NYC, December 8, 1957
Personnel:
Billie Holiday (v)
Lester Young (ts) - 2nd tenor solo
Ben Webster (ts) - 1st tenor solo
Coleman Hawkins (ts)
Roy Eldridge (t)
Doc Cheatham (t)
Vic Dickenson (tb)
Gerry Mulligan (bars)
Danny Barker (g)
Mal Waldron (p)
Milt Hinton (b)
Osie Johnson (d)
Note: Lester Young died at age 49 on March 15, 1959; Billie died at 44 on July 17, 1959.
"Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This"
Rachelle Ferrell at Bernie Mac's public memorial service
"Welcome To My Love"
Rachelle Ferrell & George Benson Montreux Jazz Festival
Rachelle Ferrell & George Benson, Toots Thielemans at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1991
Count Basie Orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones
TOWARD AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF BLACK WOMEN
Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women is a research project dedicated to recovering the history of black women as active intellectual subjects. A collaborative effort, it aims to encourage scholarship on black women’s intellectual activities among a diverse and enduring community of senior and junior scholars, whose intellectual exchanges will cross generations and foster a scholarly tradition that outlives this particular project.MOREPROJECT FELLOWS
WORKING GROUP SCHEDULE
Call for Papers -- Intellectual History of Black Women
Date & Time: October 15, 2010 - 12:00pm
Project: Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, Semester: Fall 2010The Black Women's Intellectual and Cultural History Collective (BWICH) is seeking paper submissions for a broad-ranging conference on black women's contributions to black thought, political mobilization, creative work and gender theory. We are interested in work on any time period that explores black women as intellectuals across a broad geography including Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, and Europe. BWICH aims to piece together a history of black women's thought and culture that maps the distinctive concerns and historical forces that have shaped black women's ideas and intellectual activities. To this end, we are interested in papers exploring subjects including, but not limited to, the genealogy of black feminism, the patterns of women's leadership and ideas about religious culture and politics, the scientific work of black women, the economic ideas of black women, the politics of black women's literature, and the history of black women's racial, sexual or social thought. We encourage submissions from scholars of all ranks, and any relevant discipline.
Accepted papers will be featured at a conference on the Intellectual History of Black Women in New York City on April 28-30. The conference is sponsored by Columbia University's Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference (CCASD), which will also cover participants' travel and lodging expenses. Submissions are due no later than October 15, 2010, and should include a one-page abstract of the projected paper, as well as a short C.V. Paper proposals and C.V.s should be submitted by email to: bwhichconference@gmail.com
About BWICH
BWICH is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort dedicated to recovering the history of black women as
active intellectual subjects. We aim to encourage scholarship on black
women’s intellectual activities among a diverse and enduring community of
senior and junior scholars, whose intellectual exchanges will cross generations
and foster a scholarly tradition that outlives this particular project.PROJECT DIRECTORS
Mia Bay, Rutgers University
Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University
Martha S. Jones, University of Michigan
Barbara D. Savage, University of Pennsylvania
__________________________________________
In an effort to move the study of black thought, culture, and leadership beyond the “Great Men” paradigm that characterizes most accounts of black intellectual activity, we have initiated this three year research project. The goal of this project is to address the lack of attention given to the work of black women intellectuals historically and in the contemporary moment. In doing so we hope to challenge the perception and construction of black intellectual leadership as male and to explore African-American women’s contributions to black thought, political mobilization, creative work, gender theory and identity politics. In the course of the three-year project, we aim to generate a body of innovative scholarship on black women intellectuals that maps the distinctive ways in which black women have engaged and challenged the ideas of both white American intellectual traditions and the racial and political ideas of black male thinkers. Designed to support the development of the next generation of scholars in this field, our project brings together scholars at different stages in their careers. With this end in mind, we hosted a preliminary brainstorming meeting in the spring of 2006. Twenty-two scholars attended this first meeting. Participants assessed the state of the field today, shared descriptions of their individual research projects and set goals for the outcome of the project. We plan to convene more times over a period of three years to address this tremendous void in the field of African American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, African Studies, American Studies and American History. In the first year of the project we will hold a day long symposium for participants of the April meeting to share their works in progress. The following summer we plan to host a week long workshop that will focus on finalizing drafts for a volume on Black Women’s Intellectual History. In the third year of the project we plan to host an international public conference. Participants, members of the working group as well as those who have responded to a call for papers, will present their work to the larger public. Following the conference we plan to gather some of the essays for publication. We will also include sample syllabi and reading lists in the appendices. During the course of this working group we hope to encourage and generate scholarship on black women as intellectuals. Working as a collective, we hope to piece together a history of black women’s thought and culture, that examines the distinctive concerns and historical forces that have shaped black women’s ideas and intellectual activities. To this end, we are interested in subjects such as the genealogy of black feminism, the patterns of women’s leadership and theological commitments in the black church, the politics of black women’s literature, and the history of black women’s racial thought. In addition to assembling the collection of essays that will appear in our volume, we want to provide intellectual support for individual projects, to help the development and creation of courses and syllabi and most importantly, encourage the work of younger scholars in this area. Our project aims to define and promote black women’s intellectual history as a field, and in so doing to generate compelling scholarship that challenges the traditionally male dominated accounts of intellectual work. We also believe that in taking on this important and much neglected subject we will help to create and sustain a community of scholars, nurture and mentor junior professors and graduate students and help to develop the leadership skills of young women.
MVP Project 2010
The Many Voices Project is the distinguished annual competition (since 1981) to find new and emerging writers. (An emerging writer has not published more than two books of creative writing with a commercial, university, or national small press.)Our 2010 submission period is September 15 - November 1 (postmark), 2010. This year, there is a $20 entry fee to enter this book-length competition; there is also a required entry form, available HERE. Both the Prose Prize and the Poetry Prize this year are national prizes. The two winning manuscripts will be published in Fall 2012; each author receives a $1,000 honorarium and a standard book contract. All of our books are distributed nationally by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.
Finalist Judges have not yet been announced. Recent judges include Jack Driscoll, John Dufresne, Leif Enger, Alice Friman, Richard Hoffman, Ann Hood, Antonya Nelson, Ron Rindo, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Charles Simic, Joyce Sutphen, and Tim Seibles.
2010 MVP Submission Guidelines:
General
• Submit between Sept. 15 and Nov. 1, 2010.
• Submissions MUST include an entry form, available HERE.
• Include a $20 entry fee for each manuscript, made out to New Rivers Press.
• Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for confirmation of receipt of ms. (optional)
• Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for result notification. (optional)
• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but notify NRP immediately of acceptance elsewhere. (If you fail to give such notification and your manuscript is selected, your signature on the entry form gives NRP permission to proceed with publication.)
• You may acknowledge individual poems, stories, and other pieces published in magazines, anthologies, or elsewhere, but such acknowledgments or your name can not appear in the manuscript itself, since judging is blind.
• Notify NRP in writing of address or telephone number changes.
• MSS. will be recycled.Manuscript Preparation
• You may submit more than one manuscript, but only if there is no overlap in content.
• Send complete manuscript in a plain manila folder. We do not accept electronic submissions for the MVP Competition.
• Manuscript must be word processed on 8.5" x 11" paper, one-sided.
• Manuscript pages must be numbered.
• Include a cover sheet with name, address, and manuscript title.
• DO NOT include your name, address or acknowledgments on the manuscript pages; the judging is blind.Poetry Specs
• Any eligible writer writing in English is eligible.
• Manuscript length: 50-80 pages.
• Single-spaced.
• No more than one poem per page.Prose & Creative Nonfiction Specs
• Any eligible writer writing in English is eligible.
• Manuscript length: short stories and novellas (or a combination thereof), or personal essays: 100-200 pages. Novels and memoirs: up to 400 pages.
• Double-spaced.
Mailing Address
Submit your manuscript, entry form, and entry fee to:
New Rivers Press MVP Competition 1104 Seventh Avenue South Moorhead, MN 56563
The FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize
2009 Winner Announced
Fiction Collective Two is pleased to announce Tricia Bauer has won the first annual FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize for her novel Father Flashes. The prize includes publication by FC2 and $15,000. Special mention goes to Melanie Rae Thon for her manuscript The Voice of the River. The judge was Carole Maso.
Eligibility
The FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize is open to any U.S. writer in English with at least three books of fiction published. Submissions may include a collection of short stories, one or more novellas, or a novel of any length. There is no length requirement. Works that have previously appeared in magazines or in anthologies may be included. Translations and previously published novels and collections are not eligible. To avoid conflict of interest, former or current students or close friends of Ben Marcus are ineligible to win the contest. Employees and FC2 authors are not eligible to enter.
Judges
Finalists for the Prize will be chosen by the following members of the FC2 Board of Directors: Kate Bernheimer, R. M. Berry, Jeffrey DeShell, Noy Holland, Brenda Mills, Lance Olsen (Chair), Matt Roberson, Susan Steinberg, and Lidia Yuknavitch.
The winning manuscript will be chosen from the finalists by Ben Marcus, who will write the foreword to the winning manuscript.
Selection criteria will be consistent with FC2’s stated mission to publish "fiction considered by America’s largest publishers too challenging, innovative, or heterodox for the commercial milieu," including works of "high quality and exceptional ambition whose style, subject matter, or form pushes the limits of American publishing and reshapes our literary culture.”
For contest updates and full information on FC2’s mission, history, aesthetic commitments, authors, events, and books, please visit the website at: http://fc2.org.
Deadlines
Contest entries will be accepted beginning 15 August. All entries must be postmarked no later than 1 November. The winner will be announced 1 May.
Prize
The Prize includes $15,000 and publication by FC2, an imprint of the University of Alabama Press. In the unlikely event that no suitable manuscript is found among entries in a given year, FC2 reserves the right not to award a prize.
Manuscript Format
Please submit TWO hardcopies of the manuscript.
The manuscript must be:
--anonymous: the author's name or address must not appear anywhere on the manuscript (the title page should contain the title only); include a separate cover page with your name, contact information, and a list of three previously published works of fiction with ISBNs and publishers; you may download and use a copy of this cover letter
--typed on standard white paper, one side of the page only; paginated consecutively; bound with a spring clip or rubber bands; no paper clips or staples, please;
Please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for notification that manuscript has been received, and a self-addressed, stamped, regular business-sized envelope for contest results.
FC2 strongly advises that you send your manuscript first class.
Please retain a copy of your manuscript; FC2 cannot return manuscripts. Submission of more than one manuscript is permissible if each manuscript is accompanied by a $25 reading fee. Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered; the winner will be given the opportunity to make changes before publication. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted, but FC2 must be notified immediately if manuscript is accepted elsewhere. FC2 will consider all finalists for publication.
Submission Address
Full manuscripts, accompanied by a check made out to American Book Review for the mandatory reading fee of $25, should be sent to:
FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize
University of Houston-Victoria
School of Arts and Sciences3007 N. Ben Wilson
Victoria, TX 77901-5731CLMP Contest Ethics Code
CLMP's community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to:
1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;
2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and
3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public.
42
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
United States
Poet, writer, mama, herbal student, educator Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie shares the richness of learning how to swim.
BIOGRAPHY
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is a poet, writer, educator, New Yorker and world-wanderer. Her poetry and fiction have been published in several journals including: Crab Orchard Review, Bomb, Long Shot, Paris/Atlantic, Drumvoices Revue, and Carapace. Her works have been anthologized in Listen Up! (One World/Ballantine), Catch The Fire!!! (Penguin/ Putnam), Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Random House), Role Call ( Third World Press), Beyond The Frontier (Black Classic Press), The Body Eclectic (Henry Holt), Revenge and Forgiveness (Henry Holt), and The Book of Hope (Beyond Borders). Ekere is a Staff Writer for African Voices literary magazine where she has worked since 1995. She performs her poetry regularly—sometimes collaborating with musicians and dancers— and has been a featured reader at the Poetry Café (London), Palabras (Holland), CrimeJazz (Holland) the De Nachten Festivals (Holland/Belgium), the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Brooklyn Moon Cafe, Rutgers University, Hunter College, Barnes and Noble, Bryant Park, Mills College, and the Brooklyn Public library. Ekere has taught English and conducted creative writing workshops in London , Amsterdam , New York , Chicago , and Rundu ( Namibia ). She has also spoken about issues pertaining to sexual assault against women at Ramapo College and University of Milwaukee . In 1999, she was awarded an artist’s residency at Fundacion Valparaiso in Almeria, Spain.
____________________________________
Learning to Swim
She was the baby of the familycurious and neonmagic unraveling her singing braidsthere was music coming off of her:violins and bataspianos and castanetassounds her momma couldn't relate tosounds that reminded momma of sinimaginesienna sunflower girlknee highsouthern tingedtangos and rumbas tickling her feetimaginethe first time the branch of the peach treeripped her skin because she'd been caughtmoving to some rhythmmoving to some rhythm not born of the churchit was everything-hersound, her scent, her earthspeak-brought the hands, the belts, the switches downand she tried,when she left their house,she tried to conjure her dance againhear the whispers under her feetshe pulled watercolors around her waistwore amber and amethyst on wrists and shouldersshe chanted and wound her way through jazzbut no one could read the smoke signalsof her cigarettes"death would be sweeter than any of this"and when we metshe was 35and I was newly bornand she was still drowningbut she gave me studios to dance intrumpetsscreaming magentasmuted bluescongastarot cardsmodeling clayshe kept judgement in a locked box too high for me to reachshe stepped asidemy mother stepped asideshe'd evacuated her own dreamscourted death many timeswhen I met hershe was still drowningbut somehowshe took me to the waterand somehowshe taught me to swim
“Stepsisters” Movie Tackles Race (When White Sorority Wins Step Competition At Black College)
Did a film like Bring It On cover this territory somewhat? Production on Stepsisters is scheduled to begin next month, with a 2011 release planned. Mark Lafleur will direct from a script written by Alonzo Anderson (also producer) who is featured in the CNN report below (a nice boost for the team).
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
"Shirley Sherrod is a racist "liar"?
*You can run racism, but you can't hide. The field is very fast, and thanks to his Air R track shoes, he will run you down and catch you.And now this wonderful op-ed in The American Spectator from Jeffrey Lord, a former hotshot in the reagan White House:
"It isn't true.
Shirley Sherrod's story in her now famous speech about the lynching of a relative is not true. The veracity and credibility of the onetime Agriculture Department bureaucrat at the center of the explosive controversy between the NAACP and conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart is now directly under challenge. By nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court. All of them dead.
But first, it's important to say this.
After Shirley Sherrod's firing I wrote a column congratulating Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for removing her -- based on a viewing of the now infamous edited Breitbart clip. I was wrong. I should have waited to see the entire video or read the transcript before writing a word. So my apologies to Ms. Sherrod.
The problem?
I have now done exactly what I should have done originally. So there's no mistake about "selective editing" of videos or speech transcripts, here is a link to the website of the NAACP, where they have made a point of posting the full video of Shirley Sherrod's speech. I have seen the entire speech as supplied by the NAACP. The now-famous speech runs just over 40 minutes. If you don't have the time, here is a link to the printed transcript of her speech supplied by a site called American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank. The transcript is taken in full from the video version of her speech, which American rhetoric also supplies. I have read the transcript as well.
Let's get to this.
In her speech, Ms. Sherrod says this:
I should tell you a little about Baker County. In case you don't know where it is, it's located less than 20 miles southwest of Albany. Now, there were two sheriffs from Baker County that -- whose names you probably never heard but I know in the case of one, the thing he did many, many years ago still affect us today. And that sheriff was Claude Screws. Claude Screws lynched a black man. And this was at the beginning of the 40s. And the strange thing back then was an all-white federal jury convicted him not of murder but of depriving Bobby Hall -- and I should say that Bobby Hall was a relative -- depriving him of his civil rights.
Plain as day, Ms. Sherrod says that Bobby Hall, a Sherrod relative, was lynched. As she puts it, describing the actions of the 1940s-era Sheriff Claude Screws: "Claude Screws lynched a black man."
This is not true. It did not happen. How do we know this?
The case, Screws vs. the U.S. Government, as she accurately says in the next two paragraphs, made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Which, with the agreement of all nine Justices of the day -- which is to say May 7, 1945 -- stated the facts of the killing of Bobby Hall this way:
The arrest was made late at night at Hall's home on a warrant charging Hall with theft of a tire. Hall, a young negro about thirty years of age, was handcuffed and taken by car to the courthouse. As Hall alighted from the car at the courthouse square, the three petitioners began beating him with their fists and with a solid-bar blackjack about eight inches long and weighing two pounds. They claimed Hall had reached for a gun and had used insulting language as he alighted from the car. But after Hall, still handcuffed, had been knocked to the ground, they continued to beat him from fifteen to thirty minutes until he was unconscious. Hall was then dragged feet first through the courthouse yard into the jail and thrown upon the floor, dying. An ambulance was called, and Hall was removed to a hospital, where he died within the hour and without regaining consciousness. There was evidence that Screws held a grudge against Hall, and had threatened to "get" him.
The very first paragraph of the Supreme Court decision states:
1. Upon review of a judgment affirming the conviction, for violation of § 20 of the Criminal Code and conspiracy thereunto, of local law enforcement officers who arrested a negro citizen for a state offense and wrongfully beat him to death, the judgment is reversed with directions for a new trial.....
The next time Ms. Sherrod visits Washington, she can take a trip up to Capitol Hill.
First, she can visit the Supreme Court of the United States, and ponder the connection between progressivism and racism. Take a look inside the ornate chamber where on May 7, 1945, Justice Hugo Black, a lifetime member of the Ku Klux Klan honored with a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, an honor made possible because he used his racism to support the New Deal, voted to overturn the conviction of Sheriff Claude Screws for beating Bobby Hall to death.
Then a short stroll adown the street and she can visit another of Capitol Hill's enduring monuments: The Richard B. Russell United States Senate Office Building. As she strolls down its old marble corridors, surrounded by the offices of powerful United States Senators and their staffs, she perhaps can take the time to reflect once again on the night her father was murdered. And that the very building in which she walks is named in honor of the progressive/racist Democrat who was without doubt responsible for helping lots of Georgia farmers on a scale even Sherrod might not be able to imagine. But to do that he had to help create and nurture the atmosphere that made her father's death -- and that of Bobby Hall -- possible.
Perhaps, just perhaps, she'll even wonder if she understands just how much her own career and the things she said in that famous speech are sounding to some ears ever-so-slightly just like those of Justice Black and Senator Russell. Down the scale a bit -- a bureaucrat is not the same as a Senator or a Justice -- but still finding herself on the same scale nonetheless. A little concern for the poor folks here, a few government farm dollars and jobs over there and -- oh yes- a little dropping of the race card here and there so those jobs and dollars keep flowing.
Maybe she can even tell us why she stood up in front of the NAACP and said something that was completely, totally, untrue..." [Article] h/t to Lynne for this story.
Scary stuff! And now a prominent conservative is calling Ms. Sherrod a liar. That nigger was not lynched, he was beaten to death. I can say a lot of things here, but I won't. The writing speaks for itself.
Finally, I have been talking about his O ness and the people he surrounds himself with for months. Just a brotha looking out for another brotha. But he won't listen to me. Now, a white woman (someone much more prominent and famous than the kid) is telling him the same thing. Maybe he will listen to her. h/t to Val for this story.*Pic stolen from Comedy Central's web site.
Tell Me, How Long Has the Essence Train Been Gone?
July 27, 2010
Yesterday, I found out from cultural critic Michaela Angela Davis (a Facebook friend) that Essence Magazine has hired Fashion Director Elliana Placas. The issue, of course, is that Placas is White, and Essence is a magazine that has been focused on Black women since 1968.
Davis is very upset, and since she is also a writer, I can understand her concern; Essence is one of the few places that has consistently provided employment to Black female journalists–and Black stylists and designers. Davis was quote in Clutch Magazine as saying that “I feel like a girlfriend died.” (Click on this to read the article.)
However, I have to tell you that what has made me so sad was not Essence’s hiring of a White Fashion Director, but that I really don’t care in the least anymore what happens to Essence magazine and I haven’t for a long, long time.
Like all of the African American women I know– and also, all the biracial women of African descent that I know, too—I grew up on Essence. It was lovely seeing all those super-fine, super-bad Sisters in cute, fly outfits, faces beat to perfection, and hair that was natural yet impeccably coifed. “You don’t need chemicals and you don’t need to be light-skinned to be pretty, either, though our beauty comes in all shades and hair textures”—this is what Essence said to Sisters each month.
The only other magazine that featured Black women on such a scale was Ebony, but let’s face it, Ebony wasn’t slick like Essence, which was just as classy as Glamour, Elle, or Vogue—magazines that might have a Sister on the cover every two or three years. Ebony, on the other hand, featured staged and sometimes, well, cheesy photo essays.
And Ebony clearly wasn’t about a Black woman’s point of view. It was invested in a traditional view of the Black family: Brother in the front, Sister and children to the side or the back, looking up at The Black Man adoringly and always deferring to him. Which is the way it was ‘sposed to be, right?
Always, Ebony let Sisters know that if they would just get on board the Patriarchal Man-As-Head train, everything would be great in the Black community. Meanwhile, there was a woman’s liberation movement going on with White Women AND Black Women. But, Ebony implicitly stated each month, this movement was for lesbians, straight man-haters who didn’t have daddies, and ugly women with buck-teeth who couldn’t get no man in the first place.
Essence, on the other hand, started off as a publication supporting “Strong Black Women.” In fact, Marcia Ann Gillespie was editor-in-chief of Essence for nine years. Gillespie used to be editor of Ms. Magazine, a mainstream “official” feminist magazine.
So, in the beginning, Essence was about putting black women first. Then, came the nineties.
I remember the first time I picked up Essence and saw a beauty advertisement with a White woman in it. Not a White woman AND a Sister. Just a White woman. This was supposed to be a magazine that let me know that I was the finest thing around. Me: a Black woman. I was at the top of the beauty pyramid, at least once a month. But instead, what this ad told me was, “Sorry–psych.” This was about eighteen or nineteen years ago, and still remains a traumatic experience for me.
Then, in the middle of the 90s came the Million Man March and all the articles in Essence focusing on how Black men had it so bad, much worse than we Sisters had it– and don’t we ever forget it.
Sidebar: Looking back, the Million Man March doesn’t bother me as much as it did then. I still think it was a classic “bait and switch” march. I mean, why couldn’t Farrakhan simply say, “We want to get the Brothers together without Sisters so they can fellowship”? I would have been fine with that.
But billing the March as a “National Day of Atonement” was false advertising. You do not get on a bus, train, or plane and travel AWAY from the woman you want to say you are sorry to. You STAY at home and say, “Baby, I’m sorry.” You throw a barbecue out back or get a bucket of chicken so a Sister doesn’t have to cook. You give her a foot massage, and if she wants to make love, you put the baby down for her and let her get a nap first, so she’s full of erotic energy that you will be happy to help her expend.
Or, like, a Brother could do some community service, too, after the barbecue or chicken run.
But here’s my point. It was a Million MAN March, right? So why was it taking up all that space in Essence, a WOMAN’S magazine? I mean, couldn’t we Sisters have a place all our own?
And then, after Time Warner bought the magazine, it just went from a supposedly serious Sister’s magazine with only a couple of ads with White women–because some fashion and beauty companies couldn’t even be bothered to think about Black women in their advertising budget, don’t you know–to a half-serious Sister’s magazine–with even more ads featuring White women– to a fluffy Sister’s publication informing me of fashion, make-up, and the many, many different ways to wear a hair weave. And lots and lots of ads featuring White women, including a White lady nearly every month on the back cover.
And also, featuring Black men on the front cover– for example, Terrance Howard, who starred as a pimp in Hustle and Flow, and used the word “bitch” too many times to count in the movie–and why wouldn’t that be very empowering for us Sisters?
Yes, there were a couple of serious articles each month, but these were buried inside, after all the fashion stuff, and these articles tended to be shorter than the fake exposé articles on stars who appeared on the front cover.
Sidebar: I mean, even the poetry was in the back. Which is why I never sent Essence my work, because I was not going to be a Black woman poet in the BACK of a Black women’s magazine. Talk about some negative symbolism. That doesn’t mean I am throwing shade on my Sisters who sent in poetry. I am just saying that it is insulting to include someone’s artistic blood, sweat and tears on the page before sexual dysfunction advertisements, ok?
My last straw was when Essence started using any excuse to erode Black women’s sense of strength, especially when it came to romantic relationships, in their so-called “columns.” Like this article that included a professional Sister talking about how happy she had been in a (now-defunct) relationship with a broke Brother who had to borrow bus fare from her. She was really, really happy in that relationship, she said.
She gave a Brother bus fare–frequently. Not her husband or the father or her children. Just some random brother who she is no longer in a relationship with.
I just kept repeating the phrase “bus fare” over and over.
And that is when I decided to let my subscription to Essence go the first time. Then, I broke down and I subscribed again. Then, I read another article advising Sisters to leave even more of their pride to the side in romantic relationships, and I let my subscription lapse. Then, I broke down and I subscribed again.
You get the picture.
The last time I let my subscription lapse, I just decided, Essence wasn’t ever going to get better; it was only going to get worse, and it was only going to keep riding that same male-chauvenist Ebony train, advising Black women to hold their tongues, demand less and less from their relationships with Black men, but oh yes, keep the weave tight, the make-up flawless, and the outfits together.
It didn’t matter if there were pictures of pretty Black women in the magazine, I told myself, because there are also really pretty Black women in porn magazines. And not that there is anything wrong with reading porn magazines–if you are grown– but I wouldn’t buy those magazines to get my female self-esteem going or to find out about serious social issues impacting the Black community. And at this point in my emotional and social development, a thick book of tame or naughty pretty pictures isn’t quite getting it–not for me.
So, this latest piece of information about Essence hasn’t really upset me in the least, because I stopped viewing Essence as an advocate for the Black woman a long time ago. And so, when I am finding out that some Sisters want to boycott Essence over its hiring of a White Fashion Director, I’m rather bewildered as to why it has taken us so long to get angry at this magazine. Maybe now it is finally time that we leave Essence, but in case we Sisters haven’t noticed, our relationship with this so-called Black Woman’s Publication has been over for quite some time.
Our Bodies Are Still Trembling: Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape
Source: Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH); MADRE (Madre)
Date: 27 Jul 2010
July 27, 2010; Port-au-Prince, Haiti - More than six months after Port-au-Prince was leveled by the January 12 earthquake, hundreds of thousands of displaced women and girls live in fear of rape in tent cities that lack lighting, privacy and security. Today, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) along with partners MADRE, TransAfrica Forum, and the law schools of the University of Minnesota and the University of Virginia released "Our Bodies are Still Trembling: Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape," the first report of its kind to focus exclusively on the crisis of violence against Haitian women and girls that has emerged in the aftermath of the earthquake. The report is the product of a fact-finding delegation to Haiti in May coordinated by IJDH's Lawyers' Earthquake Response Network (LERN).Blaine Bookey, Esq., staff attorney with IJDH and coordinator of the LERN delegation on rape and gender-based violence, returned to Haiti this week to continue advocacy efforts for Haitian women's right to live free from violence. Bookey is working in close collaboration with women's grassroots groups, and continues to conduct fact-finding interviews and gather evidence in preparation for filing litigation on behalf of assault victims. She said today, "The findings presented in this report illustrate the crisis of rapes in the camps and the failure of the government of Haiti, the United Nations, and others in the international community to adequately address the problem. The report aims to help these groups implement a more effective response so that these crimes against women will not go unpunished."
The report released today contains the most detailed and up-to-date information available on the issue of gender-based violence in Haiti, and concrete recommendations for an improved response to the crisis. It tracks the high incidence and prevalence of rape in the camps, the lack of an adequate government or international response, and the courageous work done by grassroots women's groups to address these threats. The findings from this report will be presented to to Haitian government officials, the United Nations and other humanitarian actors, and to donor states including members of U.S. Congress.
Lisa Davis, Human Rights Advocacy Director at IJDH's partner organization MADRE, said today, "Our partners in Haiti have been tirelessly working, not only to provide urgent care for women who have been raped in the camps, but to forcefully demand that addressing this threat be a priority in disaster response policies. Together, our international human rights advocacy has kept this issue from being swept away and ignored."
For additional information on IJDH's work to support Haitian women in their efforts to prevent rape, please visit the Rape Accountability and Prevention Project website.
About the Organizations:
The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) fights for human rights and justice in Haiti and for fair treatment of Haitians in the U.S.
MADRE works to advance women's human rights by meeting immediate needs and building lasting solutions for communities in crisis.
