Goodbye 'Sweet Micky'?

Martelly Serious

About Leading Haiti

Apr 10, 2011 

Emily Troutman Contributor

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- On the Sunday night before the announcement of Haiti's preliminary election results, tensions ran high. The candidates faced a troubled electoral system, an impatient population, the never-ending sense that what can go wrong, will.

At 9 p.m., hip-hop star Pras Michel took to Twitter:

RT @PrasMichel Machete + gasoline + matches = the will of people

Pras is an internationally known musician, the cousin and former Fugees band mate of Wyclef Jean, and he was one of the first to endorse Michel Martelly.

 

Emily Troutman for AOL News

Michel Martelly, the musician known as "Sweet Micky," is the new president-elect of Haiti.

The Haiti-focused twittersphere, small though it is, erupted in condemnation, interpreting his message as a call to violence. Fans of Wyclef and Martelly immediately threw back retorts, calling him a "moron" and "immature."

Some tagged their responses with frustration, #merde; anger, #yousuck; and social consciousness, #noviolence.

In a stream of apologetic responses, Pras said his tweet was meant as "a preventative statement and not an aggressive motive." But the damage was done.

On Monday, results were announced and Martelly swept the polls, garnering 67 percent of the vote. No violence or tire burning erupted. At Martelly's house, friends and supporters gathered to celebrate the sweet reward for their hard work.

Who wasn't invited? Pras. The star was not allowed in.

He's More Like "The Body" Than "The Gipper"

It's fitting that Martelly's first presidential censure took place in the new margin of Haitian politics, where music, social media and celebrity overlap. Martelly rose to stardom as the wily carnival star "Sweet Micky" and, on many counts, his campaign succeeded by leveraging stardom in all the right ways.

Many compare his foray into politics to that of American movie star Ronald Reagan. But in context and competency, Martelly more closely resembles wrestler-turned-governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

Ventura served as governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003 and as a veteran, projected the right combination of get-tough, straight-talk politics to land the state's top job. Ventura ran under the Reform Party. At the time -- young voters especially -- were fed up with the better known but stodgy Republican Norm Coleman and legacy Democrat Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III.

Martelly attended military academy as a young man, though he was tossed out. The socially conscious lyrics of his songs combined with vicious trash-talk toward his musical "frenemies" left little doubt among Haitians that he's a force to be reckoned with.

After Ventura took office, Minnesotans often sported goofy T-shirts with pictures of the uber macho wrestling star and the slogan, "My governor can beat up your governor." Here, too, Martelly's meteoric popularity was attended with his unique brand of counter-culture, highlighted in his trademark pink.

Voters wore pink bracelets and T-shirts with his caricature. His slogan, the phrase "Tet kale!" means "bald head." It also means "No sweat!" and has a third, slang meaning with a sexual connotation.

In campaign speeches, Martelly promised if audience members didn't vote for him, he would come back to town on his float and curse them all. He made fun of his opponents and increasingly fine-tuned his plainspoken everyman shtick, which seemed both contrived and authentic in equal measure.

In November, Martelly told AOL News that "Sweet Micky" was just a public persona; "That was the business. Sweet Micky was the store." But voters seemed hopeful that's not true.

Haitian Voters Want Change

"Our vote was a response to the current regime," one voter said. "We need a new era. We need change."

Patricia, 47, who sells chicken, said, "I want security. I want to walk in the street. I never voted before in my life but I voted for Martelly. To see change."

He was labeled a cowboy, bad boy, outsider, maverick, vagabond and rebel. For many, especially older women and conservative Christian voters, it was all a bit much. They were wooed away by Martelly's opponent, Mirlande Manigat.

Martelly never quite swayed all of the educated class, who were unimpressed by his lack of technical knowledge. Others were offended that he failed to try harder to woo them. During his campaign, he went for the masses and seemed to encourage the over-charged cult of personality. But even among the nervous, he won votes.

"I don't know, I just thought, [screw] it," a voter said. "It's like Manigat needed a reason to get people to vote for her. Her reason was, 'I'm smart.' And that wasn't enough."

Martelly was the high-risk vote, but his audacity made him the best chance at a high reward.

Much has been made of Martelly's past, not just in music, but especially in his past friendship with Michel Francois, a former police chief who helped orchestrate a coup against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Martelly's politics are known as "center right" here, and the vote against the status quo seemed to signal a departure.

Like all well-known crossovers -- Reagan, Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger -- Martelly is less of an "outsider" than his antics imply. Ventura himself was a mayor in Minnesota before he ran. Martelly first floated the idea of becoming president 20 years ago.

When asked this week at a press conference how he would deal with former presidents Jean-Claude Duvalier and Aristide, who are now back in Haiti, he responded, "I am president of all the Haitians."

It harkened back to his decades-old statements about Francois and entertaining controversial figures at his nightclub. In 1997, he told the Miami Herald, "I am a musician. I play for people who pay to get in."

He Was Political as a Performer

It's likely Martelly was successful in music because he is actually a politician, rather than a musician who stumbled into politics. At the very least, his stardom was a practice in power.

"Since I was a kid, even if I was the youngest one in the crowd, I would be the entertainer," he told AOL News. "I would be the one calling the shots. I would be the one everybody would focus on."

Music in Haiti, even more so than other forms of art around the world, is a deeply unifying cultural force. His stardom gave him rare agency in a culture with intricate class boundaries.

"I have a better Ph.D. than people who went to school. I have studied the complexity of this society for 22 years," he said.

Speaking about his past, he said, "The rich come here, I play at their wedding. I get inside their house. I do as I please. I get inside their business. I open their safe. I take as much money as I want -- I'm serious. I close the safe, I go to the poor and I give that money. And there was no limit for me in this country."

His campaign was heavily financed by Laurent Lamothe, a Miami-based business associate in international telecommunications.

Martelly has had "proximity" -- as he called it -- to the "rich," but that term is relative here. Haiti once had booming tourism and apparel industries, but has been in steady decline for decades.

"They should call us the broke-ass elite," one business owner said.

Haiti has one of the highest disparities between the haves and the have-nots, but it also has a lower gross domestic product than most countries; lower than Tajikistan, Yemen, or Equatorial Guinea.

Despite U.S. legislation that allowed duty-free apparel exports since 2006, 20 percent of the country's GDP is remittances from abroad, more than twice the earnings of all exports.

"A lot of people have been in power and don't do anything," said Jean Cenor, a cobbler. "We need someone new to take this power and help us."

Celebrity Alone Won't Be Enough

Ventura eventually drew ire for cashing in on a book deal while in office, but such offers aren't likely to appear for Martelly in Haiti, where the cache of celebrity is more limited.

During the campaign, he leveraged his local renown by bringing in bigger fish: Wyclef to harness the Haitian vote, and Sean Penn to lend legitimacy in the international aid community.

Development professionals and donors who visited Martelly over the past months often left charmed and star-struck. Both Penn and Wyclef were spotted at the post-election party at Martelly's house.

Some inside his circle were pleased that Pras was not there.

"I was happy because a lot of people think Michel will allow his friends to do whatever they want during his term," one party-goer said. "His decision to keep Pras away because of his tweet proves to me that will not be the case."

But for most of Haiti, and the world, for those who weren't invited to the party, the "gasoline + matches" incident was of little note. Who is Pras? And what is Twitter? Martelly will eventually face much bigger battles.

"People will try to hold you down," said Olita Reneleus, 26, a shopkeeper and voter with a word of advice. "There is evil around. You've got to fight a lot. Face a lot of bad stuff. You have to keep your head clear, straight. Come to us. Come back to the people when you need our help."

For his first post-election press conference, Martelly abandoned his old décor in favor of the more stately red and blue. But close observers noted his pale pink shirt. On Twitter at least, he
plans to stay @PresidentMicky.

The Prosecution Rests,

but I Can’t

By JOHN THOMPSON

Published: April 9, 2011

Paddy Molloy

 

I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I’ve been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished. Last month, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 to overturn a case I’d won against them and the district attorney who oversaw my case, ruling that they were not liable for the failure to turn over that evidence — which included proof that blood at the robbery scene wasn’t mine.

Because of that, prosecutors are free to do the same thing to someone else today.

I was arrested in January 1985 in New Orleans. I remember the police coming to my grandmother’s house — we all knew it was the cops because of how hard they banged on the door before kicking it in. My grandmother and my mom were there, along with my little brother and sister, my two sons — John Jr., 4, and Dedric, 6 — my girlfriend and me. The officers had guns drawn and were yelling. I guess they thought they were coming for a murderer. All the children were scared and crying. I was 22.

They took me to the homicide division, and played a cassette tape on which a man I knew named Kevin Freeman accused me of shooting a man. He had also been arrested as a suspect in the murder. A few weeks earlier he had sold me a ring and a gun; it turned out that the ring belonged to the victim and the gun was the murder weapon.

My picture was on the news, and a man called in to report that I looked like someone who had recently tried to rob his children. Suddenly I was accused of that crime, too. I was tried for the robbery first. My lawyers never knew there was blood evidence at the scene, and I was convicted based on the victims’ identification.

After that, my lawyers thought it was best if I didn’t testify at the murder trial. So I never defended myself, or got to explain that I got the ring and the gun from Kevin Freeman. And now that I officially had a history of violent crime because of the robbery conviction, the prosecutors used it to get the death penalty.

I remember the judge telling the courtroom the number of volts of electricity they would put into my body. If the first attempt didn’t kill me, he said, they’d put more volts in.

On Sept. 1, 1987, I arrived on death row in the Louisiana State Penitentiary — the infamous Angola prison. I was put in a dead man’s cell. His things were still there; he had been executed only a few days before. That past summer they had executed eight men at Angola. I received my first execution date right before I arrived. I would end up knowing 12 men who were executed there.

Over the years, I was given six execution dates, but all of them were delayed until finally my appeals were exhausted. The seventh — and last — date was set for May 20, 1999. My lawyers had been with me for 11 years by then; they flew in from Philadelphia to give me the news. They didn’t want me to hear it from the prison officials. They said it would take a miracle to avoid this execution. I told them it was fine — I was innocent, but it was time to give up.

But then I remembered something about May 20. I had just finished reading a letter from my younger son about how he wanted to go on his senior class trip. I’d been thinking about how I could find a way to pay for it by selling my typewriter and radio. “Oh, no, hold on,” I said, “that’s the day before John Jr. is graduating from high school.” I begged them to get it delayed; I knew it would hurt him.

To make things worse, the next day, when John Jr. was at school, his teacher read the whole class an article from the newspaper about my execution. She didn’t know I was John Jr.’s dad; she was just trying to teach them a lesson about making bad choices. So he learned that his father was going to be killed from his teacher, reading the newspaper aloud. I panicked. I needed to talk to him, reassure him.

Amazingly, I got a miracle. The same day that my lawyers visited, an investigator they had hired to look through the evidence one last time found, on some forgotten microfiche, a report sent to the prosecutors on the blood type of the perpetrator of the armed robbery. It didn’t match mine; the report, hidden for 15 years, had never been turned over to my lawyers. The investigator later found the names of witnesses and police reports from the murder case that hadn’t been turned over either.

As a result, the armed robbery conviction was thrown out in 1999, and I was taken off death row. Then, in 2002, my murder conviction was thrown out. At a retrial the following year, the jury took only 35 minutes to acquit me.

The prosecutors involved in my two cases, from the office of the Orleans Parish district attorney, Harry Connick Sr., helped to cover up 10 separate pieces of evidence. And most of them are still able to practice law today.

Why weren’t they punished for what they did? When the hidden evidence first surfaced, Mr. Connick announced that his office would hold a grand jury investigation. But once it became clear how many people had been involved, he called it off.

In 2005, I sued the prosecutors and the district attorney’s office for what they did to me. The jurors heard testimony from the special prosecutor who had been assigned by Mr. Connick’s office to the canceled investigation, who told them, “We should have indicted these guys, but they didn’t and it was wrong.” The jury awarded me $14 million in damages — $1 million for every year on death row — which would have been paid by the district attorney’s office. That jury verdict is what the Supreme Court has just overturned.

I don’t care about the money. I just want to know why the prosecutors who hid evidence, sent me to prison for something I didn’t do and nearly had me killed are not in jail themselves. There were no ethics charges against them, no criminal charges, no one was fired and now, according to the Supreme Court, no one can be sued.

Worst of all, I wasn’t the only person they played dirty with. Of the six men one of my prosecutors got sentenced to death, five eventually had their convictions reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. Because we were sentenced to death, the courts had to appoint us lawyers to fight our appeals. I was lucky, and got lawyers who went to extraordinary lengths. But there are more than 4,000 people serving life without parole in Louisiana, almost none of whom have lawyers after their convictions are final. Someone needs to look at those cases to see how many others might be innocent.

If a private investigator hired by a generous law firm hadn’t found the blood evidence, I’d be dead today. No doubt about it.

A crime was definitely committed in this case, but not by me.

 

John Thompson is the director of Resurrection After Exoneration, a support group for exonerated inmates.

SKIN

Synopsis

Ten year-old Sandra is distinctly African looking. Her parents, Abraham and Sannie, are white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. They are shopkeepers in a remote area of the Eastern Transvaal and, despite Sandra’s mixed-race appearance, have lovingly brought her up as their ‘white’ little girl. Sandra is sent to a boarding school in the neighbouring town of Piet Retief, where her (white) brother Leon is also studying, but parents and teachers complain that she doesn’t belong. She is examined by State officials, reclassified as ‘Coloured’, and expelled from the school. Sandra’s parents are shocked, but Abraham fights through the courts to have the classification reversed. The story becomes an international scandal and media pressure forces the law to change, so that Sandra becomes officially ‘White’ again. By the time she is 17, Sandra realises she is never going to be accepted by the white community. She falls in love with Petrus — a black man, the local vegetable seller, and begins an illicit love affair. Abraham threatens to shoot Petrus and disown Sandra. Sannie is torn between her husband’s rage and her daughter’s predicament. Sandra elopes with Petrus to Swaziland. Abraham alerts the police, has them arrested and put in prison. Sandra is told by the local magistrate to go home, but she refuses. Now Sandra must live her life, for the first time, as a black woman in South Africa  — with no running water, no sanitation, and little income. She and Petrus have two children, and although she feels more at home in this community, she desperately misses her parents and yearns for a reunion. After many more years of hardship and struggle, the chances of that reunion ever happening seem remote. But Sandra carries her father's advice with her wherever she goes: 'Never give up!' SKIN is a story of family, forgiveness and the triumph of the human spirit.

Press and Reviews of SKIN

“A measured and harrowing central performance from Sophie Okonedo... Her anguish lingers long after the end credits roll.” - Mike Goodridge, Screen Daily     "This great film by Anthony Fabian tells this story through the eyes of a happy girl who grows into an outsider. This isn't one of those potted stories of uplift and doesn't end quite the way we expect, although we do get to see the real Sandra Laing right at the end." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times "Of the innumerable, untold family tragedies that followed the imposition of the racist restrictions of the apartheid regime, the story of Sandra Laing is one of the most devastating. Skin tells her story with deep compassion and, for all its starkness and tragedy, it is a work of great beauty and inspiration." Barry Ronge, The Sunday Times (South Africa) "The journey to racial tolerance, which some people take for granted, has not been easy and over the years many people have struggled with the idea of accepting others as equals. It is within this context that all South Africans should be happy that a movie has been made that tells this story of race and racial tolerance which, thankfully, is slowly taking root in our society ." Edward Tsumele , The Sowetan, South Africa "The English actress Sophie Okonedo plays Sandra from age 17 to recent times. She takes her from shy kid to young mother to mature woman, through an amazing series of travails. At each turn, things become both more absurd and more tragic. Fabian has done a superb job. It's a scarifying, haunting film; Laing's story is brutal and the film never softens that. She survived, but what a price she paid." Paul Byrnes, The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) ""We've all seen movies and TV shows based, or supposedly based, on true stories, but I can't remember the last time one of them affected me quite like the South African movie, SKIN." Leonard Maltin's Secret's Out report   "To get a sense of just how deep the lingering effects of institutionalized racism must run, take yourself to Anthony Fabian's Skin, a powerful and compelling drama based on a true story that still resonates." Marshall Fine, Huffington Post reviewhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-fine/movie-review-iskini-is-de_b_33649..." title="Marshall Fine review" target="_blank"> "In the end, SKIN isn't a movie about skin at all, but the indomitability of the human spirit." - Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post review   "If ever there were a true-life tale that laid bare the laws of South African apartheid in all their arbitrary lunacy, it's the one dramatized in Anthony Fabian's straight-ahead biopic of Sandra Laing" - Ella Taylor, Village Voice review   "A South African family is divided by race." - Betsy Sharkey, LA Times review "It isn't just the inhumanity of apartheid that's illustrated in "Skin," but the out-and-out lunacy of laws and classifications intended to keep blacks and whites apart." - Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle review     ABC Drive-Time Radio, Perth, Australia. Listener Margaret Roberts rates the film "Six out of five."   http://blogs.abc.net.au/wa/2010/02/skin-film-review.html?site=perth&program=720_drive   Lisa Jensen, Good Times Santa Cruz review http://www.goodtimessantacruz.com/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-lifestyles/movies-movie-times-reviews-santa-cruz/411-color-bind.html       Jonathan Valdez, Encore Magazine http://blog.encoremag.com/blog/bid/32145/Film-Review-SKIN       Cary Darling, Dallas News review       http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/movies/reviews/stories/DN-skin_1106gd.State.Edition1.1c0e765.html Ted Fry, Seattle Times review       http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2010211468_mr06skin.html Seattle Post Globe review   http://www.seattlepostglobe.org/2009/11/05/film-review-skin Stars Studio report http://starzencore.edgeboss.net/wmedia/starzencore/20091031/ss133.wvx Eur Web review http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur57107.cfm The World NPR Radio Interviews with Anthony Fabian and Sandra Laing   http://www.theworld.org/tag/10302009/         AFI Dallas Interview with Anthony Fabian and Alice Krige           Film Forward review http://www.film-forward.com/skin.html KUCI Film School - podcast with Anthony Fabian   http://www.kuci.org/filmschool/         Daily Bruin Interview with Anthony Fabian http://beta.dailybruin.com/articles/2009/10/29/alumnuss-film-skin-tells-about-south-africa-aparth/ Dr. Joy Review   http://www.drjoyreviews.com/Feature.aspx?ID=393 Entertainment Weekly review http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20317541,00.html The Power Player Magazine www.thepowerplayermag.com Macon review http://www.macon.com/240/story/898607.html IndieWire Q&A with Anthony Fabian http://www.indiewire.com/article/skins_anthony_fabian_for_days_afterward_i_had_a_lump_in_my_throat/ Epoch Times review http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/24519/ The 123.net Interview with Anthony Fabian http://www.the213.net/php/article.php?id=1861 Film Journal review http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/esearch/e3ib2e664ce05ad759c8764f0e5439df2f8#at Giant Mag review http://giantmag.com/articles/in-theaters/in-theaters-last-dance-for-the-king-of-pop/ Interview Magazine Interview with Anthony Fabian  http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/film/2009-10-01/south-africa-films-anthony-fabian/ Black Beat/Right On Magazine capsule review http://www.rightonmag.com/?radiobutton=radiobutton&s=skin&x=0&y=0 My Mosaec Q&A with Anthony Fabian and Sandra Laing http://my.mosaec.com/video/scene-heard-skin Yahoo Japan Audio Interview with Anthony Fabian   http://www.hosokinema.com/skinaudio.html The Loop review http://www.theloop21.com/news/apartheid-poses-problem-for-white-couple-with-black-baby Essence Interview with Sandra Laing   http://www.essence.com/entertainment/film/sandra_laing_judged_but_not_broken_by_co.php Spirituality and Practice Review http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=19432" title="Spirituality and Practice review" target="_blank">   http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=19432 UN Radio Interviews with Anthony Fabian and Sandra Laing     http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/84848.html The Jewish Journal Interview with Sophie Okonedo http://www.jewishjournal.com/film/article/jewish_actress_sophie_okonedo_explores_biracial_identity_skin_20091020/ William Gooch Sound on Sight interview with Anthony Fabian   http://www.soundonsight.org/interview-with-director-anthony-fabian/ Cole Smithey report http://www.colesmithey.com/" title="Dan Person's podcast" target="_blank">   http://www.colesmithey.com/ James van Maanen, Trust Movies http://trustmovies.blogspot.com/2009/10/sophie-okonedo-sam-neill-and-alice.html         Huffington Post Dan Persons' podcast interview with Anthony Fabian http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-persons/emmighty-movie-podcastem_b_339267.html Women and Hollywood Interview with Sandra Laing http://womenandhollywood.com/2009/10/30/interview-with-sandra-laing-real-life..." title="Woman and Hollywood interview with SL" target="_blank">   http://womenandhollywood.com/2009/10/30/interview-with-sandra-laing-real-life-subject-of-skin/ Good Prattle Interview with Sophie Okonedo  http://www.goodprattle.com/2009/10/british-skin-actress-sophie-okonedo.html Ticket Stubz reiview http://ticketstubz.blogspot.com/2009/09/skin.html" title="Ticket Stubz review" target="_blank">  http://ticketstubz.blogspot.com/2009/09/skin.html" title="Ticket Stubz review" target="_blank">   http://ticketstubz.blogspot.com/2009/09/skin.html" title="Ticket Stubz review" target="_blank">   http://ticketstubz.blogspot.com/2009/09/skin.html Coming Soon review   http://www.comingsoon.net/news/weekendwarriornews.php?id=60322     Alex Roberts review     http://web.me.com/writa1/tvsoundoff/Film_Reviews/Entries/2009/10/29_Skin%2C_deep_tale_of_race_in_South_Africa.html BV on Movies Interview with Sophie Okonedo   http://www.bvonmovies.com/2009/10/29/sophie-okonedo-interview-skin-movie-winnie-mandela/#at Alternative Film Guide review   http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-movies/sophie-okonedo-skin/ Clutch Magazine Interview with Sophie Okonedo   http://clutchmagonline.com/featured-main/the-various-shades-of-sophie-okonedo/ Hollywood Go review       http://www.hollywoodgo.com/movie/skin-2719/ Movieline Interview with Sophie Okonedo http://www.movieline.com/2009/11/sophie-okonedo.php Airtalk review http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2009/10/30/filmweek/ KPFK Interviews with Sandra Laing, Anthony Fabian and Alice Krige feed://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/xml/pperf.xml Backstage review http://www.backstage.com/bso/news-and-features-features/more-than-skin-deep-1004029284.story Contra Costa Times review http://www.contracostatimes.com/movies-dvd/ci_13677745?nclick_check=1 Leonard Maltin review http://leonardmaltin.com/Picks.htm Campus Circle reivew http://www.campuscircle.com/review.cfm?r=9786 Movie Dearest review http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/2009/10/reverends-reviews-beneath-skin.html An Indian persective: Anthony Fabian interview in Indian Express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/souls-of-black/542512/3 Channel Four Television         Channel 4 Interview with Sandra Laing & Anthony Fabian Sophie Okonedo is interviewed on GMTV, ITV Sandra Laing: The outcast "Sandra Laing was a black baby born to white parents at the height of apartheid. The hatred, rejection and heartache she suffered at the hands of the authorities, her teachers and her family sent shock waves across the world." Chrissy Iley, Sunday Times       "This powerful drama tells an important story from apartheid-era South Africa with honesty and real sensitivity. And the cast makes it thoroughly gripping by never playing it safe." - Rich Cline, Contact Music "Powerful apartheid drama with a strong script, intriguingly complex characters and terrific performances from Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill and Alice Krige." - Matthew Turner, London View   "This quietly intelligent drama, based on a true story, finds a new way of dramatising race, class and society in apartheid-era South Africa, and it boasts fine performances by Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill and Alice Krige as a family whose refusal to conform was either heroic or tragi-comic or merely dysfunctional. Or perhaps all three." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian   "Anthony Fabian's film tells such a bizarre story it could only be based on the truth. Sophie Okonedo – herself raised by white parents – devotes herself admirably to the part." - Anthony Quinn, The Independent   "An apartheid story no one would screen" - UK Independent editorial by Arifa Akbar, Arts correspondent   "In an increasingly mixed society keen to break down barriers, shouldn’t there be more enthusiasm for diversity in film?" - UK Times editorial: Skin - the movie and the obstacle   Sophie Okonedo on growing up with a huge afro and a Jewish mum, her new film Skin, and why she's excited about playing Winnie Mandela - The Guardian - Question Time: Sophie Okonedo     The Guardian Film and Music Podcast with Andrew Pulver Interview with Anthony Fabian Skin - BBC World Service We review 'Skin' - the new award-winning South African movie starring Sophie Okenedo and Sam Neill. The film tells the true story of Sandra Laing who was born in Piet Retief, a small conservative town in apartheid South Africa. The newspaper columnist Hannah Pool, who is Eritrean by birth but adopted by white British parents, comes into the studio to review it for us. Tri-Continental Film Festival - One of South Africa's first sneak previews of SKIN     "In today’s PC world it’s easy to forget the absurdities of apartheid rules, or the way they still influence how we regard each other." - Theresa Smith, Cape Argus Tonight     “One of the more bizarre illustrations of racial injustice under apartheid is dramatized in SKIN. An involving tale presented with polished straightforwardness, acted with conviction by Sophie Okonedo as well as Sam Neill and Alice Krige as the well-intentioned but often misguided parents.” - Dennis Harvey, Variety     “A stirring allegory... Director Anthony Fabian's heartfelt attentions keep the picture on the right emotional track.” - Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter     Reviews from Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 08 "A remarkably accomplished first feature" Toronto Star "This is a powerful movie. See it — but go prepared." Metro Toronto     Reviews from AFI Fest, Los Angeles "Director Fabian’s debut is focused, well crafted, and free of sermons. " Screen Crave   "Okonedo gives an outstanding performance as a woman forced to live in two worlds under the blistering rule of Apartheid. She’s so convincing that you hang on to her every word and movements." Our Weekly   "Skin is an extraordinary movie that respects the complexity of the issues involved." Independent Films Direct   "..looks at the hurtful legacy of apartheid in South Africa.." Jamati BBC Talking Movies, Toronto Film Festival - SKIN feature St. Louis International Film Festival "Sophie Okonedo - most known for her roles in Hotel Rwanda and The Secret Life of Bees - delivers an exceptional performance as the elder Sandra." Beige World     Review from Honolulu "..a most potent depiction of racism and a South Africa not very far in the past. Honolulu Weekly Dubai International Film Festival "Skin: Treating difficult subjects" Xpress   "Sophie Okonedo, who plays Laing, does a fantastic job of capturing the full spectrum of her character ." Gulf News Review   "More Than Skin Deep" Gulf News Article   "Of a Black Woman Born to White Parents" Khaleej Times   AFI Dallas International Film Festival 2009 AFI Dallas: A Look Back at Skin     Santa Barbara International Film Festival "My favorite feature film pick for this year." SBCC Film Reviews   Washington DC ‘Sandra’s undeserved pain—both emotional and physical—will break your heart, particularly when her eventually estranged husband declares: “Her skin is a curse.”’ - Tricia Olszewski, Washington DC City Paper Washington City Paper Review     South Africa "Skin is film-making of a very high order… there are no transcendent heroes, just people -- confused, afraid, wanting to love and be loved, caught in the web of a great evil and trying to make a go of things by their own best lights. I cannot recall a film that captures so well the textures of SA, South Africans and life under apartheid." - Simon Barber, Business Day Business Day Review                                           Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles -l H. Clent Bowers, The Artists' Forum   Seattle Film Festival Review SIFF Almost unbearable , May 26, 2009 By Jason Eckelman “I don't know why, exactly, this movie resonated so much with me, but it damn near killed me. I was practically hysterical when it was over, and had to sit in the theater for several minutes after the film ended so I could pull myself together enough to leave. This had the potential to be emotionally manipulative & sentimental, but, in my opinion, it was brutally honest and totally real." SIFF Interview with composer Helene Muddiman

Watch Now –

“Kaffir Culture” (Short Shouts)

By Tambay, on March 30th, 2011

A short documentary by Kannan Arunasalam, tells the story of a small group of Sri Lankans of African descent, and their attempts to “keep their culture alive in the face of falling numbers.” According to Arunasalam, “… historians say that the Kaffirs of Sri Lanka started arriving from the eastern shores of Africa in the 1500s with the Portuguese, and later in more waves with the different colonizers of Sri Lanka.“

And in case you weren’t aware… Kaffir is a racist slur used by whites towards blacks in Southern Africa (it was also in wide use among whites in the West in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century). It also means “unbeliever” in Arabic.

Watch below:

 

Call for Short Stories from

Asia/ Africa:

"Outcasts" Anthology

 

Deadline: 1 August 2011

Writers from Africa and Asia are asked to submit short stories for an anthology of the two continents. The writers can be on the respective continents or in the Diaspora but it is necessary that their stories deal with the topic as experienced by Africans/Asians.

Topic - Outcasts (contemporary or historical, adult audience)

Length - 3000-5000 words

Submissions Deadline- August 1st 2011

Remuneration- Shall be discussed upon selection of your short story as part of the anthology. You will know by September 30th.

Editors - Writers Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner

The editors will need some written commitment from writers on whether they will be submitting something by May 30th. We kindly request no poetry or non-fiction. Purely short stories. Please submit a short two-line introduction about yourself with your story. If this exciting
project interests you as a writer, kindly get in touch with rohini.chowdhury@gmail.com / wanner.zukiswa@gmail.com.

 

 

GMC - American Black Film Festival's

$5,000 Screenplay Competition 2011

 

Deadline: 29 April 2011

gmc is America’s favorite channel for uplifting music and entertainment. It can be seen in almost 48 million homes and is available nationally on DIRECTV Channel 338, Verizon FiOS Channel 224 and on local cable.

Contest Overview

The gmc SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2011 is meant to encourage and promote the production of faith-friendly, family-friendly and inspirational screenplays and films. The competition is meant to:

• Encourage filmmakers to go beyond the “pastor’s story” and beyond the “church story” as the only settings for family-friendly and faith-friendly stories.
• Encourage filmmakers to organically incorporate faith and faith elements into stories that resonate and appeal to broad audiences.
• Expand interest beyond “Christian”/”evangelical” films, to include films that are consistent with Judeo-Christian values, and that have mainstream commercial appeal.
• Expand the genres/formats that tell these inspiring stories like dramas, comedies, romantic comedies and action movies.

Three (3) Finalist Screenplays will be chosen and sections of each will be read during a Table Read in front of a live audience at the American Black Film Festival 2011 (ABFF).
One (1) Grand Prize Winner will be selected from the three Finalists and announced at the closing night event of ABFF.

Eligibility Requirements

1. Screenplays must be faith-friendly and family-friendly. They must incorporate messages, themes or topics that include, depict, reflect, and/or are set in an American Black cultural experience.

2. Screenplays must be written for a two (2) hour television movie (approximately Eighty-Eight (88) minutes of content, excluding commercials).

3. Screenwriter(s) must be Eighteen (18) years of age or older as of the Date of Submission as stated in the Submission Form.

4. The contest is only open to United States residents.

5. All screenplays must be submitted in English.

6. Screenplays must be original with the Screenwriter, and must not have been produced, or be scheduled to be produced, in any form (television, live-theatrical, feature film, on-line).

7. Screenplays must be complete and have been written by the Date of Submission.

8. No individual Screenwriter can be attached (either as the sole Screenwriter or as a Co-Screenwriter) to more than three (3) submitted Screenplays.

9. The Screenplay must be the original work of the Screenwriter(s) and may not be based, in whole or in part, on any other work to which the Screenwriter(s) does/do not own the rights.

10. Employees of Gospel Music Channel, LLC, its parent, affiliate or subsidiaries (whether permanent or temporary), and their respective immediate family members and/or those living in the same household, are not eligible to participate in the gmc SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2011.

Submission Instructions

1. Each Submitted Screenplay must be submitted and received with the following items on the list below to qualify for entry:

o Two (2) completed copies of the Submission Form.
o Two (2) original and signed copies of the Submission Guidelines and Release.
o Two (2) original copies of the Screenplay.
o Each Screenplay should be submitted on 8-1/2 x 11, white, 3-hole punched paper, with only two brass fasteners (top & bottom).
o Each Screenplay should be a minimum of 88 pages and maximum of 100 pages.
o Each Screenplay should be typed in standard script format, in black ink, in 12 pt Courier or Times Roman font.
o Two (2) copies of a short Synopsis of the Screenplay (between 75 – 100 words).
o Two (2) copies of a written Biography and color Photo of each Screenwriter(s).
o Two (2) copies of a written list of writing and/or production Credits for each Screenwriter(s), including any work that has been produced or is scheduled to be produced, in any form, as of the Date of Submission.

2. The title of the Screenplay and name(s) of each Screenwriter(s) must be on all Submission Materials.

3. Each submitted Screenplay must be submitted with a separate Submission Form and separate Submission Materials as outlined below in the section titled “Submission Materials”.

4. Submission Materials (including the Screenplay, the Submission Form, and the Submission Guidelines and Release) should be mailed (by regular postage or express delivery) to:

gmc SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2011
c/o Film Life, Inc.
116 West 23rd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011.

NOTE: We will not accept electronic copies of any Screenplays or Submission Materials.

5. Submission Deadline: All Submission Materials must be received by 5PM on FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011. If any Submission Materials are received after 5PM on FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011, the Screenplay will not be considered.

6. Please note that Submission Materials will not be returned.
Selection and Prizing

If your Screenplay is selected:

1. Finalists:

o GMC shall select three (3) “Finalist Screenplays” and shall notify the appropriate contact for each Finalist Screenplay of its selection no later than Thursday, May 26, 2011.
o GMC shall host a Table Read at the American Black Film Festival where a section of each Finalist Screenplay shall be read in front of the attendees of the Film Festival.

2. Grand Prize Winner:

o GMC shall select one (1) “Grand Prize Winner Screenplay” from the three (3) Finalist Screenplays.
o The Grand Prize Winner Screenplay shall receive Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000) and shall be announced at the awards event for the Film Festival.

3. Travel and Accommodations to attend American Black Film Festival: For each Finalist Screenplay selected, GMC shall provide the following in connection with the American Black Film Festival: up to two (2) round-trip coach-class airfare tickets to Miami, Florida, shuttle ground transportation from the airport to the hotel on the day of arrival and from the hotel to the airport on the day of departure, and one (1) standard hotel accommodations (either single or double occupancy) for up to four (4) nights. (Approximate Value: $1,926.00). Each Finalist shall also receive up to two (2) Marquee Passes providing access to the American Black Film Festival events. (The Marquee Passes do not include or provide access to the Master Classes/Workshops.) Any other costs associated with the prize receipt and/or use that are not expressly stated above are not included in the prize package and are solely the responsibility of the Finalists.

More information here.

 

 

Cæsura 2011 Issue Call for Work: Brothers and Sisters

In the Vietnamese tradition, people address each other as “anh” or “ch? ”—brother or sister. Even strangers in the street are greeted with such familial terms. This complicates the relationship shared between real siblings, those with whom we are supposed be as close hands and feet. What does it really mean to call someone “brother” or “sister”? What kind of closeness is required of us when we relate to another person in such familial ways?

Caesura, the literary journal of Poetry Center San Jose, seeks poetry, essays and reviews on the subject of brothers and sisters. Think of how the terms are used: blood brothers, brothers in arms, sister cities, sisters of mercy, brother’s keeper, etc. We are looking for work that presents the “brothers and sisters” relationship in all its incarnations—within families, in a culture, in a community, and even in religious groups.

The editors of Cæsura invite you to submit 1-3 poems addressing our theme. Submissions should not exceed 4-pages in total. All styles are welcome.

In addition to poetry, we are interested in essays and reviews of poetry or mixed genre collections (please query), as well as black and white art and photography.

The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2011. Notification of the status of your submission will be sent by August 2011. The 2011 issue of Cæsura will be published in September of 2011.

cæsura Submission Guidelines

Provide the following contact information with your submission: name, address, phone number, and email address.

We take first-print publication rights. Previously published work (in print or online) will not be considered. We accept simultaneous submissions on the condition that you notify us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We reserve the right to post work accepted for publication on our website.

Send your work in an email attachment in Word .doc format or pasted as plain text into the body of an email message to caesura@pcsj.org. If your work requires the preservation of a particular visual format or contains special characters, also send a hard copy to:

Cæsura
Poetry Center San José
1650 Senter Road
San Jose, CA 95112

If you would like hard copy material returned to you, include an SASE.

Visual Art

Submit black and white photographs and graphic art in .jpg or .pdf format (if your work is accepted, we may request a .tif or high resolution .jpg file) to caesura@pcsj.org.

Books of The Times

Peeling Away Multiple Masks

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

Published: April 7, 2011

He was a master of reinvention who had as many names as he did identities: Malcolm Little, Homeboy, Jack Carlton, Detroit Red, Big Red, Satan, Malachi Shabazz, Malik Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and, most famously, Malcolm X. A country bumpkin who became a zoot-suited entertainer who became a petty criminal who became a self-taught intellectual who became a white-hating black nationalist who became a follower of orthodox Islam who became an international figure championing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.”

 Philippe Cheng

 Manning Marable

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

MALCOLM X

A Life of Reinvention

By Manning Marable

Illustrated. 594 pages. Viking. $30.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Related

• On Eve of Redefining Malcolm X, Biographer Dies (April 2, 2011)

• Manning Marable, Historian and Social Critic, Dies at 60 (April 2, 2011)

• Excerpt: ‘Malcolm X’ (April 2, 2011)

 Patricia Wall/The New York Times

In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” Manning Marable — a professor at Columbia University and the director of its Center for Contemporary Black History, who died just last week — vividly chronicles these many incarnations of his subject, describing the “multiple masks” he donned over the years, while charting the complex and contradiction-filled evolution of his political and religious beliefs. The book draws from diaries, letters, F.B.I. files, Web resources and interviews with members of Malcolm X’s inner circle.

This volume does not provide much psychological insight into why Malcolm X became such a protean figure (or why he needed to distance “his inner self from the outside world”), and it lacks the urgency and fierce eloquence of Malcolm X’s own “Autobiography.” Still, Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life — first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination in 1965 at the age of 39.

Mr. Marable argues that Malcolm X was a gifted performer, adept at presenting himself to black audiences “as the embodiment of the two central figures of African-American folk culture, simultaneously the hustler/trickster and the preacher/minister.” He also suggests that Malcolm exaggerated his criminal youth in his “Autobiography” to create “an allegory documenting the destructive consequences of racism within the U.S. criminal justice and penal system,” and to underscore the transformative power that the Nation of Islam brought to his own life while in prison.

As Mr. Marable sees it, the “Autobiography,” which was written with Alex Haley (later of “Roots” fame), was in some respects “more Haley’s than its author’s.” Because Malcolm X died in February 1965, Mr. Marable writes, “he had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament.” Haley, “a liberal Republican,” in Mr. Marable’s words, made the finished book read like a work in “the tradition of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography” rather than “a manifesto for black insurrection” — which perhaps explains its widespread popularity and prominent place in high school and college curriculums.

One of the many achievements of this biography is that Mr. Marable manages to situate Malcolm X within the context of 20th-century racial politics in America without losing focus on his central character, as Taylor Branch sometimes did in his monumental, three-volume chronicle of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. At the same time Mr. Marable provides a compelling account of Malcolm X’s split with the Nation of Islam as he moved away from that sect’s black nationalism and radical separatist politics, and as personal tensions between him and the Nation leader Elijah Muhammad escalated further after Muhammad impregnated a woman who had had a longtime romantic relationship with Malcolm X.

Along the way Mr. Marable lays out a harrowing picture of Nation members’ determination to do away with the charismatic Malcolm X, who after being exiled from the sect had struck out on his own, forming a new group and alliances with orthodox Islamic groups abroad. When surveillance records become fully available, Mr. Marable asserts, “it would not be entirely surprising if an F.B.I. transcript surfaced documenting a telephone call from Elijah Muhammad to a subordinate, authorizing Malcolm’s murder,” but he does not come up with a smoking gun on that count in these pages.

It is Mr. Marable’s contention that while two of the three men convicted of the murder had alibis, the man who actually fired “the kill shot, the blow that executed Malcolm X” went free, only to serve prison time later for other crimes. He says this man is one Willie Bradley, who was later inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame for his high school baseball achievements and briefly appeared in a campaign video, promoting the re-election of Newark’s mayor, Cory A. Booker. (The Star-Ledger of Newark published an article about a man it says is Mr. Bradley, but his family denies any connection to the shooting.)

Mr. Marable speculates that Mr. Bradley “and possibly other Newark mosque members may have actively collaborated on the shooting with local law enforcement and/or the F.B.I.,” but fails to provide any hard evidence concerning this allegation either. In addition he argues that law enforcement agencies did not actively investigate threats on Malcolm X’s life, but instead “stood back, almost waiting for a crime to happen.”

In the course of this volume Mr. Marable corrects some popular assumptions: for instance, Malcolm X was introduced to the Nation of Islam not by a fellow prisoner — as depicted in Spike Lee’s 1992 movie “Malcolm X” — but by family members. Somewhat more enigmatic and sharper-elbowed than the man in the movie, Mr. Marable’s Malcolm is a passionate, conflicted and guarded man, filled with contradictions — charming and charismatic with audiences and the press but detached, even chilly with his wife, Betty, whom he frequently treated with misogynistic disdain. Some people quoted in this volume depict Malcolm X as being fatalistic in the last days of his life, telling one former associate that “the males in his family didn’t die a natural death.”

As a young man in prison Malcolm steeped himself not just in black history, Mr. Marable writes, but in “Herodotus, Kant, Nietzsche, and other historians and philosophers of Western civilization.” His hungry intellect and gift for oratory would make him a magnetic proselytizer for the Nation of Islam, and later, after his split from the Nation, for his own more pluralistic vision, which would align him more closely with the civil rights movement and Dr. King, whom he had once denounced as an Uncle Tom.

There is one ill-considered effort in these pages to rationalize Malcolm X’s violent rhetoric in his Nation of Islam days. “In retrospect,” Mr. Marable writes, “many of Malcolm’s most outrageous statements about the necessity of extremism in the achievement of political freedom and liberty were not unlike the views expressed by the 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who declared that ‘extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.’ ”

This hardly seems an apt comparison given Malcolm X’s description of a 1962 airplane crash, killing more than a hundred well-to-do white residents of Atlanta, as “a very beautiful thing,” proof that God answers prayers. Or his description of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as an instance of “the chickens coming home to roost” — to which he added that “being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.”

For the most part in this book, however, Mr. Marable takes a methodical approach to deconstructing Malcolm X’s complex legacy: his articulation of the “frustrations of the black poor and working class” and his message of “black pride, self-respect, and an awareness of one’s heritage.” As for the incendiary actions Malcolm X sometimes took as a member of the Nation of Islam, these are duly chronicled here as well.

After a 1962 police raid on a Nation of Islam mosque in Los Angeles (in which more than a half-dozen Muslims were shot), Mr. Marable asserts, Malcolm X began to recruit members for an assassination team to target officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. The year before, Mr. Marable says, Malcolm and another Nation leader met with representatives of the Ku Klux Klan, assuring those white racists, according to F.B.I. surveillance, that “his people wanted complete segregation from the white race.”

Spiritual and political growth was the one constant in Malcolm X’s restless and peripatetic life. During a 1964 trip to Mecca he was treated with kindness by white Muslims and was moved by the sight of thousands of people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds praying in unison to the same God. This would lead to his embrace of a kind of internationalist humanism, separating himself not just from Nation of Islam’s leadership but from its angry, separatist theology too. After Mecca, Malcolm began reaching out to the civil rights establishment and came to recognize, in Mr. Marable’s words, that “blacks indeed could achieve representation and even power under America’s constitutional system.”

Toward the end of his “Autobiography” Malcolm X wrote: “The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities — he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the wall and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth — the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.”

__________________________

• 
• • Andrew Anthony
  • The Observer, Sunday 10 April 2011
  • Article history

Malcolm X returns to his house, firebombed the previous night, on 15 February 1965. He was murdered a week later. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Of all the American leaders who were assassinated in the 60s, that decade of turmoil and revolt, Malcolm X has enjoyed the greatest upturn in posthumous fortune. In the pantheon of black American protest figures only Martin Luther King occupies a more exalted position, but it is Malcolm X whose legend has the greater street credibility and aura of cool. It's he who was the subject of Spike Lee's biopic starring Denzel Washington, and it is Malcolm, not Martin, who today is cited by radicals and rap stars.

1. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
2. by Manning Marable
3. 
4. Buy it from the Guardian bookshop

Search the Guardian bookshop

Yet Malcolm Little, as he was born, was a petty thief and a pimp who found salvation in theNation of Islam (NOI), a bizarre cult led by a mountebank and sexual predator named Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad preached that white people were a race of devils created 6,000 years ago by an evil scientist named Yakub. As Muhammad's leading minister, Malcolm X rejected the civil rights movement, labelled Dr King a "house Negro", and formed liaisons with the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi party – organisations that he found preferable to mainstream political parties.

Although the Nation of Islam continually boasted of its willingness to defend itself and by extension the black community, it reserved its fire power for its own members, severely beating anyone who stepped out of line, and killing those (like Malcolm himself) who were deemed a threat to Muhammad. Malcolm X knew this, but he stayed loyal to the cause for the better part of his adulthood – only breaking from the NOI in his last year of life, when he was kicked out in an internal power play.

How and why has death treated him so well? One reason is theAutobiography of Malcolm X, a memoir ghosted by Alex Haley, who later wrote the Afro-American blockbuster Roots. The autobiography sold more than 6 million copies in the 10 years following Malcolm's murder by NOI hitmen in 1965, and continues to be a key revolutionary text. A gripping mixture of urban confessional and political manifesto, it not only inspired a generation of black activists, but drove home the bitter realities of racism to a mainstream white liberal audience.

But if the book's success established Malcolm's legacy, it also created a myth that deterred a more stringent analysis of his life and work. Now, almost a half century on, Malcolm has finally received the biography that his unique role in black and global resistance culture demands.

Manning Marable, who died on 1 April after a long illness, was professor of history and political science at Columbia University and was steeped in African-American studies. He has left a meticulous, comprehensive and fair-minded portrait of both Malcolm and the turbulent period of American history in which he lived and died. We learn that the "Detroit Red" image of Malcolm as a street hoodlum was exaggerated in the autobiography, the better to dramatise his conversion to the law-abiding but society-rejecting doctrine of Muhammad's NOI.

Long before multiculturalism entered the language of political discourse, Malcolm was busy exploring its logical endpoint of ethnic and cultural separation – which helps explain his collusion with far-right white racists, including meetings with the Ku Klux Klan and verbal support for Nazis. But then Malcolm said many things. As Manning shows, he was adept at tailoring his message to different audiences, often blatantly contradicting on a Wednesday what he had clearly and emotively stated on a Monday.

Not the least of Malcolm's flaws was his attitude to women, and his wife in particular. Betty Shabazz was abandoned in her home for the greater part of her marriage, including the period during which Malcolm and his family were targets of a campaign of NOI intimidation. Malcolm's habit, after the birth of each of his four children, was to embark on distant speaking tours.

Yet despite all of this, the man who emerges from this book is in many respects admirable: brave, loyal, self-disciplined, quick-witted, charismatic, acutely intelligent and a public speaker of quite awesome power. A fallacy that has grown over the years is that there were three distinct Malcolms: the street thug, the white-hating demagogue and, after his split with the NOI, a liberal integrationist who was in essence a slightly more outspoken Dr King.

Regardless of his book's subtitle, Manning convincingly argues that there was in fact a much stronger continuum. Malcolm (whose father was probably murdered by white racists) was first of all the child of supporters of the black nationalist Marcus Garvey. And while he softened his position vis-a-vis white America in his post-NOI phase, he remained capable of vehement anti-white rhetoric and overwhelmingly concerned with black power.

Given his difficult childhood (he was taken into care and fostered), and the fierce racism that dominated American civil and political life at the time, his attitudes were not surprising. What was out of the ordinary was the unrelenting determination that Malcolm brought to the business of galvanising black America. Lacking a formal education, he became a voracious reader and an inspired debater. Manning suggests that Malcolm's youthful appreciation of jazz helped create a vocal rhythm that broke from convention and propelled his speeches with a kind of bebop daring.

While Malcolm correctly predicted that black culture would assume a central role in American life, he would never have foreseen the election of a black president. And as is true of many militants, there was no tyrant, however murderous, that he wouldn't praise in the name of anti-imperialism. Yet in truth, he outgrew the NOI strategically and intellectually some years before the final breach, and stayed within the organisation, parroting lines for which he felt increasing contempt, out of blind allegiance. Perhaps he knew that to leave was to sign his death warrant.

In the NOI's newspaper, a few weeks before Malcolm's murder, one of the group's leading ministers declared: "Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death." They were the words of Louis X, who had been Malcolm's most promising disciple. He is now better-known as Louis Farrakhan, the current and long-standing head of the NOI.

Malcolm's killing on 21 February 1965 in front of a Harlem audience that included his wife and young children has been the subject of sometimes deluded speculation. He was shot down by three men, one of whom, a NOI member, was caught and disarmed by the crowd. The two others – whose identities have long been known – escaped, and two entirely innocent men were found guilty and imprisoned in an appalling miscarriage of justice that, ironically, served only to confirm Malcolm's opinion of America's prejudiced legal system.

Manning presents a strong case that there was some form of FBI collusion in the murder, if only to the degree that the bureau, which had spies all over the NoI, failed to prevent the plot. He also floats the probability that at least one of the killers was an FBI informant.

Whatever the truth, there is no disputing that Malcolm was shot dead by men who largely shared his beliefs. Nor that 30 years after his murder more than half a million black men would converge on Washington DC to protest, in the language he made popular, the demonisation and criminalisation of African-American males. The keynote speaker at that "million man march" was Louis Farrakhan. Malcolm, no doubt, would have appreciated history's gift for farce.

>via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/10/malcolm-x-reinvention-review-mann...

Trailer For Youth Poetry Slam Documentary

“Louder Than A Bomb”

By Tambay, on April 7th, 2011

Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, and opening in theaters on May 18th is the documentary Louder Than a Bomb, which tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world’s largest youth slam. Both hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the lives of these kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and viceversa.

After its May 18th opening at the IFC Center here in New York City, the film, which has already screened at 20 or so festivals to critical acclaim and audience appreciation all over the country, will be released in a national theatrical roll-out.

Also worth noting, Louder Than a Bomb has been selected for the “OWN Documentary Club,” a new monthly documentary series on Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network! It’ll air there in the coming weeks, likely after its theatrical release, so you’re encouraged to stay tuned for more dates and more information!

The film’s website has a list of all its upcoming screening dates, leading up to its theatrical release, so you can click HERE to go THERE and see if it’ll be coming to your city sooner than you think.

Otherwise, in the meantime, check out its trailer below:

 

Shaniya's Shame

The murder of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis highlights a disturbing and growing trend in the U.S.: the trafficking of young girls into sexual slavery.

• By: Malika Saada Saar | Posted: November 19, 2009 at 2:46 PM