PUB: Zouch Magazine’s LIT BITS Fiction Contest - ZOUCH

SUBMIT YOUR LIT BITS STORY

Remember, it can be about any topic, in any style set in any time period so long as it is 140 words or less! Be creative. Keep it short, as short as you want.

Formats: We will read DOC and RTF documents (NOTE: PDFs are not accepted)
Spacing: We don’t care.

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Title of LIT BIT


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Having difficulties with our form? Pls email info {AT} zouchmagazine {DOT} com.

PRIZE INFORMATION

1st Place Story
1 Steampunk Pendulum Art Clock from Ostlund Custom Works (valued @ $175)
Story will be published in Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1
1 Free Copy of Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1

2nd Place Story
1 Large Retro Typewriter Moleskine Cover from Julien Denoyer
Story will be published in Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1
1 Free Copy of Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1

3rd Place Story
1 Medium Vintage DANBO Robot Moleskine Cover from Julien Denoyer
Story will be published in Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1
1 Free Copy of Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Edition #1

4th-14th Place Runner Ups
Story will be published in the Fiction Section of Zouch Magazine Online

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Open to International residents. Shipping charges may be applied to winners residing outside North America. Contest begins July 20th, 2011 and ends on September 20th, 2011. Prizes are courtesy of Ostlund Custom Works, Julien Denoyer and Zouch Media. Ostlund Custom Works, Julien Denoyer and Zouch Media or Magaine will not be held liable for any warranty, costs, damage, injury, or any other claims incurred as a result of usage of any winners of a prize once possession has been taken of the product by winner.

Entering the Contest, Judging and Contacting

Entrants may ONLY SUBMIT ONCE to Zouch Magazine’s LIT BITS Fiction Contest. Only submissions sent using the form located on Zouch Magazine’s LIT BITS Fiction Contest page will be entered into the contest. All submissions MUST be less than 140 words. Any submissions containing more than 140 words will be immediately disqualified. Submissions will be judged on their literary merit, creativity, resourcefulness and originality. Please proof read your submission before entering. Submissions with errors, typos and other forms of technical mistakes may be judged accordingly.

Winners will be chosen by the Zouch Media/Magazine team between Sept 20th, 11:59pm – Oct 1st, 2011. Winners of all contests will be contacted via the email address used to enter the contest, and the person receiving and replying to the winner announcement email will be considered the winner unless they specify another person within the reply email as the winner. ZOUCH Magazine will mail the contest prize to the address supplied by the recipient of the winner announcement email. Only one entry per email address will be considered for contest entry. No person may enter any contest more than once using multiple email addresses. Claiming of prizes requires an email response to ZOUCH Magazine from the winning sender email address within 15 days of being notified of winning at the email address supplied. Failure to respond shall mean that the winner forfeits the prize. ZOUCH Magazine is not required to award elsewhere any prizes forfeited by the chosen winner(s). As of the date of launching this contest, the publication date for Zouch Magazine Hardcopy Issue #1 is unknown but in development.

Awarding Prizes

Each prizewinner must supply ZOUCH Magazine with his/her legal name, mailing address, birth date, daytime and nighttime telephone numbers. Winners may not request substitutions of prize winnings. All winners are solely responsible for any and all taxes and/or fees, and all such additional costs that may be incurred. Neither ZOUCH Magazine, ZOUCH Magazine sponsors, nor employees of ZOUCH Magazine or sponsors may be held liable for any warranty, costs, damage, injury, or any other claims incurred as a result of usage of any winners of a prize once possession has been taken of the product by winner. ZOUCH Magazine is not liable for any loss arising out of or in connection with or resulting from any contest promoted by ZOUCH Magazine. If the specified prize becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, ZOUCH Magazine may substitute a prize of like or equal value. Management, employees and families of ZOUCH Magazine are prohibited from winning any prizes awarded by ZOUCH Magazine. ZOUCH Magazine reserves the right to alter any rules of any contest at anytime. If you have any questions or complaints about this ZOUCH Magazine contest, please contact us.

 

INFO + VIDEO: New Items of Interest

8Sep2011

Advertising Executive, Artist Manager, and Marketing Guru Steve Stoute released his new book today entitled, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy! Stoute draws from his diverse background in the music industry and brand marketing to chronicle how an upstart art form – street poetry set to beats – came to define urban culture as the embodiment of cool. Stoute’s understanding of how hip-hop morphed into mainstream culture enabled him to relate to a new generation of thinking which catapulted him to the forefront of pop culture – where he remains today. (Via wikipedia)

 

This book is a must read! Stoute influence on the Hip Hop Industry, and on American Business is astonishing. Check it out!

 

 

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We'll say we knew author

James Cherry 'back when'


Local author James Cherry has received critical acclaim for his new book titled ÔStill a Man ... and Other StoriesÕ published by Willow Books of Aquarius Press. He will read selections and sign books at 11 a.m. Sept. 3 at the Jackson-Madison County Library in downtown Jackson. He will also be a panelist at the Southern Festival of Books in October.

Local author James Cherry has received critical acclaim for his new book titled ÔStill a Man ... and Other StoriesÕ published by Willow Books of Aquarius Press. He will read selections and sign books at 11 a.m. Sept. 3 at the Jackson-Madison County Library in downtown Jackson. He will also be a panelist at the Southern Festival of Books in October. / Photo by JACQUE HILLMAN/The Jackson Sun


Whether he is writing about old people, young people, dinner at a kitchen table, shooting hoops, playing a chess game, or the killing of a black man in I933, Jackson author James Cherry has laid hands on his computer keyboard and prophesied.

He sees life as it is. And apparently the world agrees.

His newest book, "Still A Man and Other Stories," a collection of short stories, has been nominated for a National Book Award and for a Pulitzer by his publisher, Willow Books, an imprint of Aquarius Press.

Cherry, with an amazing modesty, said quietly, "Critically, the book has been well received."

He'll give a reading and sign books at 11 a.m. Sept. 3 at Jackson-Madison County Library in downtown Jackson. And in October, he'll be a panelist at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Oct. 14-16.

Cherry is also the author of "Honoring the Ancestors," a collection of poetry published by Third World Press and nominated for a 2009 NAACP Image Award. A fiction writer as well, his novel, "Shadow of Light" (London: Profile Books) was released in 2008. He's also a candidate for a master of fine arts degree from the University of Texas El Paso and working hard on his craft.

"We are so excited that we will be among the first to host James Cherry to discuss his newly released book," said Mary Sood, community relations manager for the library.

I hope the library is packed because it will be well worth your time to share in Cherry's dedication to the written word.

Now, if you're expecting namby-pamby dialogue, forget it. His words are pungent. His characters speak of prayer, joy, hope, anger, fear, love — in words that zing from the page. You'd have a hard time prying loose his characters from their dialogue, and you'll be drawn in. So be ready for what's real.

I asked him if the success he is achieving is a surprise.

"I always knew I would be a published author," he said. "I'm outlining a novel and completing a collection of poetry that I hope will be ready in 2013, if everything goes according to plan."

And he does set his goals and has a plan to achieve them.

To any aspiring writer, he said, "Persistence and dedication are probably the two most important qualities that anyone can have who is serious about writing. You have to be willing to study your craft to get better."

Cherry chose the "traditional route" to being published, he said. "The publisher is involved, and you do get some editorial feedback on how to get your book to work better. So far I've been fortunate in that publishers have been willing to take a chance."

In his writing, Cherry said the theme of loss and redemption that permeates the stories is a common thread that readers of any ethnicity or background can relate to.

"A father losing his son in a wreck, or homelessness, or incarceration," Cherry said. "The stories aren't inter-related, but they are connected."

Cherry said he hopes his writing conveys that "as humans, we're trying to navigate our way to a deeper level of understanding of where we are and where we're going."

His favorite character in "Still a Man," he said, is Luther McKinney. "He's an older gentleman, and the environment around him is changing. He has trouble with the attitudes of young people and activities in his neighborhood. He represents the strength of the community, and he's having trouble adjusting to change. Young people have a different mindset. But he's still there and trying to make a difference and raising his grandkids. That's what I mean about relating. Either we know somebody in that situation, or we know of someone — people in their golden years and raising kids."

And yes, when you read "On the Block" in his book of short stories, you'll recognize Luther McKinney.

Cherry isn't slowing down at all — yes, he enjoyed the Hollywood experience of the NAACP Image Awards — but now he's outlining his novel, working on his poems, a children's book and someday a screenplay.

I asked him to sign my book copy so I could say I knew him when. He said I was embarrassing him. But that's OK. Because the "when" is past, the present's moment just blinked and the future is wide-eyed and beckoning.

The book is available at Angie's Book Store (off Parkway at the U.S. 45 Bypass) at the Book Lady on Federal Drive, and on amazon.com.

For a complete bio visit: www.jamesecherry.com.

I'll have more to tell you about the Southern Festival of Books a little later on. Meanwhile, you can check out the details at:

http://www.humanitiestennessee.org/festival/current.php

 

e-mail: jhillman@jacksonsun.com

>via: http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20110821/LIFESTYLE/108210306

 

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New Book Chronicles

Black Gay and Lesbian Fiction

Black Like Us, edited by Devon Carbado and Dwight McBride, serves as an anthology for more than 100 years of gay and lesbian black fiction, featuring prominent writers such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker and Langston Hughes. Black Like Us puts the authors and their work in perspective, offering critical analyses of the periods in which the authors lived and the pieces were written.
The book offers a wide selection of black gay and lesbian fiction from throughout the 20th century and beyond, covering seminal movements such as the Harlem Renaissance. Black Like Us is a must-read for diehard African-American fiction enthusiasts.

 

>via: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/new-book-chronicles-black-gay-and-lesbian-fiction

 

 

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New Publication:

The Anatomy of Blackness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment

(The John Hopkins University Press)

by Andrew S. Curran

 

This volume examines the Enlightenment-era textualization of the Black African in European thought. Andrew S. Curran rewrites the history of blackness by replicating the practices of eighteenth-century readers. Surveying French and European travelogues, natural histories, works of anatomy, pro- and anti-slavery tracts, philosophical treatises, and literary texts, Curran shows how naturalists and philosophes drew from travel literature to discuss the perceived problem of human blackness within the nascent human sciences, describes how a number of now-forgotten anatomists revolutionized the era’s understanding of black Africans, and charts the shift of the slavery debate from the moral, mercantile, and theological realms toward that of the “black body” itself. In tracing this evolution, he shows how blackness changed from a mere descriptor in earlier periods into a thing to be measured, dissected, handled, and often brutalized.

Andrew S. Curran is a professor of French at Wesleyan University and a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine in the history of medicine. He is the author of Sublime Disorder: Physical Monstrosity in Diderot’s Universe.

>via: http://blackatlanticresource.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/new-publication-the-ana...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CULTURE: Black teenagers defy pop culture portrayals > CNN.com

Black teenagers

defy pop culture portrayals

By Laura Sessions Stepp, Special to CNN

September 7, 2011 2:35 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Laura Stepp: Media portrayals of black "baby mamas" and young "players" are wrong

  • Pregnancy rate of black teenage girls dropped 44% over past 20 years, she says

  • Stepp: Black teens value relationships over sex; 4 out of 5 value A's over "hotness"

  • With all the media emphasis on sex, Stepp writes, black teens deserve credit

Editor's note: Laura Sessions Stepp is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly with The Washington Post, who specializes in the coverage of young people. She has written two books: "Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both," and "Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Children through Early Adolescence." She is a consultant to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

(CNN) -- If you got your ideas about young black people just from the entertainment industry, you'd think they were all players and baby mamas -- and you'd be sorely mistaken.

In fact, the pregnancy rate of black teenage girls has dropped 44% over the last two decades, the teen birth rate 47%. Over that same period, both pregnancy and birth rates declined among all youth, but black youth had the largest declines.

And those black Casanovas? Also a stereotype. Young black men, as well as young black women, value relationships over sex.

These are some of the findings reported in Essence magazine. Essence, in partnership with The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, hired an independent research firm to survey 1,500 African-Americans ages 13 to 21 about their attitudes toward sex, relationships and media.

Not all results were positive.

Among young African-American males in the Essence survey who had had sex, 65% had done so at least once without using protection. And national data show that almost 50% of African-American females ages 13-21 will get pregnant before they turn 20.

Both young men and young women said they felt more sexual pressure from society and the media than from their partners.
--Laura Stepp

But sexual behavior is improving, and unlike the impression we get from popular culture, young people have got other things on their minds in addition to "doing it." The survey reported, for example, that four out of five girls and guys said they'd rather get straight A's in school than be thought of as "hot."

Also, three of four males said they'd rather be in a relationship with no sex than have sex with no relationship, and three of five said guys have more respect for girls who want to wait to have sex.

Both young men and young women said they felt more sexual pressure from society and the media than from their partners. The media -- including television, movies and videos -- took a particular beating from young women: 72% said that media send a message that sex appeal is a black woman's most important quality.

As Kendralyn, a college freshman, told me, VH1's "Basketball Wives" or Oxygen's "Bad Girls' Club" are "not what being a black woman is all about."

Naomi, a high school senior, singled out the BET network. "It's just too much. There's so much sass, playing on the stereotype."

Turning off the television -- even if a parent could -- is not going to help. As the Essence article pointed out, young people carry the media around in their smart phones, leaving grayheads clueless about what the teens are watching, listening to and talking about.

And TV and video characters are not the only ones pushing sexual stereotypes. Older adults, especially white adults, can be quick to make generalizations based on how black youth dress or talk, Naomi said. She and her friends pick up on suggestive stares and snide comments.

Kendralyn noted, correctly, that older adults have always made negative generalizations about youth. (Indeed. "Bye-Bye Birdie" anyone?)

"Every young generation is underestimated and sometimes misjudged," Kendralyn said. What she would like to see, especially for black girls, are more ways for them to showcase their talents beyond what their bodies offer.

She offered one more piece of advice to adults: Listen before you talk.

That means starting with the right questions, according to Essence writer Jeannine Amber. Steer away from "Don't, don't, don't," she wrote. Ask young people what they're doing, how they're feeling, what they're thinking about -- not just when it comes to sex, but also about their relationships.

Parents who are uncomfortable with such conversations can steer their kids to an aunt, uncle or other substitute, Amber said.

Almost all kids in school today learn the mechanics of sexual intercourse, the dangers of unprotected sex and the precautions they should take if they're going to have sex. It's a good bet that sex education -- as spotty as it is in this country -- has had something to do with the decline of teen pregnancies and teen births.

But let's also give credit to black teens themselves. After all, in the moment when it counts, they're the ones making the decision to wait to have sex or to use protection. Adults' role is not to judge, but to help them do what many, if not most, already want to do.

The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Laura Sessions Stepp.

via cnn.com

 

ECONOMICS: A Picture of the Jobs Crisis—in Black, White and Brown > COLORLINES


Illustration: Hatty Lee

Wednesday, September 7 2011 


editors_blog_4.gif

 

 

A Picture of the Jobs Crisis

—in Black, White and Brown

President Obama will tell us about his jobs plan tomorrow night. He’s been kind enough to schedule it such that it doesn’t interrupt either the NFL’s season opener or the Republican Party’s debate in a primary season that will last months. Based on early reports, the president has also been courteous enough to craft a plan that won’t overly upset debt-obsessed tea party Republicans. He’ll push for an extension of unemployment benefits, offer $170 billion in tax cuts and suggest less than a third of that—$50 billion—in stimulus money to actually create jobs through infrastructure projects.

As the president continues his search for unrequited love across the political isle, black workers in particular continue falling further and further outside of the economy. So we thought we’d pull together the latest numbers, as a reminder of just how far out of proportion the problem is with the response thus far. And as the graphic illustrates, while the jobs problem is worse than it’s been in generations, the search for good jobs that pay living wages is a terribly old one. (Note: Here’s why we haven’t included the uninformative data on Asian Americans.) 

—Kai Wright

workforce_stats_090211.gif

 

HISTORY: The Attica Prison Uprising

The Attica Prison Uprising at 40 

“We are MEN! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.”—The Five Demands: To the People of America, Attica inmates, September 9, 1971
by Eljeer Hawkins (Harlem, New York)

Attica! Attica! Attica!
The most recognizable prison uprising in U.S. history took place September 9–13, 1971. The 1,200 inmates of Attica state prison occupied D-yard and captured the imagination of the country and the world as the New York state government and police force violently put down the rebellion in a matter of minutes. Attica resonated within the popular culture, from jazz legend and activist Archie Shepp’s tribute Attica Blues in 1972 to Sidney Lumet’s classic 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, which starred Al Pacino and John Cazale. The Attica rebellion was rooted in the revolutionary explosion of the ’60s and ’70s in the quest for human emancipation, ending modern-day slavery in the prison system. The Georgia state prisoners’ strike last December and the recent Pelican Bay prisoners’ hunger strike compels us to recognize the four days that transformed the prisoners’ rights movement in New York, in the U.S., and globally.

Attica’s Birth
The town of Attica was born in 1811; the prison that is named after the town was built in 1931, two years into the Great Depression. The New York prison system and big business spent $7 million to construct the prison. It was the most expensive prison project up to that time. Attica was deemed “architecturally handsome” and a “paradise for convicts.” Its construction was meant to relax the extreme overcrowding of New York prisons after a series of riots throughout the system. A riot in 1932 by newly transferred inmates raised the issue of the outrageous distances most family members and friends would have to travel for visits to the “paradise.”

There were significant demographic shifts in the prison system throughout the 1960s, particularly among black and Puerto Rican youth from New York City. Attica would be the last prison to reflect this shift. Bert Useem and Peter Kimball, authors of States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots, 1971–1986, document this change: “By September 1971 the breakdown by race of the 2,243 inmates at Attica was quite similar to that of the population of the system: 54 percent black, 37 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic. Nearly half—43 percent—were from New York City. Sixty-two percent had been convicted of violent crimes; 40 percent were under the age of 30.” (pg.22)

A contemporary New York Amsterdam News editorial stated: “Correctional executive officials, supervisory staff and guards are all white. Most of the guards come from a non-urban or rural environment, whereas most of the prisoners come from the ghettos of our cities.” (“The Tragedy of Attica,” 9/19/1971)

Among the guards there was a racist prejudice and white supremacist attitude toward the inmates. This was coupled with a lack of adequate training; guards received only a two-week orientation. A powder keg was bound to ignite. The inmates reflected the heightened political, class, and racial consciousness spreading throughout the world at that time. Many would be members either before or after coming to prison of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, the Nation of Islam, the Five-Percent Nation, or various white radical organizations.

Reform or Revolution
The Attica Prison Uprising at 40 years 

The tenure of the commissioner of the New York State Dept. of Correctional Services, Russell Oswald, began on January 1, 1971. Oswald would introduce reforms to the prison system, for example providing extensive reading material for inmates. His plans were immediately challenged by the administrative community of Attica—the corrections officers union and hard-line “tough on crime” advocates. In addition, a statewide budget crisis slowed down Oswald’s reformist and liberal agenda.

The inmates had begun to raise their heads and straighten up their backs even before Oswald came on the scene, opposing conditions that resembled slavery. In July 1970, 450 inmates from the metal shop organized a sit-down strike for better wages. Around this time, many inmates who had organized peaceful protests at institutions such as Auburn State Prison were sent to Attica. The seeds of organizing began to sprout activism. Five inmates who came together under the banner of the Attica Liberation Faction wrote a “Manifesto of Demands.” These basic demands fit neatly into Oswald’s agenda. The Manifesto called for more showers, proper medical care, ending mail censorship, and establishing a grievance committee.

The collective action, unity, and organization of the inmates encountered some difficulties along the way. There were intense discussions among the various organizations that attempted to settle differences that would divide the inmates.

The death of prison activist and revolutionary theorist George Jackson at San Quentin State Prison in California brought the Attica inmates together even more. On August 22, 1971, a silent protest to commemorate Jackson took place during meal time. Corrections officer Sgt. Jack English states: “Then we noticed that almost all [the inmates] had some black on them. Some had black arm bands, some had black shoe laces tied around their arms, others had little pieces of black cloth or paper pinned on them….It scared us because a thing like that takes a lot of organization, a lot of solidarity, and we had no idea they were so well organized.” (New York Daily News, 10/5/1971.) Over 700 inmates participated in the commemoration. Two weeks later, 300 inmates organized a sick-out.

Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
1971 The Attica Prison Uprising at 40 years 

“This is not a race riot. We are all in this together; there are no white inmates,  no black inmates, and no Puerto Rican inmates. There are only inmates.”—Attica inmate on a bull horn during the rebellion, as quoted in Attica 1971-1975 by Annette T. Rubinstein

On September 8 there were a number of skirmishes between inmates and guards throughout the various blocks (sectors) of Attica. These incidents culminated on September 9 with 1,200 inmates occupying D-yard and establishing an alternative society based on democratic discussion and debate, with “open mike” procedures regulated by a strict code of conduct and discipline. There was an executive council made up of inmates Richard Clark, Herbert X. Blyden, Charles “Flip” Crowley, Roger Champen, Jerry Rosenberg, and Elliot “L.D” Barkley. The inmates organized committees for security, food distribution, and medical and hospital care. This kind of “organic” organizing draws a profound parallel to the historic Paris Commune of 1871. After the Commune was destroyed by French government forces, Karl Marx observed: “This was the first revolution in which the working class was openly acknowledged as the only class capable of social initiative.”

There were 39 hostages  consisting of prison workers and guards. The Black Muslims were in charge of protecting the nine prison guards held in D-yard during the four-day takeover. This event showed the true nature of human beings practicing cooperation and solidarity in times of social struggle and even in crisis.

The inmates discussed and presented their five demands to Oswald. The document called for “complete amnesty, meaning freedom from any physical, mental and legal reprisals.” This was the most vital demand of the five, and one which Oswald and Governor Nelson Rockefeller would never grant. It was accompanied by 15 practical proposals, including a demand that the New York State minimum wage law apply to all state institutions, including prisons. The document also called for an end to slave labor; for freedom for all New York State prisoners to be politically active, without fear of intimidation or reprisals; and for true religious freedom. Other demands concerned issues such as better healthcare and food, parole reform, and advanced educational programs.

The negotiations over the course of four days proceeded in three stages: direct negotiation between Oswald and the inmates; talks between an “observers committee” and the inmates; and finally, the state’s ultimatum to the inmates. Gov. Rockefeller refused to visit Attica or engage the inmates. Rockefeller saw the rebellion as another in a series of revolutionary events taking place in the world, striking a mighty body blow to U.S. capitalism and democracy. These events were raising the political consciousness of the working class, youth, and people of color. It was clear from the standpoint of big business and their political parties (Democratic and Republican) that this rebellion had to be extinguished by any means. All of the stages of negotiation failed, finally resulting in the violent retaking of Attica and D-yard.

Bloody Monday
“September 13, 1971, a watching world recoiled in horror as a heavily armed New York State assault force moved into D-yard of Attica Prison, firing automatic weapons, deer rifles and shotguns loaded with dum-dum bullets at the prisoners, guards and civilian employees penned, without guns to fire in return, within the wall. The resulting tragedy must rank with My Lai and Wounded Knee in the annals of American governmental inhumanity.” —Haywood Burns, National Conference of Black Lawyers, Professor of Law, New York University, November 1975

“If I am killed my blood will be on the hands of Governor Nelson Rockefeller.”—Corrections Officer Edward Cunningham, who died of wounds sustained in the Attica rebellion, as quoted in the New York Amsterdam News 10/30/1971

The assault began at 9:46 a.m. and ended 15 minutes later, utilizing tear gas with 2,200 rounds of ammunition discharged. The state forces consisted of corrections officers, state troopers, and sheriffs and deputies from around upstate New York. There was indiscriminate shooting into D-yard, but there were also targeted assassinations of leaders like Richard Clark and L.D. Barkley.

The surviving inmates were stripped naked, beaten, burned with lighted cigarettes, and forced to run a gauntlet with state forces inflicting retaliatory violence for the rebellion. The assault resulted in the death of 29 inmates and 10 prison guards. The Rockefeller administration and big business began to invoke the false claim that inmates sexually abused and slashed the throats of hostages. However, the medical examiner, Dr. John F. Edland, would determine the hostages died from gunshot wounds inflicted during the state’s attack.

After Attica
The state soon began its prosecution of the inmates. Three leaders were charged with 34 counts of kidnapping and 62 inmates were charged with a total 1,289 counts of other criminal charges. A Time to Die, the book about the uprising by New York Times columnist and observer committee member Tom Wicker, and the comprehensive report of the McKay commission exposed the reality of Attica. The Mckay commission was a New York State special panel, whose members were selected by the five ranking New York State justices. They were empowered by the state to conduct a full investigation of Attica.  The Mckay commission highlighted the criminality of Gov. Rockefeller, prison authorities, and big business before, during, and after September 13, 1971.

The gains from the uprising were substantial. The state adopted an inmate grievance system, began to provide nutritious food, attempted to hire more black and Latino guards, installed payphones for inmates, and extended mail service. Perhaps most significantly, college-level educational programs were established. Many Attica inmates were transferred to other state prisons such as Greenhaven and Sing Sing. Through a partnership with Marist College and Greenhaven Prison, college courses and degree programs provided many inmates the opportunity for educational advancement, rehabilitation, and re-entry into civil society. These programs would flourish for over 20 years, until President Bill Clinton’s insidious 1994 omnibus crime bill eliminated Pell grants for inmates, in effect ending the college programs that had been provided by the federal government. During the eight years of the Clinton administration, the nationwide prison population exploded, in part due to the “three strikes and you’re out” laws passed by many states. As big business and their political parties ushered in the neoliberal agenda, draconian cuts to social programs expanded the prison-industrial complex. At the same time, big business worldwide exploited cheap labor and vastly increased their profits. We are experiencing today the new Jim Crow and slavery through the prison system.

The struggles of working people, youth, and prisoners around the country and all over the world are part of a tradition of social struggle that is inspired by the Attica uprising. The rebellion demonstrated how collective action, organization, power, and unity can, in the long run, benefit even the most downtrodden in our society. As Clarence B. Jones, a member of the observers committee and the publisher of the Amsterdam News at the time of the uprising, explained: “Attica is a symbol of hope. The struggle for self-dignity, the kinship, expressed and implied, among Black, Puerto Rican, and white inmates and between inmates and hostages in cell block D, shows us what yet may be possible in the search for meaningful brother and sisterhood in our society.”

Eljeer Hawkins, community and anti-war activist, born and raised in Harlem, New York, member of Socialist Alternative/CWI for 16 years. Eljeer is a former shop steward with Teamsters local 851 and former member of SEIU 1199, currently is a non-union healthcare worker in New York City. He contributes regularly to Justice Newspaper, Socialist Alternative and socialistworld.net. Eljeer lives in Queens, New York with his wife and son.

 

 

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Report from

inside Attica:

‘Ready to die for

their just demands’

Published Sep 7, 2011 9:05 PM

This is part of a report about what went on inside Attica Prison during the rebellion written by Tom Soto of the Prisoners Solidarity Committee, who was invited by the prisoners to witness their negotiations with the authorities. Soto’s full report was published in the Workers World of Sept. 17, 1971.

 

There is one scene I’ll never forget. I was leaving the prison for the last time, late Sunday night. As I entered corridor A leading into the liberated area there was a brother whom I happened to know personally standing on security. His arms were folded as he faced 40 machine guns on the administration side. On his shirt he was wearing a PSC [Prisoners Solidarity Committee] button. Today, I don’t know if he is alive.

Another thing I’ll never forget —

a brother whom I rapped with a long time noted the ring on my finger and asked about it. I told him it had been made from an American fighter bomber shot down by Laotian women over Laos. I gave it to him, and he considered it to be a very dear show of solidarity between the PSC and the prisoners and the Indochinese people.

As I left, I knew that I might never see these men again. The atmosphere was filled with tension. There were many hugs and kisses, many goodbyes, many messages to families on the outside. Yet there was also an incredible strength and determination among all the prisoners to fight for their just demands or die in the attempt.

Finally, I’d like to add that the prisoners don’t view themselves as criminals. They know that they — the Black people, the Puerto Rican people, the poor white people — are not “criminals” but oppressed people, driven by poverty. They know that they have been denied jobs; they have families to support; and they know that the only way for poor people to survive, for those with no hope of getting jobs, was through stealing $20 or $100 or $200, in other words, crimes of survival.

They see themselves as victims of a racist society which oppresses and exploits their people. They see the Rockefellers, the Mellons, the big corporations, the banks, those who rob and steal their labor for profit, as the real criminals.

The inmates always told me that they had no intention of killing any of the hostages. They took them because there was no other way to redress their grievances. The guard-hostages were the only thing that stood between the prisoners and sudden death. As it turned out, Rockefeller decided to sacrifice even the guards rather than to give in to the just demands of the prisoners. The blood of all the dead is on his hands.

But one thing the rulers of this country never seem to learn — they think repression, repression and more repression will end the oppressed peoples’ uprisings. In fact, just the opposite is true. The men at Attica were so oppressed, so tortured, so brutally treated that finally they chose to revolt and even die rather than endure life behind those walls any longer. They knew that many would die, yet they chose the dignity of struggle rather than the misery of submission.

The Attica uprising was an historic event. It will live forever in the hearts and minds of the oppressed around the world. If the class solidarity shown there is any indication of the future, the cause of the oppressed and poor cannot fail. No prison rebellion in U.S. history has ever been so politically conscious and so determined. The Prisoners Solidarity Committee felt honored to have been invited by the prisoners to support them and is pledged to continue our work on their behalf.


 

 

Raymond Verdaguer

 

 

 

ACTION + VIDEO: Stop The Scheduled Execution Of Troy Davis

Take action:

Troy Davis’

execution scheduled


The execution date has been set. On September 21, 2011, Troy Davis is scheduled to die. Davis, 42, was convicted of killing an off duty police officer, Mark MacPhail in 1989.

During his trial nine witnesses testified that they saw Davis shoot MacPhail. And since the 1989 trial seven of those nine witnesses have recanted saying that they were mistaken and that Davis was not the shooter. Without any physical evidence linking Davis to the murder there are many prominent civil rights activists and even former President Jimmy Carter who believe Davis might be innocent.

The execution has been stopped before but it seems that now after all the back and forth, Troy Davis needs a political leader to grant him clemency to stop it. As the President of the NAACP, Ben Jealous told The Grio:

This case exemplifies why we give governors and pardon boards the power to commute death sentences. Two wrongs don’t make a right. All debates over the death penalty accounted for, our nation never intended for a person to be executed amid so much doubt.

I agree with Mr. Jealous. Davis’ case is exactly the reason why I am personally against the death penalty in all circumstances. The chance that an innocent person is executed is just too great a risk to take.

Amnesty International is calling on Georgia authorities to stop the execution of Troy Davis. You can sign their petition here.

 

__________________________

 

 

Georgia Sets September 21 Execution

For Troy Davis

 

Wednesday, September 7 2011

The Department of Corrections in Georgia said Wednesday that Troy Anthony Davis will be executed at 7 p.m. on September 21, 2011 for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. If the execution goes along as scheduled, advocates say it will be a devastating end to a troubled case.

There is no physical evidence that Davis shot the officer. The gun was never recovered, and  6 of the 9 eyewitnesses who testified against Davis have since recanted their stories.

Civil liberty groups including the NAACP, Amnesty International and the ACLU, along with individuals ranging from President Jimmy Carter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, believe Davis should not be facing the death penalty because of all the discrepancies that have come to light in the case.

Even pro-death penalty advocates, such as former FBI director and federal judge William Sessions and former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr have spoken out against executing Davis, citing “crucial unanswered questions” (Sessions) and a lack of the requisite fairness and accuracy required to apply the death penalty (Barr).

In June, human rights advocate and filmmaker Jen Marlowe wrote about Troy Davis for Colorlines.com with more details:

The “crucial, unanswered questions” include the fact that seven of the nine non-police witnesses later recanted or changed their testimonies, many stating that police coercion and intimidation led to their initial implication of Davis.

“After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear,” witness Darrell Collins wrote in an affidavit in 2002. Collins was 16 years old the night of the murder, and had been interrogated by the police for hours without his parents present. “They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat whatever they said.”

New witnesses have come forth identifying Coles himself as the shooter. “I saw Sylvester Coles—I know him by the name Red—shoot the police officer. I am positive it was Red who shot the police officer,” Joseph Washington wrote in a 1996 affidavit.

Now that there is a final date for the execution, Davis’ last chance is with the Georgia Board of Pardons & Parole, which has the power to grant him clemency.

The odds, however, are not in his favor. There’s considerable evidence of a racial imbalance in who the government decides to kill. Marlowe wrote about the statistics earlier this year:

Davis’ case has become an emblem for much of what is problematic about a capital punishment system that is riddled with racism, economic disparity and error. Public capital defenders do not have the resources to properly investigate or litigate their overburdened case loads. Those with the means to hire decent legal representation are unlikely to end up on death row. Over 130 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973, demonstrating just how many innocent people are convicted and sentenced to death.

According to a 2001 study from the University of North Carolina, a defendant whose victim was white was 3.5 times as likely to receive the death penalty in North Carolina than if the victim were non-white. A 2005 study in California found the defendant of a white victim three times as likely to be penalized by death. Growing realizations of these problems have led more and more states to question their death penalty policies. Earlier this year, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish capital punishment.

 

>via: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/09/georgia_sets_september_21_execution_fo...

 

 

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Facts You May Not Know

About the Troy Davis Case

September 9, 2011 

Help stop the execution of Troy Davis

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World

Rev. Jesse Jackson and I, along with the Your Black World Coalition, are petitioning for clemency in the death sentence of Troy Davis.  We are reaching out to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles and US President Barack Obama in our request that Davis’ case be reconsidered in light of overwhelming evidence that shows that he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Troy Davis has been on death row in the state of Georgia since 1991.  He was convicted on August 19, 1989 of the murder of Georgia police officer, Mark MacPhail.  On August 24, 2010, the conviction was upheld, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia declaring, “Davis is not innocent.”  The judge did not say that Davis is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, implying that the standard for exoneration had been lifted unreasonably high.

Here are some other facts about the Davis case that lead us at the Your Black World Coalition to believe that justice has not been served.  We are neutral regarding the guilt or innocence of Davis, but instead believe that all exculpatory evidence should be examined to determine if there is reasonable doubt as to whether or not Davis committed this crime.  As we appeal to YBW Coalition members to sign our petition to free Davis, these are some facts that we’ve considered:

 

1)      Of the nine original witnesses in the case, seven have either recanted or contradicted their original stories

 

2)      Of the two witnesses who have not recanted, one of them was a suspect in the murder, Sylvester Coles.  A witness even claimed that Coles bragged at a party about having killed an off-duty police officer.

 

3)      Nine individuals have signed affidavits indicting that the murder was committed by Sylvester Coles

 

4)      Troy’s date of execution has been set for September 21, 2011 – so we must move quickly.

 

5)      The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has originally stated that the execution would only take place if there is “no doubt” about the guilt of the man they are killing.  We argue that there is tremendous doubt in the case of Troy Davis.

 

Please take action to help us save Troy’s life by signing our petition.  All submitted letters will go to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, as well as President Barack Obama.

 

 

 

 

 

VIDEO + AUDIO: Celebrating Sonny Rollins

Happy Birthday Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins’ distinct tenor saxophone tone influenced generations of saxophonists and artists alike. Many of his compositions have become standards in the jazz realm while he continues to perform and write. Among his many recordings, there lies records in which he has served as leader and those in which he has accompanied Miles Davis, Max Roach, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gilliespie, and even the Rolling Stones.

Check out some of our favorites below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80

Sonny Rollins
EnlargeValery Hache/AFP

Sonny Rollins is still a saxophone monster at 80.

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September 7, 2010

It's hard to overstate Sonny Rollins' contribution to jazz. As the groundbreaking saxophonist celebrates his 80th birthday on Sept. 7, he can look back on a performing and recording career that spans more than 60 years and has influenced generations of jazz players.

And, of course, the good news is that he's still recording, performing and living up to the name of his magnificent 1956 recording, Saxophone Colossus. As a way of wishing Rollins a happy 80th birthday, here are five classic examples of his extraordinary sax work.

Please feel free to leave your own birthday wishes and Rollins recommendations in the comments section below.

SONNY ROLLINS: THE SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS TURNS 80

Cover for Bags' Groove

Oleo

  • Artist: Miles Davis & Modern Jazz Giants
  • Album: Bags' Groove

Although Sonny Rollins began recording as a sideman in 1949 and as a bandleader in 1953, he really came into his own in his work with Miles Davis from 1951 to '54. On Davis' 1954 Bags Groove, Rollins contributes three of his own compositions and great bop chops. All three have gone on to become jazz standards: "Airegin," "Doxy" and this song, "Oleo." Along with Sonny and Miles, this band also includes Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums).

At Basin Street

I'll Remember April

  • Artist: Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet
  • Album: At Basin Street

In 1955, in addition to working on his own musical projects, Rollins teamed up with the band led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach. Everyone plays masterfully on these recordings, and the band might have gone on to create a great body of work. But after Brown's death in 1956, Rollins would continue to record almost exclusively as a bandleader, creating his own unparalleled body of work.

Cover for Saxophone Colossus

St. Thomas

  • Artist: Sonny Rollins
  • Album: Saxophone Colossus

Rollins' 1956 album Saxophone Colossus was perhaps his first classic recording as a leader. It was also the album that provided him with the sobriquet he'd own from then on: "The Saxophone Colossus." His recording of "St. Thomas" is taken from a traditional calypso melody from the Virgin Islands, which his mother sang to him as a boy. With the help of drummer Max Roach, pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Doug Watkins, the song has since become yet another Rollins-inspired jazz standard.

Cover for The Bridge

The Bridge

  • Artist: Sonny Rollins
  • Album: The Bridge

Between 1956 and '58, Rollins was on fire creatively: He recorded 16 albums, including Saxophone ColossusTenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Way Out West and Freedom Suite. That's why the jazz world was stunned when Rollins decided to take what would turn out to be a three-year sabbatical from performing and recording. During that time, he practiced his playing relentlessly, often playing solo on New York's Williamsburg Bridge, trying to break through what he perceived as his musical limitations. When he returned in 1962, he recorded The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Ben Riley; it remains one of his best-selling albums.

Cover for Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert

Why Was I Born?

  • Artist: Sonny Rollins
  • Album: Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert

After 50 years of making excellent recordings, Rollins won his first Grammy in 2001 for This Is What I Do. Later that year, on Sept. 11 -- four days after his 71st birthday -- he had to evacuate his downtown New York apartment, which was just blocks from the World Trade Center. All he took with him was his saxophone. Five days later, he played a concert at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. The recording of that concert was released in 2005, and it earned Rollins his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for the song "Why Was I Born?"

__________________________

September 7, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SONNY ROLLINS

Today, September 7th, is the great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins’s birthday—or, as President George H. W. Bush called it in 1988, Pearl Harbor Day. (He also got the year wrong.) Rollins turns eighty-one today, and it’s good to report that he’s still playing (his Web site lists three shows coming up in California later this month)—and that there’s a new disk coming out next week, “Road Shows, Vol. 2” (I wrote about Volume 1), featuring performances from recent concert appearances, and, notably, his eightieth-birthday date from the Beacon Theatre, where he was joined, for one number, by another octogenarian in the jazz pantheon, Ornette Coleman. (Patrick Jarenwattananon writes about the release at NPR.org, where the recording can be sampled.)

Jarenwattananon writes that this concert marked the first time that Coleman and Rollins had performed together. But it’s worth adding that Coleman and his music played a dramatic role in Rollins’s career. Though born in the same year, their careers proceeded very differently—at the age of nineteen, Rollins was already recording with such luminaries as Bud Powell and Fats Navarro (and, for that matter, the drummer Roy Haynes, who was on hand for the recent festivities as well), and he would quickly join bands led by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Clifford Brown. Coleman’s career, however, had a long gestation—but his first recordings, in 1958, were astonishingly progressive; the impact of his 1959 recordings was utterly revolutionary. Rollins was already an unusually thematic improviser, a post-bopper who paid a special attention to melody and its variations; but Coleman, dispensing with the harmonic framework of bebop altogether, took that manner to its radical extreme. In 1962, Rollins hired for his band the trumpeter and drummer—Don Cherry and Billy Higgins, respectively—from Coleman’s seminal quartet, and his own playing became increasingly splintered, fragmented, even hallucinatory, as if reflecting his war within, the conflict between the modern postwar tradition of which he was already a longtime master and and the new ways of free jazz, which he admired and perhaps even envied, certainly learned from, but couldn’t entirely adopt.

At top is a clip of this band, from 1962; it opens with a fanfare by Cherry and soon offers Rollins a marvelous, unaccompanied cadenza. There’s a second part, in which Rollins offers a long, sinuous, searching uptempo solo. It took, I think, a couple of years before Rollins—who, by then, had doubtless been exposed to even more extreme varieties of the “new thing” (as from John Coltrane, in his later manner, or Albert Ayler)—seemed at ease with the roots of his musical identity, or came to integrate them more closely—and his brilliant 1965 performance in Copenhagen (which I linked to a year ago today), attests to it. His protean career, with its stops and restarts, its fits of self-questioning and its avid openness to the advances in the art—and with its endless energy and happy longevity—is cause for celebration.

P.S. Ben Greenman posted here today that it’s also Buddy Holly’s birthday; I don’t know of any Holly covers by Rollins, or vice versa.

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AUDIO: Five Classic Jazz Takes On 'Porgy And Bess' > A Blog Supreme : NPR

September 1, 2011

Courtesy of the artist

Artwork for Bill Potts' 1959 album, The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess.

Artwork for Bill Potts' 1959 album, The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess.
Courtesy of the artist

Artwork for Bill Potts' 1959 album, The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess.

 

Andrea Shea's recent Weekend Edition story about a new and controversial production of Porgy and BessGeorge and Ira Gershwin and novelist DuBose Heyward's 1935 opera about life in an African-American neighborhood known as Catfish Row — is just the latest sign that the Gershwins' attempt to fuse European classical forms with an American musical vernacular has endured far beyond its initially disappointing reception.

Porgy and Bess wasn't a hit when it opened in 1935, closing after only 124 performances, and its debut was not without controversy, either; it drew criticism for what some saw as stereotyped racial depictions. Duke Ellington, who'd recently composed an extended musical portrait of African-American culture called "Symphony in Black," criticized the Gershwins' opera for not using "the Negro musical idiom," and contended that his work "was true to and of the life of the people it depicted. The same thing cannot be said for Porgy and Bess."

 

Whatever the show's perceived attendant issues, some jazz musicians took to a few of its songs almost immediately, seizing especially upon the hypnotic "Summertime." After a handful of late-1930s and 1940s revivals, the advent of the LP — and a successful early-1950s production starring William Warfield, Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway — set the stage for a slew of 1950s Porgy and Bess jazz tributes. Samuel Goldwyn's announcement that he intended to make a movie of the opera, and the jazz-goes-Broadway trend spurred by Shelly Manne and Andre Previn's hit recording of the music from My Fair Lady, also sparked jazz-world interest in the Gershwins' score.

Over the next few years, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Hank Jones, Mundell Lowe and others recorded full-length Porgy and Bess albums, and Bethlehem Records mounted an eyebrow-raising three-LP all-star extravaganza, with Mel Torme and Frances Faye voicing the roles of the title characters. Porgy and Bess proved to be a rich mining ground for post-1950 jazz artists: As Gershwin biographer Howard Pollack has noted, the music is full of harmonic sophistication and a variety of modal passages. Here are five classic jazz interpretations of the music from Porgy and Bess.

Five Classic Jazz Takes On 'Porgy And Bess'

Summertime

  • Artist: Artie Shaw
  • Album: The Very Best of Artie Shaw

 

Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet had already recorded remarkable versions of Porgy and Bess' opening number before arranger Eddie Sauter got his hands on it. Sauter's treatment, recorded in 1945 by Artie Shaw (who'd played on the earlier Holiday record), sets things simmering with Dodo Marmarosa's piano tremolos and swells with an epic sense of drama. The orchestra provides a teeming backdrop of hot light and sheltering shadows, while Shaw and trumpeter Roy Eldridge state brashly suggestive realizations of what the season's landscape and life in general might have to offer. "Summertime" went on to become one of the most widely recorded popular songs of the 20th century, and jazz artists continue to be drawn to its harmonic and pentatonic structural elements.

 

Source: YouTube

 

I Loves You, Porgy

  • Artist: Nina Simone
  • Album: Little Girl Blue

 

Another Porgy and Bess song that Billie Holiday helped bring to the public's attention, "I Loves You, Porgy," functioned in the opera as a duet between the two title characters. Nina Simone's 1957 version ripples with her own brand of genuine poignancy, carried in part by her stately piano playing, which evokes the tender nobility and pain of the two lovers.

 

Source: YouTube

 

Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)

  • Artist: Miles Davis/Gil Evans
  • Album: Porgy and Bess

 

In 1958, Miles Davis and Gil Evans were coming off their first collaboration for Columbia Records, Miles Ahead, which had met with good sales and critical success. Media hype for producer Samuel Goldwyn's announced movie of Porgy and Bess was building, which made the idea of a Davis-Evans follow-up based around it even more attractive to Columbia. As jazz writer and arranger Bob Belden notes, Davis and Evans' Porgy and Bess showed more signs of the stripped-down, modal approach Davis had employed on his Milestones LP, and that would achieve full fruition the next year on Kind of Blue. Evans' brooding arrangement of this song, with the orchestra's worrying figures behind Davis' keening trumpet work, moves with a kind of deadly grandeur. Porgy and Bess would prove to be one of Davis' best-selling albums; years later, Davis would grouse that its success had inspired Columbia executives to lobby him for a similar jazz treatment of the Doctor Doolittle soundtrack. No dice. "After listening to that s--- I said, 'No way, Jose'" was the Dark Prince's verdict.

 

Source: YouTube

 

Cover for Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess

Bess, You Is My Woman Now

  • Artist: Bill Potts
  • Album: Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess

 

Here's something from the sleeper of jazz Porgy and Bess albums: an oft-overlooked 1959 recording by under-the-radar Washington, D.C., pianist and arranger Bill Potts that drew on a host of stellar talents, ranging from Bill Evans and Zoot Sims to Art Farmer and Al Cohn. Alto saxophonist Phil Woods soars over a chart filled with the subtle intensity and organic flourishes that Potts brought to all of the music on this album; the saxophone sections in particular seem to breathe with vitality.

 

close

Purchase Featured Music

  • "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"
  • Album: Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess
  • Artist: Bill Potts
  • Label: Blue Note
  • Released: 1959

 

It Ain't Necessarily So

  • Artist: Grant Green & Sonny Clark
  • Album: Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark

 

Fueled by drummer Art Blakey's Latinized percussive kick and pianist Sonny Clark's diamond-hard bop comping and soloing, Grant Green and company turn the sly and devilish insinuation of, say, Ahmad Jamal's marvelous 1955 recording of this song into a rollicking, don't-stop-'til-you-get-your-groove-on defiance of church and state. Blakey's vocal exhortations punctuate chorus after chorus of high-octane Green guitar and snaky-hipped Clark piano, and keep the listener hoping that this ain't necessarily the end.

 

Source: YouTube

via npr.org

 

PUB: Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

The Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

Any poet will tell you that the only thing more rare than meaningful recognition is a meaningful payday. For two outstanding poets each year, the Kingsley and Kate Tufts awards represent both.

The Tufts poetry awards – based at Claremont Graduate University – are not only two of the most prestigious prizes a contemporary poet can receive, they also come with hefty purses: $100,000 for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and $10,000 for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. This makes the Kingsley Tufts award the world’s largest monetary prize for a single collection of poetry. And for most poets who have just published their first collection of verse, $10,000 should keep the pen scribbling.

Unlike many literary awards, which are coronations for a successful career or body of work, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award was created to both honor the poet and provide the resources that allow artists to continue working towards the pinnacle of their craft.

“Because the award comes to you at mid-career, and is supposed to be a stepping stone and not a tombstone, it nerves you up to try to write up to the mark already set by the previous winners,” said Tom Sleigh, the 2008 recipient.

Kate Tufts – widow of Kinsley Tufts, and creator of the award – had said she wanted to create a prize “that would enable a poet to work on his or her craft for awhile without paying bills.”

“It is a tall order honoring the vision that Kate Tufts set out for us . . . to sustain a poet who is laboring in the difficult middle between first flower and final bloom,” said CGU Associate Professor Patricia Easton, who is the former director of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards. “Yet, somehow, the judges have managed to select truly exceptional poets year after year, poets who have gone on to write even greater volumes of poetry.”

 

Eligibility

 

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

The work submitted must be a book published between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011. Manuscripts, CDs, and chapbooks are not accepted.


Kate Tufts Discovery Award

The work submitted must be a first book published between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011. Manuscripts, CDs, and chapbooks are not accepted.


Other Restrictions

A work may be submitted for either award only once, although the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award may submit another work in a later year for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

Work must be original poetry written originally in English by a poet who is a citizen or legal resident alien of the United States.

The work may be submitted by its author or, with the poet's consent, by a publisher, agent, or other representative.

Previous winners of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award are not eligible.

Poets who wish to be eligible for the awards must agree at the outset to:

  • Grant permission to reproduce portions of the work honored in publicizing the award.
  • Attend the awards presentation in mid to late April 2012.
  • In the case of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner, spend, within six months of the award presentation, one week in residence at Claremont Graduate University for lectures and poetry readings in Claremont and greater Los Angeles.

Click here for entry form

 

Submission Requirements

  • Eight copies of an eligible book of poetry (only books of poetry published between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011 are eligible).
  • List of previously published work.
  • One completed copy of the entry form (click here for entry form)

Send Submissions To:

Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards
Claremont Graduate University
160 E. Tenth Street, Harper East B7
Claremont, California 91711-6165

Schedule

Entries must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2011, to be eligible. The winners of the 2012 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Kate Tufts Discovery Award will be announced in February, and the awards will be presented in April 2012. Winners are required to accept the award in person.

The 2012 submission deadline is September 15, 2011

 

via cgu.edu

 

PUB: Call for papers: Border Zones/Cultural Periodicals in the Francophone World « Repeating Islands

Call for papers:

Border Zones/Cultural Periodicals

in the Francophone World

Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY, USA)
April19-21 2012

*Special Session*
Border Zones: Cultural Periodicals in the Francophone World

 
If a border zone is a “space in-between” where debates take place and global designs must be sorted out and adopted or rejected as Walter Mignolo suggests, then periodicals may reflect activity in the border zone. They allow researchers a glimpse of internal conflicts and negotiations at various levels, including at a cultural level. For example, as print culture of the French Empire came under close scrutiny by authorities, it is not surprising that colonized elites turned to cultural periodicals to express other agendas and hidden transcripts. Thus, border zones can be found in the flourishing press of the Empire that reveals political, cultural, and social struggles. The tug of war includes not only colonial and national identities and cultures, but, language and educational issues and women’s status as well.

 
Cultural publications also open a window upon periods of transition that may bring about social changes. Thus, the transition of moving from the colonial period to Independence and beyond may be documented in periodicals and cultural publications in the French Empire. Discourses of modernity, development, and nation-building surface. While nationalist historians eventually write a smooth-surfaced account of struggles for independence and the transition to a postcolonial era, periodicals reveal border zones, disputes and forgotten or erased issues.


Possible subjects:

Resistance through cultural publications

Nation building and national identity

Cultural pages in political newspapers

Modernity discourses in cultural publications

The Transition from colony to nation

French cultural publications in the Empire

Women’s emancipation and the press

Women’s magazines and women journalists

Please send 250-300 word abstract for 20-minute paper to Jacqueline Couti (jacqueline.couti@uky.edu) by November 1, 2011.

At a later date, accepted presenters will be asked to upload their papers at http://www.facebook.com/l/QAQBqoyBAAQBepPwjkJvEjAzcA-gkVLCPSkTvx0mnQ82ngw/web.as.uky.edu/kflc/ABSTRACT.html

For more information on the KFLC, see: http://www.facebook.com/l/cAQBIEzT-AQBRpcgaofcA_ETLJWxK8m0P2xt1U0JcHHBeTA/www.kflcabstracts.uky.edu/index.php/kflcabstractsite/kflc2012