Video: Diana Ross

Live at Central Park 1983

 

Tomorrow morning Beyonce will be performing a televised free concert at Central Park in New York, almost exactly 28 years after Diana Ross performed a concert there for 800,000 people (the first day in the beautifully choreographed video above was rained off part way through so she actually performed the full show the next day, Friday 22nd July 1983).

After watching Beyonce's undeniably amazing (say something, what?) and historical headline set at Glastonbury this week I'm too exhausted to watch her again anytime soon. However I have just found a link to Diana Ross's slightly more sedate but equally glamorous affair, complete with (just slightly) gushing heartfelt proclamations, an impossible number of hit songs, and miraculously - even bigger hair.

Watch Diana Ross Live in Central Park 1983 here/ buy it on Amazon.
 

*Disclaimer - the video seems to take at least 5 minutes to load but it does work so be patient!

 

Literature

New for 2011, The London Culture Festival short story competition launched on Tuesday 3rd May. The competition aims to promote aspiring writers in London and provide them with a voice.

Our theme this year is ‘THE CITY THROUGH MY EYES‘ so we’d love to hear your cultural stories about the city as you see it. Open to Londoners of all ages, from every culture. We are accepting stories in any genre such as romance, thriller, humour, fantasy, history, mystery or adventure. It’s entirely up to you.

Judges

To be annouced.

Prize

The winner receives a prize of £300.

Two runners-up will receive £100 each.

Guidelines for submission

Entry is easy and free.

(1) The deadline for submission is Friday 29th July 2011.

(2) Submissions will be accepted from Tuesday 3 May 2011.

(3) Work must be original and unpublished.

(4) Work must not exceed 2000 words.

(5) Submissions must be in word processed format and sent as an attachment via email by clicking here

(6) Winners and runners up will be announced on Tuesday 23rd August.

(7) Winning pieces will be featured on the literature page of the London Culture Festival until December 2011.

(8) Winners will be featured in the festival’s post-marketing activity.

(9) Vjem Events reserves the right to republish all winning Works as part of the London Culture Festival promotional activity or merchandise. Authors will be notified accordingly.

(10) Good luck.

PS – the competition is also listed on the site below.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions.

Competition

Meridian Writing is pleased to announce our autumn short story writing competition is now open. We will accept stories of up to 3,000 words, and is open to both published and unpublished writers.

Please note that all entries must be accompanied by an entry form and correct fee.

First Prize          £100

Second Prize      £50

Third Prize         £25

In addition to Prize Money, all winning authors will receive a firstwriter.com   voucher worth $15/£10/€15, allowing them to take out a free subscription to firstwriter.com, providing access to details of hundreds of publishers, literary agents, writing competitions, and magazines. firstwriter.com will contact the winning authors directly.

Closing Date - 3oth September 2011

Competition Rules

• The competition is open to both published and unpublished authors writing in any genre, including children's fiction. Stories must not have been previously published elsewhere either in print or online.
• Authors must be sixteen years of age or older.
• Stories should be a maximum of 3,000 words in length, but there is no lower limit.
• The entry fee for each story is £5.00 GBP. There is no limit on the number of entries any one person may enter but no author may win more than one prize in any competition. Multiple entries may be made on one entry form with all stories listed.
• Each entry must be accompanied by an entry form (which can be copied from our website, or obtained from our contact address: please enclose a SAE) or the Online Entry Form.
• The Judges wish to make an unbiased decision on all entries, so please ensure that only the story title is printed on the story itself. This includes NOT having an author contact detail cover sheet. Any entries which do not comply with this rule will be disregarded from the competition. 
• The closing date for the current competition is: 30th September.
• The winners will be announced in October, with the winning stories being published on the Meridian Writing website.

Entry Details

• If you would like confirmation that your postal entry has been received, or the list of winners, please enclose a suitable SAE (either marked 'Received' or 'Winners'). Online entries will receive a confirmation email once we have determined the correct fee has been received.
• Your story should be clearly typed or printed in English (12pt, Times New Roman preferred) on one side only A4 paper, a word count included and double spaced. Include a 'header' which contains your story title and page number. Online entries will be accepted as an attachment saved as a .doc (or equivalent) file and mailed to our email Entry Address. Please ensure stories are emailed at the same time as the online form is submitted to avoid confusion.
• If someone else is paying for you via PayPal, please enter a note to this effect to avoid any confusion.
• Please refer to the 'Contact Us' page to see details on how to pay the entry fee.  
• No stories will be returned, so make sure you keep a copy of your story.
• The winning and runner-up stories will be published on the Meridian Writing website.
• The Judges' decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
• Winning authors will be required to supply a short (50 - 100 word) bio which will be published alongside their story.
• Copyright remains with the author, but Meridian Writing has the unrestricted right to publish winning stories online. Additional publishing of any stories will be made with the consultation and agreement of the author.

AWW Contest Rules & Entry Info

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Guidelines for the AWW "Good Read" Fiction Book Competition and the AWW "Truth to Tell" Non-Fiction Book Competition

We are more interested in a good story well told and a point well made than in attempts to sound literary or poetic. Send us your best, simplest work. Make us love or hate your characters, believe or disbelieve your thesis, by your excellent prose composition. Get us involved in the narrative, or interested in the facts, by moving us skillfully from point A to point B.

AWW is a resource for creative women. We want to encourage work by, for and about women, but stories about men will not be overlooked. Just be sure that your viewpoint rings true and the experiences you portray are authentic to the character and setting. Be natural.

Do not use special script for emphasis. Read rules for the use of italics and do not use italics for simple emphasis. Do not overuse the exclamation point. Books will be judged on objective standards and demerits will be assigned for: word repetition, incorrect grammar and syntax, incorrect punctuation, improper formatting of paragraphs, weak characterizations, contradictory or illogical plot development, unbelievable or inconsistent setting. It will also be judged subjectively by our editors, as nearly as possible to mimic the experience of a new enthusiastic reader who has picked your book off the shelf and is embarking on the adventure of involvement in the world you have created. What stops, bores, or confuses that reader/editor will stop, bore, and confuse a larger audience.

Read the instructions carefully and submit accordingly. Inattention to detail can result in disqualification. The editors of AWW are themselves contest entrants (and occasional winners) and are well acquainted with the frustrations of getting it wrong and kicking oneself for having gotten it wrong. Please, read. For questions, email us.

Important: Contestants should be 18 or older. Submitting your entry certifies that you are eligible, and that all work submitted is your own. Entry fees are non-refundable and are payable only through PayPal. Judge's decisions are final.

Instructions for submissions to the AWW Book Competition:

1. Entry fee is $40.00 for all submissions and includes a thorough, thoughtful critique with up to ten pages of line editing comments and corrections. You will be given an opinion and suggestions about character and plot development/ logic and rationale.
You then have the option to resubmit the entire book, having applied changes based on our comments and suggestions. This resubmission will be accompanied by a $20 reading fee and represents your final entry into the competition.

Entries submitted initially for critique will be judged if not resubmitted. Resubmissions will be judged as the final entry in place of the original entry, with no exceptions. Payments must be made via PayPal (specify on your payment if the entry is fiction (Good Read) or non-fiction (Truth to Tell):

Entry & Critique $40.00 Resubmission $20.00

2.YOU MUST SUBMIT ONLY THE FIRST 75 PAGES OF YOUR BOOK. You must also send a detailed, chapter-by-chapter plot synopsis for the entire book; the synopsis can be up to two single-spaced pages.

3. You must email your work to the editor as a Microsoft Word document (the file extension should be .doc), font size 12 points, Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing. (Send emails to awomanswrite (a) yahoo.com)

4. All work must have the author's last name at the top left and page numbers on the top right of every page.

5. All work must be accompanied by a one-page cover letter that includes the statement: "I understand and agree to comply with all contest rules and instructions." The letter must also include a brief biography of the author. (The cover letter and chapter-by-chapter synopsis may be separate document files, but the first 75 pages of the book must be submitted in a single document file.)

6. All submissions should include the author's full name, mailing address, phone number, email address, title of work, and total word count. We will use the email address provided to notify entrants of any extensions or changes and to contact winners at the end of the contest. Please be sure to notify us of any changes in your contact information.

7. Do NOT include a table of contents for the Good Read competition. DO include a Table of Contents for the Truth to Tell competition.

8. Do not include illustrations.

9. Do not use special fonts.

10. Absolutely no pornography or any material that is intentionally degrading to any group will be accepted. Keep four-letter words to a minimum -- our staff is easily embarrassed.

11. Denote a break in action with an extra line break. Do not use lines, asterisks or other special marks.

12. Denote a chapter ending by skipping to the next page and beginning the new chapter at the top of that page.

13. A book, for purposes of this competition, should be at least 150 pages long, or at least 60,000 words.

14. Entries to the Good Read competition must be sent no later than November 30 annually.

15. Entries to the Truth to Tell competition must be sent no later than August 31 annually.

16. Critiques will be sent by email within one month of receipt of work.

17. Prize winner will be informed no later than 45 days from the closing date of the competition.

18. If an entry is considered in the final judging process, you may be asked to submit the complete novel electronically. Judges will advise you if this is the case. (Failure to submit the complete book on request within one week is grounds for disqualification.)

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Competition Prizes

GOOD READ: One award of $500.00 will be awarded to the fiction book judged best by our judges. Winner will also receive a certificate and notification on the AWW website.

TRUTH TO TELL: One award of $300 will be awarded to the non-fiction book judged best by our judges in the initial (2010-11 year) – prize may increase based on response.
Editors may at their discretion award an "Honorable Distinction Prize" to include a certificate and notification on the AWW website.

Note: In the event that fewer than 13 entries are received for either competition, the prize award may be reduced according to fees received.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book of

Nelson Mandela Quotations

Released

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 27, 2011 at 7:38 PM ET

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A new Nelson Mandela book, slim, bound in black and set in eye-straining type, looks a bit like a bible or a prayer book.

That's fitting, because the editors of "Nelson Mandela By Himself" brought something close to religious zeal to the task of choosing and checking more than 2,000 quotations to ensure the world gets the anti-apartheid icon's words right. The book was released Monday — days after U.S. first lady Michelle Obama got an advance copy signed by Mandela when she met him during a visit to South Africa.

Editors Sello Hatang and Sahm Venter work for Mandela's foundation, which oversees charity and development work on his behalf and houses some of his archives. Hatang and Venter say the Nelson Mandela Foundation receives thousands of requests from researchers and others to confirm the accuracy of Mandela's quotes.

In an interview Monday, Venter said quotations frequently queried are among those collected in the book, along with others she hopes help show Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and South Africa's first black president, as a full human being.

And "you had to get in all the iconic quotes that everybody knows him for," she said.

The editors turned to speeches, notebook entries, recorded conversations and other material, some until now unpublished, for the book.

Hatang and Venter say in their introduction: "We can all honor Nelson Mandela by quoting him correctly and accurately."

The apartheid government once declared it illegal to quote Mandela. He is now, according to Hatang and Venter, among the most quoted people in the world. But they say he often is misquoted.

For a book that would slip easily into a jacket pocket, "Nelson Mandela By Himself" has a daunting table of contents. There are 317 subject headings, from accountability to Zionism. "Prison" is divided into a further 26 headings, one short of the 27 years Mandela was incarcerated, with his musings on his release, visitors, even contemplating escape.

Victory is found between vengeance — "We had to refuse that our long sacrifice should make a stone of our hearts" — and violence — "Great anger and violence can never build a nation.

"We are striving to proceed in a manner and towards a result, which will ensure that all our people, both black and white, emerge as victors," from a 1990 speech to the European Parliament, is among eight victory quotations offered.

Hatang said his favorite quote is one in which Mandela speaks of learning from the silence of solitude while in prison "how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die."

Hatang said Mandela "has taught us that before you say something, think. We can give life with what we say."

The book's emphasis on the uplifting and the pedagogical might lead some to draw parallels to Mao's little red book. But we also see Mandela questioning his choices:

"I have often wondered whether a person is justified in neglecting his own family to fight for opportunities for others."

And there are flashes of his famous, self-deprecating humor:

"If only to emphasize that I am human, and as fallible as anyone else, let me admit that ... accolades do flatter me."

The quotations are arranged chronologically within each category, allowing readers a sense of how Mandela's ideas developed over time — or in some cases held firm, as with his loyalty to regimes in Cuba and Libya that supported his African National Congress during the struggle against apartheid. His early observations on Africa suffering under imperialism evolve to more recent criticism of the continent's homegrown tyrants.

On AIDS, a disease that has devastated South Africa, he becomes increasingly blunt as his urgency grows.

Here he is in 1992: "Many of us find it difficult to talk about sex to our children, but nature's truth is that unless we guide the youth towards safer sex, the alternative is playing into the hands of a killer disease."

And, simply, in 2005: "My son has died of AIDS."

___

Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP

The Benefit Corporation: Can the Future of Business Be About More Than Making a Buck?

• Alex Goldmark
  
  Follow me at and planet. Secondly, the Benefit Corporation increases transparency and accountability, by using an independent third party to verify that a business is acting in a socially and environmentally conscious fashion." 

  Each Benefit Corporation must adhere to third party certification meeting certain environmental, social, or other non-financial standards. Many use the similarly named B-Corp Certification and Impact Assessment, which we've covered multiple times on GOOD.

  B-Corp certification is similar to Fair Trade or Organic, but deals with all aspects of how the company does business. Rigorous as the B-Corp label is, it's still a stamp from a nonprofit. Benefit Corporations are recognized by the state as a distinct new category of company. Like B-Corps, Benefit Corporations are required to consider the environment, community, and employees in business decisions along with company profit. A typical company—like Ben and Jerry's circa 2000—is required to maximize returns to shareholders at all costs. With Benefit Corporation status, there's recourse if a future investor or CEO veers from the company's ethical principles. Just like shareholders were able to force Ben and Jerry to sell because shareholder value was paramount, with a Benefit Corporation, shareholders, or the founders, could claim that environmental and social impacts weren't fully considered, even in court. 

  Ben and Jerry themselves issued a statement when the law passed saying they were thrilled. "Giving entrepreneurs and directors the legal protection to build values-based companies and retain the discretion to make decisions based upon both financial and social factors is a first step forward." 

  Four B-Corps have already signed up and re-incorporated as Benefit Corporations in Vermont. Clean Yield Asset Management, Merritt & Merritt & Moulton, StartUp Owl, and Launcht, which did so even though it is based in New York.

  "Frankly, I was born in Vermont and endorse many of Vermont's policies and want Launcht's state taxes to support a state I really like," explains founder Freeman White on why he decided to pull a reverse-Delaware and incorporate his company out of state. "If our only responsibility was to our shareholders, we were concerned about loosing our core values. By establishing ourselves as a Benefit Corporation, we intentionally put ourselves on the hook to live up to our values ... and by virtue of our legal structure we will be able to protect these values as we scale." Launcht is a for-profit platform that helps nonprofits or other organizations crowdfund good projects. So it also mattered to White that his clients see Launcht as a trusted brand, even if the founders plan to cash out in a few years.

  "If we were just a C-Corp we would be fighting the stereotypes some of our users, both founders and funders, might have about such corporations. My co-founder and I wanted ownership, so we can take advantage of the upside of potential exit opportunities in 3-5 years, thus we didn't go the 501c3 [nonprofit] route," he says.

  Right now, being a Benefit Corporation is a statement to the world and a promise to yourself that the company does business with high social and environmental standards, and will continue to do so. Down the road though, being a distinct legal category of business could enable pretty incredible possibilities like preferential tax rates for more socially focused businesses. If that happened—politicians and B-Corp advocates are mum on this—then we could see persuasive new incentives and legal tools remake businesses of all stripes. 

  It could change how investments are made too. Impact investing is a growing field, where money managers steer their funds to good causes that earn a financial return as well as make a social impact, just like many potential Benefit Corporations. By requiring these companies to get certified by a third party, the law will enable investors to measure and compare companies on non-financial performance according to a single standard, or a small number of them. So that means, down the road, a company that serves the poor with affordable health services could attract new investment that supports the cause, even if its profit margins were lower than those of other healthcare providers, because it could prove its social value. 

  That's all a bit down the road, but we get a hint of the potential from the Green Mountain State. Small as it is, Vermont is a big player when it comes to values-infused companies, Seventh Generation chief among them. But even the flag bearer of better business stumbled. Founder Jeffrey Hollender was notoriously ousted in part because he disagreed with some of the new investors on just how far to take social responsibility, as he explained at length to GOOD in his first public comments after the ouster.

  Chris Miller, of Seventh Generation's Corporate Consciousness team tells GOOD it's looking likely they'll reincorporate as a Benefit Corporation, "we are a founding member of B-Corps, and our bylaws were changed to reflect that, so we think it's a really logical next step."

  Even a $150 million a year business has cause to plan ahead to protect values. "It's an important way for us to ensure that the things that we care about around our business are here for years to come as the company evolves, as we grow, as we go through leadership changes." The change requires a shareholder vote. 

  Jay Coen Gilbert of B-Lab, the nonprofit leading the charge for all of this, says today's milestone shows this is an "accelerating movement." But he points out, even if this is happening in a state already famous for businesses such as Ben and Jerry's and Seventh Generation, there are way bigger moments on the horizon. 

  New York and California are the on the cusp of enacting Benefit Corporation laws and that could cause a snowball effect if a critical mass of companies sign on and spread the word about the concept. California's version of the bill has passed the assembly and could come up for a Senate vote soon. New York's bill is waiting for the governor's signature. 

  As for Ben and Jerry's, the company, they say they support the law, but signing up doesn't make sense. Spokesman Sean Greenwood tells GOOD, "To the best of my understanding, we've spent considerable time talking with our Leadership Team and our independent board of directors about the Benefit Corporation law and if it makes sense for Ben and Jerry's to pursue." He says that because the company has a unique governance arrangement already, it would require considerable legal restructuring. An independent board of directors was created to help keep the company quirky, independent, and honest even as it remains a wholly-owned Unilever subsidiary, an uncommon structure in business.

  "Still, we applaud the effort for the businesses in Vermont to continue to lead the way with two scoops of progressive values and vision. We will support the Benefit Corporation law with our voice and our practices of daily business operations." 

  Ben and Jerry, the people, did not respond for a request for comment in time for publication. 

  Photo (cc) by Flickr user Lodderup.

Evaluating the Drug War

on Its 40th Birthday,

by the Numbers

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

 

by Akiba Solomon, Stokely Baksh 

Friday, June 17 2011, 11:40 AM EST 

On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one in the United States.” To eradicate this enemy, he called for “a new, all-out offensive.” But 40 years of get-tough policies haven’t ended substance abuse. Instead, as “The New Jim Crow”
author Michelle Alexander recently told a crowd of 1,000 at Harlem’s Riverside Church, “The enemy in this war has been racially defined. The drug war, not by accident, has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color.”

At the estimated cost of $1 trillion, the War on Drugs has triggered the mass incarceration, mostly of black and brown people through harsh penalties for non-violent drug violations like simple possession. It has encouraged racial profiling in the name of enforcement. In addition, people with drug convictions (and their families) have been evicted from public housing, deemed ineligible for food stamps and college financial aid, and denied employment. This failed war has destroyed mothers, fathers, children, grandparents—whole communities. 

One thing it hasn’t done: End the use and sale of drugs. 

 

 

Young Activists

Use Art to

Fight for the DREAM Act

Illustration/Raymundo M. Hernández-López

by Stokely Baksh, Julianne Hing ShareThis | Print | Comment (1)

Friday, July 1 2011, 10:39 AM EST Tags: Dream Act

 

The federal DREAM Act is back. This week Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the longtime champion of the bill, chaired the first ever Senate hearing on the narrow legalization effort that would allow a select population of undocumented youth a pathway toward citizenship. 

Though the bill has been around for a full decade, enjoyed bipartisan support, and even passed the House in a historic vote last December, it fell five votes short of a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate.

The immigrant youth movement continues to push aggressively for the DREAM Act and has begun using its considerable muscle to fight back against anti-immigrant state legislation. This week six high school students in Georgia were arrested for civil disobedience while protesting HB 87, Georgia’s new anti-immigrant state law that goes into effect today.

And in the meantime, artists have been documenting the movement and using their work to show solidarity with the ongoing struggle of undocumented immigrant youth to stay in the country. This artwork was created by a group of political artists, including Im:Arte, a progressive artists’ collective, the photographer and comics artist Julio Salgado and photographer Pocho-1. Earlier in June, UCLA held an art show, “Intersecting Realities: Visions of Immigrant Narratives,” to celebrate this work and honor the lives of two DREAMers, Tam Tran and Cinthia Felix, who were tragically killed last year.

Below is a small sampling of art created by DREAMers to help shift the public’s consciousness on immigration reform.

	By: Julio Salgado
	By: Julio Salgado
	By: Raymundo M. Hernandez Lopez
	By: Raymundo M. Hernandez Lopez
	By: Raymundo M. Hernandez Lopez
	By: Pocho-1
	By: Pocho-1
	By: Carol Belisa
	By: Carol Belisa
	By: Laura Flores