial style form of education continued to dominate Southern higher educational institutions long after the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915.

The White House Initiative on HBCUs Encourages Corporate Collaboration?
The current encroachment of private corporate input into the affairs of African American higher education could and will be disastrous. It would mean that African Americans will be forced back into the Jim Crow Era. A deliberate attempt to curtail educational advancements that was gained by the Civil Rights and Black Power era seems to be the main motivation. The White House Advisor on HBCUs, John Wilson, Jr., stated in April of 2010 HBCUs “must not be seen as plaintiffs in the struggle for civil rights….” Dr. Wilson, a graduate of Morehouse College, tends to forget that it was struggle for Civil Rights that literally allows him to serve President Barack Obama. The White House Initiative on HBCUs came into existence because of the “plaintiff” of the past. Furthermore, Mr. Wilson’s statement implies that African American should abandon their pursuit for full rights and self-interest. Taking a lead from Dr. Wilson’s statements, A Wall Street Journal editor named Jason L. Liley wrote an editorial stating that HBCU’s were a dismal failure and that “Mr. Obama ought to use the federal government’s leverage” to bring these schools under Wall Street’s control. He went further by stating that HBCUs should all become private and model themselves after the University of Phoenix. One month after Liley’s editorial, a conservative from the Wall Street funded American Enterprise Institute also imputed on Wall Street’s quest to control Black education. He ended his article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by stating that HBCUs “should accordingly be encouraged to enroll more non-black students.” The author mentioned nothing about White universities increasing African American enrollment. He also stated that “some HBCUs, notably two in West Virginia (Bluefield State and West Virginia State University), are in fact no longer predominantly black” but are still receiving special (HBCU) federal funding. Five months after the Chronicle of Higher Education essay appeared, the White House Advisor on HBCUs, John Wilson, Jr. was invited as the keynote speaker to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The title of his speech “Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Albatross of Undignified Publicity” conveyed that HBCU are historically cursed when it comes to publicity in White dominated media outlets. Moreover, the central thesis of his speech, although impressively constructed, was that HBCUs should jump on the corporate bandwagon by accepting funds from good corporate Samaritans such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Black Colleges Turning White or White Cultural Hegemony: The Signs of the Future
Although the Higher Education Act of 1965 clearly states that an HBCU is a school “whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans,” economist and scholar at American Enterprise Institute, Richard Vedder, reminds us that there is a trend being shaped were as HBCUs who formally had an African American majority student and faculty body, and now have White majority populations, still receive federal funding geared for African Americans. These two schools are Bluefield State College and West Virginia State University. According to a May 19, 2000 CNN report, White enrollment at HBCUs is on the rise. Other schools such as Kentucky State University, Elizabeth City State University and Delaware State University are only a few schools that have a growing White and non-African American student and faculty population. Furthermore, according to an August 17, 2011 Wall Street Journal article called “Recruiters at Black Colleges Break From Tradition,” HBCUs such as Tennessee State University, Delaware State University and Paul Quinn College are cited as no longer focusing exclusively on recruiting African Americans. The author of the article points out that Tennessee State University’s Black enrollment has reduced to around 70 %, while Paul Quinn College Black enrollment has been predicted to fall from 94% to 85% for the Fall 2011 academic year.

Many have asked the question if White enrollment at HBCUs represent a decrease in African American enrollment at the same schools. The year that CNN published its story, Bluefield College African American faculty had dwindled to less than one percent from previous decades. The African American student enrollment had also decreased to less than ten percent. Nonetheless, research shows that when African American faculty at HBCUs is a majority, African American students tend to enroll at a higher percentage and they tend to be more productive in the work place once they graduate. There seems to be a direct correlation between African American student enrollment and that of its faculty. In other words, if the African American faculty enrollment at HBCU’s is low, African American students tend not to attend HBCU’s. When this occurs, is an HBCU still a HBCU? In other words, can you have a HBCU without Black students and faculty? This is exactly the issue that American Enterprise Institute scholar Richard Vedder was raising in his essay in the Chronicle of Higher Learning. Why are HBCUs that are no longer Black in students or faculty population receiving federal monies geared toward African Americans? The federal government seems to believe that this trend represents the future for HBCUs.

Jahi Issa, Ph.D Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Delaware State University and Former Northeastern North Carolina Grass Root Coordinator for President Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign.

 

 

VIDEO + AUDIO: ‘Fela Soul’ Fela Kuti x De La Soul

De La Soul


What do you get when you put together afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and rap pioneers De La Soul? You get Fela Soul; a musical tapestry created by Gummy Soul artist Amerigo Gazaway. More than just a clever title, Fela Soul is an 8-track, 33 minute journey into the world of afrobeat rhythms, funky horn riffs, and classic hip-hop gems. Using dozens of hand-picked samples from the Nigerian instrumentalist and political figure Fela Kuti, and 8 carefully-chosen acapellas from the Native Tongue rap trio De La Soul, Amerigo seamlessly intertwines the two into something completely new and original. 

Audio + Video:

‘Fela Soul’

Fela Kuti x De La Soul

Gummy Soul artist Amerigo Gazaway put together two towering greats in this 8-track, 33 minute, blend of afrobeat rhythms and hip-hop gems. The Nashville-based producer handpicked dozens of samples from Fela Kuti‘s illustrious catalog and combined them with 8 acapellas that span over a decade of De La Soul classics.

Watch a found-footage preview clip for Fela Soul above, stream and download the album in its entirety below. Redman, MF Doom, and Gorillaz also made the cut. Pretty dope hearing the L.I. trio’s raps over Fela’s sax and Tony Allen beats. For more head over to Gummy Soul.

Fela Soul by Amerigo Gazaway

 

PUB: The National Poetry Review - The Laureate Prize for Poetry

Each year The Laureate Prize for Poetry will honor one new poem that TNPR believes has the greatest chance, of those entered, of standing the test of time and becoming part of an ever-evolving literary canon.  (Please, remember we are talking about the future, not about trying to replicate the past.) 

We prefer electronic entries!  To enter online, follow these instructions carefully:

 

Go to PayPal.com. Choose SEND MONEY. Choose PERSONAL. Choose OTHER.

Send $15 per group of 3 poems to editor@nationalpoetryreview.com.

Then email your entry with your name in the subject line and a copy of your PayPal receipt in the body of the email.

 

To enter, submit up to three of your best unpublished, uncommitted (not promised for first publication elsewhere) poems (10 page total maximum per group of three) (no SASEs, please; check website for winner), contact information, a brief bio, and a $15 fee for each set of up to three poems entered. 

 

Fee:  $15.00.     *       Postmark deadline:  9/30/11. 

 

If you must enter by postal mail:
IMPORTANT: MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO "TNPR"

and send to:

The National Poetry Review, Post Office Box 2080, Aptos, California   95001-2080

 

The winner will receive $500 plus possible publication in The National Poetry Review.

 

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but if the work is selected by TNPR for the prize or for publication, it must be withdrawn from elsewhere unless you have withdrawn it from us two weeks before our acceptance. Multiple submissions are acceptable with a reading fee for each group of three poems. Page limit per group: 10

Please note that close friends, relatives, and students of the judge or the editor are not eligible for the prize.  The judge will be asked to send back to TNPR's editor any poem that s/he recognizes; should this happen, the entrant's fee will be refunded.

 

PUB: McKitterick Prize - Society of Authors

The McKitterick Prize

Tom McKitterick, the former editor of Political Quarterly and author of an unpublished novel, endowed the McKitterick Prize which was first awarded in 1990. It is given annually to an author over the age of 40 for a first novel, published or unpublished. 

  • The annual deadline for entries is 31st October

  • Download the entry form and guidelines here.