United Nations International Year of Youths Essay Contest (Nigeria)
In honour of the United Nations International Year of Youths, Ugreen Foundation, a youth organisation promoting a constructive citizenship participation in democracy and governance in Nigeria hosted a project titled 'Change Your World+Nigerian Youths, Be Energized, Be Engaged.' The project is divided into three segments.
1. An interactive session with Nigerian youth leaders: the interactive session featured paper presentations on leadership, governance and democracy, group works and panel disscusions.
2. A Change Your World Rural Area Project: the participant in the interactive session to form a youth forum and elect their leaders and is charged with the task of brainstorming on a program they can do in support for democracy in any rural area.
3. Change Your World Essay Contest: This essay contest is to ensure youth participation in governance and democracy. The topic of the essay is: 'As Nigeria is faced with the challenges of terrorism and post electoral violence, what can young people do to help consolidate our young democracy?' The 10 best essays will be published in a booklet to be given free to young people. The best three essays will be published in World Youth Movement for Democracy Website, Youngstars Development Foundation Website, Ugreen Foundation website and in four blogs. The overall winner gets a chance to attend a one year democracy training of Youngstars Development Foundation (Desplay Africa Season 7).
It is our believe that young people will reshape the world and United Nations is given us the platform to do that by announcing August 2010 - August 2011 as the International Year of Youths.
The 2011 Baskalier Poetry Competition is now open for submissions.
In keeping with the vision of uniting adults and children from around the world in expressing their viewpoints on global scientific issues through creative writing, this year's poetry competition theme is FRAGILE EARTH.
Closing date 30th September 2011.
There are two categories: Individual (age 16+) and Schools (age 11-15), with entries welcomed from around the world.
Poems must be 40 lines or less and must be your own original work. Traditional, contemporary, serious, humourous; the choice is yours.
Translations and poems that have been previously published in any media or are under consideration with another publisher are not eligible for this competition.
The Prizes:
Individual category (age 16+):
1st: £50 + 5 copies of the anthology
2nd: £30 + 5 copies of the anthology
3rd: £20 + 2 copies of the anthology
Upto 20 shortlisted poems will also be published.
Schools Category(age 11-15):
1st: £30 book token
2nd: £20 book token
3rd: £10 book token
The winning schools will also recieve a half day author visit from Karen J Jones and five copies of the anthology featuring their students' poems.
Last year's debut poetry competition anthology, 'Extinction', has been a huge success to date, so congratulations and many thanks to the poets who have made this possible. Winning poems were submitted from the UK, Ireland, France, USA and New Zealand.
Copies of 'Extinction: An Anthology of Poems' can be purchased from the Web Store (rrp £6.95).
This week we open the iron gate and feature the work of reggae master Max Romeo, and follow that with emerging artist Mara Hruby covering songs from (along with the original songs by) The Roots, Van Hunt, André 3000 & Norah Jones, D’Angelo, Bob Marley, Jamiroquai, and Mos Def.
Maxwell Livingston Smith was born November 22, 1947 in rural Jamaica and recently retired from regular performing. Rather than speculate about what might have been, let us give thanks for what Max Romeo has given to us. For nearly half a century, the man has stayed the course, offering top notch reggae regardless of the rocky path he has trod. Max Romeo is an inspirational example of a true believer in both the power and the message of his music. Thanks and praise to you brother Max, your songs are comfort to the afflicted, anthems for the warriors, and a mighty contribution to the treasury of music known as reggae.
The grand opening will start with a second line starting at Canal and Rampart at 10am. The Hot 8 and the Baby Boys Brass band will take us down with Spyboy Honey and his mama Big Queen
Come and hear Michaela Harrison, Chuck Perkins and Voices of the Big Easy, The Treme Brass Band, John Boutte, Henry Butler and many others. Someone said to me that that there is nothing like the Healing Center in New Orleans, I said to them that I've been all over this countrt and Europe and I've never seen anything like it period. The corner of St Claude and St. Roch has been transformed, be sure to come and check it out next Sunday.
Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans, CCR Associate Legal Director
Posted: 8/22/11 04:18 PM ET
Katrina Pain Index 2011:
Race, Gender, Poverty
Six years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast. The impact of Katrina and government bungling continue to inflict major pain on the people left behind. It is impossible to understand what happened and what still remains without considering race, gender and poverty. The following offer some hints of what remains.
$62 million: The amount of money that the State of Louisiana and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to pay thousands of homeowners because of racial discrimination in Louisiana's program to disburse federal rebuilding funds following Katrina and Rita. African-American homeowners were more likely than whites to have their rebuilding grants based on much lower pre-storm value of their homes rather than the higher estimated cost to rebuild them.
154,000: FEMA is now reviewing the grants it gave to 154,000 people following hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. It is now demanding that some return the long ago spent funds! FEMA admits that many of the cases under review stem from mistakes made by its own agency employees. FEMA's error rate following Katrina was 14.5 percent.
65,423: In the New Orleans metropolitan area, there are now 65,423 fewer African-American women and girls than when Katrina hit. Overall, the number of women and girls decreased since Katrina by 108,116.
3,000: Over 3,000 public housing apartments occupied before Katrina plus another 1,000 under renovation were bulldozed after Katrina. Less than 10 percent (238 families) have made it back into the apartments built on the renovated sites. Only half of the 3,000-plus families have even made it back to New Orleans at all. All were African-American.
75:Nearly 75 percent of the public schools in New Orleans have become charters since Katrina. Over 50 percent of public school students in New Orleans attend public charter schools. There are now more than 30 different charter school operators in New Orleans alone. According to the Institute on Race & Poverty of University of Minnesota Law School, "The reorganization of the city's schools has created a separate but unequal tiered system of schools that steers a minority of students, including virtually all of the city's white students, into a set of selective, higher-performing schools and another group, including most of the city's students of color, into a group of lower-performing schools."
70:Seventy percent more people are homeless in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. People living with HIV are estimated to be homeless at 10 times the rate of the general population, a condition amplified after Hurricane Katrina.
59:Less than 60 percent of Louisiana's public school students graduate from high school with their class. Among public school children with disabilities in New Orleans, the high school graduation rate is 6.8 percent.
34:Thirty-four percent of the children in New Orleans live in poverty; the national average is 20 percent.
11:Eleven New Orleans police officers were convicted of or plead guilty to federal crimes involving shootings of civilians during Hurricane Katrina aftermath.
10:At least 10 people were killed by police under questionable circumstances during days after Katrina.
3: A three-fold increase in heart attacks was documented in the two years after Katrina.
Number unknown: The true impact of the BP oil spill in terms of adverse health effects is vast but unknown. Delays by the federal government in studying the spill's physical and mental health effects hinder any ability to understand these issues with accuracy. A year after the spill, more people are reportingmedical and mental health problems.
This article was co-authored with Davida Finger, also a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Dany Laferrière has suggested - with a hint of provocation, no doubt - that the greatest novel of the Duvalier dicatatorship was written by an Englishman: Graham Greene's The Comedians.1 In the same spirit, perhaps, we might add that the best film of the Haitian Revolution was made by an Italian: Queimada (1969) by Gillo Pontecorvo.
Pontecorvo, best known for The Battle of Algiers (1966), named Queimada after the fictional Portuguese colony in the Caribbean he chose for its setting. Filmed in Colombia, it is a defiantly unglamorous period drama that tells of the struggle against slavery and colonial rule in the mid-nineteenth century.
William Walker (Marlon Brando) arrives on the island and helps to rekindle a slave rebellion, which he then recommends the white mulatto elite support in order to win independence from the Portuguese. Walker is an British agent whose objective is to get the Portuguese out of the way so that the Antilles Royal Sugar Company can profit from its plantations. Once independence is won (and slavery abolished), Walker persuades his protege, the black leader Jose Delores (Evaristo Márquez) to convince his men to return to the cane fields. The reluctant mulatto figurehead Teddy Sanchez (Renato Salvatori) becomes president and Walker leaves.
Ten years pass. The sugar company effectively rules Queimada instead of the Portuguese, but precariously. For the last six years, Delores has been leading a guerrilla campaign and has proved unwilling to negotiate. At the government's request, Walker returns. He advises the army to ruthlessly destroy key villages, but the campaign continues. The army stage a coup against Sanchez (who is prepared to capitulate) and General Alfonso Prada calls in the British Army. With their superior fire-power, the scale of devastation multiplies, and the sugar company is concerned that its plantations are being destroyed in the process. With Dolores still at large, it wonders whether the price is worth paying. But Walker reminds the company's representative Mr Shelton (Norman Hill) that even if Queimada is burnt to the ground, it would be worth it, because it would at least stop the revolution spreading to other islands where the company also has sugar interests.
Finally, Dolores is captured, but he maintains an enigmatic silence, and refuses to talk to Walker. The government discusses the preferred form of execution. Walker reminds them that Dolores would be much more dangerous dead than alive. They try to offer him freedom if he leaves the Caribbean but Dolores laughs. He knows the value of martyrdom. And, as he explains to a black soldier guarding him: 'If a man gives you freedom, it is not freedom. Freedom is something you, you alone, must take. Do you understand?' On the day of his execution, Walker offers to allow him to escape, asking for nothing in return, but Dolores again refuses. He is led to the gallows.
Walker leaves before the execution takes place. On the quayside he is approached by a young man offering to carry his bags (as Dolores did in the two scenes that bookend the first half of the film depicting Walker's arrival and departure). Momentarily caught unawares, Walker turns round and the stranger stabs him fatally in the chest.
Two versions of Queimada were released. The original version (132 minutes) is dubbed in Italian. To hear Brando's own voice (and his plum accent), you will have to make do the English-language version that is 20 minutes shorter. Lawrence Russell claims that it was Brando's favourite film, despite the tribulations of the shoot itself, in which the star and the director disagreed over just about everything. It is certainly possible that he was attracted to a script that 'fitted well with his social activism on behalf of the American Indian and the black civil rights movement'. Or admired it as a 'furious Vietnam allegory', as Stephen Hunter has described it.
But its allegorical possibilities do not stop there. The Somali teenager Sagal in Nuruddin Farah's novel Sardines (1981) has production stills of Brando from Queimada on her bedroom wall, along with posters of Che, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, but she cannot explain to her mother the story of the film or which revolt was being depicted. Not surprisingly, perhaps, as its parallels are legion. One reason, no doubt, that, as her mother goes on to inform her, it was only shown once in Mogadishu and then only in a highly censored version.2
And indeed, the parallels may continue to proliferate. For instance, during the second half of the film, it is not hard to think of the current war in Afghanistan and the ten-year search for Osama bin Laden. The title is even a close anagram of Al-Qaida.
But the historical events they most closely resemble are those of the Caribbean itself, notably the struggles that led to the abolition of slavery in the French islands in the 1790s and the brutal attempt to restore it - successfully in the case of Guadeloupe, but not Saint-Domingue, which became the independent republic of Haiti in 1804.
What is striking is the way Pontecorvo captures the complex, shifting political allegiances of metropolitan governments, private companies, white settlers, prosperous free people of colour, and the black slaves. We might have got a sense of this in the film Sergei Eisenstein planned in 1934 to make about Toussaint Louverture, starring Paul Robeson.3 And may still yet in Danny Glover's rumoured-to-be-forthcoming biopic, based - it is alleged - on a screenplay by Med Hondo.
But it is a book - C L R James' The Black Jacobins (1938), his classic study of the Haitian revolution - that Queimada most resembles. In particular, the emphasis on the importance of the decisions that Toussaint made to accept or reject offers of help from those whose commitment to black freedom were suspect. The British and the Spanish for instance. Or even the representatives of the French Revolution, which had promised to abolish slavery, like commissioner Sonthonax. In each case, James spells out the political and military calculations Toussaint had to make when choosing his allies.
In Queimada, these dilemmas are dramatised clearly in a series of three scenes early in the film which show Walker and Dolores preparing to join forces.
The story of Queimada is told from Walker’s point of view, an outsider - like the audience - unfamiliar with the island which he first sees through an eye-glass from the deck of his approaching ship. And yet Walker is ultimately out-manouevred by Dolores. They both die at the end but it is clear that it is Dolores who will be remembered, not Walker.
In this clip, the two characters are at first glance, presented as equals who can help each other, who share a common goal. But in fact the formal equality suggested by the presentation (the scrupulous attention to both partners in the dialogue, filmed chiastically in shot reverse shot), in the end draws attention to their differences.
In the church, Walker proposes they join forces to rob the bank and split the proceeds. But of the 100 million gold reales, fifty go to Walker while the the other half is shared between Dolores and his men.
On the hillside where he outlines his plan, it becomes clear that they won't be escaping together. While Walker intends to flee to England, Dolores and his men dream of Africa.
Once the preparations are complete, Dolores and Walker drink to the success of their mission. They drink each other's habitual tipple (Walker tries rum and Dolores whisky) and toast (separately) 'England' and 'Africa' before finding something they can both pronounce: 'the world'. But it is the thinnest cosmopolitan veneer. Pulling faces, neither manages to down his cup, and, relieved, they switch back. Each to their own. May the best man win.
Notes
1. Dany Laferrière, Tout bouge autour de moi (Montréal: Mémoire d'encrier, 2010), p127.
Ever since I saw BBC’s hit cop drama, Luther, I’ve been telling everyone about it. I’ve gotten friends, family, Twitter pals and random strangers HOOKED on the show. Not only does sexy (sexy!) Idris Elba star in the production as Detective John Luther, but the show’s writing and acting is just…perfection.
Set in London, “Luther” follows Elba and company as they try to catch some of the city’s most depraved killers. The show is not only a top-notch police drama, but it’s also allows Elba to flex his acting muscles. His character is flawed, complex, intense, and completely relatable. For a moment (albeit brief) you forget about Elba’s physical attractiveness and just get lost in the show’s addicting plot.
I promise you, after watching the first episode you’ll be hooked. Don’t believe me? Check out a behind the scenes look at the show.
*Note: The second season of ‘Luther’ will air on BBC America September 28 at 10 p.m. (Catch season one on Netflix).
Her first novel was a bestseller, and was adapted into the double-Oscar-winning film Precious. Her second, The Kid, has just been published to enthusiastic reviews. But author and poet Sapphire says that, as an African-American artist, she nonetheless feels the "very real and very painful" effects of racism.
Speaking at the Edinburgh international book festival, Sapphire said that when Push – the novel that became the film Precious – was published, readers found it difficult to grasp that she, the author, was separate from its impoverished, abused, illiterate narrator.
"I remember when Push came out, there was shock when people saw me – they'd say: 'You're not 16, you're not obese. We thought this was your life story.'
"It was as though they thought this was some illiterate teenager's life story and I had spoken it into a tape recorder, and some white editor had written it."
She said: "It's as if black artists are only able to tell autobiographical horror stories and don't have an imagination. There was an idea I wouldn't have been able to conceive of [the narrator] Precious's life unless I had lived it; there's an idea I wouldn't have the ability to write about a young African-American male without somehow living as a male. But the idea that I could not read and study and use my imagination and create and craft a character has been very real and very painful to me."
Sapphire, 61, was born in California and came to literary prominence as a performance poet. She gleaned some of her material for Push (1996) as a teacher in New York. Her second novel, The Kid, imagines the life of Precious's son Abdul, who is orphaned at nine when his mother dies from an Aids-related illness. He is abused at the Catholic school he attends; becomes an abuser himself; and later achieves success as a dancer in an avant-garde, downtown New York company. She described the story as "an African-American Oliver Twist".
Academic and creative achievement are still regarded as beyond the capabilities of black people in America, she said. "That whole realm of intellectual activity and artistic activity is not seen as something that black people do. We're still the dancer not the choreographer, and still the musician, not the conductor. It's still harder for us to get into the whole realm in the arts."
She talked of her frustration that in the US, her novels end up in the "African-American literature" section of bookshops. "I just don't understand why the literature is still being categorised, why Toni Morrison and James Baldwin are in a certain section, instead of just in the 'literature' section," she said.
"That's not something that Stephen King is going to go through. Philip Roth is not going to walk into a bookstore and see his work in the 'Jewish Male' section. It's absurd. But that is what I have to go through; and I want them to sell my books so I have to be nice. I say: 'I'll sign some copies if you take the book and put in on the table: if you let my little kid out of the ghetto.'"
In the book Abdul gradually enters the liberal world of New York artists and creatives. But this is no paradise: he becomes the victim of a subtle but insidious racism. According to Sapphire, "while we see with total impunity the appropriation of our artforms by other ethnic groups, what we see here is that, as Abdul tries to enter into the white avant-garde scene of dance, they are not so quick to let him in as young white people are to play the blues or appropriate black culture. Here, when he tries to enter this this Merce Cunningham-type world they are very chary of letting him in." In this way, said Sapphire, "We have the chance to look at the racism of that downtown, avant-garde set."
She spoke of her delight at the film adaptation of Push, which, under the title of Precious, won Oscars for best screenplay and best supporting actress. But just as she held out for a decade before agreeing to the adaptation of her first book, she was in no hurry to see The Kid made into a film. "I don't write to placate publishers' economic ideas," she said.
It’s hard to define Aaron Neville’s music. Even for Aaron Neville. Rhythm and blues? He nods. Soul? He nods. Gospel? Now more than ever. But country? Sure. He and his brothers do it all. In fact, Neville’s signature move is pure country: a falsetto, yodel-like tremolo.
Even with the success that collaborations with Linda Ronstadt brought in the 1990s, he never stopped performing and recording with the Neville Brothers. “That’s the franchise,” he told me, moments before going on stage. For much of the 1970s and ’80s, Neville was better known for his work with those famous siblings, with whom he toured constantly. That despite an explosive entry into the pop charts with the late-1960s hit “Tell It Like It Is.”
But his work with early country-rock star Ronstadt seemed to embolden Neville’s solo work. Not only did he find himself on the pop charts again with hits like “Don’t Know Much” and “Everybody Plays the Fool,” he even came to embrace those country leanings. In the early 1990s, he recorded “The Grand Tour,” written by George Jones. A CD released in 1994 then did the unthinkable: It debuted in the Top 10 on the pop, R&B and country charts.
“All of it’s in there,” Neville says of his music.
He certainly has the right story for a country song. Seems Aaron’s days of halcyon youth didn’t last long: By the time Neville turned 18, he was married and serving time in the parish prison for stealing a car. It’s said that Aaron spent part of his six-month sentence writing songs — including an early hit called “Over You.” Recordings of that music with legendary New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint resulted in some of Neville’s earliest successes — at least locally. The records made little impact on the national music scene, leaving Neville to toil as a dock worker and truck driver to support his family.
Then Neville found a song written by Lee Diamond, the former bandleader for Little Richard. The story is that “Tell It Like It Is” only took Diamond about 15 minutes to compose. But it wrote Neville’s ticket.
Born Jan. 24, 1941 as the third of the four brothers, young Aaron grew up in a house full of music. His mom was once in a song-and-dance group. There was also the influence of older siblings Charles and Art — who had a hand in recording “Mardi Gras Mambo,” the pre-Lenten festival’s unofficial anthem. A live recording, 1984′s “Neville-ization,” features the tune “Fear, Hate, Envy, Jealousy.” Yet the brothers themselves, even after decades together, don’t show any signs of sibling rivalry — much less strife.
“We don’t argue any more than any other family,” Neville says. “The worst it might be is over the order of songs on the set list.” They still travel together, in one configuration or another. They are also still growing together, this time toward the Lord.
Raised in the Calliope housing project, Neville heard the music of the American South, the Caribbean, and Africa wafting across the nearby bend in the Mississippi River. All of it is in his shows, even today. We hear a little R&B, to be sure. But also pop and funk, country and reggae — and gospel. As Neville tells it, the best hints at his other major influence — inspirational music — came on the Neville Brothers’ records themselves. For instance, during the fertile late-1980s period when Neville worked with producer Daniel Lanois (of U2 and Peter Gabriel fame), he lent his angelic tenor to both “Amazing Grace” and “A Change is Gonna Come.”
“There’s always been a little bit of gospel in it,” Neville said. “Listen to (1990′s) Brother’s Keeper. You’ll catch little bits and pieces all along.”
Fulfilling what he calls a life-long dream, Neville finally released his first all-inspirational album early in the last decade. He said it was a struggle to get it done. “I’d been wanting to do a gospel record for years now,” Neville admitted. But record executives weren’t interested. Then, his label was sold and the thinking changed.
Two more gospel project followed — but he returned, as always, to the ongoing Neville Brothers project. The four consistently record then tour almost without pause — and, of course, typically close out the Jazz and Heritage Festival. No matter how busy they get, the Big Easy is always a big draw. It’s home. “All you got to do is wake up and do it,” Neville says of his hectic schedule. “I can think of harder things to do.”
Then, Neville’s up and gone, ready for another show.
“The biggest gathering of incredible minds talking about everything that affects and informs our daily lives.” The Star
The Storymoja Hay Festival takes place from 16th – 18th September at the Railway Sports Club Grounds in Nairobi, Kenya. The Festival is a three day celebration of stories, ideas, writing and contemporary culture through storytelling, books, live discussion forums, workshops, debates, live performances, competitions, mchongoano and music. It is organized in collaboration with Storymoja, the Hay Festival (UK) and British Council. The Hay Festival held in the UK every May attracts up to 150,000 people ranging from presidents to authors to fans.
The Storymoja Hay festival attracts the most exciting local and international writers and thinkers. With four event tents, and the Storyhippo children’s village, this year’s line-up has something for all tastes. From a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, to Man Booker Prize winning author, from the earth’s only stand-up comedian for children to funky science experiments, from storytelling workshops to sessions with the world’s funniest travel author; the Storymoja Hay Festival promises both engaging and stimulating discussions as well as light-hearted entertainment.
For 3 days, from 16th – 18th September 2011, the Railway Sports Club Grounds in Nairobi comes alive with stories, ideas, laughter and music.
For members of the Storymoja Writing Community, of interest to you would be the Workshops that will run during the festival as listed below:
Creative Writing with Ben Okri
Writing workshop with Hari Kunzru
Writing for Children
Travel writing with Peter Moore
Poetry with Yusef Komunyakaa
Performance Poetry with Beth Lisick
Illustration workshop with Stian Hole
And here’s your chance to do what you love – write – and win Season Passes (for all 3 days) to the festival, including entry to all workshops of the day.
1. Storymoja Short Story Writing Contest.
Theme/Topic: This is my African Story
Genre/Category: Urban Narrative
Length: 1500 words (Max word count)
Prizes:
1st Place: Season Pass, a spot in all the workshops for the day, access to Pink Lounge to mingle with the Stars.
2nd Place: Gate Pass for one of the first two days, including entry to all workshops of the day.
Deadline to send in story: Friday 9th September 2011 at 4pm East African Time. Send in your story in word 97 attachment to blogs@storymojaafrica.co.ke. Make sure you mark in the subject line: Storymoja Hay Festival Short Story Writing Contest (all submissions not marked as such will be disregarded).
2. Storymoja Hay Festival Poetry Writing Contest
Theme/Topic: This is my Africa
Prizes:
1st Place: Season Pass, a spot in all the workshops for the day, access to Pink Lounge to mingle with the Stars.
2nd Place: Gate Pass for one of the first two days, including entry to all workshops of the day.
Deadline to send in poem: Friday 9th September 2011 at 4pm East African Time. Send in your poem in word 97 attachment to blogs@storymojaafrica.co.ke. Make sure you mark in the subject line: Storymoja Hay Festival Poetry Writing Contest (all submissions not marked as such will be disregarded).
Winners will be informed of which day the specific workshops fall on so they can schedule themselves.
“The 2009 Nairobi Storymoja Hay Festival was an absolute blast. The writers and others there included Vikram Seth, Hanif Kureishi, Tony Kan, Kate Adie, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Francois Devenne, Monica Arac, Tolu Ogunlesi, Chika Unigwe, Lee Siegel, Doreen Baingana, Dayo Foster, Billy Kahora, Judy Kibinge, Yvonne Owuor, Parselelo Kantai, Wambui Mwangi and the inspirational and inspired Muthoni Garland, the force of nature behind the whole shebang.” Petina Gappah, author of ‘Elegy for Easterly’
