PHOTO ESSAY: South African Township Barbershops & Salons

South African Township

Barbershops & Salons

by Maria Popova

What the history of Apartheid has to do with signage design and communal storytelling.


In his fantastic 2009 TED Talk, Steven Johnson explores how the English coffeehouse of the Enlightenment was crucial to the development and spread of one of the great intellectual flowerings of the last 500 years. This tendency for physical places to transcend their mere utilitarian function and serve as hubs of (sub)cultural development is evident throughout history, from the cave fire pit that sparked the dawn of communal storytelling to today’s coworking spaces that offer fertile ground for innovation through collaboration.

In South African Township Barbershops & Salons, photographer Simon Weller explores the peculiar cultural and social hubs of South African townships, salons and babershop, which too transcend their mere function as places to get your hair cut and serve as pivotal places for the local community to gather, gossip and exchange ideas. Weller contextualizes the rich and vibrant photographs of the shops and portraits of their patrons with fascinating essays that expound on the aesthetics of these hubs and their signage though interviews with the owners, customers and sign designers.

In many was, South African Township Barbershops & Salons is both a parallel and opposite of last month’s Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, the vernacular design of the babershops’ signage standing in stark contrast to the overdesigned vintage type of New York’s storefronts and yet just as evocative of its community’s spirit, the social norms and function of its physical place, and the cultural traditions of its location.

__________________________

Books: South African Township Barbershops and Salons by Simon Weller

South African Township Barbershops and Salons is a new book by photographer Simon Weller that documents the colorful art of South African barbershop culture with intimate photographs of DIY shops, interviews with barbershop artists, and historical backgrounds of the townships. The book features  beautiful photographs of the little known barbershop art  signage in areas such as Johannesburg, various rural townships, Durban, and Cape Town.  Barbershops play an intricate role in society as a social medium for community discussion, small business economy, and art.  Artists are asked to paint pictures of everything from shop names and hair styles to American pop icons. Sign artist Garth Walker describes the styles barbershop artists design and why its important, “We like it because it looks good and makes you feel good and that’s what graphic design is supposed to do. There is no concept, it’s just joyous. That is the bedrock of the African approach to just about everything, if you like it, you do it.” See more pictures from the book after the jump and then grab yourself a copy here.

 

 

LITERATURE: Sargasso is 25 Years Old! « Repeating Islands

Posted by: ivetteromero | May 23, 2011

Sargasso is 25 Years Old!

Sargasso—the Caribbean Studies journal associated with the PhD Program in English in the School of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras—will hold a belated 25th anniversary celebration on Friday May 27, 2011. The celebration begins at 4:00pm and will take place in Sala A of the Humanities Building. The event will include the presentation of its 3 most recent volumes, an overview of the journal’s history, and performances by 3 poets: Diego Romero Martínez, Xavier Valcarcél, and Raúl Vázquez. This event is open to the public. 

The 3 recently published issues will be presented by their main editors: Lowell Fiet, the journal’s founding editor, will present Urban and Community Art in Puerto Rico and Beyond (2007-2008, II), a volume he co-edited with Katherine Miranda; Maria Cristina Rodríguez will present Quisqueya: La República Extended (2008-2009, II), an issue focusing on the literature of the Dominican Republic; and Sally Everson will present Anti/Slavery and Colonial Aesthetics (2009-2010, I), co-edited with Josh Brewer. 

Since its beginning in 1984, Sargasso has been dedicated to three main areas of research and reflection: literature, language and linguistics, and culture. It has published a total of 33 issues, including a 4-volume series called Caribe 2000.  Today the journal is a peer-reviewed publication that produces 2 issues a year and an occasional special issue. The journal, which maintains approximately 350 subscriptions, is indexed by HAPI, LATINDEX, MLA, and the Periodicals Content Index. Sargasso accepts academic essays, poetry, short fiction, interviews, as well as book and film reviews. Submissions can be made in English, Spanish, French, and Papiamentu.  

 

In the last two years, Don Walicek, the current editor, has expanded the journal’s online presence. Its webpage (see link below) now features several resources, including previously published interviews and an author index. In addition, the editors of the journal recently signed an agreement with d-LOC, Digital Library of the Caribbean at the University of Florida. The agreement makes possible open access to past issues.

Recognizing that this anniversary is one of extended commemoration, a separate launch will be held for the 25th anniversary issue, Celebrating Caribbean Voices: 25 interviews, in the first part of the 2011-2012 academic year. The issue, edited by Don Walicek and currently in press, includes interviews from more than 10 different Caribbean countries. Among the writers it features are Patricia Adams, Maryse Condé, Earl Lovelace, Elizabeth Nunez, Velma Pollard, and Luz Maria Umpierre.

[Many thanks to Don Walicek for providing this detailed description of Sargasso and its trajectory.]

For the Sargasso webpage, go to http://humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/pubs/sargasso.htm

For online access via d-LOC visit: http://dloc.com/UF00096005/00011/allvolumes2?td=sargasso

 

VIDEO: Africa—Women's Stories > "A BOMBASTIC ELEMENT"

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Africa: MDGs 3, 4 and 5

Women's Stories

 

Excerpts from some IPS Women development reporting we thought deserved some more eye balls:

From Talia Whyte's look at Somali women entrepreneurs carving a niche in Boston:

Statistically, Somalis have struggled more than nearly any other immigrant group in the United States. The American Community Survey estimated just over 100,000 Somalis lived in the U.S. in 2009, with almost 30,000 living in Minnesota, although other sources suggest 60,000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Somalis is among the lowest, with 51 percent living in poverty. But that could be changing. Jibril's enterprise is not only an example of the evolving multicultural dynamic within the U.S. workplace, but also the role of women. According to Joyce Stanley, head of the Dudley Square Main Streets Program, a city initiative to support business development in the community, there are nine businesses that were started up by African women in the area, many of them in the last four years alone. "In the immigrant community, anyone who comes here to America is motivated to achieve," Stanley said. "Somalis are one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in Boston, but it is simply amazing to see the Somali women take charge."(more)
You won't know from watching the trailer, but the PBS excerpt below from Dawn Shapiro's documentary, The Edge of Joy, is unlike lots of development documentaries we've seen. The filmmaker takes the pacing, life drama and narrative style of Discovery channel medical reality shows and updates the old, stale development reporting or documentary format, mainly by making the ensemble cast of Nigerian doctors, midwives and families in a Kano specialist hospital--said to be one of busiest child delivering centers in West Africa--the heroes of the piece. And maybe that's why the piece helps one process the developing world reality of millennium development goals 4 & 5: reducing child mortality rates and improving maternal health:

Zukiswa Zimela's IPS piece was on how women’s issues were missing from election manifestos in the just concluded South African local elections and Fidelis Zvomuya wrote on Victoria Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi, who after 30 years in the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) left to form the National Freedom Party (NFP), insisting "on the idea that democracy and women’s advancement must be promoted within a political organisation":

''When a woman tries to move on to higher office, she risks losing the advantages of her super- volunteer status at the local level. She becomes perceived as personally ambitious rather than a high- minded, dedicated public servant. You are caught in the bind of your femininity," she explains.KaMagwaza-Msibi has embraced her feminine virtues, edging into the old boys' network, cutting deals in smoked-filled rooms and promoting the economic and social causes affecting women."It’s true, the best man for the job is always a woman. It is women who experience sexual harassment on the job, violence in the home, (and) who are still the primary care givers. If we are going to have a representative government, we have to have women in high office," she says (more)
From Sam Olukoya's piece on a woman from Lagos sprawl of Makoko, a loan from a small women's cooperative and lots of dirty charcoal:
(Latifat) Agboola got the money from a local savings and loan cooperative. The Gumi cooperative pools money from its members to make loans on which it charges as little as 15 percent interest."The group is made up of small women who are into small-scale business, says Tosun Jimoh, head of the group. "We deal mainly in small loans of between 20,000 naira and 40,000 naira ($270) and members can pay within six months. Members don’t require require any collateral, so long as they can get a guarantor we can trust."Gender analyst Emem Okon, says Agboola's rapid progress is exactly the kind of transformation microcredit can enable in the lives of poor women like Agboola. "Where microcredit is properly managed, it helps to improve the income of poor women, whether they are involved in petty trading or farming it provides the money to acquire the much needed inputs," says Okon, who is the head of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, a non-governmental organisation based in southeastern city of Port Harcourt. Agboola says her choice of what to invest the loan in was crucial to her success. "Charcoal business is a dirty job and that is why many people are reluctant to do it, but the secret is that it is a very lucrative business if you are determined." It is the right business to get into in Makoko, with its high poverty and dense population. "With the high price of kerosene, many of the residents here are too poor to cook with [other kinds of] stoves, thus charcoal is a very cheap alternative for them," says Agboola. "There is a high demand for charcoal in this neighbourhood, but no one sells it.(more)

 

EDUCATION: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System > Truthout

Why the United States

Is Destroying

Its Education System

by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig
(Photo: fling93)

A na­tion that de­stroys its sys­tems of educa­tion, de­grades its pub­lic in­for­ma­tion, guts its pub­lic li­bra­ries and turns its air­waves into vehic­les for cheap, mindless amuse­ment be­comes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above crit­ical think­ing and lit­era­cy. It celeb­rates rote vocation­al train­ing and the sin­gular, amor­al skill of mak­ing money. It churns out stun­ted human pro­ducts, lack­ing the capac­ity and vocabula­ry to chal­lenge the as­sump­tions and struc­tures of the cor­porate state. It fun­nels them into a caste sys­tem of drones and sys­tems man­ag­ers. It trans­forms a de­moc­ratic state into a feud­al sys­tem of cor­porate mast­ers and serfs.

Teach­ers, their uni­ons under at­tack, are be­com­ing as re­place­able as minimum-wage em­ployees at Burg­er King. We spurn real teac­hers—those with the capac­ity to in­spire childr­en to think, those who help the young dis­cov­er their gifts and poten­tial­—and re­place them with in­struc­tors who teach to nar­row, stan­dardized tests. These in­struc­tors obey. They teach childr­en to obey. And that is the point. The No Child Left Be­hind pro­gram, modeled on the “Texas Mirac­le,” is a fraud. It wor­ked no bet­t­er than our de­regulated fin­an­ci­al sys­tem. But when you shut out de­bate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.

Pass­ing bubble tests celeb­rates and re­wards a peculiar form of an­alyt­ical in­tel­lig­ence. This kind of in­tel­lig­ence is prized by money man­ag­ers and cor­pora­tions. They don’t want em­ployees to ask un­com­fort­able ques­tions or ex­amine ex­ist­ing struc­tures and as­sump­tions. They want them to serve the sys­tem. These tests pro­duce men and women who are just lit­erate and numerate en­ough to per­form basic func­tions and ser­vice jobs. The tests elevate those with the fin­an­ci­al means to pre­pare for them. They re­ward those who obey the rules, mem­or­ize the for­mulas and pay de­fer­ence to aut­hor­ity. Re­bels, art­ists, in­depen­dent think­ers, ec­centrics and iconoc­lasts—those who march to the beat of their own drum—are weeded out.

“Im­agine,” said a pub­lic school teach­er in New York City, who asked that I not use his name, “going to work each day know­ing a great deal of what you are doing is fraudulent, know­ing in no way are you pre­par­ing your students for life in an ever more brut­al world, know­ing that if you don’t con­tinue along your scrip­ted test prep co­ur­se and in­deed get bet­t­er at it you will be out of a job. Up until very re­cent­ly, the prin­cip­al of a school was some­th­ing like the con­duc­tor of an orchestra: a per­son who had deep ex­peri­ence and know­ledge of the part and place of every mem­b­er and every in­stru­ment. In the past 10 years we’ve had the em­erg­ence of both [Mayor] Mike Bloom­berg’s Leadership Academy and Eli Broad’s Super­in­tendents Academy, both created ex­clusive­ly to pro­duce in­stant prin­cip­als and super­in­tendents who model them­selves after CEOs. How is this kind of thing even legal? How are such ‘academ­ies’ accredited? What qual­ity of lead­er needs a ‘leadership academy’? What kind of society would allow such peo­ple to run their children’s schools? The high-stakes tests may be worthless as pedagogy but they are a bril­liant mech­an­ism for un­der­min­ing the school sys­tems, in­still­ing fear and creat­ing a rationale for cor­porate takeov­er. There is some­th­ing grotes­que about the fact the educa­tion re­form is being led not by educators but by fin­anc­ers and speculators and bi­llionaires.”

Teach­ers, under as­sault from every di­rec­tion, are flee­ing the pro­fess­ion. Even be­fore the “re­form” blitzkrieg we were los­ing half of all teach­ers with­in five years after they star­ted work—and these were peo­ple who spent years in school and many thousands of dol­lars to be­come teach­ers. How does the co­unt­ry ex­pect to re­tain di­gnified, trained pro­fes­sion­als under the hos­til­ity of cur­rent con­di­tions? I sus­pect that the hedge fund man­ag­ers be­hind our chart­er schools sys­tem—whose prima­ry con­cern is cer­tain­ly not with education­—are de­lighted to re­place real teach­ers with non­unionized, poor­ly trained in­struc­tors. To truly teach is to in­still the values and know­ledge which pro­mote the com­mon good and pro­tect a society from the folly of his­tor­ical am­nesia. The utilitarian, cor­porate ideology em­braced by the sys­tem of stan­dardized tests and leadership academ­ies has no time for the nuan­ces and moral am­biguit­ies in­herent in a li­ber­al arts educa­tion. Cor­porat­ism is about the cult of the self. It is about per­son­al en­rich­ment and pro­fit as the sole aim of human ex­ist­ence. And those who do not con­form are pus­hed aside.

“It is ex­treme­ly dis­pirit­ing to rea­l­ize that you are in ef­fect lying to these kids by in­sinuat­ing that this diet of cor­porate rea­d­ing pro­grams and stan­dardized tests are pre­par­ing them for an­yth­ing,” said this teach­er, who feared he would suf­f­er re­pris­als from school ad­ministrators if they knew he was speak­ing out. “It is even more dis­pirit­ing to know that your li­velihood de­pends in­creasing­ly on main­tain­ing this lie. You have to ask your­self why are hedge fund man­ag­ers sud­den­ly so in­teres­ted in the educa­tion of the urban poor? The main pur­pose of the test­ing craze is not to grade the students but to grade the teach­er.”

“I can­not say for cer­tain—not with the cer­tain­ty of a Bill Gates or a Mike Bloom­berg who pon­tificate with utter cer­tain­ty over a field in which they know ab­solute­ly not­hing—but more and more I sus­pect that a major goal of the re­form cam­paign is to make the work of a teach­er so de­grad­ing and in­sult­ing that the di­gnified and the truly educated teach­ers will simp­ly leave while they still re­tain a modicum of self-respect,” he added. “In less than a de­cade we been strip­ped of auto­nomy and are in­creasing­ly micro­managed. Students have been given the power to fire us by fail­ing their tests. Teach­ers have been li­kened to pigs at a trough and blamed for the economic col­lap­se of the Uni­ted States. In New York, prin­cip­als have been given every in­cen­tive, both fin­an­ci­al and in terms of con­trol, to re­place ex­perien­ced teach­ers with 22-year-old un­tenured rook­ies. They cost less. They know noth­ing. They are mal­le­able and they are vul­ner­able to ter­mina­tion.”

 

The de­moniz­ing of teach­ers is an­oth­er pub­lic re­la­tions feint, a way for cor­pora­tions to de­flect at­ten­tion from the theft of some $17 bi­ll­ion in wages, sav­ings and earn­ings among American work­ers and a landscape where one in six work­ers is with­out em­ploy­ment. The speculators on Wall Street looted the U.S. Treasu­ry. They stymied any kind of re­gula­tion. They have avoided crimin­al char­ges. They are stripp­ing basic soci­al ser­vices. And now they are de­mand­ing to run our schools and uni­ver­sit­ies.

“Not only have the re­form­ers re­moved pover­ty as a fac­tor, they’ve re­moved students’ ap­titude and motiva­tion as fac­tors,” said this teach­er, who is in a teach­ers union. “They seem to be­lieve that students are some­th­ing like plants where you just add water and place them in the sun of your teach­ing and every­th­ing blooms. This is a fan­tasy that in­sults both student and teach­er. The re­form­ers have come up with a variety of in­sidi­ous schemes pus­hed as steps to pro­fes­sional­ize the pro­fess­ion of teach­ing. As they are all businessm­en who know noth­ing of the field, it goes with­out say­ing that you do not do this by giv­ing teach­ers auto­nomy and re­spect. They use merit pay in which teach­ers whose students do well on bubble tests will re­ceive more money and teach­ers whose students do not do so well on bubble tests will re­ceive less money. Of co­ur­se, the only way this could con­ceivab­ly be fair is to have an ident­ical group of students in each class—an im­pos­sibil­ity. The real pur­poses of merit pay are to di­vide teach­ers against them­selves as they scramble for the bright­er and more motivated students and to furth­er in­stitutional­ize the idiot no­tion of stan­dardized tests. There is a cer­tain di­abol­ical in­tel­lig­ence at work in both of these.”

“If the Bloom­berg ad­ministra­tion can be said to have suc­ceeded in an­yth­ing,” he said, “they have suc­ceeded in turn­ing schools into stress fac­to­ries where teach­ers are runn­ing around won­der­ing if it’s pos­sible to please their prin­cip­als and if their school will be open a year from now, if their union will still be there to offer some kind of pro­tec­tion, if they will still have jobs next year. This is not how you run a school sys­tem. It’s how you de­stroy one. The re­form­ers and their friends in the media have created a Man­ic­hean world of bad teach­ers and ef­fective teach­ers. In this al­ter­native uni­ver­se there are no other fac­tors. Or, all other fac­tors—pover­ty, de­praved parents, ment­al il­l­ness and mal­nut­rition­—are all ex­cuses of the Bad Teach­er that can be over­come by hard work and the Ef­fective Teach­er.”

The truly educated be­come con­sci­ous. They be­come self-aware. They do not lie to them­selves. They do not pre­tend that fraud is moral or that cor­porate greed is good. They do not claim that the de­mands of the mar­ketplace can moral­ly just­ify the hung­er of childr­en or de­ni­al of med­ical care to the sick. They do not throw 6 mill­ion famil­ies from their homes as the cost of doing busi­ness. Thought is a di­alogue with one’s inner self. Those who think ask ques­tions, ques­tions those in aut­hor­ity do not want asked. They re­memb­er who we are, where we come from and where we should go. They re­main eter­nal­ly skept­ical and dis­trust­ful of power. And they know that this moral in­depend­ence is the only pro­tec­tion from the rad­ical evil that re­sults from col­lec­tive un­conscious­ness. The capac­ity to think is the only bul­wark against any centralized aut­hor­ity that seeks to im­pose mindless ob­edi­ence. There is a huge dif­fer­ence, as Soc­rates un­derstood, bet­ween teach­ing peo­ple what to think and teach­ing them how to think. Those who are end­owed with a moral con­sci­ence re­fuse to com­mit crimes, even those sanctioned by the cor­porate state, be­cause they do not in the end want to live with criminals—them­selves.

“It is bet­t­er to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself,” Soc­rates said.

Those who can ask the right ques­tions are armed with the capac­ity to make a moral choice, to de­fend the good in the face of out­side pre­ssure. And this is why the philosoph­er Im­manuel Kant puts the dut­ies we have to our­selves be­fore the dut­ies we have to oth­ers. The stan­dard for Kant is not the bi­bl­ical idea of self-love—love thy neighbor as thyself, do unto oth­ers as you would have them do unto you—but self-respect. What br­ings us mean­ing and worth as human be­ings is our ab­il­ity to stand up and pit our­selves against in­jus­tice and the vast, moral in­dif­fer­ence of the uni­ver­se. Once just­ice per­is­hes, as Kant knew, life loses all mean­ing. Those who meek­ly obey laws and rules im­posed from the out­side—includ­ing re­ligi­ous laws—are not moral human be­ings. The ful­fill­ment of an im­posed law is moral­ly neutr­al. The truly educated make their own wills serve the high­er call of just­ice, em­pat­hy and rea­son. Soc­rates made the same ar­gu­ment when he said it is bet­t­er to suf­f­er wrong than to do wrong.

“The greatest evil per­pet­rated,” Han­nah Arendt wrote, “is the evil com­mit­ted by nobod­ies, that is, by human be­ings who re­fuse to be per­sons.”

As Arendt poin­ted out, we must trust only those who have this self-awareness. This self-awareness comes only through con­scious­ness. It comes with the ab­il­ity to look at a crime being com­mit­ted and say “I can’t.” We must fear, Arendt war­ned, those whose moral sys­tem is built around the flim­sy struc­ture of blind ob­edi­ence. We must fear those who can­not think. Un­consci­ous civiliza­tions be­come totalitarian was­telands.

“The greatest evi­ldo­ers are those who don’t re­memb­er be­cause they have never given thought to the matt­er, and, with­out re­membran­ce, noth­ing can hold them back,” Arendt writes. “For human be­ings, think­ing of past matt­ers means mov­ing in the di­mens­ion of depth, strik­ing roots and thus stabiliz­ing them­selves, so as not to be swept away by whatev­er may occur—the Zeit­ge­ist or His­to­ry or sim­ple tempta­tion. The greatest evil is not rad­ical, it has no roots, and be­cause it has no roots it has no li­mita­tions, it can go to un­think­able ex­tremes and sweep over the whole world.”

 

 

+++++++++

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.

 

 

 

CULTURE + AUDIO: Why Sudanese-American Children Are Learning Their Parents’ Language > PRI's The World

Why Sudanese-American

Children Are Learning

Their Parents’ Language

 

Download MP3

Mading Bol taking a class in Anchorage, Alaska(Photo: Annie Feidt)

By Annie Feidt

In a small classroom in a Baptist church in Anchorage, Mading Bol asked for volunteers to read a short passage in Nuer, his native language from southern Sudan. Three kids up front leapt out of their chairs to get Bol’s attention.
“Me! Oh, me!” they yelled.

But Bol called a quieter student sitting in the back. The student began to read aloud a short story about a man and a woman who milk a cow. The story painted a picture of a life the kids had never known. They were born in the United States, most of them in Omaha, Nebraska. Their parents were re-settled there in the 1990s after fleeing civil war in Sudan and enduring 10 to 15 years in the refugee camps in Africa.

Bol has seven children, all born in the U.S., and he said none of them is really comfortable with the Nuer language. He said his 12-year-old daughter Nyagoa used to speak Nuer, but when she started school here, she lost it.

“Now, I cannot communicate with her well in Nuer,” Bol said. “She forces me to go and speak in English.”

It is a common story among the Sudanese in Anchorage. So, last summer Bol and other leaders in the Sudanese community decided to start the Nuer language classes. Daniel Gatkuoth, another teacher, has six daughters, and he said they all have trouble communicating with his wife.

Kids in a Nuer class in Anchorage, Alaska(Photo: Annie Feidt)

“My wife doesn’t speak good English. How can the parent live with the children (if they don’t understand them)?” Gatkuoth said.

There are now about 1,000 refugees from southern Sudan living in Anchorage. Gatkuoth arrived in the city in 2008. Like many Sudanese here, he left Nebraska when the economy went sour, hoping to find work in the oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope. But the oil companies weren’t hiring, so Gatkuoth found a good job with the Anchorage School District, as a language and cultural liaison.

Gatkuoth’s real passion, however, is teaching Nuer three nights a week. On this night, there are about 30 students, divided among three classrooms. The oldest kids sit at long tables in a bright room at the front of the church, repeating Nuer phrases that their teacher calls out.

Thaech Wal, a fifth-grader, was born in New York, a few months after her family arrived in the U.S. Thaech said the classes are helping her communicate better with her mom.

“When I talk, I talk in Nuer and English mixed up; like if I were to say a word, or a sentence in Nuer, I would put a little bit of English in it.”

 

(Photo: Annie Feidt)

The classes are also helping Thaech feel connected to the place her parents are from. She’s writing a report on South Sudan for her elementary school class. She said she’s seen videos from the country, but can’t quite picture what it looks like. She does know one thing, though; it’s hot in Sudan, and that’s a big contrast to her home here in Alaska.

“I don’t like snow because it’s cold and freezing,” Thaech said.

A lot of the kids — and adults — at the language class feel this way. But even with their complaints about the climate, none of the Sudanese families has any plans to go back to its newly independent homeland. They say it is still too unstable. Mading Bol said he would like to return some day with his seven children. In the meantime though, he says he’s focused on building a strong Sudanese community in Anchorage.

 

VIDEO: Les Nubians (Cameroun/France) in LA – Friends We Love

Les Nubians

Shows We Love :: Les Nubians in LA

We are excited to hear the new sounds of Les Nubians‘ latest release Nu Revolution and even more so live in Los Angeles this Saturday at the Conga Room. I definitely remember rocking their hit Makeda back in the day, especially that DJ Spinna remix! If you don’t know this sister-duo from France, get to know them. Check out their latest video for Afrodance below, pick up some tickets here for the show and download a promo single on their site.

Les Nubians – Afrodance from Nice Dissolve on Vimeo.

__________________________

Video: Les Nubians Live at The Shrine in Chicago

<p>Les Nubians @ The Shrine from Cam Be on Vimeo.</p>

As first seen on okayplayerCam Be and Jamaar J capture Les Nubians at The Shrine in Chicago discussing the meaning and purpose of their new album Nu Revolution, the power of dance – the relief, energy and action that the music has on stage. Mixed with live clips of their performance, it’s clear to see that Les Nubians still got it.

 

PUB: Lyrical Press, Inc. | Publisher

Call for Submissions:

Meet Me at Dusk (Lyrical Press)

South African-based content editor Nerine Dorman sent to us this call for submissions for Meet Me at Dusk, a dark fantasy anthology to be published by Lyrical Press:

As Edgar Allan Poe once deep into darkness peered, to wonder, fear and doubt, he also dreamed dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. And Nietzsche, while warning against hunting monsters, was quite fond of that abyss which gazed back.

The light of our hearts' delight can only shine sweeter against a backdrop of despair. Darker stories swirl and fester in the midst of the mundane; mysterious creatures prowl at the edge of awareness to seduce and devour.

Conflicts bleed into our world, to snare unwary mortals; tantalize us with hints of magic and enigma beyond our ken. Love is lost and found, empires rise only to crumble, and few dare to step beyond the threshold.

Did you grow up reading Poe, Burroughs and Lovecraft? Do Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and The Sandman graphic novels languish on your bookshelves next to Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls and Storm Constantine's Wraetthu novels? Lyrical Press is looking for works of dark fantasy that explore the contrasts of modern urban living with that of the supernatural, expressed in a gritty tone redolent with pop culture references and noir elements.

See the submission guidelines atwww.lyricalpress.com/submissions and email nerine@lyricalpress.com with your query.

* * *

Lyrical Press is actively acquiring all sub-genres of erotica and romance between 20,000 - 90,000 words.

General Submission Information:

  • Submit only full manuscript accompanied by a query and two-page synopsis. All other query types will be ignored.
  • Lyrical Press does not publish non-fiction of any sort. Non-fiction queries/submissions will be ignored.
  • Lyrical Press is closed to self-published and/or previously-published works. Such submissions will be ignored.
  • Lyrical Press does not publish non-romantic fiction, screenplays, young adult, inspirational, or poetry works. Submissions of these works will be ignored.
  • Submissions are usually passed into the review process once a week. If you do not receive confirmation of receipt within 14 days of submission, please resubmit the full manuscript and two-page synopsis.
  • Please inform Lyrical Press if the submitted manuscript is being offered elsewhere simultaneously, and keep the house informed of its status.
  • Lyrical Press is fairly quick in turnaround. If you have received notification of receipt but do not hear back from the house within six weeks of notification, please email Lyrical Press to inquire after your status.

Length Requirements:

Submission length: 20,000 - 100,00 words only.

Length terminology:

  • Short: 15,000 - 20,000
  • Novella: 20,001 - 35, 000 words
  • Short Novel: 35,001 - 60,000 words
  • Novel: 60,001 - 100,000 words

What Lyrical Press looking for:

All sub-genres of erotica and romance.

  • Erotica
  • iBDSM
  • Fantasy
  • Historical
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • Mystery
  • Paranormal
  • Science Fiction

Regarding objectionable content, Lyrical Press will not consider any work that glorifies, justifies or excuses the following subject matter:

  • Pedophilia
  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Bestiality
  • Necrophilia

Submission Procedures:

Lyrical Press will only consider completed works. No partials or proposals. There is no need to query first. Just send the full manuscript as prescribed below. Please include the following information in your cover email:

  • Legal name
  • Pen name
  • Contact phone
  • Working title (include series name and details if applicable)
  • Word count
  • Genre(s)
  • A short blurb (no more than three paragraphs, please)

Please attach the following to your email:

File Name Conventions:

  • Please name your book file BOOKTITLE_sub
  • Please name your synopsis file BOOKTITLE_syn

BOOK FORMATTING TIPS:

  • File type: .rtf or .doc only
  • 12pt black font (Times New Roman, Cambria or Georgia preferred)
  • Line spacing: 1.5 (or Multiple 1.25")
  • Margins: 1" all
  • One space between sentences, not two, please.
  • No double-spaces or extra returns between paragraphs
  • Use your word processing functions to indent new paragraphs. Do not tab or use the space bar.
  • Page-breaks between chapters
  • Do not use style elements or sections breaks

Please include a title page listing the following information:

  • Legal name
  • Pen name
  • Contact phone
  • Working title (include series name and details if applicable)
  • Word count
  • Genre(s)

Self-Editing tips:

A few pointers to help you help yourself before submitting.

  • Use spell check. (You'd be surprised how many don't.)
  • No bold, underlined or other special fonts except italic, used only where appropriate.
  • Point-of-view: We prefer first or third person. Limit point-of-view to essential characters. POV impossibilities a/o most head-hopping within scenes will make editors cry.
  • Punctuation: Again, keep it simple. Avoid clusters of emdashes a/o ellipses.
  • Repetitive word use: Check carefully for repeated words and phrases in proximity and throughout the work.
  • Unnecessary words: Common offenders are that, had, and, really, very, little, then, and then, just, about, against, so, all, but, like, and was/were.
  • Sentence structure: Generally speaking, it should be varied to avoid striking uncomfortable rhythms. Beware paragraphs with every sentence starting with articles a/o pronouns. Beware any overabundance of present progressive verb tense, possessive pronouns, -ly adverbs and prepositional phrases.
  • Dialogue tags: Sometimes, less really is more. Not every line needs a tag, and "said" and "asked" are just fine. Use a good mix of action a/o speaker attribution tags. Seek balance and clarity when distributing front, middle or end.

 

PUB: Call for Submissions: For Colored Boys (Magnus Books)|Writers Afrika

Call for Submissions:

For Colored Boys (Magnus Books)

 

Deadline: 20 July 2011

From May 20 until July 20, we will accept essays and other writings to include in For Colored Boys. We are looking for inspirational stories centered around any one of the following four major themes: faith, family, love and work. Submissions should be between 1000 and 5000 words. Some of the essays published in the finished book will be long and some will be short. Send your submission to info@4coloredboys.com. Please include your name, email address, phone number, brief 1-paragraph bio and a jpeg photo with your submission.

Unlike traditional anthologies which tend to use established writers, we also want to tell the stories of real people (ordinary and extraordinary) who have dealt with, or are still dealing with, adversity in their lives. Of course we intend to include essays from gifted writers, published authors and well known public figures who have overcome obstacles. But we are also looking for college students, suicide survivors, and those who have faced bullying or harassment in their lives. It doesn't matter if you call yourself "same-gender-loving," "down low," "gay," "queer," or none of the above. We're not interested in labels. We are interested in well-told stories that will educate, entertain or inspire others.

Ideally, we would like to include the voices of Latinos, Asian-Americans and other people of color in this book. And we expect to include the voices of those who are straight, bisexual, transgender or questioning, so long as the stories are relevant to the purpose and the themes of the book.

Finally, we don't expect every story to finish with a happy ending. That's not the way life works. Nor do we expect every essay to deal with suicide, harassment or tragedy. We want this to be a balanced but inspirational book about real life. Your voice and your story are critical to make that happen.

The book will be published in March/April 2012.

Title: For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough (A collection of writings on living life, confronting obstacles and believing in yourself)

Editor: Keith Boykin

Publisher: Magnus Books

Background:

In 1974, playwright Ntozake Shange published a choreopoem called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. The book/play/poetry would go on to inspire legions of women for decades and would later become the subject and title of a hugely popular movie in the fall of 2010. While the film was selling out movie theaters, young black gay men were literally committing suicide in the silence of their own communities. It was around that time when Keith Boykin, a New York Times bestselling author, and Magnus Books publisher Don Weise first discussed the possibility of working together on a book in response to the outbreak of suicides among young men of color.

In the same time period, a young Rutgers University student named Tyler Clementi took his own life after a roommate secretly videotaped him in an intimate setting with another young man. In response, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire young people facing harassment. Their message, It Gets Better, turned into a popular movement, inspiring thousands of user-created videos on the Internet. Savage's project targeted people of all races, backgrounds and colors, but Boykin and Weise wanted to create something special "for colored boys." When they decided to create a new book, the title was obvious: For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough. It was almost the same title author E. Lynn Harris had once considered for his memoir. The new book responds to the crisis of youth development and suicide in the black community, and more specifically among young gay men of color.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: info@4coloredboys.com

For submissions: info@4coloredboys.com

Website: http://www.magnusbooks.com/

 

 

PUB: Essay contest 'Women and climate change' - The Greens | European Free Alliance

Essay contest 'Women and climate change'

Call for papers deadline 1 June

Deadline : 1st of June
Send in essays to : greens.essaycontest@europarl.europa.eu
See conditions below

 

The role of human activity in accelerating climate change is beyond doubt. The fourth assessment report (4AR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), confirmed that overwhelming scientific evidence links the impact of human activity to climate change and unless action to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases is taken, the world is on a path to runaway warming.

Why is it so important to integrate gender aspects into debates on climate change?

Climate change and climate impacts are not gender neutral. Gender equality is a critical component of responses to climate change at all levels ‐ it should be integrated in all aspects of climate change planning and decision making.

At first glance, it might seem unintuitive to link climate change and gender issues. However, since societies still largely rely on gendered roles and responsibilities, both sexes do not have the same impact on climate change, and perhaps more importantly, are differently affected by it.

Women are disproportionately affected

Gender aspects of climate change are a matter of justice, human rights, and human security. Women are the poorest people in the poorest areas. Moreover, several studies indicate that the death rate in natural disasters can be four times higher for women. We have compelling data on how women are more vulnerable to climate change. It is thus important to be committed to gender sensitive approaches. We must adapt the mechanisms in place so that they reduce, or at least do not increase the gender issues.

Women empowerment and women's role

Women are change agents on both household and community levels with regard to natural resource management. Women are long‐time leaders on poverty eradication and sustainability, and gender equality is a key issue in the climate change debate. If we do not implement gender‐sensitive policies to fight climate change, it will have disastrous consequences on the gender balance.

On the other hand, if we include and empower women, who are often responsible for agriculture, food and water supply, as well as first education of the next generation, we will do a better job in addressing climate change and its consequences.

Mainstreaming the gender perspective is not only a sensible choice for our societies; it is a better, more efficient way to reach our goals.

Because this subject is at the very core of our preoccupations as members of the Green Party, we need to have better information and understanding on this subject, and answer these questions:

How can we counteract the disproportionate burden of climate change on women? How to empower women so that they become a key partner in reducing climate change?

How can gender equality be fully integrated into climate policies?

We encourage everyone to send us a paper with ideas and propositions on these issues.

TERMS OF PARTICIPATION

By taking part in the contest, participants agree on the terms of participation.

How and when to hand in my paper?
All papers have to be sent per e‐mail to  Greens.essaycontest@europarl.europa.eu before 1 June 2011, midnight. Papers sent after the deadline will not be accepted.

Who can apply?
Everyone.

Do I have to be a European citizen?
No, contributions from around the world are welcome.

About languages
Papers can be written in one of the four following languages: English, French, German and Spanish.

What kind of paper?
Papers should have the written form of an essay.

How long should the paper be?
Papers should be between 20.000 and 28.000 characters (with spaces) long.

How should it be presented?
Papers should be typed. No handwritten paper will be accepted.

What will happen next?
A jury made up of Green Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Green Party, the Federation of Young European Greens, Green Foundations, EGGO (European Green Gender Observatory) and NGOs will select the best essays.

Depending on the number of papers submitted, a pre‐jury might do a pre‐selection for the final jury.

What is the prize for the winner?
First of all, the best three essay writers will be invited to the Green Summer University in Frankfurt (Oder) and Slubice (1). This invitation includes transportation costs, hotel room for three nights and meals for the four days

The best essays will also be published in their original language and English, with a preface from Members of the Parliament and members of the jury. This book will be printed out and distributed during the University (to be confirmed depending on printing delays). The winners will get 10 copies each.

An event will be organised for the winners to read their essays to a selected audience, followed by a private dinner with members of the jury.

(1) The Summer University is a European event organized by the Greens in the European Parliament. Last time, it brought together almost 1000 people from all walks of life. Greens and non‐Greens, NGO representatives, scientists, managers and trade unionists, intellectuals and artists, students and other young people attended 4 plenary sessions and 46 workshops, 10 cultural events and 10 excursions.