Each year Gertrude Press publishes two chapbooks; one fiction and one poetry. These attractive collections will include a unique cover in a limited press run. Submit your work for consideration!
Writer Compensation: $100 cash award 50 complimentary copies of the chapbook
You can purchase past chapbooks online here. Chapbooks will be distributed to subscribers, libraries, and bookstores carrying Gertrude, the Press’ annual literary journal.
Poetry Chapbook Guidelines:
Submit 16-20 pages of poetry, either online or via surface mail.
Indicate which poems have been previously published and by whom. Unpublished poems are welcome.
Poetry may be of any subject matter and writers from all backgrounds are encouraged to submit.
Include a cover letter and SASE for notification. For manuscript returns, please include exact postage.
Indicate how you learned of the contest in your cover letter.
Include a $15 submission fee payable to Gertrude Press; online submissions are $17 to cover printing, ink, etc.
Submissions accepted beginning August 1, 2010 until March 15, 2011 (postmark deadline).
Fiction Chapbook Guidelines:
Submit 16-20 pages of short fiction or a self-contained novel excerpt, either online or via surface mail.
Indicate which selections have been previously published and by whom. Unpublished pieces are welcome.
Fiction may be of any subject matter and writers from all backgrounds are encouraged to submit.
Include a cover letter and SASE for notification. For manuscript returns, please include exact postage.
Indicate how you learned of the contest in your cover letter.
Include a $15 submission fee payable to Gertrude Press; online submissions are $17 to cover printing, ink, etc.
Submissions accepted beginning August 1, 2010 until March 15, 2011 (postmark deadline).
Submit Online:
To submit your work online, please select your genre below and click the Buy Now PayPal button:
Upon payment, we will redirect you to submission instructions and PayPal will send payment confirmation by email. We will also email submission instructions within 24-48 hours. We accept Word (.doc or .docx) or RichText (.rtf) files only. The online submission fee is $17 to cover the PayPal fees as well as the paper, ink and time to print out the manuscript.
Mail submissions to: Gertrude Press PO Box 83948 Portland OR 97283
CONTEST FINAL JUDGE: Elaine Equi Elaine Equi has published 11 books of poetry including her most recent work Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems (2007) and Voice-Over (1999) which won the San Francisco State Poetry Award. Her work is widely anthologized and appears in Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology and in The Best American Poetry (1989, 1995, 2002). She lives in New York with her husband and teaches creative writing in the Master of Fine Arts programs at City College of New York and The New School.
Bellday Books will publish the winning book and award $2,000 and 25 copies of the book to the winning author.
Contest Rules:
Submit a manuscript of 60-90 pages of original poetry in any style in English. The manuscript must not have been published in book or chapbook, but may contain poems that have appeared in print or on the Internet. Entries may consist of individual poems, a book-length poem or any combination of long or short poems.
Submitted manuscript must contain 2 title pages: Name and contact information should appear on first title page only. Name should not appear anywhere else in the manuscript. Include a table of contents page, but do not send an acknowledgements page.
Manuscript must be typed single-spaced, paginated and bound with a spring clip.
Enclose an SASE for announcement of the winner. Manuscript cannot be returned.
Postmark deadline: March 15, 2011.
Include a check or money order for $25 reading fee, payable to BELLDAY BOOKS.
Bellday Books reserves the right not to select an award winner, in which case all reading fees will be refunded.
CONTEST MAILING ADDRESS: Bellday Books, Inc. P.O. Box 3687 Pittsburgh, PA 15230
Does the poet retain full rights? The poet retains full rights, but there must be an acknowledgement or citation of the book at each subsequent printing or printed use.
Will Bellday publish submitted poetry in any instance but the winner? Bellday may (or may not) approach poets who submitted other manuscripts and negotiate for publication of their manuscripts.
What will be done with rejected manuscripts? Manuscript paper will be recycled, as with virtually all other competitions.
Would you consider a manuscript co-authored by two poets? We will accept a manuscript in which two poets wrote the poems together. If it's merely two poets putting a book out together, the manuscript is not eligible for the award.
Is it okay if some of the poems were already published in a chapbook? As long as they are not the only poems in the book. The book can not just be a reprint of a chapbook.
Is the contest only open to U.S. citizens? The only stipulation is that the poetry be in English. Anyone can enter.
Who are the prescreening judges? There will be 5-8 preliminary screeners from around the country, all of whom are writers, students or otherwise involved with literature.
Is it a one-time or ongoing award? It is an annual award.
What kind of poetry do you want? Good poetry of any style on any subject will be considered. Elaine Equi will make the final selection.
Are you posting an announcement anywhere? We are posting announcements in the January-February issues of both Poets & Writers and American Poetry Review.
When do you plan to announce winners? We hope to announce the winner by July 15, 2011.
The Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series welcomes manuscripts from all living writers, including non-US citizens, writing in English. Both unpublished and published writers are welcome to submit manuscripts. Writers may enter both contests. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your manuscript is accepted for publication somewhere else. No past or present paid employee of Prairie Schooner or the University of Nebraska Press or current faculty or student at the University of Nebraska will be eligible for the prizes.
Manuscript
We prefer that fiction manuscripts be at least 150 pages long and poetry manuscripts at least 50 pages long. Stories and poems previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion. Novels are not considered; one novella along with stories will be considered (please don't send single novellas or a collection of novellas).
Xeroxed copies are acceptable. Please do not bind manuscripts with anything other than a binder clip or rubber band. The author's name should not appear on the manuscript. All entries will be read anonymously.
Please send two cover pages: one listing only the title of the manuscript, and the other listing the author's name, address, telephone number, and email address.
An acknowledgements page listing the publication histories of individual stories or poems may be included, if desired.
No application forms are necessary.
Entry Fee
A $25 processing fee must accompany each submission, payable to Prairie Schooner.
Prizes
Winners will receive $3000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press.
Notification
Please include a self-addressed postage-paid postcard for confirmation of manuscript receipt. Please use a standard postcard -- small index cards will not be accepted by the post-office.
A stamped, self-addressed business size envelope must accompany the submission for notification of results.
No manuscripts will be returned. All non-winning manuscripts will be recycled.
Winners will be announced on this website on or before July 15th, 2011. Results will be mailed shortly thereafter.
Address and Deadlines
Manuscripts should be mailed with a postmark between January 15th and March 15th, 2011 to:
Prairie Schooner Prize Series Attn: Fiction or Poetry 123 Andrews Hall Lincoln, NE 68588-0334
Initially profiled this German flick back in September, when it was selected for Fantastic Fest 2010. There was no trailer at the time, but one surfaced earlier this month, and I just stumbled upon it.
As I said in my initial post, at the time, the ideas here simultaneously intrigued, as well as scared the shit out of me!
On one hand, it may provide for an intriguing opportunity to explore race, privilege, class, identity, ethics, the nature of being/consciousness and more, on film, and maybe in ways that we haven’t quite seen before; on the other, it could wear its ignorance on its sleeve (assuming it is of course flawed in that way), and be nothing more than an exploitative (even though well-intended) piece of fiction… an experiment gone completely wrong… especially at the hands of a white European filmmaker.
German filmmaker Damir Lukacevic is its director. The film was released in Germany last year, but nowhere else since.
It’s is called Transfer; and here’s the breakdown:
At the Menzana facility, customers with the financial means to do so can sidestep the constraints of this mortal coil by having their consciousness and memories implanted into the minds of young, healthy bodies, primarily those of immigrant Africans and other third world residents who agree to participate in the procedure for the money their families will receive.
The film opens with a consultation session for potential clients Herman and Anna (Hans Michael Rehberg and Ingrid Andree), a wealthy German couple entering their twilight years. While both have ethical concerns about the procedure, Herman is deeply worried by his wife’s failing health and both fear the day that death will separate them. Their initial hesitation to the transfer procedure gives way after Anna learns that she has but months to live. She and Herman soon return to Menzana and commit to purchasing the bodies of Apolain and Sarah (B.J. Britt and Regine Nehy), two refugees from Africa who have been specially selected for their compatibility with the body and brain chemistry of the aging couple. Under the conditions of the transfer, Herman and Anna have use of their new bodies for 20 hours a day. When they sleep, their hosts Apolain and Sarah return to consciousness and are able to use their own bodies for a period of four hours.
Again… hmmm… a love story between an older white couple, with a black refugee couple essentially playing the vessels (literally) to accommodate that love story. I hope you can understand my trepidation. And the below trailer does little to comfort me.
If anyone has any further info on it, or has actually seen the film, chime in…
The annual Lund International Fantastic Film Festival has begun. Last year there was not as many science fiction movies as I hoped for, but I got to see the Swedish premiere ofMoon (2009) which compensated for that. This year I’m going to watch three films of the genre and first out was the German movie Transfer. The movie takes place in a future where science have made it possible to rent or buy someone else’s body and transfer your mind into it. A rich old couple from Germany decides to do that and the bodies they get are from two black Africans, who by doing this makes sure that their families get money. A couple of hours every night, the owners gains control over their bodies again, and during those occasions they fall in love and after a while the hosts and the guests begin to communicate with each other. Suddenly there are four persons in the relationship and not everyone is happy about where this is going.
The movie is based on a short story calledThousand Euros, One Life by Eli Barcelo, but director Damir Lukacevic was encouraged to develop it into a feature film with a budget of € 1,200,000 instead of the € 100,000 that was planned from the very beginning. Compared to most American sci-fi this is no money at all, but the movie has a great production value. One reason for this may be that it is shot with the digital RED One 4K HD camera (instead of 35 mm or 16 mm film) which makes it cheaper, but also affects the look in the way the image becomes cleaner. The only negative thing about the technical aspects of the production, I noticed, was that the editing sometimes felt a little strange. Either because of the editing department failing in experimenting or, more likely, that they didn’t shoot coverage for everything and ended up with lack of material in the editing room, forcing them to use jump cuts and such.
The movie has an almost too obvious theme about seeing things in black or white, both in the colour of the main characters’ skin, but also in the way they argument. Transfer gives a new perspective of the relation between the rich and the poor in the world. In this movie we see how Europeans exploit Africans to the degree that “we” take over their bodies. This makes it sci-fi, but is a good metaphor for how we make others give up their life for our well being, without really knowing or considering the costs. The African couple do sign their contracts by free will, but the question is how free the choice really is. Lukacevic does a good work in showing the structural racism in the European society, which is put into another perspective when the same racist tendencies are shown by Apolain, one of the Africans. At the same time other characters argue that things are not that simple, and that they have to think beyond the colour of the skin and see that we are all humans with the same basics needs for love and freedom. I liked these themes in the story very much, but they could have been explored further and deeper. Also, the plot is not as good as it could have been. However, I liked what I saw, and this being the second good German sci-fi movie I have seen this year, Pandorum (2009) being the other one, I’m really looking forward to see what comes next.
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Martin Wikner Science Fiction film theory student at the University of Lund & freelancing movie maker.
Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on September 29, 2010.
Kwame Dawes is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and plays. Born in Ghana in 1962, Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica. As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in a recent interview his "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music." His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley. Dawes has also published 15 collections of poetry. His most recent titles include Back of Mount Peace and Hope's Hospice. His book, Requiem is a suite of poems inspired by the illustrations of African American artist Tom Feelings in his landmark book The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo. He has also published two novels: Bivouac and She's Gone, winner of the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. In 2007 he released a memoir, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative, called "a poet's eloquent meditation on the complexities of history, race and the oft-broken promise of America," by Geoff Dyer.
You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to audio recordings of this event there.
The nerve centre of Libya's revolution is an anxious place indeed. At the heart of Benghazi's courthouse, a building that claimed to stand for justice through Gaddafi's reign, groups of civilian professionals – lawyers, doctors, surgeons and engineers – find themselves at the heart of the movement that is throwing off his despotic yoke.
"We decided to protest last week, for our rights," a lawyer told the Guardian. "And suddenly everything changed. It turned from a protest to a revolution. We don't have any experience in this," she said.
All around her people swirled with documents, mobile phones and momentous news from afar. The town of Zawya fell today, a messenger rushed in to say. Shortly afterwards came word of Masrat, a city halfway to Tripoli that also seems to be falling to the rebels, then the three largest oil fields around Benghazi. The speed of events was staggering.
Five days after Benghazi was sacked, Libya seems to be falling quicker than anyone in Benghazi expected, or prepared for. History has overtaken those who find themselves running the revolt. "And it's causing me a lot of stress," said the lawyer. "We are worried about the people in Tripoli, food and other supplies. We need to co-ordinate everything. There is a lot of responsibility."
Her colleague Amal Bagaigis agreed. "We started just as lawyers looking for our rights and now we are revolutionaries. And we don't know how to manage. We want to have our own face. For 42 years we have this kind of babarianism. We now want to live."
Almost a week after a series of rolling demonstrations became a full-blown revolt, the country's detested old guard now seems confined to a shrinking region near the capital. Gaddafi's grinding reign is widely despised and openly mocked, and the ruined part of the country that has freed itself of him is very much in the mood for re-invention.
"We could be anything now," said one man outside the courthouse where the overwrought professionals upstairs were trying to usher the revolution westwards. "He kept us down because he didn't want anyone to threaten him. That's how despots have always worked. When Libyans get a chance to achieve things, we can be the best in the region."
Libyans stand atop an army tank outside the courthouse in the dissident-held city of Benghazi. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty
Thousands gather on the road outside the courthouse each day. By night their numbers swell at least tenfold. Here, wedged between the storm-tossed Mediterranean and a building that once stood as a pillar of the regime, they chant anti-regime slogans, fire guns into the air and hold two fingers skywards in Churchillian "V for Victory" style.
The people are clearly looking for direction from the city's new custodians. And they seem more confident than the professionals are in their ability to get things done.
"This city has a good spirit," said Ahmed al-Sereti, on the rain-soaked street below. "Everyone is doing what they can to make sure things don't slip backwards. There has been no stealing, no looting [apart from government offices, all of which have been sacked]. And people know that this event has changed everything."
The primary concern in Benghazi has been security. But with eager youths manning traffic lights and residents patiently queuing outside banks in the vain hope that they may open soon, there is no sign of frustration or fear. Relief and euphoria seem to be driving this place. The people's awareness that Benghazi's destiny is in their own hands for the first time in four decades is clearly empowering.
"I came back three months ago," said Haithem Gheriani, an Irish-trained surgeon. "And I'm really glad I did. To find myself at the centre of an event in my own country that is so important, so liberating, is a terrific feeling."
Gheriani pitches in at the courthouse, along with oil engineers and businessmen, many of them returned expatriates. Several floors above them, three of Gaddafi's ill-fated mercenaries are locked up in what used to be a holding cell. Hollow-eyed and horrified, their futures seem bleak. "They are kept here for their own safety," said Gheriani. "If we let them go the people would kill them," he said, pointing at the milling crowd in the street below.
The erratic leader who recruited them, just over a week ago, on Thursday seemed to be at the verge of losing total control of the country. His grasp on sanity was again also in question. In a third address on state television, he blamed al-Qaida for inciting the rebellion and called on Libyans to rehabilitate wayward children who had joined the fray.
"The power is in your hands," Gaddafi said. "It is a different system here [compared with Tunisia, or Egypt]. If you want change the advantage is with you. It is your choice. You can put people on trial, you can change your job.
"This is unacceptable, unbelievable. People claim that they are intelligent; teachers, engineers. If they are reasonable people with reasonable demands, just ask them what they want. But they are not reasonable. They have been dictated to by Bin Laden."
Gaddafi did not appear on video, raising questions about where he is now as towns around the capital steadily fall into rebel hands. Zawya to the west of Tripoli was the scene of fighting between opposition groups and the regime that left scores dead, local officials said. In further bad news for Gaddafi, leading members of his own tribe have denounced him, and in particular the brutal crackdown he ordered on dissenters in the east of the country that led to Benghazi being lost.
"They started this protest peacefully," said Gheriani. "And the youths joined them. And then when Gaddafi started killing them the people rose up."
That version of Libya's fast-moving revolution is echoed by most people spoken to by the Guardian over the past two days; a series of protests inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the region that were met by prescribed savagery.
That much seems formulaic in a regime that has shown no tolerance for dissent since 1969. However, the next phase was not in the script. "We all just decided we had had enough," said Qais al-Ibrahim. "We felt that this was just too much and the people attacked the bases and the government. But to see things fall the way they did was astonishing."
Another lawyer, Abdul Salam al-Masmari, said the savage over-reach of Gaddafi's forces on Saturday was a final straw. "We started hearing about all the killings and we didn't want to stay here demonstrating in front of the court. It was a chilling moment, a powerful moment. That's when we knew we had to make this push for freedom."
As the lawyer was speaking to us, security officers inside the court arrested a local reporter who they suspected was a spy for the remaining regime elements in Benghazi. He was taken to the same prison cell where the alleged mercenaries are held. The event left nerves even more frayed.
"The revolution is four days old," said the female lawyer. "The fence of fear has been broken. But we still need to protect ourselves. The regime will find whatever way they can to reach us. He has all of our names and thoughts in a notebook and he has my voice on tape. He is not a real journalist. Collaborators are still out there. That's why I don't want to give you my name."
Throughout the afternoon, there didn't seem to be much strategic organising going on. But nor did there need to be. One by one, reports came in of towns falling like dominoes on the long march to Tripoli. The revolution seems to be self-fulfilling. Help keeps pouring in from unlikely sources.
"One of the regime's key figures in the area came to see us today," the female lawyer said. "He said he is with us now."
Did she believe him?
"Not really," she said. "But he has done his calculations and he can see that we are winning strongly. He will be loyal to where the strength is."
On Libyan television the father of a defecting air force pilot wept with pride as he explained the exploits of his son, who had been sent to bomb three oilfields near Benghazi. The father's account confirms those reported by workers at the Bregga oilfield of two men parachuting to earth and a jet fighter crashing nearby.
"My son was ordered to take off by a man with a gun pointing at his back. He said no and pulled the lever to eject them both. He is a hero. Even if he died I would still be proud. He refused to kill the people."
Across town at the army base, which fell to swarming demonstrators on Sunday, a dungeon has been unearthed. It is not far from Gaddafi's former parade ground, which lies in a crumpled heap. Today fathers were taking their children through the site, a heavily concreted underground hole that showed signs of recent use. "People were tortured here last week," said one father. "It used to be the most feared place in town. Now it's for everyone to see. It shows how bad he was and how lucky we are."
Change has been rapidly embraced in Benghazi. In less than four days a new radio station has opened, called Freedom Radio, and a new newspaper has hit the streets. A revolutionary song recorded in recent days is on high rotation and bandanas in the colour of the former independence flag are worn.
However the rapid succession of events seems perhaps a little too fast for the revolution's organisers. "I am really stressed about this," said the female lawyer. "We are sleeping three hours a night, we are not seeing our families and we cannot get too far ahead of ourselves. One step at a time, we keep telling people. But they are really proud and enthusiastic. The trouble is this is not over yet. Tripoli is our capital, yesterday, today and tomorrow. That is our goal."
11:06pmThe Guardian newspaper reports that UK officials have told Gaddafi loyalists to defect or face war crimes. The article says that a draft resolution which circulating within the Security Council seeks to achieve the following: arms embargo on the government, travel bans and asset freezes of senior officials.The writers Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger say that the idea of a no-fly zone was removed from the Frano-British draft resolution and it was not discussed at a NATO meeting in Brussels. Meanwhile, more than 200 Arab organisations and around 30 Arab intellectuals appealed for a no-fly zone over Libya. Egyptian writer and commentator Hani Shukrallah reportedly told the Guardian:
Stopping Gaddafi and his family shopping in Harrods or on the Champs Elysées is not going to prevent him unleashing further bloodshed. It's time to stop fiddling about and get serious.
10:45pm UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to act quickly on a proposed package of U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Libyan leaders to end their violent crackdown in the country. "It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action," Ban told the 15-nation council. "The hours and the days ahead will be decisive for Libyans."
10:20pm Chad's Foreign Ministry has rejected allegations that citizens were among those reportedly recruited by Gaddafi to crack down on protesters.
International media inundates the public opinion with information alleging some Chadian would be mercenaries currently acting in Libya. We want to formally and categorically deny all those allegations that are dangerous and could pose a material and physical danger to the many Chadians living in Libya for years and always in a peaceful way. There are no Chadian mercenaries, there are no Chadians being recruited on Chad territory to go to Libya as mercenaries. It is possible that some Chadians in a private capacity and for personal reasons can belong to such or such group.
9:55pm Washington is finalising sanctions against Libya; the precise plan will be outlined in "the near future" according to Washington spokesperson, Jay Carney. "The mechanics of the sanctions have not been finalised"
9:35pm The reports that protesters, armed with weapons from abandoned security installations in Beghazi, vow to march on to Gaddafi's palace in Tripoli. Writer Adrian Blomfield says that many in Benghazi are afraid of "the retribution Mr Gaddafi will unleash on them for their rebellion if they fail to complete their mission and force him from power". 9:14pm Reports coming in: The UAE will send two plane loads of humanitarian aid to Libya, where protesters are battling the regime. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan was quoted as saying "two planes carrying humanitarian aid will leave Saturday from the UAE to Libya via Turkey in order to meet the urgent needs of the Libyan people in the circumstances they are facing."
Qatar sent a relief plane to Libya on Friday that Qatar Airways said will land in Libya's second city Benghazi, which is in the hands of the protesters. 8:35pm Al Jazeera's correspondent in eastern Libya, who cannot be named for her security, reports that while that region of the country has been mostly won by anti-Gaddafi protesters, people are anxious about what Gaddafi might do next.
People do say that they have broken the fear factor, that they have made huge territorial gains ...yet there's no real celebration or euphoria that the job has been done.
8:07pm Libyan UN envoy say he expects oil exports to stop for security reasons but the industry will not be harmed.
8:04pm The United Nations warns that Libya’s food supply network is on the brink of collapse, according to Democracy Now. More here. 8:02pm The BBC reports that UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the last British flight from Tripoli will leave tomorrow.
7:47pmSave the Children, an international NGO, says that they are concerned at reports that children have been killed in a violent crackdown on anti-government protestors by Libyan security forces. They are particularly concerned that ten of thousands more could be displaced if fighting between security forces and anti-government protestors intensifies. Andrew Wander, Media Manager for Emergencies, offers an assessment of the situation.
7:45pm Watch Gaddafi's address to the Libyan people:
7:40pm Gaddafi addresses Libya at Green Square
7:30pm Tarik Yousef - Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington. tells Al Jazeera following Gaddafi's 'surprise speech' speech at Green Square, thirty minutes earlier:
I am torn between seeing this as a legitimate speech in front of crowds willing to support him, but I'm also aware of the capability of Libyan propaganda machine, so I want to wait and see what the analysts make of it ... That is not the average scene of what you'd expect from Green Square
7:14pmSeveral hundred people have gathered outside the Libyan embassy in Britain once more to show their support for protesters, Jacqueline Head, Al Jazeera's online reporter in London reports. However this time a small contigent appearing to represent Hizb ut Tahrir were also rallying, calling for a sharia state to be installed in Libya. The group said they were there to show their support for the Muslims in Libya. Muftah Abdelsamad, a 57-year-old Libyan living in exile in Britain for 35 years, told Al Jazeera:
We call them the nutters, because that's what they are. We are Libyans. we are Muslims... but these people don't want democracy or freedom. What do they want, dictatorship? We always lived together - Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Jews. And we're all going to live together again."
7:00pm Gaddafi has just addressed the Libyan people from Green Square in Tripoli.
We can defeat any aggression if necessary and arm the people ... prepare to defend Libya. Prepare to defend petrol, prepare to defend dignity."
6: 25pm Serbia denied media reports on Friday that its pilots or ground crews had been involved in Libyan air force bombing missions against protesters, adding that it was suspending all its arms exports to the country. The Serbian Defence Ministry were responding to reports in Arab and Maltese media that Serb mercenary pilots took part in bombing runs against protesters in the Libyancities of Tripoli and Benghazi.
6:01pm Violence flared up even before the Friday sermons were over, according to a source in Tripoli.
People are rushing out of mosques even before Friday prayers are finished because the state-written sermons were not acceptable, and made them even more angry,” the source said.
5:55pmBloomberg reports 'Al Jazeera Enrages Dictators, Wins Viewers With Coverage'
Beaming images of the protests and interviewing key participants, Al Jazeera in particular has moved from being perceived as a Middle Eastern talk shop to a catalyst for change.
5:28pm Al Jazeera correspondent tweets: Precious scene on Libyan state TV now - kids leading pro-Gaddafi gathering, chanting 'Long live Papa Muammar'
5:01pm The Libyan envoy to the UN has told the Human Rights Council that he and others at the embassy "represent only the Libyan people" and not the regime.
4:52pmTwitter user in Tripoli reports gun fire outside his house. He reports that he had to run back into the house after witnessing a shoot out, and someone being shot in the head. He continues to give running commentary of the events outside his home. Here is a picture of a bullet hole in the wall.
4:25pm Reports coming in that Libyan security forces tried to seize back control of the coastal town of Zawiyah, about 50 kilometers west of Tripoli, but were driven back by government opponents,
4:01pm The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) reports that that the exodus of mainly foreign migrants from eastern Libya to Tunisia was increasing. It has been reported that upto 7,408 new arrivals over a 24-hour period until early Friday morning at the Ras Adjir border crossing alone. This put the total number of arrivals in Egypt, Tunisia and Niger to about 40,000 to 50,000. 4:00pm Reuters reports that at least five protesters were shot and killed by security forces in Tripoli today.
3:40pm Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said today that Europe was united behind sanctions against Libya and called for swift EU and UN action. Westerwelle was speaking during a news conference with visiting Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri who said "the legitimate aspirations of Libyan people have to be supported, and have to be supported by action."
3:25pm Reports of heavy gun-fire in various Tripoli districts - Fashloum, Ashour, Jumhouria, Souq Al Jouma.
2:55pm All diplomats at the Libyan embassy in New Delhi have now defected. Not just the ambassador but the entire embassy Al Jazeera has learned. An excerpt of the press release sent to Al Jazeera:
2:19pm Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says a no-fly zone over Libya has not been discussed yet.
"Such a far reaching approach would require a very clear international legitimacy and in particular a United Nations mandate," Rasmussen told a news conference on Friday.
2:00pm Libyan state TV broadcasts a sermon from Friday prayers in which the imam says:
"Those who call for chaos will not be forgiven on the Day of Judgment. Stay away from internal fighting. We have to stay away from any evil and wrong doing. Whoever disobeys the ruler is disobeying God. We have to stay away from incitement work for unity."
1:31pm All diplomats at the Libyan embassy in New Delhi, India have now defected, Prerna Suri, Al Jazeera's correspondent in India reports.
1:25pm Security forces are deployed around mosques in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, fearing protests when Friday prayers end shortly, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
12:55pm We have more information on the evacuations of British citizens from Libya. The UK foreign office says:
"The security and wellbeing of British nationals is our absolute priority. We are doing all we can to get them out of Libya, drawing on both military and commercial assets, as well as working with international partners. Our priority is ensuring British nationals can leave Libya as quickly and as safely as soon as possible."
12:46pm Al Jazeera Arabic has an exclusive with the man accused by the Libyan government of leading an Islamist emirate in Derna, Libya. The man, Abdul Hakeem Al Hasadi, denied the accusations and said he is a former political prisoner.
“I am, Abdul Hakeem Al Hasadi, a Libyan citizen and a former political prisoner. I would like to read the following statement in response to lies made by Dictator Gaddafi and his propaganda machine. I tell them that I am one of the participants in the revolution of Feb 17th along with the youth and people of Derna against the corrupt regime of Gaddafi.
"Gaddafi is trying to divide the people of the nation. He claims that there is an Islamist Emirate in Derna and that I am its Emir. He is taking advantage from the fact that I am a former political prisoner."
12:43pm The UN's World Food Programme says Libya's food supply chain is at risk of collapsing, as imports are not reaching ports and distribution around the country is reportedly hampered by violence.
12:33pm Italy is reportedly planning a "military operation" to rescue Italian nations stranded in Libya, Ignazio La Russia, the Italian defence minister, told the SkyTG24 news channel.
12:30pm The AFP news agency reports anti-government protesters calling themselves "children of the revolution" have occupied Libya's embassy in Paris.
French police were reportedly stationed outside the embassy, preventing anyone else gaining access, including those wishing to bring the protesters food.
12:20pm Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the Libyan leader's sons, has reportedly told CNN-Turk that his family plans to live and die in Libya. The excerpt appeared online ahead of the full broadcast at 11GMT on Friday.
"Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya."
11:43am Charlie Beckett of POLIS, a journalism and society think-tank, says Al Jazeera is leading the citizen media revolution, and he cites our coverage in Libya.
11:27am Al Jazeera Arabic has learned that intensive discussions are under way between defected Libyan political leaders, including ambassadors and ministers who have stepped down, to form a political body to lead the country.
11:00amSky News reports that the UK government allegedly paid Libyan officials to facilitate the evacuation of British citizens.
10:50am If you've ever wondered why Libyan protesters have been waving a red, black and green flag with a star and crescent instead of the plain green flag you may be looking for, wonder no more. Al Jazeera web journalist Asad Hashim explains it all here.
10:33am EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton has joined those calling for sanctions against Libya in a bid to stop the bloodshed.
10:14am Libyan state television reports Libyan families will receive 500 dinars (or about $400) each, while wages for some public workers could increase by 150pc.
10:12am Germany is preparing sanctions against Libyan leaders over the attacks on protesters, Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minister, said on Friday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting.
"It's no longer about setting deadlines, it's about acting now," Westerwelle told Deutschlandfunk radio. "Therefore I have decided that sanctions should be prepared now."
10:10am Libya's government has spent years strengthening relations with Latin America, mostly through investments. But now, Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Sao Paulo on the region's divided reaction to Gaddafi's crackdown on protests in Libya.
10:06am France and Britain are to ask the UN for a Libyan arms embargo, financial sanctions and an indictment from the International Criminal Court against Libyan leaders for crimes against humanity, the Reuters news agency reports, citing an interview with French foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie on France Info radio.
10:00am NATO has called an emergency meeting for Friday afternoon to discuss the situation in Libya.
"I have convened an emergency meeting in the NATO council this afternoon to consult on this fast-moving situation. So I will return to Brussels in a few hours," NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Reuters news agency. adding that NATO has "assets that can be used in a situation like this".
"I would like to remind Al Jazeera channel about the spotlight it has created on Libya and creating division because the people will come out and they will die. The colonel Muammar al Gaddafi will remain and he will not change ... And we are happy with what he wants."
However, just a short while later, the same site posted a voice note from a citizen of the UK, who praised Al Jazeera for being a "beacon of light".
"I would like to inform the Al Jazeera channel to continue being a beacon of light for transmitting and informing other channels as they were in Egypt so that there is no media cover up and the truth reaches the people."
9:00am Al Jazeera Arabic has learned that Libya’s chief prosecutor and head of judicial inspection have resigned.
8:45am As we mentioned in an earlier post, residents of Tripoli report receiving text messages from the government urging people to "get back to normal" and "go to work".
"If you notice, they started cleaning the streets and painting over the writings on walls and the marks of the fire that happened in the past few days all at once to make the city look like nothing happened. But if you look closely you can still see that they did a very bad job painting it over. It looks like they are hiding something."
The channel, together with the Arabic-language only Al Arabiya, has been influential enough to cause Qaddafi, 68, to interrupt his hour-long, rambling televised speech on Feb. 22 to criticize their real-time coverage of his remarks after he was handed a note by an aide.
8:02am Stephanie Bernstein, a rabbi in Bethesda, Maryland, has been one of the most outspoken victims of the Lockerbie bombing and says she hopes the Libyan leader will be held accountable. Monica Villamizar blogs about it, citing Bernstein:
"All those people in the diplomatic world who thought somehow [Gaddafi] would be a modern progressive leader should be ashamed of themselves."
5:56am This was first posted by the UK's Guardian two weeks ago, but remains an informative interactive map of tweets from protests across the region - collected from top bloggers, experts and journalists.
5:50am As Libya descended further into chaos, Muammar Gaddafi for the second time addressed the nation on state TV. However, as Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports, Gaddafi's argument that he was not the leader is simply a denial of responsibility:
5:06am China has so far evacuated 12,000, or about two-thirds, of its citizens from turmoil in Libya, many of them workers for Chinese-run projects and businesses in the oil-rich nation, official media said on Friday.
5:01am Venezuela's top diplomat on Thursday echoed Fidel Castro's accusation that Washington is fomenting unrest in Libya to justify an invasion to seize North African nation's oil reserves.
Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said:
They are creating conditions to justify an invasion of Libya.
4:27am Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has backed Muammar Gaddafi on Twitter.
Chavez tweeted:
Gaddafi is facing a civil war.
Long live Libya. Long live the independence of Libya.
3:30am The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to consider actions against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's government that could include sanctions aimed at deterring his violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Possible measures include an asset freeze for government figures, travel and visa bans, investment and export restrictions or tough Security Council action.
3:01am There are reports doing the rounds on the internet of "texts being sent in Libya, purportedly by the government, saying: [However, its veracity has not been confirmed yet]
You will receive 100LYD credit if you send a text saying to people to remain indoors tomorrow.
2:53am According to posts on the microblogging site Twitter, an ad hoc government in Benghazi has set up committees to deal with security, public health, food supplies and evacuating foreigners.
2:46am According to witnesses, pro-Gaddafi forces took control of Misrata town late on Thursday after evicting forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi from the Mediterranean coastal city, prompting street celebrations, a witness said.
You need to listen to your parents. If people disobey their parents they end up destroying the country, he said. The same case as in Britain (where) for 57 years the Queen has been ruling. I have been in the same situation.
2:40am Twitter user @_Noura posted this to Twitpic:
2:32am Libyans say they risk arrest or even death for talking to the foreign media because the authorities are desperate to stop information about their violent crackdown reaching the outside world.
In total, the Libyan regime is said to have around £20bn in liquid assets, mostly in London, according to the newspaper report.
1:26am Twitter user @Farrah3m posted this to Twitpic:
1:22am Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, have sought to quell fears that unrest in Libya would put oil prices on a long term upward trajectory.
12:30am Barack Obama, the US president, spoke on Thursday with the leaders of France, Britain and Italy to discuss their "range of options" as they considered how to respond to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.
12:00am Canada defended its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Libya on Thursday amid problems getting a charter flight into Tripoli. The charter was supposed to pick up some 200 Canadians in the Libyan capital, and Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Affairs Minister, had planned to welcome them back at Rome's airport.
11:30pm As per latest reports, the US government has asked its citizens to leave Libya immediately.
Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, one of Gaddafi's top security officials and a cousin, defected on Wednesday evening, saying in a statement issued by his Cairo office that he left the country "in protest and to show disagreement" with "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws.
Sources tell Al Jazeera that Al-Dam was travelling to Syria via Cairo on a private plane and that he went to Egypt in protest against the violence deployed by the government in Libya.
Mustafa Abdel Galil, who resigned three days ago from his post as the country's justice minister, spoke to Al Jazeera at a meeting of tribal leaders and representatives of eastern Libya in the city of Al Baida.
He warned that Gaddafi has biological and chemical weapons, and will not hesitate to use them.
'We call on the international community and the UN to prevent Gaddafi from going on with his plans in Tripoli,' he said.
'At the end when he’s really pressured, he can do anything. I think Gaddafi will burn everything left behind him.'
There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia, according to the official UNICEF estimate. Frehiwot Abera is one of them. Photographer Tyler Stableford met her on his volunteer work there. He says she lost both her parents by age five. She is now 12, living with her unemployed aunt in the war-ravaged town of Rama. (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
Ethiopia and Trying New Things
Tyler Stableford is serious about his service to others. Seriously intrepid. He and his wife adopted their son from Ethiopia in 2009. A few months later, he was "so deeply invested" in the humanitarian group that facilitated the adoption, he offered to shoot a documentary for them. The only problem -- he hadn't made a documentary before.
"I try to reduce my fear of trying new things, of holding myself back," he told me late last month. He was in Los Angeles to give an IRIS Lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photographyin Los Angeles as part of their Extreme Exposure exhibition.
Any time a person holds a camera up to his or her eye, Stableford says, there is an alteration of view. See video clip below from his Annenberg lecture for an insight into his approach. (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
(The entire Annenberg lecture can be viewed here.)
Stableford is well established in Colorado and nationally as an outdoor still photographer, and, as you can see in this blog, he definitely took stills on the Ethiopia trip. But the nonprofit Wide Horizons for Children also wanted a short film. Stableford bought two Canon 5D cameras shortly after they came on the market -- they shoot high definition video as well as stills -- and took them to Ethiopia a week later with a couple of batteries.
"I said okay this is going to be my crash course into shooting movies." (You can see the result by clicking here.)
He was following a path that many talented still photographers take these days as they follow the DSLR technological breakthrough into the world of film-making. That he decided to turn it into eight weeks of service to a humanitarian nonprofit is indicative of his approach to life.
A few years back, he decided to dedicate at a week each year to nonprofit work. He also is an active member of 1% for the Planet.
"Selfish" Service
"That's been easily one of the more rewarding things in my life. I came to it late. I was not an active volunteer in my 20s... I mirror a lot of the people in my photographs - who are upper class white people recreating in the outdoors.... I started looking at my own searches for greater and lasting happiness. A a lot of them -- meditation, books I was reading, practices -- converged in service as being a core tenet of happiness -- of a full life. I realized it [service] was missing from my life."
He describes himself as a "marketing photographer" and believes the best way he can contribute to nonprofit work is with his camera. The trip to Ethiopia also allowed him to use his story-telling ability and his journalistic background -- he has experience working as an editor in magazines.
Stableford told the story of two orphans who became solo mothers raising their children while living in a "dumpster home" in Addis Ababa. On the left, Meskeran Gedacho lost her parents in 2000. She holds her 1 year-old son, Nati. Bethlehem Demesy is 20. Her son Nahom is four. Bethlehem's parents died when she was a teenager. She, like Meskaran, turned to prostitution and begging for survival. Stableford, with the help of an interpreter, made this photo, and the following one, because he felt it was important to tell the stories of the vulnerable people who didn't receive outside support from organizations like Wide Horizons for Children. Both photos (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
(c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
"Ethiopia .. is about as hard hit as a place can get. I was able to go out with a translator and ask questions that never, even if they were friends, would I ask. "How did you lose your mother? How did you lose your father? What are your memories of them? How did you survive before you met this agency to help you? "
The documentary trip did more than help spread awareness for the nonprofit Wide Horizons. Stableford says two fund-raisers he attended on the East Coast of the US coast raised several hundred thousand dollars for the cause.
But Stableford says he was just helping "in a small way, not like other people who give relatively more of their time and resources." He also says he's being selfish.
"When I talk about doing nonprofit work, I say, for me it's an entirely selfish act. And [I add] that it's most sustainable when it's done selfishly. It has brought so much joy and perspective and gratitude to my life."
The Great Outdoors
Stableford takes a wide view of nature. He made this photo of a glacial cave in Iceland with a 15mm lens. The approach distorts normal perspective, but allows him to tell his stories with more detail and a greater sense of an all-encompassing environment.(c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
"I spend pretty much every day in the outdoors," Stableford says. Living in Carbondale, Colorado, he has plenty of opportunity. He loves climbing and skiing and anything that puts him out in nature. He says the outdoor experience connects him to what is timeless and therefore is "incredibly soothing." And it shows in his photography.
"I use very wide angle lenses. About as wide as companies make is what I want to shoot with. All my photos have people in them for the simple reason that I can make a living. .. If there's nobody in the photo, nobody wants to buy it, pretty as it is... So I capture the model or the athlete and still tell the wider story of the environment. All my themes are about finding that freedom and escape in the outdoors."
"Every photo is an experiment," Stableford says. Success is often not replicable from setup to setup. But he says "there's magic in that entropy. So I stopped trying to nail the perfect image." Not a bad effort here, though. (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
The Iraqi Veteran & the Paralympics
Most of the video work Stableford does is for nonprofits. One of his latest efforts is a 13 minute film called The Fall Line shot in early 2010 in Aspen, Colorado.
The film follows Iraq veteran Heath Calhoun and his quest to make it to the Paralympics as a skier. Check out the trailer below.
The Fall Line is another example of Stableford pushing himself to reach another level.
"I shot with the 5 D and it was my first time I stepped into film-making fully instead of a documentary hybrid. "
He says it was "like going to graduate school." He had hired a Carbondale neighbor and Hollywood second unit director, Kent Harvey, to work with him and teach him. The resulting film was chosen for 2011 Banff Film Festival World Tour. He donated the film to the U.S. Paralympics team which is using it as a fundraising vehicle.
One of the few female miners at a Colorado coal mine. Stableford says he works hard to establish a rapport with his subjects and always give prints to them soon after he shoots so they can see the images he is making. This builds trust and inspires cooperation, he says. (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
Embrace Exploration
When I talked with Tyler Stableford, I sensed a calm, philosophical, strategic mind at work. And yet, he loves adventure and is an avid rock and mountain climber. He sees no contradiction there. Even in his parenting, he has a daughter as well as a son, he is thoughtfully bold.
"My wife and I are both on that page of encouraging our kids not to grow up with excessive fear. [The general idea is --] Embrace exploration and get hurt when you can. Within reason of course. That's a huge thing for us."
New perspective. Stableford shot this image from the backseat of an F-16D fighter jet using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and a 15mm lens. It was part of a story for 5280 Magazine about the citizen fighter pilots at the 140th Wing at Buckley Air Force base in Aurora, Colorado. (c) Tyler Stableford/Getty Images
Winston Churchill & Photography of Service
Stableford used a quote from Winston Churchill in his lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photography.
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
By this definition, Stableford has managed to make both a living and a life. In the process, he's created some memorable images and an even more memorable example of blending art, service and self.
These Capitol Police, the last line of defense in protecting the Governor’s press conference, have three thousand protesters and two more rows of police in front of them.
This is a second report on the protests taking place inside the Capitol Building in Wisconsin. Photographer Christopher Guess is a Wisconsin native and graduate of its university. In this post, Christopher documents how the face-off between Governor Scott Walker and citizens, students and state employees had, by mid-week, settled into cohabitation.
Because protesters and security have been working cooperatively, the drill in the picture above is for the officers to look intimidating although they know there is little danger. What is more significant about the photograph is the fact that the officers shown are exempt from the Governor’s play to strip unions of their collective bargaining rights and these men will retain that ability however the legislative battle plays out.
One things that’s notably about this photo, and the sign, is how it presents a populist counterpoint to the impression — up to the mid-term elections, at least — that the “Tea Party” has been the embodiment of American discontent.
Currently, “the people’s house” feels as much like a university student union as the government’s legislative home.
The Wisconsin Capitol is modeled on the US Capitol building. There is a central rotunda with balconies connecting four wings. The Governor’s office is on one wing, mirrored by the State Supreme Court, the Assembly and the Senate. The protesters have become a regular fixture in the building with active demonstrations going on the whole time.
Republican State Assembly Members pray before the opening of a three-day long marathon session, fighting off a Democratic filibuster, and over 100 Democratic amendments to the Governor’s plan.
While protesters are prevalent and active in the hallways, on the balconies and even in a conference room upstairs, the legislative process grinds on. Perhaps the only thing not dividing Wisconsin right now is an allegiance to the community owned, World Champion Green Bay Packers.
The TAA, with its organizing, technology and social networking savvy, has been the central organizing hub of the protest.
This conference room upstairs in the Capitol Building has been the unofficial headquarters for the TAA — the Teachers Assistant Association. Its members mostly come from UW- Madison and Milwaukee. In Wisconsin, teacher assistants carry the same labor rights as state employees. The TAA has played a critical role in the organization of the protests running bus shuttles, doing food distribution, coordinating with police to prevent removal of signs and posters, organizing petitions, etc. Although they just lost their 24/7 access to this conference room where members where working and sleeping, they remain the “central brain” of the protest activity.
Speakers pipe in audio to the conference rooms directly from the Assembly session. Here, a TAA member tries to make out what’s going on in the session downstairs.
As Christopher explains:
“By definition, a union of teachers assistants means a membership of younger people and constant fresh energy as new people breaking into their field are always moving through the organization. The TAA has played a central organizing role because its members understand the new media, social networking, and the younger demographic better than the old line unions with older membership.”
The operation is fully stocked with food, water, first aid supplies.
“It’s inspiring,” Christopher continues. ”Food is just outside the doorway and it’s free for everybody. There is even a miniature medical clinic set up. For people experiencing minor injuries or illnesses, the Police are actually taking people there rather than to ambulances. But, with the TAA having just lost access to their “control center” inside the building after 8pm and before 6am, the pressure is mounting.”
Ed Schultz Hammers Home the Importance of Wisconsin Protests
Last night MSNBC host Ed Schultz spent his show's hour focusing on the unprecedented people power being demonstrated in Wisconsin. He covered every angle from the media's ignoring domestic left-wing protests, to the over-hyping of the "financial crisis" in the State of Wisconsin, to the absence of Democratic "fire" and leadership on the issue of labor.
Schultz says that this is a fight for the "soul of America."
Watch the first segment below, and the rest of the show at MSNBC.com
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From 1990 Album: "Fear Of A Black Planet". Song first appeared on the 1989 Soundtrack: "Do The Right Thing".....
Public Enemy Official Site: http://www.publicenemy.com/Get Public Enemy's Music: http://www.amazon.com/Public-Enemy/e/... & http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ...Public Enemy, also known as PE, is an influential hip hop group from Long Island, New York, known for its politically charged lyrics and criticism of the American media, with an active interest in the frustrations and concerns of the African American community.In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Public Enemy number forty-four on its list of the Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Acclaimed Music ranks them the 29th most recommended musical act of all time and the highest hip-hop group. The group was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.Chuck D put out a tape to promote WBAU (the radio station where he was working at the time) and to fend off a local mc who wanted to battle him. He called the tape Public Enemy #1 because he felt like he was being persecuted by people in the local scene.This was the first reference to the notion of a public enemy in any of Chuck D's songs. The single was created by Chuck D with a contribution by Flavor Flav, though this was before the group Public Enemy was officially assembled.According to Chuck, The S1W, which stands for Security of the First World, "represents that the black man can be just as intelligent as he is strong. It stands for the fact that we're not third-world people, we're first-world people; we're the original people [of the earth]."On the track "Louder Than a Bomb" from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Chuck D reveals that the D in his nickname stands for Dangerous.Developing his talents as an MC with Flavor Flav while delivering furniture for his father's business, Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) and Spectrum City, as the group was called, released the record "Check out the Radio," backed by "Lies," a social commentary—both of which would influence RUSH Productions' Run-D.M.C. and Beastie Boys. The group was signed to the still developing Def Jam Recordings record label after co-founder Rick Rubin heard Chuck D freestyling on a demo.Around 1986, Bill Stephney, the former Program Director at WBAU, was approached by Rubin and offered a position with the label. Stephney accepted, and his first assignment was to help Rubin sign Chuck D, whose song "Public Enemy Number One" he had heard from Andre "Doctor Dré" Brown. According to the book The History of Rap Music by Cookie Lommel, "Stephney thought it was time to mesh the hard-hitting style of Run DMC with politics that addressed black youth. Chuck recruited Spectrum City, which included Hank Shocklee, his brother Keith Shocklee, and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, collectively known as the Bomb Squad, to be his production team and added another Spectrum City partner, Professor Griff, to become the group's Minister of Information. With the addition of Flavor Flav and another local mobile DJ named Terminator X, the group Public Enemy was born." Public Enemy opened for The Beastie Boys on some of their East Coast concerts, including Philadelphia, Newark and Brooklyn.Further info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_E...
The Angolan artist and provocateur Nastio Mosquito’s striking, new, animated film, “My African Mind,” recently described by Frieze magazine’s correspondent “… perhaps the most powerful piece [exhibited at] the [2010 São Paulo] Biennial.” The film “… uses archival footage from the history of Africa, it speaks, with frequent irreverent humour, about the continent’s disasters, conflicts and successes from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The pace at which the images fly across the screen is exhilarating, even though the content is often disheartening.”
* For Mosquito’s work, see here. (Click on “DZZ Artwork”).
The annual Lund International Fantastic Film Festival has begun. Last year there was not as many science fiction movies as I hoped for, but I got to see the Swedish premiere ofMoon (2009) which compensated for that. This year I’m going to watch three films of the genre and first out was the German movie Transfer. The movie takes place in a future where science have made it possible to rent or buy someone else’s body and transfer your mind into it. A rich old couple from Germany decides to do that and the bodies they get are from two black Africans, who by doing this makes sure that their families get money. A couple of hours every night, the owners gains control over their bodies again, and during those occasions they fall in love and after a while the hosts and the guests begin to communicate with each other. Suddenly there are four persons in the relationship and not everyone is happy about where this is going.
Martin Wikner
